Al Jennings II

WFX Conference

This week I'm in Indianapolis attending a conference called WFX. It has to do with worship facilities and technology type of stuff. Sparkle Thomas (Summit's Media Director) also is attending this conference. Today, I attended a session entitled, "Embracing the Digital Culture". This class motivated me to help Summit members to get technologically savvy in order to be more effective in the kingdom of God. Since you are reading this blog, this is a sign that you have embraced the digital culture. If you are a regular follower of my blog, you can see how it allows us to connect in a personal way in between Sunday's. You can help me by encouraging your fellow Summit members to jump online and participate in this blog. You may even want to consider starting your own blog!
This session also opened my eyes to social networking. I have been trying to understand social networking and in particular, "Twitter". I was just beginning to understand Twitter a little bit, but this class sealed it for me. I am going to think of ways we can use this tool to help people connect on a relational level. The ministry benefits to this this are huge.
Here are the other sessions I attended:
The Ins-and-outs of video venues
Technology for the multi--- site Church
These classes had to do with multi-site type of stuff, which refreshed my multi-site vision and gave me some key information that will help us prepare for them.

Success Mindset

If your mindset is not set for success, nothing you read, nothing you learn, and nothing you do will matter (in terms of your success). Set your mind to success. Meditate on victory and winning. See yourself as a champion today.

The Encounters

Yesterdays encounters were off the charts. They both energized me and drained me at the same time :-) Darlene McCoy was awesome. I had just met her before the first encounter. I never heard of her until somebody contacted me about having her to come to Summit to minister Sunday morning. I listened to her music online on Saturday and it sounded good, so I thought, "let's do it". Needless to say, I'm glad I did. Were you there yesterday? What did you think?

The Masters

As many of you know, I was given a 50 yr. birthday gift by the Summit congregation to attend the Masters in Augusta! To all those who participated in this gift, I want you to know that I really appreciate it. The experience was absolutely awesome. I wanted Tiger to win, but he fell a little short. However, the Masters is bigger than Tiger Woods or any other individual golfer. Someone told me that it was an experience that you couldn't describe. They were right. TV doesn't give it justice. The scenery is breath taking. Even a non-golfer would appreciate the beauty. We had a blast. I'm trying, but words can't really do it justice. Truly remarkable.

More about dealing with e-mail

Have you ever had someone call you 30 minutes after they send you an e-mail, asking you if you received it? I have begun sending an auto response to people who send me e-mail that will let them know that I did receive it, and at the same time helping them understand that I won't necessarily respond to it immediately. That doesn't mean that the e-mail is not important . It just means that I am controlling the e-mail, instead of the e-mail controlling me.
Here's the auto response that I use, which I picked up from the book, The 4 - Hour workweek:
Greetings friends:
Due to high workload, My goal is to check and respond to e-mail twice daily at 12:00 PM ET and 4:00 PM ET.
If you require urgent assistance (please ensure it is urgent) that cannot wait until either 12:00 PM or 4:00 PM, and you have my mobile number, please contact me by phone.
Thank you for understanding this move to more efficiency and effectiveness. It helps me to accomplish more to serve you better.
aj
One pet peeve of mine is when folk treat e-mail like IM. One thing that may be helpful for you, is to train the people who send you e-mail not to treat e-mail like an instant message. As far as I'm concerned, e-mail is not IM. So, if someone needs a response from you immediately, just ask them to pick up the phone and call you.

Don't seek to be popular

I can't give you a surefire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time.
-- Herbert Bayard Swope, American editor and journalist; first recipient of the Pulitzer Prize

Everything popular is wrong.
-- Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

I'm not sure that everything popular is wrong; but for sure most of it is!
Here are some thoughts about those statements.
1. Be a God pleaser, not a people pleaser.
2. Don't roll with what's popular; roll with God's vision in your heart.
3. Then, just flat "get it done!"
"Get it done", is a statement that has been rolling around in my mind lately. It's reminding me to stay focused on what I need to do to take me to the next level.
Think about what is the next physical thing that you need to do to move forward in the fulfillment of your vision? Now, act on it. In other words, "just do it!"

A Day at the Houston Zoo

I was chillin' with the children at the Houston zoo.
What? You were expecting a picture of a tiger, lion, or giraffe?