There’s nothing more powerful than hearing the testimony of what God has done in someone’s life. People can try to use reason to refute all kinds of things, but it’s tough to refute a personal experience. That’s why I was excited to discover Answered.tv. They’ve recently come on the scene with some great video testimonies. Each video is short (2-4 minutes) and beautifully shot. Better yet, each testimony is powerful.

They’ve given free permission for people to share and embed their videos, which means there’s many different ways they can be used.

Here’s two great videos, but make sure to check out the whole lot:

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Criticism is one of the most difficult things to respond to. Someone might be criticizing something that you’ve done or created, or they might be criticising something a lot closer to you like your leadership style or personality. In either case, it’s always a difficult thing to take in. The question is: How does one respond to it? What do you do in that millisecond when you hear the words that you interpret as a criticism piercing that soft spot in your armor and landing a blow?

I recently had a fascinating experience with a company who I felt like provided the perfect case study for responding to criticism. A few weeks ago I wrote this post: Why Book Summary Services Like Get Abstract Might Not Be Worth Your Time Or Money. As you can tell by the title, I didn’t come away with the best impression of the service. Sure, it seemed interesting, but I ended up feeling like it wasn’t going to be worth it. What I found to be interesting was that they actually commented on my post with a great response here on Modern Ekklesia. Let me post their response and then I’ll make a few comments on the other side:

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Last week I had two people ask me, “So what are some specific goals you have for your new role?” One person that asked the question is a leader on campus and the other is a seminary student who is looking for mentorship. After dialoguing, I discovered the true question. What they really wanted to know was, “What are some strategies you have for reaching young adults here on campus?” After thinking about it for a moment, I proudly told both of them that I didn’t have any goals. I know that the seminary student was disappointed. I could tell on his face. After all, that’s part of the reason why I was brought in to this church–to help connect with “this generation.” He supposed that I’m a young adult expert and am familiar with all kinds of strategies to reach young adults and college students and I would share with him the golden truths about how he can do the same “in the field.”

Here’s the hard truth that I shared with him.

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I’m a big believer that every church should have a great website. Remember, before someone visits your church, they’re first going to visit your website. I think most people believe they should have a nice site, but they think it’s too difficult or too expensive to actually do it. You’d be wrong in believing that, though.

I recently discovered a new company called Church Themer that offers really nice WordPress themes that your church can use. The great thing about using one of these themes is that they already include features that churches would like.

Here are some samples:

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In my experience as a Christian, I think I’ve experimented with every imaginable time for my personal devotions. When I was a student in college I would clear my desk at 10pm and hunker down for some time with God. I wasn’t too into the morning thing. Here’s some other options and configurations I’ve experimented with:

• Getting dressed and ready in the morning and then connecting with God before going to the office
• Going in to the office earlier than normal, and then spending time there
• Having a brief time in the morning and an extended time in the evening
• Going to work out first thing in the morning, then connecting, and then eating and getting dressed

Are there some other configurations out there? I’m sure there are. And I’m sure I’ve tried them all. Every single one. But none of them has worked in the long run for one reason or the other.

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In case you missed it, here was the most popular post of the last month.

Why I Don’t Use Digital Devices For My Devotional Time

See you next month!

I just read a fascinating article by Fast Co. Design where it challenges the typical approach to brainstorming. The typical approach involves getting people together and having them throw ideas up on the board–or whatever medium you’re writing on. The idea was that this type of “group” approach helps people to be more creative and get more ideas flowing. Studies going back to the fifties, though, seem to dispute this notion. The article suggests that there’s several factors that lead to creativity:

1. Design of a work space. Creativity often happens when people, who don’t normally cross paths, have the ability to mingle and share ideas. The author mentions the famed Building 20–a building on the campus of MIT that is famous for churning out many great ideas and inventions. And the implication is that, because the scientist worked in such cramped and close quarters, that it allowed the free exchange of different kinds of ideas.

This concept is talked about in the Steve Jobs bio. The story goes that, when he became the CEO of Pixar, he commission a complete redesign of the entire building. He sought to create open space where people would be forced to mingle at different times, and thereby–or hopefully–share different ideas. Did it work?

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