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Unleash Sessions

Tim Lemons — Fri, 01 May 2009 16:52:23 +0000

If for some reason you have never heard of Newspring or Unleash and you haven’t seen/heard Perry Noble preach, then I wanted to open your eyes to some awesomeness. Below you’ll find the two main sessions from Unleash. Also go to the website for downloadable (and FREE) pdf’s from the breakout sessions! ENJOY! Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Tyra Banks Sex Survey

Tim Lemons — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:48:17 +0000

Saw this over on Youth Specialities Blog! Holy cow. Sure there could be some descrepencies in the poll but still. Parents/Leaders/Ministers are failing. We gotta talk about sex more. Parents… WAKE UP! Leave your comments below.

Questions to ask

Tim Lemons — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:00:47 +0000

Found these posts very helpful from swerve. I’ve gotta ask myself those questions before I start asking my team members.

The Power of Questions (1 of 3)

The Power of Questions (2 of 3)

The Power of Questions (3 of 3)

Planning Center ROCKS!

Tim Lemons — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:12:53 +0000

I love Planning Center Online. It Rocks. It runs my ministry. The awesome tech support I have received has been amazing. I could go on and on but you have to check it out. They just made some more updates today. Read about it here. My favorite is text messaging! AH YEAH!

Here is what we use it for:

Manage Band
Manage Tech people
Manage all volunteers for before/after and during our services
Manage all Lifegroup leaders
- Provide training materials as a downloadable attachment
Plan services
Communication between Adult and Student Ministries
Communication to all our volunteers

I encourage you to watch this video to get a small taste of what PCO can do.

Introducing Planning Center Online from Aaron Stewart on Vimeo.

Twitter – What's The Point

Tim Lemons — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:30:46 +0000

**UPDATE** Here is another example of Twitters Awesomeness!

I twitter. I love it. You would love it. Follow me on twitter here.

I get asked all the time, “What’s the point of twitter?” Here we go. 4 reasons

Friends/Family – Since I have recently moved across the country twitter is a great way for me to stay in touch with my friends and family from Virginia and my new friends here in Texas. Also every day twitter sends all my “twit’s” for the day to my blog. My family and friends can see what I have been up to.
Archiving my life – I have 3 kids. I wish I had twitter when my first 2 were younger. I can twitter things my kids do and will be able to back and search to see what day they started walking, first time they flew, etc. Any milestones in their lives. Also I can know what day I went to that conference, special event, etc.
Ministry Resource – I follow a lot of people on twitter. They each have different jobs but they give me ideas that I can use in ministry. See list below to start following some of my followers.
Ministry Tool – A lot of people in my ministry use twitter. It’s just another way to connect to people if I can’t get a hold of them.

Recommended twitterers:

Tech/Video/Media related
- AVCLUB
- terrystorch
- blankenship
- WorshipTechie
- EBOWES
- motionhouse
- AVCLUBBREAKOUT
- Mstanley
Youth Ministry
- DOUGFIELDS
- JOSHUAGRIFFIN
- BCooP
- DanielHarper
- outsideallday
- daveyblackburn
- Jakerutenbar
- kurtjohnson
Worship/Music
- mcdzl
- DanielHarper
- lincolnbrewster
- davidcrowder
Ministry – General
- perrynoble
- Rickwarren
- JimmieDavidson
- scotthodge
- KEMMEYER
- MarkBatterson
- TPMORGAN
- MarkMatlock
- Newspring
- TimAStevens

To follow these people txt “follow TimAStevens” or whichever of the usernames from above you want to follow. *_OR_* go to twitter.com and search for their username and if you have a twitter account, click Follow button.

Twitter doesn’t make any sense until you start using it. Go create an account and then start following some people. Leave comments below of some of the people you follow that people should know about.d

Greg Laurie's Son dies in car accident

Tim Lemons — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 18:15:13 +0000

Back in the day I used to listen Greg Laurie on tv late at night on Saturdays. I always enjoyed his messages when I was a struggling teenager. It saddened me to hear about his son dying. Please take the time to watch these videos. You will be touched. The first one is the best!

[youtube width="425" height="335"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff5o8yRmPHc[/youtube]

[youtube width="425" height="335"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pyl6zWIrNiM[/youtube]

Amazing Testimony

Tim Lemons — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:20:44 +0000

WOW. Speechless with tears in my eyes! This is amazing. Love to hear stories of God working in people’s life. Props to Newspring for presenting it in such a moving way!

Neicy_Salvation_Story from NewSpring Media on Vimeo.

Breakout D – Building and Leading a Music Ministry – Rory Noland

Tim Lemons — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 07:08:13 +0000

Rory Noland

Calling all team builders – 1 cor 3:10

Suggestions for team building

Visualize what it is you’re trying to build. (Cast a vision) don’t duplicate another church
- Question – within the next 5 years what would you like to see happen in your ministry? (services, volunteers, leaders, vocals, instrumentals, musical styles, level of musicianship, fellowship, discipleship, musical growth, spiritual growth)
Communicate your vision in a compelling way
- remind them often
- you are recruiting people to a mission, not yourself
Build your ministry one volunteer at a time
- not once in all of his years of ministry did he sit back and say, wow I’ve finally got enough volunteers
- challenge musicians to reach out to their talented friends
- Pray
- adopt a “go after them” mentality – Jesus went after his peeps
- Build your ministry around strong people
- Make sure your ministry is a safe place for an artist
  - Encouragement is huge in an artists life
  - Prov 3:27 – do not withhold good from those who deserve it
  - Moses hired artists – when done he blessed them – he inspected their work and encouraged them
- Implement processes that work
  - Constantly evaluate our processes
    - Music selection
      - if one person selects all the music it will lack variety
      - use a team to select music
      - have one non-musician
      - make time to listen to new music
    - Music preparation (meetings, rehearsals)
      - spend time making sure everything is setup a head
      - Think ahead of time about the layout of the rehearsal
      - start with easy songs (ones they know) then throw the hardest one at them.
      - if you can work with vocalist and artist separate that is the best in his opinion
      - tell the vocals at what you want them to sing
    - Evaluation
      - This is how speak to each other
      - Give your ministry a letter grade in terms of its processes. What can be done to improve the area that scored lowest?
      - Is there anything you’re doing that’s inhibiting the ministry’s effectiveness in song selection, preparation and evaluation
    - Don’t ignore problem, fix them.
      - Question: are there any problems within your ministry that you’ve been putting off? How can you address them?
        
        A lady just asked I have a problem – I’m married to the Senior Pastor
        
        BE CONSISTENT
        
        The way we talk to each other is extremely important
- Utilize volunteers to help you manage your ministry more efficiently
  - What do I need the most help with right now and are there any volunteers who could assist you in that task?
- Invest in the lives of your people
  - do life together
  - phil 2:19-20 – Paul was frustrated because he didn’t have others who cared like Timothy.
  - Don’t be too busy doing God’s work that you’re not doing God’s work which is dealing with people
  - Looking back on his ministry the people is the best thing that stands out, not a song, book, cd, event, etc.
- What specifically are you doing to invest in the lives of your volunteers?
- Live a sustainable lifestyle
  - There is a crisis in our ministry today. People are working way too many hours.
  - from me – Learn to say NO! enjoy the video below from Doug Fields I heard at a youth specialites concert
- Don’t stop being a musician just because you’re a leader

Breakout C – Refining Your Worship Leading – Joe Horness

Tim Lemons — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:35:42 +0000

Confusion is the enemy of Worship
Improve Your Process
- Before taking stage you have already made hundreds of decisions
- Understand your role
  - Am I a performer or Facilitator?
    - Chris Tomlin on albums is in the key of F# because his voice sounds best there. But when leading worship, lowers keys so people can join in
  Craft a great worship order – like having blueprints for your house – bad blue prints awesome carpenters = bad house
  - Details/?/tools/order
    - Details – child dedication, Bill Hybels says you can’t do a certain song
    - ? – prayer time, what does God want to say? Celebration? God’s promises are true?
    - Tools – what songs work for that
    - Order – Then go through songs and pick an order.
    Where does my heart long to go from here? – after a song what song does your heart want to sing?
    - Go to the band/vocals and say, “here is what we want to accomplish. We want to remind people that God’s promises are true
    Lead a solid team
    - Great people, carefully prepared
    - Tempos, Trans and Scans!
      - Tempos – Tama makes a great programmable metronome
      - Transitions -
      - Scans – know where the song is going
      Prepare for Spontaneity
    - Communicate to Tech Teams
Refine Your Reflection
- Ask the Question: What will turn this song time into a worship time?
- Identify Sticking Points!
  - Through private worship
  - Plan for moments ahead of time
Craft your Comments
- Use scripture as often as possible – anytime you can replace your words with God’s words is a good thing
- Ask a compelling question -”lord I’m amazed” ask what there amazed about, then tell God right here, now let’s sing it again.
- Tell a compelling story – “my Jesus I love you” – his wife put post it notes everywhere saying different ways she loves him.
- Be authentic, honest and real – confess
- Write it out – write out ahead of time what you want to say
Sharpen Your Leadership
- Sharpen your preparation – you should know the song better than anyone in the room
- Memorize -
- Know it best – lead
- Worship through it in private
- Communicate – with your band, your team, your congregation
- Prayer – individual and team
Action Plan
- Which elements would make the greatest difference in your personal worship leading?
  - Improve your process
  - Refine your reflection
  - Craft your comments
  - Sharpen your leadership

Awesome Breakout! Want to buy this for worship leaders back home!

Breakout B – Less Pain More Gain – Stacy Brewer

Tim Lemons — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:44:48 +0000

@Willow Services start getting planned 16 weeks out
Team is made up of video, drama, music, etc
RIP Meeting – Raw Ideas Planning
We are planning out willow’s Labor Day service
- Start with a dance – Flight of the bumblebee with men in business suites and briefcases

HEH… that was enough notes for that one.