(Women’s Ministry Innovation Laboratory)

Engaging Women in Leadership

Has had over 200 interviews with women in leadership
What are your successes?
What are your failures?
How did you get to where you’re at?

What are their struggles?
Lack of confidence
Under-identified leadership gifts
Lack of female mentors/role models
Leadership loneliness (leading is lonely)

Who do you admire the most? And why?
-those who are making a difference

What’s the most fulfilling area of your life? And why?
-volunteering: at church, in the city, etc

What keeps you up at night?
-older women: their children
-younger women: finances, marriage

What are you reading?
-most women are reading magazines…beauty, marriage and sex
-how many times do women talk about sex in church? (God is the author of sex)

Conclusions:
We aren’t listening to what women are really thinking about
We aren’t listening to their desire to  and need to make a difference
Younger women are done with big events just for connection

Women are great connectors

How can you engage women leaders?
Assess the current reality
How many women are leading?
Does our church leadership reflect our church population?
Where’s your biggest need?
Interview and empower

Cultivate

Look to the next generation

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(These are my quick notes…for a great post on this session, check out Nick Carnes’ post.)

Church attendance is in the decline

Outreach and indrag

The church should be a sent people
There is no such thing as an unsent christian
All Christians are missionaries

Cultural Distance – Dr. Ralph Winters

There are 12,000 churches over 2,000 in attendance

430,000 churches in this country (average attendance 80-100)

More of the same will not get better results
-Organizational Insanity

Digging Holes
–>if you want to dig a whole 10 feet away, it’s no good digging a hole deeper where you’re at, won’t help

If you’ve been given a message, that makes you a messenger.

If you cannot imagine it, you cannot do it.

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Planting a church was the hardest thing he’s ever done, but worth it. You MUST be called to do it.

-when you have money, sometimes you’re not as creative
-we need to close the gap between the crowd and the stage
-you’re end goal shouldn’t be to have a big church
-we need to close the gap between point A to point B with creative solutions
-God is the ultimate Creator and He’s placed creativity in each of His creations. So we’re all creative.

Innovation – doesn’t mean that you can’t do what someone else is doing, we’re one big church so we don’t have to well up with pride and try to do everything different
Examination – let’s examine our process
Disturb and Disrupt -it seems many people

Ezekiel 37:1-14
Each and every Sunday, as worshipers, we’re standing in front of dead bones and are to prophesy to life. (Ezekiel 37:1-14)
How can your obedience in worship (like Ezekiel) give life?

Creativity and our intimacy with the Creator go hand in hand.
Children have a relationship with God the Creator in a much bigger way then we do as adults.

What problems do you see with people trying to be innovative and creative?
Innovation does not mean cool lights…it’s having something new
-t-shirts, hoodies, jeans and tats are not innovative, it’s just the new “suit and tie”
-Are we trying to be hip? Or innovative?

*There is one absolute in church…Sunday’s coming!
*things can get stale if we don’t watch out
*What is something that you’ve always done one way, that you can do new (different) this week?

“Flickering Pixels” book to pick up

-do we have an evaluation time?
*during these times, don’t sit down – no chairs…it will help you not waste time

Was it fun?
Was is excellent?
Was it helpful?

Make sure that you are constantly “Exploring”
-this will help feed your creative bucket
– collect ideas (can put them in Evernote)
–stop and purposely observe what’s around you (put ideas in your “bucket”)

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My Day in 7 Photos

by SimplyAubs on February 17, 2010

The day started out with an frozen Jeep.

This is my favorite part of the morning drive.

It seems that Borders traded all their employees for crappy old computers. (What the junk?!)

I’m really excited about this book! Simplicity is revolutionary!

Who needs flowers and chocolates for Valentine’s day? I’ll take this! ;)

My roomie decided we would try star fruit.

The verdict? Star fruit is actually good!

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The Black Hole

November 28, 2009

Yesterday I mentioned that I felt like I have been living in a black hole. Why in the world would I say that?
No internet. No phone service.
Don’t get me wrong, my new place is amazing! It’s beautifully furnished, great neighbors and really feels like home. I have a wonderful roomie who is fun to hang [...]

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Thanksgiving 2009

November 26, 2009

I can’t believe it’s already Thanksgiving. Where has the time gone? I feel as though I have been in a black hole for the past couple months. But, more on that tomorrow.
Today has been a beautifully difficult day.
How is that possible? Well, as difficult as family can be at times…they are still family. They know [...]

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Jennifer Knapp is back!

September 18, 2009

*(Please forgive the lack of posting…things have been crazy here. I do have an update coming soon.)
So, I just had to share my extreme excitement. My favorite artist, Jennifer Knapp, is back! How cool is that?! Her first show is September 24th in LA. Wow…I really, REALLY wish I could be there. Hopefully, she’ll do [...]

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Show and Tell Sunday

August 30, 2009

I was thinking I need some kind of consistency on the blog. So, every week I’m gonna have “Show and Tell Sunday.”
This week it’s a few photos from a shoot I did last month. Andy and Rebekah are a beautiful couple that I go to church with. It was a lot of fun spending time [...]

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Maybe I’m Crazy…

August 25, 2009

So, yeah. Maybe I’m crazy.
Why? Well, because I’m getting rid of almost all my stuff.
What? I’m liquidating nearly all my possessions.
Oh, that’s nice…wait, what?
Yup, it’s true. I’m getting rid of it all. For as far back as I can remember, I’ve had a lot of stuff. I find stuff. I collect stuff. I keep stuff. [...]

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Show and Tell

August 23, 2009

Ok, so I know I haven’t been really good about sharing some of my photos and artwork. I’m trying to change that. There are still a bajillion photos I need to upload from my trip to California. But here are a few of the ones I did take out there, with a little twist. Someone [...]

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