Seriously, it’s like being a parent. As a parent of three, I have learned a few things about parenting. One of those is to not give in to bad behavior. For example, when we were letting our kids “cry it out” for the first few times, it was important to let them cry until they stopped. If we went in there to try to get them to stop crying after they had been crying for a while, all we were doing was teaching them that they had to cry for a certain length of time before we would come in and comfort them.
Likewise, if our older kids throw a fit for a few hours to get something we don’t want them to have, and we eventually give in, then they have learned the length of time they need to throw a fit in order to get what they want.
Well, that’s what I see is happening with Ohio State and ESPN & Sports Illustrated. Those two have now learned that to get a Head Coach fired, all they have to do is throw a fit for 4 or 5 months. If they drag someone through the mud long enough, they will eventually get him/her fired.
Am I saying that ESPN is biased against Ohio State. Yes.
Just look at the amount of brow beating that former coach Pete Carrol of USC received for the mistakes that were made while he was head coach. They pale in comparison, by enormous amounts. But ESPN always loved Pete Carrol, I know because it drove me nuts. He had created a dynasty at USC, just as Tressel did at Ohio State. You would think that ESPN would just trample Pete Carrol in the same way they are trampling Tressel and Ohio State, but they didn’t.
You’d think, but they didn’t. They didn’t even trample Reggie Bush in the same way they have trampled Terrel Pryor.
This might be a good place to stop and clarify, they made mistakes. Pryor made mistakes, as did the other players. Tressel made a mistake by not turning them in immediately. But seriously, how does getting some tattoos for signed memorabilia compare to getting cars and what not?
Or what about what’s his name from Auburn. I didn’t ever hear that his case was overturned. I heard that the NCAA concluded that he hadn’t personally received the money, but that doesn’t mean his dad didn’t. And sure they talked about that for a while, but not nearly in the same amount as they have talked about Tressel, Pryor and Ohio State. And receiving thousands of dollars is worse than receiving tattoos.
Of course today, there are new accusations that Pryor was getting checks for signed stuff. And I’m sure they will find the evidence they are looking for. I have no doubt of it.
The big sports news people want Ohio State to be destroyed, and now that they’ve made progress, they aren’t going to stop. Like the quote from Air Force One: “Give a mouse a cookie, he’s going to want a glass of milk.”
Ohio State made a huge mistake in letting Tressel go, because now ESPN, Sports Illustrated & Yahoo are going to want their glass of milk too. And if Ohio State doesn’t give it, they’re going to put pressure on the NCAA to get it for them.
College sports programs should never give in to the demands of the media, because they will always ask for a cookie.
Who’s next? Well, it won’t take long before it’s your team.
I could easily propose we flip the coin. Let’s put the writers, researchers and announcers under the same scrutiny they have put Tressel and others through. Ethically speaking. Would it do any good? Of course not. The standards aren’t the same. We hold coaches (especially ones with Christian morals) to standards that are far superior than the standards we hold for the people who call them on the carpet. Do you suppose someone as ESPN has ever taken money inappropriately to write an article that isn’t true? Hmmm.
Instead, I proposed this, get out of the way. Report the news, don’t make the news. If your ratings are slipping in the off-season, don’t create news where there is no news. Just because you’ve created a need for year round news in a sport that isn’t played year round, doesn’t mean you have the right to make news where there was none. Just as we get frustrated with referees who make bad calls and don’t seem to let our teams just play, ESPN and the others should do the same thing. Stay out of the way. Report the news don’t make it.
Hey, I thought I’d post a link really quickly to a recent post on www.lindnerphotographic.com. They are some pictures Bekki took of Hannah & Henry that we had printed for our house. We were actually given the frames, (Which are tall and narrow) and we had to find some pictures to put in them.
Here’s the Link: http://www.lindnerphotographic.com/2009/02/hannah-and-henry/
Do you ever feel like you’re at war with yourself? Not as in split personalities, but in terms of you desire to have a perfect worship service and your desire to please God. Are these even at odds with each other? In this week’s episode, David and Kevin talk about trying to find a balance between our desire for perfection while at the same time not loosing sight of what’s important. Kevin talks about a recent disaster service he went through at his church and some of the thoughts he had regarding what was an appropriate response to the weekend.
This is and issue that I’m sure many of us deal with. We would love to hear how you deal with the perfectionism problem. If you have some advice on this subject, or you would like to respond to the advice that we give in this podcast, feel free to comment on this post. You can also join in the conversation by joining our network, or fill out the contact form, or sending us an email. david@worshipministrycatalyst.com or kevin@worshipministrycatalyst.com.
We truly appreciate your faithful listening. We hope that you find these podcast both entertaining and informative in helping you take the worship ministry you are involved in down a path of excellence. God bless you in your week of preparing for the weekend.
Hey everyone, I just wanted to let you know that I’m starting a Church Leadership Reading group on www.goodreads.com. It’s a reading group that will read through leadership books and then discuss how they apply to our churches and our leadership roles within the churches.
If you’re interested, follow this link to our group. If you don’t already have an account at good reads, you will probably have to register for one, but they’re free, so there’s no downfall to that. Plus, it’s a cool way to keep tabs on what books you read, if a book you want to read is getting good reviews and a “to read” book list.
I hope you’ll think about joining and that I’ll be talking to you over there soon.
In this weeks episode of the Worship Ministry Catalyst Podcast we talk about Leadership, and specifically about vision. We’re taking part of our discussion from the book “The Leadership Challenge” by by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner.
We realize that leadership is a huge topic, and is something that we all have a lot to learn about. We also realize it’s probably the most important topic for all of us. Whether we’re in a leadership role as a staff person, a worship leader or even for those who aren’t in a leadership role, leadership is still very important.
If you have some thoughts on vision and leadership, please feel free to leave your comments on this post, or to send us an email through the contact form.
I came across this quote in a book I’m reading, The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes, Posner.
In some ways, leaders live their lives backward. They see pictures in their minds eye of what the results will look like even before they’ve started their project, much as an architect draws a blueprint or an engineer builds a model. Their clear image of the future pulls them forward. Yet visions seen only by leaders are insufficient to create an organized movement or a significant change in a company. A person with no constituents is not a leader, and people will not follow until they accept a vision as their own. Leaders cannot command committment, only inspire it.
This quote really strikes a chord with me right now, as one of the biggest thoughts on my mind is ownership/committment. I realize I am not fully responsible for the actions of others, but it is my responsibility to inspire and lead people into a place of committment.
This weekend is kind of our get back into gear weekend. We’ve been doing some low key stuff for the
summer, but now that everyone’s going back to school and their routines are getting formed for the year, we’re starting to ramp things back up. Our band was almost full this weekend. I’m doing my best to fill all the slots every weekend for now. That’s totally against my philosophy, but a necessity for right now. I hate the idea of filling slots. It just promotes a lack of ownership, when what we most desperately need right now is a sense of ownership. But, we’ve also got the pressure of being good every weekend for now, so it’s a choice I have to make.
This weekend was youth weekend. We would have liked to have done more that centered around the youth and get the youth
- Indescribable
- Unchanging
- Welcome & Intro to youth weekend
- Parent prayed for youth
- My Savior, My God
- Jesus Paid It All
- Youth Worker prayed for youth
- Sermon by Youth Pastor
- Closing prayer by Senior Pastor
- Enough
It was pretty good. I’ve been sick, so I had to let the other vocalists to most of the leading. I sang where I could but didn’t want to wreck my voice. She does a pretty good job. She’s one of our leaders who does more than just sing when she’s leading, she’ll prompt the congregation too – which is a big part of worship leading.
I’ve been forming bands for the last few months, and next week we start into a rotation of those bands, so hopefully starting next week we’ll be building some ownership and be raising the quality of what we do on a weekly basis around here.
I just wanted to let you all know that I’ll be back to blogging – probably tomorrow. I’ve been on vacation the last couple of weeks, and decided it would be good to take a little break. But, fall is here and it’s time to get back into the swing of things. So you’ll be hearing more from me again soon.
This week was great, we had a great worship time with a trio of musicians up there for the weekend. Keys, Bass & Drums. No vocalists except for me. And it turned out pretty good. The upside – I got to experiment with my coldplay keys technique and try to come up with some catchy hooks for some of the songs that are normally acoustic or electric driven, so that was kind of fun. At the same time, doing that takes away from my ability to focus solely on leading people in worship. If we had another vocalist who could lead some of the songs that would have helped quite a bit.
Here was our Set:
- All The Earth Will Sing Your Praises
- God is Great
- Welcome
- Trading My Sorrows
- Blessed be Your Name
- Message
- Heart of Worship
We did some old songs and some newer songs. The first two songs are still somewhat new to the congregation (even though they’re not new). It was a good weekend. Last night seemed to lack energy, but this morning did not. It felt as though people were really engaging and choosing to worship.
I do have to say though that I’m looking forward to next weekend when we’ll have a full band. It should be really good!
For more Worship Service Reviews Click Here!
This weekend was another good weekend. We had a new drummer this weekend – which was great. It’s great to have someone else who’s willing and excited to play. He’s got a big learning curve to pick up a bunch of new songs as he first gets going, but I’m sure he will do great.
We did:
- Rest in Your Peace (my song)
- Portland City Fest Promo
- How Great is Our God
- Holy is the Lord
- VBS Highlights
- Sermon
- Everlasting God
Bill was talking about rest and did a tremendous job talking about how we need to rest like a three year old rests with their mother. It was a great image to get people thinking about rest. Myself having a 2 year old knew exactly what he was talking about.
We only did three songs as a band, and once again, I had another vocalist lead one of the songs. This weekend it was great to be able to do that. It allowed me to focus a little more on working with our new drummer and making sure he & I were on the same page. It also helped for me to be able to fill out our sound a little bit as we only had drums, acoustic & keys.
This weekend had the potential to go really bad, and it went really well!
For more reviews see Sunday Setlists.
