Just got back from attending an all day workshop with John Burke at Fairfax Community Church. He taught us from basics to complicated compositions in a few hours - all from a ministry perspective. It sounds as if he'll be taking this show on the road, and may be coming to a place near you.

Also, he runs a website where he gives away graphic design pieces.  The one thing I always wanted to be able to do was put a texture in my font with Photoshop and now I know how to do it.

The online world is full of your friends, family and acquaintances. Some are more friendly than others. Some are more on target with their faith than others. Some leave stories of questionable theology. How are we to respond in the public square? It's an old question in a new way.

Reading through suggestions online, I ran across this from goodcomment.com:

• Would you want it on your blog?
• Is the tone soft or argumentative?
• Is it short and on topic?
• Does it add something useful to the conversation?

"Keep things polite." Hmmm.

How do you tell tone in a written piece? Unless they cuss or call you dumb in rougher language, what's not polite? Some people mean by "be polite" - not to be deep or thoughtful or thought-provoking. Some mean to only make positive comments about the brilliancy of the original story or other comments.

I hope that we don't dumb-down human interactions in the thought sphere!

Seth Godin decided to disable comments with his blog. Here's why . . .

"I think comments are terrific, and they are the key attraction for some blogs and some bloggers. Not for me, though. First, I feel compelled to clarify or to answer every objection or to point out every flaw in reasoning. Second, it takes way too much of my time to even think about them, never mind curate them. And finally, and most important for you, it permanently changes the way I write."

- Seth Godin's blog

Let's break the box of our own thinking! Consider these two alternatives:

•  What if we believed we could add 1 new believer to our congregation per year, how would we make that happen? 

• What if we believed we could add 1000 new believers to our congregation, how would we make that happen?

• Now compare.

1.  A synchronized effort between pastors and key movers and shakers in the congregation about the vision of bringing a 1000 people in this year. The main area of synchronization: What the words/language/big ideas are that will be talked about in every meeting and how our meetings could be leveraged to pray for and launch enthusiasm for those who don't know Jesus.
2. A re-look at the worship schedule. Rather than building a preaching schedule around "attractional" activities or topics - why not think about energizing our congregation to a challenge of 1000 people this year? Crazy, huh? No, it's not. What if we launched new preaching opportunities in homes (deputizing lay persons) and bars and community centers?
3. Address directly with the congregation their fears of adding 1000 new people to who we have. Will we have to open our hearts wider? Will we have to find funding in new entrepreneurial ways? Will we have to give up ownership of things we hold dear? Address the limitations we put upon God fully and directly.
4. Where would WE hold office? What would be the most important thing to do each day?
5. Will they fire the pastor this year? Ask them if they'll fire us if we brought in 1000 new people as congregation? Why hide our fear?

Google analytics is a great addition for tracking what your visitors do with your website. And it's easy!

Here are the steps:

1. Get a Google Analytics account and add your domain information to this account. 
2. Get your Tracking Code. If you don't see that or know how to find it, follow these instructions. The code is a line of script Google tells you to put into your site so that they can "find it."
3. Add your tracking code to your blog template html. In the administrator backend of your joomla site, go to "Extensions" -->  Select the Radio Button next to the template being used by your blog you directed Goggle Analytics to --> Select "Edit" in the top right corner --> Select "Edit HTML" --> Scroll down to where you see this head tag, beginning with <head>. Paste your Tracking Code into the head tag where shown in this html image below. Save. Close Template editing.
4. Go back to your google analytics account. Click on 'check status' (the yellow triangle) if you see a yellow triangle.

U.S. News World Report:

"Grassley said the end-of-life provision in the versions of the healthcare reform bill under consideration in the House would pay physicians to "advise patients about end-of-life care and rate physician quality of care based on the creation of and adherence to orders for end-of-life care." -- Peter Roff in Score One for Sarah Palin on the Health Care Reform Death Panels

 Yikes!

Fortunately and because of Sarah Palin's rhetoric, the House is reconsidering the language of this bill so that doctors aren't rated by whether they wrote a prescription to end life!

U. S. Senator Johnny Isakson, Republican (GA) was called out by the President for paving the way previously (2007) with similar amendments for health care. Here's what the Senator had to say about that:

"My Senate amendment simply puts health care choices back in the hands of the individual and allows them to consider, if they so choose, a living will or durable power of attorney," Isakson said. "The House provision is merely another ill-advised attempt at more government mandates, more government intrusion and more government involvement in what should be an individual choice."           -- in The Miami Herald, "How a GOP senator's proposal gave rise to 'death panels'," by Halimah Abdullah

The Senator explains how the House Bill's language leaves that door open: 

"Isakson argues that the House version expands an existing Medicare program by providing a financial incentive to doctors to give end-of-life counseling to Medicare patients every five years and requires a mandatory list of topics to discuss with patients."   -- in The Miami Herald

Apparently, the House is working ferociously under the heat to change that ill-fated language. 

See Also:   Health Care Reform?

Huffington Post screams "foul" today. "Internal Memo Confirms Big Giveaways . . ." The debate rages on.

Do you think the health care organizations are PR-ing Americans into thinking the health care reform bills are bad? Or do you think health care reform is necessary?

See also: Health Care Reform?

We are in the middle of a sermon series on the new movies out now. I know my people love to go see the movies, and being summer it's more frequent than at other times. So, why not talk about the questions being asked in the movies and how they intersect with real and spiritual life? How could I help our people write their own story?

I went to each movie and took notes. Then I asked myself: What is the life question being asked? How can I tell the story about that life question from the Bible's perspective.

This week, we'll talk about the movie, "Up!" by Pixar. I've decided the life question is: What are my dreams and how are they changing over time? There are different levels of dreams in the movie. The old man, Carl, had dreams never realized and the movie focuses on his determination to see that dream through. Russell stows away with him, and Russell's dream is to get his Wilderness Scout badge for helping an elderly person. Carl doesn't want to have anything to do with Russell. It wasn't part of his dream. But Russell needs Carl for his dream to come true. And in the midst of what transpires, Carl discovers new dreams because of the relationship that develops between he and Russell. It turns out that 8 year olds and 78 year olds have need of each other for their dreams to come true.

For the sermon, I'm going to use the same movement of plot. I'll use the story of Ruth from Ruth, chapter 1. I'll tell the Biblical story first and how Naomi's dreams were gone and it seemed to her that life was done and no more dreams were possible. But Ruth changed that - before either of them realized there would be a new adventure in store for them together.

Then, I'll tell the movie's story - kind of super-imposed on Ruth and Naomi. I'll talk about my dreams as a kid - then as a teen - and now. I'll do all of that for this "so what" question: What are your dreams? Can you name it? Can you see how God is intersecting with that dream?

You can download a pdf of the slides I used here. The images are copyrighted, so you will need to purchase or find your own.

Here are places to get images and slides:
istockphoto.com
powerpointsermons.com

Other Parts to Creating WOW Presentations:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Let me share with you some tips from sermon to powerpoint. First, you have to know what it is that you want to accomplish with the sermon, and in general how to touch your audience. The first part of sermon writing and making a visual presentation is to know your audience. They teach us that in seminary, and you've heard it said: "have in one hand the Bible and one hand the newspaper."

I'd like to change that cliché a bit to say - have in one part of your mind the scripture and it's exegesis, and in the other part of your mind be interacting with a real person in your congregation! One way to interact is online - i.e. put out questions to people about what's going on in their lives, read their blogs, wonder out loud on Facebook, comment on their notes & stories and see what makes them tick.

What are the questions being asked in films your people (not someone else's people) are watching? What makes the movie appealing to them? What runs their life - is it work, their family, sports, music, a certain relationship? In other words, be curious about what kind of life your people are facing.

I live in a semi-urban/suburban environment. We have a wide range of cultures represented, but there are lines of commonality - largely because of the corporate workplace most are a part of in this place. This has been "ah, duh" moment for me in the past year - realizing that people are affected so much by the mentality of work here. The sermons I have preached that were most appreciated lately have been ones that pull in the corporate environment with faith in mind. I am a student continually of the people I love here.

Once you have that context, begin the sermon preparation. How does this scripture talk to their daily life? How does it pull them from daily life to a life beyond ordinary with God? And, how will you graphically represent that movement?

Tell the Story Well. The "story board" is a sequence of events that move with the plot of your sermon. It starts somewhere, has a middle, and ends somewhere new. If they're in the corporate mindset, I'll need to draw the story lines from cold, corporate culture into the heart of God.

I have to do that by telling a story - seeing the plot, the feeling to communicate, describing the characters (biblical and in real life today), linking to a real life situation, and knowing where the "ah-hah" moment should be. The job of visual communication is to tell that story in pictures.

The slide presentation could become a "document" - i.e. used to print out the scripture and emphasize words - rather than tell the story with background and images. In the book, slide:ologoy: The Art and Science of Creating, author Nancy Duarte says this, "So, before your next presentation, assess how you've used the application. Did you create a document or a presentation?" Slides are often an after-thought - i.e. because we're "supposed" to have it - rather than a moving, visual act of communicating what you're feeling and telling about Jesus.

When you get to that "ah-hah" moment what will move the audience? Will it be a dark, blank slide with the focus on your words or will it be a picture that describes the feeling well or will it be one word?

Harvard Business Review, June 2008, says: Microfinance should be profitable. In a nutshell, microfinance is the practice of giving out very small loans, typically $100-$200, to poor individuals of third world countries living on $2 per day income. Microfinance has proven it's ability of "helping people learn how to fish" rather than "providing the fish."

The company spotlighted here only loans to women! They say they can count on women to network and help one another in their local community, and to faithfully repay their loans. Interesting, huh?

"While the industry celebrates having reached about 140 million people, roughly 3 billion (or 750 million households) still live on $2 a day or less. In terms of households, that's only a 19% market penetration--a sure sign of underperformance in any other industry." (Vikram Akula,  Harvard Business Review, hbr.org, June, 2008, p. 54)

The author, a financier, claims the malfunction lies in the model we are using to launch microfinance. In summary, he says these things must happen:

1. 'Adopt a profit oriented approach.' He sees the need for a model that is not as much social based as it is business based. Why? We will need the money of large corporations which are not social based. The need is much greater than can be accomplished through social means. (I wonder about that claim with the "viral ability" of social networking now?)
2. Standardize. Organization that is efficient requires models across the board with standard payment methods and amounts, training materials and lengths of training, and administrative processes. Everyone needs to "play from the same page." The author recommends a training model that is On-The-Job training in a short period of time for loan officers. By launching loan officers through a standardized training model in a short time, you can deploy much more quickly and scale up for growth in the entire system.
3. 'Use technology to reduce costs and limit errors.' Get away from paper record-keeping, but keep it simple and easy to use for non-tech savvy loan officers.
4. Focus on customer loyalty. "In everything we do, we ask, 'Does this work for the borrower?' - even if it means operating against our own short-term interests." (p. 56) A priority is to put into place policies that discourage "thugs" from taking over the market.