Dave Travis Now

Made to Splat

I was in a twitter dialog with social media guru @MBStockdale (go ahead, take a moment and follow her) about the book titles out there. She was suggesting a new book about Duct Tape Church or Gooey Church and I went the other way.

We need someone to write a book called Made to Splat: Church Plants that had Glorious Failures.

It must be remembered that most of the books (and histories) are written by those that were “successful.” Sure there are aches and pains mentioned in those books. Geoff Surratt’s Ten Stupid Things Pastors Do was certainly a contribution in this direction as well.

As someone who has worked with Innovative Churches and Organizations for the past 16 years, let me tell you, I seen plenty of high dives into a dry pool. I’ve pulled some myself with some of our programs.

By the way, our 30 Second Leadership programs last week are all about failure.

What constitutes a Glorious Failure?

A Glorious Failure honors God even when it isn’t seen by others as “successful.” Perhaps you are reaching a hard to reach group or area. Perhaps it never becomes a part of self sustaining or self governing and whatever the other self thing is, but it tries to honor God anyway.

A Glorious Failure is when you work hard, give it all you got and try some new things that no one else is doing……..and it falls flat. Now if you learn, adapt and refine what you have learned for the next time you time, great. That was a glorious failure. If you keep on doing those things even when they repeatedly fail, well, that is insanity.

Glorious Failures help us unearth and surface terrible ideas that can be discarded.

Glorious Failures help us try new leadership skills and ideas that may not work with one team but later can be adapted with another.

Glorious Failures sift us as leaders and help shape our hearts for the future…IF we let them.

So – What are your Glorious Failures? What are you learning from them?

(cross posted over at Leadership Network – www.leadnet.org)

WE still believe in Conferences!

I get asked all the time – Why Doesn’t Leadership Network do conferences anymore?

Well – I point them first to our online events that allow us to reach far more people than ever before. In fact there is one next month – Staff Infection. (Go check out the cool intro vid)

And while we will do around 50 leader gatherings this year, almost one a week, these are almost always CLOSED, INVITE ONLY communities and labs where we help teams go from ideas to implementation to impact using our processes so they aren’t really conferences.

BUT WE STILL LOVE TO GO TO CONFERENCES!!

In fact our team has been out across the fruited plains this spring to multiple gatherings of church leaders.

We still believe conferences are a great way to connect with other leaders to be inspired, find new resources and make new friends.

We’ve had folks at Catalyst West, All Access, Uprising, and several others. And in the next few weeks we will have team members at

Exponential – in Orlando next week

Advance2011 – In Raleigh the next week

Catalyst Dallas – In Dallas (duh) the week after that.

And probably a few more my staff is sneaking off to that I don’t know about.

So – go find one to attend near you. Let us know what you find. Give us a shout via email or twitter and let’s try to connect.

Just use the #leadnet hashtag and we will find you.

Black History Month –February 1–#BHM2011 Dr. Benjamin Mays

This is my first installment in the Black History Month series. This series contain inspirational quotes from Black Americans that are good for all people. While some friends will want me to use “African American History Month”, I will use the traditional name to identify it with American born and raised leaders.

The blog post is to give a little background while my twitter @davetravis – will get regular updates of the posts.

Today’s twitter for #BHM2011:

Dr. Benjamin Mays - “It must be borne in mind that the tragedy of life does not lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy of life lies in having no goal to reach.”

The full quote is here: “The tragedy of Life doesn’t like in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having not goal to reach. It isn’t a calamity to die with dreams unfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream. It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for, not failure, but low aim, is sin.”

Dr. Mays is best known as the president of Morehouse College here in my hometown of Atlanta. I had the privilege to meet him once after he retired from that post.

He continued on in service to the Atlanta community as President of the Atlanta School Board for some years.

He was a mentor to Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. and many other leaders of his era.

I was blessed to be given the quote by a funeral home director here in Atlanta. It is on the back of his business cards. I noted the originator’s name and asked him about his connection. He like many Morehouse men, told me of Dr. May’s strong influence on their lives.

Why Not Host a Group Party for THE NINES?

Over at http://thenines.leadnet.org you can see how you can host a group to watch THE NINES this year. (That’s 09/09/10)

Almost 1/3 of the attenders last year watched it in a group with other pastors and leaders.

This year we want to encourage others to host “Nines Parties” all over the world. In fact, we have a special FREE Group Kit to help those interested to do so.

We have a short application form on the site to help you get qualified to host a group. We want you to have at least a dozen leaders or so AND we want you to invite leaders from beyond your church, ministry or business. Invite as many people as possible so that you can share together both the learnings from THE NINES but the fellowship of the friends in your town.

Our plan is to post many of these sites beforehand so that others can see where there are gatherings of leaders. Plus we will have a special blog where the sites can share what they are learning and doing that day. In addition, we are trying to put together a special feed just for the group sites that may get a slightly higher quality feed for large screen projection units.

So – what do you need to host a site?

• A list of friends you want to invite. Or potential friends. Why not invite all the church and pastoral teams of your neighborhood or town?

 

• A largish room with food and drinks available. Either you can provide them or encourage people to bring stuff for a pot luck party.

 

• A fast internet connection that will allow you to hook in computer and large screen tv so that people can watch it LARGE.

In addition, it would be nice to have some wireless access so that people can check out the other streams that day.

Some flip chart paper to make notes and a digicamera to take photos of the party that day.

Think you have a heart for this? Check out the details at http://thenines.leadnet.org/2010/host.html

I will tell you that host leaders may get some extra freebies thrown their way all next year as well. But we really want the motivation to be a desire to network leaders in their city to explore conversations and empower collaboration.

Dave Travis

Managing Director

@davetravis on twitter

An Open Dialogue about THE NINES' Poll

Introduction: Last week, Skye Jethani, over on Out of Ur, made it clear he didn’t like our twtpick technology as a way of gathering names for Speakers for THE NINES.  I gave an explanation in this space and Skye agreed to run an excerpt. In order to give it a full hearing, we have exchanged some questions for each other. Here are Skye’s answer also cross-posted at http://www.outofur.com/archives/2010/06/an_open_dialogu.html#comments

I hope to post my answers to Skye’s questions tomorrow.

Skye Jethani, managing editor of Leadership Journal, and Dave Travis, managing director of Leadership Network, have been talking about the controversy surrounding THE NINES' poll. Jethani thinks it was a mistake--a poorly communicated idea that has deteriorated into a popularity contest among church leaders. Travis says its been a helpful way to generate new ideas and speakers for THE NINES online video conference. They've decided to have an open dialogue about the issue. Dave Travis has started by asking a few questions about Skye Jethani's objections to the poll. Later this week we'll be posting Travis' response to Jethani's questions.

Dave Travis: Skye – you really didn’t like the list idea at all did you? What was your main issue?

Skye Jethani: Based on the explanation you and Todd gave, I understand the list was intended to build buzz for THE NINES and to do some trolling for new voices. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that motive. It’s the execution that’s worrisome. The open source list has no instruction, no context, no explanation for how to participate, and no details about how you intend to use it. Anyone visiting the page simply sees a list of a few hundred Christian leaders with “like” and “dislike” voting options next to his/her name and photo.

I believe very often “the medium is the message.” The message you intended was one of open participation; you wanted to let the audience have a role in nominating and selecting the speakers for THE NINES. That’s a fine thing. But the medium you chose, this Twitter poll, communicated something very different. It encourages the ranking of church leaders with a simple thumbs up or down. It’s one thing to “like” or “dislike” a person’s book, sermon, or theology. But this site communicated something more, something you did not intend. It asks visitors to “like” or “dislike” a person. In my view that crosses a line and encourages very unchristian values. Again, I know this was not the intention but that is the danger of using a new medium without much reflection. As Todd said, “From the time I saw the application until the page was posted was probably all of three minutes.” Those of us responsible for leading leaders in the church should exhibit more caution when presented with a new medium.

That’s good feedback. I know you have seen some of our thinking now but my guess is that you are still uncomfortable. I get that. Share with the readers some of that queasiness.

Both you and Todd have acknowledged the way the list can be misused and misunderstood. You did not intend for it to be a popularity contest, although that’s how many have seen it. You’ve recognized the problem with the application not allowing you to post instructions, directions, or guidelines for voting. You’ve regretted the “like” and “dislike” language. On your blog and on Out of Ur you’ve listed the numerous shortcomings of the format. So, my only question is--why keep it up? Sure, its generating buzz--and I’ve become an accomplice in that through my objection to the poll--but any positive input it’s provided can be cultivated by other means (which I’ll discuss in a minute). So why not take it down?

One commenter on Out of Ur named Tim made a very good point. He reminded us that pastors face the “like/dislike” judgment every time they seek a new calling, every time they preach a sermon, and whenever a congregation votes them in or out. It often has nothing to do with his/her character, calling, or heart. Tim is absolutely right. Wonderful men and women in ministry face superficial judgments and popularity contests all the time, and over time it can eat away at their souls. As those seeking to equip and encourage these leaders, we owe it to them to not feed the widespread and destructive view that their values is based on such superficial things. Although not your intent, I’m afraid that is what this poll communicates.

We spoke about how Leadership Journal asks for input on writers and interviewees. Explain how that is different.

I know you desire to find new voices for THE NINES, and you want to involve more people in that process. That’s fantastic. No disagreement from me. In fact, that’s what we try to do when pulling together an issue ofLeadership Journal as well. We have two primary ways of accomplishing this.

First, we have a group of about 100 contributing editors--pastors from around the country, from a range of denominations, small and large churches, men and women, urban, rural, and suburban, anglo, African-American, Asian-American, Latino-American, some famous, and many not. As we begin working on each issue of the journal, we contact this group about the theme for the issue. We ask them two questions--what issues related to this topic should we cover, and what leaders/churches should we include? We often get referrals that our writers and editors follow up on. If we find a leader with a great story, a helpful bit of wisdom, or an interesting insight we’ll often include them in the journal. This ensures that each issues doesn’t just include the “big names” but also many “ordinary” pastors.

In the Spring issue of LJ, there was an interview with Francis Chan. We included him because he’s having a significant influence on may leaders in the church. But there were also fantastic articles by Doug Tegner, Brian Hofmeister, and Adele Calhoun--not exactly marquee names in the celebrity Christian world. We found these wise leaders by networking and seeking referrals. One of my greatest joys as managing editor ofLeadership Journal has been getting to know pastors throughout the country--extraordinary women and men with hearts for God and devoted to his work. Most are names you’d never recognize, but they’ve encouraged and educated me in many ways.

But there’s a second way we find great contributors--unsolicited manuscripts and queries. Every month we receive dozens, even hundreds, of queries and manuscripts from pastors around the world...and we read every one of them. Sure, many are passed on, but at least once a week we find one that really grabs us. An amazing story. A bold perspective. A fantastic idea. Not long ago we got a manuscript from Lieutenant Commander Bruce Crouterfield, a Navy chaplain in Iraq about what it means to bring the presence of God into the worst places. It blew us away! We published it. (You can read it here.) If we simply relied on buzz and popularity or even an open-source Twitter poll, Lieutenant Commander Crouterfield would never have been published.

In 1991 we received an unsolicited manuscript from a young, unknown pastor with a BGC church background called “One-Minute Maturity.” It was well-written, and Marshall Shelley, Leadership’s editor, saw potential. He published the piece and began cultivating the young pastor as a writer. Years later John Ortberg was hired by Willow Creek and has since published a few books.

Here’s my point. If Leadership Network and THE NINES want to find new, fresh, wise voices, there are far better ways than a thumbs up/down Twitter poll. Even if the poll produces some new names with a lot of “like” votes, there’s still no way to know whether the person has something meaningful to say. I’d suggest a more substantive process. Try inviting pastors to actually submit a short 3-minute video. Watch them. Have others you trust watch them. Find the best, most insightful, best communicators, and then invite those leaders to participate in THE NINES. Yes, it’s more time consuming than a web poll. No, it probably won’t get as much buzz. But I guarantee you’ll find some amazing, unknown, and brilliant people. And you’ll make THE NINES into a far more helpful online conference for the thousands who participate. And you’ll also avoid the pitfalls of the poll that you’re currently using.

Any surprises in the feedback to your original post?

No, not really. The feedback is a mixed bag. Some agree with me. Some think I overreacted. After blogging on Ur and other sites for a few years I’ve learned that people who disagree are more likely to submit comments then those who agree. You learn to take it with a grain of salt.

One thing we hear repeatedly on our sites and from our readers is that it’s wrong to publicly critique or disagree with the work of other Christians as in the manner I critiqued THE NINES Twitter poll you guys published. However, being in the publishing world means quickly understanding that writing books, articles, or even websites and polls is a form of public discourse. Last year I released a book. I’ve had some positive reviews, I’ve also had some very negative reviews. I don’t expect those who disagree with my book to do so only privately and one-on-one. Nor do I expect them to give me a heads up before publicly disagreeing with something I published. I wrote a book--that’s public dialogue and it means I open myself to public critique and disagreement. (Those in academia learn this well.) Leadership Network published a public poll, and the poll is open to public critique.

From time to time Leadership Journal or Christianity Today will publish a negative book review. The angry letters and blog comments flood in. We’ve often seen Matthew 18 tossed around in such cases. “How could you publicly criticize another Christian like that?” they say. “What about Matthew 18?” But that text is about rebuking a brother/sister for sin, not disagreeing with a brother/sister about an idea. For some reason people have come to think that agreement should be public but disagreement private. In the world of publishing, including online publishing, that’s just not the case.

That’s one reason I’m grateful for this dialogue. We obviously disagree about the poll. It’s not personal. It’s not ugly. It’s not about sin. Yes, opinions are strong, but they don’t have to be kept behind closed doors. It’s about what’s helpful and what’s harmful. And talking about the pros and cons of THE NINES poll can help us all learn and grow more. That’s what public dialogue, and public disagreements, are all about.

Just to make sure, you liked THE NINES last year, you just didn’t like the perceptions of the list. Right?

Absolutely! I was delighted to be a part of THE NINES. Given the tight budgets so many are facing, the idea of a free online conference is a wonderful service to many in ministry. And if invited to participate this year, I will without hesitation. I say keep THE NINES, just lose the poll.

Skye Jethani

Managing Editor of Leadership Journal

Links of Interest for June 25th, 2010

OK, these are the ones that caught my eye this week:

Here’s one from the Jacksonville Paper about Megachurches and small groups:

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-06-18/story/megachuches-think-small-keep-worshipers-coming-back

It is one of the “sticky points” that keeps people coming back.

More LifeChurch.tv news about their anti porn efforts:

http://www.newsok.com/lifechurch.tv-declares-program-success/article/3469449?custom_click=lead_story_title

Somehow I missed this when it happened but Lifeway had a summit on small groups that is online now. (Video)

http://www.lifeway.com/event/?id=362&CID=RDR-SGSummit

On the church finance front, several items.

This one from Ruben Swint on Capital Campaigns

http://columbiapartnership.typepad.com/the_columbia_partnership/2010/06/the-three-plans-practical-structure-for-successful-capital-campaigns.html

Several on the Giving USA report out earlier this week and its relation to churches:

From Ed Stetzer http://www.edstetzer.com/2010/06/protestant-churches-persevere.html

From The Charis Group http://thecharisgroup.org/2010/06/21/giving-usa-reports-surprise-religious-giving-slightly-declined-in-09/

In a related vein, I enjoyed listening to a podcast about legal issues related to church property here from the Church Law Group: http://churchlawblog.com/?p=384

I follow the various Harvard Business Review blogs, which honestly, are much better than the magazine these days:

Here is the highlight for this week – Storytelling and Strategic Planning

http://blogs.hbr.org/martin/2010/06/strategies-as-happy-stories.html

Our friend DJ Chuang has a mention of two great webinars for this coming Tuesday, unfortunately I am in a meeting all day. Will someone participate and send me a report?

http://djchuang.com/2010/two-for-tuesday-online/

Carlos Whitaker is looking for some new preachers for his ipod and I think the comments here are real interesting:

http://www.ragamuffinsoul.com/2010/06/i-need-a-new-preacher/

I have been wanting to try this service but haven’t got around to it yet. Let’s people pick a time to set up a meeting. Looks interesting. Has anyone used it?

http://www.tungle.me/Home/

I am going to mention a few from the Wall Street Journal, which often get blocked or expire, so if you are interested, go snag them now:

Manute Bol’s Radical Christianity - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704853404575323043046894012.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_h

And for Fun, how not to invest by Dilbert’s Scott Adams:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704025304575285000265955016.html

And I mentioned the Twtpick list last week that we were using to get some suggestions for speakers for THE NINES. It is here and still open for suggestions:

http://twtpick.in/4k

- 35,000 views, 12,500 people commenting, over 400 people suggested.

- But also some bloggers hating it, including Out of Ur, Emerging Mummy to name a few. That’s ok. It’s been a good conversation. Look for more of that this week. Ed Stetzer tries to split the middle and campaigns for friends at his blog. That’s cool too. We weren’t trying to create a kerfuffle but it has served to get us some really new names. So it worked from that standpoint.

It won’t be long until we announce some really big stuff for THE NINES this year. Lots of new ideas we will be trying. So mark your calendars for September 9^th, 2010. Plan for all day too.

That’s enough for a coffee break or two.

Back next week with an Independence Day Edition.

If you have suggestions, send them my way. Just use the comments field below.

Dave Travis

Managing Director

Leadership Network

Follow me on twitter at www.twitter.com/davetravis

Or on facebook at www.facebook.com/davetravis

The Kerfuffle about our Nines List

We are knee deep and getting deeper every day into our preparations for THE NINES.

Don’t know what that is? That’s fine.

Last year we at Leadership Network decided to try a grand experiment. What if we had a totally online conference? The recession had hit a bunch of our friends hard and they were unable to travel off and we figured we could cobble together some of the internet technologies so that people could:

1. Listen to some good speakers.
2. Interact with each other using twitter and other tools we had on the screen.

We dreamed up a list of speakers from our staff and sent invites to them. A lot of them actually said yes and sent in a short video. We distributed it all for FREE.

We only did promotion via social networking and email. We totally got surprised by the enthusiasm. In the days leading up to the actual event we crashed the servers handling the registration. We had to scramble on the day to make the tech work but low and behold a lot of people (in the neighborhood of 30-40,000), from 35 countries joined in for the fun.

It was a 13 hour marathon and we learned a bunch about what to do and what not to do.

We sent a survey out to as many people as we had emails for to get input on doing it again. We knew from our streaming provider (Lightcast media) how many streams hit the conference and how long they stayed with us. We asked how many watched in groups and were blown away by how churches used this as a continuing ed day at least until they gave out of energy.

We also asked in the surveys for people to suggest other speakers for future events. What we got back was sort of disappointing. We got back many of the same people we had already heard on THE NINES. We got people that you can hear at lots of other Christian conferences. (Sure, we got a few that said – “you need to have me on” – but surprisingly few)

So we worked very hard for our online conferences we did this year to focus on some “new voices” as well as some “sages” that we felt had good things to say but never had opportunity. You can find those videos at http://aha.leadnet.org and http://sage.leadnet.org.

We have adjusted and tried a few new tricks each time like our option to purchase a full color program book with notes from each speaker. We have tried some new filters to keep the spam out of the twitter stream. We keep learning each time.

And we keep having fun. Fun enough to try it again this year.

All of this is made possible by our Leadership Network digital guru, sage Todd Rhoades. Todd keeps dreaming up new wrinkles for us to try.

We had decided to do another Nines this year (Mark your calendars 09.09.10) and we were building lists of potential speakers and new tricks to try.

We are going to hold it to 9 hours this year and speakers will be limited to 6 minutes each. It will again feature a broad breadth of speakers. Some you will like. Some you won’t. Some you just won’t know what to do with, but we hope it all makes you think creatively about accelerating your impact.

We are going to have a free Group Kit where we encourage leaders to invite friends and leaders from other churches to enjoy the experience together and to think creatively about their community impact.

While anyone will be able to watch and enjoy for free, we will have a few premium options for extra materials to add to the experience.

And a few more wrinkles we are not ready to announce just yet.

Now to the kerfuffle:

A few weeks ago a new web site technology went live that allows you to post a list to get opinions. Todd decided to try it to stir up some interest in THE NINES.

We seeded the list with 20-25 names and encouraged folks to add to the list.

We did this to get some suggestions on who we might need to invite to speak this year. We knew that via social media connections we would cast a much wider net to see who is suggested.

Now the site (http://twtpick.in/4k) has its limitations. That is how that service works.

It doesn’t allow you to put any explanatory text on the page.

It only allows the “like” or “dislike” which are unfortunate word choices. Our preference would have been different for word choice.

It does allow people to freely add people as suggested speakers though for lots of others to see. And we liked that.

It does mean you have to sign in with your twitter account so we can see who you like. It’s not an anonymous service.

Sometimes there is a good leader who is overexposed. They speak everywhere and they are good at it. There is a place for that and a place at THE NINES for that. I think some hit the “dislike” button because they have heard a person too many times.

There are some leaders who are great writers, but not very good a speaking. We have learned that the hard way.

Sometimes even a person who is great communicating to a large, live crowd doesn’t do too well with a small web cam speaking as if to one person in a conversational style. We have learned that too. So they may generate some “dislikes”.

The CEO of the twtpick company emailed Todd and asked for suggestions on how to improve his service and we have given him some ideas.

So far over 30,000 people have viewed the site. We are up to about 11,000 comments and over 350 speakers suggested. All of that is way, way more than we ever figured would see the list much less respond. Let’s us know that our event this year could be really BIG.

So in that way it has worked well to suggest some speakers that quite frankly, we would have never considered. (and I told Todd we should be charging the CEO for driving traffic to his site)

It has been funny to us to follow the twitter tags to see how people are reacting to the site.

Some assumed it was a popularity contest to see who would get to speak during this year’s THE NINES. Nope, we already had several lists of people we wanted to invite and will be doing so no matter where they would end up on the list. In fact many of the people on our list to speak aren’t on the big list. And on the page or in our twitters we have never positioned the list that way.

Some started campaigns via their blogs and other social media to increase their “likes”. And some have led campaigns the other way to dislike folks.

It looked like multiple people created twitter accounts with no followers in order to “dislike” about 50 people. Sort of a campaign to get someone disinvited to speak.

In fact some blogger said that he knew his list would never be popular that he wrote that he will be starting a competing event on the same day to get his suggestions on his program. Fine with us.

The top part of the list tends to be people with big names for a variety of reasons. They either speak a lot, they write books, and magazines feature them and the like. That’s fine.

We were more interested in some of the people we didn’t know. And a high dislike is not such a bad thing.

We look at some of that and think, hmmm, perhaps that would help leaders to think clearer even if they disagree with them.

Skye Jethani over at Outofur.com was one of those who posted a blog about the list. He didn’t like it. (But it had a really neat photo on it)

I consider Skye a good guy. He was a great speaker for us last year for THE NINES. He is on the list to invite again this year. I loved his book Divine Commodity too for the record. And we have been partners and friends with Leadership Journal and Christianity Today for years.

The list didn’t sit well with him and he explains himself in his post. He is a much better writer than I will ever be and comes straight to the point. I think I still win in the hair department though.

After an email from me he called and we talked. I explained more about the list and while I still don’t think he likes the technology of the list, I think he did understand better the nuance behind it.

It was a good conversation. He counseled us to post something to explain some of the things I have shared with him and that was good counsel. I appreciate good counsel.

So I thanked him for his call and kind words.

Part of our strategy at Leadership Network is to have Exploring Conversations and Establish Connections. While this list tool is a little crude, it has stirred up some conversations and through the twitter function has allowed some people with similar opinions to connect.

If you join us for THE NINES on September 9^th we hope to stir up some more conversations, provide you some great ideas, expose you to some leaders you may not know, find new friends and colleagues online, and hopefully advance the gospel cause.

When registration is opened we hope many of you will register and sign up to host a viewing party to invite other leaders to share the experience.

Like I said above we have a few other wrinkles yet to be revealed that we hope will add value to the whole experience that will be revealed soon.

I learned a long time ago that some people really don’t “like” Leadership Network. And while that sometimes irritates me, I get over it and go on.

Any organization that is trying to help pastors and church leaders is usually on my “like” list but I too have favorites of even that bunch. So I get the discomfort people have with this list.

Hang with us. We are working on it. If we can find an easier technology without some of the baggage we may use it next time. In fact, why don’t you go develop one and tell us about it?

That is the beauty of the new tools. Lots of downsides but upsides too.

 

Dave Travis

Managing Director

Leadership Network

You can send a twitter to me at www.twitter.com/davetravis or connect with me at www.leadnet.org/davetravis.

Links of Interest for week of June 18, 2010

OK, these are the links that I lingered over this week:

First off, I have to mention this thing Todd Rhoades, our digital sage, did this week to get input for THE NINES coming this September. The response to this pick list has generated almost 18,000 views in 48 hours AND lots of good suggestions AND almost 6800 people giving an opinion. So, if somehow you have missed it, check it here:

http://twtpick.in/4k

From Mariners Church in California, The Tithe Challenge video

http://vimeo.com/12379124

The Summer Hours idea from Tim Schraeder’s blog. How could I implement this idea?

http://www.timschraeder.com/2010/06/14/summer-hours/

Our friends at LCBC (That is a church which used to be known as Lancaster County Bible Church but is now Lives Changed by Christ) have purchased an old Saturn dealer for a new site:

http://www.yorkdispatch.com/business/ci_15300553

A report in a Canadian paper about research Leadership Network did in Europe on Multi Site churches there:

http://www.bibleleague.ca/news-detail-inter.php?id=172

From Brian Profitt’s blog a story about planting churches based on needs, not demographics:

http://preachingunleashed.com/smart-ministry/90-june-2010/172-church-plant-based-on-need-not-demographics

I thought Kevin Miller’s story over at Christianity Today on “No more don’t ask, don’t tell” was thought provoking.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/buildingleaders/ministrystaff/nomoredontask.html?start=1

Also from CT’s site, John Ortberg puts Paul Heibert’s thoughts on bounded and centered sets in layman’s language. We use this concept a lot at Leadership Network and John does a great job here.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/currenttrendscolumns/leadershipweekly/categoryconfusion.html

And a shout out to the editor over there Marshall Shelley for all his great work at producing these articles.

And finally, some thoughts from Evan McBroom’s blog on focusing not on facts and figures but real lives touched:

http://evanmcbroom.typepad.com/evan_mcbroom_the_other/2010/06/facts-figures-are-boring.html

I will have more next week. Send me some if you think I should see them!

 

Dave Travis

Managing Director

Leadership Network

Follow me on twitter at www.twitter.com/davetravis

Or on facebook at www.facebook.com/davetravis

The Final Book of the Series – Kingdom without Borders

For my vacation reading – Kingdom Without Borders: The Untold Story of Global Christianity – was the most impactful. The author, a professor at Seattle Pacific, tells us upfront this is going to be a serendipitous journey story. It mixes theology, missiology and story telling along the way. Quite frankly, I usually hate that, but I loved this book.

Reasons to love it:

1. It is a reminder that Christianity is alive, well and vital around the world.
2. It helps me again to take off the blinders of our own versions of Christianity practiced in the West.
3. It helps me to hear of how suffering for the sake of the gospel is necessary for bold advance of the gospel.
4. It reminded me how what we call aid and development, is a natural outgrowth of the Christian life of believers around the world.

As Leadership Network considers and weighs it’s global involvements in the future, I was constantly reminded that we have much to learn.

I can’t tell you that I marked too many pages, or drew out a whole bunch of principles from this book, but I was mighty glad that I read it. I am going to make my International Affairs major daughter read it too.

Dave Travis

Managing Director

Leadership Network

Behind the Scenes at Leadership Network for January 22, 2010

I have been so busy with no time to blog but here is the behind the scenes stories from Leadership Network for this week.

+ Did no work in honor of the King Holiday Monday. I think the only national holiday honoring a Baptist Pastor.

+ I was in Dallas this week for our Multi Site Innovation Lab. Our Lab process helps churches get focused and get moving on various issues. It was good to see some of our alumni from our Next Generation Group (Stacy Spencer and Greg Lee) as well as meet lots of new friends from some great churches. Greg Ligon and Julia Burke did a great job with it.  

+ Chris Willard on our team is doing a Generosity Innovation Lab for those churches wanting to kick it up a notch in discipling people in this area. For more info contact him directly at Chris.Willard@leadnet.org

+ Eric Swanson was also hanging about and he is going to do an Externally Focused Church Innovation Lab for those just getting going in that area. Find him at eric.swanson@leadnet.org

+ Speaking of Next Generation Pastors, Linda Stanley says the next group for that is FULL. She did THE SHOW this week with Matt Carter from Austin Stone Church, one of the Next Generation Alumni.

+ Speaking of Matt and Austin Stone, The Verge Conference they are hosting in a few weeks is SOLD OUT. We are one of the co-sponsors.

+ But if you want to hit a conference in February check out RecoveryConference2010.com, our partnership conference on the critical issue of Recovery. Riverside, California. By then it will quit raining. February 22-23.

+ Same Dates but opposite coast – Velocity 2010 with Churchplanters.com in Atlanta, GA. I will be at that one. My friends Shawn Lovejoy (another Next Gen alum) and David Putnam are hosts.

+ From our blogs I was happy to see Wayne Smith of our team post his first about the group of pastors he is putting together. Click here for more. And Warren Bird added the reviews of several books over at the books blog here.

++ Speaking of books one of our books from 2009 – Dave Gibbons Monkey and The Fish got two awards last week. One from Christianity Today and one from Leadership Journal. See the posts here about the award. Punch here to click through our Amazon affiliate link to purchase or here for a sample chapter. Dave has been a good friend of LN for a lot of years now.

+ We got the link from last week’s Spotlight show on Recovery Ministry posted. Link here if you missed it.

+ I will have a major staff announcement for our parent organization 100x next week. Very exciting. New player coming on board.

+ Spoke to reporter about Haiti relief work and was quoted here. I am thankful that great papers still cover Religion and for reporters as diligent as Bob Smietana. Thanks Tennessean.

+ LOTS of Haiti work done by churches. As I told the reporter many of our churches in East Coast and Southeast have been involved in Haiti works for years. Got several emails about the various projects which through the media and other blogs are fairly well known. Love that Mark Driscoll and James MacDonald are focusing on churches helping churches. More here.

+ We have a board member, John Leffin, reportedly in Haiti working with an organization that he and his family have been partners with for some time. Mission of Hope. More on that here. Featured in NBC Nightly News and video at link.

More later on some gamechangers over the past week.

Dave Travis

Managing Director

Leadership Network