God desires obedience from us, not perfection.

I believe a large part of our ego comes into play when we seek perfection. We want to “knock their socks off” on every project. Truth is, not every project requires the same amount of attention. And, the “knock their socks off” bit is just plain old self seeking glory.

Often times, seeking excellence instead of good enough can be very dangerous. It can bring an uneccesary workload. It can cause a tremendouse amount of stress. And, it can easily affect home and family life.

I say this because I know it. I’ve experienced first hand. And I continue to deal with the struggle of finally letting a project go and moving on.

Some of the things I’m trying to put into practice to get beyond the struggle with perfection:

• ask the question, “is it at a place that it can effectively communicate what’s necessary”
• is the project something that can be handled by a volunteer
• what impact will there be if I knock it out of the park
• what impact will there be if I simply do what needs to be done
• what is the scope of the event that this project is connected to – is that equal to the amount of time and energy spent on the project?

I know people have differing opinions on this, and I have been on both sides of the argument. I’d be curious to know where you stand.

For a different angle, check out Kerry Bural’s post on Ministry Marketing Coach, and Shawn Wood’s post on his personal blog.

The C-Word

Christianity. There are some funny ones and a few offensive ones. They were all very clever. See the results.

I believe more and more churches are beginning to understand the value of marketing. That’s encouraging. These agencies who designed these concepts were marketing a product in which they had very little knowledge (I came to that conclusion based on the concepts themselves).

Imagine how great church marketing could be when left in the hands of those who know Jesus personally, and have a passion for using their creativity..

It’s a magnificent thing: The only newly-originating life in the universe that comes in the image of God is Man. The only newly-originating life in the universe that lasts forever is Man.

This is an awesome thing.

And, as everyone knows, that reverence is not shared by our new President, over whom we have rejoiced.

He is trapped and blind in a culture of deceit. On the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, he released this statement,

We are reminded that this decision not only protects women’s health and reproductive freedom, but stands for a broader principle: that government should not intrude on our most private family matters.

To which I say:

• No, Mr. President, you are not protecting women; you are authorizing the destruction of 500,000 little women every year.

• No, Mr. President, you are not protecting reproductive freedom; you are authorizing the destruction of freedom for one million little human beings every year.

• No, Mr. President, killing our children is killing our children no matter how many times you call it a private family matter. You may say it is a private family matter over and over and over, and still they are dead. And we killed them. And you, would have it remain legal.

Mr. President, some of us wept for joy at your inauguration. And we pledge that we will pray for you.

We have hope in our sovereign God.

John Piper – The Baby In My Womb Leaped For Joy

Easter Spoken Word from Sugar Creek on Vimeo.

Here are some of my favorite pieces of art that I personally bookmarked…based on the design, creative execution or both. Enjoy!

I’m Not Following The Dead Guy – FMC Designs

Farewell Tour – Charlie Thayer

Holy Week – Nathan Dean

The Real Jesus – JONNDEVON

Seven – David Choate

Easter Poster – sdesocio.

Good Friday – Ryan James

Easter Ad – New Perspectives

Easter: Words To Live By – holycowcreative

Confession Cards – Me

The Basics

Beginner’s guide – http://tinyurl.com/ypawx8

Top 12 reasons to Twitter – http://adjix.com/r6j

The five stages of Twitter acceptance – http://tinyurl.com/5wh72w

Using Twitter effectively – http://tinyurl.com/4ssn57

How to find people to follow – http://tinyurl.com/556fsw

Social marketing tools for introverts – http://tinyurl.com/59skbm

How not to build community on Twitter – http://tinyurl.com/6gl27n

How to build community on Twitter – http://tinyurl.com/6yfgjq

Creative Ways to Use Twitter

50 Ideas for using Twitter – http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-business/

15 Creative uses – http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2009/jan/2.html

Businessweek’s creative Twitter ideas – http://tinyurl.com/66b8wh

Marketing your ecommerce site with Twitter – http://tinyurl.com/6jgb2h

Using Twitter for Business – Articles

Before you start – http://tinyurl.com/6zfjv2

Examples of huge brands using Twitter – http://tinyurl.com/52hem9

Using Twitter for business and pleasure – http://tinyurl.com/5tyaz5

Twitter for business (Duct Tape Marketing) – http://tinyurl.com/5uyt3m

User scenarios – http://tinyurl.com/6emjma

Grow your business with Twitter – http://www.copyblogger.com/grow-business-twitter/

More Twitter for business – http://tinyurl.com/a4ndvv

Video Presentations on Using Twitter for Business

Hubspot – How to use Twitter for marketing and PR – http://tinyurl.com/4o3qtf

O-Reilly – Twitter for Business – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUR2E8l3bi8

Twitter Services

Find users, manager your accounts, track topics – http://justtweetit.com/twitter-services/

TweetLater productivity tools – http://www.tweetlater.com/

TwellowHood – find users by location – http://www.twellow.com/twellowhood/

Timer – sends you an alert, like an alarm clock – http://twitter.com/timer

Twitter Tools and Applications (there are hundreds)

Desktop: TweetDeck  – http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta/, Twhirl – http://www.twhirl.org/,
Twitterific – http://iconfactory.com/software/twitterrific

Browser: TwitterFox – http://twitterfox.net/

Mobile: PocketTweets – http://pockettweets.com/, Twitterfon – http://twitterfon.net/, Twitterberry
- http://www.orangatame.com/products/twitterberry/

Legal Issues/Harassment

Play nice (Kevin Houchin) – http://houchinlaw.com/?p=261

Twitter and harassment – http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-9951197-36.html

Twitter Backgrounds and Icons for Your Website

Create your own Twitter page background – http://www.twitterbacks.com/

Icons – http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/100-remarkably-beautiful-twitter-icons-and-buttons/

We determined that one of the best ways to usher life change to our culture is to share our own life change story. This is the pilot video. We’ve begun production on several others, and a few have been completely produced.

So, here’s my life change story in 5 minutes or less.