last post here—join me at SeeJenWrite!

This will be my very last post on this site; we’ve spruced up my other website and combined the two into something brand-new!

Oh, don’t worry—you can still find all my rants (searchable for easy access) and things I don’t understand. All 13 billion of my attempts to understand prayer are here, and the plans for my future dictatorship, and the glory that is Mr. John Daker.




But now we have a schnazzy new look and some fun new features, including……

— the use of some of my favorite greens. Don’t you think green is the most restful color?

— a picture of me that wasn’t taken in a different decade.

— all the fun graphics the web designer created. Thanks, PlainJoe.

—…… including the little bookmark in the top left.

— every post and every comment, from the very first post in 2006 to now, has been transferred over, PLUS all my formatting, PLUS there’s a complete archive link at the bottom of the page. Seriously, the PlainJoe people have magic internet juice.

—the Twitter feed, so you can know what I’m thinking EVERY  MINUTE.

—  The lovely list of organizations I’ve worked with. Visit their websites, won’t you?


Beginning very soon, you will no longer be able to access my site from the Christian Standard website, so if you’re used to finding me that way, you might want to set a new bookmark to this URL. And for all you RSSers, be sure and subscribe to the new feed by clicking on that fun orange icon below my picture.

As always, thanks for reading. More rants to come.

it’s not easy being green

I’m thinking about jealousy today.

Most of the time I’m quite content to be a behind-the-scenes person, using my skills to make other leaders and their projects more successful.

Most of the time.


Then there are days like yesterday when I see other people, much more well-known, praised for their abilities. Through a combination of luck and talent (because they are talented), these folks have risen to the top of their fields or the top of the best-seller lists or the top of the blogosphere, and for the most part they are doing good things with their platforms.

But sometimes I feel resentful because, if I’m honest, I think I’m just as talented and just as capable.


Maybe you can relate. Are you the pastor of a small, unknown church who regularly hits a home run with your sermons? Do you privately critique the messages preached by the megachurch guy down the street and resent his popularity and conference invites?

Maybe you work in an office where charisma is more valued than commitment and you see others receive credit for what you’ve done.

Or maybe, like me, you work hard and pay your dues plus some interest just to see others work less, make more money, receive more opportunities and get more pats on the back.


Self pity much? Just thinking this way seems childish, and I don’t like this about myself. I don’t like admitting it to you. But I’m probably not alone. So just in case any of you ever struggle with the same green-eyed monster, here’s what I try to remember when jealousy strikes:

I can’t know another person’s life. It’s easy to idealize someone else’s successes, but that person probably has physical, emotional, spiritual or relational struggles you know nothing about. Remember you’re only seeing one part of the picture.

Get real. It’s easy to feel cheated because I haven’t had the same opportunities, but if I’m honest I don’t have even the beginning of a book idea or a mission to share. Why fuss about not making the team when you haven’t learned the sport?

They feel jealous, too. Believe it or not, that “personality” you’re thinking of is measuring himself against someone else. There’s always someone with more money, more influence or more talent. Comparison doesn’t stop when you achieve a goal; if anything, it gets worse.

Those who need to know, know. The masses may not know my name, but the pastors, nonprofit leaders, authors, entrepreneurs and creatives I work with appreciate me and what I do. Having them as fans is more important to me than having Facebook fans.

There’s still ink in the pen. I’m in my 30s, not my 70s—there’s still time to have more adventures. Even if I was in my 70s, Grandma Moses proved you can begin an amazing career at any age. My story isn’t written yet.

Contentment is a choice. Today I get to see Andrew Peterson in concert (good grief, talk about an artist who should be better known), interview leaders in California and Florida for that Externally Focused project, brainstorm the new name for a midwest megachurch, write an iPhone app description for a church planting group, and connect with you on this blog. I’m healthy. My friends and family are wonderful. The lawnmower works again and there’s no “back to school” in my future. I have a pretty great life, and I need to remember it.


When do you feel jealous? How have you resisted the comparison game?

the one hundred

Last week I was asked to contribute to “The 100 Best Externally Focused Ideas of 2011,” a downloadable resource that will be available this fall.

These ideas cover a range of categories: adoption and foster care, tutoring and mentoring, prison ministry and crime prevention, homelessness, hunger, single moms and crisis pregnancy, business as mission, health care, elderly and widows, public servants and city government, refugees and cross-cultural, special needs, human trafficking, mobilizing college students, families serving together, and more.

So I spent some time this weekend reviewing the last year of Buzz columns and thinking about the various churches I’ve learned about through work with Visioneering, the Association of Related Churches and the NACC.

It was encouraging to come across so many great examples:  the Refuge Medical Clinics developed by Southland…..”God Behind Bars” with Central in Vegas……My Safe Harbor with First Christian in Anaheim…..Cartwheels & Coffee at Area 10. I came up with two dozen examples to write about.


But that means we need about 75 more. (Do not ask me to do more difficult math than this.)

So think about the categories listed above and the churches you know—who’s doing something to make a difference in their community or around the world? Who’s created a program other churches might want to try? This resource will be a great way to get the word out about innovative approaches to outreach, and it might even inspire the people who read it to do something new.

Don’t be shy—leave a note in the comments with the basic info, or email me (jen@seejenwrite.com) with more information. The person who provides the most examples we use for the list will receive a copy of The Externally Focused Quest: Becoming the Best Church for the Community and, when it’s available, a copy of the complete list. AND my eternal gratitude.

on the block

OOOOOOH the irony.

My friend Jeff recently invited me to contribute to a synchroblog (a bunch of people blogging on the same topic) about how to break through creative blocks. And I couldn’t think of a thing to write.

Experiencing writer’s block while working on a post about writer’s block is thirteen kinds of ridiculous, but I know why it’s happening; when I scrolled through the list of Christian “names” who had already written, I was intimidated to submit my little post into the fray. Suddenly it seemed necessary to not only contribute something to the discussion, but to do so with wit AND originality AND humor AND insight AND spiritual depth.

A tall order. Before working on this I’d been sitting in my hotel room in Mobile, Alabama eating peanut butter cookies. That seemed much easier than trying to compete with these other voices.


And that, of course, is the reason I’m stuck. When I write to compete instead of contribute, readers never get my best work. When I try to impress people, I miss the chance to impact them.

“If you want to write, you can,” says Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes. “You’re a human being, with a unique story to tell, and you have every right. If you speak with passion, many of us will listen. We need stories to live, all of us. We live by story. Yours enlarges the circle.”

That circle may be thousands of blog readers or a handful of Twitter followers. Resist the temptation to compare circle sizes; instead, consider what yours needs. What concerns them? Enrages them? Confuses them? What are they talking about, struggling with, laughing at? What stories are they living?

The usual suspects will always collaborate to block our creativity, whether it’s writing a blog post, a church enewsletter, or a book. But I’m learning (thanks, Jeff!) that one of the best ways for me to spark a new thought is to stop managing my “image” and start serving my readers. Considering my community is not only easier than trying to be the next super-blogger, it’s also a lot more fun.


What circles of influence do you have? What do those communities need from you this week?

80/20

This weekend I told my family I spend 90% of my time doing things I don’t want to do.

(On further consideration I revised my estimate to a more generous 80%.)

So: about 80% of my life is comprised of housework, laundry, grocery shopping, preparing meals, packing, unpacking, exercising, filing, paying bills, balancing my checkbook, cranking out copy, staying on top of emails, sitting in airports, researching, attending meetings, managing websites, mowing my yard, running errands, and meeting other assorted deadlines.

That leaves 20% for what I want to do: work on writing projects I care about (like this blog), read good books, watch good movies, work in my garden and my flowerbeds, start projects in my house I may not finish, travel for fun, and spend time with people I care about.


Perhaps this is just another sign I try to do too much. I really like being a freelancer but it’s demoralizing to start the day knowing it’s not possible to finish everything. I’d probably categorize more of my paid work as “things I want to do” if I wasn’t constantly fighting the clock to fit it all in.

Or perhaps this is just what it means to be an adult. Am I thinking about this incorrectly? Is it wrong to want a 60/40 split?

What percentage of your time do you spend doing things you really don’t want to do?

new conference

A few weeks ago I asked for help brainstorming answers to the questions “How did we get to a post-Christian America?” and “Where do we go from here?”

As expected, you shared some excellent thoughts and they helped me form my own response and shoot my (super low-tech) video for the Destiny Leader online conference.

The event starts this Thursday, May 5 at 8 am PST/11 am EST and is scheduled to last about four hours. You can watch any and all of it for free by registering on the website. And believe me, you want to be watching. I am the weak link in a strong chain of speakers including my dad (yay!), DJ Chuang, Mike Foster, Shaun King, Miles McPherson, Carlos Whittaker, Jud Wilhite, and even a couple of women (glad to be on the list with you, Allie and Lucille).

This is one of the busiest weeks of my year (more on that Friday) but I plan to tune in for as much as possible. These are truly good questions, and I can’t wait to hear some answers.

Check out the conference here.

jen’s list

One of the many hats I wear is content manager/editor for Christian Church Today. This site includes news and blog posts from Christian church leaders, a short info article about these churches adapted from Christian Standard, a jobs board, and other features.

But the most popular page on the site is the Locator. Type in a church and find its address and phone number—maybe even a staff listing if someone from the church has emailed me recently with the latest news. Or type in a city and find all the Christian churches in that area. It’s a handy tool that’s used a lot.

Last week I received an email via the site from a guy (we’ll call him Chris) who wanted to add his church. The church’s website indicated it was affiliated with, or was perhaps even a campus of, North Point in Atlanta. I wrote him back.

“Thanks for your email. Wanted to clarify that on CCT we list churches affiliating with the Restoration Movement. That’s not to be exclusive or denominational—although I realize it may sound that way—it’s just that the specific mission of the site is to serve this group of churches and be a directory for them.”

He wrote me back.

“I went to Restoration schools and worked for a Christian church and that church helped plant the new church. What defines a Christian church enough to make the listing? I am a Christian church guy, and I planted a church.”

The exchange reminded me of the conversations I participated in during a recent gathering of our younger leaders. Although some people may see the current downward trends in denominational loyalty or convention attendance as a negative, this group felt it was a natural next step in living out our movement’s philosophies. If we really aren’t the only Christians, and we’re really acting like it, it’s inevitable—and positive—for the boundary lines between us to dissolve.


However, this also means it’s harder to define what sets us apart, and different groups use different measures.

These pastors, many of them church planters, shared their struggles to get funding from existing congregations because they didn’t include “Christian” in the new church’s name or collaborated with churches “outside the fold.”

“When you try to live out the original spirit of the Restoration Movement, you’re branded an outsider to it,” said one pastor. “We don’t want to be a denomination but we definitely act like one.”

“I don’t know what people are so afraid of,” said another. “We spent all these years defining what we’re against. Now we aren’t sure what we’re for.”


It bothers me when working with, praying for and accepting other Christ-followers as brothers somehow threatens our cozy fraternity originally built on just these principles. But I realized I was guilty of the same thing.

There’s nothing wrong with having an online directory devoted to “our” churches, but who gets to decide which churches qualify? Do they make the list if the pastor went to one of our colleges? If the church name includes the word “Christian”? If they dunk people and serve communion each week? And are efforts at definition worth our time in a world full of people who just need Jesus?

Chris went to our schools and considers himself “one of us.” He WANTS to be connected to us. He’s working with other believers to preach the gospel. He’s committed to teaching the Bible. And he’s “shaking hands” with people across denominational lines while challenging the necessity of those lines.

So I added his church to the CCT directory. I think he fits right in.

Jen U

Last week I realized two things.

I spent three days in another gathering of great Christian leaders discussing church and cultural trends and theology. And I was reminded for the 389th time that because I’ve not gone to seminary or studied some of the thinkers and topics covered there, I have less to contribute to these discussions.

During this meeting we also had the opportunity to share something good happening in our ministries. From church merges or learning Spanish to preach in two languages (whoa) to community gardens feeding the homeless, these guys had great stories to share about making a difference. And I realized I once again had little to contribute because I spend my days crossing off copywriting and social media to-do lists that make groups like theirs successful.


“Helping organizations doing good to do better” is my Twitter bio and it’s grown into a fun career. But it means I have nothing that’s “mine”—nothing I lead, nothing I’ve launched. At the same time, I feel unequipped to strike out as a leader without more grounding in history, philosophy and strategy.

So I need a project and I need to learn—how did I not think of Jen University before now?

This new school will include books, blogs, podcasts and magazines. It will not include homework, papers, internships, sororities, or courses involving terms like “cosine” or “lipid.”

To paraphrase Good Will Hunting, you can get a great education for $1.50 in library fines (although I may use this as an excuse to buy a Kindle). I’m compiling a master list of stuff to read and I welcome your suggestions for the best resources in biblical studies, ministry trends, spiritual formation, leadership, theology and doctrine. (I’d even like to see the syllabi from your own graduate programs—email jen@seejenwrite.com.)


It”s time to think about what I want to accomplish before my status changes from “emerging leader” to “over 40, kind of emerged, and not that effective.” Tomorrow I turn 35 (good grief) and Jen U officially begins—Kindle donations welcome.

amass media

Occasionally bloggers will invite their readers to share links to the other blogs they read in hopes of finding some new favorites. Commenters often use the opportunity to not just share their must-reads but to promote their own blogs.

I am pleased to now offer you this same opportunity for shameless self-promotion, but for a different purpose. (My Google Reader currently has 423 unread blog posts. When I start asking you for additional “fun” reading suggestions you’ll know I’ve struck oil in my driveway and retired.)


But back to the purpose: in a few weeks, Christian Standard is going to add some new features, including a section called “Media Matters.” The idea is to feature the books, magazines, podcasts, blogs, apps, and websites that would be of interest to Christian church leaders.

I’ve been asked to compile these each week, which is great fun but requires a steady supply of material. We each have our own lists of blogs we read regularly, sites we check daily, books we love to recommend and other resources we couldn’t do ministry without. And I’d love for you to share your list.

Please leave a note in the comments with the online and print resources you think I just can’t miss—the stuff you recommend and forward to others. You’ll be helping each other find great stuff, helping me start strong with a new project and making a positive contribution to CS. (And yes, go ahead and include your own blog.)

good questions

You learn a lot when you write a blog.


One of my friends has apparently moved to Budapest. LOTS of people hate Comcast. And just recently a fellow blogger informed me I am a kidney in the body of Christ. (It’s more of a compliment than it sounds.)

Because I learn so much from you all, I’m asking for your help.


Last week Byron Davis invited me to submit a video for an online conference he’s producing for the new Destiny Leader Magazine. He’s asking each contributor to answer two questions about the theme “One Nation Under ? : Living the Gospel in a Post-Christian America.”

Question 1:  How did we get here? 

Question 2: Where do we go from here?


I told Byron I would be honored to participate, but those questions were just a SMIDGE ambiguous for me. Short of packing my entire liberal arts education (existent but foggy) and seminary training (not existent at all) into six minutes, how does one begin to tackle such a huge subject?

Byron replied that while he intentionally wanted to keep the subject broad, the target audience for the conference was ministry leaders looking to engage non-Christians and equip Christians.

“I am hoping everyone speaks from a place God has ‘disturbed’them,” he said. “I sense an unrest and I am praying that it’s not just me!”

Hmmm. Well, heaven knows there are plenty of things that disturb me, but I don’t think Destiny Leader wants a video about my dislike of “The Bachelor” or my incredulity at the number of people buying their socks at roadside stands. As I think about some of the more serious issues facing us, I’d love your insights. What is causing unrest in your spirit these days? What would you want to say about living the Gospel in our world?

And I don’t want this to be just another talking head pontificating to a video camera, so I’d love some creative ideas for scripting and shooting it.


You are a smart, creative bunch who regularly give me good stuff to think about. I’d love your help on this one—but no kidneys, Joel.