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When you preach, is your delivery full of um’s, uh’s, and like’s?

These little flaws can quickly become big distractions to your audience. Fortunately, Mother Tongue Annoyances offers the following tip for ridding your sermons of these distractions:

Record yourself teaching or giving a lecture, and study your own speech afterward. After you have finished, observe your speech and study that thing. Over and over. Listen extremely closely to the dynamics of your language. When you hear how many times you use filler words, it will rattle you to your core, and you’ll develop a newfound self-awareness that will help stanch your subconscious desire to use these filler words during your next class or public speaking event.

You will not be the first pastor to review the quality of your preaching. Andy Stanley, the pastor of North Point Community Church (Alpharetta, GA), watches and evaluates his weekend preaching on video three times to look for improvements.

Ed Young Jr., the pastor of Fellowship Church (Grapevine, TX), will actually watch the videotape of his preaching from his first weekend service before he preaches the next service.

However you decide to evaluate your preaching, I think you will be pleased when you shed the um’s and uh’s and start experiencing steady improvements.

Special thanks to Lifehacker for highlighting the speaking tip and to Simply Strategic Growth by Tim Stevens and Tony Morgan for highlighting the techniques of Andy Stanley and Ed Young.

Reuters Health recently reported the results from a long-term study conducted by the Society for Research in Child Development that discovered “children who had less control over their behavior and impulses between 3 and 5 years of age and those who gained behavioral control more slowly were more likely to drink alcohol at age 14″ and “to develop an alcohol problem and try illicit drugs.” Highlights from the report include:

• Early drinking (at age 14 or earlier) is associated with a greater likelihood for alcohol abuse or dependence in adulthood.
• If early childhood behaviors such as behavioral control and resiliency put individuals at risk for alcohol and drug use, then programs aimed at changing those behaviors at an early age may protect individuals from experimenting with drugs and alcohol later on.
• Having an alcoholic parent markedly increased the risk of early alcohol use and subsequent alcohol-related problems. Children of alcoholics were three times more likely to start drinking by age 14 and four times more likely to report having been drunk at least once by age 17 than those who were not from an alcoholic family.

With this research in mind, your church’s preschool ministry could protect its children from future alcohol and drug problems if it is able to effectively teach the children self-control now. The report also mentions the behavior of a child age 3 to 5 being linked to future signs of sadness, anxiety, aggressiveness, or delinquent behavior.

Of course, nothing changes and influences a person’s life as much as accepting the gospel of Christ, but I find it interesting to see the scientific advantages to a great children’s ministry.

This morning, PSFK highlighted a press release about some interesting research conducted by New American Dimensions and interTrend Communications, Inc that suggests that Asian American youth may be the next major American trendsetters. They have already gained tremendous influence over American culture in several niche areas, and PSFK suggests that they may shape American culture as powerfully as Hip-Hop did in the 80s and 90s.

The research surveyed 538 Asian American teens and Echo Boomers (1979 to present) in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York. Highlights from the press release include:

• Respondents identify (1) technology/gadgetry, (2) anime/manga, and (3) video-gaming as the top three primary areas of popular culture where they are driving overall trends in the U.S. marketplace.
• “It’s not completely surprising that Asian Americans wield a tremendous influence in areas like video-gaming and manga. Anime and Manga constitute a growing $4 billion business in the U.S. and is embraced today by millions of American kids across the color spectrum.”
  - Thomas Tseng :: Principal & Co-Founder :: New American Dimensions
• “Whereas many second-generation Hispanic kids often exhibit their pride through their language and culture, Asian American youth seem to assert their pride in how they are shaping mainstream American culture.”
  - David Morse :: President :: New American Dimensions

Not every trend will revolutionize a nation. Many trends are passing fads. However, it is important that churches are aware of who the nation’s trendsetters are and who the trendsetters of their community are. It is important to be aware of trends and the ways they are changing culture. Effectively reaching people requires understanding their culture. This may mean that your church may have to make some changes as the cultures that you want to reach begin to change.

Happy trend hunting!

Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain knows what it takes to create good design, but he also knows what it takes to kill that creativity. On his blog at 31three.com, Jesse privileges us with a list of his top three creativity killers. Read the excerpts below, and ask yourself if you are killing your creativity.

1. Multitasking & Distractions. According to David Allen (the author of Getting Things Done), our minds are like computer RAM. The more active “stuff” we have going on at any one time, the less efficient our brains seem to work. I’ve (Jesse) often found that in order to really focus my creative energy on something, I need to get rid of the other distractions lobbying for my attention.
2. Work Environment. I (Jesse) never really seemed to notice how much the clutter and mess was weighing me down until it was removed. Your work environment goes beyond just how tidy you are though, it also includes the colour of your walls, how comfortable your chair is, as well as the music playing in the background. Anything that is distracting your senses will play a part in how focused you can get.
3. Fear of Failure. I (Jesse) thought I’d share how I get around it. First, I start thinking about the goals of my client rather than my personal goals. I’m finding that when I focus on my clients goals, there’s a good chance my personal ones will work out as well. Another thing I’ll do is think to myself, “what would _______________ (insert favourite designer’s name here) do in this situation?” When I start asking those questions, ideas immediately start coming to mind and ideas start flowing.

So what other ways do you find yourself killing your creativity?

I wish we all could just get along.

But reality is that at some point every church needs to prune away workers, whether staff or volunteer. Your church’s teams are important. Ultimately, the effectiveness of your ministry rests on the shoulders of your workers. Your church cannot afford to keep the workers that do more harm than good. Unfortunately, firing someone is never a pleasant situation.

Hopefully, the next fifteen thoughts will help make it easier in case you do find yourself with the responsibility of pruning your workers.

Margaret Mitterling of Saddleback Church’s (Lake Forest, CA) student ministry offers the following four steps for firing a volunteer:

1. Be careful not to make assumptions. Protect yourself from making false assumptions about a volunteer before actually hearing their side of the story. If possible, have evaluations throughout the year.
2. Confront the problem immediately. Identify the problem and decide on a few possible solutions. Then, allow time for them to correct their behavior or for the circumstance to improve before actually “firing” the volunteer.
3. Suggest taking a “season off.” If the leader is continuing to struggle in his/her position and is unable to meet necessary expectations in their position, they may need to take a “season off.”
4. Ask the volunteer to step down. There are circumstances where the volunteer may be serving in the wrong position, at the wrong time, or they are not meeting expectations. Then, it is best to meet with the volunteer one-on-one and ask them to step down from their position.

Guy Kawasaki also offers advice on firing someone with the following eleven tips:

Read the rest of this entry »

Ted Harro of Willow Creek Community Church (South Barrington, IL) recently shared with Christianity Today his insights on keeping volunteers happy.

Consider these excerpts, paraphrases, and additional thoughts on seven things your volunteers need:

1. Meaning. Give your volunteers a clear, compelling purpose. Your vision makes their investment important.
2. Involvement. The deeper your volunteers are involved in your ministry; the more passionate they will be about it. Don’t simply involve them in your plans, but get their input and feedback.
3. Celebration & Tradition. It is important to continually reinforce your ministry’s core values and to regularly give your volunteers encouragement, meaningful moments, and opportunities to build relationships with other volunteers. Celebrations and traditions are great ways to achieve this.
4. Positives. Neutralize the negatives, and you will strengthen the meaning.
5. Efficiency. Be prepared and have direction so that your ministry can use your volunteers’ time wisely.
6. More Efficiency. Prune the unnecessary things that waste your ministry’s resources so that your volunteers can have the resources that they need to effectively minister.
7. Opportunity. Give your proven volunteers the opportunity to do something bigger than menial tasks. It will help them grow and give you more time to do what only you can do.

Since 1991, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has conducted a survey every two years called the National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) that provides data representative of 9th through 12th grade students in public and private schools throughout the United States.

It is important that youth ministers understand their students and the types of problems they face and the risks they take outside of the youth group. Consider the following high school student statistics from 2005:

10.2% rarely or never wore a seatbelt. (When riding in a car driven by someone else.)

28.5% rode with a driver who had been drinking alcohol. (In a car or other vehicle one or more times during the 30 days preceding the survey.)

18.5% carried a weapon. (For example, a gun, knife, or club on one or more of the 30 days preceding the survey.)

35.9% were in a physical fight. (One or more times during the 12 months preceding the survey.)

8.4% attempted suicide. (One or more times during the 12 months preceding the survey.)

23% currently used cigarettes. (Smoked cigarettes on one or more of the 30 days preceding the survey.)

8.0% currently used smokeless tobacco. (Used chewing tobacco, snuff, or dip on one or more of the 30 days preceding the survey.)

43.3% currently used alcohol. (Had at least one drink of alcohol one or more of the 30 days preceding the survey.)

20.2% currently used marijuana. (Used marijuana one or more of the 30 days preceding the survey.)

3.4% currently use cocaine. (Used any form of cocaine one or more times during the 30 days preceding the survey.)

46.8% had ever had sexual intercourse.

13.1% were overweight. (Greater than or equal to the 95th percentile for body mass index, by age and sex, based on reference data.)

To see how these problems have changed over the past 15 years of study, look at the 1991-2005 Trends in the Prevalence of Selected Risk Behaviors.

The quality of the work that a designer churns out is largely dependent on the quality and quantity of design he puts in. In other words, if you want to be a good designer, surround yourself with good design. If you want to be a good marketer, study great marketing. If you want to be a great preacher, study effective preaching.

LogoPond.com is an online collection of user submitted logos that also allow comments and ratings for feedback. Whether you are a designer looking for a new source of inspiration, or you just want a place to highlight your digital pride and joy, LogoPond.com is worth a visit. Their gallery already features 769 logos, and that number is growing every month. Oh yeah, it’s free.

Special thanks to Eyes on Creativity for highlighting the resource.