IDEA TUESDAY

I started this series last month and I haven't been very good to continue to add to it. These week I'm going to open the IDEA vault and share three sermon series IDEAS that we have yet to execute ( and may never), so I thought I would share them here with you.

1. Running With Scissors--"the things I want to do, I do not do, and the things I do not want to do, I find myself doing" (Romans 7: 14-20). I know there was a movie in 2006 with the same title.. but I took it from the aspect that your mom/teacher always said "Don't run with scissors" and what did we do--we ran with scissors. No specifics yet on stage/elements.

2. Simple-- Hezekiah 18 (Tearing Down The Clutter of Religious Life). I got this idea from Tom Rainier's book about making church life more simple. If you are trying to get across the idea that church life should be less programmatic and more organic--this might be the one.

Simple graphics--thought was to keep it really clean (like the REAL SIMPLE magazine)

Stage Design--streamlined

Creative Elements- focusing on folks who are already transitioning to this way of life and having them give testimony of the benefits

Seminars--How To Declutter Your Family Schedule/Life

3. Taking Out The Trash--getting rid of the garbage in our lives

Stage Design--garbage cans--how bout a dumpster on stage (we've done that!)

Personal inventory--what has to go in our lives in order for God to show out (1 Cor. 2:9-10)

4. Off The Grid--living what we preach. The thought here was a series on living our lives authentically out of sight of the public eye-so that our message matches our walks and talks. It was spurred on by a quote from a public designer who was trying to implement personally what he was espousing publicly---isn't that what we're trying to do?

Stage Design--grids of course!

Personal inventory--how authentically are we living

Ok, what ideas are you holding on to?

And My Strengths Are

A great post over on Ragamuffinsoul.com (you can read it here) talks about the Creative Leadership lid.  It's worth the read and discussion to have about leadership and it's limitations.  

It got me to thinking about my own strengths.  For several years I have been fascinated by the Gallup Strengths Finder test.  Initially I took it as part of a pre-interview for a position with another organization.  I was amazed at how much this test said what I believed to be true about myself.  My strengths listed by this test are:  

Strategic,-meaning I like things in order and can see down the road.
(Ideation)-I like to think about ideas (ie IBM Ideation room--yeah!)
Achiever,-I like to tie a bow on things and see what I've accomplished 
Positivity,-I like to have fun 
Woo,-I like to meet new people (thanks Twitter! thanks Recreate!)
Learner-I like to read (just look at the stack of books beside my bed, and on the floor...etc) 

Each of these in their own description accurately describe part of my make up and knowing each of these has helped me steer myself in the direction where I can utilize these things.

The follow up book "GO PUT YOUR STRENGTHS TO WORK" is an excellent follow-up to this test.  I agree with Carlos (www.ragamuffinsoul.com) that you can take so many of these tests to know about yourself;however, after a period of time they all say the same thing.