In Matthew E. May’s quick read, “In Pursuit of Elegance,” he outlines the key elements of elegance.  Taking his four keys, notice how they can help create more effective communication:

Symmetry: We have a natural mechanism to fill in gaps.  We desire a level of symmetry.  Allow your messages to have symmetry, but also strategically have placements of asymmetry, drawing your audience in to actively fill what’s missing.  Allow them to desperately seek symmetry.

Seduction: Further creative engagement requires the juicy art of seduction.  When communicating, don’t tell them where you are taking them.  Instead, capture the power of suggestion versus full disclosure, leaving something to their imagination.  Don’t feel the pressure to answer all the questions…allowing your ending to have partial closure, with a small window left open into the unknown.  Seduce your audience by nothing.

Subtraction: In reviewing your communication plan, take a second look and ask the question, “How can I add value to this message by subtracting?”  The key is to determine what you have to eliminate, in seeking to create the most eloquent communication.  Embrace the laws of subtraction.

Sustainability: Create systems that allow you to create a message achieving the maximum effect with the minimum effort.  Part of the messages maximum effect is its longevity in the mind & culture of our audience, fueled by relevance and contextualization.  Create sustainable solutions to effective messages.

The overlapping theme: less is more…yet be very intentional and strategic in how you navigate that balance.

As my kids collaboratively own a Sony Flip, I decided to download the content that had built up over the past year, and discovered what The Wonderful World of Lucy is like (my youngest & only daughter, about 5-years-old in this video).

She definitely lives up to the blog’s name, “incoherence” so thought I’d share.

Having the controversial orientation of Objectum Sexuality, church organist Amy Wolfe finally married her beloved rollercoaster this past summer.  After 3,000 “dates” (or rides) Amy changed her surname from Wolfe to Weber, after the manufacture of the ride, that smitten her about 20 years ago.

Similar to Amy Wolfe, or even the famous O.S. subject Erika Naisho Eiffel (last name indicating her marriage to the Eiffel tower seen HERE), maybe we all suffer from O.S.?…That is “Objectum Spirituality.”

Objectum Spirituality (a.k.a. idolatry) is a past and present-time activity that the human race has “enjoyed” since their existence.

Recently reading through the book of Judges to my children, one of my sons chimed in asking:

“I don’t get it dad.  Why do they keep making these idols and worshipping them, instead of just worshipping God?  They saw the plagues, the parted sea, and God getting them to the promise land, but they still start worshipping other gods that aren’t real!”

And as those suffering from Objectum Sexuality can sometime be linked to deep social disorders, mankind’s “Objectum Spirituality” can also be linked to a history and “DNA” of dysfunction.

For the book of Judges (& storylines prior), it is quite evident that the idea of monotheism was a completely new concept for the nation of Israel, living in a polytheist world and mindset for over hundreds of years.

To hear of a God that was the ultimate power, subordinate to no one, and couldn’t be manipulated by cultic ritual was almost too much to handle.  To break the cycle would take time, and that is why God in his mercy and patience allowed Abraham and his people to worship Him, while also worshipping other gods.

But the issue of idolatry runs deeper then just the socialization under certain cultural systems.  To be human is to be an idolater.  As image bearers of God we all have within our fabric to rule with God.  However due to sin, this desire has been skewed, with longings and passions contaminated and transformed into lusts.

And so we all have longings.  In their original form these passions are good and pure, but are now linked to wrong objects like material possessions, rollercoasters, towers, experiences, and pleasant escapes. We have all made subconscious wedding vows to various objects and experiences.  Somehow we continue to believe that the job promotion, car, or mistress will bring the happiness we need and deserve…assuming God will never deliver such happiness.

Sure, the marrying of a rollercoaster seems absurd…however that very absurdity runs deep in all of us, with only the power of God as our cure to “Objectum Spirituality.”

Three new, slideware presentation tools that have been fun to use, while shedding some of the traditional, linear approaches found within PowerPoint and Keynote have been the following:

Prezi (Read about it in a magazine and have given three presentations with Prezi thus far.  Very cool visual feel.)

Vuvox (Discovered this program from a group of middle school students at the National Inventors Hall of Fame School.  A sharp look to it.)

iMindMap (A great mind mapping tool that also allows you to pull them into presentations, giving you a VERY organic feel and flow.)

Give them a try and enjoy!

Maybe tomorrow’s worship leaders won’t stand on a stage, holding a mic, and singing a tune…but instead sit behind a control panel, mixing beats, and adding spontaneous images like this nice work of art designed by Sara Taigher (with the musical additions of DJ Rupture & Matt Shadetek):

This past Wednesday evening I had the opportunity to hear the author of The Tipping Point and Blink, Malcolm Gladwell, speak at a local theatre.  Gladwell is a man of charm, wit, and extraordinary intuition regarding social systems and cultural clues.

The main emphasis of his talk was not the annoyance of when incompetent people fail, but the terror of when overconfident people fail.  The basic idea was that incompetent people tend to be in positions that are inconsequential, thereby creating less of an impact on the world around them when mistakes are made.  However, overconfident people tend to be competent and skilled, making their way to powerful heights, usually morphing into a person of overconfidence and blinding pride.  It is when these individuals think they can do no wrong that they can make a disastrous mistake, sending tremors of pain and chaos to all those around them (i.e. Wall Street’s latest debacle or the Iraq War).

As I appreciated Gladwell’s interesting take on the significant failures of our day (& those who caused them), I valued most the way in which his presentation was engaging and effortless to listen to.  His key? Story!

The essence to Gladwell’s powerful presentation was his ability to take a Civil War story of the past, and weave it in and out of his presentation as the  main illustration to his premise.

As Christians we have so many good things to say to the world, but we so desperately feel the need to say them within the framework of proposition, linear points, and a list of facts.

In Barry Lopez’s book, Crow and Weasel, he says:

The stories people tell have a way of taking care of them.  If stories come to you, care for them.  And learn to give them away where they are needed.  Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive.  That is why we put these stories in each other’s memory.  This is how people care for themselves (48).

May we carefully package the “greatest story” around the real, engaging, and practical stories of our day to better care for our people and the message.

Are you task-oriented like myself, or have a highly-relational orientation?

For some, it isn’t too hard to see the telling signs of their orientation.

As my daughter had one of her friends come over to play on Friday, the girl arrived with a “to-do list” in hand regarding their day’s events:

If you are unable to translate first grade writing, it reads:

To Lucy.  To Do List:

First, play outside.

Next, play in your room.

Letter: from (girl’s name)

Am I funny?

I think you’re funny.

I can only imagine what this girl’s husband will find on the refrigerator every morning regarding his day’s tasks.  I already pity him.

This past weekend I attended a two-day, mediation-training workshop with Peacemaker’s Ministries.  Overall the experience was positive, hearing from mediation experts and having a plethora of case-study simulations to role-play.  As I appreciate Peacemakers adherence to scriptural applications in conflict coaching, meditation, and arbitrations, I have a hard time using their mnemonic tools that show an addiction towards alliteration, acrostics, and acronyms.

I am uncertain if this is a generational thing or just my bent towards critical thinking, but I tend resist such techniques, finding them cheesy and forced, therefore cheapening the lesson and experience.

One of the acrostics that I preferred reformatted was G.O.S.P.E.L., which unveils the order in which a mediation process should have.  You are asked to present this acrostic at the beginning of your mediation time to help show the process, but I can’t do it without “rolling my eyes.”  Peacemakers outlines it this way:

Greeting and ground rules

Opening statements

Story telling

Problem identification and clarification

Explore solutions

Lead to agreement.

My issue with such a device is that it locks you in to an order that really isn’t best for group ownership, nor provides a logical flow in conflict resolution (in my opinion).  It makes me wonder if the process was forced into these steps so they would spell “gospel” instead of it actually being the best approach.

As I agree you need a basic strategy and flow for mediation, I prefer to use more of a story or image-based device.  The word picture I have created provides the parties with a picture of being on a journey towards an agreed upon destination.  To get to this destination, the obstacles in their way must be dealt with, leading to an agreed-upon bridge.

You can see my reformation of G.O.S.P.E.L. HERE.

On Tuesday I experienced an informational meeting and tour at one of our local, Roman Catholic schools, called “Our Lady of the Elms.”  This all-girls school provides a top-rated education for young women wanting to grow holistically, experiencing active learning, scholastic-faith integration, and various extras like ballet, Latin, and drama.

As I was impressed by the quality of the staff, learning environments, and teaching strategies, one thing that captured me the most was the school’s precision to continually align their strategies with their core values:  Prayer, Community, Study, and Preaching.  Unlike parochial Catholic Schools being tied to a particular church, Our Lady of the Elms is connected to a convent known as “The Akron Dominican Sisters.”  Based on the sister’s traditions, and influence from several Saints, the Elms was started 1923 on 33 acres of land in Akron, Ohio.

In describing these pillars “The Sisters” remark:

Dominican spirituality can be described as a pattern of life that seeks to integrate prayer, study, community life, and preaching–preaching from the pulpits of the churches, whenever possible, and from the pulpits of our lives. From the beginning Dominic wanted his followers to engage the cultures in which they lived, to be creative, knowledgeable, aware, and responsive to human need. The pattern of life that Dominicans embrace includes: prayer in community, contemplative prayer, reflection, dialogue, passionate thinking, and simplicity of life. Dominicans are to search for truth; convinced that the fullness of truth lies only in God, but that life in community, devotion to the Word, reverence for creation–all lead to the possibility of living an ideal once described by Thomas Aquinas as “contemplare et aliis tradere contemplata“–to give to others the fruits of contemplation.

As I noticed structures, activities, and curriculum that supported these pillars, it was another example of seeing values act as true guides or “pillars” of aligning and supporting one’s thoughts and actions.

*On another note I was saddened to hear about the dwindling number of nuns at the covenant.  As “marrying God” is no longer a hot option for young women, once I found out that they still can no longer marry, I quickly offered up my 6-year-old daughter, Lucy, to the convent!

My wife and I are dropping her off this week and plan to visit her on the weekends.

Today I shadowed a principle at one of the city schools in my area, viewing the various learning platforms within each classroom.  One of the classrooms that was most interesting to me was their “Gateway to Technology” classroom seen here:

One of the surprising alterations that the teacher made in his curriculum this year was to remove the use of PowerPoint from all middle school presentations.  He went on to say that for now on, all presentations by the students have to be narrated movies, using the provided video software on their computers.

When I asked him why he made this change he simply said, “It’s the future of ‘normal communication,’ so we have to prepare them for the real world.”

Another reminder that tomorrow’s preachers are not those that combine hermeneutics and homiletics, but hermeneutics and filmmaking.

Will the church be ready to communicate in tomorrow’s “real world?”