Feb 26

Missing Out?

Posted in: General Ministry

Ever have those days when you wonder about the choices you’ve made?  I had one of these moments today at lunch.  I was sitting at one of those restaurants that seem to think that the tables naturally should be less than a foot apart so that there are no private conversations.  As I wasn’t “trying” to listen in, I had no choice but to overhear the conversation of the two professional looking ladies seated at the table next to me.  They were talking about their weekend plans.

One was flying down to the coast with the family. Her husband’s managing partner has a boat and will be taking their kids out fishing in the gulf.  The other was flying to meet her husband in Vail for a corporate ski trip weekend.  “Kids are going to have a great time.”  “What a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

That got me thinking.  I worked in the corporate world for a number of years where the pay was great and the perks were often better.  Frankly I don’t miss the travel, the long hours, and the lifestyle.  Then again, I’ve had the award trip to Cabo, the free fancy dinners.  I don’t feel like I missed out.

But then there are my kids.  Their daddy works in full time ministry, we sleep two kids to a room in a 3 bedroom house, and we take a road trips to take advantage of a free timeshare in Branson.  It’s very different from what I heard at lunch.

So I struggle with it from time to time.  I want my kids to have those kinds of experiences.  I also understand that money certainly doesn’t create memories or buy happiness.  So I think it is a balance of sorts.  I don’t feel like the god of materialism is alive and growing in my heart.  I don’t often want “the next cool thing”, but I do want great experiences with my kids.  Are the nice trips and expensive things just a salve to cover the wounds from time lost with mom and dad?   How do others work through this?

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Feb 24

Texas Church IT Roundtable Recap

Posted in: CITRT

February 23rd saw our first “Texas sized” church IT roundtable.  From my perspective it was a great success.  We had over 50 people involved in learning, sharing, and networking with other church IT leaders and key vendors.  Whenever you can get that many IT guys to show up in one room, I feel like it is an automatic “win” for the Kingdom.

The best part of my job is getting to network and learn from other people much smarter than me.  Yesterday I was blessed by a room full of those kind of people, so I walked away challenged and encouraged to take new ground in the ministry of IT in the local church.  It was great to have so many subject matter experts from Dell, Apple, and others sitting in and listening and providing their expertise.

My hope is that everyone who was there walked away with at least one takeaway that will impact their ministry.  Maybe more, but at least one.  And my other hope is that everyone left better connected with friends who serve in similar positions of ministry.  Once you catch the value of community, you are better equipped for the ministry that God has called you to.

One person asked me “how we continue to discussions that happened today on a regular basis”.  To that question there is an easy answer.  There is an IRC chat room that is almost always filled with Church IT guys from around the country.  It has been a great resource for me personally to ask questions, and occasionally be available to help others with an issue they are having.  You can connected to the chat room (#citrt) on IRC freenode, or by simply clicking this link which will launch the chat in a browser.  http://www.citrt.org/chat/

Lots of good conversations yesterday.  Thankful for how God is allowing us to use technology for the Kingdom.  Even more encouraged to see how so many folks are using their giftedness.

As I shared yesterday morning from Philippians 1:3-6,  “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Thankful…

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Feb 04

Texas Church IT Roundtable – Coming February 23.

Posted in: Uncategorized

If you are a Church IT leader in Texas you will want to join us on February 23rd for a day of networking, learning, and fun.   More details and registration at http://tx.citrt.org.

Make plans to be there.

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Feb 04

When excellence is an afterthought

Posted in: Uncategorized

I think that most of us like to do our best work.  One of the more frustrating things about working in IT/web/operations is that we often live our lives in “response” mode.  When last minute decisions are made, they often come to technology people as the last stop on the bus.  We are often not included in the strategic decisions, nor do we ever fully understand the logic behind the request.  Just last week, a decision was made to do something… I’m going to paint two possible scenarios.

Scenario one – We need to make a change.  What should we do?  Let’s bring all the affected parties into the room and clearly layout what we want to accomplish.  Then after it has been spelled out, let’s take a moment to determine the level of effort involved.  Is it still a good idea?  Yes? ok. Once we know how much effort this would take to do this really well, let’s decide how we want to implement the change, determine what steps we will take the make the change, and schedule when the change will be “live”.

Scenerio two – We need to make a change – What should we do?  Let’s decide to make the change because it is important to us.  Then since we know that everyone is really busy and probably doesn’t have time to make the change by tomorrow morning, let’s ask how much we can get if we only spend an hour working on it.  Sure, the solution probably won’t be ideal, but its better than nothing I guess.

Ever been there before?  I think that churches should do things excellently.  Often though, we are asked to do a percentage of what it would take to do it right.  That puts us in positions where we have a choice to make.  That choice is…

  • I can do the “one hour” version, which won’t be excellent, and frankly I won’t feel good about putting in front of people.
  • I can choose to spend the appropriate amount of time to do things with excellence, but since this wasn’t scheduled it will need to be worked into all that is going on.  So, I’ll probably work late, miss time with my family, etc because I truly believe that the product that we produce says something about who we are.  Not saying my personal identity is wrapped up in the product, but the image of the church is.

Anyone else been there before?  How did you handle it?  What are your best tips on managing up?

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