when reading jimkastkeat.com just isn't enough

See the little "listen now" button right over there?

Go ahead, click it.  I dare you.  And prepare to be amazed!

Give your eyes a break and enjoy the creepy robotic voice as it reads my blog to you!

But that's not all.  Do you want to take jimkastkeat.com with you on your ipod or iphone?  Click the button on the right column (under "READ WITH YOUR EARS") to subscribe to jimkastkeat.com as a podcast in itunes or other podcast programs.

And just remember, I really don't sound like a creepy robot in real life; just on here.

Enjoy!

Ryan Feyer, beat that!

story

I had this thought last night at our first Advent service:

It seems like the sermon typically lays out the story and gives some insightful commentary on it.  But what if instead of talking about the story it simply told the story (and told it well).  And then the rest of the service (readings, prayers, songs, liturgy, small groups, etc) was crafted to be the commentary.

Thoughts?

coming soon [PROJECT 09]

I have ideas.  

Sometimes it feels like I have way too many, but sometimes it feels like they all randomly collide in the just the right way, giving birth to my next "new thing."  (If you've been around me for any length of time you've no doubt been the sounding board for many of these ideas and probably been forced to participate in one or two of my "new things.")

This latest conglomeration of ideas joins together in, what I'm calling, PROJECT 09: nine different things that I will be trying out in 2009, all for the sake of my holistic formation, productivity, and creativity.

The one "big" change you'll see here at jimkastkeat.com are monthly themes.  Starting in January I will be selecting one theme to write about all month long, with the exception of each weekend (reserved for 'promo' posts).

So stay tuned for more on PROJECT 09 and get ready for the all new jimkastkeat.com.

Did you miss this?

In case you missed them, here are a few of my favorite things that I've written here at jimkastkeat.com over the past months.  Enjoy!

• putting the pen to the paper
• Art & Fear
• Lent and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
• Mission is/isn't...
  
• what Jesus doesn't see
• Gen1 
• Paul 
• dancing
  

The Truth About You [promo 003]

A weakness is any activity that makes you feel weaker after you do it.
A strength is any activity that makes you feel strong.

With these words (and many more) Marcus Buckingham does it again.

From First to Go to Now, he returns with another insightful work in the area of personal/professional development and leadership with his latest strength-based, positive psychology book, The Truth About You: Your Secret to Success.

But to call it just a book would be to overlook two-thirds of what the binding contains.  The "book" is divided into three sections: the first section a short film where Buckingham, an excellent communicator and storyteller, introduces the basic ideas and themes that he has become so well known for talking about.  The second section is the more typical "book" section with words on a page (110 pages, to be exact).  This section leads the reader to understand more about themself and the world they live and work in.  The third section is a ReMemo pad, a simple notepad designed to help identify specific moments of strength or weakness.

Buckingham starts by telling us "three truths":

1. As you grow, you become more and more of who you already are.
2. You grow most in areas of your greatest strength.
3. A great team player volunteers his [or her] strengths to the team most of the time and deliberately partners with people who have different strengths.

From these truths he continues "the best advice you'll ever get."  These five points of advice also make us the five chapters found at the center of this book:

1. Performance is always the point
2. Your strengths aren't what you're good at, and your weaknesses aren't what you're bad at
3. When it comes to your job, the "what" always trumps the "why" and the "who"
4. You'll never find the perfect job
5. You'll never turn your weaknesses into strengths
   

Besides having great things to say, this "book" is beautifully packaged (thank you Dot&Cross).  From the silver cover to the blue packaging to the words and images and ideas it contains, The Truth About You is an interactive experience that can actually make a difference in the way you work and play and rest and everything else that makes up life.

Fifty6 Art Sunday

Every so often throughout the year we ditch our normal programming for one of our "intermission Sundays".  These Sundays help buffer between story arcs, letting one settle and land before the next begins.  And on these days we have Fifty6 Art Sunday.

This is our third year with Art Sundays.  In the past we have had one group of students on stage painting a stenciled canvas.  But this year we changed things up a bit, giving better participation for everyone and creating, I think, our best collaborative piece of artwork yet.

Each student colored a three inch square either yellow, orange, or red and brought it to the stage where our amazing art team helped them glue them onto the canvas (with matte medium - thanks Deb!).  Our next Art Sunday is in March, but that canvas will begin with red, connecting to the first!

This is always one of my favorite activities and ways to worship together and learn together, because more than ever the method is the message, giving students permission to be artists and Christians and finding God by making a piece of art together.

(go to flickr to see more pictures from this and past Art Sundays)