Video of Our Worship Band: "God Undefeatable"

One of my churches worship bands is leading worship at a retreat in a couple of months. So we decided to record a song and record a video for it. Three of my hobbies are playing guitar, audio recording, and video editing. So I love doing little projects like this.

The end result came out very much on the better side of my expectations.

The song is called "God Undefeatable," and it's by Aaron Ivey from Austin Stone. You can hear his version here: http://austinstoneworship.com/

Here is our video

NaNoWriMo...time to write a book...

November is national novel writing month. I'm not sure exactly what NoNoWriMo is, but it's not a competition. It's more of a challenge to write 50,000 words in November. So people around the world are attempting to write a novel this month.

I don't want to write a novel, but I've had an idea for a book on my experiences during my first 3 years of ministry. I had the idea actually before I started. The original idea was to write a journal of my daily feelings and issues which came up, and to see if it could be published anonymously. ...I didn't do that.

But the idea for a book on what you experience during your first few years of ministry still fascinates me.

The idea behind the book is that every book on ministry is written by a famous pastor or speaker at a mega-church who's experience is extremely detached from what most people are going to experience. Or they're written by people who are 20 years removed from their first few years of ministry.

So what if there was a book written by someone in a entirely ordinary context...writing about what the experience is like.

I don't know that anyone will ever read it, but I think writing is a good exercise for reflection on life. Most of my writing energy is going to this project this month. So my blogging will be a bit thin this month.

Favorite Blogs of the Week

I thought I'd make a habit of sharing my favorite blogs of the week on Fridays.

Five Things I've Learned in Public Speaking - Ron Edmondson - All five are very good

The Right & Wrong Questions for Figuring Out God's Plan for Your Life - Steven Furtick - Gives a fresh perspective on a familiar question

Steve Jobs & Apple - Brilliant 60 Minutes Interview - Big is the New Small - Steve Job's bio using interviews with Jobs which were recorded for his biography

Where Good Ideas Come From - Video

This video inspired the blog posted earlier today.

Creativity, Ideas, and Slow Thought

We live in an interesting time.

Creativity usually doesn't involve having truly fresh ideas. It involves coming up with fresh new ways to integrate multiple ideas in a new and unique way. This requires time of deep thought and access to knew ideas.

This leads to why this is an interesting time.

• We've never had more access to other peoples ideas
• We've never been more distracted by other peoples ideas

I heard someone mention a book which discussed how the internet is changing how our minds work. We're so used to reading articles and immediately clicking away to a new thought that our brains re-wire themselves to more efficiently function in this manner. Thus, they become accustomed to skipping away from deep thought.

This KILLS creativity.

We have incredible new opportunities to be creative. It just requires intentional work on our part.

• We need to take time for deep, slow thought
• We need to control the distractions in our life
• We need to be intentional about what is filling our minds