So I’m doing this thing this summer…

I just want to warn you right off the bat that this post is probably going to be a little longer than usual.  But that’s because I have some really exciting news to share with all of you.

Two weeks ago, I found out I didn’t get a job that I was really hoping for.  Like really hoping for.  After this news, I had no idea where to go.  I made four resumes and started looking for any jobs I could that were in sports information, the church or broadcast television.  I made a Word document of almost three pages of links and started fine-tuning resumes to fit each one.  It was a busy, stressful and crazy week.  And then I got a text.

“Let me know if you’re seriously interested in coming with me at all this summer…”

That means nothing to you at this point, so let me clue you in.  The text came from a friend of mine, Heather.  We interned together at Cross Point Church this past summer in Nashville.  She wrote a blog post while we were in Nashville, and it blew up.  Basically, the gist of it is that the Church is not keeping 20-somethings connected.  Only 20% of 20-somethings stay involved in the Church, and Heather wrote about it.

After the blog post got a lot of attention, Heather started to realize a few things.  She realized that churches need a resource to help them keep 20-somethings involved.  More importantly, though, she realized she had a passion for exactly what churches needed.

Heather’s an incredible writer, so she let her dream grow.  She decided to go on a cross-country trip to talk to leaders at churches that are doing a good job keeping this group involved.  Here‘s a look at the journey in her words.

She’s found a publisher and sponsors, and she is going to 17 cities and over 20 churches this summer.  Heather and I have talked about her trip and project many times, and we had talked about documenting the journey through video.  It was half of a joke, until I got that text two weeks ago.

“Let me know if you’re seriously interested in coming with me at all this summer…”

I started to think, and I began to have idea after idea.  I shared my ideas with Heather, and she was as excited as I was.

So here’s what my summer is going to look like.  I’m going to travel to 17 cities and over 20 churches over the course of 10 weeks.  I’ll be producing videos of people we meet in the church and in the community, videos of us talking about what we learned at each church we visit and daily blog and social media updates of what we’re learning and experiencing.

I’m going to be creating a multimedia experience for people to follow our trip, as well as go more in-depth with the leaders we meet and things we learn.  It’s an incredible opportunity that God has put in my path, and I could not be more excited.  This project has the capability to be an amazing asset for local churches who want to engage young adults in the community.  We have the opportunity to learn from the best in the country and then share what we learn with every church in America.

Heather has an itinerary and a budget.  We have friends who want to join us for different legs of the trip.  Everything is slowly coming together.

Every time I talk about this, I feel like I tell the story of what’s going on a little differently, so I would love to talk to you about it if you’re interested.  There’s a link to my email, as well as all of my social media accounts to the left.  If you want to know more, just contact me through any of those, and I would love to talk.

I would love your support in this, whether it be through talking with me, finances or prayers.  Please get in touch if there’s anything you want to know about this project.  I’m so excited to take this journey and more importantly to help equip the church with resources that can help them reach the 20-somethings in their community.

Here are some links if you want to learn more and/or support the project:

Kickstarter — https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/256986231/the-church-and-the-twenty-something-triage

Heather’s Blog — http://heatherstevens1.wordpress.com/

“Don’t work where I’m working”

When I was growing up, I would always be working with my dad around the house doing everything from shoveling snow (which in Edinboro, Pa. we get a lot of) to doing yard work to home improvement projects to building the deck.

I couldn’t have been more than five or six when we were building the deck on the back of our house.  I wanted to be helpful, so I would go outside and try to help in whatever way my young self could, but there was a problem.

I didn’t really know what I was doing, so I would just stay attached to my dad’s hip and attempt to do similar jobs to what he was doing.  And this experience was the first time I remember hearing a phrase that I heard countless times in my childhood.

“Don’t work where I’m working.”

It’s a phrase that has become a joke among our family because I didn’t learn very quickly, and it kept being repeated and repeated and repeated to me as I continued to be in the way.  And then I started to have my own projects.

I realized how hindering it was when people were working where I was.  And more importantly, I realized how annoying I was when I was in other’s areas.

Each person on a team has their area of expertise.  There’s a reason each person is on the team.  I’m not an expert in every field, and I try not to pretend to be.  But I do get really passionate about things that I’m a part of, and that means I can get overly controlling.

That’s not the right way to lead, though.  A crucial part of leading a team is trusting that you’ve assembled a team of individuals that are experts in their field and will do their part of the project to the best of their ability.

Trust those around you. Don’t work where others are working.  Get out of the way, and let your team do what you’ve gathered them to do.

Live above the line

This is my desktop background. It reminds me every day how to get better.

I know that my last two posts now have “line” references in the title, but it is what it is.  I’m a visual learner and so images like boxes and lines make my life easier.

This “line” lesson comes from my internship at Cross Point Church in Nashville, Tenn. this summer.  I was an intern with the creative department and Jacob was in charge of the creative interns.  One day there was a slight lull in the action, so Jacob grabbed one of the other interns, Ashley, and I and headed to the glass window of the creative arts pastor’s, Brewster’s, office.  What he taught in the next five minutes was one of the most valuable lessons I learned this summer.

He drew a horizontal line in the middle of the window to start, and here begins the lesson:

Each time there’s a problem or mistake on a project there are two sets of options you have.  Your first set of options is to Blame others, make Excuses and/or Deny that there was a problem.  Those fall below the line.  Those don’t move you forward as a leader or manager or team member.  Those cause you to be static and never improve yourself or your team.

Above the line, you can take Ownership of the mistake, be Accountable for what went wrong and/or accept Responsibility for the problem.  When you do one or all of these things, you can improve on your mistakes and move on to the next project with a better understanding of what needs to go differently next time.

Below the line, you’re caused to stay stagnant, not move forward and lay in B.E.D. (take note of the capital letters in the below the line paragraph), but when you live above the line, you stick your O.A.R. in the water and move forward (take note of the capital letters again).

It’s a simple choice we have every time something goes wrong.  How do we want to cope with the faults of our project?  What’s the best way for our team to improve and move forward?  Choose to live above the line.

“Live above the line” lesson complete with illustrations. Photo by @B_REWSTER.

Think on the line

Snow day? Of course we went sledding!

Yesterday, my northern self experienced my first true snow storm while at Virginia Tech.  Between Wednesday around noon and Thursday at about 5 p.m., Blacksburg got hit with 20″ of snow!  Which means that Tech FINALLY cancelled classes.  This is a rarity, as in this is the first time since I’ve been at school that we’ve had classes cancelled.

Needless to say, my roommates, neighbors and all friends were excited to pretend we were back in grade school and do everything from sled to help strangers get their car unstuck to bury our neighbors’ front door (Don’t worry, we’re friends with them. Well, we were until we buried their door, anyways.)

All that is just to set the scene for what I experienced today.  Today’s a beautiful, sunny day, and I needed to get out of the house.  I had work to do and was getting a little stir crazy, so a friend, Megan, and I decided to head to Starbucks to be productive.

Growing up in northwest Pennsylvania, I grew up driving in terrible snow and ice conditions.  I’m used to it and consequently, can do it.  What I’m used to is knowing the limits of what my car can do in the snow.  I can’t punch it through an intersection.  I have to take it easy through a turn.  But the key is that I know my limits.

On my way to Starbucks, where I sit now, I noticed there are two types of drivers out today.  There are those who think their limits are greater than they are, and there are those who don’t know their limits.

Let’s start with the first person out today.  We have all been behind those people who are driving five miles-per-hour while their fingertips are white from gripping the steering wheel so tightly.  They’re nervous because they think that disaster is going to strike at any second.  They think the snow is going to throw their car into a ditch if they go any quicker.  They think the snow is a bigger limitation than it is.  It takes them way too long to get where they’re going, and they’re drenched in sweat when they arrive because the journey was so harrowing in their mind.

We do this all the time in our work.  We think that someone’s going to hate our final product.  We think we’re not going to be able to finish a project, so why bother starting it.  We see all the struggles ahead of us and decide to not bother.  We sit and overanalyze every single little detail. We drive through our work at a five-mile-per-hour pace, never get anywhere and stress ourselves out the whole time.

At the other end of the section, there are the crazies who must not see the snow.  They try to beat the yellow light on a left turn and spin out when they try to punch it.  They come up to a stop sign going 20 and slide right through the intersection.  They take a turn too quickly and end up embedded in a snow bank.  You know these people.  They’re the people you hope aren’t following you when you come to a stop sign that’s at the bottom of a hill.

We’re sometimes those people, too.  We think that we don’t have any constraints.  We can brainstorm as if there’s no budget.  We pretend that we can write, draw or design whatever we want.  We forget that there’s a brand, theme or storyline to be consistent with.  We forget that our studio only has four cameras, not fifteen.  We can’t do all seven worship songs we want to in a service.  We don’t see our constraints.  We dream too big.

Thinking outside the box is a great place to start in our creative process, but at some point we need to realize that we have some constraints.  They’re different for everyone, but they’re always a reality.

We can’t go through life believing our constraints will keep us down and never allow us to do anything, but we also can’t pretend there are no constraints.

We need to think and create right on the edge of the box.  Not outside or way inside.  Our best work comes when it’s created right on the line.

When we think big enough and creatively enough to avoid the clutter in the middle of the box, but not so far outside of the box that our constraints keep us from bringing our ideas to fruition, that’s our sweet spot.

Are you working at five miles-per-hour? Or are you drifting through stop signs out of control?

My greatest challenge

I saw this video for the first time on Monday night.  I don’t have really anything to say about it.  Judah Smith says it better than I ever could.  This is the message I need to preach to myself everyday.

Believing that I truly stand in “en empty space of forgiveness” is something that’s so difficult for me.  I have the hardest time forgiving myself.  I can forgive others when they hurt me, but for some reason, I find it so difficult to forgive myself.

So as I go through my day, I have to remind myself of this message over and over again…

“And I feel the love of God saying, ‘Go, son.  Live your life.  I’ll pay the price.'”

Do it right or don’t bother

Follow @garyvee if you want to see someone who works hard and does things 100% the first time. This guy is a stud and hustles every day to reach his full potential.

I’m not sure if there’s a conference that all parents go to or if there’s a secret email list they subscribe to (I was going to say Facebook group, but that’s a little complicated for some parents), but parents all have similar catch phrases they use when raising their kids.  One particular phrase I remember hearing as I was growing up was…

“If you’re not going to take the time to do it right, don’t bother doing it at all.”

And that annoyed 10-year-old me so much because those words basically meant that whatever I did was going to have to be done again.  I would “clean” my room, aka move some stuff around and vacuum the parts of the floor that weren’t covered by toys, clothes, etc., and Mom would come in and inevitably say something along the lines of “If you’re not going to take the time to do it right, don’t bother doing it at all.”

So I went back to cleaning and picked things up off the floor to vacuum, take pictures and toys off of shelves to dust and make my bed.  I hated cleaning as a kid and still hate it now, so if you’re sensing some animosity about cleaning, it’s true.  I hate it, but now I realize why it’s important.

And I realize now why both my parents always made me do things over and over until I finally did them the right way.  I learned in those times, whether I realized it or not, that it was just easier to do it to the best of my ability from the start.  I saved time, energy and frustration if I just did what I was supposed to from the get go.

My dad always tells me, “Someday you’re going to say to yourself, ‘Hey, that old guy knew what he was talking about.'”

Well Dad, today’s that day.  You and Mom were right.  If I wasn’t going to take the time to do something right, it wasn’t worth doing at all.  Why would I want to be seen as someone who does a job halfway?  Professors don’t respect that.  Students don’t respect that.  Employers don’t respect that.  God doesn’t even respect that.

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” -Colossians 3:23

Our generation is characterized as lazy and entitled by so many that I want to prove those people wrong.  My parents raised me to know the value of hard work and more importantly, hard work done well.

It’s not easy to give it your all day in and day out.  Believe me, I love a Netflix-filled day on the couch as much as the next college student.  When Top Gear gets going, it’s hard to not watch Jeremy, James and Richard drive fast cars and blow things up, especially when Netflix just rolls right on to the next episode without a single click.

But when Netflix stops to make sure that you’re still watching, that’s probably a sign to get up and get to work.

To be honest, writing this post is as much to motivate myself as it is to hopefully motivate some of you.  I need to get up everyday and get to work.  I want to show Mom and Dad they raised me right.  I want to show God that everything I do is going to be done with all of my effort.  I want to prove to the haters of our generation that we know how to hustle.

What are areas in your life where you need to get to work?

You’re doing great

I was in my video studio class on Tuesday, and we were in the midst of our first production of the semester.  I was in the director’s chair and doing my best to keep up with the fast pace of calling camera switches, inserting graphics and keeping up with audio cues.

Everyone in there was doing their absolute best, but we’re all human.  Inevitably someone was going to make a mistake.

At one point I called a standby for a camera and the video switcher took the camera live.  Not a big deal, but the second she punched the button, I could hear in her voice that she was getting stressed. “Oh, shoot. Sorry!”

She had been crushing it up to that one tiny slip-up.

“No, don’t be sorry.  You’re doing great.”

We kept trucking through that production, and she did an incredible job for the rest of the show.

Looking back on that moment, I realized how pivotal it was.  We were in the thick of it, and things were getting crazy.  One mistake could have thrown everything into chaos, but it didn’t.  Why?

Encouragement changes everything.

Just a few positive words restore people’s confidence in themselves, and if someone else believes in them, then they feel like they can do it.

I’ve had many days completely turned around by someone who decides to just pass on a few words of encouragement.  I’ve been doing my best to pass it on lately because I’ve seen the effect encouraging words have in my life.

A friend of mine has been having to make some really tough decisions over the past few weeks.  I’ve seen it stressing him out day in and day out.  People are pulling him this way and that.  The world does that to us, and rarely do we get a thank you for what we’ve done.

So I decided I was going to be that person who made sure he knew that he’s ok.  In fact, he’s great.

I just sent a quick text that let him know I was proud of how he was handling it and especially how he’s been handling everything as a follower of Christ.  I wanted to let him know that I’m in his corner.  Rooting for him and always backing him.

The response I got wasn’t anything mind-blowing, just a heartfelt thank you and a note about how much support means to him.  But it cemented how much encouragement can mean to people when they’re in the middle of real, stressful, day in and day out life.

We talked for a while about what’s going on, and I could sense his stress being relieved as he started to gain confidence in his decisions again.

When things seem dreary, encouragement change someone’s entire outlook.

All it takes are a few simple words like, “You’re doing great.”

Who needs encouragement in your life?  Take a second to let them know you think they’re great.

In the mystery

Hillsong United did what Hillsong does best yet again this summer.  They wrote an incredible song called “Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)”.  If you haven’t heard it, check it out.

As I was walking out of my final Tuesday class two weeks ago, “Oceans” came on, and there was one line in the first verse that resonated with me.  This was far from the first time I heard the song, but for some reason, one particular line jumped out at me this time.

“And there I find you in the mystery…”

Just that line.  It got me thinking about my own life.  There’s so many times when I’ve been doubting, curious, searching.  Trying to solve the mystery of my own life.

These last few months of my life have been lived in and out of the mystery.

What am I going to do after college?  Where am I going to live?  Am I going to have a job?  What’s that job going to be?  I spent four years meeting new people here, am I going to be able to do it again?

Mostly it boils down to one thought, though.  What’s God’s plan for me?

But without fail, God shows up in these times.  When I start to worry constantly about these questions, God takes my hand and says it’ll be ok.  There’s a plan, and God’s got it under control.

“Oceans” always brings me back to the story of Peter walking on the water to meet Jesus.  Peter jumped out of the boat into the mystery of the raging sea.

Peter was fine at first.  He walked on water with Jesus.  But then he started to realize the unsteadiness of the waves.  The logic he was defying by walking on water.  He started to realize he was in the mystery, and it freaked him out.

So he started to sink into the waves.  But he cried out, “Lord, save me!”  Jesus took his hand and saved his life.

Whenever I get overwhelmed with the mysteries in my own life, I start to sink.  I sink into being selfish, feeling lonely and being in a generally terrible mood.

And then, sometimes without me even calling out, Jesus takes my hand.  He pulls me out and keeps me from drowning in my own futile attempts to solve the mystery.

The mystery is scary.  The world is raging around us every day.  But we remember that Jesus will reach down into the mystery and pull us out.

“And I will call upon Your name, and keep my eyes above the waves.  When oceans rise, my soul will rest in Your embrace.”

What are the mysteries in your life right now?