Kem Meyer on Less Clutter & Noise

And all I got was this lousy t-shirt...

Recently read Vince Antonucci's book, I became a Christian and all I got was this lousy t-shirt. I thought now would be a good time to blog about it since I'm going to be seeing Vince next week at the White Board Sessions.

I liked it. I really really liked it.

It was a fast read that left a lasting impression. It made me laugh out loud and made me go hmmm.

Vince asks some very good questions and has a one-of-a-kind way of telling stories in a hilarious and vulnerable way. He's a faithful, life-long learner and I've learned from him.

Some of the things I highlighted:

• When I'm really living it, I love the Christian life. It's helped me to approach my days with a sense of anticipation and it's allowed me to break out of my routines and experience adventure.
• When I read the Bible I notice that Jesus didn't go around asking people to BELIEVE in him. He also didn't ask people to BEHAVE. Instead, he asked people to FOLLOW him. According to Jesus, being a Christian is not so much about believing or behaving correctly as it is about traveling with him. Jesus is going somewhere and he wants me to go with him.
• Where exactly is Jesus going? Where is he inviting me to go? And is it possible that a lot of us are believing and behaving, but we're missing out on what Christianity is really about-which is following Jesus. And maybe that's why we're not fully alive.
• "ABIDE in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it ABIDES in the vine, so neither can you, unless you ABIDE in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who ABIDES in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing." To ABIDE means to LIVE WITHIN.
• When I first started following Jesus I really lived life with him. I was abiding in Him. But over time it became just a relationship. There were many other things supporting me, giving me joy and peace and contentment. Take my schedule, for example: going to sleep, getting up, going to work, eating at the same time each day. That gave me a sense of comfort. Another was getting a lot of work done. Checking things off my list made me feel good about myself. Money--having a little extra in savings provided a sense of security. TV--getting to watch my favorite shows supplied my joy. When my wife got sick, all the other things that were supporting me got taken away. My routine was gone. I was no longer getting much work done. The money in the bank was sent to the hospital. I had no time to watch TV. I should have been able to lose all of that and still be fine. But I was NOT fine.
• The problem was this: I wasn't abiding in Jesus. All we had was a relationship. And, as with any relationship, life got in the way. I need to live life with Jesus. I need to abide.
• "Do you know who you are? ...You're the one Jesus loves."
• I knew what it meant to be hungry. Really hungry. Not desperate for food, but desperate for sleep. And, that's the kind of hunger Jesus talks about. Because eating is easy for us, I think we need a different metaphor. And, the one that works for me is sleep.
• If all a Christian has to do is stay on the straight and narrow path of obedience by doing right and not doing wrong, does it really matter if Jesus is out in front or not? In fact, Jesus could faint; I could walk right past him and still feel assured that I'm "following Jesus," because I've stayed on that same straight, moral path. Jesus could then wake up and start walking the same course again, only now he'd be following me! There had to be something wrong with my understanding of following Jesus if it didn't really matter who was following who.
• Being a Christian does involve obeying God over the long haul. And part of following Jesus is doing right and not doing wrong. But there's got to be more to it. It's wacky. People are following Jesus into a storm your momma would have made you come in from. Following Jesus did not lead people in one monotonous direction; it led them in all different directions. Jesus was constantly on the move. I'm no expert at this, but I'm getting better. Because he's invisible and all, I'm often not positive I'm following Jesus, but I've been asking God to help me.
• When I study the life of Jesus, his MO was to go into a town, hover around a little, and then dive into the dark, chaotic, messy places in people's lives and bring light, order and beauty.
• It's impossible to love God in a hurry. I typically view the person in front of me as an obstacle to accomplishing my true mission, but Jesus viewed the person in front of him as his true mission.
• Imagine one night your phone rings, disturbing you from your third straight hour of watching TV. When I devote myself to being a lazy boy in an easy chair I may be comfortable, but I'm also spending my life asleep.
• My life goes up and down like John Travolta's career.
• Hard questions to ask:
  1. If I feel most alive when I'm watching a movie or playing a video game or reading a book or watching sports, if those are consistently the best parts of my day, what does that say about my life? Shouldn't it be more exciting to live my life than to watch someone else live theirs?
  2. In the Bible, Jesus led his followers into dangerous places. Do I often find myself in dangerous places? And, if not, what does that mean?
  3. Despite being completely righteous, Jesus attracted the worst of sinners. Are sinful people drawn to me or are they put off by my so-called righteousness?
  4. When Jesus came into contact with people, their lives were radically transformed. Are people's lives being changed by knowing me?

200 Pomegranates Blog Tour Stop

I'm the 2nd stop on the 200 Pomegranates Blog Tour. Shawn Wood is getting the word out about his new book and you know how it goes; he had his people call my people and here we are. Ah, the honor. The thrills. The spills.

Miss his first stop? Have you heard about how surprised readers are?

Thanks, Shawn, for stopping by for a few questions today.

Kem:  I experienced my first pomegranate Thanksgiving 2007. When was the first time you encountered a pomegranate face to face?

Shawn: I must admit, my first encounter with a pomegranate was through the cold Tazo tea at Starbucks and not the real fruit. I actually experienced my first pomegranate at a message planning meeting at Seacoast a couple of years ago. I thought it was an onion. We were looking at the symbolism behind the pomegranate in scripture and most of us around the table had never actually eaten one so we had one as a sample the next week and then used it as a stage prop in the message as well. It’s a weird fruit really. Look like an onion on the outside and a corn that had a really bad day on the inside. For some reason the old testament dudes really likes them…I think it’s because they did not have Starbucks.

Kem:  When I had my first bite, it reminded me of corn. Red, sweet corn. What made you think of God?

Shawn:  I am a very spiritual person and think of God a lot more than you. Where you simply see corn, I see Jesus. Not really. I actually heard a message in the early 1990’s that preached on the “lily work” and “pomegranates” that were carved into the tops of the columns at Solomon’s temple. It was one of those messages that just stuck like a good bowl of cheese grits. I have always had a bent towards the arts through music, design and building and my dad is a metal artisan so it just seemed to resonate with me. Then one day it hit me. This guys carved this stuff not as “art” but as worship. Art is usually viewed by people, but this stuff was 30 something feet in the air and no one would see it. I realized at that moment that we all have something to carve towards an audience of one. I also really like corn too.

Kem:  I cried reading the acknowledgments and was laughing in chapter one. Is it going to be that much of an emotional roller-coaster the whole way through?

Shawn:  I think that emotions are a key-hole that God has created to people’s heart. Through emotions God can enter our lives and thus we can enter his story. That is when cool things happen. My hope would be that at the end of this book you would say what this reader did about it:

"I laughed a lot. I cried a lot. Then I laughed and cried some more." --Shawn’s Mom

Kem:  How will I be changed after reading this book?

Shawn:  My hope is that people will realize that God is not waiting on them to become something they are not so they can do things they were never called to do, but that instead they will be the artist God has created them to be and do the things that they were uniquely created to do. This will mean as a Mom you see the impact you have on your children as a canvas before you primed to be painted like a the masterpiece God wants them to be. As a leader you will see the people you work with not just as people but pieces of clay that when molded together will create a monument to who God is and as a artist you will see that you gifts, though seemingly distant from the story of God are in fact not just footnotes in his story but cover art for his novel called Kem. If after that happens you do something of great value that can be appreciated by others, I will be a happy author.

Kem:  What if I want to hear your story-telling live?

Shawn:  I am so excited to be able to share at a few conferences this year. First, Innovate 2008 at Granger Church (maybe you're familiar) will be the launching pad for the book. If you are not planning on coming you should change your plans. This is a must-conference for every church leader in my opinion. I am honored to share the stage with the Granger Team as well as the unbelievable speakers headlining this year. I also would love to see folks at ECHO, Multi-site exposed and Outreach. Let's connect! You can also hear my stories (good and bad) on my blog and follow me on twitter.

Kem:  What parting gift did you bring for my readers?

Shawn:  An advance look at the book.

Kem:  What if somebody wants to host a stop on your blog tour?

Shawn:  Have their people contact my people [timschraeder@gmail.com] and it'll happen.   

Three movies I'm excited about...

• The Hulk

Tim Stevens, er, uh, Edward Norton as Bruce Banner.

• Get Smart
• Batman: The Dark Knight

June is going to be a great movie month.

Why I texttwitterfacebookbloggoogleustream...

It's true. I use them all. Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Jott, Spinvox, Xobni, YouVersion, Ustream and more.

At first glance, it seems completely contradictory to my mantra: Less Clutter. Less Noise. But, in reality, these technologies effectively help me to COMPRESS time, INCREASE my knowledge base, ORGANIZE my thoughts and calendar, ENHANCE my relationships and hold me ACCOUNTABLE. I link them all together, and set preferences to auto-deliver the stuff I need NOW and organize the stuff I'll reference LATER in categories. Depending on the circumstance and objective...I have both close and extended people groups, regular and intermittent interactions, public and private content.

There's no one size fits all approach for the "how to" of this concept. So don't ask for it. You can't make a well-informed decision from an explanation; it has to be experienced. The best advice I can give is to try one at a time and see how it fits.

There was an article in last month's Wired about using today's Web apps to separate out the good stuff. Some excerpts:

• We've hit this critical point where our ability to create information has outstripped our ability to manage it. Knowledge workers spend more time sorting stuff than actually using it.
• What I needed was some help-an assistant to do some sifting for me. Ding! Robot psychology. Awesome. Amplify human intelligence with machine intelligence.
• My Facebook page attracts my friends with whom I share social bonds. Meanwhile, my science blog attracts complete strangers with whom I share a common interest in a topic. Sometimes these strangers tend to tell me things and point me to links that are more useful than the social stuff on my Facebook. [Kem here: In my world...Twitter accomplishes both. It's the hybrid app for me; social and semantic.]
• Our information overload isn't going away. To find our way, we need a Web that organizes itself.

Emailing this post...

I've never emailed a post before so this is a test.

I'm just sitting in the salon keeping myself occupied. They've got a new guy here as an apprentice. Well, he's a guy/girl. His hair is bigger and blonder than mine and he wears more make-up than I did in 1986. He's very pretty but very confusing to look at. Not normal scene for around here. Trying not to stare. Very confusing.

Typed by "thumbs" on the go. Gotta love that smart phone. --Kem

Beloved rants from the boys at 37 signals

• Live a minimalist ethos.
• Simplicity is the most important thing in technology and it's only getting more important.
• A small group of 10 great people will outproduce, outwork, outthink a large group of 50 average people.
• Spread the gospel of radical simplicity.

From feature in Wired.

My Mother's Day...

I woke up and the kids had planned my day. They had the agenda waiting and ready for me when I came around the corner...

And, we did it all. It was great. The only problem is now it's 10:20 p.m. and the kids can't sleep because we took a great nap in the afternoon. Doh!

May days...

The weather is awesome in Granger this time of year. Here's a picture to prove it.

This photo was taken moments ago of the tree in my front yard right outside my home office window. Yeah. I've got a corner office.

Walk, run, fly, drive...don't miss it. And, catch these workshops while the flowers are blooming and the sun is shining. Bring your whole team and make memories. It's one day; FRIDAY MAY 30. You deserve it.

• Entermission with Rob Wegner. How do you get people out of their seat and into God's story in your community, region and world? Learn practical approaches to bring up there down here.
• Getting a Grip on Groups with Kathy Guy. What happens if you combine groups and care? Regardless of where people are at, they need relationships; it's the core of groups and care and counseling.
• First Impressions with Mark Waltz. Uh, WOW! Yeah. People can say that about church and each other. Find out how the small things make a big life change.
• Technical Arts Forum with Adam Callender. Hang with other tech arts professionals and discuss how to effectively use audio, video, lighting and auditorium technology and volunteers in your services. I heard Anthony Coppedge might be there in the group. Is it true?
• Simply Strategic Volunteers with Tim Stevens. Whenever I'm around Tim, I end up volunteering for all kinds of stuff and love it. Find out his secrets.   

I've changed my mind about podcasts...

I thought the audio podcast was losing steam. I was having a hard time finding a place for it in my schedule and flow. I know a lot of people listen to podcasts when they workout or mow the lawn, but that was boring for me.

Over the past few months I've really been having bouts with insomnia. I can't shut my mind off. It runs through things I'm excited about and things I'm tormented about. Basically, if I'm stressed, happy, sad, excited, neutral or breathing... I can't sleep. This problem is not new for me. What's worked for years is to read myself to sleep. But, I'm to the point now that I can't stimulate my brain AT ALL, or it's a deal breaker. Tylenol PM has stopped working. Ambien stopped working. Rx stopped working. Running myself to the point of exhaustion didn't work either. I had to try something new.

What's been working for the past few weeks is to flip through mindless magazines and look at the pictures until my mind eventually shuts down and I fall asleep. That's the win. The loss is that I'm losing the 1-2 hours of nightly reading time I used to look forward to. I'd smoke through books and periodicals to keep learning new stuff.

I'm still looking for my regular reading spot in the day...but in the meantime...I had to find something else to supplement that loss of substance. And, that's when I changed my mind about podcasts.

Every morning, I've got about 1 1/2 hours to wake up and get ready for the day; put on my make-up and what-not (I put a lot of effort into looking like I don't put in a lot of effort). I've been listening to some new podcasts and I'm LOVIN it. Great way to start the day. Here's a few on my rotation right now...

• Potential Podcast: The leaders @ Flamingo Road. I've been picking up some great leadership and multi-campus insights.
• Relevant Podcast: Companion podcast to the magazine. God. Life. Progressive Culture. And, lots and lots of laughing. I laugh OUT LOUD quite frequently listening to these guys.
• Ted Talks: Inspired talks by the world's greatest thinkers and doers. Technology. Entertainment. Design.
• This American Life: There's a theme to each episode, and a variety of stories on that theme. It's mostly true stories of everyday people, though not always. A different experience.

I'm addicted.

Say it simple, say it fun.

I was flipping through an old magazine loaded (I mean loaded) with ads for Christian books, conferences and events. They all wanted my attention. But, this one stood out.

It stood out because they weren't afraid to have some fun and be normal. The copy was simple, clear and yes, a little bit goofy. It has personality. I love to see that lived out in the faith.

Have some personality. Have some fun. Have some sheep.