Workout: 3-31-08

I skipped my workout today because of a bruised heel and a heavy workload.

tonight i did a pushup burner.
I got to 17. which is good for me.

that's 1 pushup the first minute.
2 pushups the second minute.
and so on.
try it. tell me what you get.
you'll probably beat 17, but i feel good about it.

17 = 153 pushups in 17 minutes.

Quote for the Day:

The colossal misunderstanding of our time is the assumption that insight will work with people who are unmotivated to change. Communication does not depend on syntax, or eloquence, or rhetoric, or articulation but on the emotional context in which the message is being heard. People can only hear you when they are moving toward you, and they are not likely to when your words are pursuing them. Even the choices words lose their power when they are used to overpower. Attitudes are the real figures of speech.

Edwin Freidman

Beauty

(thanks to Jim )

Creative Story Telling

Ira Glass (from NPR) who is an amazing storyteller, on the process of telling a great story. I"m not sure why I'm so fascinated by this. I'm going to have to reflect on this.. but i really like what he says here. So make your own application.

An Efficient Gospel? - Tim Keel article

What do you think?

Link

Too many good parts to quote. What do you think?

Exciting Day and I'm tired

I woke up this morning and caught a plane to Dallas to meet with Mark Matlock and David Welch of Wisdom Works. It was a productive meeting about the future or both our organizations. Lot's of potential and I'm excited about what it holds for us. We're developing two consultant training modules that will be really exciting for veteran youth workers looking to make a difference in their part of the world. It's something I've been hoping to do for quite a while and has a lot of potential for supporting youth pastors and local churches around the country. Mark and David are super sharp guys and I'm humbled to get to work with them. more later.. (But if you are interested ... let me know)

anyway I'm tired. My 8:00pm flight is delayed until 10:45pm. ugh! I'm tired and not feeling 100% and I'm ready to be back in Tulsa.

Workout: 3-26-08

Four Rounds for time of :

12 Burpees
24 Pushups
36 Squats
400 meter run

My time: 32:18

A Letter I Received Today

This came at a good time for me. Today I needed to hear something like this.

Mark-

I hope this note finds you well. First off, I want to thank you again for your wisdom and graciousness during our time together. Just to refresh your memory a bit, you worked with my wife Kris and I during Youth Specialties conference in St. Louis. We had come to try to discern some direction for our church and ourselves, and at that time I was serving a Youth Director. After much patient listening, we were stunned as G_d used you to affirm so much of what we had been hearing from others, not just run-of-the-mill stuff, but specific sensing, direction and thought.

Your thoughts on our call to plant a church were stunning, but again, not the first we had heard. Still, it was a profound and moving experience to hear such affirmation from a "stranger." G_d worked through you....

At the end of our time, I had mentioned a local church plant that had asked me to come and do some pulpit supply with the possibility of interim service. To the best of my recollection, your advice was "Well, what are you thinking?!??! Do that!!" As it turns out, that's exactly what we did. You asked me to keep you posted, so here it is:

After serving "pulpit supply" for five weeks, they asked that I come on as Interim Teaching Pastor until they could get their bearings in a search process. As we began to travel on together, it became obvious to us that G_d had been leading us all to this place together. With much prayer and intentionality, we began to consider how we might move forward together on a more permanent basis. The process was slow and steady, with much prayer, love, and work by all involved, but the end result was that they asked me to serve as Teaching Pastor, brought me on full-time (a first for me!), and I have just begun serving in that role. My first day was yesterday, G_d be praised.

I wanted to write you a note, to give you the update you had requested. I've had your business card laying beside my computer monitor for the last four months, waiting for the day that update might come. Here it is.

I also wanted to write for another reason...to thank you for your willingness to be there as a servant of the living G_d, speaking into the lives of other servants who are seeking him. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

May Jesus' praise be always found on our lips-

Bill
Teaching Pastor
Family.Bible.Church.

Workout: 3-24-08

Complete for time:

Run 400 meters
21 Thrusters (65 lbs)
Run 400 meters
15 Thursters (65 lbs)
Run 400 meters
9 Thrusters (65lbs)

my time: 12:24

by the way... I can do pull ups now. which is crazy. (I did 2 on Friday, and 3 today)

Thrusters by people stronger than me below:

Politics and Music Usually don't mix

this is no exception.



(ht: Zach )

Workout: 3-21-08

Exercise hard for 50 seconds, then take 10 seconds to rotate for 5 rounds with the following:
L-Sit
Box Jumps
Good Mornings
Wall Balls
Jump Rope

Jesus is my Boyfriend

Here's a video of Matt Redman in a very candid interview on worship and writing worship songs. I like the fact that he's hoping for people to start thinking more about what they are singing.

For the Dog lovers

(ht: Andrew Sullivan)

March Madness

Final Four:
North Carolina
Kansas
Texas
UCLA

I have Pitt beating Memphis, and Louisville over Tennessee.

Kansas beats Texas in an all Big 12 finale!

Workout: 3-19-08

Complete 5 Sprint Rounds of the Following:

500 meter Row (damper set on 10)

My previous best: 1:58

Today's Times:
round 1 - 1:41
round 2 - 1:54
round 3 - 1:55
round 4 - 1:53
round 5 - 1:54

Puke factor: 9+
Way harder than it sounds. wow.

Obama's Speech this morning

I was on the elliptical when I saw that Obama was going to speak this morning. I read his speech as it was delivered on CNN.

I must say that this speech was one of the greatest speeches I've ever heard on race by a politician in my lifetime. You don't have to like Obama's policy to like 95% of this speech. Words fall short in describing it. What he said was true and beautiful and pointed. His indictment was not simply for his former pastor, but for his white grandmother who has said racist things as well. His refusal to simply right people off, for political reasons, be it his pastor or his grandmother points toward a new way of thinking about the messiness of race.

I think of my own extended family when over Christmas, one family member says something like, "I've got to stay true to my southern roots. A black man running. not voting for him. can't vote for a black man. next. A woman. not voting for a woman. next. a white man. sounds good.

This is a family member who's comments are racist, sexist and down right insidious, and they are a part of the family. We live with the tension. But I'm not willing to see the world as static.

Listen to the speech. His comments about the church are incredible alone. About the wisdom and ignorance, the good and bad, all present with the church was very observant as well.

Here's a transcript of the speech.

We See What We Look For

Watch this Video

We see what we are looking for, don't we. Whether it be in presidential candidates or each other. It's more convenient to see people how we want to, rather than see what's actually there.

A Temporary New Look for the Blog

Over the next few months I'm going to be reorganizing my presence on the web.
The blog address should stay the same, but the look will change.
I'm overhauling theRiddleGroup.com site and adding two additional sites. One site dedicated to my new book, "Inside the Mind of Youth Pastors" another that is a hub for me (markriddle.net) Sometime in January I'll likely put up a new site for my other book that will be released in Sept. 2009. Oh, and I'll be developing a site for the new church we've started here in Tulsa. Ok. So I've got some work to do.

For folks who read the blog, nothing should change except the look and few more links on the side.

I'm hoping not to overwhelm folks with Book Release stuff when they come out, but rather point them to the book site. It's probably just me, but it bugs me when bloggers pimp there book every single day, every single time they post.

anyway. the new look is temporary and mainly so you can comment with ease. so feel free to comment!

Workout: 3-17-08

3 rounds of:
25 jumping squats
20 ring rows
15 Wall Ball (20 lb ball)
10 box jumps (16 inch box)
5 Dive bombers

My Time: 19:07

Then Eric had us do a Burner Workout: (Pushups)
1 pushup in 1 minute
2 pushups in 1 min
3 in 1 min
4 in 1 min etc

My score: 12 (it's harder than it sounds)

It's got to be a joke.. right?

Christvertising. God bless your brand.

um.... someone spent some time building this site. which makes me wonder if it's real or not.
but it has to be a joke right?


Link

(ht: Andrew Sullivan)

A lot of Limbs

Tonight on the news they were talking about the amount of limbs removed from the little park down the street. Keep in mind, the ice storm happened in December and the limbs from my neighborhood were finally removed by the city last week. About a mile from my house is a park that was used to be open for folks who removed their own limbs to dump them. It's one of many. It's a small dumpsite that fills up quickly.

It's hard to give perspective to others who didn't experience it.
The numbers may help are impressive. According to the news, the city has removed enough limbs from the little park down the street to cover 380 football fields with mulch 3 feet deep. That' my friends is a lot of limbs.

How well does your Pastor define you?

Barack Obama's former pastor in Chicago is in the news and folks on the right side of the political spectrum are using it against Barack. The pastor has said some pretty bold, and an occassionally unbelievable things. But then what pastor hasn't said something crazy really?

It makes me wonder a few things:
first- video outside the context of the church is not as helpful as we hope it is. The video circulating youtube and the like means something really different to the people in the church in that local community than it does to you and me. We hear it differently. (Don't read this as a defense of what he said, I haven't heard it all. But this is true.)

second - As much as the average Senior Pastor hopes, wishes or believes that his/her congregation believes the same thing they do, it's simply not true. Often, the Senior Pastor is tolerated, while the real richness of the community is what engages people. this certainly isn't news to the people in the pews. But it might be to you if you are a Sr Pastor.

Can a person go to a church and regularly disagree with the preacher? abosolutely. it happens every week in your church.

Sister Mary Margret's Memorial Carpet

Steven Levitt of "Freakonomics" fame is discussing how Wisconsin Business school, led by Dean Micheal Knetter has raised $85 million dollars for the school, with the understanding that it will not be named after anyone (including the donors) for 20 years.

My favorite section:

"Apparently, Knetter is now offering a full slate of objects not to name at the business school. For $50,000, you can have a classroom not named after you. For $5,000, you can not have your name on a plaque in the entryway to the building. For those of you with a little less to give, $50 will guarantee that the urinal of your choice will go unnamed. But only for the next 20 years."

There's something here for the church to keep in mind I think as well. Naming buildings, carpets, parlors, hallways etc after folks in our church might feel right, but we should think twice about it. If the church needs a building, raising money so it won't be named after anyone seems like a pretty good idea to me.

Link

workout 3-14-08

10 Mountain climbers
20 bicycles
10 supermans
20 windmills

10 rounds for time

My Time: 19:29

Workout 3-13-08: Run another 5K

Ran the 5K again this morning.
Yesterday's time:42 min
Today's time: 38:52

Inside the Mind of Youth Pastors

"Inside the Mind of Youth Pastors" will be coming out in December and I'm excited about it! Because it's my first book!

The book covers a lot of ground and engages stories of church leaders from across the country as they relate to Youth Pastors.

For churches without Youth Pastors "Inside the Mind of YP" deals with staffing the position in ways that are sustainable for great ministry. This section is informed significantly from consulting with churches over the past several years. The first 14 chapters will help Senior Pastors, Executive Pastors, Search Committee's , Boards, Elders, and other Youth Pastors make informed decisions that rework the traditional ways of finding, interviewing and keeping youth pastors in a local church to make them more sustainable. Additionally it helps these church leaders remember (and sometimes rethink) why they hire youth pastors in the first place. One or two of these things will be refreshers for the average Youth Pastor, (though not for the average church leader) and several will provide a new framework for Youth Pastors on the values the already hold.

The second section (15 chapters) helps Senior Pastors and/or other church leaders to understand what a Youth Pastor is thinking and/or hoping for from them. (ie. Youth Pastor's want their Senior Pastor to have their back.. etc)

There is a discussion guide included so that it can be used for Senior Pastors (or supervising pastors) to engage in meaningful discussion with their Youth Pastor about each chapter. This way the Youth Pastor is able to speak for themselves on each issue. The discussion guide will also be helpful for search teams to discuss and do the ground work for hiring youth staff.

I'm pretty excited about "Inside the Mind of Youth Pastors".

more to come.

Workout: 3-12-08: Run a 5K

Today I ran 5K. Which was difficult for two big reasons. First, I haven't run 5K in 10 years. Second, I still can't walk today because of the Wallball workout monday. (this morning going down the stairs, Jaden called me a "little old man".

nice.

My time: 42 minutes.

I can do better. but I'm content with this today.

1 in 4 Teen Girls has an STD

"CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- At least one in four teenage girls nationwide has a sexually transmitted disease, or more than 3 million teens, according to the first study of its kind in this age group.

A virus that causes cervical cancer is by far the most common sexually transmitted infection in teen girls aged 14 to 19, while the highest overall prevalence is among black girls -- nearly half the blacks studied had at least one STD. That rate compared with 20 percent among both whites and Mexican-American teens, the study from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.

About half of the girls acknowledged having sex; among them, the rate was 40 percent. While some teens define sex as only intercourse, other types of intimate behavior including oral sex can spread some infections.

For many, the numbers most likely seem "overwhelming because you're talking about nearly half of the sexually experienced teens at any one time having evidence of an STD," said Dr. Margaret Blythe, an adolescent medicine specialist at Indiana University School of Medicine and head of the American Academy of Pediatrics' committee on adolescence."

Link

Workout 3-10-08: Karen

"Karen" is the name of the Workout of the Day (remember in Crossfit, the benchmark exercises are named after women.

150 Wall Balls - 14 lb. ball (toss the ball to 10ft. mark)
My time: 12:22

Here's a brief example I found on line.
Squat. thrust, and throw, catch squat, thrust, throw. 150 times.

I have jello legs.

Eugene Peterson interview

Too good not to pass along:

Views on Managing Ministry

If you supervise people as a Senior Pastor, a Youth Pastor or in your business chances are you manage one of these ways. Each of these mindsets directs your actions.

Mindset:
Status Quo - "Everything is fine. What we do and the way we do it don't need to change."

Action: Nothing changes, nothing is evaluated, we never look beyond, or outside our current reality. This manager ignores voices for change, because they see no real need for change. They truly believe everything is ok the way it is.


Mindset:
Ministry by Control - "We deliver great ministry, by keeping bad ministry from happening. Great programs, led by great people with mistakes weeded out before we start."

Action:

Folks with this mindset are micromanagers. They seek perfect ministry and mistake free programs as the way to effectively minister. This mindset drives them to control the process down the smallest details. If it's a pastor, he gives the go ahead for each song the youth pastor wants to sing, gives the thumbs up or down for the topics that will be discussed. Additionally, these folks drive people away, but never are able to see that they are part of the problem.

Mindset:
Ministry by Responsive Service - "We will never have a perfect ministry, but we will do what ever our people want and need from us."

Action:
Ministers who work like this may not be organized, but they make up for it in pleasing people. Mistakes will happen and while striving to make a congregation happy, he/she may also loose the trust of the staff they are leading. The action leads them in many directions at once and causes them to be reactionary. Staff view this as trying to follow the wind and they view it as unsafe. No one wants to work for someone who wants to make other people happy at a staff persons expense. (or the visions)


Mindset:
Ministry thru a better process - "We will establish objective tools to more efficiently develop a consistant desired outcome with as few variations as possible."

Action: This is a popular approach by progressive churches who hire business folks to lead them. Large churches, especially multi-site churches do this so that ministry is uniform, effecient and that each venue, or expression is consistent with the home church. While these ministers/leaders can make changes on a dime, and have consistent product (usually what they are hoping for) it means they have little use for context, and input from those further down the line. The product is king, and people become carefully screened and selected cogs in a machine to produce the product. People who work in these environments may love being a part of the energy the church, but tire fo not being valued as a human being.

Mindset:
Total Ministry - Ministry is the transformation in the way we think, work, live and minister together and is a reflection of what we value, how we reward (or discourage) and how we measure what successful ministry is.

Action:
What do you think the action is for this mindset?

Blogging

The last few months the blog has been getting crazy traffic. More unique visitors each day than it's ever had.
Who ever you all are, thanks for stopping by!

Workout 3-07-08

50 situps
50 pushups
1,ooo meter rowing (damper 8)
50 pushups
50 situps

for time.

My time: 20:10

Congrats to Tony Jones

This is very cool. I'm very excited for Tony. I read the book last week and recommended it to several folks already. "The New Christians" is the book to read when it comes to learning about Emergent Village and what it is hoping to accomplish.

thanks to Doug for the pic.

Week 1 - Week 4 pics

Ok, so Eric, my trainer took this pic of me my first week. Not my best look. Not my best moment. Those walls sits are no fun. And my gut is large



This was week 4. gut not as big.. and shrinking.

Workout 3-05-08

Tabata Situps
2 minute rest
Tabata Shoulder press (20 lb. Medicine Ball)
2 minute rest
Repeat

Tabata is a kind of workout developed by Dr. Tabata from the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo, Japan.
Basically he came up with a 4 minute workout that will eat your lunch.
Here's how it works.

A Tabata Situp regimine is a 4 minute routine.
20 seconds (as many sit ups as you can do)
10 seconds rest.. but here's the catch the rest is at a 45 degree angle. In otherwords, half way through the sit up, stop and sit there for 10 seconds.
This makes each round 30 seconds long. Each regimine is

4 weeks into a healthier me

Four Weeks Ago


Today

Wow. this is cool.
I can totally tell a difference. and i'm still loosing weight!

The Insane Youth Ministry Solution

Church leaders who want a "great" youth ministry, but who struggle with the current reality are often tempted to return to the well of another youth pastor hire. If you feel as if you need a youth pastor to fix the problem with your youth ministry, whether it be relational, programmatic, theological, or vision and it looks like the obvious solution is hiring someone to lead... don't. 99% of the time, this is the wrong solution.
You've heard that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.

That would make this the insane youth ministry solution.

Still the temptations is strong, because most church leaders see no other alternative.

San Diego - NPC

San Diego was a good trip. I met with about 15 Pastors from all over the country for an hour each on Wednesday and Thursday. I'm humbled to meet with these folks. It's good for me. I was telling Scott Kail, the other consultant onsite and general rockstar, that I hope that I have the thirst for insight and direction that these folks have when I get into my 50's and 60's.

I ate off diet twice. Uno deep dish pizza was soo good. So was California Pizza Kitchen. Hanging out in John Raymond's suite I grabbed a handfull of M n M's but was immediately spotted by Tony Jones who called me out and then Doug Pagitt (sitting next to me on the couch) reached out his long arms and demanded them. It was good accountability. Doug ate them for me.

I'm looking forward to being at NPC next year.

Workout 3-3-08 - J.T. Modified

My hammy has been bugging me when I do squats and such, so Eric had me do an all upper body workout today. His exact words, "J.T. is pure upper body hell." Then he smiled.

Handstand pushups (modified: my knees on a 20 inch box)
Ring dips (modified: Bench Dips)
Pushups

21 - 15 - 9

21 of each, 15 of each, 9 of each. (sounds easy huh.)

My time: 19:13

Then I did an additional 500m on the rowing machine (damper setting 10) time: 1:58

I'm feeling way better and have lost a lot of weight.
I've been working out for 4 weeks now and I've lost almost the weight of Mikayla.