Thanks to the nearly 150,000 of you who have visited my blog this year. I’m grateful for the opportunity to use this space as a platform to share ideas that matter, and to help churches and church leaders communicate and lead more effectively. If you’re reading this, know I’m thankful for you and for the opportunity to share with you. Thank you. Seriously.

Top 11 Posts of 2011

[non-conference notes!]

1. A Different Kind of Christian Demonstration at Gay Pride – #1 again! My take on a Christian demonstration at Chicago’s gay pride parade last year. This post has resonated with MANY people… over 30,000 Likes and 1,100 retweets! It’s a great story and challenge to consider how the church engages the gay community.

2. The Decade: 10 Things I’ve Learned 10 Years of Ministry - after being in ministry for over 10 years, I share 10 things I’ve learned about ministry.

3. Creative Matters - a post on the CreativeMatters ebook project I had the honor of being a part of. Check it out and get some great insights from some brilliant creative leaders.

4. My Awkward Interview with Seth Godin – In August I had the chance to interview Seth Godin as a part of the Willow Creek Association Leadership Summit. I was a bit nervous to say the least, but Seth shared some great thoughts on why we should keep poking the box!

5. You Have Permission – My riff on how why we don’t need to ask for permission to do what we know God has put on hearts to do.

6. Community Isn’t A Noun – A short rant on why community should be a word used to define our church like ‘community church,’ but an active expression of the life of our church.

7. Labels – A call for everyone to discover our true identity… in Christ.

8. A Plea for Originality – A controversial post I did on why I think we need to be original.

9. How Do You Measure Success? – A challenge to define success differently.

10. A Note to Young Leaders – Self-explanatory.

11. Interview with Paul Nevison – I interview Paul Nevison, one of the creative directors at Hillsong Church.

Top 11 Conference Notes Posts

1. Love Wins. Notes from the controversial Rob Bell interview about his book, Love Wins.

2. Tough Callings: Wess Stafford, Mama Maggie Gorban and Bill Hybels [Leadership Summit] – Probably one of the most awe-inspiring moments of the Global Leadership Summit this year.

3. Steven Furtick [Leadership Summit] – Steven Furtick from Elevation Church challenges us to dig some ditches!

4.What If We Stepped Into All God Called Us To Be? Andy Stanley [Catalyst West] – Andy Stanley shared about the 3 faces of courage in leadership.

5. Seth Godin [Leadership Summit] – Seth Godin condenses about 20 years of his genius ideas into a 30 minute talk at the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit.

6. Creating a Come & See Culture - Andy Stanley [Catalyst One Day] – Andy shares three essential ingredients to creating unique environments for people to experience the Gospel.

7. Ann Voskamp [STORY] – Ann Voskamp shares ideas on creativity. One of the most captivating speakers I heard all year!

8. Joel Houston [Catalyst East] – Joel Houston from Hillsong Church talks about the true calling of a leader.

9. Eugene Peterson [Catalyst West] – Eugene Peterson shares insights on being a pastor.

10. Patrick Lencioni [Leadership Summit] – Patrick shares about the need for vulnerability in leadership.

11. Bill Hybels [Leadership Summit] – Bill Hybels shares 5 critical questions leaders need to ask of themselves and their teams.

What do you think about these posts?

Were there any posts that were helpful for you? What type of content do you enjoy reading most on my blog? I hope to continue to be a great resource for you, so please leave me any suggestions as I begin to dream up content for 2012.

Thanks again for reading… I appreciate you!

While you’re at it, check out my Top 10 Posts of 2010.

To go along with the book, there are Creative Collective Meet Ups happening around the country where you can gather and network with area creatives, get some inspiration… and be back to work by 11 [if you so choose].

The Chicago Creative Collective Meet Up is happening on Wednesday, June 29, from 9-10:30 AM at Soul City Church in Chicago. Tom Ryan, CEO of the incredible Chicago-based T-shirt company threadless will be there to share some ideas as well as Willow Creek’s brilliant creative director [and soon-to-be-author] Blaine Hogan.

If you don’t know about threadless, it’s a community-based design company with an ongoing open-call for design submissions from visual artists. The Threadless community of over 1 million members vote to determine which designs become Threadless t-shirts and other products. A poster child of the “crowdsourcing” trend, Threadless was named by Inc. Magazine as “the most innovative small company in America.”

I think there will be a lot we can learn from him and I’m excited to be there. And, you can come too! Tickets are still available for $29 online, or be one of the first six people to comment below and you can get in with me for free.

Creativity does matter in the life of the Church and if you’re local, I hope you’ll take advantage of this great opportunity to gather, learn, connect, and be inspired.

• According to @37signals, inspiration is perishable, so I’ve already shared/used 4 ideas from #Cultivate11 last week. – @loribailey
• Last week I had a great time at the Cultivate Conference.  The experience was like drinking out of a fire hydrant, and was probably one of the better conferences that I have been to in quite a while.  What I most enjoyed about the conference was the format… gatherings went from eight until noon, and then there were smaller gatherings…scattered all over the community. This desire to enable the offline conversations that really get people thinking freed us up to be able to go places you normally don’t go at church conferences.- via Matt Steen
• My take away was this: design, create, think, plan, do awesome things as if God gave a damn. Excuse my language, but it’s just so true! – via Sarah
• I ended up at Cultivate a bit by accident …once I settled in I realized I was right where I was supposed to be that morning — in the presence of very creative, inspired people who were collaborating on how to best convey content. They talked about “how to tell the story” of their brand. In this case, their churches and ministries. Talk about passion. They shared a mission – literally. They know that getting their content online in the right way can make a deep impact on other people’s lives. Rather than competing as “social media gurus”, they were there to share, learn and try on ideas for successfully conveying meaningful content. No one was promising SEO miracles or trying to impress other with their social media prowess. It was refreshing and I am sure the result will be that each attendee’s organization will do a better job reaching people online. – via Eileen
• Here are some things I gleaned from my time at Cultivate: Nobody has it figured out. We have valuable things to say. Networking is important. – via Jake

So many great ideas and thoughts were shared but I think what was key was the interaction, connections and relationships that were made. All of our sessions went from 8:30 AM-Noon each day. There were unscripted gatherings and conversations held in the afternoon but nothing formal. And each night there were organized gatherings and hang times. It was less programming, more relationship and it seemed like that’s exactly what people were looking for.

All of the speakers and panelists were phenomenal. A few sound bytes from the speakers that hit home for me…

• “You may be the driving force for change God has placed in your organization.” – Phil Cooke
• “Churches [and church creatives] should be creative leaders, not creative imitators” – Danny Yount
• “Design is proof of God’s image in us.” – Mel McGowan
• “My fear is that we’ll succeed at something that doesn’t matter.” – Shelene Bryan
• “Just because technology is available doesn’t mean you should use it, have a purpose behind what you release.” – Charles Lee
• “How are we leveraging technology to reach others for Christ?” – Richard Kang
• “Tangible social interaction is what heals people.” – Mark Horvath

Immense thanks goes out to Dawn Nicole Baldwin, her husband Keith, Curtis Templeton, Pam Howell and the entire team at FCC Huntington Beach for helping to make Cultivate 11 happen. It was an honor to serve with all of you! Thanks to all of the panelists and speakers for your time and investment. Thanks to everyone who came, especially our international guests who came from Australia, Canada, and the UK. And thanks to the sponsors that made Cultivate 11 happen: AWANA, MMBB, Clover Sites, MonkDev, and Jarbyco.

If you missed it, we should have the video available soon or you can catch up by checking out my notes.

It looks like Cultivate 12 is going to happen. So stay tuned and watch for details!

Were you at Cultivate or did you follow online? What are your thoughts, reflections, or take-aways from the experience? Share them below!

We found out a week before that we had the chance to get tickets and couldn’t turn down the opportunity. I was scheduled to be in San Diego for the weekend following the Cultivate Conference but quickly jumped on the phone, changed plans, re-arranged flights, booked new ones, and after narrowly getting back home to Chicago [my flight landed at O'Hare at 12 AM], headed to Harpo for Oprah’s Last-Ever Makeover Extravaganza. The episode airs on May 12, so I won’t give away too many details but just share about the experience.

Pulling up at Harpo there was a buzz in the air as a crowd of audience members stood in line. Knowing that there were only a few more episodes left, we were all in a for a once-in-a-lifetime experience sitting in the audience for one of the last tapings of the Oprah show.

I grew up watching Oprah every day after school and have been a huge fan of Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes, so being there was just slightly exciting. Ok, I was totally geeked.

Thanks to the hook-up from a friend, we were part of a 25-member group of people who got the royal treatment as guests of the show. Since it was Oprah’s last makeover show the ENTIRE AUDIENCE got a makeover. They flew in celebrity makeup artists and hairstylists and transformed one of their studios into a salon. Since I’m a guy my makeover basically meant they did my hair differently and made me wear bronzer. We also got brand-new outfits to wear and a $100 gift card to Old Navy.

After we were primped and made ready, the 25 of us were ushered to the office level of Harpo to Oprah’s screening room, a theater where she watches movies and screens episodes. I may have peeked in her office, too. Since we had to get there at 9:30 AM and the show wasn’t taping until 1 PM [because of all of the makeovers] they gave us a catered lunch. As time drug on I have to say we were all getting more and more anxious, having no idea what to expect.

At one point, Oprah’s dog Sadie came trotting through like she owned the place [I think she does, actually] and we all had to pet her just so we could say we pet Oprah’s dog. So we did.

Once it was close to showtime, the makeup team came back and touched up our makeup and stylists made sure that our clothes were just right. We were then ushered through the main hallway, down Oprah’s main staircase, through the infamous blue hall of photos and were all seated in the front two rows. Yes, we were seated in the second row… and it wasn’t normal audience seats either, these were chairs that were added. We were literally right next to the stage.

The studio was absolutely magical. There is just something absolutely electric about that room. I mean, when you think of all of the people that have shared that stage… our President, stars, celebrities, musicians, humanitarians and world leaders… it’s just kind of overwhelming. To sit in the audience and share in an experience that millions of people will watch was sort of mind-boggling. It definitely felt like sacred space.

Oprah’s team does an incredible job at what they do… from making you feel so welcome and appreciated to getting you hyped-up and ready for the experience of a lifetime. They were all so humble and genuinely grateful for us being there. We had met a few of her staff earlier in the day and as they were seating us they remembered us all by name. I was totally impressed and blown away considering how many people were in the audience and for the fact that this was the second show they were taping the day.

When the big moment finally came and Oprah walked onstage, I have to be totally honest and say that I may have teared up a little. Having watched her since I was a kid and knowing this was one of her last episodes it was all just a little bit too much. Yeah, I’m man enough to admit that.

Oprah is just as elegant and graceful in real life as she is on camera. She exudes such a commanding but loving spirit and was so kind. Some of the best moments of the show were the off-camera moments where she’d joke and talk with the audience. It was so crazy being just feet away from her.

Since the show was the last makeover show they brought in all the big guns… Michael Kors, Diane von Furstenberg, Tory Burch, Bobbie Brown, Collier Strong, Orlando Pita, Ken Paves and a lot of other people I didn’t know. Being a Project Runway fan, I was pretty stoked to see Michael Kors. And yes, he is orange in person.

The show was so much fun and in classic Oprah fashion we got some give-aways… all things that my mom and sisters are going to have to fight over.

Once taping was over, Oprah hung around for a few minutes to chat with the audience. She shared how on May 25, the day of her last show, that she would be thinking about every person that was in the audience and said how thankful she was that we’d all take time out of our lives and schedules to include her. She was very emotional and totally sincere, and it was really amazing to see and share that moment. She, even after 25 years, was still honored that we’d all fly from different parts of the world and take time to be in that audience and genuinely made us feel like we were all valued and appreciated. Yes, she’s Oprah, but she showed us that she’s a real person, too. That was humbling.

After that the 25 of us were ushered back to the screening room and while we were on our way we were able to meet Michael Kors and Diane VonFurstenberg. They were both a riot. Once we had our belongings we got a behind-the-scenes tour of Harpo before taking off. It was pretty wild to see the inner-workings of what makes the show happen. On our way out we were able to say hi to our friend Brian, one of Oprah’s producers and one of the stars of Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes.

When the whole experience was over I have to admit I needed to pinch myself a little bit. I know there are thousands of people that would give anything to go to the show or be in that audience and it was an honor to have been there with two of my best friends. Oprah is a remarkable person and her influence and the impact her show makes is undeniable. She and her staff, despite their fame, are some of the kindest, humble, and sincere people I’ve met and were all so welcoming. They created an experience that [even though I was a guy and it was a makeover show where all of the prizes were for women] I’ll remember for the rest of my life. It truly was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

And me, being the church guy have to put on my church hat for a minute and say… how can we make our church services captivating experiences… ones that people would stand in line for and wait for with excitement and anticipation? How, even though there may be hundreds or even thousands of people coming, make each person feel honored and welcomed? How can we get our volunteers and staff to remember people’s names and faces? How can we humbly let God use us to have influence and make a global impact and yet still tread the individual person like they are just as important as anyone else? How can we create an experience that creates a lasting impression?

So there ya go… there’s my Oprah experience. Tune in on May 12 to see the show and look for me in the audience!

No, not “Happy Valentine’s Day”… Happy Agape Day.

Well, that’s what I was taught in Christian school anyway.

Through my parent’s sacrifice of thousands of dollars each year, I grew up attending a Christian school all the way from Kindergarten-12th grade.  My parents meant well and wanted me to get a Christ-centered education,which was noble and wonderful and I am thankful for it…Really. However, on days like Valentine’s Day I’m reminded of some of the silliness that came along with my Christian school days and unfortunately the movie Saved was too painfully close to real life.

We we never allowed to do or celebrate anything that was normal in culture. Instead, we had to have our own “Christian” version of it… like Agape Day for example. Because St. Valentine was a saint and therefore Catholic, we couldn’t dare celebrate a Catholic holiday. So, we had Agape Day instead… the day we celebrated God’s agape love for us. [Awww.]

While celebrating Agape Day was absolutely no different than Valentine’s Day in custom, we still made “Agape mailboxes” out of Kleenex boxes and exchanged cards and candy that all said “Happy Valentine’s Day,” by labeling it as something different, we were able to redeem this heathen holiday and therefore live out our Christian values of “being in the world but not of it.”

Ten years later, I’m beginning to realize how ridiculous this and other practices, although very well-intentioned and done with a good heart to help us lead more Christ-like lives, were in fact quite ridiculous. I don’t at all want to diminish God’s agape love for all of us, but really… AGAPE DAY?!

Other examples of Christian school ridiculousness include:

• SECULAR! Anything that wasn’t Christian-made or Christian in nature was labeled secular and therefore evil. We were taught the evils of the world and how to quickly judge if something was “Christian.” Anyone who listened to secular music or went to rated R movies was a rebel. One time, though, our praise team remade, er redeemed, R Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly” with the lyrics: I believe I can fly, I believe with Jesus I can touch the sky. I pray about it every night and day…”
• The Dress Code. “Casual dress leads to casual Christians.” I’m not joking, that was said to us all the time. Every day we had to wear khaki pants and collared shirts. “Casual days” [when t-shirts and jeans were allowed] were given to us a bribes for school fundraisers and we were only allowed to wear shorts when it was above 80 degrees. And no, our school was not air conditioned. Girls were routinely sent home for short skirts, revealing tops, and guys were written up for untucked shirts and hair that covered their ears or touched their collars.
• Spring Banquet. We didn’t have a prom because proms meant dancing and dancing leads to pre-marital sex. Instead, we had a banquet. [I'll also interject on this point that we did not have any form of sex ed. We either had to have "the talk" (AWKWARD!) with our parents or we could opt to go to a sex ed class for homschoolers at a local Presbyterian church.] The banquet had all of the the trappings of the typical prom experience… guy asks girl, guy gets a tux, girl gets a dress, corsages, pictures, limo rides… but NO dancing. Every year, though, the rich kid in the class would organize a “secret” dance at their house for the after-party. If school administration found out  the party would be busted up and the person hosting would receive an out-of-school suspension.
• The “bad” kids. The bad kids were always the kids who had been kicked out of public schools and whose parents promised that their child would reconcile their behavior and lead a more Christ-like life. The bad kids were often the ones who smoked or swore and thus became the target of our prayers and altar calls in weekly chapel services. They bore invisible scarlet letters and the irony is that most of the “bad” kids are “good kids” today, and the most Godly of our Christian school days are now the most deviant. Go figure.
• The Bible as a textbook. While it was intended to help us grow in our spiritual life, our Bible classes were really forced Bible study and memorization for a grade. We were KJV-only until a more liberal school administration allowed us to be more relevant and use the New King James version.
• FCA and See-You-at-the-Pole. Although nearly all of us were indeed Christians in some form or fashion we still participated in activities that were intended to help students share their faith in public schools like See-You-at-the-Pole or Fellowship of Christian Athletes. You were judged harshly if you didn’t show up to things like these. You obviously weren’t “spiritual enough” if you didn’t participate in such activities.
• Burning Sessions. Once a year we’d have spiritual emphasis week where we would have daily chapel services [normally, we'd only have them once a week] with a hyped-up evangelist that would get us to all question if we were really “saved” and try to coerce “the bad kids” into a relationship with Christ. Each spiritual emphasis week would conclude with a bonfire, or a burning session, where we were encouraged to bring things that were either idols in our lives or hindering us from a relationship with God and burn them. Secular CDs, posters, pornography, movies, you name it… all went into the bonfire while we all sang worship songs. [Note that most secular CDs were later repurchased during the summer.]

Now, I don’t want to bash Christian education or make my parents regret the sacrifice they made for me and my siblings to attend a Christian school… there were good parts to it. Really. I was protected from a lot of negative influences that could have otherwise led me down a bad path. I was able to learn more about my faith. Even though it was forced, I memorized verses from the Bible and still remember them to this day! I was able to be in a safe environment that genuinely cared about my spiritual well-being. And in 5th grade, I had an amazing teacher named Mrs. Smith whose faith inspired me and who I credit for inspiring me to be in ministry and work for a Church. For that, I am thankful.

I do think, however, going to a Christian school presented all of us, including me, with some incredible challenges when we entered into the real world. We had grown up sheltered, were always with people who shared our same beliefs, and were dropped into a world that was far removed from the Christian subculture from where we had emerged. All of the things we hadn’t been taught about [sex, evolution, basic life stuff most kids learn in public schools] left us with many questions about our faith and what we believed. We were always taught that we were right and given the answers but never had the chance to ask questions or embrace our doubts.  Confronted by the world and all its evils, pressures, and temptations, many of us Christian school kids lost our footing and fell hard because we hadn’t really learned to have a faith of our own… we just played the part because that’s what we had  been taught to do to make in school.

Erwin McManus spoke at a conference I was attending awhile ago and talked about how he and his wife had made the decision to send their children to a public school so that they would be exposed to “the world” and forced to find a faith of their own amidst the evils and pressures present in public schools. I love that. He wanted to help make his children more dangerous to the kingdom of darkness by sending them as a light into it instead of trying to preserve their children from seeing the darkness.

While going to a Christian school probably spared me a lot of heartache and years lost “sowing my wild oats,” I believe that it also impaired me and held me back from truly making my faith my own. It forced me to see life and the world around me with rose-colored glasses that quickly proved to show an incomplete picture of the world around me.  I’m thankful that for the most part I endured, but I know many of my former classmates are now disillusioned with faith, God, and the Church as a result of their time in Christian school. Yes, the decisions they’ve made have been on their own, but they only made decisions based on what they were taught and what they had known.

So all of that to say… I’m not sure about Christian education and probably won’t send my children to a Christian school, but I’m thankful, regardless, for the experience and memories that have colored my life and given appreciation for the ridiculousness of Christian subculture and made me value simple things like saying, “HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!”

Much love… and yes, God’s agape love to all!

“For God so loved [agape-d!] the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  - John 3:16

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Note: My view of Christian schools was shaped by my experience in one over a decade ago.  A lot has changed. I know for a fact there are some incredible Christian schools out there like one here in Chicago called Daystar School that are teaching students to engage with culture and have a worldview that isn’t so narrow. I think that’s great. But, my experience is my experience and I can’t help what it was but hope that won’t be the case for future generations in Christian schools.