February 1, 2010
Ministry Tools
Bob Burroughs
Quote
“When it comes to the future, there are three kinds of people: (1) Those who let it happen. (2) Those who make it happen. (3) Those who wonder what happened!” John M. Richardson, Jr.
Scripture
When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own but will tell you what He has heard. He will tell you about the future. John 16:12-14 
Prayer
Heavenly Father, Creator, the One Who holds the future in Your hands, I bless You today for all that You do to watch over us, guide us, and bless us. It is inconceivable that You can watch over, guide and bless all who are in Your beautiful world, hear all our prayers, be attentive to our needs, and continue to do all the “God things!” We are so glad You do this. You are all powerful, sovereign, everywhere present, and You love us with an everlasting love that knows no bounds. Thank You. We sometimes dread the future, but You are our future and help us to realize this in this New Year. I pray this prayer is in the name of King of kings and LORD of the universe, and the One who knows the future. Amen.
What Think Ye?
Ten Years From Now
Sometimes-in conversation with younger friends and acquaintances, I will ask this question: “What do you plan to be doing ten years from now?” 
I get a variety of answers, such as:
• “Gee! I’ve never thought that far ahead before!”
• “I want to still be serving God wherever He will lead me.”
• "I would like to be a better husband, father, and minister.”
• “I don’t have a clue! I’ll have to think about that!”
Well—the future is NOW and we must be ready, willing and able to accept and be a part of the changes or we will become dinosaurs in the place where the Father has placed us!
Here are some thoughts gleaned from a recent AP Technology Writer, Jessica Mintz. Some of these facts will surprise you.
• During the next ten years, the evolution of computing and the Internet will produce faster, increasingly intelligent devices.
• More of our possessions will contain sensors and computer chips that will log our activities and build digital dossiers that will augment our memories, help us to make decisions, and tame information overload.
• As computers and Internet connections get faster, we will enjoy them more! In October 2002, we spent about 52 hours a month on a home computer. October 2009, it was nearly 68 hours per month—and this figure will increase!
• In this next decade as conjured by Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey, any information we desire will be available instantaneously, anywhere, anytime. We’ll be able to spot a past friend at a conference, and have fingertip lines to the person’s most recent information, plus a reminder of his wife’s name!
Does all this information make you nervous? Doesn’t matter! It IS coming. Think of how far we have come in the past ten years! Apple’s 1999 iMac came with 64 
megabytes of RAM. Today’s iMac has 60 times as much. This vintage iMac had a 10-gigabyte hard drive. iPods have more space than that and iMac drives START at 500 gigabytes.
In the year, 2001, very few churches had websites, but today, probably 90% of all churches have websites that proclaim Christ and share information about their church, including staff pictures and email addresses!
The vast majority of churches now have computers, allowing the staff and others to communicate quickly with others. Pastors and other staff members can send weekly (some daily) devotional thoughts or email announcements—saving a ton of $$$ with little effort—and reaping great benefits. I know of a Minister of Music who sends an email to his choir on Tuesday, giving details about Wednesday’s rehearsal, and Thursday morning, sends another email to the choir detailing the good and positive things about last night’s rehearsal and encouraging them for Sunday.
So! What does this kind of information do to you? What are your feelings right now? Remember these things:
1. There is nothing you can do about it! Technology Will improve, become faster and make our lives easier and better, so you had best keep up-to-date and stay informed.
2. Considering how far we have come in the last ten years, it is almost impossible to think what will be at our fingertips in the next ten years. Much of what will be available in 2020 isn’t even on the drawing board yet!
3. MME strongly encourages you to watch the video below. It will really make you think about the next ten years!
What think ye 
Leadership
Best Investments for YOUR Future -- Michael Angier
1. Invest in your Dreams. I continue to meet folks who are not clear about their goals or their dreams. Success does NOT work that way! Here are two investments you must make to control your future:
• Invest 10 minutes every morning to define and affirm your goals. Write them down. Visualize them. Talk about them.
• Take an action step every day! Do something that moves you in the direction you wish to go.
2. Invest in Time and Space. Most of us live with cluttered desks, cluttered schedules, and cluttered lives. Human beings cannot do our best when we are surrounded by clutter! Peak performance requires focus, organization, concentration and freedom. Your environment is a pretty good reflection of your priorities. Clean it up. Eliminate the things that distract you. Fix or replace things that get in the way and frustrate you. Give yourself your best chance for success!
3. Invest in Connectivity. In technology, this refers to broadband, high-speed communications. It means the same thing here. Success requires high-speed, effective communication in your relationships, and with yourself. Invest in clarity. Invest in understanding. Invest in patience and caring and sharing. Invest in yourself and your loved ones, and expand your network as far as you can reach. The larger and more efficient your "connected network", the more successful you will be.
4. Invest in Skills and Education. This is on the list because it is essential, but it is last on the list because your Dreams, your Environment and your Connections are even more important. But, in the end, you have to actually know something!
You have to be able to produce, to create, to solve problems, and get stuff done! That means learning new skills, every day! Whatever your profession, be the BEST! Understand and use the best tools and most appropriate skills. Invest in your toolbox!
I am convinced that if you do not invest in yourself, in your dreams and in your community, you are actually making a choice for obsolescence. Without continuous personal growth, you are reducing your future income, and even more, you are reducing your opportunities and your options.
Someone has said, "The future belongs to those who are prepared." Make sure you have the freedom and focus to seize the day! Make sure that when opportunity knocks, you have the clarity, the time and space, and the skills to answer the door! Invest in yourself, either with a personal mentor, or with books and tapes, and take time to plan. Invest for the LIFE you want tomorrow!
Family
The Future of the Family -- Dr. Deborah Ta Anapol, Ph.D
In today's world, virtually all areas of our society are undergoing vast upheavals. In the face of such significant change, it is crazy to think that somehow the home will remain intact and miraculously unchanged.
The majority of today's adults were raised in nuclear families--where Dad was the 
breadwinner and Mom was the homemaker. Imperfect, yes, but at least it provided most children with a full-time, committed caretaker. With less than 7% of today's children growing up in this kind of family, who will fill the roles of housewife and mother?
Ask a group of conscientious parents what kinds of conditions are optimal for raising children today. They will unfailingly mention plentiful, unhurried time with nurturing adults, lots of love and physical affection, freedom and space to roam and presence of extended family or other caring adults. Any reasonable person who gave the matter sufficient thought would agree that these should be our design criteria for the 21st century family.
What kinds of conditions are typical today? Two-career families, single-parent families, blended families, abortion, infant day care and latch-key children. While the old nuclear family was as often violent, authoritarian and abusive as it was peaceful and supportive, these modern adaptations leave a lot to be desired.
With women struggling for equality largely by conforming to the priorities and strategies of the authoritarian dominator culture, children have been left in a lurch. In many cases, women have sought power outside the home precisely because they were concerned with the fate of our children! And men, too, bear equal responsibility for the next generation. We can and we must do better.
What kinds of family situations are optimal for raising children? What alternatives are there? What kinds of family structures meet our design criteria? How creative can we be in finding answers?
This solution to all these questions incorporates traditional family values into a new cultural form that not only holds great promise for children, but also could meet the needs of today's men and women. This form is called "cellular family," "expanded family," and more recently "combination family" simply, "combos." The combo family concept goes a long way towards making lots of things work that currently aren't working.
This Idea Will Work 
The Future Is NOW !!
Ready or not, the future is upon us. Are you prepared? Probably not. Most of us choose not to think too far into the future. Here are some thoughts that might help you think more about the future and what it could mean to your ministry.
• Consider planning the service music on a three “semester” basis:
(1) January through May
(2) June through August
(3) September through December
This is an effective way to work through the calendar 
year that matches the school calendar year. You will become aware of things to avoid on certain Sundays because of school or community activities and/or holidays. And it will provide you a working schedule in some kind of order. As a minister and a musician, you owe it to your choir and orchestra members to keep them aware of what music is coming—and when. They should never walk out of rehearsal and not know what they are going to sing on any given Sunday.
Here are some ideas:
• Put on paper each Sunday of the “semester” (morning and evening) all the music needs, such as solos, ensembles, choir selections, children, youth, handbells, orchestra.
• Carefully work through each Sunday of that semester, making sure all bases are covered and every choir or group or solo that needs to be involved is scheduled.
• Vary new with the old. A good cue: if the anthem planned for a certain Sunday is NEW, then fill the service with lots of familiar things. If the anthem is an old, familiar “sugar-stick,” then the service could perhaps stand a couple of newer hymns or praise choruses.
• Never be afraid to teach new your people something new. Remind them that “Amazing Grace,” “Majesty,” and “Shout to the Lord” were ONCE new - and had to be taught and learned!
• Order the music well in advance and order ample copies so every choir or orchestra member can have their own music. They really don’t like to share!
• Keep 8-10 weeks of music in the folders, and try to rehearse 6-9 pieces every week. Remember: you don’t have to rehearse the whole piece, but you can hit a section or a particular part and move on. This way, the choir members can occasionally miss a rehearsal and still be “in the loop” with the music learning process.
Now...begin planning for the future - it’s is right around the corner! No! It is here – NOW!
This Idea Will Work!
Inspirational Corner
Christine Anderson -- Solo Handbell Artist 
It never started out this way – that is, solo ringing as a means to attract people to a concert where they will also hear about the grace of God and the plan of salvation through Jesus Christ alone. I was raised on classical and sacred music, and started experimenting with Sunday School melodies when only a toddler. Piano lessons didn’t stick too well, but at age 7, the marimba became my instrument of choice. High school brought the Bassoon and Glockenspiel into my life, and I have sung in choirs and small ensembles since childhood. I have always loved music, and performing, though I was always scared spitless right before having to sing or play in front of an audience. Enter handbells--at age 23.
Ringing in a handbell choir was the best thing I had ever done, and I fell in love with the instrument. Seven years after my first rehearsal, when we all looked at each other and wondered what to do with a bell, I rang my handbell first solo – “The Lord’s Prayer.” With astonishment, my first thought was: how anyone could ring handbells alone and do it musically. My second thought was: “I wonder if I could do that?” From the first experimentation, I felt God was opening my hand and putting a gift into it. The skills already learned as a good choir ringer fell easily under my hands to ring hymn tunes effortlessly. I have to confess that in the beginning, I had no thought to how God wanted to use this gift, and I was quite self-centered in my joy of ringing.
In 1983, there was very little music for solo handbells, so I started ringing the melody of hymns and the soprano line from choral and vocal scores. Soon, I was asked to ring at local churches, and before long, the Lord opened doors to ring outside my Florida city. Since I had begun writing solo handbell arrangements, these began to be published, and concerts filled my weekends. One day, I had an amazing experience--on an airplane. For awhile, I had short-circuited God’s plan for my life, and had not lived up to the godliness required of a follower of Christ. But I had returned to the Lord, and dedicated my life back to him. While on this airplane, I gazed out the widow and saw a sight I had never seen before, and have never seen since. It looked like a flat, circular rainbow. At that moment I felt God sending me a message of forgiveness and hope, and a promise that if I would commit my music to His glory, not mine, He would bless in way I could not imagine.
My concerts started taking on a whole new direction. I like to use object lessons, such as the “bondage duck” my mother carved, or tell stories like the parable of the four bells – to introduce a hymn and share a spiritual truth. When talking to the Lord before a concert, my concern is not so much for a flawless performance – though that is always wonderful when it happens – but my main concern is that the Holy spirit will teach me what to say, to speak truth in love, and that someone will be drawn to Christ because of the music and words spoken. I want the listener to see past me to Jesus, to hear the words of a hymn that will change who they are inside. I want to make an eternal difference in someone’s life.
As the scripture says: “Excellence in all things, and all things for God’s glory!”
Wisdom
"In every conceivable manner, the family is our link to the 
past and the bridge to the future." Alex Haley
Humor
Out of the mouths of babes and Calvin comes wisdom to conder for the future !!
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