Content Elements:

1. About
2. News
3. Calendar
4. Events
5. Contacts

About

As with any conent element, you can rename it to whatever suites your organizations needs, as well as duplicate it over and over again.  An “about” content element is a page or section of pages that gives information about your organization or a part of your organization.  For instance, in for a Royal Rangers website, we have have either the home page or another page give general information about the Royal Rangers group.  Then there may be sub groups, such as the age groups in Royal Rangers.  Events can be treated the same way.

News

Blogs are the best way to present your news, yet that is whole set of methods I won’t get into on this post.  The last word in the first sentence of this paragraph use the word “post”.   And that is exactly what you do with new, gather the content and post it.  Again, using a blogging system makes it easy for your content providers to post news with minimal technical skills.

Calendar

This is different, yet directly related to events.  This method is dependent on calendar methods, such as Outlook, Google Calendar, iCal, Facebook events, etc.  Once you have you method set up, you manage your calendar from a central location, such as Outlook or gCal.  On your website is a listing of events, where there should be functions for your users to add events to their calendar.  Depending on the system you use, you can even send out invites and people can rsvp with a “yes”, “no”, or “maybe” reply.

Events

Pretty much this is an “about” for your organization’s event.  It gives all the details for your event, along with other optional elements, like an “event registration page” and “directions”.

Events: Registration Form (optional)

Separate, yet directly related to calendar and events is an “event registration form”.  This is very different than an event invitation, where that only sends an rsvp.  With an event registration form, you have a form that gathers all the information you need from people and groups registering for your event.  These forms can even include processing event payment.

Events: Directions (optional)

Every event has a location, even if it is online.  Where is the event?  When?  How does someone get there?  If online, which site and how do you join in?

Contacts

Such a simple element gone so wrong due to spammers.  Pretty much this element gives your contact information.  It could also be a contact form or even a directory of some sorts (staff, members, etc).  If your organization includes other organizations, such as several outposts/churches in a Royal Rangers section/district, then this information would likely need to be included. Like with events, you may need to include directions.

That’s it!

Sometime soon I’ll cover some methods and web publishing systems.  I’ve been doing a lot of work with Wordpress, Wordpress MU, and Buddy Press, solutions I think are winners for most organizations, even businesses.  (Free too!)

Related posts:

1. Web Communication is Key in Ministry

1. Web Communication is Key in Ministry

I love when people say “you can’t do that!“  Oh yeah, well just wait and see. Ok, I’m not an anarchist or anything, I just don’t like limits and ridiculous conformity.

The above image is two climbing routes up K2, which is the world toughest mountain to climb.  There are lots of mountains in the world to climb, but the mountainman that exists in outdoorsman like me deep down want to climb the highest and the hardest mountain.  Is climbing K2 or Everest on my “Bucket List“?  Sure is, though not as high on the list as you’d think.

So what is?  Well, I’d like to climb at least 2 American prime summits.  I also would like to bike/backpack Yosemite and the Grand Canyon.  Yet I think if I had to pick between those options, aside from wanting to do them all, I’d opt out and would want to have enough time to backpack the entire Appalachian Trail, starting from Maine and ending in Georgia.

But I just can’t and neither can you!

Why?

1. Have to work to pay the bills?
2. Not enough time; Timing?
3. Not fit enough? (well not me right now)
4. Can’t do it solo and have no one to join me?
5. Don’t have the skill require? (not in my case)
6. Family?
7. Commitments?
8. Can’t take risk?
9. Insert countless other reasons…

I’ve talked about risks here and there over recent years.  Now one thing I won’t encourage anyone to do is blow off their top priorities, such as God, wife, kids, work.  But here is the tricky part, priorities can eat you alive and enslave you.  So there has got to be some smart risks that allow us to do what is right in keeping priorities, while taking a hold of moments that just are not going to land on target in our lives.  That’s what I call taking smart risks.

Sometimes you just need to jump!

Aside from honoring your God-given priorities, you need to jump.  Yes, I mean you need to live life, get back to the roots of who you are and explore the God given wonders of this very brief life we have.  Sure, the eternal destination always tops everything, yet when we trap ourselves, don’t take risk, conform, sell out, etc, we become zombies.  I see way too many Christian zombies, let alone zombies in general.  Just living life without the spices of life.

Moses couldn’t speak to Pharaoh since he stuttered.  Now I’m not going to say that he overcame an obstacle.  Honestly I don’t think very highly of Moses.  Sure, leading million of people is tough stuff, yet so what?!  Maybe at some point I’ll cook up some sermon notes on Moses to analyze Moses strengths and weaknesses.  Regardless, even though Moses caved into his inner “can’t do” attitude, somehow with the help of others, like his brother, Joshua/Caleb, etc, he ws still used of God.

I’d love to point out some other that I think did pretty good, like King David, Daniel, Rack/Shack/Benny, Peter, Timothy, etc…

One thing I can’t do

I’m not athletic. I can’t play ball sports very well.  I can’t run fast.  Even though I have some good hockey skills, I can’t skate.    Can’t, can’t, can’t, can’t, can’t…

In college around my Sophomore year for the first time in my life I got a gut.  Wasn’t too big where I could suck it in.  So I started to run and work out in the gym.  My gut never really went away, yet for the most part at least a year after getting my degree, I kept in decent shape.  I ran short distances here and there, while also biking short distances, walked a lot, worked out sometimes.  Then a desk job and a shift in my lifestyle made me less and less in fair shape.  I got fat.

I stopped running because it hurt. I didn’t bike as much, since I finally got a car and didn’t have a bike mount.  I didn’t go to the campus gym much, since I didn’t want to work out unless I was with a friend.  When I got home from sitting, I felt like sludge and felt too tried to do anything.  I can’t, I don’t feel like it, I won’t.

So years later you get a gut you can’t suck in, you are trapped in a lifestyle that isn’t healthy.  Stress makes things worse for your metabolism.  Yes, I got a new bike, I had some attempts here and there with running, and I tried working out again.  But I didn’t make the full lifestyle change.

Here I am facing a lot of other things I just can’t do that before I won’t even consider my ability in that area in training to do triathlons in 2010.  I just found out the other day I can’t swim, rather I can swim, yet I can’t do laps swimming in particular styles.  I have 8 months to remedy that.  As for running, 3-4 months ago I could barely walk since my quad were so swollen after a 2 mile run.  Yesterday I ran 7.5 miles and felt just fine.

I haven’t signed up for any Ironman event (half or full) yet, though I am training for that.  I realize it could take me a year to get my distance and speed up to that level.  When I see how slow I run and swim, I do my best to follow the expert training advice from book, websites, and zines.  I know smart training over the long haul will yield a less than 17:00:00 Ironman finish.

I’m not athletic. So what, gear up and hit the trail anyways.  I’ve been amazed how far I’ve come.  And I’m shrinking in the process too! 

Btw, all this training is going to help me summit mountain and backpack all these trails and national parks!  I’d like to bike these places too!

No related posts.

Things I don’t like that I think are (very) unhealthy:

1.  When everyone is the same (be)
2.  When everyone is doing the same thing (do)
3.  When everyone is on the same system (be + do)

Things that need to be put into place:

1.  Diversity
2.  Creativity
3.  Dynamic tribe building
4.  Building open dynamic connected systems

I have a lot of thoughts that will eventually turn into posts at some point related to these points.

I’m an IT Systems Engineer.  If you take the digital and computer side of my job out of the analytical focus, you’ll find a lot of work in the realm of systems concepts, design, and systems inner workings.

Apples, Windows, and Penguins… lol!

Closed systems are secure and if designed right, they work well.  But humans don’t work in closed systems very well.  Maybe they do within a smaller context, yet not so much in a larger context.

People want to belong or opt out of belonging.  Question is “to what”?  Systems, tribes, interest groups, work groups, belief groups, etc.

Jumping over to another side of this brief rant…

In Royal Rangers, or youth group, or your local church, or anything non-church you belong to, what are they dynamics of that tribe/group/ministry/whatever you belong to?  Are there a lack of dynamics?  If not, what are they and why?

Without explaining much, in my experience I’ve found that when we’re in closed system and/or systems lacking healthy dynamics, there is this trap that takes hold in may ways, shapes, and forms.  Some times I’ve found the “Matrix effect” of being saved from the trap of such groups, church, systems, ministries, organizations…

So how do we build healthy tribes, organizations, ministries, churches, cultures, gov’ts?

Hmmm… I think I should build a reading list.

First on the list would be “Tribes” by Seth Golin:
http://www.amazon.com/Tribes-We-Need-You-Lead/dp/1591842336

And yes, I need to finally buy this book, which I am doing right now.

Related posts:

1. Web Communication is Key in Ministry
2. How to Destroy Your Outpost
3. RePost: How to Destroy Your Outpost

1. Web Communication is Key in Ministry
2. How to Destroy Your Outpost
3. RePost: How to Destroy Your Outpost

On Jeff Leake’s blog, I stumbled on this link on Perry Nobel’s blog called “16 Signs That A Leader Has Lost His Mind“.

I am not going to repost the list of 16 items here, yet will highlight a couple. I do think that this list should be refined, then turned into a quiz, with some points and pointers. <sarcasm>Dedicated leaders all have the crazies, since they want to lead people.</sarcasm>

Yes, this is too easy to do.  I do it by default before my analytical mind kicks in, (which happens rapidly).

Hopefully some of my blog posts here analyze the root of some problems and takes the right approaches.  Even so, call me a pessimist when I do often say when people get involved, that’s were the perfect is stripped away and the problems come into play.  Even so, we do need to get to the root of the problems, rather than just play the blame game.

#3 – He refuses to listen to the team assembled around him.

Let me throw a curve-ball…  There are a lot of leaders (not all) that do not know how to build a team.  They don’t now how to work with team dynamics, social concepts, tribe building, leadership development, leadership delegation, etc.  And when there are 1 or more control freaks in the mix who don’t yield to all these team dynamics, that’s the breakdown.

Then there is the communication breakdown #3 points out…  A topic of a great deal of my rants on this subject.

#4 – He fights every idea that isn’t his own, thinking his originality is what must keep the church afloat.

I’d read Psalm 115:1.

Now, I’d expect a church or a ministry team to plan things out ahead of time.  Is the year, season, month, week, day outlined?  Is there a plan?  Is there servant leadership in place to execute the plan.  If so, good.  But the issue addressed in #4 is our agenda verses God’s.  As a congregation or ministry, we need to be seeking the face of God.  God will reveal his will.  And yes, this can apply directly to how services and meetings are planned out.  God is a God of order.  I’d say we’d want to match up with God’s order, so that God doesn’t do some manual overriding of our own agenda.  Trust me from my experience, it isn’t very pleasant at all.

#6 – He is unwilling to make the necessary changes because it would be highly unpopular.

Do I really need to explain this?  It matches up perfectly with #16.  The masses are not always right.  Besides, you are a leader to these people, not the other way around.  Sometimes the right thing is the hardest thing to do, yet also the most necessary.  This is where you need godly wisdom, this is where you need the Holy Spirit.  Seek prayer, the Bible, and seek God’s face.  Don’t be a puppet to people.

#7 – He tries to listen to what everyone has to say about every situation.

This would be something I’d be guilty of, since I am all about feedback and having everyone involved.  I’d say there is a fine balance where we need to be somewhere between closing people out and including everyone.  I’d always mix things up, having wise counsel, along with the feedback of the mass middle, and of outsiders you are reaching out too.  But as #7 suggests, making things so wide open will make you lose your mind.  Last point is be careful when dealing with difficult people, where they will drain you.  Learn to cut the line.

#15 – He doesn’t seek fresh revelation from God and often goes back to what has been done instead of seeking direction for what has never been done.

Are we playing the numbers game?  Are we obsessed with our own vision?  Are we humbling ourselves regularly in prayer, Bible reading, and seeking God’s face?  Our agenda always fails in the end.  God never fails.  Enough said.

#16 – He stops taking risks and becomes obsessed with playing it safe.

Sounds like a topic I’ve covered a lot as of late.  So look back at recent entries and you’ll see what I have to say about risks, fear, failure, and frustrations.  These all are part of servant leadership, and like the pains of a runner, cyclist, and swimmer, you need to train to expand your threshold and improve upon your endurance and strength.  Trust me, the Holy Spirit will stretch you over and over again!

And if I could suggest a #17: He/she holds a title and does nothing with it.

People “in leadership” who are sole title owners will do what it takes to keep their title.  They will put up a front.  They will smile in front of people, cameras, etc, showing they are playing the role that comes with their title.  Maybe they are like mob bosses that have others do all their work?  Maybe they work break/fix?  Surely they are guilty of most of the previous 16.

My thoughts on that is an Ironman Triathlete doesn’t just one day decided to swim/bike/run, they are continuously active in what they do that leads to the Ironman.  There are a million little, medium, and big tasks that go with any leadership title, even a seasonal leadership position.  You just don’t show up and make it happen.  You then are the problem and need to resign your title to someone who will be that person to continuously do the tasks that come with that role.

And my own #18: He/she lacks balance, doesn’t rest, can’t say no.

Burnout is real.

Back to the triathlete example…  If you do long distances all the time, you will fatigue, plus you are a higher risk of injury.  I know this personally both ways.  Leaders need balance in their life.

When the flood comes that will overtake the lands of your leadership, brace for what you can, but know you can’t stop the waters.  In other words, learn to have faith and trust in God, don’t try to save your own little piece of the world on your own, because you can’t.  Only God can.

No related posts.

Have you read Seth’s blog?
(You should!)

I frequent “Seth’s Blog” on my Google Reader. Likely I stumbled upon Seth Godin via one of my former pastors or college pals. This is more a marketing website, yet one where Seth challenges people to think outside the box. Lots of ministry applications, as well as real life applications too.

Here are some recent posts of note from Seth’s Blog:

1. The problem with doing it by heart
2. Spare no expense!
3. Thanks for leading
4. The risk/reward confusion
5. Can summer camp change your life?

Fatty is one of those gems you stumble upon on the internet. As his screenname suggests, he’s one that fell in love with cycling, like most of us not Tour de France worthy.  (He’s not really fat, btw).  Fatty has a great sense of humor and puts a humorous spin on the realities of both cycling and life.

Of course he’s know most for his family’s fight against cancer, a la Livestrong. Fatty’s wife, Susan, recently “won” after a hard fight battle with cancer. Fatty has inspired me, having a challenging August, with his wife’s passing, a crash at Leadville 100, and tuffing it out on the rolling hills of Montgomery County for the 2009 Philadelphia Livestrong Challenge! $277,000+ raised alone by Team Fatty Philly for the Livestrong Foundation! 

Here are some recent posts worth the read (even if you don’t bike)…

1. Don’t Say She Lost
Written the day Fatty’s wife passed away.
2. Crashed Out
A rough end to a tough bike race, just a week or so after “Susan’s Win”.
3. 2009 LiveStrong Philly Report: Day 2
This Utah cyclist bikes almost literally in my backyard, soon after his crash in Leadville for the great cause of “Livestrong”!
4. A Scientific Explanation of Why Cycling Hurts
Fatty nails the pains of us cylists dead in a fresh and humous new way!
5. Stuff that Flies
I laughed so hard after reading this, sharing similar thoughts and feelings!

I like reading stuff that “thinks outside the box” and is somewhat counter culture. For me it is less about being a rebel and more about zooming out to get a broader outside perspective on things. Too easy to get trapped inside a bunch of boxes in life!

Now I don’t agree with all the points of view in this comic strip blog, yet I appreciate the different perspective. Whenever I read a post that upsets me, I stop to for a second to get the point and try to absorb the broader context. There are plenty of comics here that I’ve used to share some things that is hard for me to express, as far as my frustrations with people, the church, culture, and religion.

Some posts of note:

1. Box in Box
2. The Sunday the Worship Band…
3. Too many things…
4. Would have been so…
5. Hamster wheel church

Related posts:

1. Goal Setting: “Trying Tri” (2009-10)

1. Goal Setting: “Trying Tri” (2009-10)

Some quick background…

Back in September 2007 I started writing down a list of things I saw Outposts doing that were destroying them. I posted the original version, full of my “terrific” grammar and spelling, yet the point did get across. I am thankful that a handful of Royal Ranger leaders throughout the Penn-Del district have made nothing but possitive comments about this post and the strong message it got across.

I think I have a handful of similar 5-10 bullet point posts in the making, sharing some out of the box ideas and behind the scenes perspectives. Anyhow…

…without further delay, here is the re-post.

(In sorta no particular order)

Below is a list of fatal and cancerous methods that will surely bring your Outpost to an ineffective and/or non-existent state. This list isn’t comprehensive, yet does make a couple good points. Feel free to make any creative additions to this list. If you notice you are doing any of the follow, then change is in order.

1. Neglect regular prayer for the ministry of your Outpost

Are we praying for the Holy Spirit to guide our leaders, touch the lives of our boys, and to do His work in all of us? Are we praying every day? Praying together as a team? Are you praying with your boys? Praying on Sunday church and weekly meetings? Are we even starting and ending our meetings in prayer? Failure to surround your Outpost in prayer will suffocate your Outpost more than anything else.

2. Neglect getting the support of your pastors

Your Outpost is not its own island at your local congregation. Has the Outpost leadership plugged into the vision of the pastoral staff? Has your Outpost connected the vision of Rangers in with the vision of the church? Is you Outpost reaching past church politics and towards effective unity? Are you seeking the right people in and out of the church for any conflict resolution? Remember, your pastors are the key to the support and success of your Outpost.

3. Neglect advancement and Bible merit work

Nothing like running a baby sitting club or activities only group that will lose your boys over the years. Sure younger boys love fun and games, yet if they are not challenged and are not growing, you will lose them over the years. And when they see a lack of substance in your Outpost, they will move on to the endless things out there that are offered to kids and teens, where some of these things are not so good for them. The sign of a successful outpost is their advancement program.

4. Neglect training for your leaders and boys

Sure most of us are busy with family, work, maybe school, and a million other things. Maybe we think giving up another weekend afternoon or weekend is a pain and a drag? Maybe we feel we are good on our own and training is a waste? Take a close look at truly successful outpost and you will find an abundance of training for both boys and leaders. Your leadership starts with the call and willingness to serve. One core component that empowers servant leadership is training. Maybe our untrained ways of doing things is why we fall short and suffocate our Outposts? Better yet, maybe our lack of using that training we have is doing the same thing? You wouldn’t want an untrained medical doctor working on your body, now would you?

5. Failure to plan

Time, time, time.. Seems people these days are very busy or preoccupied. Sometimes we just don’t want to put that time and energy in to planning and preparing. What about planning meetings? Drafting calendars? Inventory? Purchasing gear and materials? Studying/practicing lesson plans? Getting training? Etc, etc, etc.. If we fail to plan, we plan to fail. And the trend in Rangers in recent years (2007-ish) shows an increase lack of planning across the board.

6. Neglect using the “patrol system”
(failure in team/tribe building)

Its evident at many events and campouts that outposts don’t use the patrol system. Then again the good OP are the ones that have an active display of their patrol spirit on campouts and other events. Sure it’s a lot of initial work, building a patrol into a functional team, working on projects, and delegating leadership to the boys. An outpost that doesn’t actively have and work through patrol truly isn’t an outpost at all. And we do our boys and outpost a disservice by neglecting to teach them teamwork and leadership through patrols. If you take the effort to build up patrols, you’ll notice more discipline, less behavior issues, more working together, and functional structure that helps make meeetings run more smooth.

7. Keep your Outpost isolated to your local church -

There are a lot of solo Outposts out there that keep within the bubble of their own local congregation. Of course its healthy for an Outpost to participate and be a part of the entire church family, yet that church family extends outside a church building and local area. Sure your Outpost can plan campouts, events, and activities, which you should be doing, yet why not join in on the same things with other Outposts in your Section and the District? The larger pool of servant leadership and resources offers more, even better opportunities that your local church just might not be able to do on their own. Your boys can also be impacted further in Christ by men and boys from all over, while making new friends. You limit your boy’s experiences by limiting it to just the bubble of your own outpost.

8. Neglect to charter -

Many leaders question the value of chartering. Unfortunately it costs money to administer the ministry program of Royal Rangers. In Royal Rangers we are extremely fortunate to have countless volunteers serving on staff in all levels. It cost money to plan, promote, and execute the planning of Royal Rangers events and activities. Charter is where it starts. Sure your church can run an “illegal” outpost, purchasing all the materials needed to run your outpost. And sure it is costly to charter, plus buy material, and pay the registration fees for events. Good and continuous planning will go a long way in financing your own outpost, your section, the district and beyond. Neglecting to charter might not directly bring an end to your outpost, yet will suffocate the higher support levels that make Royal Rangers happen. Besides, Royal Rangers is a good deal when it comes to scouting, other church activities, even more so when it comes to other activities available to kids and teens. Chartering is well worth the investment in supporting a ministry program that will reach, teach, and keep boys for Jesus Christ!

9. Don’t give “honor” where honor is due & Fail to encourage

We need to honor and encourage both our boys and leaders. The “Council of Achievements” is a time to honor boys for their hard work and their accomplishments. In our Royal Ranger training we are taught to give encouragement regularly to all our boys and to honor them in a timely fashion when they achieve a merit, advancement, high honor, or other goal. Yet do we honor and encourage our leaders? What about that long time leader that so selflessly serves and gets the job done? If we’re not honoring our faithful leaders, do you think that will encourage others to step up? Have we created a healthy environment of fellowship, honor, encouragement, grace, and love? Without honor and encouragement, we discourage the future of our boys and leaders, creating a shallow and cold Outpost that very few will want to be a part of.

10. Do things on your own power and own ways

Your Outpost can be chartered, at every Royal Ranger event, churning out GMA’s, have full pastoral + church support, and be doing everything right. Yet if the driving force of the Church isn’t the driving force of your Outpost, as in Jesus and the Holy Spirit, you better close up shop and stop doing your boys a major dis-service. When the day is over, it really is not about advancements, GMA’s, Sabers, 10-points of an Outpost meeting, and the endless busy work. It is about impacting the lives of boys and young men for Christ, through the empowering of the Holy Spirit. In the end, we are just vessels, where God does all the work. And all it takes is for us to open our lives to be a vessel to reach, teach, and keep boys for Jesus Christ! Do what we do as Royal Ranger in the love of Christ, since love is the greatest thing of all!

Ponder these things and make a consistent effort to be functional, rather than dysfunction in your outpost. The long term benefits of following healthy principal will out-weigh the vast initial work and investment in building a successful outpost.

In His Service,

Silent Eagle
1994 Penn-Del GMA from OP 7 & OP 19

Related posts:

1. How to Destroy Your Outpost
2. Clearing the Whiteboard and Rebuilding
3. reThink: Outlining Feedback

1. How to Destroy Your Outpost
2. Clearing the Whiteboard and Rebuilding
3. reThink: Outlining Feedback

After reaching the peak of the year in my cycling, having reached my goal for the year 6 months early, I needed new goals to go after to reach my overall fitness goals.  After months of pondering, I decided to break past my limits and go after triathlons.  So in the spirit of accountability, I’m posting this, so that people can ask me how I things are going.

I’ve made some list of definite and tentative goals for 2009-10.

2009 Training Goals

1. Bike 3200+ miles; Bike 5000+ miles
2. Get back into running + build up to a 20 mile run
3. Get back into kayaking + yak til Nov
4. Focus on healthy mix of running/cycling in the fall
5. Learn how to swim (as in the right way) starting late Oct
6. Run the Philly Half-Marathon on Nov 22, 2009
7. Spend December mixing cycling and swimming, break from heavy running

2009 Primary Goals

1. All my pre-July cycling goals
2. Bike back-to-back centuries
3. Run the Philly Half-Marathon on Nov 22, 2009

2010 Training Goals

1. Focus my winter training on swimming (mixing cycling + running)
2. Focus my spring training on running (mixing cycling + swimming + kayaking)
3. Balance my late spring/summer training schedule with moderate training, rest, and rare peaks
4. Rest between Pgh-Tri and Wilderness 101
5. Spend end of August in recovery + set new goals

2010 Primary Goals

1. Complete the 2010 Pittsburgh Marathon on May 2
2. Complete the 2010 Philly Tri (Sprint) on June 26-27
3. Complete the Pittsburgh Tri (Olypmic) is July 25
4. Register & complete the Wilderness 101 in August
5. Register for Leadville 100 (…and expect a rejection letter)

Challenges Along the Way

1. Fatigue & Rest
2. Schedule
3. Food/Diet/Fuel
4. Health:  Keeping injury free
5. Health:  Avoiding illness (ha!)

Why Tri?!

After re-writing this post several time, this is were I get wordy and go into all these stories that really only I care about.  (Maybe my mom?)

Why I’m trying triathlons is so I push myself beyond my limits.  I have done a lot of that this year and I found that I have so much untapped physical potential.  Yes, that’s coming from a non-athlete and IT dude.  Over the past 12-14 months I have developed a fitness lifestyle.  I have yet to reach all my fitness goals, yet when I do, I know that I’ll need to maintain a moderate degree of cycling, running, kayaking, and swimming to keep me balanced.

Ironman?  Well check back in a year and I’ll let you know how that very remote dream is coming along.  Though I am training like I am ultimately going to do an Ironman (+ Ironman 70.3), there are a lot of stops a long the way, like running a marathon, being in a competitive bike race, learning how to swim long distances, eating smart/balanced, learning how to balance a training routine so I have energy to reach the primary goals…  So  by end of summer 2010 we’ll know where I stand in an Ironman attempt.  In the mean time, I’ll do everything else and be in a constant state of training.

I think I am re-earning my Royal Rangers Physical Fitness, Cycling, Swimming, and Advanced Swimming merits all over again! LOL!

Over ambitious?  Absolutely!  Crazy?  Definitely!

Philippians 4:13 is my theme for the rest of the summer and into the fall!

Related posts:

1. Down the pike into Summer 2009
2. You can’t do that!
3. Summer 2009 Gear Wishlist

1. Down the pike into Summer 2009
2. You can’t do that!
3. Summer 2009 Gear Wishlist

This post is a reflection based on ongoing conversations between myself and some close friends, based on our experiences.  Just exploring some common thoughts, reflections, experiences, and trying to offer some signage in some areas where signage is rare.

Risk

On Seth’s blog, which I frequent on gReader, he did a recent post titled “The risk/reward confusion“.  Though his focus is on marketing, his external approach to topics is fairly spot on.  The point of this particular post is that you don’t risk, you have no potential to gain any reward.  The more you risk, the greater the reward potential there is.

Here is the link to the artical “The risk/reward confusion“:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/07/the-riskreward-confusion.html

Seems like what Seth states is a no-brainer, yet the American culture I live in subscribes all to often to fallacies like “reward without risk” and “bailout upon massive failure“.  Usually when those illusions work, there tends to be people at work bending chaos to create such illusions, feeding reward when either no risk or failure occurs.  Dare I mention gov’t, your parents, your credit card?

Hope you got that point.

Risk & Fear & …

If we all sit down as some sort of group and start listing fears, we’d list risk and failure on a list.  We fear risk because of failure.  Duh!

Risk & Fear & Failure

Risk has everything to do with probabilities.  Those probabilities can be either positive or negative, yet by default we tag on negative things, so risk pretty much implies a probability of a negative result.  Again, duh!

So when we fear risk, we fear the result of such risk.  I’m sure we can make a list of probable negatives of risk, yet let’s stick with failure.  The fear of risks is nothing more than a container in which there is the fear of failure.  So risk and failure has the probability to result in all sorts of bad things.  That “bad things” list is a very vivid list, since things like pain, hurt, heartbreak, loneliness, poverty, etc, are on that list.

So then failure is an additional container, within other containers, containing the actual things we fear, as in that vivid list?  Not the prettiest way to come to such a conclusion, yet there you go.

Hmmm…

I will face my fear… fear is the mind killer!

One of my favorite quotes of all quotes was writen by Frank Herbert, the author of Dune.  Here is the litany against fear:

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

It is human nature to seek out security, prosperity, and safety.  Those are fine in part.  But do we trade up freedoms and liberties?  Are we just holding back our fears with eventually will bust through those fortifications and facades?  Are we setting ourselves up for greater failures?  I would argue that this is the case.

Taking risk, facing fears, and experiencing failure

Why wouldn’t a person want to get wet from rain or any water source?  Being wet can make you cold, maybe feel wet, maybe make you smell like a dog.  I know for me when I am going to work or some social gathering, I want to be dry, so I am not wet and possibly smelling like a wet dog.

For me, it took me time to learn that it is ok to get wet and I’m not talking about when I go swimming.  When I bike, camp, or do other outdoors activities I’ve learned that the weather does not sync up with my schedule.  It will rain sometimes.  So you dress for the rain, you have rain gear, and you learn how to get wet.  As longs as I don’t get cold and my electronics don’t get damp, I’m good to go.

Sounds too simple.

But a tiny little fear of wet isn’t to be taken so lightly.  When our fear of being wet is fully realized, we could end up cold and in hypothermia.  Our electronics can be ruined.  We can stink like a wet dog and that smell memory get tagged on us.  Our clothes can get all wet, etc, etc…

So what?!

What about other fears, like finances, relationships, death, rejection, pain, misery, injury, etc?  Again, so what?  Why can’t we get wet with all our other fears, face failures?!

Cage of Failure

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.”
- Samuel Beckett

Before I close rehashing some thoughts on failure, let me refer to Mark Batterson’s book and sermon on this subject.

Mark Batterson’s Sermon titled “Cage of Failure”:
http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/cage-of-failure/

Mark Batterson’s book title “Wild Goose Chase”:
http://chasethegoose.com/

I guess one of my personal points toward myself and other people as of late is to “take on the risk of failure“.  To defend against it so strongly, being so heavily driven by fear is so deadly to your entire being.  Additionally it has drastic effects, dare I say atomic effects, on other people reaching even past your inner circle out to people you don’t even know.

We slam the door on God’s face when we dare not risk failure, dare not give our fears to God.  Of course I’m talking in context of  saying we are a children of God, aka a Christians, who believes in God, who has dedicated our lives to God and God’s will.

I think our fear of God is less who God is, rather who God has made us to be and that will of God that actually take who God has created us to be, then unleashes it.

In turn we fear what God has before us.  We fear that giving up that security we think we have in our own lives actually and ultimately bring upon us what we fear.  We might not fear death, yet we fear that life God has for us. We run to our own (in)securities, our own dreams for our lives, our own ways about going about things…

Then God lifts his hands from the storms of life for a time… a ship wreck occurs.  As Batterson states, “sometimes it takes a shipwreck…”

Ending a post, continuing a conversation…

We need to face our fears, giving those fears to God.  Psalm 139 says that God knows us full well.  Heck, I don’t even know myself full well.  Fear is dangerous and has deadly potency, yet no matter what, if you stand up to be who God has created you to be, submit your fears to Jesus Christ on that cross he died on, even though pain and suffering may still occur, you are on a journey which the path goes through all those fears, failures, and challenges to something far greater than you can ever imagine.

So…

Face your fears. Take risks. Face failures. Hand it all to God. Worse thing that could ever happen is you die, which actually is the best thing that could ever happen to you.  Why?  You’ll be with God in heaven.  (Of course that’s only if you’re in Christ).

Live hard and fight the fight that is this life, with Christ at your side!

Romans 8:28-31

Daring to fight,

Silent Eagle

Related posts:

1. "In the pit with a lion on a snowy day…"

1. "In the pit with a lion on a snowy day…"

Yes, I’m making lists, outline, notes, and so forth for this upcoming “Penn-Del District Royal Rangers Assessment” meeting.  I am not planning on attending that meeting, since I’m on my “Zero Leadership” sabbatical, yet I could possibly make the trip.  This blog and eventually “The Royal Ranger Eagle” site is partially about such feedback.  I figure these lists, notes, and outlines can also add to my list of future topics too, which seems to grow, never shrink.  (Sorry!)

I sure do want to share my lists and notes now, yet I’m forming a list over the next couple days, then will process it at the end of the week.

Of course the on-going question has everything to do about re-thinking what we do in ministry.

Why?

1.  Ultimately so we are using out minds in prayer to line up with God’s will.  God does use (His) logic in His will.  I believe the mind is involved in logic!
2.  Continuing with #2, Holy Spirit.  Also prayer and Bible.
3.  We need to be constantly evaluating the needs of the people we are ministering to, since ministry starts with the needs of people.  We need to be constantly evaluating the needs of the people we are ministering to, since ministry starts with the needs of people…  (Yes, I repeated that on purpose.)
4.  If we do the same thing over again, we need to know if it is effective, even necessary.  If not, ditch it or at least tweak it.
5.  We need to be smart with change, since change for the sake of change can be just as bad as the other extreme of refusal to change.
6.  We need to be constantly evaluating the needs of the people we are ministering to.  (Just wanted to remind you, since we constantly need to be…)
7.  We need to learn and effectively practice the spiritual discipline of the calendar of events.  Huh?!  Yes, it is not just a discipline, it is a spiritual discipline.  Poor scheduling discipline leads to all kinds of epic failures.  I am big time serious on this one.  Let me tell you, we fail in a bad way with this one.
8.  Since this list can go on forever, let me just say we need to be effective.  I’m big on quality.  Effectiveness is a key component to quality.  Quality in ministry leads to real/true success, the kind that truly brings life to people and lives on!

Related posts:

1. reThink: A New “Schedule of Events” canvas
2. How to Destroy Your Outpost
3. RePost: How to Destroy Your Outpost

1. reThink: A New “Schedule of Events” canvas
2. How to Destroy Your Outpost
3. RePost: How to Destroy Your Outpost

I love that finally some much needed merits, like paintball and rappelling are finally out.  Still some missing, yet we won’t get into that, plus I’m sure those should be processed soon.

For the most part, this merit is good and is long over do.  Yet there is some significant changes that have to be made…

#1:  The certified instructor’s requirement

Here is the leader note:

Note: In order for a leader to take boys rappelling, he must adhere to Climb on Safely and the guidelines of the training course, Topping Out. He must also be a certified instructor though either Boy Scouts of America or the National Outdoor Leadership School. Climb on Safely is the climbing and rappelling manual for Boy Scouts of America and may be purchased from the BSA Web site or any BSA store.

I 100% agree that the instructor must be certified to instruct climbing and rapelling.  Yet the only options are BSA Climbing Certified Instructor and NOLS.

BSA Climbing Instructor:
http://www.usscouts.org/safety/ClimbOnSafely.asp
http://highadventure.sdicbsa.org/train_climb.htm

National Outdoors Leadership School:
http://www.nols.edu/courses/find/byskill/climbing.shtml

NOLS is west coast, plus the course is 30 days.  I’m impressed with the extensive outdoorsman instruction NOLS offers, betting the 30 days climbing instructor course will be awesome.  Yet that isn’t practical, due to time, location, availability.

I think we copied the boy scout requirements, since I saw NOLS come up.  Thing is on the BSA list, they included more climbing instruction certification options, which are:

Examples of sources of qualified climbing/rappelling instructors include, but are not limited to, the following:
(From http://www.usscouts.org/safety/ClimbOnSafely.asp)

* National Outdoor Leadership School
* Wilderness Education Association
* American Mountain Guides Association
* The Mountaineers
* Recreational Equipment Inc.
* Eastern Mountain Sports
* University or college climbing/rappelling instructors or students
* Project COPE directors or instructors
* Project Adventure instructors

BSA’s list is better than our 2 option list.  For instance, down the road from me is Eastern Mountain Sport (EMS) and REI, who both offer these courses, though they might just be climbing training, not instructor training.  In addition to that are climbing gyms, that offer the same thing.  The thing is we need a national Expedition Rangers leadership team to manage a validated list of climbing instructor certification courses, so these are in reach of our ER leaders who will be instructing and leading climbing activities.  Without this, we’ve totally hindered climbing activities in ER.

#2:  Requirement 4 on knots

The double figure-8 is missing.  That’s a core rappelling knot, plus more reliable that other climbing knots, since it has a high pressure threshhold.  So the “double figure-8 must be included.

Here is reference to the 4 core rapelling knots:
http://climbing.about.com/od/climbingknots/a/4RapKnots.htm

#3:  Climbing merit needed

Rappelling is different than rappelling, which is different than spelunking (caving).  I was instructed in both climbing and rappelling the same weekend when I was in Trail Rangers.  There is a need for this merit and it should be taught along with rappelling.  And if anyone is getting into mountaineering, climbing is an essential skill set, which includes rappelling.

With climbing, there are all the same safety requirements that come with rappelling, along with some additional stuff.  There are skills related to boldering, climbing technique, additional gear, rope etc.

#4:  Expedition Rangers (Leadership) Team & Specialists

Back when I was Penn-Del Expedition Coordinator, I introduced and promoted this structure as a leadership/administrative method to successfully running the extensive and advanced curriculum of Expedition Rangers.  With climbing, this presents the perfect scenario to put this in place.

As per national office guidelines, they are setting the very definition of what it takes to be a “Climbing Specialist” in Expedition Rangers.  That requirements is to get officially certified by climbing certification programs approved by “National Expedition Rangers” (or national office, or whatever it can be called).

I am award of budget and staffing issues, yet there is a need to have on national, regional, and district levels “Expedition Rangers Leadership Team” (or whatever you would want to call it).  On the national level, for activities such as rappelling, that team can set approvals for official climbing instructor training.  Other guidelines, curriculum, maybe even event, can be administered.

Regional ER team would then be made up of all the district ER coordinators and specialist.  The district would include all their sections, plus their coordinators and specialists.  So what would happen is a network of Expedition Ranger coordinators, specialist, and leaders that flow on all level, providing the needs of ER.  Of course this looks good in theory, yet I’ve had nightmares implementing it on the district level.  It can be done, just is hard to network together.

Summary…

I’m thrilled about this merit.  Items #1 and #2 I talked about are critical to making this merit a success.  #3 needs added as a separate merit, not combined with the rappelling merit.  #4 is 40 years overdue.

Related posts:

1. ReThink/ReRe: Expedition Rangers (Part 1 of ??)
2. Paintball merit finally official!
3. The Value of Royal Rangers to Me

1. ReThink/ReRe: Expedition Rangers (Part 1 of ??)
2. Paintball merit finally official!
3. The Value of Royal Rangers to Me