Jonathan Herron

Jerry Seinfeld on How to Create Better Material

Jerry Seinfeld once said that the way to become a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day.

Seinfeld nurtured a secret techinique in creating better material: Every year he would purchase a new giant calendar and hang it where he would run into it every day.  Then he would get out a big red marker.  Every day that he worked on writing, he would reward himself by drawing a huge red X on the day of the calendar.  After a few days of writing, he would have a chain of red Xs.

Jerry Seinfeld's goal to creating better material?  Don't break the chain.  He said that you will eventually like seeing that chain of red Xs as time goes by.  The goal is to not break that chain.  Daily action creates habits.  A disciplined rhythm eventually leads to better material.

 

Phriday is for Photos 10.26.12

Today is Ainsleigh's 8-month birthday.  Her infectious giggle makes her Daddy swoon with delight:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our 6-year-old continues to be an Inviting Machine for our church start-up.  The kid is passionate about personally inviting anyone and anyone to "our church at The Dow."  Love him:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More photos of Josiah and pals sharing about Life Church in this Facebook Album.

More of my photos on my Instagram, Twitter, and Flickr.

 

Love Does

My friend Jason Raitz recommended Love Does and, WOW, it's incredible.  So incredible, in fact, that it ended up a New York Time Bestseller.

Everyone needs to put down what they're doing and go buy this book right now.  Bob Goff's whimsical-yet-true journeys might just change your life.

Three favorite quotes:

The thing I love about God is He intentionally guides people into failure...  Things that go wrong can shape us or scar us.

 A friend doesn't just say things; a friend does.

On Bibly Studies: "They have a name for guys who just study things about a person they like but don't do anything about it - - they're called bachelors!"

 

Infographic: How effective can Facebook be for a Church Start-Up?

As a brand new start-up, we are constantly monitoring our effectiveness at reaching people far from God.  One discovery we've made is the power of Facebook.  

While our tv and radio spots have been fantastic in creating an awareness of our church start-up throughout the region (and resulted in a net gain of first-time guests), by far our biggest tool has been our Facebook Page.  

Over 80% of our first-time guests responded that they heard about/were invited to Life through someone posting on Facebook!

Here's an infographic detailing our church start-up's strategic efforts through Facebook:

Since we are starting from scratch, these stats are incredible.  
We are very pleased with our church start-up's Facebook efforts over the past 30 days!  

In the next six months, we want to see an increase in men who are Fans & Storytellers on Facebook.

If you'd like to follow along our journey, Like our Facebook Page!

Bill Murray Would Be a Great Preacher

Set aside theology for a moment and think about how information is presented.  

Part of Bill Murray's appeal is he's one of us.  He says what we're all thinking.  No baloney, just the truth layered in irony (which always helps the truth go down).

When you try to act or speak like a professor, people are turned off and tune out.  If you fail to connect, you create a barrier to the gospel.  After all, Jesus said, "Feed my sheep," not "Feed my giraffes."  Sheep eat close to the ground, not high in the trees.

If you get unchurched people sitting in your auditorium, and you walk up to preach, they are not thinking, “Oh, good, here’s the dispenser of Bible truth!”

They’re notthinking, “I just hope he’s a good expositor of the Word.”

No, they’re thinking, “Who is this guy?  Do I like this guy?  Could I hang out with this guy?”  

If the answer’s no, it doesn’t matter if you are the Bible dispenser and a good expositor of the Word, because they’re not gonna listen, and they’re not gonna come back.  But if the answer’s yes, then you will open that person up to you dispensing Bible truth to them, and you could have lots of opportunities to teach them the Word.  - Vince Antonucci

Watch Bill Murray in the 1984 classic, Ghostbusters.  This is not a movie about chasing ghosts; at its core, Ghostbusters is about the journey of a couple regular guys starting a new business.  Ghostbusters is an allegory for 21st Century church planters: starting something from scratch, the hurdles in creating sustainable models, with a touch of the supernatural and a good dose of sarcasm.

And who does everyone remember from the film?  Bill Murray.  He would make a great preacher.

A Note to all the Single Ladies (and Guys): There's Nothing Wrong with You!!

Last weekend at Life Church was a BLAST teaching from 1 Corinthians 7 on Bringing Your Sexy Back!  A few days later I received this email from a first-time guest outside of Flint, Michigan: 

Hi Jon!  I loved the service at Life Church last Sunday! It was awesome.  The worship was great, and your message was honest and real, which is refreshing. I'm definitely in that stage in my life where everyone is asking me when I'm going to get married, so it's nice to hear a biblical perspective on the fact that it's OKAY for me to be 23 and single.  I will be back on November 11th!

She's right!  There is NOTHING WRONG with being SINGLE!

I understand that we live in a time where magazine racks and romantic comedies SCREAM OUT that there's something wrong with you if you're not in a relationship.  But as Christ-followers, we don't look to CULTURE for advice... we look to God's clear direction in Scripture.

God gives us easy-to-understand advice on relationships in 1 Corinthians 7.  Trust me, its way better than anything you'd read in Glamour Magazine or see on the Oprah Channel:

God gives some the gift of marriage, and to others He gives the gift of singleness
(1 Cor 7.7)

WOW!  Did you see that?  The Bible says that being single is a GIFT!

When my wife was growing up in Pennsylvania, she had this awesome friend throughout middle school and high school who was smart, funny, and pretty.  At our wedding reception, this friend danced with all the guys.  I thought to myself, "She is going to snag a guy in no time!"

Fast-forward five years and we go to visit her in Washington, D.C.  As we sit at a cafe catching up on life, an awkward silence kind of builds.  Then she blurts out: "Sooooo, I've been praying and seeking the Lord a lot on this... I think God is calling me to be single."

I had never before heard a twenty-something speak with such maturity.  Her obedience to God blew me away.  You see, society may pressure you toward a relationship and make you think there's something wrong if you're single, but in reality, being single is actually a GIFT from God!  This same young woman later embarked on a years-long mission along the coast of Africa, serving the least of these.  Her singleness enabled her to radically follow God and make a difference for time and eternity:

An unmarried man can spend his time doing the Lord's work and thinking how to please Him... 

A woman who has never been married can be devoted to the Lord and holy in body and spirit. (1 Cor 7.32-34)

When you are single, you have more time and finances to invest yourself into advancing God's Kingdom!  When you're married, believe me when I tell you that your time and finances aren't as freed up.  

If you're single right now, AWESOME!  Embrace this season of life, pursue Christ with a white-hot passion, and trust God with your future.  Don't let ANYONE make you feel like you're less of a person...  You're not!  You are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!  You don't need another person to "complete" you; you are already complete in Christ!  Jesus defines you, not ignorance in society!!

Whether the future involves singleness or marriage, you can move forward knowing that you are not alone, you are not weird, and the One who loves you inexhaustibly is moving you toward a glorious future!

Things That Should Have Been Invented By Now

1. Pillows that constantly stay cool.
2. Invisible socks.
3. Skype in hologram form.
4. Lightsabers.
5. Disposable Pugs.

Introducing the newly improved FollowJon.net (and why I'm overhauling this site)

So I was talking recently with Michael Cheshire of Knocking-Over-7-Elevens Fame about ministry and leadership.  My personal approach to our church start-up involves thinking like a comedian does and leveraging the principles of improvisational comedy in leadership.

I guess I've assumed that I'm normal to think this way.  Michael made it clear that I'm not:

Jon, it would be one thing if you had learned what you know from a bunch of Christian comedians, but you didn't.  You learned from the Big Dogs and what you're doing is important and wonderfully different.  Share this stuff!

And so we debut this newly improved site to share this stuff.

 

FIRST, THE WHAT:

FollowJon.net is the new name of my online home for writing about EntreLeadership, Church Start-Up Strategies, Adoption, God, and Comedy.  I tried to get FollowJon.com, but apparantly some young college dude touring the world bought that domain name years ago with the intent of never updating his blog and frustrating my plans for a strong online identity.  Curses.

The website name comes from 1 Corinthians 11:1:

Follow me as I follow Christ!

My goal here is to create insightful, engaging content that will serve as a creative catalyst in your life.

What's improved?  Let's take the wooden-nickel tour together.  If you look to the far right, you'll see some new pop-out tabs that connect you with our church's Facebook Page, my silliness over on Twitter, the online graveyard also known as Google+, and a simple way to sign up for free monthly leadership tips.

 

NEW PODCAST:

Up above, the navigation bar has been enhanced with a bunch of new stuff including our soon-to-go-live link to a brand new Podcast rolling out in November.  Every month we'll release a freshly baked 30 minute interview focused on leveraging comedy in leadership.  I'm really excited about this project:

• November's podcast features a revealing interview with a former Saturday Night Live castmember (wait until you hear his advice for pastors!)

• December's interview is with a Christian author who kicks fear in the face.

To make sure you don't miss any new blog content, you can subscribe via RSS.  

 

NEXT, THE WHY:

I've been blogging for nearly ten years now.  Over time, I've set up all my social media under the nickname Follow Jon.  It started with my twitter: I figured that the whole idea behind tweeting was to follow my zany adventures and record thoughts.  BOOM - @FollowJon was born.

This led to Facebook, Vimeo, Flickr, Instagram... all under the online nickname Follow Jon.  I never really kept track of who all was reading and following along.  However, over the past year, I've come to realize that I have more people tuning into my writings here then I ever would have thought.  This realization has birthed a combination of excitement, nauseousness, humility, and the bonus of making my Mom proud.

Michael Hyatt's New York Times Bestseller, Platform, really opened my eyes to the importance of taking my site more seriously.  It's an issue of stewardship of my visitors and readers.  Chapter 41 helped me understand what "Unique Visitors" are on a blog:

This is the number of unique individuals who have visited your blog in the last thirty days.  For example, one individual may visit your blog three times in one week, but this would only count as one unique visitor...

For a true count, you must add the number of subscribers you have to this monthly total.

So I checked my Statcounter numbers: from Sep 20 - Oct 20, I've had 984 unique visitors.  Then I checked the total number of blog subscribers I have through Feedburner.  As Hyatt explains:

The people who subscribe via email or RSS represent your most loyal readers or superfans...  They have given you permission to push content to them.

When you add the total number of unique visitors to the number of subscribers via my Feedburner, this blog had 1,162 unique visitors over the past 30 days!  Yeah, I was surprised too!  I had no idea so many people were tuning into these adventures!

So, I figured with a new book coming out and all, I should put on my big boy pants and refocus my online adventures.  Thus, FollowJon.net.

I hope you like the new layout and direction.  Thanks for your continued support, encouragement, and follows along the way.  Let's go!

The Only Way to Live is to Love

"I'm learning that the only way to live is to love." - Emily Powers on open adoption.

This week would have been my Grandfather's 90th birthday.  He was a remarkable chap who spent his first 18 years as an orphan in the shadow of the Hymalayas.  When he was my age, he led his family through the years-long process of immigrating to the United States.  40 years later, he would be personally honored by the President.

My grandfather abruptly passed away this past January as we were slowly making plans to celebrate his 90th, which would have been this week.

And so how providential that this week, when our family's thoughts were reflecting on his life, we would officially and legally welcome a new life into our family.  The court papers appeared yesterday.  By decree of the State of Michigan, little Ainsleigh Grace is now legally adopted into our family!

Adoption is is tender to the heart.  It is the yearning of all humans: to be accepted and loved.  The Scriptures tell us that we are all sojourners temporarily walking through this life.  Our home is elsewhere, so like orphans and immigrants, we yearn for something More.

Welcoming someone into your family through adoption produces a range of emotions: thankfulness, excitement, anxiety, etc.  It's like having a baby, only you aren't afforded the luxury of nine months to prepare.  Sometimes, as in Ainsleigh's case, there isn't even a baby shower.  Just a big BOOM, here she is!

And I love it.  God works in big BOOMS.  

Adoption is a beautiful picture of the gospel:

How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. 

Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. 

Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. 
(Ephesians 1, The Message).

To accept and love is to experience and share a taste of the gospel.  

And so we celebrate.  As every state has different laws, Ainsleigh's adoption finalization was ushered in differently than Josiah's was in Ohio.  But different is good.  If it means keeping this little lady in our lives forever, I'm good with different.

And I know that a former Indian orphan is looking down with a huge smile on his face.  

 

PHOTO ESSAY: Life Church Michigan, Preview Service Two