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Big Announcement: New Church Start-Up
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What are you waiting for?!
Go check out LifeChurchMichigan.com now!
RSS subscribe for video updates everyday this week right here at JonathanHerron.com.
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Wednesday Morning Rundown
- I'm convinced that the film Super 8 is our generation's The Wonder Years. Anyone else with me?
- Enjoyed a great birthday yesterday, complete with my awesome T-Rex birthday cake (Can you tell I have a 5-yr-old??)
- Big news coming Monday. Like, Andre-the-Giant-big.
Sign up for the details. - Speaking of Andre the Giant, his family loved SNL last weekend.
- "Most church members could have told the Super Committee that anything called "Super Committee" wasn't gonna work out..." - Louie Giglio
- On Facebook, it's now just 4.74 degrees of separation.
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My New Favorite Quote: "If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.” - General Eric Shinseki
- And we leave you with The marketing of conspiracy theories.
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The Next Generation of Communication
As the interwebs continue to develop, interpret, and share information,
there are seven new principles for categorizing communication:
- Short
- Seamless
- Informal
- Immediate
- Personal
- Simple
- Minimal
[ via Mark Zuckerberg, creator of Facebook ]
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Coca-Cola reaches a lot of people...
Interbrand, the world's leading brand consultancy, brags on everyone's favorite carbonated brand:
Coca-Cola gets almost everything right. Its brand promise of fun, freedom, spirit and refreshment resonates the world over and it excels at keeping the brand fresh... while also maintaining the nostalgia that reinforces customers' deep connection to the brand.
For such a large brand, it operates quickly, flexibly and innovatively, tailoring itself to local markets without tarnishing its legacy. This includes different flavor profiles in each country and shrewd distribution models in fast-developing world markets (for example, carts in India).
It has adapted quickly to social media, with 11 million fans on Facebook and 96,385 followers on Twitter as of August 2010.
Coca-Cola reaches a lot of people.
Shouldn't the same be written about the church? (just wondering).
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Wednesday Morning Rundown
- I'm totally stealing the Rundown idea from my friend Ben Arment.
I'll be the Bill Gates to his Steve Jobs.
- "Believe the best in people even if they only see the worst in you." - @matthewbarnett
- TV Sportscaster wins $2 million on live tv. My wife and I loved this.
- Speaking of my wife, tomorrow is her birthday.
Yes, I married an older woman (my birthday is next Tuesday).
- As a kid, I once dressed up as Jim Hensen for Halloween, so I gotta recommend the Muppet tweets all this week from @jasonsegel.
- I'm excited about what's ahead for friends Jason Salamun and Jay Hardwick. Change is good. Especially when fueled by God's Spirit.
- Aaaaaand yes, we have a big announcement of our own
coming November 28th via E*Blast.
Trust me, you won't want to miss this one.
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Improv*ing Leadership: Questions Paralyze, So Make a Choice
Malcolm Gladwell's Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking focuses on how leaders make decisions in a split-second. The case is made that agonizing over leadership decisions actually complicates your brain, resulting in you making the wrong decision.
In creating comedy without a script, improvisers lean into a similar "thin-slicing" paradigm that frees the actor to move the scene forward.
Quite simply, every comedian knows that Questions Paralyze.
Yes, questions can clarify, stretch, and probe. But when it comes time to make decisions, questions can become your enemy.
In improv, asking questions kills the scene's momentum. It puts people in their heads, slowing down your partner & causing you to over-analyze the situation (if you would just Yes And, the scene/life would move forward!).
The correct answer is already within you.
Make a choice.
Questions can abdicate responsibility. An example:
Person 1: "That is one huge clown balloon coming our way!"
Person 2: "Why is there a clown balloon on this hot, sunny day?"
Person 1: (sweating under stress) "Um... er... that rhymes!"
Person 2: "What?"
Instead of paralyzing forward momentum, Make a Choice.
In fact, the entry-level class for studying theater is all about making choices as an actor.
Asking Questions places an unneeded burden on your partner;
Yes And accepts their gift and heightens the moment.
Asking Questions can cause you to get stuck in your head;
Yes And releases & empowers you to move things forward.
Asking Questions doesn't make the funny;
Yes And makes the funny.
Asking Questions kills momentum; Yes And unleashes potential.
Gladwell would even say that you already possess all the information you need to make the right choice. Trust the Spirit and stop asking questions as a cover. Move life forward.
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Ok, Here's the Scoop...
I wanted to bring you all up-to-date on Herron family changes since last summer.
THE LIGHTHOUSE...
...is where I work now. Our family transitioned out of our previous church over the summer - - and hear me on this, we are FOR them and cheering them on! God simply has a different plan for our family.
Right now, it involves serving through The Lighthouse, a neurological rehabilitation center that specializes in helping minister to individuals who have endured traumatic brain injuries. I love helping people! My role involves helping to sharpen and amplify The Lighthouse's public presence (marketing, advocacy, etc). I get to work alongside an awesome team and LOVE what I'm doing.
OUR FAMILY...
...is doing great after a season of back surgeries (back-to-back back surgeries!), downsizing to one little dog (goodbye Wonder Pug, hello Slinky the mini-daschund!), and settling into our new house in Caro, Michigan. Little J enjoys his daily Young 5's Kindergarten classes while Amber is working in nearby Frankenmuth.
A NEW PROJECT...
Amber and I really resonate with the biblical story of Elijah, seeing God perform mightily in our midst. Over the past two years, we have led a style of ministry that helped result in 328 people receiving Christ and 135 taking their faith public through baptism. Unbelievable.
What's always grabbed me in the Scriptures is how during a move of God, Elijah takes a break. Kind of abruptly. With no warning.
After resting under a broomtree and being ministered to by angels, the Lord tells Elijah what to do next.
Our family definitely feels the love from many angels in our life these past few months (but that's another story for another time!), and God has given us a dream that we've been praying over. Through the confirmation of Scripture and the blessing of godly wisdom from many pastors we admire and trust, we know exactly what our next step in ministry is.
Our heartbeat is seeing people far from God coming face-to-face with the Son of God throughout the region. Amber and I are absolutely passionate about reaching the lost at any cost.
DETAILS...
We'd be honored to have you along for this new journey. We'll be sharing all the details first through our email blast on November 28th. Go ahead and sign up for the E*Blast here. Don't worry, we won't spam your inbox. We'll just be sharing news via E*Blast first.
In the meantime, thank you for your prayers for our family, your continued encouragement, and being part of our unfolding story.
And hang on. It's going to be a fun ride together...
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Improv*ing Your Leadership: Beware Information Cocoons
When I was taking improv-comedy classes at The Second City in Chicago 15 years ago, I can remember exactly who was on the mainstage:
actors like Scott Adsit (30 Rock),
Kevin Dorff (writer for Conan),
and Tina Fey (30 Rock).
I looked up to them - night after night they were consistently working "from the top of their intelligence" as they say in the improv community, not going for the dumb sex jokes.
At the time I was reading Gilda Radner's autobiography, "It's Always Something," hoping to glean some wisdom from her life story. I was reading in the lobby during a mainstage rehearsal for Paradigm Lost. Suddenly it was break time and out poured all the comedians - as a college student, I was in awe.
Tina looked over and saw what I was reading and volunteered, "Wow, that's a great book. It's such a sad story what happened to Gilda." Honestly, I didn't really hear everything she said; I just thought it was cool that one of the actors was talking to me!
Then Kevin piped up from behind his cigarette: "If you want to succeed in improv, buddy, you need to give up reading autobiographies of comedians. Instead read a breadth of history and current events. Be ready for any suggestion the audience throws at ya, 'cause you won't have time to ask someone on stage in the heat of the moment, "What was the War of the Roses?
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It was said in the late 1990's to aspiring comedians across the country, "If you want to see the best improv actor who performs from the top of his intelligence, go to Chicago and watch Scott Adsit."
I had the rare opportunity over the course of 18 months to observe Adsit in action nightly. What made him so funny and quick-witted wasn't a storage of jokes, but instead that he read widely.
Adsit was always devouring a newspaper, magazine, or novel. He worked hard at possessing a breadth of knowledge.
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Going back to the break time in the lobby, Kevin Dorff went on to explain to me from behind his cigarette: "Read history. Always be learning about areas you're not interested in so that you're ready for anything on stage. Grab the book 'An Incomplete Education' and memorize it."
And that's exactly the book I asked for that Christmas.
Too often in Christian leadership we become short-sighted and don't stretch ourselves. We just read stuff that validates our opinions.
Beware Information Cocoons.
I am always learning outside my scope of ministry. Understand where people are coming from so that you may minister to them.
When we Read Widely, we work from a vast pool of resources - we work from the top of our intelligence.
When we Read Widely, we can make faster decisions on the spot.
And when we Read Widely, we know what the War of the Roses was all about.
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