Scott Cheatham’s Weblog

I didn’t post a linkfest last week due to my hectic schedule and really, I didn’t log much this week either.  Guess it’s just been so busy here with the church move to our storefront (still waiting on some additional permits!) that I’ve just not been able to mark blogs like I usually do.  In the spirit of the matter though, I did look through some of my friends’ blogs again (A great benefit of the Google Reader) and came up with these ideas for you:

My blogging friend J. Mark Bertrand posted this video on his “Bible Design and Binding” blog.  I’ve never heard bonded leather rip before.  Now I know what happens to old bibles when their bindings wear out!

Cynthia at the “Digital Sanctuary” had a nice post about the user statistics between Facebook and MySpace.  Interesting numbers.

A few weeks back, I wrote about the new Moleskine look-alike book by Piccadilly.  The blog that pointed me to them, “Black Cover” is giving some away.  I’ve recently found these at my local Borders Books and am well pleased with their version.  For $3.99 (as opposed to $10.95) the books are identical down to the back pouch.  A great bargain for you to look professional, keep your notes organized, and not feel guilty about writing on a page because of what you paid for the book!

One last one…Bob Kauflin wrote a while back on the “The Top Ten Ways to Write Bad Worship Songs”.  Thought you might enjoy this one!

That’s it for now.  Enjoy your weekend and be blessed!

Today’s post is driven by a comment made by my blogging friend Keith Fletcher who wondered about all the reading I do and how I get so much of it done.  As the title suggests, I get much more “reading” done now that I’ve acclimated myself to audio books.  For years, I resisted listening to them.  I didn’t like lugging around cassettes (back in the OLD days!) or CD’s since most books I listened to were anywhere from 5-7 CD’s long.   I love reading and still do.  I always have a book going that I’m actually reading but now, I have an audio book or two going as well.  I decided to give audio books another try once the price of MP3 players dropped in price.  The best purchase I’ve made is my Sansa Express player (seen at right) that I purchased at a Big Lots store.  I picked up the player for about $20 and it comes with 1 gigabyte of memory.  These go down in price because of newer models that play videos plus teens want ginormous amounts of memory for their music.  If you just want to listen to a few albums (Yes, I have music on there also) it’s excellent for that but the memory is perfect for audio books.

Recently, I expanded the player by picking up a 2 gigabyte micro SD memory card at my local Circuit City for another $20 and installing it as you see at left.  Now, for about $40, I have a 3 gigabyte player that holds several albums of music, and many audio books.

So now, I can purchase audio books or even borrow some from my local library and load them into this tiny little player.  When I’m walking on a treadmill, taking the dog out for a walk in the early morning, or even driving downtown in my car, I just plug this little machine in and listen to books I would never have the time to read.  Just since the fall season started, I’ve listened to three audio books and am on book number four.  When you walk on a treadmill for 30 minutes, you can get a lot of “reading” done during that time.  It’s another way for me to maximize my time and get more out of it without adding additional minutes to my day.

Between audio and print books, I am trying to read about 20-30 books a year now.  That’s a conservative goal but I don’t want to push myself at this point while I’m moving a church, parenting three kids (two teens), and visiting with new families.  Still, I find the audio books I’m listening to quite enjoyable.  The production quality invested in them now is much better than it was even 10-15 years ago.

So now you know how I do it Keith.  No big secrets, just multi-tasking while working out. 

Keith’s blog is worth checking out too.  http://digitrailblaze.com/

If you are looking for the latest and greatest techniques to reach people for Christ,  “The Celtic Way of Evangelism” by Geoge C. Hunter may be a book you’ll overlook.  Don’t!  In a bookworld awash with every book for every need I used to get caught up trying to purchase the latest and greatest for my collection.  This slim little volume was released eight years years ago and was recommended to me by a pastor friend here in North Denver.

The book chronicles the journey of Patrick (Yes, that St. Patrick we celebrate every March) and his ministry to the Barbarians of foreign lands.  The premise behind Hunter’s work is that the ancient methods used to evangelize the people Patrick ministered to are very much relevant for today.  While the book spends a lot of time sharing historic ideals that were utilized in Patrick’s day, it winds it all up in the book’s seventh chapter with the application and approach for today’s churches.  The ideas have merit and have been praised by other church pastors I know.

When I first purchased this book a few years back, I was quite busy with several other projects so I just kind of skimmed its contents.  As the holidays approach, I plan on spending a bit more time with its ideas and concepts again to see how it relates not only to today but to me and my ministry specifically.

Has anyone else read this work?  Any thoughts you could share about what you gleaned from it?  I think it’s good to go back from time to time and re-read some of the old books in your collection.  Look over your notes and update them, see if the ideas you had then are the same as now.  This book is a quick and enjoyable read for the first time reader and easy to re-read as well.

Note: The following is a post I wrote on October 31, 2006.  It is from one of my former blogs.  As our church moves forward to moving into a new location, I reconsidered my friend’s thoughts and I post this here looking for new ideas and comments from you.  I’ve edited it slightly to bring it up to date.  Enjoy.

This morning I spent my time in a nearby Starbucks meeting with a fellow church planter/pastor who is getting ready to build his first church building after beginning his church 14 years ago. That’s right…14! I have to say it was one of the most encouraging meetings I’ve ever had.

Sometimes I question myself as if to think I’m really in control of this whole church thing. God does expect us to prepare and direct where he is blessing but the church is HIS to build or not build. When growth doesn’t come as fast as you like, you sometimes wonder if you’re doing the right things. My friend is now at a point in his ministry where he is able to think past the numbers needed to sustain the church but it wasn’t long ago he was where I am now, rocking back and forth trying to break the first of several major growth barriers. His advice to me:

1. Pour all your time into building your leaders. Don’t spend all your time trying to convince the “fringe” folks to attend. You’ll go crazy. Invest your quality hours into raising up quality people who will duplicate the vision you’ve set.

2. Identify people who don’t fit your church as soon as you can and move them elsewhere. This doesn’t sound very nice but when you think about it, it makes all the sense in the world. My church isn’t the only local body of believers and others may be a better fit for this person rather than have them get frustrated when our church doesn’t go along with their ideas or agree with their expression of worship. Sometimes in the early stages, we are so eager to get people in the doors, we think we can change them but we really can’t so it’s best not to allow them to take root among your people where they can cause division and strife. This has happened to me several times so I see my friend’s point.

3. Focus on relational small groups. We do this at my church but we’ve not grown to the numbers I’d like to see.  My friend has some great ideas culled from several sources and says that keeping your own personal small group as a discipleship training group will replicate the needed leaders to keep up with the growth.

4. Most of all, stay evangelistically minded and biblically adept in training newcomers to your church. My friend said he wasn’t interested in folks from other churches but would rather see them saved at his church and discipled into their form of ministry so loyalty and biblical literacy could be acquired.

At first, I looked at my list and saw that we are on the same page here but it IS hard to stay focused when the giving is down or numbers fluctuate more than the norm. This friend of mine told me he made his biggest mistake by focusing solely on the numbers and not on a slower, more consistent and manageable growth. He encouraged me by telling me of how his church ballooned to over 400 at one point and subsequently dropped to just over 200 because he and his wife couldn’t give people the time needed to pastor them properly and no solid leaders were in place. He is now back at the 400 mark and fully plans to double that number once his new building is complete. He is already at work in two small groups grooming the future leaders of that new growth well over a year before his building will be complete. In so doing, he told me he is also grooming from these “leaders” the core of the team that will lead the church in the next generation which is the greatest task a leader of today must accomplish.

I must admit, his enthusiasm was infectious. I enjoyed the time and his raw faith to shake his community with the love of Christ.

Be Blessed!

Recently, the church I pastor was selected by “Church Metrics” to be a beta tester for this new, free online software.  After playing with it some this weekend and entering yesterday’s church numbers into it, I can tell you that this is going to be a big help for many churches who take the plunge and use it.  Lifechurch.tv produces “Church Metrics” and has posted some videos like the one below on the Vimeo site.  Check out the video below to see some basics on how it works and be ready, Church Metrics should be available to all sometime next month.

The final area covered by the book “The Power of Full Engagement” is the aspect of our spiritual lives.  For many, this is an often overlooked aspect of our lives.  As a church pastor, I can tell you from first hand experience that many folks neglect this aspect of their lives as they climb the corporate ladder.

The authors cover the topic in broad terms and focus mostly on character issues.  For certain, we need to take some time to write down and clarify our values and build a worldview behind what we value and how that looks in our own lives.  As a Christian, my values stem from those in the Holy Bible and I do my best to live by God’s expectations for my life.  Here’s the pressure point: If you don’t have a personal integrity that drives you, what will you do when pressured to do otherwise in your work life?  It happens all the time.   Many times, I was asked to put one of my values on the shelf and compromise in my secular work life.  Once you do it one time, the next time is easier and before you know it, your values are gone.  Many times too your happiness will leave with it.

I don’t think anyone wants to be apathetic about their work.  We want to have a passion to do what we do or else, why do it?  When we begin to focus on what drives us spiritually, then we can find ways to integrate that passion into any job and find fulfillment in our day-to-day lives.  Having a purpose for our lives can drive us when nothing else will.  It’s an amazing aspect of who we are that makes us unique.  The key is to tap in to what drives you and then, go for it!  Find ways to bring that passion to others.

Another forgotten aspect of this area of our lives is our own self-care.  From time to time, our spiritual “muscles” need rest just like every other aspect of our energy.  For me, this comes in the form of daily prayer walks with God.  Both in talking AND listening!  It is where I can connect with my creator and rest and renew myself in His power.  Sometimes, I get away at night for a quick cup of coffee and just relax in a coffee shop for renewal.  Either way, I rebuild energy stores needed to work with others and be passionate in my service as a pastor.

Have you gotten lax in this area?  What things can you do to improve your spiritual muscles?

In this third component of “Full Engagement”, we consider the affects mental energy has on our performance.  Surely, fueling ourselves property with physical energy and stress reduction gives power to our mental capacities.  Mental engagement means using both hemispheres in your brain and learning how each works.  Most people have heard that the left hemisphere controls the more linear aspects of our mental processes.  Since the majority of people are right handed, they tend to primarily operate in their left hemisphere and thus, those qualities can be dominant.  The right hemisphere of the brain though operates much differently as it processes things in a “larger picture” dimension and creativity tends to flow from this side.  I will add here that the works of Dr. Daniel Amen which are available in both text and audio books are quite helpful in understanding this entire process.  One of the best is “Making a Good Brain Great”.

As we become more fully engaged mentally, we begin to work to access both hemispheres of our brain and focus on clarity and commitment.  If you are right brain dominant, you will find yourself drifting at times and you might eventually get stale in your thinking.  Left brainers will burn out from their linear lifestyles because there will always be more to do.  Learning to shut things off is a struggle.  The authors of “The Power of Full Engagement” suggest taking more frequent shorter breaks throughout your day or at the least, build in some “down time” through your routines.  Routines being a word you will see often as they drive new behavior.

These changes all stem from how we perceive things around us.  For several of the test cases in the book, negative thinking tended to permeate their workdays.  For sure we can get discouraged when something bad happens at work or in our personal lives but the best way to be fully engaged mentally is to have realistic optimism; seeing the world as it is, but always working positively towards a desired outcome or solution.

How do we make this work?  Well, for some, you might want to purchase an inexpensive journal and being to write down the things that you see as negatives and try to recast these in a more positive, outcome based light.  Others may need to take a break and do some breathing exercises, get out for a quick walk, or calmly clear their heads while visualizing things a bit more optimistically.  It’s certain that being fully engaged mentally will have a positive impact on all aspects of our lives, including our health.

What steps can you take to improve in this area?

Today, I want to consider the second area of engagement shared in the book “The Power of Full Engagement”.  This would be our “emotional” engagement.  This is where the concept of energy management took on a different meaning for me.  As I stated yesterday, the physical engagement made sense to me initially since I would associate that with energy but the authors’ take on this is a bit different.  They use the idea of physical exercise and then connect it to other areas of our lives.  In the case of emotional engagement, the authors suggest that we must exercise our “emotional” muscles and give them time to recover if we hope to increase our capacity for more energy in this area.

What’s tricky here is that some of us are more engaged in certain emotional areas than others.  We struggle in certain areas of our lives.  Perhaps it’s low self-esteem.  For others it might be learning patience.  Whatever it is, the authors suggest working new habits into our lives to tap into the emotional stores that we have.  The key “muscles” fueling positive emotional energy are: self-confidence, self-control, interpersonal effectiveness, and empathy.  Learning to build in routines that affirm and fullfill us helps to promote emotional muscle “recovery”.

In a nutshell, here’s how it affects me to some degree.  I enjoy having a good time with friends once in a while.  My wife understands this and I’m trying to help her in this area also.  Before we moved to Denver and I became a pastor, we had many good friends in our church that shared our values, likes, dislikes, etc.   Once I became a pastor, we noted our relationships declined a bit due to our position.  I have men in the church who I can pal around with but I also needed friends who were dealing with the same things I do as I minister.  A while back, Becky and I decided to begin to incorporate routines into our lives that included time for such friends.  I have two good pastor friends from a larger circle of pastors I know and we meet at least monthly to just talk.  Sometimes, we meet at a restaurant to watch a game.  Other times, we take our families to the mall and just chat.  Becky’s case has been a bit harder because of her schedule but slowly, we’ve been working in at least a time or so every six weeks where she meets with some of her friends from Great Clips at a local restaurant where she can just chat and be herself.  The key for us was we had to be intentional about this.  If we didn’t take the time to put some sort of routine together, it would never happen.  Just like planning for physical exercise; making time for the gym, to walk, or just run with the kids, we had to plan these times also.

One thing is for certain: negative emotions stress and break us.  Sometimes, the stress cannot be helped but in some cases, we can be guilty of starting our days this way and letting it affect us in ways we regret later on.  If we take the time to prepare and plan for our emotional energies, we have a greater liklihood that this will not happen.

Tomorrow, mental energy is our focus.  I hope you’ll drop by again then.

On Thursday I reviewed the book “The Power of Full Engagement” by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz.  Without going into too much detail, I wanted to spend this week sharing some of the thoughts I jotted down as I listened to the unabridged audio version of this very successful book.  The foundation of the book was energy management in four key areas.  The first covered by the book was physical.  It seemed logical that the authors would start here since energy and physical strength go hand in hand.  As we learn later in the book, energy managment is key in all four areas but for today, let’s focus on physical.

To be fully engaged physically means to be energized for our tasks.  So much of what we do these days crowds out any hope of a routine that would help us physically.  I’ve been guilty of this for a long time and shortly after starting the book,  I decided I would hold off no longer.  At 42, my clock is ticking and I want to enter the next phase of my life in better shape than the past 10 years.  The authors advocate building in small changes in the form of routines that help bring change in each area.  All I can do here is share my personal response.  I made it a point to institute two changes in my life initially.  One, at each breakfast I elected to replace a piece of toast or extra pancakes with a fruit bowl or piece of fruit.  If you eat out, this option may not be available but generally can be negotiated in if you ask and persist.  At home, I planned meals the night before, laying out oatmeal, whole grain cereal, or high protein choices like eggs and, depending on my initial choice, bring fruit, whole grains, and juices or water with lemon into my meal.  This wasn’t much of a stretch really.  Even when I eat the wrong stuff, I’ve always enjoyed whole grain foods and oatmeal.

The second choice I made, and this one was hard, was to commit myself to working out 3-4 times a week with both weights and cardio exercise.  As busy as I am, I’ve always tried to just walk or do something similar to exercise but the reality was I wasn’t committing myself to ANY plan.  Like any goal that you pursue, it will only happen when you commit yourself to attaining it.  My goal is to lose a minimum of 15 pounds between now and the end of the year.  To do that, I MUST exercise and make it a priority.  So now, I’ve built exercise into my morning routine, heading to the gym right after my quiet time in the mornings.  I’ve found that about an hour to 75 minutes gets me through my workout.  A quick shower and change of clothes and I’m only at mid-morning by the time I leave the gym.  Since I’m an early riser anyway, I’ve usually gotten one of my main tasks out of the way before I head to the gym.  Afterwards, I now am starting to feel a bit better after the workout.  The first few weeks like to killed me but I knew I had to work through it.  Now, at the end of my treadmill time, I’m not feeling as tired.  I’ve not lost a ton of weight yet, but I’m feeling better so I know it’s helping me.

Even what little work I’ve done has given me a bit more energy and it has me hungry to see where I meet be and how better I might feel after 25 pounds, or 50!  The routine is still taking some time to adjust to but gradually, it’s now becoming a part of my daily regimen.  I’ve enjoyed it so much, I’m now finding that at night when I’m with the kids, I’ll elect to take them for a twilight walk by the lake instead of just sitting somewhere or going to the store.  This gives me extra exercise and helps me to feel more rested at night.  I’m still not where I need to be routine wise.  This past week was horrible for eating the wrong things.  I told my wife I’m going to need two weeks to make up for this one bad one since I made some unwise meal choices.  But the key is overall, I’m starting to feel better.  Getting energized is just one fourth of the plan to be fully engaged.  Tomorrow, in part two, I’ll discuss the second part of full engagement.  That being our “emotional” energy.

It’s hard for me to believe that another week has went by so fast and that we’re already at mid month for October?  Wow, time is blowing by lately.  I want to take a moment to thank you for stopping by here and reading the blog.  I’m appreciative of the nice comments I receive (mostly via email) from you.  Thanks again.

Here’s some blog posts for you to check out over the weekend if you have some time to read.

Peter Mead is writing a series of articles on “The Discouraged Preacher” that are worth checking out if you are in the ministry.  If you’re not but attend a local church, they are worth looking over so that perhaps you can encourage your pastor.  Peter posted part 4 of the series today but the link above is for part 1 so you can check out the entire series.

John Donahue has a good post on the “3 Things That Keep People In Church”.  

Have you ever wanted to see your picture in places you thought it never would surface?  Scott Harris tipped me off to a site you might enjoy!

I had written earlier about the ESV Study Bible’s online release.  Here’s the full post from Crossway, including links to their site so you can set up an account.

Are you looking for news and information on a particular topic?  If you are a minister, I know you look for good illustrations.  Here’s a site that let’s you search and bring up all types of good stuff from the blogosphere.

..and from Seth Godin’s blog…Another great time waster for each of us.  “Twitter Search” allows you to search ALL of Twitter for topics..Type in your name, a book you’re interested in, etc..  It pulls a feed up of all relevant “tweets” and even offers you an RSS link so you can follow it regularly!  Micro-Marketing just got a whole new edge.

Have a great weekend!