I’ve made a few changes and launched a whole new blog which will run parallel to my existing one as a way of trying to get back up the google rankings.
If you have a website/blog and can throw me a link then I’m sure it won’t hurt to get things firing again.
I’m not sure all of how to regain the ground I’ve lost but I’m going to try a few things and see what comes of it…
While we were out surfing yesterday my friend asked me ‘so as a pastor how do you stay inspired?’
That’s an interesting question. As happens when you are surfing I didn’t get to answer it for about 10 minutes as he caught a wave, then I did and by the time we were both sitting back in the line up I had had enough time to reflect on a genuine response.
‘I don’t.’ I said.
I realised he had made an assumption about either me or ‘pastors’, that we live in a constant state of ‘inspiration’ or some kind of fiery passion.
What I could offer was a different perspective on what I believe a mature faith looks like.
‘I don’t live in a constant state of inspiration, but I do live with a deep conviction about who God is, who I am to him and out of that it shapes how I live my life. Sometimes I feel ‘up’, sometimes pretty average and sometimes flat, but the conviction is what sustains me rather than inspiration. I guess the parallel that comes to mind is that of marriage. The buzz of the dating days is gone, and while there are plenty of great times there is also a commitment that goes beyond the ‘rush’ of romance. I can honestly say that I love my wife much more now than I did 20 years ago – more than I ever thought was possible even, but my understanding of love has grown and changed’
I doubt any of us live perpetually inspired lives – not in the sense I refer to it above, but if we stay in the relationship (with God) long enough then we develop enough substance to sustain us through the good and the bad times.
That said I love ‘being inspired’ and I love to see others ‘inspired’. I’m just conscious that sometimes we can hold that up as an ideal and then people can either fake it to make it, or feel inadequate if they are willing to be honest and acknowledge that sometimes life is pretty ordinary.
I regularly check my webstats for my retic blog as its my main source of online hits.
I’ve worked hard at developing the blog over the last year and it was ranking really well with google. If you searched for ‘how to fix a solenoid’ or some other retic issue I would be on the front page every time and even multiple times. That was all part of the plan…
Then yesterday I noticed my stats were down. Instead of 50 0r 60 visitors I had 3… and its 38 degrees in Perth so I’d be thinking people would be searching for this stuff. Today I managed another 3 hits. So I decided to google the common things people search for and discovered that I no longer have the same presence – in fact its like I have ceased to exist.
So then I googled ‘why my web traffic has dropped dramatically’ (ironic hey – using google to find out why I don’t rate on google…) and came across ‘google panda updates’, a period ‘clean up’ of the web by google computers and based on whatever algorithm they currently used I got shafted. If you google this subject you will find plenty of others also shafted – some who have lost jobs because the ‘computer said no’.
A bit more research and I discovered something I did wrong which was to put ‘hidden keywords’ on my main site. I first built it 3 years ago, long before I had the blog and at that time wasn’t too keyed into this stuff – but then I forgot about it… and I am guessing this is why I got hit.
Of course there is no real come back on this stuff. Google don’t owe anybody anything and they can do what they like with their system, but suddenly we realise how utterly dependent on them we are. Clever bastards – and if your computer is reading this then – yes I’m talking about YOU!
So what is my solution?
Well the beauty of my blog was that I eliminated the need for ‘google ads’ and my advertising budget dropped hugely. I was ranking highly organically and getting heaps of calls. But now… well I just upped my google ad budget to compensate for my apparent disappearance off the face of the virtual planet… They have me screwed…
Another alternative I am considering is re-branding and kicking off with a whole new identity. It seems some folks have been forced to do that. Give we no longer live in Brighton it may be a possibility anyway, but its a lot of work…
I reckon I get 60% of my work thru my website so its a big hit to take and one I need to get sorted asap.
Just a bit frustrating…
We were talking this morning about this strange concept of ‘working for a church’ and then even stranger doing it ‘two days a week’.
The longer I am involved in leading a Christian community the less I see it as:
a) work
b) able to classified into designated days & hours.
To be sure, there are days when I have to do some things that aren’t really my forte or passion and in my view that is when it becomes ‘work’, but for the most part it is a calling and a role that flows with my life and that fits who I am. It would be more accurate to say who ‘we’ are, because Danelle and I are together ‘employed two days a week’.
It is the ‘two days a week’ bit that feels more and more absurd, because it just doesn’t work like that – and if it did then I think we would have got it wrong anyway. Its like being a business owner and only doing that 3 days/week. It just isn’t reality.
Every day of the week I carry responsibility for my business and every day of the week we carry responsibility for the life and health of our church community. The extent to which we can physically do tasks related to each is limited, but I believe the key here is the ownership of responsibility and the weight that goes with that. Some days it means I have a little to do. Other days it means I have a lot. It doesn’t translate nicely to a two day working week and then of course there is the question of Sundays…
Some say Sundays are not counted because everyone else does Sundays while others ‘count’ Sundays because they have to be there and don’t get the option of a sleep in or a week off because they are tired.
I sense that when we are counting and running the numbers we are missing the point. When we are asking ‘what do we need to do to lead these people well?’ then we are on the right track.
I guess the ‘two day a week’ framing will always stay as long as we need to determine a way to reimburse people for their time spent and their subsequent inability to earn money in other ways. But to imagine that the role of leading a Christian community can be neatly packaged into two days is to try and put a square peg in a round hole.
Perhaps a better framing is for a church to say ‘we are allocating $x to support you and your family as you fulfill the role of leading us’. Thankfully this isn’t an issue where we are, but it is one of the reframings that has taken place in my own mind over the last few years and that helps me function in a more healthy way.
I went for a surf today.
It was my first day of no work in quite a while, so I decided that rather than stress about it I’d enjoy it.
When I got to the carpark at The Spot there was one other car there and it was a beautiful sunny, offshore day with a very small swell. I sat there for a few minutes and watched some waves roll in. Small… low tide, so very shallow, breaking fast, but ridable and best of all, no one out… That’s a rare find at any break these days so I decided to watch a bit longer.
I hopped out of the car and stood in the carpark and got talking to the other guy.
‘Not much happening’ he says.
‘No – true – but still – a beautiful day and no crowds’ I reply.
He was on his phone checking some data on the net. ‘I’ve been here 30 minutes now. The sets are at 5 minute intervals, the tide is rising… and he went on with info about swell interval etc etc.’ He had every piece of data you could want on what the surf was like today and it said to him that it wasn’t any good. Now I’ll grant you it wasn’t epic Spot, but after he drove off I decided to paddle out.
And it was small, shallow (first ding in the new board!) and fast, but I had a good 15-20 waves in the next hour and a surf that was as good as any I have had in the last year.
The difference was that I paddled out and got into it rather than analysing the data and making a sensible decision.
I think we do this often in life. Look at the data, see that the numbers don’t add up and miss an opportunity. There are times to listen to the numbers and times when you just have to paddle out and take the punt. It doesn’t always pay off but then the numbers don’t tell you everything either.
Whether its business, life, church or whatever let’s not be driven purely by the numbers,and miss the opportunity of the more adventurous path…
I’ve slowed my blog reading right down these days and read only a select few, but a new one popped up today that I think will be well worth adding to the RSS.
Its entitled ‘Small Church Big Impact‘ and looks at the challenges and opportunities that are present in the smaller expression of church – about 90% of Aussie churches I’d guess…
Its author is Andre Van Oudtshoorn, a local small church pastor and Academic Dean at Perth Bible College. Andre is well known for being a provocative thinker and lecturer and he has also managed to lead a small church through some difficult waters and into good health, so he knows what he’s on about.
As one who is now leading a small church – and very happy to be doing so – I have found great joy in the kind of community that the smaller expression creates. There are things that are harder when you are ‘small’, but almost anything that needs to be done to create disciples can be done well by the smaller crew.
I look forward to reading Andre’s thoughts.
It starts as fun and ends in ministry… or maybe even work…
A couple of conversations over the weekend sparked my thinking about how things can start as spontaneous fun, develop into some form of ministry and then maybe even shift into being ‘work’ or a chore.
I was out surfing with my friend Stuart and our sons Sam and Micah and we got talking about how much fun it was – dad’s and kids doing what they love to do and having a blast. Stuart mentioned that he has come across some other parents who also enjoy surfing with their kids and is in the process of establishing a Christian Surfers group in his local area for that particular niche.
They would get together fortnightly on a Saturday to surf, be able to have some competitions, instruction and some Bible study. It would be ‘under’ Christian Surfers and would be a project that at least a few people would need to commit to being part of and present at.
Its a significant shift from just getting together when it suits and enjoying the spontaneity.
Then there are the guys from QBC who get together to fight each Saturday morning. A group of 5 guys meet in another blokes garage to spar, hang out and enjoy offloading some testosterone. One of those blokes suggested this morning that it could become an outreach – a ‘ministry’ of QBC.
It began some interesting conversation around what that would mean and how it may change the feel and focus of the group.
Now both of these activities are great and currently they meet the needs of the people involved and they are proving to be a heap of fun.
So my pondering is whether it is a help or a hindrance to formalise either.
I see benefits and drawbacks to both approaches. What was once just fun now becomes more purposeful. It requires some commitment on the part of the key players. In the case of Fight Club it probably needs some special insurance. In the case of surfing, it means showing up on days when you might otherwise choose not to hit the surf. It means a level of organisation on the part of some to make it happen for others.
There are advantages too.
In both groups the people pulling it together do so with a sense of focus and purpose. Its not just a bit of fun – its bringing mission more to the fore in the flow of life. Its building community and helping people connect more significantly. But a decision like this requires people to give up some of their freedom and to make some commitments. With that comes the potential for weariness and maybe even a loss of enjoyment.
Some would say ‘why not join a local fighting group?’ or ‘why not join a local surf club?’
And they are fair questions too – philosophical questions that relate to why a group exists and theological questions about how ministry and mission occur. If we are to be salt and light then are we better off doing that by joining the local crew?…
Maybe…
Perhaps one of the reasons to consider establishing a group with a specific focus is that you then get to set the culture rather than trying to shift the culture in an already established group. At a pragmatic level I think it is much harder to shift an existing culture (especially a surf club or a ‘fight’ club) than to establish one and call people into it.
At a more basic level it seems that we tend to shy away from anything that actually calls us to commitment whether it is Christian based or community based. I would feel the same way about joining the local little athletics club with the kids as I would about joining a Christian surfers crew. So maybe its less about ministry and more about the broader culture of self-centredness, convenience and choice.
I know that being a pastor is sometimes a right pain in arse because it means I am committed to being there 99% of Sundays – and some days I’d rather not be. The challenge for any of us in this space is to accept the responsibilities, appreciate the benefits and keep the joy alive rather than getting frustrated at the aspects that are less exciting.
That’s a bit longer than I intended to post, but I’d be interested in how others perceive this challenge.
‘Its not you – its me…’
‘No really…’
I was reading Mark Sayers blog yesterday where he lists his top ten questions he has been asking about church and culture – and the first one pretty much nails the heart of the problem for me.
He writes:
1: The almost overwhelming consensus in the West is that Church needs to change. But what if Church is not the problem what if we are? In the past people were part of the church because of their sense of devotion, their expectations of Church were much lower. What if we are looking for Church to give us the transcendence that we are meant to find in God?
I think there is plenty in church to critique and even as one who leads a church these days I have no problem finding the oddities and failures of our western church. I think we need that ability to look at ourselves critically. But we could literally critique for ever and not get on a positive footing.
As Mark states ‘church critique’ (in its current form) is a fairly recent phenomena. Wind the clock back 40 years and a church was a church was a church. There weren’t different flavours to try. There was simply vanilla – or vanilla with sprinkles on top if you were a pentecostal…
But in asking the question ‘what if its me?’ I feel Mark gets closer to the real issue. It was Chesterton who when asked ‘what was wrong with the world’ answered ‘I am’ and maybe the same is true of church. Maybe we need to take it more personally though and ask what it would look like for us to shift our own priorities so that we were engaging in our churches in completely different ways.
I imagine some of this comes down to:
- taking responsibility for our own spiritual formation rather than hoping Sunday Am will do the trick
- investing more time (lots of it) in genuine community and discipling of one another
- seeking to give more than we take in all areas of life
It circles around again to the issue of personal spiritual formation and the need for us to be increasingly pursuing Christlikeness rather than increasingly trying to make our church function better or look better. Like most things in life of value there are no shortcuts and this will take some effort from us.
But if we chose to make the effort then perhaps the church critique would dry up because there would be a complete change of focus…
I certainly feel that part of the problem with the church I lead is me and I don’t mean that in a self deprecating way. Its just true. I have become part of a seductive and selfish culture and to resist and live differently is often more than I am willing to do.
Its something God has been speaking to me about these last couple of weeks and I’m just looking at what it means to raise the bar in my own life, rather than improving the plausability of the excuses.
Its ironic if not tragic that the very religion that was waiting on a Messiah failed to recognise him when he came – and then rather than admitting their mistake after his resurrection, decided to persecute and kill his disciples.
It seems little of the conflict we see in the gospels and the book of Acts is related to religion per se, but in fact is more about power and authority and control. Its about ‘who gets to call the shots’.
That Judaism wasn’t able to contain the new move of God that arrived in Jesus is somewhat bizarre, and yet quite understandable. He came along claiming to be a (the) king, and Messiah, but then broke many of their cherished religious rules. He established a community of people with huge influence and supernatural power (see Acts 3-5) who did not conform to the established order either.
And it wasn’t just that they were mavericks. I think that’s too easy a solution and maybe too appealing for those with an anti-authoritarian streak of their own.
They were people who had learnt a whole new way of life – a way of life that was in sync with the priorities of God – and oddly enough sometimes out of sync with the priorities of their own religious tradition. Whatever structures had formed within Judaism (and no doubt some of them were good) were now serving to undermine the future of their faith rather than advance it and the main culprits were the ones in power – the elders and chief priests – the Sanhedrin.
I wonder what would have happened if the Sanhedrin had been able to say ‘wow – God is really at work among us – take a look at that!’ I wonder what have happened if they had embraced this new move of God rather than fighting it.
Instead the ‘system’ wouldn’t bend. Power could not be re-allocated and the people were the casualty. As I was reflecting on this last week I was thinking again that any structures in churches must always be functional and flexible. They need to serve the cause and the people and be easily adaptable when they fail to do so.
Everything has structure of some sort, so to be ‘anti-structure’ is just a bit naive, but to recognise that structures can facilitate either good health or poor health is important. In Acts 6 the apostles need to work out a ‘food roster’ for the widows who weren’t getting their fair share. We don’t have one of them today… and rightly so because its a non-issue.
But we still seem to have many other irrelevant or superfluous structures that don’t change easily. If you aren’t sure what is a ‘not negotiable’ structure in your community then just try and change it. You will soon find out.
So the challenge to us this week as we read this book of Acts is to consider how to create and sustain a church community that has healthy structures and then to recognise when those structures need to change without worrying about who ‘gets control’.
A few weeks back when preparing for some teaching thru the book of Acts I sensed God speaking to me and in turn I believe speaking to our church community.
Acts has always inspired me but as I sat and read I felt like I could have been reading the phone book. Maybe its familiarity with the story, or maybe it’s just the state of my own spiritual health that I was left woefully unmoved. I knew I could bash out a decent sermon, because Acts lends itself to that, but who needs more sermons?…
As I was reflecting on this I sensed that part of the problem is that we teach more than we practice and that if we wanted to meet God in this journey thru Acts then maybe it would come by ‘going there’ – by experiencing some of what those early Christians did. It wasn’t a desire to create the ‘first century church’ all over again, but a sense that we have become way too used to gathering information and that we needed to learn less and engage more.
So out of that I felt that maybe we should be taking some time together to pray and fast and ask God for a fresh encounter with him – to seek God out with a bit more focus and intent than we do currently.
To be honest I felt ambiguous about this. I had a very strong sense that it was a Holy Spirit leading, but I had also had a very strong awareness that to follow it would disrupt my comfortable and relatively easy life. It would bite into my current routines and I’d lose some sleep… I was tempted to ignore the promptings and leadings because I like my comfort.
I sensed we should be gathering each day of the week to pray – most likely mornings around 6am and then choosing to fast, either regular ‘food fasting’ or abstaining from something we enjoy for the next month. I suggested sex was a good biblical fast when it comes to devoting ourselves to prayer, but I’m not sure many were up for that one…
I also felt it wasn’t something we ‘invite’ people to or ‘encourage’ people to participate in as another optional church activity, but rather it wa something we lead strongly with and we ‘call people to pray and fast’. This isn’t a ‘nice thing to do’ if you feel like you have the time or inclination. Its something we feel God is leading us to do and we need to make time for it.
Its always a challenge to lead strongly and yet recognise that for some this will simply be an impossibility. But my gut feel is that for many its not impossible – just very difficult – extremely incovenient. And perhaps that’s ok. Perhaps we need to recognise that our lives have become tangled in things that we never expected they would and we need to choose to break free from that. I have no qualms about challenging people to consider that maybe life’s priorities are all screwed up. In fact I think we are saying that this is where its at for many of us and we aren’t happy about that.
An equal challenge is to lead strongly, call people to step up and recognise that some people will simply choose to say ‘no’. Some will feel the same ambivalence I felt about doing something difficult or inconvenient and will choose to follow the path of least resistance. I believe its very possible to be unequivocal in our message and yet respect and love people who say ‘not for me thanks’. We definitely do not want a caste system in church and to marginalise people who don’t conform or join the crew who are saying ‘yes’.
Having said that I believe this process will spur some interesting conversations and challenges as we go thru it. If nothing else it will cause people to reflect on their lives and their priorities. It places people in a position where they need to make a choice and then consider why that was their choice.
What’s most disturbing for me in all of this is that I sense we consider a month of daily communal prayer and fasting to be a huge commitment / imposition on our lives. I know it felt a stretch to me. We may even think we are really putting in the spiritual ‘big ones’ when in reality we are barely scratching the surface of some communal disciplines. As I watch the Biggest Loser (Ellie’s favourite show…) I see overweight people getting excited at their ability to run non stop for 5 minutes on a treadmill and while I’m happy for them, its only because they are in such terrible shape that this becomes an achievement. I sense this is where we are at with discipleship in many of our churches. Perhaps we are a community of ‘biggest losers’ who take the path of least resistance so often that to move in the opposite direction appears to be a monumental effort. Personally I feel shame at that and I think we ought to feel some level of shame if that is an accurate image of our so called discipleship.
On the up side of the ‘biggest loser’ analogy what develops over time as that community forms and those people learn new disciplines can be incredibly inspiring – so maybe we will see some massive transformations in our own community as we struggle together and get in shape.
So I am looking forward to seeing what develops of this time. We don’t know exactly what God is wanting to do in us, but I believe others have sensed the same need and gathering by the faces present and the energy in the room there is a desire for more and that is encouraging.
Personally I find myself torn – torn between wanting God to turn my life upside down and then wanting him to leave me to be fat and lazy…
In my better moments I dream of a life where I am not driven by my ‘lower self’ and where the stuff that matters to God really matters to me and I long to be with a bunch of people who want to live there.
The lure of comfort and convenience is strong and let’s face it – no one is ever in a position to call someone else on this stuff. But if we are to lead churches then maybe it is our job to reshape our own lives, to intentionally practice something different and then call people to do the same.
But let’s be honest.
Its not really a ‘maybe’ is it?…