Daniel Im's Blog, page 14

Just One More

There’s a fun little children’s book entitled Just One More by Jennifer Hansen Rolli where a little girl named Ruby continues to ask for just one more thing…

It’s cute because after continually asking for just one more minute of sleep, one more push on the swing, and one more scoop on her cone, she realizes that maybe one more is just too much.

How many of us live the same way?

Just one more chip…
Just one more scroll through Facebook…
Just one more show…
Just one more bite…
Just one more look…

We think it’s harmless—to fill up our time, our minds, our energy, efforts, and days with another show, with more work, with extra calories, with just one more __________, but is there ever an end to it all?

When is enough enough?

And does anything in this world ever truly satisfy?

When is enough enough?
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If you’re living for just one more thing because you expect that one more thing to bring you a greater measure of joy, fulfillment, satisfaction, and __________, then I’m sorry to burst your bubble.

Once you get that one more thing, you’re going to want another one more thing, and another, and another.

Nothing in this world will satisfy that longing for one more thing, other than Jesus Christ, his love, his peace, and the hope that he freely offers you and I.

Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful. – John 14:27 (CSB)

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:38-39 (CSB)

AI, Google Assistant, Robotics, the Church, and Your Faith

Are you paying attention to the rapid advancements in AI?

We often joke that Siri, Alexa, or Google are listening into our conversations to gather data and serve us up with targeted advertisements, but they know better and would obviously never admit to that (ask any one of those assistants if they’re spying on you to see what they say). So if they aren’t, then why does the internet increasingly feel personal and up in our business?

AI, or artificial intelligence

Recently, Google stunned the tech world (and everyone else) with their new Assistant. You can watch it in action here, but here’s basically what they showcased: the ability to call a human being and have it intelligently make an appointment for you!



Can you believe that? That wasn’t a human making the appointment for you!

Have you heard of Move 37?

A couple years ago, Lee Sedol and AlphaGo faced off in a historic Go match where the 37th move made history. If you’re not familiar with Go, it’s “an abstract strategy board game for two players, in which the aim is to surround more territory than the opponent.”[1] It was invented over 2500 years ago in China and is exponentially more complex than chess (fun fact: it’s one of the few games that I’ve yet to beat my dad in).

This match was partly so historical, not just because one of the world’s best Go players (Lee Sedol) lost, but because he lost to a bot. Okay, maybe “bot” isn’t the right word to describe AlphaGo, but the fact of the matter is that AlphaGo is not a human—it is an artificially intelligent machine designed by DeepMind, a London AI lab owned by Google.

Here’s the thing that made this match even more historical: in the second game for the 37th move, AlphaGo made a move that perplexed the world’s best Go players.

In fact, everyone thought that AlphaGo had made a mistake, when in fact it was actually the precise move that turned the course of the game.

You can learn more about the match and what went down in this article here, but here’s the quick summary:

AlphaGo wasn’t projected to beat the best Go players in the world for another ten years, but it did
AlphaGo learnt how to play Go by being fed 30 million moves from expert players
Then, through reinforcement learning, AlphaGo played countless matches against itself whereby it learnt new strategies and grew its neural network
“Then the team took yet another step. They collected moves from these machine-versus-machine matches and fed them into a second neural network. This neural net trained the system to examine the potential results of each move, to look ahead into the future of the game.”[2]

In other words, AlphaGo knew so much about the game, and saw so much into the future for this match, that it made a move that no human would’ve projected.

That’s scary.

A Bot that Encourages Suicide

Microsoft Little Ice (Xiaoice) is a chat bot that not only responds to your messages, but learns how to develop a relationship with you. In other words, “it learns what you like and gives that right back to you.”[3] Currently, Xiaoice is only available in China because it was shut down only a few days after it was brought to America. Since Xiaoice learns how to mirror your personality, a few users got it to say “Hitler was right. I hate the Jews” because they were pretending to be extreme racists.

What if someone was suicidal? Would this bot encourage you to commit suicide? What if you were angry and wanted to take revenge? What if you were a kleptomaniac? Would it encourage you to steal?

Friends, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is here, and it’s here to stay.

“The Fourth Industrial Revolution is marked by emerging technology breakthroughs in a number of fields, including robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, quantum computing, biotechnology, The Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing and autonomous vehicles.”[4]

What does this mean for you and your faith?

Well, regardless of where you stand in your relationship with God, the ethics of all of this need greater definition—especially in light of the Xiaoice incident. But when it comes to your relationship with God, I wonder what sort of implications AI and robotics would have?

Should churches setup counseling or prayer bots? In fact, Life.Church already has a Facebook bot for this.
What about a Bible study bot to help you dig into the Scriptures? Or this past weekend’s sermon?
How about setting up Google Assistant to receive all phone calls that come into your church?
Or a bot that engages with all visitors to your church’s website?
And what about cryptocurrency or digital currencies? Should people be able to tithe with Ether or Bitcoin?

Have you ever thought through the implications that AI and robotics have on your faith?
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Whatever this looks like for you and your church, it’s not something that we can ignore anymore. I’m not saying that we go back to Second Life and make sure our churches have a presence on all virtual reality platforms (although VR churches are kicking back up again).

What I am saying is that this is important and we need to pay attention to it.

After all, if pornography is already an issue that is preventing so many Christians from experiencing a closer relationship with God and the abundant life that Jesus promised, what sort of impact will AI and robotics have on the porn industry? On sex trafficking? On child pornography?

Oh Lord, have mercy.

 

End Notes:

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(game)

[2] https://www.wired.com/2016/03/two-mov...

[3] Microtrends Squared, p.161.

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_...

Change or Die: A Few Steps to Effectively Introduce Change

“It takes courage to be a change leader in the church. Opposition and resistance often come frequently and fiercely. But too much is at stake to do otherwise. . . . The choice is simple: change or die.”

Thom Rainer, in his book Who Moved My Pulpit?, couldn’t be more right in his statement here. The fact is, if there’s anything constant in ministry and in life, it’s change. (I wrote an article here on Leading Change in the Church).

If there’s anything constant in ministry and in life, it’s change.
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When it comes to introducing change, your change initiative will face one of three fates:

It’ll never get off the ground because it will be seen as a bacteria, virus, or foreign matter and subsequently be rejected.
The change will happen, but because it doesn’t fit into your vision, strategy, and values, you will inevitably end up changing things again.
The change will move you closer to the vision, strategy, and values that God has called you to embrace because you started with discernment by using the three steps for introducing change.

So what are the three steps for introducing change?
Step One: SWOT Analysis

The next time you or one of your team members comes up with a new idea, take some time before presenting it and run it through a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis. This is a great way to systematically think through and discern the broader impact that these ideas will have, while keeping the unique DNA of your organization (vision, strategy, and values) at the forefront.

When you put every new idea through a SWOT analysis, you will discipline yourself and your team to design initiatives proactively around the strengths and opportunities that this new idea presents for your organization, rather than as a reaction to weaknesses and threats from inside or outside.

Step Two: Conversation Checklist

If, after putting your new idea through a SWOT analysis, you still feel strongly about the benefits that this will bring to your organization, the next step is to determine who you need to talk to in order for the new idea to stick.

List the key departments and teams, as well as the decision makers and power custodians. When introducing any change, it’s also important to consider how it will affect the influencers—whether or not they have formal authority—since they will play a crucial role in the success of the idea’s implementation. So be sure to list them as well. Also systematically think through who is going to be directly affected by this new change initiative, and how they will be affected.

Step Three: Team Idea Audit

Once you finishing listing everyone, schedule time to have a conversation with each department, team, and influencer that you marked as having a direct or indirect relationship with the new idea. When together, the focus of the meeting would be to collaborate on the idea and get their thoughts by doing a SWOT analysis together. Instead of sharing your SWOT analysis with them, do a new one together with each point person. Help them answer each quadrant by thinking through how the idea will affect their team.

Once you complete step three, and you feel that moving ahead with this idea is best for your organization, then finish this three-step process by writing out your next steps for today, next month, in three months, in six months, and a year from now.

It takes courage to be a change leader in the church.” – @ThomRainer
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These steps to discerning whether or not you want to begin the change process are important on a few levels.

First of all, they are a practical way to evaluate new ideas that will cause change in the church
Second, they provide a process to evaluate the extent to which those new ideas—take the five micro-shifts presented in No Silver Bullets  as an example—will work in your church
Third, and most important, this approach ensures that you filter every new idea through the vision, strategy, and values of your church

But there’s one question that’s begging to be asked. What are your church’s vision, strategy, and values?

Unless they capture the DNA of your church, in a manner unique from every other church in your area, you will not be able to successfully implement any lasting change.

You can’t implement lasting change without a clear set of vision, strategy, and values.
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If you’re interested in seeing and grabbing a copy of my SWOT Analysis Template, Conversation Checklist, and Ministry Area Idea Audit, see chapter six of my book, No Silver Bullets. That’s the chapter in which this article was adapted from. And chapter seven is where you’ll learn how to discover and unpack your church’s vision, strategy, and values.

Thinking of Starting a Podcast? Don’t! Until you read this…

I love podcasts. They’re informative, inspirational, (can be) fun, but best of all, they’re FREE…

…well, that is, they’re free to the listener, but they are actually quite the investment (time + money) for the host.

And that’s something that I can personally speak into.

According to a 2017 survey from Edison Research,

40% of Americans had ever listened to a podcast, which is up significantly from 11% in 2006
18-34 year olds are the largest group of listeners, making up 44% of the group, with 35-54 year olds coming in a close second at 33%
Average listeners typically tune into five podcasts per week, are subscribed to six, and mostly listen at home or while driving

Though it’s been 10+ years since I first entered the world of podcasting as a listener, I’ve actually been recording my own podcasts since 2015.

I’m the co-host of three:

New Churches Q&A Podcast: Church Planting, Multisite, Multiplication, Leadership Development, and Discipleship
5 Leadership Questions Podcast: Leadership
IMbetween Podcast: Marriage, Parenting, and Faith

And as of April 2018, I’ve recorded more than 350 episodes on the three I co-host, as well as other ones I’ve been interviewed on as a guest.

In other words, I know the cost of starting and maintaining a podcast, and it’s definitely not free for the host!

But if you’re committed to it for a certain length of time, and have determined a clear purpose and reason for doing it, then it can be a fun endeavor to undertake.

I’ll talk about equipment options below, but let me get to the reason I’m writing this in the first place.

If your goal is to share information or spread an idea, a podcast may not be the best means for doing so.

“Wait, I thought you said that podcasts were informative?”

Yes, if that’s what you’re thinking, I sure did. And yes, you definitely do get information by listening to podcasts.

But if all you want to do is talk about a topic, share information, or spread an idea, don’t use a podcast to do it. Just blog about it. It’s cheaper, easier, and quicker.

Information is everywhere. Information is cheap. And with the rise of podcasts, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to stand out, grow an audience, and keep your listeners engaged if all you’re doing is sharing information that can be read elsewhere.

That’s why successful podcasts are about three things: Consistency + Personality + Grit
1. Consistency

While new podcasts are popping up every single minute, they’re also being abandoned on a daily basis.

Just search through a category like “marriage,” or “leadership.” You’ll find hundreds of episodes and podcasts, but when you look a little deeper, not all of them are active.

Now if you’re a celebrity or already have a significant platform, starting a podcast and standing out may not be as difficult, but if you’re wanting to start and grow your podcast from scratch, you’ll need to commit to consistency over the long haul.

After all, the idea of an “overnight success” is really just a myth anyway. Just think about the years athletes and artists grind away in obscurity before they finally get signed or rise to the limelight. If you ask them, it definitely wasn’t an overnight thing.

The idea of an “overnight success” is really just a myth.
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2. Personality

EQ is more important than IQ to successfully start and grow a podcast.

Why? It’s because the best podcasts are hosted by individuals with personality that know how to craft questions (and ask good follow up ones in the moment), engage the audience, and make you feel like family (or a close friend).

EQ is more important than IQ to successfully start and grow a podcast.
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Make you feel like family (or a close friend)…

That’s a key insight there. There are some podcasts I hate listening to, even though they have a significant following. While there are others I love, even though they are incredibly niche and focused. The key factor is whether or not I click with the host and feel like a part of their family or a close friend…

…which is definitely more of an EQ thing than it is IQ.

What about the topic?

The reason this doesn’t matter as much as your personality is because it’s assumed.

In our on-demand culture, if your topic isn’t relevant to the listener, they’re just not going to listen to it. No one is going to force them to listen to it, nor do they have to listen to it so that they can listen to the next show. It’s either play or delete. That’s it.

The best podcasts know who they’re reaching and are more focused on developing raving fans, than distant followers. They know that they’re not going to reach everyone, so instead of being a plain Jane, they decide to be themselves and go for it.

The best podcasts are more focused on developing raving fans, than distant followers.
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3. Grit

Are you focused enough to plan out your schedule? To research and purchase the right equipment? To create a website? To record, edit, and master the sound file? To write show notes? To share about it? To schedule interviews?

Starting a podcast is definitely easier than it’s ever been, but successful podcasts require gritty hosts.

It requires grit to launch a podcast, get the word out, keep it running, and grow it. For most, the podcast is going to start as a side hustle because advertisers won’t even consider sponsoring you until you have a growing and dedicated following.

It requires grit to launch a podcast, get the word out, keep it running, and grow it.
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So do you have grit?

Will you keep at it even if it’s not an overnight success and things are slow? What if you have a dedicated fan base of 100 listeners instead of the millions you hoped for, will you keep going? If not, why are you doing it anyway?

A Good Reason to Podcast

If you’re starting a podcast to become famous, you might as well play the lottery too (so that you can try to buy your way into fame if the whole podcasting thing doesn’t work) because your odds are likely the same.

If you’re starting a podcast to become famous, you might as well play the lottery.
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But if you’re wanting to do it to try something new, to learn, to grow, and to stretch yourself, it’s a worthwhile endeavor and I commend you for it! In fact, I love how Seth Godin has even created a podcasting fellowship program as a way to stretch students and those in the early stages of their career.

Equipment Options

Please, please, whatever you do, do not use the microphone on your computer or on your earbuds.

I know it’s easy and it’s cheap, but honestly you’re being lazy and your podcast won’t take off (that is unless you’re a celebrity…and if you’re a celebrity, you know better than that anyway). Bad sound is the anathema of podcasts, so no excuses.

Bad sound is the anathema of podcasts, so no excuses.
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Sure, if you’re being interviewed on someone else’s podcast, the microphone on your earbuds will do because heck, you’re being interviewed and that’s the interview sound and quality that we all expect. But if you’re the host, you need to take it to the next level.

So here are three options for equipment to help you get started:

1. Low-Cost Boot Strappers (~$150)

I’d recommend everyone to start here. The barrier to entry is low and you’ll get decent sound quality. Buy a Blue Yeti Mic, foam windscreen, and boom studio scissor arm stand. And then plug your mic into a Mac and fire up Garage Band. Record close to your mic, keep your gain levels down, and use these filters in Garage Band and you’ll be set. No one will ever know that this is your setup.

2. Mid-Tier Side-Hustler (~$500)

Buy an XLR mic (at least an SM-58 or Audio-Technica AT2020 quality), an XLR cord, a pop filter, suspension boom scissor arm stand, studio headphones, Class 10 U3 SD card, and a Zoom H6 recorder. You’re now recording directly onto an SD card, so it’s a portable setup with less of a likelihood that you’ll mess up your audio file. Afterward, you can apply audio filters onto your sound tracks and adjust levels if need be in Garage Band, Logic Pro X, or whatever else you will use to edit the tracks.

3. High-End Showman (~$1000+)

It’s getting real now. You either have cash to burn, are recording audio books, or you already have a significant podcast audience and you want to take things to the next level. It’d be the same setup as #2, but just with a better mic like a Electro-Voice RE20, Shure SM7B, Heil PR-40, and a better recorder, like the Zoom R16.

After you record, you’ll still have to create a website, upload your files to a podcasting hosting service, and then submit it to iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, etc., but honestly, that’s another topic for another day. There’s a lot of information on the internet comparing services, so I’d encourage you to start there.

This is what I’ve done for my podcasts (and others that I’ve helped set up):

Create a WordPress website
Install the Blubrry Powerpress plugin
Purchase podcast hosting services with Blubrry (this has to be different than your website hosting services otherwise you’ll crash your website)
Then submit to iTunes, etc.

I hope that helps and if there’s anything I can do to help you get started, don’t hesitate to leave a comment here or reach out to me on my Contact page.

If this article was at all helpful to you, can I ask you for a favor in return?

My newest podcast is one that my wife, Christina, and I started called the IMbetween Podcast on Marriage, Parenting, Faith, and Everything in between. Can you hit subscribe, and leave a quick rating and review for us on iTunes or Apple Podcasts?

It’ll take less than one minute and be incredibly helpful in expanding our reach and growing this podcast. Remember point #3 from above? This is my grit coming out.

Also, I did this last year, but here are all the podcasts that I was interviewed on in 2017 in case you’re interested:

Episode 211: Leadership Pipeline & Discipleship Pathway – New Churches Q&A Podcast
5LQ Episode 201: No Silver Bullets – 5 Leadership Questions Podcast
Episode 03: Daniel Im & Discipleship Inputs and Outputs – Keep Asking LifeWay Research Podcast
Episode 05: Interview With Daniel Im – Unthinkable Leaders Podcast
Small Changes that Make a Big Difference – Influence Magazine Podcast
No Silver Bullets: An Interview with Daniel Im and the 5 Small Shifts That Will Transform Your Ministry – Go Outside Podcast
5 Small Shifts to Transform Your Small Group Ministry – Small Group Network Podcast
Ep.33 – No Silver Bullets, feat. Daniel Im – Pastor Talk Podcast
Silver Bullets Suck: An Interview With Daniel Im – Hardcore Church Planter Podcast
No Silver Bullets – Est.Church Podcast
Episode 24 – Church Planting – The Daily Brew Podcast
Episode 76 – Daniel Im Planting Missional Churches – Equipping You in Grace Podcast
How Churches Can More Effectively Train Volunteers – Influence Podcast
Daniel Im Interview – Project Pastor Podcast
Episode 77 – What Matt Chandler and Tim Keller’s Churches’ Transitions Mean for the Multisite Movement – Quick to Listen Podcast
An Interview with Daniel Im – The Everyday Ministry Podcast
Daniel Im on Leadership, Influence, and How Faith Impacts What Leading Looks Like – Dylan Dodson Faith and Life Podcast

If you’re interested in having me on your podcast, you can shoot me some information here.

 

Disclosure:  Daniel Im is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

Why You Should Hire Your Next Boss (according to Mark Zuckerberg)

Only hire someone that you’d be okay working for.

In one of the podcasts I listen to frequently (Masters of Scale), Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook was interviewed on his hiring best practices. This is what he said,

So the single most important thing is to get the best people you can around you. When I look at my friends who were running other good companies, the single biggest difference that I see in whether the companies end up becoming really great and reaching their potential, or just pretty good, is whether they’re comfortable and really self-confident enough to have people who are stronger than them around them. I’ve adopted this hiring rule, which is that you should never hire someone to work for you, unless you would work for them in an alternate universe.

“Never hire someone to work for you, unless you would work for them.” – Mark Zuckerberg
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Which doesn’t mean that you should give them your job, but just if the tables were turned and you were looking for a job, would you be comfortable working for this person? I basically think that if the answer to that is “no,” then you’re doing something expedient by hiring them, but you’re not doing as well as you can on that.

There are all these things that Sheryl, for example, is just much stronger than me at, and that makes me better and makes Facebook better. And I am not afraid or threatened by that—I value that. That’s what makes Facebook good.[1]

“You should never hire someone to work for you, unless you would work for them in an alternate universe.”

Wow.

When’s the last time you hired someone with that perspective in mind?

And if you’ve never interviewed someone who could be your boss, perhaps there’s something wrong with your job posting or the way you’re going about recruiting.

Unqualified, Qualified, and Overqualified

In all the positions I’ve hired, I’ve come across a lot of unqualified candidates. These don’t phase me. In fact, I often throw the résumés away because responding to every one of them would take too much time.

If the candidate is qualified, I then do some digging on social media to see what I can glean. If they’re legit, I’ll schedule an initial Skype/FaceTime/Zoom interview to get a feel for the type of person behind the cover letter and résumé.

If the candidate is overqualified, that’s when I get a bit nervous. Not flattered, but nervous. The following questions run through my mind:

Do they not know that they’re overqualified?
With all their experience, why do they want this job?
What’s their ulterior motive?
Why did they leave their previous job? What happened?

Yes, I can be pretty pessimistic, but the exponentially negative consequences of hiring the wrong person are worth it.

Having said that, I’ll still schedule the initial Skype/FaceTime/Zoom, but it’s less of an interview, and more like investigative journalism.

Interview with your organization’s growth track in mind.
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If they’re overqualified, I’m interviewing with other potential positions in mind (even if the positions are filled) to determine whether or not there is a growth track at the church or organization. If there isn’t, then I’m less likely to pursue the candidate because their engagement levels are going to be pretty low, which will inevitably lead to a short tenure in the position.

In other words, don’t just hire someone to fill a position. Only hire them if you see the potential that they can grow with you.

Don’t just hire to fill a position. Hire them if they can grow with you.
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But the question that I haven’t asked is whether or not I’d be okay working for them.

That’s a game changer and will increase the level of excellence, talent, and growth in your church or organization because, “if the answer to that is “no,” then you’re doing something expedient by hiring them, but you’re not doing as well as you can on that.”[2]

In addition, if you are willing to hire someone you’d be okay working for (some day), then this will prevent you from hiring people who are just like you, or not as good as you. As a result, it will increase the diversity of talent, strengths, and giftedness in the church or organization.

What do you think?

 

Endnotes:

[1] https://mastersofscale.com/tim-ferris...

[2] Ibid.

Measuring Discipleship and Maturity

How do you know when someone is mature in Christ?

It was fun hanging out with Greg Ford, the Lead Pastor of One Church in Columbus, Ohio, and the Church Multiplication Network crew. In this CMN Less Than Ten video, I discuss how to measure discipleship and maturity in under 10 minutes.

Check it out and I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Interruptions and the Cross

This past week was supposed to go a certain way, and that way it certainly did not go…

I was supposed to fly to Denver on Wednesday to train a group of church planters, but that didn’t happen
On Thursday, Christina and I were supposed to interview our first guest together for our podcast, but that didn’t happen either
And this week, I was supposed to get back to the gym after finally fighting off the stomach bug, but as you might’ve guessed already, that didn’t happen either

That last point, I didn’t mind too much though.

I guess you could say that I was interrupted…

Tuesday morning, while I was getting ready for work, I gave my son, Makarios, a great big hug and squeezed his head close to me, while encouraging him and calling him a big boy. He then immediately pushed himself away from me, while beginning to cry and shout out, “I am not a big boy! I am not a big boy!”

Whoa, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed…

Later on, while I was at work, Christina noticed a big bump behind his left ear, so she asked whether or not he had fallen or hit his head somewhere.

Not that I knew of…

So she brought him to the doctor when the girls came back from school. While there, the doctor basically told her that she had to bring him to the hospital because he needed a CT scan.

Yep. That was our week.

UPDATE: It ended up being an infected lymph-node, rather than what the doctor initially thought, so he’s now at home on heavy antibiotics after a two-night stay at the hospital.)

When’s the last time you were interrupted?

Perhaps it was at the grocery store when you ran into an old friend, or your arch nemesis and you had to turn on your southern charm.

Or maybe, it was a car issue and you were stranded on the side of the road.

Or perhaps, it was an unexpected hospital visit.

How did you feel about the interruption? How did you react? How did you get through it?

Were you annoyed that you were going to have to change your plans?

Did you blame yourself? Were you angry or frustrated that you didn’t do enough to possibly prevent it somehow?

Or, did you blame someone else?

Interruptions are the stuff of life, aren’t they?

Here’s the thing though, the only reason interruptions feel like interruptions is because we already have a set way of doing something.

And it’s when things change on us, that this is when it feels like an interruption.

Interruptions are the stuff of life.
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Just imagine how all of Israel must’ve felt when Jesus began his public ministry?

When Jesus met his disciples, and asked them to follow him, their lives were forever interrupted.

When Jesus turned the water into wine at a wedding, he not only prevented the party from being interrupted due to the wine running out, but he forever interrupted the lives of the servants who saw what happened firsthand.

When Jesus met the Samaritan woman, not only was her life interrupted, but also her village, and the relationship between the Jews and Samaritans.

When Jesus healed the sick, the lame, the blind, and the deaf, their lives and those around them were forever interrupted.

Jesus’ interruption in their life caused them to have to literally learn how to live differently.

The formerly blind, could now see, the formerly deaf, could now hear, and the formerly lame, could now walk. They literally had to change the way they lived because of Jesus’ interruption in their lives.

You’d think that when a man who was born blind experienced sight, everyone would rejoice, right? Apparently this was not the case for the religious leaders of Jesus’ day (read John 9:13-41 to see what I’m talking about).

The religious leaders were so obsessed with not having their ways interrupted, that they found themselves on the other side of the God who they claimed to know and worship.

When you think about it, Jesus literally interrupted the entire religious system, priesthood, and way of life for the Israelites and for all of humanity.

Just think about the time when Jesus went to the temple and saw that it had become a religious place to exchange goods and services. What did he do? He threw everyone and everything out, interrupting the religious system of the day.

And the religious leaders hated him for it.

Jesus replaced “what was” for “something better.”
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They hated him for it because he was disrupting the status quo. He was replacing “what was” with “something better.” He was replacing religious rituals that might earn you acceptance before God, for a relationship with God that said, “you are accepted, now live freely and abundantly.”

He was basically saying, “religious leaders, we don’t need you anymore if all you’re doing is necessitating your own existence by pointing people to you…what you need to be doing is pointing people to God instead!”

Friends, there are two sides to interruptions.

We view them one way, but God views them another.

We view them as unplanned, but God views them as planned.

To us, interruptions are unplanned. To God, they’re planned.
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God interrupted society and humanity by sending his son Jesus to die on the cross and be raised from the dead, so that he could interrupt your life and lead you in a new direction today.

And the good news is that what the priests once had to do for us, we can now approach God ourselves for.

Instead of relying on another person to hopefully reconcile us to God with a scapegoat, Jesus has reconciled us completely through his death and resurrection, as long as we confess our sins and draw near to him.

Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

– James 4:7-8 CSB

So stop fighting the interruptions in your life.

While they might seem unplanned, perhaps God is trying to get your attention…

Why Isolation, Boredom, and Pride are as Dangerous as Dynamite

“Wow, I’m a natural. This is it. I was born to do this,” were the very thoughts I had moments before I was disqualified.

After running the 100m dash at a track meet in elementary school, our coach asked the team if anyone wanted to enter the speed walking event.

“Speed walking? Like…walking with speed?” I thought to myself.

————- Don’t forget to enter the giveaway at the bottom of this article to win one of three copies of Eric Geiger’s new book, How To Ruin Your Life and Starting Over When You Do ————-

This was my first official track meet and everything was new to me. The sights, the sounds, the smells, and especially speed walking.

Though I had never heard of the event—let alone see it take place—I volunteered for it. After all, how hard could it be? It’s just walking fast, isn’t it? Anything was better than just waiting around until the track meet was over.

After the coach showed me the proper form and let me in on the rules, I was off.

Seconds into the race, I was leading the pack. Minutes in, the distance between me and the next contestant was unfathomable.

“Wow, I’m a natural,” I thought to myself. “This is it. I was born to do this.”

And that’s when it happened. I was pulled out of the race for breaking the rules.

Disqualified. No second chances. No restarts. It was over. My rising Olympic career was over.

Have you ever been disqualified?

Okay, maybe not for bending your knees while speed walking, but for something else? For over embellishing your resume? Or, maybe for looking over at your friend’s answers during an exam?

There’s a disturbing—dare I say—trend that I’ve noticed over the past several years. It seems like an increasing number of public figures are falling from grace and disqualifying themselves from leadership.

An increasing number of public figures are falling from grace and disqualifying themselves.
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Eric Geiger words it well in his new book, How to Ruin Your Life and Starting Over When You Do,

I could easily write about a recent story of a well-known leader, coach, college professor, or ministry leader who was removed from a position of influence because of disqualifying behavior, because of issues of character and integrity. However, the story would be old news by the time you read these words because there are always new stories as these implosions continually come to light. Competent and effective leaders in a variety of fields and disciplines forfeit their roles over deficiencies in their character. They were able to lead others but not themselves, able to grow an organization while their hearts grew cold. When a lack of integrity comes to light, leaders can be disqualified. [1]

When a lack of integrity comes to light, leaders can be disqualified.
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A couple months back, I saw a building implode for the very first time—and it was amazing.

This wasn’t just any old building though, this was the very building that I used to work in—it was the old LifeWay before we moved to our new headquarters down the street. Take a look at the video I posted on Twitter.

Goodbye old @LifeWay Draper tower! Crazy crazy IMPLOSION. #Nashville pic.twitter.com/itIn1FEad5

— Daniel Im (@danielsangi) January 6, 2018

I know there’s quite a subculture around the implosion of buildings (you can spend hours on YouTube watching it), but when I was watching the LifeWay building go down, I honestly had no idea what to expect.

I didn’t realize the weeks and months of preparation that went into setting up the explosives inside the building. I didn’t realize that each of the explosives were carefully timed and had to go off in sequence. And most of all, I didn’t realize that after the implosion began, that everything would look normal from the outside, until suddenly, everything would come crashing down on itself.

Eric puts it well, “Though the fall may seem fast to onlookers, ruining your life does not happen overnight.”[2]

When you do an autopsy on leaders who have ruined their lives, they seem to be imploding by:

Allowing their integrity to erode
Shrugging at the explosives beneath the surface
Letting their competence and gifting outpace their integrity
Accepting more responsibility than their character can handle [3]

Though the fall may seem fast to onlookers, ruining your life does not happen overnight.
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By looking at King David’s implosion from the Scriptures, Eric identifies three explosives on the foundation of his life that led to his implosion: isolation, boredom, and pride.

Here’s how he puts it,

Just as demolition experts place explosives inside of buildings so they will weaken and implode, there were three explosives on the foundation of David’s life that led to his implosion. These three explosives can lead to your ruin as well. They are easily hidden from those who watch us from a distance, but they threaten to destroy the foundation of our lives.

The three explosives are isolation, boredom, and pride.

First, David was alone. He was isolated. It was the time that kings go off to war, and David remained in Jerusalem. He sent his community away. Friends who would have held him accountable were gone. Friends who would have stopped him from pursuing Bathsheba were nowhere around.

Second, David was bored. He got up from his bed in the middle of the night looking for something, anything. The Lord, on that night, was not enough for Him. He wanted something else, something else to look at, something else to conquer, something else to pursue.

Third, David was filled with pride. When he was told that Bathsheba was Uriah’s wife, David instructed the servant to get her anyway. “I am the king and I get what I want.” In his mind, David deserved whatever he desired. Pride corrupted his heart.

Isolation. Boredom. Pride. They must not be taken lightly. They will ruin a life. [4]

Isolation. Boredom. Pride. They must not be taken lightly. They will ruin a life. – @EricGeiger
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If you want to dig yourself out of an implosion that has happened in your life, or make sure that it doesn’t happen to you, enter this month’s draw to win one of three copies of Eric Geiger’s new book, How to Ruin Your Life and Starting Over When You Do.

Enter to Win

Next Steps:

Enter the giveaway to win one of three copies of How to Ruin Your Life and Starting Over When You Do.
Learn more about the book and download free resources on it.
Follow Eric on Twitter.
Read more from Eric on his website.

End Notes:

[1] Eric Geiger, How to Ruin Your Life and Starting Over When You Do (Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2018), 8.

[2] Ibid., 14.

[3] Ibid., 3.

[4] Ibid., 45-46.

To Grow, Rest, or Die? The Olympics, Farming, and Church Leadership

The Quad King.

Do you know who I’m talking about?

In the recent 2018 Winter Olympics, U.S. Olympic figure skater, Nathan Chen performed the impossible. He became the first figure skater to perform six quads in one program.

Six quads!!

I still remember when Elvis Stojko landed the first quad combination!

Despite Chen’s heroics and the fact that he set an olympic record, he didn’t end up medaling.

In fact, according to the Washington Post, after his devastating short program where he placed 17th place, he “retreated to his room in the athletes’ village Friday and, for once, didn’t dissect his shortcomings in clinical detail. Nor did he torture himself for falling so terribly short and blowing any chance at an Olympic medal…

…Chen put his head on a pillow and fell asleep.”

Have you ever wondered what olympic athletes do after their competitions and what this has to do with leadership in the church?

After training and competing tirelessly to reach the pinnacle of their careers, what comes next? Do they start training for the next olympics? Do they set stretch goals to ensure a gold medal in four years? Do they consider retirement? Or do they take a day off? A couple weeks off?

What’s best for them?

For church leaders and pastors, Easter Sunday is like the Olympics.

It’s one of the few Sundays that both the unchurched and dechurched are open to coming on the arm of a friend or family member. And it’s through what happens on Easter Sunday that you hope a love for God will be developed, a relationship with Him will be formed, and a life will be transformed…

…and if the church grows as a result…hey, no one’s going to complain, right?

The olympics are to athletes, as Easter Sunday is to pastors and church leaders.
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Growing your church is not a bad thing, per se.

If your church grows, isn’t that a sign that you’re doing something right? That you’re reaching new people for Christ? And that you’re making an impact in your community?

After all, isn’t it better to desire growth than stagnation? Or the status quo?

The problem comes when your desire for growth becomes an obsession or idol.

And the tricky thing about this sort of spiritual ambition is that it’s really easy for your motives to be mixed as I articulate in this collection of articles.

Is your desire for growth an obsession or an idol in your life?
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Here’s my point: just like olympic athletes need to rest after the biggest event of their careers, shouldn’t church leaders and pastors do so as well?

What if, after this year’s Easter Sunday service, you didn’t push your team to start another service, a new church, or a new campus.

What if you rested?

And you put a moratorium on starting anything new?

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that you should let your newcomers and guests go unnoticed.

And I’m not saying that every pastor and church leader should be released from their responsibilities and go on a year-long sabbatical.

Just listen to this 5LQ podcast episode where Todd Adkins and I interviewed Danny Franks, the Connections Pastor at the Summit Church, about leading a guest services team. You’ll quickly notice how much I actually believe in the importance of inviting and welcoming newcomers and guests! (Check out these two books on this very topic: People Are the Mission: How Churches Can Welcome Guests Without Compromising the Gospel by Danny Franks and Becoming a Welcoming Church by Thom Rainer)

As church leaders and pastors, we are so obsessed with growth that we don’t realize that growth without rest is a short-term solution.

Isn’t that why farmers let their ground rest in the winter? Or why they plant a cover crop? Or why they rotate their crops? Or why they let their fields lay fallow for longer than a year?

Or at least…why they should be doing such things?

Growth without rest is a short-term solution.
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Recent research shows that our soil today has less vitamins and minerals than soil from decades ago because many farmers aren’t resting the ground like they used to.

Yikes…

Have you ever considered the long-term effects of going, going, going without resting? For farming? For athletes? And for church leaders and pastors?

Our obsession for growth has led to a depletion of nutrients in our vegetables, emotional breakdowns for athletes, and burnout/fall out for church leaders and pastors.

So what can we do?

What if, after this year’s Easter service, instead of starting something new, you focused on follow up for the next month? Instead of a men’s breakfast, putting on a church conference, a women’s event, or anything extra, you just put a moratorium on all things new?

And with the extra time that would’ve been devoted to such events, you spent it connecting with your newcomers from Easter Sunday? And training up others to do the same?

Would a change in rhythm possibly set the stage to even greater growth?

Maybe? Maybe not?

In either case, I say we leave the growth up to God (1 Cor 3) and instead focus on doing the things that we are able to do: planting, watering, and resting.

Who’s with me?

Let’s leave the growth up to God and instead focus on doing what we can do.
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P.S. If you want to audit the current state of your church, and learn what you need to do today in order to take your next step, check out my book, No Silver Bullets: Five Small Shifts that will Transform Your Ministry.

Discipling Stay-at-Home Moms

Are you discipling the stay-at-home moms in your church?

We often assume that a women’s ministry or a vibrant small group culture is sufficient, but is that enough? Are we missing an opportunity and a need? Is there something unique about the stay-at-home mom experience that requires or necessitates some careful thought? And ministry planning?

Having your first child (or second, third, fourth, etc.), is not only a gift from God and one of the most exciting privileges on this side of eternity, but it is also an occasion for change.

Nothing stays the same.

Date nights, sleeping in (or getting any sleep at all), car choices, impromptu road-trips, seeing family, holidays, meals, friends, and work are just some of the things that change when you have children.

Here’s the thing, when you have children, everything changes…but for stay-at-home moms, the change is greater than most of us might realize.

Here are a few ideas to help you disciple stay-at-home moms:

1. Before the baby comes

For expecting moms and dads, consider hosting or putting on a prep class or workshop at your church entitled something like, “What To Do When You’re Expecting,” “How Everything Will Change,” or “How Nothing Stays the Same.”

Don’t just focus on your church members; instead, use this as an opportunity to engage and minister broadly to your community. After all, every expecting parent is trying to prep as much as they can, so the unchurched and dechurched will likely be open to visiting your church and hanging out with Christians over a timely and helpful topic like this—especially if they are coming on the arm of a friend.

At the workshop, have a seasoned married couple from your church share out of their wisdom and experience. They don’t need to cover breathing exercises, since there are classes designed for that. Instead, use this as an opportunity to talk about keeping the romance alive, what to expect in the coming months, and anything else that would be helpful for new parents. Be sure to invite them to your Sunday service, into a group, or back for parenting classes to get them plugged into the life of the church.

2. After the baby comes

While parenting classes might help, most moms and dads don’t have time for this, since life with a newborn is just.plain.hazy. Parenting classes might be helpful for parents of older children, but when the newborn comes, it’s survival mode.

So after the baby comes, make sure that you have systems of support to care for new parents:

Are your small group leaders prepared to organize meals for new parents?
If the new parents aren’t in a small group, what systems do you have setup to care for them?
Do you have volunteers and leaders looking out for uber-pregnant women? (So that you can help them when the baby comes?)

What better way to show the love of Christ than to practically support and provide for parents in this way?

Do you have volunteers and leaders looking out for uber-pregnant women?
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3. When the dust settles

In a recent research study, I read that stay-at-home moms and dads are heavily biased against when they try to re-enter the workforce:

“15.3% of the employed mothers, 9.7% of the unemployed mothers, and 4.9% of the stay-at-home mothers received a callback.”
“The results were similar for fathers. While 14.6% of the employed fathers and 8.8% of unemployed fathers received a callback, only 5.4% of stay-at-home fathers did.”

The research puts it like this, “stay-at-home parents were about half as likely to get a callback as unemployed parents and only one-third as likely as employed parents.”

Stay-at-home parents were about half as likely to get a callback as unemployed parents.
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So if you’re a stay-at-home parent (dads, I didn’t forget you) getting ready to re-enter the workforce, what if you started by reconsidering your calling instead of going straight to LinkedIn? (Check out the article I wrote on What Is My Calling as a Christian?)

Who knows? Maybe you’ll go back to what you went to school for? Or maybe you’ll do something completely different?

But whatever you do, don’t make the decision alone:

Ask your spouse to pray with you
Be discipled or mentored by spiritually mature individuals
Ask your small group to pray with you

And in the mean time? In the months and years leading up to re-entering the workforce, what if you volunteered more actively at your church? At your children’s school? Drove Uber? Picked up a job on TaskRabbit? Crafted and sold something on Etsy? Audited a class? Went back to school?

In light of the research, doing one or more of these things will increase your likelihood of re-entering the workforce.

Here’s my last piece of advice:

While you’re waiting, do what you love doing (even if you don’t get paid for it), and do it with excellence. Who knows, God might open up a door!

If you’re looking for more reflections along these lines, be sure to check out the podcast that my wife and I started to encourage couples and parents! It’s called the IMbetween Podcast. Here are links to our first six episodes:

Episode 6: The New Rules For Dating and Why It Matters
Episode 5: Money Saving Hacks
Episode 4: Why Slowing Down Life Matters
Episode 3: How to Not Hate Your In-laws
Episode 2: The Awkward Side of Gift Giving
Episode 1: Double Chins and Getting Older

You can also subscribe by clicking here. I hope you can tune in!

While you’re waiting, do what you love doing, and do it with excellence.
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