Jeremy Davidson

Favorite Films

Jeremy Davidson — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 03:48:00 +0000

I was recently asked what were some of my favorite films. It is a question that gets asked of me several times a year and I don’t think I have ever set down to put pen to paper to create a list of my favorites. I do have a Moleskine Film Journal that I started keeping in the summer of 2011 that I purchased at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. I have been adding my movie stubs to it and will occasionally write the name of films that I watch on DVD or TV to it. I have created a running list of my favorite all time movies here but will list a few of my favorite films of 2011 below:

Drive – This movie had so much swagger. To call it “cool” would be an understatement.
Hugo – A great film that helps make some history of the cinema into a palpable story.
Super 8 – If there was an award for making a film most likely to have been lost by Steven Spielberg, this would be it. Great on all points.
Warrior
Crazy Stupid Love
The Descendants
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1 & 2
Moneyball
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Hanna
Real Steel
The Adjustment Bureau

Not a bad list there. What were a few of your favorite films from this year?

The Descendants

Jeremy Davidson — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 16:42:06 +0000

I had the chance to go and see George Clooney’s new film The Descendants this past weekend while in Dallas with the family. I have been really excited about seeing this film after reading the Critics reviews. After seeing so many 100 out of 100 reviews I knew this was one that I was going to have to check out.

This is a powerful movie. Clooney’s character is being pulled in so many different directions. His wife has had an accident and is lying in the hospital. His workaholic lifestyle has kept him from developing a deeper relationship with his two daughters. His extended family is betting on him to make a decision that will result in them inheriting a huge sum of money. He finds out that his wife, who is lying in the hospital in a coma, has been having an affair. That is quite a load to carry on your shoulders.

As I sat and watched this film I began identifying the stories that were happening to Clooney with those of the people that I help oversee. It helped give me insight into what they went through this year and gave me hope that the trials that we encounter help refine us into a person that is more closely connected to God and His purposes. Don’t allow bad circumstances to pull your faith and hope away from Christ.

What will it take for you to change your life and commit to a deeper relationship with our God? These pivotal circumstances that we have little or no control over can wreck your life…or they can help you get back on track with God. They will help you realize what is really important in life and what you should really be thankful for and focusing on.

Check out this video and share some thoughts about a pivotal circumstance that God has used to redirect your path.

The Verge Conference

Jeremy Davidson — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 18:10:44 +0000

As Harrah Church has worked at continuing its mission of developing people in Christ we have focused time and resources on helping people to begin to embed themselves in service to our community and not in a weekly schedule inside the walls of the church. Embed is the word I like to use when talking about a missional lifestyle here in Harrah, America. Embedding ourselves into the lives and culture of our community has come to the forefront of ministry at Harrah Church.

We have watched the food pantries shut their doors around us. Churches in our area are struggling to keep staff pastors and leadership in various roles for long or at all.

I want to go to Verge Conference 2012 to discover how Harrah Church can begin embedding ourselves deeper into the fabric of our community. How can we weave our small group strategies around serving the neighborhoods where our groups meet? What kind of ministry can we do within the daycare centers in our community? What can we do to help the schools improve student achievement test scores and graduation rates? What established groups within our city can we pull up to and begin working beside? What kind of ministry is taking place in retirement and nursing home communities? How do you support foster families who are taking in the kids displaced by addiction? How do we increase awareness and bring solutions and education to our community about the social problems that are affecting families? How can we connect the faith communities in our town with the needs of our neighbors?

I want to go to VERGE to find answers, to meet practitioners, to discover solutions to our community’s issues, to discover answers to questions that I don’t even know to ask yet. Harrah Church has an incredible heart to help develop people in Christ and they are reaching out to the least of these. I want to support the work that God is doing here, learn to develop the ability to discern where God is leading the church, the issues within our community and how to realize a church that knows the heartbeat, hurts and hangups within our community and can help begin to recover and celebrate their community.

For me VERGE is an opportunity to connect with the thoughts, practices and leaders who will help change our community and connect people to Christ.

Here are some links to find out more about VERGE
Verge Conference 2012 = http://www.verge2012.org
Facebook Page for Verge Network http://www.facebook.com/VergeNetwork

Here is some more info on VERGE

Verge 2012 is For The Gospel \ For The City \ For The Nations – an experience in Austin, Texas, on February 28 to March 2, 2012, for everyone pursing the mission of God everywhere. Featured speakers inlcude: Matt Carter, David Platt, Dr. John Perkins, Alan Hirsch, Darrin Patrick, Dave Gibbons, and many more.

VERGE is a four-day experience for anyone pursuing the mission of God, in community, whatever the context, for the sake of the Gospel – everyday leaders, students, entrepreneurs, artists, urban innovators, business leaders, community development specialists, non-profit leaders, church planters and church leaders.

Verge will resource you to make disciples who make disciples in every sphere and domain of society, advocate for the poor and oppressed, mobilize urban and global mission leaders, and champion movements of gospel-centered missional communities.

Verge 2012 is here to encourage, build up and renew all kinds of leaders engaged in the mission of God to redeem and renew. Verge is made up of pre-conferences, post-conferences, two-days of challenging main sessions, music, workshops, networking opportunities and more.

Slight Miscommunication

Jeremy Davidson — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 20:34:54 +0000

I recently helped build a website for the guys over at West Metro Community Church in Yukon, OK. Great guys and a great build process. Thanks to Pastor Hank for calling. Three weeks ago I started getting all this mail for some people at their church, or so I thought. As I began reading the emails I realized that they were meant for employees at West Metro Fire in Lakewood, CO. The difference here is only four letters, FIRE, but for West Metro Fire it could be the diference between making a sale and not or providing great customer service and dropping the ball.

Here is the lesson: too many times the difference between the results we want and the results that we end up with are only a few words. The issue is those few words either escape our mind or don’t seem that important. It is better to over-communicate your expectations than to leave them open to interpretation.

Don’t just tell people WHAT you want done, tell them WHEN you want it done by.

Dont just tell someone they did a good job, tell them what actions that they took went above and beyond. In the future they will begin focusing on perfecting each step in the process rather than just getting the job done.

You can make a little bit go a long way, but a little bit more may increase that distance exponentially.

What are a few ways you may be miscommunicating or under-communicating to those around you? What few words can you add to your communications to help people under your expectations?

The Right Tools for the Job

Jeremy Davidson — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 03:31:21 +0000

I spoke in my last post about some problems that I was having with my radiator. I would have never discover what the real problems were with my system if Darren Herdman had not brought his pressure tester to my house. Having the right tool for the job will not only save you time but it will help you do the job right the first time. Here is a list of the things that I did before discovering the real problem:

Put the slipped belt back on
Put the slipped belt back on
Put the slipped belt back on
Changed the alternator
Put the slipped belt back on
Changed the upper radiator hose
Put the slipped belt back on
Changed the overflow hose
Put the slipped belt back on
Changed the belt tensioner
Put the slipped belt back
Put the slipped belt back
Threw my hands up in frustration

How much time and money did I expend trying to fix the problem? More than I should have. Darren came over and sorted us out in less than 5 minutes. What did he bring to the table? Experience and a pressure tester. Young leaders have a hard time listening and learning from people who have experience with the problems they face. Is it because they don’t know who to ask or is it because they want to figure it out on their own? Not sure. I do know that if you take your question to the right person you will get the answer that you are looking for.

The next thing you must learn to do is discover the right tools for the job. As soon as Darren hooked up the pressure tester we knew that my radiator cap was bad and because it was not holding the proper amount of pressure it was hard to notice the crack in the radiator. It isn’t about having the best tool on the market when having the right tool will do. Is your church using the right management software? Don’t forget that your processes are tools too. Are each of your processes the right tool for the job. I discovered when trying to put my slipped belt back on that the wrench worked much better than the ratchet and that it had to be a wrench of medium wrench in order for it fit into the space provided. Yeah, I purchased a belt-tensioner tool from the local auto parts store, what should be the right tool for the job, but I quickly discovered that it wouldn’t fit.

I can look quickly into audio and video system at the church and see that we are able to get the job done, but the amount of effort that goes into the video encoding process is not worth it to me until we can put the right pieces of gear into place. In this one area of our ministry putting the right piece of gear into place will save us hundreds of volunteer hours a year and put some of my best people into a postion to help develop others.

Create a list of the tools that you need to win in your job and work towards getting them. Pastors and leaders make sure that you are resourcing your people with the right tools and don’t be cheap skates.

16lbs of Pressure

Jeremy Davidson — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 02:50:03 +0000

Tonight I need to say a big thanks to my friend Darren Herdman. Sydnie’s van has been throwing the belt since this past winter and leaking anti-freeze. Darren was able to come over to the house and sort out our car troubles in a matter of minutes. It turned out that my radiator cap was bad and wasted capable of holding the 16lbs of pressure required. Because the pressure wasn’t correct I was unable to discover the crack in my radiator that was causing my anti-freeze to leak.

When I took over the role of administrator of our Early Learning Centers here in Harrah and Choctaw I went from managing a a little over a hundred volunteers a week to overseeing a staff of 70 plus employees and hundreds of volunteers. I have been working on fine tuning the amount of pressure that needs to exist within our organization in order for it to operate in a healthy manner that ensures the best possible product. If you don’t apply enough pressure then you are too soft on people and they will take advantage of you. Apply too much pressure and you become Gordon Ramsey. Because I work for a church I can’t run around dropping the F-Bomb, yelling at people and telling them they are too weak of a person to do us any good. Ok…I mean I shouldn’t do those things. You have to find a balance.

Do you feel that you are being too soft or too hard?

Remember, when you are too soft on those who report to you you will increase the amount of pressure on yourself. Dial it in and figure how much pressure you need to maintain in your environment and make sure that you are achieving it. Don’t worry about increasing the pressure. This problem is like boiling a frog. Do it slowly and he will never notice. Do it all at once and he will jump out of the pot.

Accept the Gift

Jeremy Davidson — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 18:59:39 +0000

Share the Win. Share the Work. Accept the Gift. When people want to be generous towards you don’t turn them down. They enjoy giving. Did you know that giving is a spiritual gift? You wouldn’t keep someone from suing their gift anywhere within your church so don’t keep a giver from exercising their gift. There could be numerous warnings here about people only giving to gain authority over you or people that do it as a means to let you know that they are good givers, but don’t miss the opportunity to let someone bestow a blessing on you or your ministry. God has used a lot of people to bless me in my ministry and the relationships and gifts have helped me become the leader that I am and God has used these people to shape me for the ministry that I now have. If I had turned down the gifts I would never had attended seminary, or read so many great books, gone on the ministry trips I have been, had lunch with such wise people or had the money to pay a bill that I had no idea where I was going to get the money for. Giving your blessing to the blessing and you will become a blessing to the blesser.

Share the Work

Jeremy Davidson — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 18:47:06 +0000

Something that I see time and time again, especially in younger workers, is the inability to delegate tasks to others. If you are new to ministry and looking to to impress me it wont be by making yourself look like a superman. I am looking for people who can delegate tasks, ensure that they get done with quality and speed and know how to make volunteers feel appreciated. Harrah Church does a LOT on a LITTLE. We are a church of over 700 with only TWO full-time staff members. This is a volunteer led church and we wouldn’t want to change that ever. What happens at Harrah Church is incredible. Sharing the work helps more people share the win. Sharing the win helps give purpose to people within your organization. Hogging the work means that you get fewer good things done and none of it will be getting done in a sustainable manner. If you leave and the ministry you lead dies then you were a terrible leader. Remember, if you think you are leading and turn around and nobody is following then you were just taking a walk. Not sharing the work is like walking.

Focus on building teams and not your resume and you will never need a resume. Let the quality of your work and the relationships that you build speak for you. I really have no idea what Pastor Kevin did day-to-day in his former role at Westmoore Community Church, but I can tell you by the quality of the relationships that he built while there and his ability to share the work that he is an incredible leader without having to inspect his resume. In church leadership you will find that we are looking at HOW you did something and not WHAT you did. This deals directly with your ability to create processes that create wins and not about your ability to work your butt off.

What can you do this week to begin sharing your work and building a team around you? Remember to think outside your “go-to” people too. You will limit your potential by finding and developing new talent. I never miss a Membership here at Harrah Church because I want to be the first to discover new talent and enjoy helping other find their fit.

Share the Win

Jeremy Davidson — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 02:30:24 +0000

I love seeing people win. This morning I had the chance to walk around the church and observe so many of our volunteers at Harrah Church. We had a new volunteer running our environmental screens today. He was up and ready to go after about 5 minutes of training and totally ripped it. He was in the zone. One of our Worship leaders, Amanda Coffee seemed to be singing from a different place in her heart yesterday. She is an amazing singer but I heard things in her voice yesterday that just seemed so authentic as she sang the words. Powerful stuff. Our Men’s Ministry luncheon went incredible. The food tasted great and they had so many people show up that they had to cook more.

It is tempting sometimes to focus on ourselves and our chase afte glory, but if you are going to lead a dynamic ministry you have got to learn to share the wins of those around you with people. God is doing stuff in and through your volunteers and you have got to discover those stories, share them and celebrate what is happening. If you are just telling your story them you are missing the bigger picture, which is what God is doing through the CHURCH. Your grandma was right when she called you something special, but when you join in the collaborative effort of the CHURCH we create something that is hard to put into words. Share the win.

You also must learn to allow others to get the win. Think of our race as a relay. If you are lusting after being the person who crosses the finish line every time you may be stealing from your teammates. Allow others to cross the finish line and reap some of that win. Sure everybody contributes to the success, but some roles attract more attention. Are you hogging all the attention roles? Share the win.

Find a way to help someone in your organization share the win and watch how the joy of helping others win becomes the win for you.

It’s the Process Stupid

Jeremy Davidson — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 03:15:32 +0000

As I write this post I am sitting at home on the couch watching a NOVA program on OETA about the Hubble Space Telescope. The Hubble has captured some of the most incredible images of space and has vastly increased our knowledge about the universe. This program deals with the repair mission that took place several years ago. It took thousands of people years to prepare for a mission that entailed six. 6.5 hour space walks. They were doing repairs that no one has ever done before. Every motion that took place on this mission was choreographed. New tools had to be invented and developed to even make this mission possible.

I am watching this and thinking about the mission of the church and what takes place during the week. I am a total list guy. I sit down several times each week to write down the tasks that I need to accomplish that day, that week and that month. I use programs like Things and Action Method to help me chart these tasks, delegate them to others, and keep a record of the tasks that I frequently have to do. A few times a year I will sit down to make a detailed record of the steps that I go through each week so that I can really see not just the tasks, but each step that goes into each task and how much time goes into each.

Too many times we approach Sunday morning and church work without thinking about the processes that are taking place. Many times we are just trying to get through the morning without dealing with a missing volunteer or encountering a technology problem. The arts and worship team spend time working on execution and everybody knows if the person running the words on the screen is behind. Those are jobs that are right in front of us. But how many important tasks get left out of the process or are entirely absent because we haven’t set down to map out what we want to happen on Sunday morning? I am not just talking about making sure there is someone greeting people at the door, but making sure that everything that greeter does helps accomplish your mission.

How many connections are missed because there was no one actively thinking, “it’s my job to shake that guys hand”? How do you know that you are not wasting volunteer hours each week doing things that have little to no impact in your mission? How is everything that is happening at your church contributing to your mission?

Can you even imagine sitting down with your team to write out every detail that takes place within your church? The Hubble team not only scripts out every task, but exactly how each tasks should be performed. Analyzing each step shows them how to shave hours off of each space walk and ensures success. Do you need to develop new tools to make better connections with visitors on Sunday mornings? Do you need to develop new tools in order to help people develop in Christ?

Mastering the process will give you the freedom and time to make deeper connections with the people that matter most to your mission.