Introducing Shelterwood!

I’ve rebranded my blog from trenidydavis.com to shelterwood.net. It was time for me to get a fresh start at blogging and I wanted a new identity to go with it. Here are a few more reasons for the change:

• Using my name was a bit egotistical. Don’t get me wrong, for me to write my views in any form carries with it a bit of an ego. I think this goes for facebook, twitter, or any social media. But for some reason I feel I will be able to write more freely without flying my name as my primary logo/identity.
• Shelterwood as a concept and a website is much more scaleable and transferable. I will have others people post to this site and they don’t have to necessarily be linked to me. Who knows, one day I may hand this off to someone that may want to use the name/blog. This is more difficult to do when using your name.
• Shelterwood’s spiritual connotation. Shelterwood is defined by google as “mature trees left standing to provide shelter in which saplings can grow.” It is a forestry strategy use in re-growing a forest. I believe God has called those of us over the age 40 to being to provide shelter for our children and others who are coming along behind us, in order to grow strong in the faith of Jesus Christ. I hope myself and others can provide spiritual shelter as we move into the coming persecution of the followers of Jesus Christ.

Thanks to my friend Chris Johnson for teaching me about the concept of “Shelterwood” a few years ago.

2013 Blog in review

I still enjoy blogging but have had less time in the last few years, becuase of a decision I’ve made to give time to my family. Now that my kids are getting older I hope to have more time to spend sharing my random thoughts and ideas. Happy 2014

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 5,500 times in 2013. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 5 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Navigating New Technology and Spirituality (Tim Elmore)

Last week I was able to hear Dr. Tim Elmore give a talk entitled, “Marching Off the Map: A Compass to Help the Next Generation Navigate New Technology and Spirituality”. Last year, after reading his book, “Artificial Maturity” I started following him at his website www.growingleaders.com.

Below are the notes I took during his talk. If you have or work with young adults (teens through 30 year olds) I suggest you start reading the blog , books, and resources from Growing Leaders.

 

This is the first generation that

• Doesn’t need adults to get information (They need us for interpretation)
  • They don’t need us to access it but to process
  • Helping our kids learn how to think not what to think
• Can broadcast their every thought or emotion
• Enjoys external stimuli at their fingertips 24/7
• In social contact at all times yet often in isolation 
  • Extremely social but not relational
  • Most sleep with phones
  • Showering with a cell phone
  • Low Emotional Intelligence for kids and Adults
• Will learn more form a portable device than a class
• Adults have actually been enabled to be narcissistic
  • Every year Narcissism is going up in Students
  • People are into themselves – Selfy Pics
  • However, The real world is not about them
• Uses a phone instead of a wristwatch, camera, wall calendar or board game.

   

Dr. Elmore refers to the Millennial generation as, Generation iY, because life is pretty much about “i” (Self Centered)

 

Generation iY S.C.E.N.E

• Accustom to S- Speed: They Assume Slow is Bad
• Accustom to C- Convenience: They Assume Hard is Bad
• Accustom to E-Entertainment: They Assume Boring is Bad
• Accustom to N-Nurture: They Assume Risk is Bad
• Accustom to E-Entitlement: They Assume Labor is Bad

 

So, How should we lead them?

 

1.  Don’t think Control, think Connect (Be authentic, Real)

        We must build bridges of relationships that can bear the weight of truth.

        Balance Screen time with face time. Every minute on device is a minute in person.

2.  Don’t think Inform, think Interpret (How think, not just what)

3.  Don’t think Entertain, think Equip. (Share why they need what we teach, before what)

        Churches are good at preaching, but not equipping.

4. Don’t think “Do It for Them”, think “Help Them Do It.”

        Let them fail (They took the monkey bars off playgrounds becuase we didn’t want them to get hurt now in their 20s they won’t take risk.)

5.  Don’t think Impose, think Expose. (Expose beats Impose every time)

6.  Don’t think Protect, think Prepare.

       Unbelievable, some school district no longer use Fs , the lowest is D is “Delayed Success”! Graces does not take away truth.

7. Don’t think Tell, Think Ask (Learn to ask good questions)

8.  Don’t think Cool, think Real. (To these kids the only thing that is worse than being uncool, is being unreal)

9.  Don’t thin Prescriptive, think Descriptive

10. Don’t Lecture, think Lab. (Missional experience: Serving Others)

 

Over the next several weeks I’ll be posting other notes from this conference (Catalyst 2013) I recently attended.

Build Your Platform

I have to give credit to Michael Hayatt and his new book Platform for helping me reenergize my blog (www.trenidydavis.com). In the book Michael gives step-by-step instructions on how he was able to build his “platform”. The resources in this book are invaluable for anyone who, as the subtitle suggests, “has something to say or sell.”

One of the primary things Michael did in the book was to challenge me to reexamine why I began blogging in the first place. When I started back in 2007, Facebook was in its infancy. Initially blogging gave me a way to let my family and friends know what was going on in my life. But as social media (Facebook and Twitter) matured and everyone seemed to have their own “platform” it made sense for me to simply migrate my “cyber” life from blogging to social media. Unfortunately Facebook and Twitter turned me into more of a consumer than a producer. This realization has motivated me to make a change.

“Platform” has challenged me to build and reengage any audience I may have lost; (Hi Mom). If you own a small business or are in the marketing department of a larger one, I suggest you get your hands on this book. It will help you stand up and stand out in this noisy world.

How Bad Do You Have to Hate Someone?

Penn Jillette’s video blog entitled, “The Gift of a Bible”.

Mike and Shelly Reid shared this clip with me yesterday. You guys are right, I can’t keep that quote out of my mind!

How to Increase Traffic on your BLOG

I’m not sure what your motives are for blogging, but if you simply want to increase traffic to your site you can follow the steps below.

• Step 1. Make an entry that reads, “How to Increase Traffic on Your BLOG”
• Step 2. You’re Done!

 

Now people who are trying to increase traffic on their blog will Google and visit your blog. Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Birthday Blog

I don’t think I’ve changed the world with any of my post, but I’ve sure had a ton of fun. Before last September I had tried to start blogging a few times, but would eventually stop because my focus was too narrow. I had started one for Technology, but ran out of ideas. Then I started one for Church and Ministry, but found it boring. A few years ago I meet this guy and started reading his blog. After a few months of keeping up with him through his posts, I decided that I wanted one for myself. In a day were we are often disconnected from each other, I wanted to share a bit of myself with my friends and family who I rarely see or talk to.

Over the past year I’ve gotten comments about posts on my blog from; who else but my mom, my former manager (and friend), a comedian, an ex-airborne ranger turned journalist ,old friends, new ones, and some people I’ve never meet. I hope to be able to keep it up. This fall I’ll be trying to post on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. So stay tuned.

I Know I Can’t Spell

If you have read many of my post you’ve probably come to the conclusion that I cannot spell. My inability to spell started very early in life. Do you remember the spelling bees in school? Yeah I was usually out in the first round. But not Moose. He usually pulled his arms in his shirt, flapped like a chicken, and finished at the top. Getting put out in the first round was not something I really shot for, but it did allowed me more time to sit and my desk and read SI. I always enjoyed Science and Math, but to this day I have a very difficult time spelling.

But then came the advent of the computer with spell check. Turns out I was born at the right time in history after all. Those of us who use PCs (not sure about MACs) have been indoctrinated to the Microsoft Office products which utilizes the F7 key to activate spell check. While it can correct the spelling of works, it unfortunately can’t read my mind for the word I’m trying to spell. Even after I run spell check – I may have all the words spelled correctly, but simply not have the right words on the document. Most of the time when I reread things I’ve wrote, I find myself reading over a wrong word (and not catching it), while saying in my mind what I wanted that word to be (don’t know if any of this makes sense). The conclusion of the matter is this. I know I have trouble spelling so if you see words that really make what I’m trying to communicate wrong or blasphemous let me know. In a day of “miss speaking” there are those of us who “miss-type”.

LiveFire Blog

Check out the blog Live Fire with Chuck Holton. We used one of his books a few years ago in a men’s Bible study and really enjoyed it. The last 4 entries in his blog are worth reading.

• Burma on the Big Screen (See what he has to say about Burma that’s presented in the latest Rambo movie) Here are my thoughts on the movie.
• The Future of American Culture (Everyone is coming home.)
• Iraqi Becomes an American Soldier (A real American dream)
• Huge Book Sale (You can get one of his books, Bullet Proof, at CBD for $3.)

You can read them all at www.livefire.us.

A Southern Original: The Buffet

You need to read this Article from Robert St. John in today’s Hattiesburg American.  Funny stuff!!  I heard an old (over weight) preacher once say that it was a Biblical command to “Buffet his body” 1 Cor. 9:27.  Yeah I’m a skinny dude but I do have some experience with buffets.  My earliest memories of a buffet were at a “restaurant” in Goss, MS.  I can’t remember the name of it but they had a seafood buffet.  Fried shrimp, fried fish, french fries, hushpuppies, and oh yeah frog legs (they were fried as well).  My Mom would always order off of the menu and the lady behind the cash register would watch us, as my dad would say “like a cat”, while we ate to make sure Mom didn’t slip some food off of me or my dad’s plate. Then there was the pizza buffets.  The original Pizza buffet was Mr. Gatti’s Pizza. Looks like they are still around, but not in Hattiesburg. I remember trips there to eat pizza and watch the low-def, big screen, fuzzy project TVs they had setup. And then came Shoney’s with the breakfast bar.  A bit of trivia here.  For a Senior Party (High School) my parents and sister rented a limo that pulled up to my house around 5:30 am in the morning LOADED down with about a dozen of my buddies from school.  We were chauffeured to Shoney’s in Hattiesburg where we ate from the “Breakfast Bar” and returned to school in style.  I have some video footage of the ride.  We were “low” ridin’. In the last few years most of the buffets I’ve attempted had food that tastes the same.  You know, you get a little serving of honey-dew melon and a piece of chicken and some green beans and it all tastes the same.  Then there is the cleanliness issue.  We have friends who refuse to eat at buffets because of the germ potential.  I remember seeing a small girl peering over at the food on a buffet under all those bright lights.  When suddenly she sneezed.  I could see every speck of her projectile settling over all of the food.  Needless to say we ordered from the kitchen. Today there are only two non-pizza buffets that my family and I visit and one of them is the Front Porch.  We go about once a month on Sunday’s after church.  I’m sure some people could apply some of the issues I’ve mentioned above to Front Poarch, but we think the food (or at least what we get) is pretty good and at a pretty good price (At least on Sunday’s).