South Bend Potholes – Letter to the Editor (final)

South Bend Potholes

This past winter has been an adventure driving down the streets of South Bend, Indiana. During the last month alone I’ve hit enough potholes, and hit them hard enough that I’ve had to replace the wheel on my passenger front tire once already. So far I’ve paid $97.00 in repairs and I’ll probably have to pay more before the season is over.

Like many other people I’ve talked with, my first impulse is to lash out and criticize the poor condition our streets are kept in. But upon further research, I’ve found our city has actually spent a lot of time and money trying to correct the problem. This winter the roads have frozen, unfrozen and frozen again, creating more potholes than in previous years. The city has responded by filling in over 36,000 potholes at a cost of over $250,000.00 in labor, materials and equipment. The city is also researching techniques used in Europe to prevent potholes.

Instead of being frustrated by the potholes that pop up as a result of the changing weather, consider that city employees have been working around the clock to rectify the problem. Help them deal with the problem by calling and reporting potholes at 574-235-9244.

 

“Plug-in” to your future: alternate energy and the oil crisis – Persuasive (final)

“Plug-in” to your future: alternate energy and the oil crisis

Purchasing an environmentally friendly vehicle – a hybrid or electric car – may not be on your list of pressing things to do. However, if you take a moment to consider what it can mean to you and your country, you may just start rethinking your priorities. Many of the things we take for granted today may lead to some of tomorrow’s greatest problems. I’m speaking of our energy consumption and the environment. Some of the resources we consume without a second thought are finite, although often we treat them as though they will never run out. Fifty years ago people may have been inclined to think that resources were a problem for future generations: they would never see a world where resources ran out. But today is a whole different story. Today our rate of consumption guarantees a future in which, in our lifetime, fossil fuels will become scarce and eventually, unavailable. Oil and natural gas are already cost us a great deal, both as individuals and as a country. We pay ever-increasing prices at the pump, ever-increasing utility bills, but instead of questioning and confronting the underlying problem, we complain and ask our government to help keep prices down. Our economy, in turn, has become dependent on foreign oil. The United States currently imports 58% of its oil to meet domestic demands, and it’s estimated that by 2025, the United States will be importing up to 68%. The energy problem is two-fold: we’ve become dependent on fossil fuels for our day-to-day activities, and these fossil fuels threaten our environment with global warming and pollution.

What does this mean to us as individuals, and is there anything we can do to resolve this problem? There are, in fact, many alternatives today. Companies and governments have invested a considerable amount of time and money into alternate energies. Today we have options that didn’t exist 50 years ago: we’ve all heard of hybrid cars which run on both batteries and fuel. Some of these cars run on ethanol or other fuels which are actually renewable. They do not pollute, or do not pollute as much as fossil-fuel powered vehicles, and they certainly reduce our dependence on foreign oil. In 2007, the use of ethanol in automobiles reduced carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions by 10 million tons – the equivalent of removing 1.5 million cars from use. Some manufacturers have developed electric cars which can be plugged into a 110 volt electrical outlet in your garage and charged overnight. These cars do not pollute at all, and if the electricity they use comes from solar power or wind, they do not depend in any way on fossil fuels. Other manufacturers have developed hybrid plug-ins, which run primarily on electricity and can be plugged into a regular electric outlet (at home or at the office, or anywhere really, if you have a long enough extension cord). These hybrid plug-ins can get 100+ miles per gallon of gasoline, and are also available to run on alternate fuels such as ethanol.

Both electrical cars and plug-in hybrids bring with them a promise of freedom from constantly running to the pump for a refill. Imagine living in a house powered by solar panels or a wind turbine: your electricity would come entirely from renewable energy resources. Your lights and heating would cost you next to nothing (aside from the original cost of installing solar panels or a wind turbine). And at night, you simply plug your car into an outlet in the garage and let it charge. In the morning you have a ‘full tank of gas’ in the form of a fully charged battery and you’re ready to go to work without making a trip to the gas station.

If you are looking for a way to avoid regular visits to the gas station, help the environment and reduce our country’s dependence on foreign resources, take a look at some of the plug-in hybrid or electric vehicles available today.

 

Airline Safety Procedures – Explanation (final)

Airline Safety Procedures

Commercial flights are very safe because of the rigorous inspection by the FAA and the airlines. Commercial airplanes today undergo rigorous tests before they are certified for use and every procedure is carefully recorded. From the time an airplane is put into service until it is decommissioned, it carries with it a log of any and all procedures done to it. For example, if the oil in the engines is checked, the log has to include this information along with the location of each engine that was checked and the amount of oil that was found. It also includes the time and date when it occurred as well as who did it. This log is ongoing throughout the life of an airplane. If the airplane is sold, the entire maintenance history goes with it.

The tests and maintenance checks on airplanes are reliable in great part because they are performed by Airframe and PowerPlant (A&P) licensed mechanics. This licensing certification is given by the FAA, not by the individual airlines. As such, mechanics are accountable to the FAA, minimizing any kind of pressure on behalf of the airlines to certify their airplanes as safe when they may not be.

This is how the system works: Each airline creates the maintenance procedures for their airplanes. These procedures are outlined in detail in the airlines’ maintenance manual and they include both tasks to perform and timelines. The FAA receives a copy of the manual, approves it, and performs an ongoing audit of the airline to make sure the manual is being followed.

In the event that the procedures are not being followed, or are not being followed in a timely manner, an A&P licensed mechanic, acting on behalf of the FAA, has the authority to take an airplane out of service at a moment’s notice. The FAA is also authorized to completely close down an airline if it finds reason to do so. The power the FAA holds is a great incentive for the airlines to follow all maintenance and safety procedures.

Additional safety procedures include checks performed by airline employees. When an airline first assigns a plane to a pilot, the first officer has to carefully walk through a checklist to make sure everything is working. If something is out of order, the airplane doesn’t fly. This inspection is performed every time and it is included in the log. Part of the safety procedure before each flight requires that the co-pilot recite a checklist of items, and the pilot has to confirm that each item was inspected.

Common maintenance procedures include verifying that all cables and brakes are still functional after a plane has been in use for a certain number of flights. Additional maintenance regulations are followed on a cyclical basis as well. For instance, after so many landings, airlines are required to check the rims on the wheels of the aircraft to ensure they are not cracked. The procedure involves removing the paint from the wheels, carefully checking for cracks, replacing them if necessary and then repainting the wheels.

Airlines are also required to follow ‘aircraft worthy directives’ that come from both the FAA and the manufacturer of the airplane. These directives provide timetables for replacement of certain parts of the aircraft. If these directives are not followed, the consequences to the airline can be severe: it can void the warranty on an airplane as well as ground the airlines’ other airplanes until the FAA can perform a more thorough investigation.

Airlines have every incentive to insure passenger safety and in turn, passengers can be reassured of a safe flying experience with their airline of choice.

 

Insurance – Who needs it? (Story – final)

Insurance – Who needs it?

 

Every day is an adventure when you don’t have insurance. For years we had been insured under my wife’s health plan. She had worked as an elementary school teacher and the health plan provided by her employer was pretty good. The company I worked for was small, their health insurance plan was not very good and their premiums were high. So the decision to stay all those years with the school’s plan was not very hard. Early in 2003, my wife decided to try a different career. The school’s insurance plan would last through the summer but we weren’t too worried. We had never been in an accident and didn’t think that going without insurance for a while would be a big deal. During the summer, the company where I was working as a consultant told me they were interested in hiring me as a full-time employee. They expected I’d be coming on board by September. With this in mind, we figured we would be uninsured for a few weeks at most… and what could possibly go wrong in just a few weeks?

Earlier in the year I took my wife skydiving for her birthday. It was the first time for both of us and we loved it. We spent the rest of the summer skydiving whenever we were able to go. We also spent our summer scuba diving with friends. When September came around I found out there would be a delay in getting hired, so we decided it might be a good idea to purchase health insurance through a private insurance company. We did some research and met with representatives from different companies. We finally decided on one particular company but found out, to our great surprise, that both skydiving and scuba diving are big no-no’s in the insurance world. Our first choice company turned us down and told us we had to wait 6 weeks since our last skydiving or scuba diving experience before we would be eligible again. We tried several other companies with the same results. So, we stopped skydiving and scuba diving and bided our time. For several years we had been attending a local martial arts school and since martial arts weren’t a problem for insurance companies, we continued going to that. We figured, just a few more weeks and we’ll be insured again. But as luck would have it, during a practice sparring session one fine Saturday morning in October, my wife broke her arm. It was a small crack on her left arm, but it was enough to raise a huge red flag to all those insurance companies. This time, we would have to wait 6 months before becoming eligible. Could this get any worse?

Fast forward to November. I received a call at work from my wife. She’d been in a fender-bender and her car had shut down. Not only that, but she was having trouble walking… her knee was bothering her a lot. The ambulance had arrived but she didn’t want them to take her to the emergency room because of the cost involved. Instead, she wanted me to come and pick her up and take her to get her knee checked. It took me nearly 20 minutes to get there. She was sitting on the edge of the road waiting, and the EMT people were still there as well. I talked to a couple of the guys and was told the car didn’t look too bad and my wife seemed to be o.k. – possibly some bruising on her knee, but it would be a good idea to take her to the hospital and get her checked out. A tow truck was on the way for the car so I cleared everything out of it, helped my wife into my car, and drove to the nearest MedPoint.

When we arrived my wife had a very difficult time walking in. After a brief wait we were taken back to get checked out by the doctor. He looked at her knee, moved it around a little bit and told us he wasn’t sure if there was anything wrong. It looked like there was a lot of swelling but beyond that it was hard to say either way. He arranged to get her knee scanned right away to see the extent of the damage. We drove to South Bend Orthopedics where we were met with a wheel chair and quickly taken back for the scan. The lady who ran the scan was very friendly and encouraging at first, but once the results were in she became very quiet and told us we would have to wait to speak with the doctor: she wasn’t supposed to talk about scan results whether they were good news or bad news. But by now we knew the news wasn’t going to be good.

We finally met with the doctor and found out that the knee was completely shattered. Her knee was all in little pieces and would mostly have to be removed through surgery. Her surgery was schedule for three days later, the Friday after Thanksgiving.

The next few days were very hard. We called my wife’s parents from the doctors’ office and explained that there had been an accident. We told them about the knee situation and the upcoming surgery. Her prognosis wasn’t too bad: she would be restrained to a makeshift leg cast for two months, afterwards she would have to walk on crutches for another few weeks and finally, after a great deal of physical therapy, she might be able to walk almost like normal again. Flexibility in her leg would never be the same. She might be able to bend her knee 120 degrees, but no more.

It goes without saying; this new development didn’t go over well with any of our prospective insurance companies. In fact, by then we were out of the game. To complicate things, we had recently purchased an empty lot and during the fall had begun building a house on it. The mortgage for the house depended on both of us having an income. As things stood, we had no insurance, a hospital bill of over $10,000.00 and including all other ‘costs’ a final bill of over $21,000.00. Not exactly the best way to start out as homeowners.

But in many ways we were fortunate. My wife eventually recovered and found a new job. Her leg recovered completely, with her flexibility being as good as it was before the accident. The doctors were really amazed. Fortunately we had saved well and had a decent emergency fund to see us through until my wife was back in the workforce, and in addition we had a lot of support from her parents. In fact, her parents allowed us to move in with them from the end of November through January, while the house was being built. That alone saved us a bit on apartment rent. They also fed us well, free of charge. My coworkers made a “Boredom Basket” so that my wife had fun things to do while she couldn’t walk and we had a small army of friends who visited regularly and kept her company while I was at work. In February of the following year I was hired, and welcomed back into the world of healthcare coverage and peace of mind.

Today, I can see how lucky we really were. Without the support of family and friends, as well as our emergency savings account, we could have lost everything: we had no insurance, enormous medical bills, a huge mortgage and no way to pay for it, and my wife was in no condition to work as it took her a number of months just to be able to walk again. Thinking back, it might have been a good idea to pass on the skydiving and scuba diving that summer.

 

POP GOES THE CHURCH – Part 4 (final)

POP GOES THE CHURCH: Second Session

I attended the POP GOES THE CHURCH workshop sponsored by Granger Community Church on Friday, March 14, 2008. The premise for this workshop, as stated previously, is that the church needs to adapt to today’s world if it expects to continue growing and being an influence in the community. Old church habits need to be left behind and modern methods need to take their place. The speaker for this workshop was Tim Stevens, executive pastor at Granger Community Church.

The First Session of this workshop was posted previously. It ended when we adjourned for a break. After the break we moved on to the question:

Where is God found in the culture?

And

Is there a biblical basis for using the culture to communicate the message?

In answer to the second question, the speaker pointed out that in the Bible there are often references to the pop culture of the time. For instance, Acts chapter 17 verse 28 quotes Paul saying: “For in you, we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are your children.’”

The reference Paul is making is to a line from a poem called Hymn to Zeus by a poet of the time called Cleanthes. The portion of the poem from which Paul quotes is this:

O God most glorious, called by many a name,
Nature’s great King, through endless years the same;
Omnipotence, who by your just decree
Controls all, hail, Zeus, for unto you
Must your creatures in all lands call.
We are your children, we alone, of all
On earth’s broad ways that wander to and fro,
Bearing your image wheresoever we go.

The speaker claims that Paul was using the poem in much the same way that today we should be using quotes and examples from our pop culture when talking to our audience. Cleanthes’ poem in Paul’s time is an example of the church leveraging the popular culture. A song by The Beatles, or U2 or Britney Spears, or any other popular band or performer is an example of the church leveraging the pop culture in our time. The point is even stronger because the quote comes from a poem that praises the god Zeus, and yet, Paul did not hesitate to use it.

Later on, in Titus chapter 1, verse 12, Paul quotes Greek philosopher Epimides as stating that “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” Again, the message is the same: it’s o.k. to borrow images from the pop culture to illustrate a point or make it more relevant to the audience being addressed.

After discussing biblical precedents for using the pop culture in the church, the focus returned to the first question: Where is God Found in the Culture?

In order to address the question, we watched a clip from a TV show called Friday Night Lights. We were asked to consider the following questions while watching the clip:

• What real human needs or issues does this show bring to the surface?
• What are some of the underlying questions it raises?
• What world values does it bring up that are not supported in the Bible?
• How could you use this show to help connect people back to God?

When the clip was over, we compiled a list answers to the questions posed above. This list included human problems in dealing with:

• Uncertainty
• Fear of the future
• Helplessness
• Job Security and Finances
• Marriage/Relationships
• Denial
• Shame in who you are
• Success is not always the answer
• The power of someone believing in me
• Being valued for who we are instead of what we do

One of the points made while reviewing this clip and understanding its value as a tool is that your audience needs to realize the clip is simply a tool. There should be a statement at some point to the effect that the excerpt being used doesn’t signify that you agree with it. You don’t necessarily agree with its message or the philosophy of the program or the artist that created it. This helps create a boundary for you as a church, and for your audience. As a church, you are in a position where the pop culture really is simply a tool. If your audience understands that the culture is being leveraged and not embraced, they will also be more understanding and less prone to dismiss the church as simply a place to be entertained.

The second session ended with a brief explanation of the services provided at Granger Community Church:

The weekend services, the speaker explained, are geared toward attracting as many people as possible. The techniques include those mentioned above (TV show clips, in-house videos, and popular music) as well as other channels such as billboards placed throughout the city, mass mailings sent to community members, and an Internet presence.

The Thursday night service on the other hand, is geared toward an audience that is already ‘churched’ – an audience that grew up going to church.

In the speaker’s own words: “the weekend service starts with a topic and then it moves into scripture. The Thursday service starts with scripture which we take and make topical.”

In a subsequent blog I’ll try to review how the lessons taught at this workshop relate to companies and institutions that are not affiliated with the church.

 

POP GOES THE CHURCH – Part 3 (final)

POP GOES THE CHURCH: First Session

I attended the POP GOES THE CHURCH workshop sponsored by Granger Community Church on Friday, March 14, 2008. The premise for this workshop, as stated previously, is that the church needs to adapt to today’s world if it expects to continue growing and being an influence in the community. Old church habits need to be left behind and modern methods need to take their place.

The speaker (Tim Stevens, executive pastor at Granger Community Church) began by describing some of the reasons church attendance is declining:

• The Church tends to target people that are already ‘churchy’ – that have grown up in the church culture.
• The Church is often oblivious to the larger culture (perhaps even disdainful of it) and as a result, alienates itself.
• Most churches are ineffective in reaching new people.
• Spiritual interest is growing in our culture, but the church is not seen as a place to explore this spiritual growth.

The first session of the workshop addressed the following question:

Is leveraging the culture in the church okay?

Within that category, these additional questions were raised:

How do we:

• Use the culture to make church appealing to all generations?
• Make sure the ‘message’ is not just a ‘show’?
• Reach out to new people, not just transfers from other churches?
• Create a great experience for new people?
• Transfer church values to new believers?
• Make sure we don’t cross ‘the line’?
• Figure out how far is too far?
• Balance two styles of churches?

The point was made early on that it may not be helpful to simply mimic a specific prop. What might work at Granger Community Church may not work at another church. Instead, we need to understand the principles being used at Granger and apply them to something that might work in our particular church.

There were also four main points the workshop examined:

1. Churches tend to condemn things. As such, they become famous for what they oppose instead of what they stand for. The problem with this approach is that instead of changing to make our content relevant to the culture, we expect the culture to adapt to us and what we value.
2. Churches tend to separate themselves from the culture: Sometimes churches have too many rules we can’t follow. The example given was of Jesus becoming angry with the religious leaders for his day because they imposed rules that weren’t in the Scriptures.
3. Churches tend to embrace the culture: sometimes church becomes so relevant that it seems to be worshiping the culture instead of God. The difference between embracing and leveraging is this: leverage is a tool used to spread the message. Embracing is accepting the values of the culture as your own (or as the churches) and can go overboard.
4. Churches tend to ignore the culture: sometimes there are opportunities presented by our culture that churches choose to ignore.

The workshop was presented in a somewhat interactive format. The speaker made his point, played a video (a clip from a popular TV show, or a small video created by the church) and asked the audience for comments or questions.

For example, we saw a video from a popular TV show called 24, but while the main characters acted out their parts, Granger Community Church dubbed over their voices to present their own message. Jack Bauer, the main character, was seen frantically flying a younger man in a helicopter while talking on his cell phone with a woman. The modified audio for this clip had the characters frantically talking about trying to get to church on time in a helicopter.

The clip was fun and entertaining and it made its point well: using a character from a popular TV show grabbed our attention, appealed to something we were already familiar with and helped us associate it with church, and it also served as an incentive to find out what else this church had to offer.

Although clearly an unorthodox approach to increasing church attendance, it’s nonetheless an effective approach. Granger Community Church has used this approach over the years, and it is currently the largest church in Northern Indiana.

The first session ended with a question and answer period followed by a break. I’ll take a look at the second session in my next blog…

 

POP GOES THE CHURCH – Part 2 (final)

POP GOES THE CHURCH – Part 2

As stated previously, the POP GOES THE CHURCH workshop hosted by Granger Community Church is geared towards using modern marketing techniques to attract an audience. The premise is that the church needs to adapt to today’s world if it expects to continue growing and being an influence in the community. Old church habits need to be left behind and modern methods need to take their place.

The concept behind this workshop is that the mainstream pop culture exerts an enormous amount of influence on all of us. Every day we come in contact with it in different ways: the music we hear on the radio, concepts and values we absorb by watching television or going to the movies, advertisements, and even the language we use while interacting with coworkers or friends. In contrast to the pop culture we live in, churches tend to continue using language that caters to congregations from the 50′s and 60′s. Often, the churches’ choice of music and the way it relays its message may be outdated and unappealing to younger generations.

This workshop claims to identify these and other problems the church deals with in its effort to maintain and increase its membership. The message we need to learn is that the mainstream culture shouldn’t be shunned, but instead, should be used as a tool to promote the church.

POP GOES THE CHURCH is a workshop about the church and its ability to use the mainstream culture to capture an audience. But the information offered is not limited to churches. The lessons taught can apply to other institutions as well. Anyone interested in modern marketing techniques and concrete results should consider attending. Keep in mind that the church hosting this event – Granger Community Church – is the largest church in Northern Indiana. Its growth and its ability to remain relevant within the community are due in great part to the techniques taught in this workshop.

I’m including an excerpt from a promotional brochure about this upcoming workshop:

If you’re open to new strategies for impacting today’s culture, this is your opportunity to think beyond “normal” church:

• Creating a service that conveys your message in the language of your listeners
  
• De-mystifying the development process, from brainstorming to debriefing
  
• Creating buzz and deciding what is buzz-worthy
  
• Setting realistic timetables for planning and execution
  

For more information or if you’re interested in attending the POP GOES THE CHURCH workshop, simply follow the previous link.

Stay posted for more information…

 

POP GOES THE CHURCH – Part 1 (final)

POP GOES THE CHURCH – Part 1

Wired Churches’ public training seminars are an undiscovered cache of business and marketing techniques. These events, hosted at Granger Community Church, cater to church ministry leaders locally as well as nationally. Although their target audience is the religious community, these events are easily adaptable to the business community as well.

The event I will cover is called POP GOES THE CHURCH and it will take place on March 14, 2008. It consists of a workshop geared towards using modern marketing techniques to attract an audience. The premise is that the church needs to adapt to today’s world if it expects to continue growing and being an influence in the community. Old church habits need to be left behind and modern methods need to take their place.

This thinking is very much in line with the problems faced by modern-day media outlets such as newspapers and journalism schools as they struggle to find their place in today’s information age. The issue is the same: what does an institution need to do to remain viable in today’s world? How can it continue to attract crowds and keep them interested? With so many options available today, what can you do to stand out and appeal to your target audience?

Wired Churches’ public training events claim to address these questions as well as many more along those same lines. If you or the place you work for has struggled with these issues, this is a public event you should attend.

Stay posted for more information…

 

Wrapping Again – Maximizing the Arts

I’m doing a second ‘Wrap’ event.  The subject is related to the first event I attended and I thought it would be interesting to cover.  This event, like the previous one, is hosted at Granger Community Church. 

One of the workshops offered in Wired Churches’ upcoming April 18 event is titled: Maximizing the Arts. The concept behind this workshop is that Biblical messages should be conveyed to the public in relevant and relatable ways. The question is how can the church do this? What are the tools at the Churches’ disposal? The Arts include anything and everything used to inspire or compel: from simple props onstage or out in the lobby to the videos and music chosen for the service.

This workshop identifies the tools and resources available to the modern church. Its message goes hand in hand with the previous workshop I attended: POP GOES THE CHURCH. For information on that workshop, simply click on the link.

I’m including a brief excerpt describing what the workshop will offer. This is what Granger Community Church has to say about it:

How can you use the arts to express Biblical messages in relevant, relatable ways?

• Attract, retain and develop volunteer artists.
  
• Discover and refine creative service ideas.
  
• Craft God-centered worship services – use compelling music, drama, video and more.
  
• Entertain, inform and invite people to Christ.
  

For more information or if you are interested in attending, please click on this Maximizing the Arts link.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stay posted for updates…

 

A car is a car is a car… or is it? (Audio Piece)

Click  here to listen to the audio