The First of Many

September 29, 2011

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The first of many years that is. Today Hillary Shelton and I are celebrating our one year anniversary of dating. Also. I proposed to that girl today, and I’m happy to report that she said yes. Here’s some things I’ve thought about today:

  1. We’ve hit the year mark. I love Hillary with all my heart…but now that we’ve hit the year? We don’t have to celebrate every month. I know that sounds petty, and I’m not even saying there won’t be some recognition of each month more that passes, but I think we all know how crucial those month-to-month anniversaries are in the first year.
  2. We’re engaged. This week I’ve had to be a little mean to throw her off the scent of an engagement ring. I don’t have to be mean anymore. I’m really excited about that. It’s no fun. And? We get to start the [long] process of planning a wedding. I’m not so much excited about this because of being excited about it…but because she’s excited about it. Make sense? Good.
  3. I’ve thought back on this last year a lot. Last year and a half really, because she was a stinker about not dating me for a while. I’ve thought back on it, and am incredibly thankful for it. Hillary has been one of the best things to ever come into my life. She has shown me what it means to try and love sacrificially, what it means to chase after Jesus with all your heart, what it means to be kind, what it means to truly care for others. She has loved me with all of who she is. She has shared her heart, her dreams, her hopes, her fears, her sillies, her crazies, and here seriouses with me unashamedly, and has continually encouraged me to do the same with her. She has changed the man I am and the man I’m becoming, not because she set out to, but because I want to be a man worthy of her heart.

Grace & Peace,

Stippick

Though I’ve tried here, there are no words to truly express just how much I love you Hillary. No words to express how thankful I am that God saw fit to bring you into my life. You’re the best, smartest, most beautiful woman I know. I look forward to spending many, many, many years with you! Oh here, I wrote you a letter.

All My Love,

David

Monkey Leadership: Part 1

September 27, 2011

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This summer I went and saw the midnight showing of Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes. Why?Because it seemed like the right thing to do. And I’m a little bit of a nerd. And I’ve decided to embrace that.

The great thing about the movie though was that I was able to take away two leadership principles. The first on being: Don’t oppress new things just because they’re new.

I think that the intelligent monkeys would argue that the reason they revolted was because they were being treated…like animals. Especially Caesar, who was discovering that he was becoming so much more. The scene where this is most evident is when Caesar is breaking out, and Draco Malfoy (Or…the actor who plays him who also plays a character in this movie…) is shocking him, he grabs his hand and yells “NO!”. The look on his face when he realizes that he can talk communicates to the viewer that he is only just realizing the extent of his development.

The monkeys were treated merely as animals because that’s all they’d ever been known to be. Animals whose functions were limited. No one (besides James Franco) had ever considered that there could be more to them. Their newness was oppressed simply because it was new.

As a leader, you can’t afford to look down on and squash new things simply because they are new for 2 main reasons:

1) Your organization will never move forward. When you keep doing all the things you’ve always done because you’ve always done them, you won’t reach new people. When you’re not reaching new people, the original people will eventually die off (sometimes for real…sometimes metaphorically). If you’re not allowing new ideas to be a part of your DNA, the old ideas will just get older and older and be less and less effective.

2) Your organization will rebel. The people whose ideas are being thrown aside, and those who support them, will decide they don’t like what going on and will do one of two things. They will decide try and take over from the inside, or they’ll leave and start something of their own.

Recently my roommate started a prayer group for some of our friends on Facebook. It was great, we began sharing prayer requests, and praises to answered prayers. Then, someone had the idea for us to meet in person as a group for prayer, and to add others from our college ministry in the FB group and invite them to join us as well. We’ve met twice now, and we can all see what it’s doing in our lives. It would be incredibly easy for me to be down on the idea, or jealous because it wasn’t mine, but instead I’ve made the choice to love what we’re doing, and give the credit for the idea where it’s due and sing its praises.

As leaders, we can’t afford to oppress new things just because they’re new. We have an obligation to hear new ideas and evaluate them individually, and as a team and decide what is best for the organization.

Have you recently said no to a new idea simply because it was new?

Grace & Peace,
Stippick

The Brick Coffee House: Part Two

September 26, 2011

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Last November I talked about The Brick Coffee House. It is the coffee house that the church I work for started up as part of our college ministry.

I’m not going to lie to you. In the really early days (last semester) I honestly wasn’t sure if we’d make it. I know. That’s not a good thing to say probably. But I wasn’t.

Clearly though, we did. And I couldn’t be more thankful. This is one of my favorite things we do, and it’s turning into something that students love. One of my favorite things about it is how little I have to do. I don’t mean that from the perspective of myself being lazy; I mean it in the sense that anytime you can hand off ministry, it’s a win. That’s what has happened here in a big way. I still book our Live @ The Brick acts for Friday Nights, and run things one of the four nights we’re open, but that’s about it. We have two volunteers who love what we’re doing, and run things the other nights with some other volunteers. I can think of few things I’ve experienced in ministry that bring me more joy than watching them make this place happen night after night.

This is never more true than Friday nights. On Friday nights we have a band come play for what we call Live @ The Brick. It’s one of my favorite nights of the week, because we generally have a really good turn out. Our volunteers KILL IT in the kitchen taking orders and making drinks for a line that can get ten people deep (if not a little more), and handle the whole thing like CHAMPS! While they do this, I may be making an iced drink, bringing a drink to someone, or rounding up empty glasses, but they allow me to just spend time talking with people, building relationships, and being goofy on the microphone between sets. I can not express enough my gratitude to these volunteers for everything they do, but I do my best to try.

Over the summer, our church family decided to make some drastic changes over here to make this part of our building more like a coffee shop. When I came in and saw it, it was like a brand new building! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Again, there are few words to describe how thankful I was to my church family for making the time/money/man-power investment into making those changes. It was a big confirmation to me that we are moving in the direction that God wants us to, and about how committed this church is to serving the college students of Howard Payne University. They truly desire to have a relationship with the students there, and have the opportunity to love on them, and they’re willing to do what it takes to make those things happen.

I love The Brick. I love what goes on here. I love the people it lets us connect with. I love the people who make it happen night after night. I love the people who made it possible to happen at all. It is one of my favorite places to be, and I am glad that God allows me to be part of the ministry that goes on here.

Grace & Peace,
Stippick

In The Near Future

September 22, 2011

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So. I thought that today I would spare you any thoughts I had on the goings on in the world and let you know about some things you might be seeing in the near future:

Reasons I Love Going To A Small School
Things I’m Working On (Confessions)
Looking Back: Thoughts From My Freshman Year As A 23 Year Old.

I know, I know. Get excited guys. Get excited. There will be other things that will make there way on here for sure, I just wanted to give you a heads up so you can start building your anticipation. Hope you guys had a great day.

Grace & Peace,
Stippick

Facebook Will Change Again. Also, So Will Everything Else.

September 21, 2011

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I’m going to be really honest with you guys. I have something to tell you. You might not like it, but it’s something you need to know: Facebook IS going to change again. Also, so will everything else in your life.

On Sunday, the sermon my pastor gave was about change. He is preparing our church family for some changes that are coming down the pipeline. I’m excited about a lot of these changes, but some people may not be. And I understand that. For whatever reason, as a general rule, we don’t like change. We don’t like things that upset what we’re used to as the norm.

In the church a lot of what I see is young people getting mad and beating the drum of “Get out of the way old people, we’re changing things and we don’t care if you don’t like it! Change! Change! Change!” Because we assume that they’re fundamentally unable to be in favor of change. Interestingly enough, it’s been my experience that when you approach some of those older folks directly about the change, and explain why, they’re usually pretty open to it.

On the flip side. This younger generation that so desperately wants change…goes into battle mode when Facebook changes its layout. It happens every time that Facebook rolls out new changes; people begin to post status updates about how horrible the “new Facebook” is, and start groups and pages demanding that Facebook revert to the old layout they knew and loved. It never happens. Honestly? Facebook doesn’t care. If you don’t like it that much? Leave. Delete your account. It’s possible to exist in 2011 without Facebook. I promise. But for the love of sanity, PLEASE stop claiming that we’re the generation that will bring about the greatest change, and cringe at the slightest change of something so trivial as a social network.

The bigger issue here, is that we’re ALL scared of change in the beginning. Old and Young alike. We’re scared of it because it IS different. We’re scared because we want it explained to us BEFORE the changes take place. Not after. When we’ve already decided we don’t like it.

Your taste in entertainment (books, movies, reading, tv, music, etc.) will change. Your family will change due to death, birth, marriage, and divorce. Your career might change, or what you’re doing in your career field will change. Your location will change. Your worldview will change. Your general like and dislikes will change. Your romance will change. Your sex life will change. Your taste in food will change.

Change is a part of life. Change will happen.

There are two ways we can react to change:

1) You can decide to be against it no matter what. When you decide this, you’re going to get left behind. I promise. Because by the time you decide you’re ok with the original changes? They’ve made NEW changes. So, you can decide not to accept change, and that’s fine, but when you do this, expect not to know what is going on.

2)You can accept the change. You can decide “Ok, this isn’t what I’m used to, but I can learn this.” This? This is the better of the two options. When you decide to embrace changes that are being made, you’ll be on the front lines future changes, and you’ll know what is going on in the context of what the change is.

Now. Listen. I’ll agree that not all change is good. There are some changes that are made that are bad. They might be dumb decisions, they might be decisions that negatively effect people in ways that can be prevented if that change had been challenged. These changes though, are fairly obvious when they come along. I’m not saying that we should blindly accept any and all change that comes along. We should though, be more open to change as a whole than we are.

So guys? In the next 12-18 months? Facebook will change it’s layout again. By that time? You’ll be fine with this “new” layout. You may even like or love it. Be prepared for it to change. Also, at some point, everything else in your life.

Grace & Peace,
Stippick

Does You’re Organization Have a Cold?

September 20, 2011

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Right now I’m rocking a wicked sinus cold. It’s not really all that fun. I’ve got the pressure in my head, my nose alternates from being stuffy to being runny, and I don’t really want to do anything but sit in my bed and watch shows on Netflix. Thanks to a good friend of mine, I’ve recently taken an interest in organizational culture (although not to the extent that he has an interest in it). As I started thinking about my cold, I wondered how my misery might equate to an organization.

So. Here are some ways you might be able to tell if your organization has a cold:

1) Members feel more pressure than they should. The pressure in my head when I have a cold makes me under perform. If your a leader in your organization, you can likely tell when members are feeling pressured. Whether they are paid or volunteered, you can tell that their performance is sub-par compared to what kind you normally get from them. Ask yourself if this is pressure that is coming from you, or from someone else. You and the member(s) may need to sit and look at expectations from both sides and see where and why they’re not being met.

2) Members you want are leaving, and members you could stand to lose can’t be moved. If you’re organization has a cold, it’s likely that you’re leaking members who are contributors; members who are involved in ministry, or who are ministry leaders. On the flip side, you’re probably getting stopped up with members who can’t really be bothered to do much; members who’d rather sit in the pew Sunday after Sunday than volunteer somewhere, or get involved in a ministry. Ask yourself if there’s anything you need to change personally to begin to retain members, what you need to change organizationally to begin to retain members, and how to go about getting members engaged, or moving somewhere they’ll be more comfortable collecting dust.

3) Members are becoming lazy in their mission. Again, this is a time where you make an honest evaluation, and realize that members (probably more particularly leaders and/or paid staff) are under performing. The reason for this though is different than the pressure. This more likely comes from a lack of caring, or the member having lost sight of the vision/mission of the organization. Because of this, they seem not to care about what’s going on, and so their work becomes less satisfactory. Unlike the other two things, this probably has more to do with the member than your organization. A helpful course of action is, again, to begin to look at the expectations of the members responsibilities, show how they haven’t met them, and look at why.

Those are just some thoughts I have on the subject. Do you have anything to add?

Grace & Peace,
Stippick

Guess who’s back, back again?

September 19, 2011

superstippy Blogging 1 Comment

Did I just use a fairly outdated reference to announce my retunr to the blogosphere? Yes, yes I did. Because the way I see it is that if you’re going to come back into something like this, return to something that your adoring fans love? Do it in style. And few things say style to me more than Slim Shady. Or whatever his name is this year.

Anyway. I am back. I’m back to writing. I’m back to blogging. Back to sharing my opinions on the world wide internets for any and all who care to read them. I’m really back because I love this. I love having an outlet to share what God is teaching me with the hopes that it could help someone else at some point. 

So stay tuned folks. It’s about to get verbose up in here. I look very forward to sharing with all three of you who care to read these ramblings.

Grace & Peace,
Stippick

Context clues

June 21, 2011

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On the car ride home from the wedding I was at this weekend, my friends and I found ourselves in a conversation about context.

We started pout by talking about how common it is for younger girls to call their closest friends things like b******, and s**** in an “endearing” way. These same girls can turn around less than a minute later and use the same word to describe girls they don’t particularly care for. As a culture, we’ve taken those words, and so many others and decided that they mean different things in different contexts. The girl who was with us said that she doesn’t like to be called those things when they’re used in their correct context (Disregarding that we’ve taken a word that was used to indicate a female dog, and decided that it is better used to describe a female who may be particularly rude across the board).

Then we shifted into a conversation about all of the things we contextualize. As a culture, and yes that includes those of us who follow Christ, we’ve decided that it is all kinds of okay to take something that is not okay in most situations, but here, here, and here it’s ok, it means something different. Most frightening of all is that we’ve allowed this attitude to infect the gospel.

There are times when we must contextualize the gospel to help others understand it, but when we begin to allow brothers and sisters in Christ to pick and choose which parts of the gospel apply to different parts of their lives, we do them a disservice. It is not a message meant to be picked apart and applied at our discretion. It is a message meant to transform lives and hearts.

I truly believe that the end of the pick and choose culture lies in our words. James tells us that the tongue is a fire, and warns of all of the dangers that come along with it. If I hope to see this change in any of my peers, I must start with myself. I am guilty of this all the time. I won’t change this myself, it requires me to allow the Holy Spirit to make that change. It requires me to submit that part of my life completely to Him.

What words do you use carelessly that if they were used towards you, you’d be hurt or angry? Think about that this week. Cut those words from your vocabulary where they aren’t being used correctly. Allow the Holy Spirit to make a change in your life.

Grace & Peace,
Stippick

Old vs. New

June 14, 2011

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There is this idea that has been around for a while that a lot of us have bought in to. The idea is that new is better than old. That new replaces old. New makes old obsolete.

To an extent, a lot of us have adopted this idea as far as our faith is concerned. Specifically where the Bible is concerned. We like to believe that the God of 2011 is the God of the New Testament books. The God of love, mercy, grace. Not counting the agony his Son went through so that we could receive that love, mercy and grace. We’ve led ourselves to believe that when Jesus got here it mean that God was all rainbows and butterflies, despite His claim that He didn’t come to change all that, but to fulfill it.

There are those of us believers though, who believe that the God we know today is only like the God of the Old Testament. If this is the case, I’m a few hundred animal sacrifices behind. These people believe that God is a God of wrath, justice, and judgment. They believe He works all things to punish those who haven’t yet picked Him.

Today on my way to work, I realized that Rich Mullins said it best in his song “Awesome God”. He says this:

Judgement and wrath He poured out on Sodom
Mercy and grace He gave us at the cross
I hope that we have not
Too quickly forgotten that
Our God is an awesome God

The first two lines there combine God’s attributes. God does justly judge when He deems the time has come. And He gets to! He’s the creator of everything ever. He has the right. But He also hands out grace and mercy to us like grandma used to do with candy.

It’s not a middle ground; it’s not an in-between. God is all of those things. And we struggle to grasp that, because the people, we know are so black and white. For the most part, they’re either/or, not both/and. There is the problem though. God is not a person. He is not a human. He is so far beyond what we can comprehend. It’s when we try to contain Him by what we know of people that we get confused about His character.

God in 20011 is the same God who was in the beginning, and the same God who offered up a free gift of salvation through the death of His son on the cross just so that we can spend eternity with Him.

 

Grace & Peace,

Stippick

Friday Night Lights

June 9, 2011

superstippy T.V., Uncategorized Leave a comment

Here’s what you need to know.

  1. Friday Night Lights is absolutely one of the best shows on television.
  2. It is in its last season.

Seriously though. The characters are incredibly…like you and I. They are the people who live down the street from you. They are the people you work with. They are the people who go to school with. This makes the incredibly likable. This helps you be able to relate more to them, and gets you wrapped up in their stories. This is what good television is all about.

If you don’t already, I strongly encourage you watch this series. All of the seasons are on Netflix, and I’m sure you can buy them somewhere as well. Give this show a chance. You won’t be disappointed.

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