Category: faith

One Idea is Better than Three

GarrettDimon.com has a great theory about presenting ideas to clients. I think he may be on to something. In his article, One Idea is Better than Three he wrote:

If you present clients with multiple ideas and expect them to choose one, invariably, the end result is muted and diluted as the message of the different ideas gets blended together. This is what happens when you approach the situation with an offering.
Instead of spending time creating 3 differnt comps, ideas, or concepts, take aim at that one that’s great and make it amazing. Blow them out of the water. Leave them speachless. That’s guiding.
It’s really about taking them where you feel and know they need to go. You may be a little off course and that is to be expected. Believe it or not, your clients are looking to you for answers, and they want to help you find those answers. They are looking to you for guidance to the best solution.

While I really haven’t purposely tried this, I know from past experiences that presenting one plan or design to someone and then letting them see why you’re passionate about it tends to get them on board with whatever your idea is.
When people see that you’re passionate about something they tend to want that same fire and passion in their own life.
I can’t recall who said it, but they were right, “Preach always, use words if necessary.”
If people see a passion in our lives about Christ or life or a silly computer game, they will want to be a part of it.
So be passionate and live hard and strong.
Let the grace of God shine throughout your life.

Pastoral Director of Design and Marketing

Is it just me, or would a Pastoral Director of Design and Marketing be my dream job. Oh how I would love to work full time doing marketing for the church.

What would that entail? Would marketing the church be simply telling the Gospel 24/7? While I think that’s a big part of it, I think it has more to do with marketing what makes the church a church. Also, it has to do a better job at telling the greatest message ever to people who aren’t going to step inside a church normally.

I think we need to find relevant ways to tell the Gospel to the world. We must be certain we don’t change the message or the Gospel, but sometimes it can be packaged differently.

Take for instance, one of my other passions, the CWF. How is it that a bunch of guys who love wrestling have found a way to package the Gospel with it?

It’s amazing to see how people respond to it — and more importantly to God.

We must find ways to reach every corner of the world with our message and I would love to be on the front lines.

UPDATE: Interesting how things change over the years. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want this job anymore — at least not at a church. I’d much rather see churches spending money on caring for the needy around them — rather than spending money on one more staff member.

What about you?

‘We Want to Compete on the Highest Level’

The Chicago Sun-Times has an interview with Larry Mullen Jr. today. He talks about U2, the otched up ticket sales and how the band is still not satisfied with just being the “biggest band in the world.”

“We want to do better, we want to compete on the highest level, and that means competing on radio, and competing with people like Britney Spears and all those pop artists who are at the top of their game. The songs that are written for them are pretty spectacular, and we want to compete with that. Why else do this? There’s no other reason. None of us need to do it, we’re all financially secure, and for a lot of bands, that’s a huge turn-off. ‘I’ve got the kids now, I’ve got the money, what do I need this for?’ This is revenge for us.”

Granted, in my opinion U2 is the greatest band in the world. But what if I woke up everyday with a mindset that I needed to be the greatest editor in the world, or the greatest Single’s Intern in the world or the greatest Ring Announcer in the world?

How would my life differ? How would your life differ if you thought the same thing?

U2 Sermons Blog for Get Up Off Your Knees: Preaching the U2 Catalog

U2 Sermons Blog for Get Up Off Your Knees: Preaching the U2 Catalog Just found this blog tonight. Rock n Roll. I haven’t read the book yet, but someday. Oh yes, someday I will read it.

Modern Day Medical Miracles

By Kara Blundell

There are new discoveries made everyday and advances made that promote our everyday quality of life. Babies are born with syndromes that could cause nearly immediate death. People are traumatized into a comatose state. Medical doctors have an important and prominent place in society as they use the new discoveries to give a child a shot at a normal life, and bring a patient out of a comma back to a functional state of living. We depend on our doctor’s knowledge to heal our pains and ease our hurts. Medicine has come a long way, but it never actually holds power over life and death.
My sister spent the last month of her life in and out of the hospital. No doctor could give her a clear diagnosis. Once she was even dismissed saying it was just a migraine. She had two spinal taps, several MRIs, CAT Scans, and every test in the book run on her. A world known neurologist was assigned to her case even with his team of experts they never figured out what was really going on in her body. It was not until her third trip to the hospital that they found a tumor on her kidney. This tumor was unlike any they had seen. They said it was 5 by 8 cm and excreting a hormone that caused her blood pressure to sore into the 200s. She was in immense pain that even Morphine could not sooth. The doctors planed to medicate the tumor and then operate when it was safely at rest. We all thought they would take care of her. We were thankful that modern science and the knowledge of the team of experts had finally found the cause of her pain. We eagerly awaited her healing and her soon approaching wedding day, but this time the doctors did not know enough and to their shock her heart gave out on March 21, 2005 and even the doctors are left with questions of how and why.
A preliminary autopsy report came back with astounding results. The tumor was described like a football and the average size of this kind of tumor is usually pea sized. An average person has 550 units of the hormone it was excreting. Amy’s tumor poisoned her body with over 40,000 units of this hormone and caused the left side of her heart to enlarge. The pathologist had never seen anything like this and they have no explanation. All the doctors were amazed she was alive as long as she was.
Amy blew them all away and all medical knowledge they have can not explain what happened in my sister’s body. Medicine is an amazing thing and has greatly helped in many ways, but we must remember that no matter how much stem cell research we do, no matter the technology we use in intervening there is still a force greater then us. The doctors could not heal my sister, but God knew exactly what was going on in her body and he healed her from suffering for forever. I believe that God can use doctors as a tool to bring healing to his children, but ultimately there is no stopping God’s plan. We have been blessed with medical advances and he has given us great knowledge, but the true medical miracle is seen in the power of an almighty God. He brought my sister into the world and created her to bless my life and the lives of over 800 people that attended her funeral. Ultimately he created her for his glory and was ready to take her to be with him forever. We are all blown away with what went on inside my sister’s body and we can not explain it. It was a miracle to us she was alive as long as she was, but this was no shock to the Lord. He knew this day before he formed her. She was his gift to us and her life was a miracle.

“The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away blessed be the name of the Lord”

blu38705@obu.edu