All posts in Tension
The Tension Between Being Spiritual & Being Practical
There 2 schools of thought when it comes to measuring spiritual growth. One school sums up a person’s spiritual expansion by: 1.) The quantity & quality of their time in prayer and reading the Bible. (the longer you pray, and the more you read, the better) 2.) The level of commitment they give to their to church. (the more involved and the more you serve, the better) This school is very inward focused. If you can spend 3 hours on your face before God, then that’s a big W in this circle.
The second school of thought grades one’s spiritual improvement by: 1.) Their community. (small groups or life groups are key here. “Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future”) 2.) Their philanthropy. (how much of their money & time they give to causes, responding to natural disasters, involvement in city programs and community engagement is critical here)
It’s a shame that these schools of thought have opposed each other for years, but I’m beginning to see a new school that has a balance of both. I don’t think you can make your bed in either school and boast about anything you’ve done. “Pentecostals” have way too often found themselves inside the doors of the church expecting lost people to want to come in. And “non-denoms” have way too long found themselves outside the doors of the church at ground zero of some lost people’s hurt and pain with no spiritual potency to actually do anything about their hurt and their pain. It’s almost become bragging rights to simply be around lost people.
You could provide scriptures to support whatever it is you want to do, but no matter who you are, we all could use a little balance one way or the other.
Save The Best For Now
“What’s new?”
It’s a two word question that gets us out of bed everyday to search for the answer. Back in the day… before I was a live… NOTHING WAS NEW. Everybody had their same job for 30 years. There wasn’t much to chase. I’m not intending to discourage a dream, or forecast despair upon the go-getter, the entrepreneur, or someone who aspires to be remembered, but rather, I’d like to encourage all of the above (which I’m in) in their current season.
It’s as if we’re all saving our best for a later engagement, a future event, or a fast-forwarded version of ourselves where we are really doing what God called us to do. We are saving our best for the dream job we’ll have where we feel all of our gifts and talents are being utilized. We feel the gravity and pressure of having something “new” to share, but I would propose that we take inventory of our current season and give it everything we have. For who we are in this season, is but a preview and practice for our next season.
I would even go as far to say this: There may not be a next season. We ought to give this season what we would give if it was our last. Save the best for now.
The Best New Year’s Resolution You Can Make
Amongst starting a new business, working out more (just playing basketball more often), eating better, and studying the Word more, I’ve decided to add one resolution to the infamous list that doesn’t normally make the cut: Help other people with their’s.
I’ve just decided that the conversation I want to have with people close to me for these first couple of weeks isn’t about merely sharing what we’d like to be better at, but shifting the paradigm to how we might be able to help each other achieve those goals. The biggest mistake you can make with making New Year’s resolution… is thinking you can achieve them on your own. We desperately need our Jesus and we desperately need each other.
Misconceptions of Networking
When it comes to the brand that “networking” has, it can often leave more of a bad taste in people’s mouth than a good one. All it takes is one bad or awkward experience with someone who’s “trying” to network. Here are just a few of the misconceptions I’ve seen in Networking.
Misconception # 1.) To be a Networker, you must be an extrovert.
Being an extrovert HELPS, but it’s definitely not a must have. In fact, the person that does networking the best that I know is actually an introvert, Justin Lathrop. To be a good networker, you just need to be genuine. How outgoing or not outgoing you are has very little to do with it. If you want to get better at networking, just NOTICE people and really listen to what they’re saying. You’d be surprised how many people have told me that the people they love to be around are the people that “really value” them.
Misconception #2.) Networking is simply for personal gain, for people who are trying to get ahead in their career.
For some people, this is true. But for you, it doesn’t have to be. I use these words at least 5 times a week, “Let’s connect soon.” My number one goal in connecting with people is to help them on anything I can. I heard someone say when I was in high school, “Want to change the world? Ask every single person you see for the rest of your life one question: Is there anything I can do for you?” Good networking is about bringing value to relationships, not taking it.
Misconception #3.) I have enough friends and know enough people, I don’t need to ‘network’.
False. You have no idea who could be missing out from the value you could bring to a new found friendship. I often times will simply connect one person to another person I think can help them. Ultimately, you’re answering this question: “God, how can I manage my relationships to further your kingdom?” At the end of the day, it’s not about you.
Networking can be a really great thing if you allow it to be.
Horrible Bosses
I’ve got 5 jobs. For real. I have a total of 3 bosses. I’m the boss at the other 2. It keeps things interesting I guess. My current bosses bend over backwards to make my life and schedule conducive for their organization, but that’s not to say they’re perfect or that I’ve never had a Horrible Boss.
If you’re making any sort of personal work progress, there has to be some form of tension, correction, or discipline between your boss and you. I’ve had a lot of these meetings. 
Now if we’re honest, which is the purpose of this blog, we’d all say we’ve been extremely frustrated with a boss or two in our career. Or perhaps there wasn’t obvious tension, but you simply disagreed with the theology of that pastor or leader. Or maybe you don’t like the way that person handles leadership and you’ve seen things like that handled a lot better. There are countless situations that can set us off internally where our job is just a job that helps us pay bills and we spend days “putting up” with people.
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” (Colossians 3:23 NIV)
This shifted my thinking when I actually apply it. I thought about changing my boss’ name in my phone and email contacts to “the Lord” to see how I would respond to the things they ask me to do. Because honestly, I may do a good job and get things done, but I know I don’t do it as if God Himself ask me to do it. And I should.
This doesn’t change anything externally necessary, but it does change my attitude when things get tense. Horrible Boss or not, there’s a big man upstairs that I’d do anything for. And that anything entails working for for a human.
Sound Man vs Worship Leader
Ok, folks, here’s the deal: the relationship in the church world that has the most tension is between the sound guy and the worship leader. And there’s usually a ton of pews in between them when they’re working with each other. To speak to this topic, I thought I would ask my good friend, Jesse Keller, to be a guest on today’s blog. Jesse is the Next Generation Worship Pastor at the Oaks Fellowship. On top of that, he’s also the Sound Engineer for the Oaks. He has a very unique blend of both worlds and probably understands this tension better than anyone. Here’s our short conversation on the topic. Oh, and by the way, he’s Australian.
Ryan: Why do you think there is so much tension?
Jesse: In my experience the tension comes from the lack of understanding by one or both sides. Both sides have specific priorities that generally don’t completely line up with each other. The sound guy, usually the tech-savy geek type (its okay for me to say that cause I am one), often wants to make the band sound awesome in the house and try the newest technique he/she read in Mix Magazine. Whereas the worship leader simply wants things to work well enough to get through a rehearsal.
Ryan: Give us both sides of the equation. Let’s say worship teams and sound guys became like NBA players and its owners and there was a worship lockout. For the worship band, what’s maybe 2 things a sound guy could do to manage that tension. And for the sound engineers, what’s a thing or 2 they could do better to manage that tension?
Jesse: I would say it’s a bit harder for the sound guy to change their way of thinking especially if he/she is not a musician. But if the sound guy can try to understand the musician’s basic needs, that will be a huge step. Basic needs are having their instrument turned on, and being able to hear themselves and the rest of the band. Also, the sound guy needs to TAKE CHARGE of the sound check. Telling the musicians when and when not to play their instruments. A passive sound guy is the worst of all. So to put it simply; think like a musician, and take charge.
For the worship team. If you’re going to be playing music in a church you need to take time to learn what audio equipment you need to make your instrument work. Not that you need to go out and buy the stuff, but for example an acoustic guitar player NEEDS to know how a direct box and a 1/4 inch cable works. Knowing simple things about your own audio needs will speed up the sound check process and save the sound guy the frustration of running up to the stage to do something simple.
Second, be aware of everything that the sound guy is doing. Don’t be yelling for them to give you more of your vocal in your monitor when you know he is working on checking the drums.
The “onstage” and “behind the board” worlds can be miles apart, but they don’t have to be if both sides take time to understand each others roles.
The best worship leaders are the ones who think like a sound guy and the best sound guys are the ones who think like a worship leader.
I think Jesse gives us a great perspective on managing this tension and his tips can be applied with any work relationship that has this sort of tension. I challenge you to walk slowly through your organization and simply ask questions, and gain a better understanding of what exactly they do. As long as your ignorant to what they do, you’ll run the risk of disrespecting them altogether.
Follow Jesse on Twitter! @musojessekeller
Nose Bleeds
In my mind, there’s only one thing that makes you a leader or not: followers. Whether or not you’re a good leader or not has relative criteria to your followers. But I’ve noticed a common denominator every leader deals with. Every leader has followers… who believe the leader… should lead differently. There’s some obvious dynamics that create this tension. One of those being that in the most highly effective organizations, the #1 leader has hired… leaders. So now we have a bunch of awesome organizations with a leader who leads other leaders, and those leaders are told to lead raise up more leaders, and so on.
Exposing myself to a truckload of leadership resources between reading, podcasting, and conference hopping, I’ve got a front row seat to an influx of statistics and information on spectacular leadership. Every time I hear the statement, “A great leader… will ______________”, it’s like I put that through a filter of Senior Leaders. If I’m honest, I begin to ask myself the question, “Does my Senior Leader do this well?”, and from there I make judgement calls and statements to myself about how I’d do it better. (HA)
The issue I deal with here is that I can sit front row at the church, but when it comes to seeing my Senior Leader’s personal life, I’m in the nose bleeds. I’ve got cheap seats to what He or She is going through on a daily basis. I simply make judgements based off what I see from, what in reality is, a great distance. I’ve spent a lot of time with my Senior Leader lately, and the more we talk, the more I realize how wrong I am. Have you ever heard someone you personally know well talked about in a negative or positive way by someone who barely knew them at all, and they had an absolute misconstrued view of that person altogether? I think we all have. But the question now becomes: How do we know that we’re not the person with the misconstrued view?
Whether it’s a senior leader, or just another peer leader, most of us only have cheap seats to what makes them who they are. And whether we like it or not, God, on purpose, has that leader in your life for this season for a reason. If you don’t trust your leadership, at least trust your God.