Anne Marie Miller

Author: Anne Marie Miller

  • interaction soapbox

    Since announcing mad church disease, I’ve gotten a little more email than i normally would with people sharing their stories more indepthly, or sharing their thoughts on the book. It has been great to meet a lot of new people and if you have emailed me in the last couple of weeks and have not received a reply – I’m working on it – i promise!

    Gmail actually locked me out from sending email earlier this week since i had emailed my entire address book of 566 people. evidently that makes me a spammer so they put your account on hold! anyway i have 12 emails remaining to respond to…and i thank you for waiting as i will write back.

    however, after responding to some earlier emails, I’ve received a couple of replies like this back:

    Wow…I have to say I did not expect a response.

    i must say i am a little shocked to get a message from you.

    Now, this goes back to my soapbox on “three reasons i’ll ditch your feed” and “three reasons i’ll fancy your feed” – INTERACTION.

    while i may not respond to EVERY comment on this blog, I do try and respond to people who are new, or have a question, or been generous in their time and shared something with me. Please don’t misread this as my attempt to claim some nonexistent blogging bragging right, but a little something I’d like to call COMMON SENSE.

    When I spoke further with one of the people who said one of the comments above, he said:

    …I personally can?t stand it when people do not respond to me…

    Dude, I feel the same way. That is why I try (keyword: try) to do something different.

    I really think it’s a priority thing, and that’s okay. Some people have way more to worry about than blogging or responding. Maybe I’m lucky that I just have a full time job, a family, friends, and some side projects and nothing too crazy going on. But in all honesty, the people who read, comment and respond to things on my blog – you guys rock my world and I try (unsuccessfully at times) to not be just another virtual person…

    As ridiculously cheesy as it sounds, I love our relationships and our interaction. It really is very important to me. I know I feel valued when someone replies back to a comment I’ve made or an email I’ve sent.

    So – what do you think? Are you “shocked” when someone responds to something you’ve said on a blog or on email? Do you expect it?

  • encouraging creator

    the test gods say i am an “encouraging creator”

    Evidently I am more masculine though, than feminine, which I am sure those who know me well will entirely disagree with…especially the lady who waxed my eyebrows yesterday. also speaking out against that would be my addictions to lipstick, shopping, and dark chocolate.

    to read more about my results, go here.

    What about You?

  • envelopeaphobia

    today, as i do around the first part of every month, i send out invoices to my freelance clients. licking envelopes is not part of my daily routine. and every time i do lick one, i think of the seinfeld episode, “the invitations,” where susan dies from licking all those cheap envelopes.

    Doctor: Excuse me , Are you the husband?

    George: Well , not yet.. Fianc?.

    Doctor: Well , I’m sorry…..She’s gone.

    George: ………What’s that?…

    Doctor: She expired.

    George: …Are you sure?

    Doctor: Yes , of course.

    George: So…..She’s dead?

    Doctor: Yes

    George: …Huh!

    Doctor: Let me ask you ; Had she been exposed to any kind of inexpensive glue?

    George: …Why?

    Doctor: We found traces of a certain toxic adhesive commonly found in very low priced envelopes.

    George: Well she was sending out our wedding invitations.

    Doctor: That’s probably what did it.

    George: We were expecting about two hundred people…Well…Thank you , thank you.

    every time…

  • Thank You!

    Thank you all for your hard work yesterday blitzing the internet! I think technorati picked up most of the blog reactions: ALMOST 200! That is amazing. That is mindblowing. Almost 200 reactions in 24 hours. Wow. I cannot thank you enough! I could not possibly mention every single person/organization who shared the cure by blogging or emailing but I thought I’d post a couple of things I weren’t expecting!

    Check out the Technorati blog reactions here & click on a few of them to get to know some other awesome bloggers!

    1) At 6:30 yesterday morning, I noticed in my Google Reader that FriendlyAtheist.com had posted it. At first, I was honestly a little freaked out. I love Hemant’s candor & honesty and there have been many, many times he has made me think about the way I think. Anyway, knowing he is as honest as he is…I opened up the link and was floored by his graciousness to help. I guess they don’t call him friendly for nothing! Thanks, Hemant!

    Read Hemant’s post about the survey here.

    2) ChurchMarketingSucks.com posted an interview. It’s not that I wasn’t expecting it, but I appreciate the fact they were concerned about the affect Mad Church Disease would have on potlucks.

    Read the CMS interview here.

    3) I got an IM from RagamuffinSoul asking me for a hi-res copy of my cover. Interspersed with “hahaha” and “Muahahahah” and “Just trust me” I sent him the cover. What was produced was nothing short of a work of art. You can watch it below.

    At this point, I have about 500 survey responses…so…give or take 10%. If you haven’t posted or emailed or taken a survey…please help spread the love. 5000 is looking like a pretty big number…but 500 responses in one day is AWESOME and couldn’t have been done without you!

  • FIGHT MAD CHURCH DISEASE!

    It’s here……….
    MadChurchDisease.com     is live!

    How can you help fight Mad Church Disease?

    1. Take a survey here.

    2. Email all your friends, your staff, your small group, the people you volunteer with, and have them take the survey.

    3. Fight by spreading the CURE! Post a link to the survey on your blog, and keep an image link in your sidebar (images here)

    I can’t WAIT to see how God uses this! Thank you for all your support and prayers over the past week! I am so lucky to have such awesome friends (even if you do just lurk and I have no idea who you are…you still rock, baby!)

    A special thank you to the group of about 100 people who signed up to be “Trailblazers” — these people tested the site, promised to post content today, committed to emailing over 4000 people combined, and are from over 25 states and six countries! Words can’t express how grateful I am!

    So, let me know – How did you help fight?

  • the BEST three minutes you will spend today

    I never post videos. I really never watch them. But Chris made me do this. Follow the instructions of this experiment. Nothing will jump out at you and scare you. This is just freaking unbelievable.

    [HT: FriendlyAtheist]

  • a new chapter

    i was looking back through my old leadership summit notes from two years ago and came across something i had written about my “holy discontent.” it was shortly after day one of the leadership summit in august of 2005. reading this now, knowing that the last two years have been full of healing, learning, getting my butt kicked (deservedly so), tons and tons and tons of grace, second chances, and small but difficult attempts at obedience…it is really cool to see how god has taken something that has been on my heart for most of my life, reignited my passion for it, and is now allowing me the opportunity to move forward with it.

    feeling completely unworthy, yet inexplicably grateful.

    August 11, 2005

    Asking myself…

    What is it that stirs a holy discontent in me?

    In each of us something stirs our hearts and souls – a holy discontent. When something just isn’t right and it begins to drive us to some sort of impassioned craziness if we don’t do something about it. Many times we try and shut it off or run from it, but we should be feeding it. If it breaks our hearts, it must be breaking God’s as well – so he’ll look all across the earth to find us and choose us to be his tool to bring healing to whatever that discontent is in.

    Biblical reference – Moses seeing his people being beaten, then fighting each other. (Exodus 2) – God calling him to lead them out (Exodus 3)

    At lunch, our pastor asked the people at our table, about 5 of us, what our holy discontent is. For once I knew exactly my answer (that never happens.)

    Honestly at first I hesitated saying it. I don’t know why. I thought if I gave some canned answer I would “typically” give about equipping artists or engaging them in community (which I do feel strongly about)…I could just medicate it…one more time. But I couldn’t. I had to say it. And I am so glad I did.

    My Holy Discontent is seeing broken and struggling churches, seeing those churches not getting help they need, and instead being beaten by the progressive and overextended church culture pressures that surround them. I see and weep for the effect that it has on church pastors and leaders and their families…knowing also the impact this has on the community around it – the people who are searching…..

    I love my job. I love doing communications stuff. But that doesn’t keep me up at night. That doesn’t brew around in my head at 3am. THIS DOES.

    I realized how much of this is tied to my past. In my comment at lunch, I said that this stirring was a new thing, within the last month – but as I reflect, it has been there for years. At a meeting, I saw members of my dad’s church attacking him and another one of our pastors. It burned a hole so deep inside and so quickly…After leaving, I climbed on the fire escape in the back of the building and wrote a letter to God that I still have today – pouring out my questions and asking for understanding of why we are so flawed – why so unjust to those who we are tied together with – bound and yoked to – as the body of Christ.

    I never went back to that church. The next week, my dad and the other pastor resigned. Every time I would try to go to church, as soon as I saw the way they treated the leaders, or the way the leaders would lie or misuse trust, I would run.

    I couldn’t stand the way that my heart was breaking. After having my heart broken one last time by a youth pastor I looked up to so much – I said forget it, and didn’t go back to church for almost 6 years.

    Now this pain I’ve been feeling – this, “Dark Night of the Soul” as my friend James put it once, and Hybels reiterated today – I know what it is.

    I have no idea what to do about it.

    I want to help these pastors, these churches – but who am I? A 25 year old girl with too many emotions, weaknesses, frailties…trying to understand and enter the world of a 45 year old man?

    I have no idea what to do.

    I just know I must.

    The adventure began 18 years ago when I hid in a closet so I could spy on my dad’s deacon’s meetings. But tomorrow, we enter into a whole new chapter. Thank you for your prayers & your support. I can’t wait!

  • another sign leaves me speechless

    (ht: friendly atheist)

  • weekend thought…prayers

    Ok, so by now you’re probably sick of this whole Mad Church thing…sorry. As my dear friend Andrew will tell you, it has been consuming every waking moment I have to get this site up and running correctly by July 2! They have been most tolerant of me and my “excuse me, I have take this call/email/whatever from my ‘database guy’” escapes from our outing tonight.

    Anyway, this weekend I have about 50 people testing the three surveys and they are all really complicated surveys as far as database stuff is concerned. A few prayer requests…

    -Please pray we can work through the errors we get and that this will be ready to go with no problems on Monday! Some are going through great but for some reason, others aren’t.

    -My database guy is working tirelessly on this so he needs your prayers too. It keeps storming here so that has also been affecting connectivity.

    -Please pray for the healing that will come from this book and for those who will take the surveys.

    Other than that, I appreciate your feedback and support! I am going to take a blogging break this weekend to rest and organize some things. I hope you all have a lovely weekend and I know your prayers will cover and protect this project!