Archive for the 'leadership' CategoryPage 2 of 9

bet you didn’t know either

Published
by
ryan russell
on May 6, 2009
in leadership and projects
. 3 Comments

4 hours to nowhere

Published
by
ryan russell
on April 21, 2009
in leadership, new church, projects and strip church
. 2 Comments

Took another crazy trip for StripChurch.com with those crazy gals from GirlfriendIT.com — we are looking at putting together a very unique ministry trip for ladies. This trip had us starting the morning out EARLY (text messages began around 5:30am). My compadre Stephen & I picked up Patty & Lisa from the airport in the StripChurch bus (have you seen it yet?).

We swapped the bus & stephen for Craig and a scion and headed 4 hours to nowhere. Do you know where Ely, NV is? I didn’t think so. Ely is home to the oldest legal brothel in the state of Nevada. There are quite a few words that could describe the experience: weird, interesting, depressing, run down, desolate, removed from ‘normal’ life. Our mission for the day had 2 objectives. 

1) Build relationships between StripChurch, GirlFriendIT and the owners of the brothel.

2) Scout a new kind of ‘missions trip’ for a group of ladies – it will be a make over (of sorts) to bring life, love, hope and grace to the gals who live in very bad conditions. 

The controversy: Should any time, relationship and money be invested into renovating the living conditions for prostitutes working in a brothel? Your opinions and thoughts will be intriguing. The mission will chart on. Look for the trip near October.

my ‘old’ job is not what they thought it might be

Published
by
ryan russell
on March 31, 2009
in leadership
. 1 Comment
lisapattiI was invited by some friends, Lisa & Patti, to be on the ‘Joni Show’ to talk about Las Vegas, StripChurch.com & our ministries that are aimed at showing up in the darkest of places. The coordinators of the show, being vaguely familiar with one of our other ministries, xxxChurch, decided to make that the primary subject for the show. However, it became apparent rather quickly that not everyone there had done their homework before having me on. In an awkward moment for them in the greenroom, the producer decided she need to double check some last minute info. because she apparently couldn’t figure out exactly who I was. “You haven’t worked IN the porn industry as an actor… have you?” It was classic. I have been referred to as a lot of things before, but a ‘porn star’ is not one of them. I had to resist some smart-ass remark like, “no, I’m not qualified”. You would think that they would have nailed this bit of info. down before I flew to Dallas, came into the studio passed their double guarded doors and sat in their make-up chair for my touch-ups. Evidently, the subject matter was making them nervous.    

Once the experience began, the hostess was gracious, but one thing more became obvious…. Christian talk show hosts have a difficult time talking candidly about sexuality. I didn’t sign on with Fireproof Ministries to spend more time talking about sex, porn, marriage, kids, society and the like. I signed on to launch the brand new work that we are doing in Las Vegas, StripChurch, but it seems even the timid and disconnected invariably want to talk about sex. It is after all a $14 BILLION a year industry that touches our lives in almost seemly subtle and insidious ways. So I guess it still startles me that we haven’t talked about this issue enough AND that we aren’t able as a church to talk about it as openly and candidly as we need to in order for us to bring hope, healing, perspective & God’s design into the very center of one of the most pervasive topics in our culture. Shockingly, the hostess asked a question that seemed to indicate a very basic lack of understanding about the nature of sexuality. I wish I could remember the exact wording, but the content of the question was, ‘what is it about porn that makes men click on those ads that sometimes pop up on your computer? Why does it have such a draw?’    

Really? I came to Dallas to answer that question? Well here’s the answer. God made sex. As part of the nature of sex he made man attracted to the naked female body, all of the time. He made woman (during certain moments) attracted to being with the naked male body. It is tightly woven by God into our beings as part of the love and reproductive blessings that he gave our bodies. Satan has twisted God’s great planning and suggested to us as humans this great lie, ‘if a little bit with one person is good, then lots of it with many people in a variety of ways must be better!’ For the record, this isn’t true and that isn’t God’s plan for the BEST life ever. It NEVER works out that way. But I didn’t need to Go to Dallas to explain something so fundamental, did I? Apparently. Hopefully churches can start talk about this more. Hopefully we can get this message out: Jesus can bring hope & healing to our sex lives. If only we could stop being so squeamish talking about something that God made… Sex! God knows the world doesn’t have a hard time talking about what he made. 
For the record, the experience was worth the investment. It was also worth the trip to Dallas to help some friends communicate about their ministry efforts PLUS it was another opportunity for us to talk to an audience about the ministries of Fireproof and XXXchurch. Never have had my make-up professionally done before either, so hey, new experiences abounded. AND I got to hang out with Jen & Justin Humphreys.

Godin: Communicators

Published
by
ryan russell
on March 9, 2009
in church plant, leadership and projects
. 0 Comments

— unapologetically passing along a great post on Communication form Seth Godin —

The two elements of a great presenter

1. Respect (from the audience) 
2. Love (to the audience)

There are no doubt important evolutionary reasons why this is true, but in my experience, every great presenter earns the respect of the audience (through her appearance, reputation, posture, voice, slides, introduction, etc.) and captures the attention of the audience by sending them love.

Love takes many forms. I love you enough to teach you this. I love you enough to help you. I love you enough to look you in the eye. Or, in the case of rock and roll presentations, I love you enough to want to engage in various acts with you, right now, backstage.

Margaret Thatcher was a great presenter, even though she had none of the glib charisma people expect from someone with that title. That’s because people (even those that disagreed with her) respected her before she started, and they understood at every moment that her motivation was to motivate and improve the lives of those she was presenting to.

In the famous interrogation scene in Basic Instinct (link not included so no one yells at me), Sharon Stone does a brilliant presentation. She instantly earns (a sort of) respect from the cops and their undivided attention at the same time. She replaces love with sex, and it works.

Tony Robbins is considered an astounding presenter for a similar reason. His stage presence and reputation and energy and sheer size earn him respect, and his generosity and complete connection with the audience is received by them as love. The result is a connection far bigger than the content alone would account for.

If you have love but no respect, you’re a lounge singer. Fail.

If you have respect, but no love, you’re like one of the rare self-promotional talks at TED. Fail.

Consider this clip from Patton. In 28 seconds, George C. Scott delivers both.

When you create a presentation, think about what your status will be as you begin the presentation. What can you do to prewire, to earn more respect from the start? How can you be introduced? Lit? Miked? What can you wear? If your reputation doesn’t precede you, how do you earn it?

Don’t apologize at the beginning of the talk. For anything. Don’t hide in the dark. Don’t hide behind a wall of bullet points.

And then, as the talk (pitch/presentation/interview) begins, don’t focus your energy or concern on yourself. It’s not about you. It’s about them. The presenter who loves his audience the most, wins.

influences

Published
by
ryan russell
on March 3, 2009
in leadership and new church
. 1 Comment

In leadership & in ministry, WHO you have influence you is a very key ingredient. It seems very wise & prudent to carefully select which voices you are going to allow to penetrate into your outlook, attitude, worldview, decision making and direction.

Over the last 8 months I have been refining which voices to have speak into my personal development, professional insights and ministry direction. I don’t have all of this work done yet, but I want to pass along two new voices that are making the cut.

the first is a pastor out in S.C. — for those of you in ministry you won’t find the revelatory — named Perry Noble. He pastors a church called NewSpring. Read his blog… it is worth the price of the subscription (FREE). The best take aways are spiritual leadership and then church leadership, in that order.

the second is a pastor in New York named Tim Keller. What he has been doing as a pastor of the local church is very good, but what he is contributing to the intellectual dialogue in the world on behalf of Christ and the gospel is outstanding. His lectures and sermons would be termed ‘boring’ by the average evangelical church attender on the west coast, but if you can hang with the deliver the content will leave you thinking for a very long time. Be sure to check out his lecture at Google.