The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 7,200 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.
Lake Scugog, Christmas 2011. Scenic views of nature help me reflect on biblical ideas for my life.
Christmas and New Years week is a natural time for looking back and reflecting on 2011 as well as projecting and planning for 2012. It feels like our lives come under the microscope of analysis as we do things like see family and friends at reunions, read and make “top ten” lists and/or resolutions. At this time of year, we naturally evaluate how we used the 365 days and what look for gems of what profited us in our most valued relationships. For me 2011 was an especially steep and taxing year of growth and learning through tests and trials. I know I will learn a lot in 2012 as well, but I hope for a smoother road and protective grace to buffer my heart and mind. I’m an ironic mix of tired and enthusiastic these days. I hope and pray that 2012 to be my best year ever, personally and professionally. You probably do too. 
So, in order to fuel your seasonal reflection, here are some Bible verses that God has used this past year of 2011 to set me in the right direction of heart and mind for a fruitful 2012! Perhaps you might want to look at this list as you plan 2012. Perhaps you have some key verses from 2011 to share in the comment section. Maybe you want to memorize one of these for 2012.
In 2011, God used these verses to teach me about my calling:
1. Contentment:
Philippians 3:8 - Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.
1 Timothy 6:6 - But godliness with contentment is great gain,..
2. Effectiveness:
John 15:5 - I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
Micah 6:8 - He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
3. Opposition:
Hebrews 12:3 – Consider him (Jesus Christ) who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
4. Interpersonal Attitudes:
Colossians 3:12-13 - Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
5. Teaching:
2 Timothy 2:1-2, 22-26
1-2 You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
22-26 So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.
6. Progress:
1 Timothy 4:15-16 - Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
2 Corinthians 4:7-9 - But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;…
7. Temptation:
1 Corinthians 10:13 – No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
1 Timothy 6:9 – But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
8. Joy:
Nehemiah 8:10 - Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
9. Mindfulness and Though Life.
Romans 12:2 - Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
2 Corinthians 10:5 – We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,…
10. Heaven:
Revelation 22:3-5 - No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
My encouragement prayer for everyone of you readers in 2012 is from this verse, which has been massively encouraging to me during tough times of this year:
Colossians 1:11-12 - 11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
Image via CrunchBase
Image via CrunchBase
Image via CrunchBase
At a recent public speaking event, I was introduced by the vibrant Emcee to the curious audience as a “Baptist Pastor and Social Media strategist“. Those are not two phrases you would expect to hear describing the same person, right? Those terms have incongruity initially, but I think they are a match for a man with a message who wants to improve his impact in 2012. Perhaps you share that ambition?
My 150th blog post is about my use of social media past, present and future.
1. How did you get so involved in social media?
In the last few years, I have had seismic shifts in the tectonic plates beneath my life. People, places and things that were central to my life changed entirely. Like an earthquake, the changes happened dramatically and in a short period of time. These life changes opened windows of opportunity for rebuilding with innovative communication. I wanted to find ways of communicating ”who I was becoming” and “what I was doing” in my new life, city and job to the dispersed and diverse range of old and new relationships so that I could find and foster a new community for the future. That was my goal: connecting. I adapted to my surroundings in many ways to ensure my survival, success and service in my new life as a thirty-something single Pastor in Toronto. Social media tools aided me in the quest for communication and community building. A turning point occurred during three pivotal conversations with colleagues. They tipped me into action by modelling and training me in some basic use skills that were enough to get me out there are sharing my life and ministry. It has been very successful so far: Web savvy neighbours have joined the church, local leaders learn about what a pastor does, ideas for event involvement have been promoted, teaching is archived, friends and family feel connected to me. I have creative outlets for sharing my exciting life and ministry adventures. That is the why and how of my social media involvement. At present, I am active with Facebook and Twitter accounts plus WordPress websites. I am not on Google+ or LinkedIn yet. I am a Mac.
2. How do I plan to utilize social media tools in 2012?
The purpose has progressed from the initial stage of transitioning my personal and professional life into the Toronto chapter (described above). Now, I want to use it to improve and expand my personal and professional impact for this chapter and the next. I am now a Toronto Christian teacher and leader with some street credibility. I want to take it up a notch this year! Statistical and anecdotal evidence indicates that my main readers are leaders. I want to communicate, by example and principle, leadership lessons from my life to service minded people around the city, province and country. They may be interested in politics, religion, education, finance, the arts, sports, health care, law, business, mercy & justice works. I will try to publish events and ideas that others may learn from. The goal has evolved from connecting into impact. Tools that best serve that purpose need evaluation. I think I will focus more on my websites as the content source and use twitter and facebook to drive or draw viewers there. There may be greater future value in that strategy. I am currently contemplating how to optimize my employment of these tools and maybe add more video with VideoPress or You Tube. I am evaluating other media tools for the tool belt in 2012.
3. What is the biggest challenge to your impact improvement through social media.
First, the discipline of editing content that I have created. Second, knowing how and when to use each tool for the optimum impact. In a nut shell, the challenge is consistently sharing the right content through the right tool at the right time for the right result. Each tool has a different place in the timeline of events and target audience that helps me communicate ideas among various people. Email sends correspondence for record keeping, fact exchanges and behavioural directives. Books are a for extended manifestos, stories or “how-to” manuals. Wordpress is like a magazine article forum for essays, reflections or report style updates (like this). YouTube is a video clip sharing database (VideoPress compares). Twitter is an information stream about personal and corporate brands in various markets. Facebook is a social relationship network. The biggest challenges to improving my impact are wisely packaging and shipping the content I create. Threats to improving impact are me sharing too much, sharing too often, sharing too little, targeting the wrong people, using the wrong tools, publishing to early or too late.
Strategy Summary: My impact may improve in 2012 with wise packaging and publishing of leadership lessons and involvement ideas from my life and ministry experiences through optimized social media tools.
Discussion Question: What is your social media strategy for 2012?
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Building our church’s strategic plan (outlined below) reminds me of the work and reasons for laying these TTC Streetcar tracks (picture above). Both are parallel in a slow construction process that results in securing effective and efficient service to citizens. The Roncesvalles Renewed program included laying new tracks for streetcars. Our strategic plan involved laying new “tracks” for our ministries. Solid as steel, straight as an arrow. For the last few years, our church, like neighbourhood has been under renewal and reconstruction. Just as the new street car tracks were laid, so our ministry leaders have laid new tracks for our church to progress. Ding, Ding…ALL ABOARD!!!
Dear RumBloggers,
It has been a busy fall season and I apologize for not writing to you sooner. This blog is a way for me to express some of my life and work so I thought you might be interested in knowing one of the major things I have been working on implementing this year. This is our church’s strategic plan. This document is what our board, members and ministry department leaders are aligning their efforts with. These are our Street Car tracks. It is the fruit of patient and humble consultation, Scriptural reflection and prayerful alignment. The process was stretching and strengthening! As a church, we owe much to Robin Pifer and Gary V Carter for the consultation and coaching they provided throughout. I am proud of the progress we have made to get into this and optimistic about our future in fulfilling it! Read it, pray it through and give your time treasures and talents to making it happen!
Our Mission, as High Park Baptist Church, is to be “followers of Jesus Christ impacting lives in High Park Neighbourhoods”. High Park neighbourhoods are those located in the Parkdale-High Park riding of Toronto.
We are motivated by Great Collective Calling to live out the Great Commandment and Great Commission in our Great Community (Matthew 22, Matthew 25, Matthew 28, Acts 1:8, Acts 2:42)
Here are the 15 Goals for our 4 Values : Worship, Serving, Outreach, Equipping.
Value 1: Worship – A prayerful community worshipping Jesus Christ passionately in Spirit and in Truth.
Goal 1: Worship using Bible and prayer in all meetings.
Goal 2: “Service design team” energizes Sunday with diversity and harmony.
Goal 3: Whole group obedience the Great Commission & Great
Commandment by asking for recommitments in public at important
seasonal transitions.
Goal 4: Rediscover spaces and aligning use with the mission by
Building Improvement Group (BIG) which has a ‘BIG inside’ and ‘BIG
outside’.
Value 2: Service – Serving and encouraging with trust, compassion and care.
Goal 5: Develop and display a clear discipleship process of enfolding.
Ex. Root Group Strategy.
Goal 6: Create and communicate a simple process of decision making to
assure decisions are made and implemented as intended. Ex.
Organizational Chart.
Value 3: Outreach – Extending Christ’s freeing love to the Spiritually hungry.
Goal 7: Expect and work toward a 5-10% conversion growth rate for each
of the next 5 years. This requires an attitude shift and presents a
measurement challenge.
Goal 8: Identify and equip an “evangelist team” to develop connecting
points in High Park neighbourhoods. Specialists for effective
leveraging of local events.
Goal 9: Equip and train everyone to be part of the “outreach team”.
Corporate responsibility and fairness demands that we share the work
load. Opportunities to minister belong to all believers.
Goal 10: Assemble teams to pray in strategic places in High Park
neighbourhoods; to notice and describe the categories of people here,
as well as needs and opportunities for creative outreach.
Goal 11: Conduct two outreach training opportunities and three
outreaches to bless the community. Leveraging local events better. 2
handed approach to Christmas and Easter events.
Value 4: Equipping – Empowering followers of Christ to maturity in ministry.
Goal 12: Equip every member to be a passionate, optimally placed
minister, ready to “pay a price” as an effective steward (Time,
Talents, Treasure) pursuing the vision of the church to glorify
Christ. Support and steer those who seek service.
Goal 13: Write and evaluate ministry descriptions for any and all
programs. Develop a new culture of excellence, responsibility and
accountability.
Goal 14: Evaluate each staff member (paid and volunteer), as well as
all programs and ministry systems, then make adjustments. Attitude
shift required.
Goal 15: Effectively manage the clear leadership structure.
Reflection Questions:
1. How does this compare to the plan at your church or organization?
2. What can you do to help achieve these goals?
