i am continually helped in church planting by information designed for small business owners. the two are obviously not the same thing but they do face many of the same challenges. today lifehacker posted a link to their ultimate small business resource guide. some of the things listed are ones that i am already using but i have still found several resources that i will probably start using in the future. it’s well worth a look if your are trying to do impressive things on a small budget.
mr. spork
i love woot. i think i have mentioned that fact before but i thought i would mention it again. it’s just a fun way of doing commerce. anyhow they had the above shirt for sale yesterday and the nerd that is hidden away in me (not very well hidden but still hidden) had to have the shirt. for those of you who are a little slower i’ll point you to the title of this post. hopefully that will help you pick up on the humor.
tired phrase alert – vision casting
if you are involved in the church culture at all (sometimes versus CHRISTianity) you know that there are certain words and phrases that come into favor at various times. i assume it’s the same in every other “industry” and/or organizational culture in the world. the phrases are inside words that all those who are a part of the group understand (or at least pretend that they do). it’s probably just because i am a pastor and therefore inherently a part of the church culture that these things bother me so much, but they really do drive me nuts. therefore, i’m going to start listing various church culture words and phrases that drive me nuts. i’ll begin with “vision casting.”
i hear this used all the time. i think some pastors have mental competitions to see who can mention casting a vision more. what i understand this to me is motivating people to follow the vision that has already been established (at least in the pastor’s mind). it’s not really so much throwing a vision out there (or casting hopefully implies some catching) as it is placing emotional “carrots” in front of people to get them to work toward the already established vision (or mission). why can’t we just call it motivation? i have a couple of pastors’ conferences i’m going to over the next few months and i promise this will be one of the big phrases at each one.
anyhow, some wonderful pastors i love and respect use this word so this post isn’t really a gripe about the phrase being wrong as much as it is about being over used (or overthrown as the case may be). i think for the fun of it i will start using the phrase “vision jitterbuging” when other people say “vision casting” because a jitterbug is my favorite lure to cast and quite effective at catching too.
SIDE NOTE – feel free to add your own words that drive you nuts.