Big Is The New Small

There is inside you 
all of the potential to be whatever 
you want to be 
all of the energy to do whatever 
you want to do.

Imagine yourself 
as you would like to be, 
doing what you want to do, 
and each day, take one step 
towards your dream.

And though at times it may seem too 
difficult to continue, 
hold on to your dream.

One morning you will awake to find 
that you are the person 
you dreamed of 
doing what you wanted to do 
simply because you had the courage 
to believe in your potential 
and to hold on to your dream.

~Donna Levine

dream BIG. think BIGGER.

As some of you may know, I have a book scheduled to release in April.  My prayer is that it will help initiate the long overdue conversations about the lack of ethnic diversity in the church.  The Title is “Church Diversity – Sunday The Most Segregated Day Of The Week.” The premise is based on a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from over 40 years ago when he said, “We must face the sad fact that at the eleven o’ clock hour on Sunday morning when we stand to sing, we stand in the most segregated hour in America.”

I pray this will be more than a book; but rather a movement. I would love for you to be a part of this movement that will literally change the face and heart of the church.  We are allowing people just like you to upload a simple profile pic. (head-shot) to be included in the book.  It’s an opportunity for readers to take a snapshot reminder of all of the unique faces that make up God’s Church.  We all represent Church Diversity.

• Diversity Matters To God
• The Local Church Is The Hope Of The World
• We Are Church Diversity

Hundreds of people have already uploaded their pic., please take 2 minutes to jump over to this site and upload your pic.  I hope to see your face in the book.  Together, we will ensure that Dr. King’s quote won’t ring true 40 years from now.

Would you like to maybe have your words in the book, maybe in the introduction.  Leave a comment below and fill in this sentence:  Church Diversity is [__fill_in_the_blank__].  Example: Church Diversity is a reflection of what Heaven will look like. Try to keep your thoughts between 1 and 5 sentences long.  Be creative and heartfelt.  Who knows, you may see your words in a bookstore near you.

I want to thank to Tim and the crew at New Leaf Publishing Group for believing in this project.  I also want to thank you for your willingness to be a part of this “We Are Church Diversity“ movement.  Share the pic. site and this post with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

dream BIG. think BIGGER.

GUEST BLOGGER: Today’s guest post comes from @ErikaGordon.  Erika is the print and web designer for Manna Church in Fayetteville, NC www.mannachurch.org.  Her website is www.ErikaGordon.com. If you would like to be a guest blogger for BigIsTheNewSmall.com, click here.

Have you ever looked at a movie poster and immediately knew what type of movie it was without reading one line of text?  The design instantly revealed whether that movie was a horror flick, comedy or sappy love story.  Well believe it or not, the same holds true when reflecting diversity in church design.  Design is a language and just one look can speak of what type of church you are – a predominately white church, black church or one that is truly seeking a multi-cultural experience.

Diversity in design goes much deeper than just including stock images of a happy white woman, black family, or Latino couple.  It’s about incorporating the individual styles and feelings one gets when looking at something that is designed and created specifically for them.  The twist is to include these different styles while maintaining your church’s identity and culture.  So the million dollar question is: “How do I speak to other cultures through my design while remaining true to my church’s identity?”

I really wish there were a formula for this question but unfortunately there isn’t.  The good news is that this means the sky is the limit!  I mean, isn’t that why we were hired in the first place, to be creative and figure it out?  There were, however, a few things that helped me to balance my urban design background with the multi-cultural identity of Manna Church (www.mannachurch.org):

• 1. Study design styles that are popular in other cultures. I make it a point to grab print materials, watch videos and browse websites that target a specific culture and study the differences in each of them.
• 2. Push yourself to design outside of your comfort zone. This is one of the hardest things to do because as designers, we have our own style and often there’s a measure of pride that doesn’t want to compromise that.  However, we must remember what sets us apart from the mainstream industry is that we are called to use our gifts to reach people.  It’s not about us and “our style.”
• 3. Remember the big picture and don’t give up. I constantly remind myself of this because it’s very easy to slip back into our comfort zone or fool ourselves into thinking that intentional diversity in design is not effective or worth the effort.
• 4. Utilize the people around you.  Ideally, a multi-cultural church has a multi-cultural staff, so ask your co-workers from different backgrounds their opinion of the design and if it speaks to them.
• 5. Know that you’re not going to please everybody. It’s impossible to create designs that speak to everyone and quite frankly, there will be times when you must target a specific demographic and that’s okay.

Hopefully this helps you to embrace the fact that we designers play an important role in church diversity and even though we are often behind-the-scenes, our work is always on the frontlines.

What do you think about Diversity In Design?

I always enjoy having conversations with creative arts type of people.  I love the way they process things, how they see things and their constant desire to find inspiration.  Poets may find inspiration from nature, the world and current issues around them.  Photographers may find inspiration from the work of other photographers, current style, trends and anything they can see.  Musicians may find inspiration from something burning deep down inside, telling a life story or being sensitive to the world around them.

You don’t have to be the creative type to always be looking for and finding inspiration.  Inspiration is around us every day.  You have to open your eyes and look for inspiration in all of the interactions that life brings you.

I call those little moments of inspiration “God Moments.”  If I look for those God moments in everything, I will find them.  Often times those moments reveal themselves when I’m spending time with family, friends and God.

Finding Inspiration

How do you find inspiration?

Although Twitter is an amazing tool to: network, develop relationships, find information, share information, promote your business, promote your brand, make the world smaller, minister to people… It’s not all good!

What I mean by Twitter is not all good is the fact that the tool itself is great; however the element of humans using the tool can create problems. Twitter can actually ruin your life if you don’t guard yourself and become aware of the fact that if you choose to drive down the Twitter Highway there are some potholes and deadly sins to avoid.

Here are the 7 Deadly Sins Of Twitter and These 7 Things Can Ruin Your Life!

• 1. Porn- If you find yourself being intrigued by the revealing Twitter profile pics. or dating sites and start clicking to learn a little bit more, this is a sign of trouble.   The next thing you know, that click will lead to another click, that will lead to you clicking a link of a tweet that looks something like this “Check out this video of me all alone.” This my friends is the first pothole to a road that will ruin your life.

• 2. Secret DM’s- If you are married and find yourself having secret DM conversations with someone of the opposite sex, That can be trouble. What I mean my secret, are those seemingly innocent conversations that your spouse doesn’t know about.  Always leave your Twitter account accessible to your spouse.  I recommend universal passwords for both you and your spouse for all Twitter, Facebook, e-mail and Social Media accounts; in other-words all log-in and passwords are the same.  (My entire family uses the same password for everything.)  If you find yourself remotely questioning the potential of one of your Twitter conversations or relationships; share the conversation with your spouse and block that person immediately.

• 3. It’s All About Me- Twitter can be a very competitive form of Social Media, as a matter of fact there man of the new apps. or infomercial DM’s are relative to ways to increase your followers. Many people are guilty of checking their number of followers and having a desire to increase our number of followers. It’s important that the desire to increase our numbers or influence doesn’t turn into the “It’s All About Me” syndrome. Don’t be so consumed with your numbers that you get big headed and think you’re the Big Man or Big Woman on campus. Value and respect your followers and appreciate the numbers that you have, because in Twitter World it’s not all about you, it’s all about the people that follow you. An easy way to check yourself is to daily recognize that your account, followers and entire Twitter Profile can be deleted with one bug, virus or error.

• 4. Time- It can be easy to get sucked into the Twitter time consuming capsule. Ask yourself this question “Do I find my time on Twitter interrupting my productivity time at work or becoming a hindrance to my time with friends, family, spouse… In case you are in denial, naive or oblivious to your time problem; ask the people closest to you, do they see your time on Twitter as a problem?   There are many tools to help you with your productivity and potentially help you avoid this deadly sin.   Here is a list of the Top 111 Twitter Tools.

• 5. Multiple Personality Disorder- Often times people develop a Twitter Personality that is different from their normal personality. This is a hard road to travel because you can find yourself expending energy and fueling the Twitter Personality that’s not the real you. These personalities begin to compete with one another and trouble is on the way. Ask yourself this question “Is my Twitter Personality the real me?” Be yourself and don’t get caught up in the fake Multiple Personality Disorder Game… It will ruin the real you!

• 6. Envy- If you find yourself full of Envy, as it relates to the influence that other Twitterers have then you are traveling down the road of bitterness. Many times it’s the subtle statements, thoughts or comments that communicate your heart is beginning to fill with Envy. Comments like “I Can’t believe so and so has that many followers” or “Why do people follow them and they tweet the stupidest things” or “There is no way they should have that much influence” or you start referring to @guykawasaki as @girlkawasaki. You should encourage and celebrate others in the TwitterWorld who have been blessed with influence. Envy is the tribute that mediocrity pays to genius, hard-work and success.

• 7. CopyCat- Don’t simply copy what others in the TwitterWorld are doing, Be Yourself. Do You! It’s A Statement… Not A Question!

Share your thoughts on any of the 7 Deadly Sins of Twitter or add some additional to the list.

This is the full version of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have A Dream” Speech.  This is worth 17 minutes of your day, in order to reflect and look ahead at the same time.  I tear up every time I watch this.  I’m watching it with my sons right now.

Dr. King was introduced as “The Moral Leader Of Our Nation.”  Wow, what a great introduction.

Did know that Geese eat Pop-Tarts fro Breakfast?

A day in the the life of the Williams family.

It’s time for some BIG News as in BigIsTheNewSmall.com kinda BIG News.  I have been thinking through some BIG Ideas for BigIsTheNewSmall.com for 2011 and I have a few working.

Let me share a couple of the BIG Ideas with you and we will get them kicked off today.

• BIG Idea #1.  BIG GiveBack - I am going to give away a months worth of FREE advertising on BigIsTheNewSmall.com.  1 FREE 125×125 Advertising Spot $200 value.  My thought is to help promote some businesses, ideas, blogs, books, CD’s, causes, charities or whatever else you share, that I agree to promote.  The concept is simple, I’ll share a blogpost about the Big Giveback and anyone can share why I should choose their endeavor.  I’ll choose one, you provide the graphic for the advertisement and we will do again the next month.

• Consider this post as your opportunity to begin sharing this month.  I’ll select the winner on Thurs. January 20th. I’ll announce the Winner on January 21st and the ad will go up on Feb. 1st.  Once you share simply Tweet or share on your facebook status that you just shared a BIG Idea for the #BigGiveBack at BigIsTheNewSmall.com.  I encourage readers, to comment or give feedback on any of the ideas that you like.

• BIG Idea #2. BigGiveAway – Last month I did a #BigGiveAway of an iPad in conjunction with promoting my man Wayne Elsey’s new book, Almost Isn’t Good Enough.  This #BigGiveAway received thousands upon thousands of hits on the link provided and many more hits in general.  We had over 700 comments, 700 Retweets from the site and many more RT’s and Facebook postings. To top it all off Sonny Lemmons won an iPad. Check Out the Post Here. My thought is that I’m going to offer this as another advertising opportunity. Here are the details, you provide an item that you want to promote in conjunction with a #BigGiveAway with a value of at-least $600 and you give me one of the things that you’re giving away.

• For instance an iPad to give away and an iPad for me to have.  You could give away a branding, logo, design package or website package and you give me one of the same.  I will either keep what you give me for personal use or I might decide to #GiveBack and bless someone else.  This promotion will feature a blogpost on Friday and the promo will run from Friday until Monday with full promotion.  Everyone will have a chance to win and the winners will be randomly selected.  This will happen once a month, with the first opportunity kicking off in February.  Only 11 slots left for the year.  Of course I have to agree with what you are wanting to give away.  If you are interested in doing the #BigGiveAway shoot me an email above.

If You would like to be considered for the #BigGiveBack leave a comment below and share it on your Facebook or Twitter.  Consider the 3C’s: Be Convincing, Creative and Compelling.

If you are interested in the #BigGiveAway click on the email link at the top of the blog.

No matter how you slice it, the harsh reality is that competition makes you better.  If you look at the parity in college football this year, it’s a result of competition forcing teams in all conferences to get better.  If they weren’t good this year they will be better next year.

This same concept applies to churches, often times churches will elevate their game when a new church pops up in their area of reach.  The increasing number of mom and pop coffee shops caused Starbucks to take stock of who they were, what they stood for and elevated their game.  As a result Starbucks has asked employees to slow down and for baristas to spend more time on each individual cup of coffee.

If you don’t believe that Competition Makes You Better, wait until next month.  I can guarantee that the king of dropped calls “AT&T” will get better when the new iPhone Sheriff “Verizon” rolls in to town.

The lack of competition screams for complacency and mediocrity.

Don’t shy away from competition, embrace it.  It only makes you better.

Do you think competition makes you better?  Do you think AT&T will get better?  How have you seen this principle played out?

I ran across this video that might be of interest to you, if you are someone that finds yourself being distracted by things like Twitter, Facebook, Messages, Emails, Games and other digital distractions. Freedom blocks you from being online for a specified period of time and Rescue Time monitors your online time and helps you evaluate how much time you may be wasting and in what areas.

Share your thoughts on these applications.  Is it necessary to use apps to manage your digital distractions?