Kaizen!

Is what I would use to describe our approach into creating an engaging worship environment, actually it's something that I would use to describe anyone on Lifepoint's staff (Both volunteer and paid). It's something that's part of our staff culture.

So what is Kaizen? (Okay, I know some of you are googling it at the moment, so I'll wait). So now you know, at least I hope you do, for everyone one else who was waiting for my explanation allow me to enlighten you.

Kaizen, the literal translation for this term means improvement, however to the Japanese (irksome glare in the general direction of everyone on the Drive Conference... especially Clark, with the possible exceptions of Kristen, Ben and Ronnie) the word goes much deeper, it's a term for a continuous (unending perhaps) quest for excellence. It looks at every part of an organization and analyzes not only the the results, but also the process that brought them about, and is always looking for ways to improve the systems.

I remember reading about PDCA Plan Do Check Adjust, and that's something that takes place every week at Lifepoint, every week we plan the service (okay actually a few weeks out now, but work with me on this!) We then do the service, the following Monday we Check (review) how it went, and the Adjust our next Plan for the following week, we not only look at the results, (Life changes via salvation's, baptisms, etc...) but on what went into the service that produced said results.

Applied to daily life it's a quest for personal excellence in all aspects of life. One part of my life I know that I apply Kaizen to is drumming, I'm always studying different techniques grips, etc (which is actually what lead to me learning the tradition grip that I often use).

Content, but never satisfied, a never ending quest for excellence... How can you apply the philosophy of Kaizen into your life?

Is it really on your side?

Here at Lifepoint we're gearing up for our fall semester with the kick-off series "One Month to Live" and the series in general has gotten me thinking, how often do we think of our lives as a clock where the hands go continuously around in a circle. It's understandable to think like that as we go about our lives on a daily basis, but it's perhaps more proper to consider time in the frame of an hourglass.

As maudlin as it sounds, we all have an appointment to die, (baring the rapture but that's a whole 'nother post)and every day we get closer to that appointment, our time on this earth isn't infinite so the hands of a clock going in a circle isn't as good an illustration of our time as the sands that fall from an hourglass.

I had the opportunity to hear Willie Jolley speak a few years ago and I still remember how he began his talk, it's a poem that has, and probably will stay with me for the rest of my life, "I have only just a minute, only sixty seconds in it, forced upon can't refuse it, didn't seek it didn't choose it, But it's up to me to use it, I must suffer if I loose it, give account if I abuse it, Just a tiny little minute but an eternity is in it"

So what are you doing with the time that's been given to you? 525,600 minutes in a year (With all due respect to the song) how did you spend yours?

Failing Forward

Author and speaker John C. Maxwell talks about the difference between ultimate success and lack thereof has to do with our view of and response to failure... and mind you that's paraphrased and not a direct quote as I read the book several months (A year?) ago.

That being said, I realized I've dropped a huge ball, and it's not something I've done, it's rather something I haven't really done.

One thing we talked about in our Volunteer staff meeting this morning is that there's more to our jobs than just the systems we have in place, Like what are we pouring into the people on our teams?

After chewing on that thought all morning at work, I'm not quite sure that I really have spent time getting to know the folks on my team beyond the superficial "See you at Practice on Thursday/Church on Sunday" check that I'm actually quite sure that I HAVEN'T spent any time really getting to know the amazing people on my team.

I can't tell you how many kids that everyone has, or what they're names are, and it's not like getting to know people is that hard to do, or something that I don't already know, I once read (and I honestly couldn't tell you where) is that we usually know what we're doing wrong, we just need reminders of it from time to time.

Failure on my part? No doubt, response to said failure? Well beyond the immediate "duh" reaction of hey stupid get to know your people I'm still staring at my screen trying to think of things...

So.... If you're on the worship team expect to be having coffee or something in the not-to-distant future, or heck maybe I just need to schedule something fun for the whole team to enjoy doing... hmmm that gives me a couple ideas....

The point of this post? (shrug) I'm not sure perhaps things for other people in my position as a reminder to TAKE THE TIME to get to know your team, or perhaps for my AMAZING worship teams (yes plural) to let you all know that I've been slacking, but I want you guys (and gals) to know I love y'all (egads I live in the south!) and respect your talents, time and ministry, I can say without hesitation that the practices we have and Sunday Mornings (and nights?) are the highlights of my week.

Or in other words...
Getting to know you,
Getting to know all about you.
Getting to like you,
Getting to hope you like me.

Getting to know you,
Putting it my way,
But nicely,
You are precisely,
My cup of tea.

EVERYBODY!

Getting to know you,
Getting to feel free and easy
When I am with you,
Getting to know what to say

Haven't you noticed
Suddenly I'm bright and breezy?
Because of all the beautiful and new
Things I'm learning about you
Day by day.


Sorry that was corny I admit it, but my point still stands.
Right, lunch break is over, back to work.

You've got to be kidding me.

So Clark and I have this little game we do to amuse ourselves, if someone says something really stupid we ask Public or Private, meaning did they go to a public school or a private school.

So what do you think, Public or Private?

Way too much fun!

What am I talking about? Well allow me to give you an example... good luck following it...

For all you Grammar (And spelling) Nazi's out there, this one's for you...

I tend to be very loquacious when it comes to penning, or perhaps now typing my thoughts, some people talk a lot, I write fairly decent amount I think... Despite my claims (which are yet to be proven untrue) of being the most wordy blogger on the Staff,I've got nothing on some of the other bloggers I think most (If not all of us) follow. And I know that my information and random thoughts aren't always useful to everyone but I try to do some relevant posts on a semi-regular basis... which does remind me that I haven't done one that recently so I supposed I should get to work on that.

There that didn't look to bad right? Well now shudder at how it looks now!

i tend too b hella loquaciouz wen itz comeses tew penning, ore perhaps nao typing miy thoughts, sum ppl tok lot, i riteses fairly decent ammount i fink... dispite mah claims (wich am yet 2 bee proven untrue) beeun thee mos wordy blogger oan da staff,i've haz nothing onna som o' de othr bloggers i thikns most (iffn nawt al of us) follow. an i kno dat my informsion & random thoughts aren't always useful too everyone butt i trai to do sum relevant posts oan an semi-regular basis... witch doez remind mi taht i haven't dun wun dat recently zo i suppost i shud git to wokr on taht..

Just having some fun with-- unintelligencer.com

Geek Talk....

That's right this post is for people who aren't afraid to admit their geeks!
(And yes you apple fan-boys, you're included by default in this)... for that matter if you even reading blogs to begin with chances are you're a geek... (hmmmm that gives me ideas for a Jeff Foxworthy-ish post "You might be a geek if...")

So anyways here's a few interesting geek stories that I've found and decided to share with you, that's right you, the one sitting down over there reading this

So yeah I'd like an iphone but... these are just cool... way cool imagine a world where people go from talking on their cellphone to playing in a Jazz (insert world relevant to the number of people around you) in seconds! And it's not just limited to jazz, (though that was the first thought that popped into my mind).

So this is something right out of a movie... and while it's cool it's also kind of creepy. So move aside pixar Emily's kung-fu is stronger than yours. Watch the video in the link, it's got to be seen to be believed.

Finally putting that road space to good use... Of course then you run into the problem of what to do during a cloudy day... But sure no one wants to hear MY theories of a magnetic induction generator, though there is the problem of needing a ten jigawatt flux capacitor...

Though speaking of roads reminds me that I still need to get a new gps unit... Oh look here's one, how convenient and... KIT is that you? wow GPS AND a slice of my childhood all wrapped up in one convienent package. Directions to anywhere even Beijing...

And speaking of Beijing, unless you live under a rock I'm sure you know that the Olympics are going on right now. Well apparently even up in the Satelite Of Love they're aware of what's going on....

Changing it up...

I've modified setup for the church drum kit a bit...
switched out the 13" Tama for my personal 10" Grestch (Tom)
Switched out the 13" piccolo snare for the 14" Tama with fat cat strands.... Let me say for the record that I LOVE what these new snare strands have done to my sound. It really makes the snare pop.
Cymbal setup it pretty much the same, but I added a clasped in place hi-hat, it makes it easier for me to hit a couple grooves when I don't have to worry about the l/r cross factor... and it's easier (I know cheap cop-out) than me trying to learn how to play open handed (which is on my list to do!)
I'll have to post a picture when I get a chance to take one again.

This is Lifepoint?

We have a staff culture at Lifepoint of Passion, Generosity and Honor, but there's an unwritten fourth part of that and that's having fun!

Here's a little video that the staff did introducing our two newest staff (not to be confused with volunteer staff) members, showing that yes, we do indeed have fun with the little camera thingy that comes with a mac.


And yes, they do actually do work most of the time, at least they are every time I've gone by the office.

Lessons Learned...

Okay, so this post is going to both the Lifepoint Worship blog, (Check it out if you haven't yet) and my personal blog (Which again, I would encourage you to checkout if you haven't seen it yet).

But as this past week we did an acoustic worship set there are few lesson's I've learned as music director that I'd like to pass along to you.


Point number one: It's really important to be off stage and evaluating worship on a regular basis. (Ironically Reid just talked about this on North Point's music blog, the same day I talked to Pick about the issue).


Point number two: Acoustic sets, are well recieved by the people attending the service (at least the few we've done have been), however, they are much harder on the music team.


Point number three: When you normally have a male worship leader, and switch to a female lead do not forget that every song will need to be re-keyed, and allow lead time for this to happen rather than wait for practice to role around.

We've had other churches come to see how we do things at Lifepoint and one person commented that it seemed like we had it all figured out, well we don't but we're always learning how to do things better, (hmm this gives me an idea for another post),

We Interrupt this regulary scheduled blog to bring you...

As probably the most active (and unquestionably the most verbose) Blogger in the Lifepoint Staff, (Both Volunteer and paid staff) I also try to keep current on what other churches and ministries are up to. As such I follow many other blogs, only some of which I have in my blog list.

The results of the above are occasionally I link to another blog for information or insight, or something of that nature. Today, though I just wanted to share something that I thought was really flipping (and by use of the term "flipping" I am merely attempting to state that this goes way beyond the term awesome) awesome.

As perhaps not everyone at Lifepoint knows (But will if they read this post) we are part of a network of churches (Ground Level Network) The church spearheading this is Elevation Pastored by Pastor Furtick. They are hugely impacting their community and have invested a lot into Lifepoint Church.

So back to the reason for this post, I was reading Wade Joy's Blog (Elevation's Worhsip Pastor) and found THIS POST, and then went to Pastor Furticks Blog and Read THIS POST and I got excited. and I mean excited, why? Read and see for yourself!

Testing... (tap, tap, Tap)

Testing a new program for blogging called Zoundry Raven, it's a portable application (that fits on a flash drive) and allows me to write and save my blog posts, and then post them to multiple blogs (which I run) at the same time...

So this is a test to see if it's working correctly .

I get no respect...

See? (You'll need to go down to bullet points)

Minor changes, Major results...

It's amazing what a huge effect you can get from a small change... well on second thought perhaps not so amazing, after all a slight shift of one or two millimeters can put your aim off by a huge amount 100 yards downrange...

Let's try this again, it's amazing what tweaking the way you do things can have a profound effect on the end result... bugger this just isn't working out right, let me jump to my point.

I play both traditional and match grip when I drum, as I had loaned out my copy of secret weapons for the modern drummer I'd been working on rudiments, my only problem is my left hand (the one in the traditional grip) wasn't working right, (well it's the left hand, so I guess it shouldn't be working right, but I digress) now I got it back and started watching and there I see what I'm doing wrong, I turn my hand somewhere between 5 and 11 degrees and bam, problem solved. I can now play just as fast (Arguably faster) with trad than match.

So why all the drumming posts? (As I've got two more I'm working on), well the drum-off is coming up and I'm debating entering.

Here's the thing I'm not a technician, and I've never had much experience playing without a band, (IE solo work), on the other hand... it's a chance to gain some experience and more importantly, from what I understand, contestants get special discounts...

Sorry getting of track here, this principle expands beyond the realm of drumming, what little adjustments can be made in your life to have a major affect on the way you live? I've been slacking a bit these last two weeks, but when I take my quiet time in the morning before I start my day, I always seem to be better equipped for the challenges (And accompanying stress).

So what minor change can you make for a major result in your life?