John Cade

You know - I don’t usually offer my opinion on something when it really bothers me. I’ll share it with those that are really close to me, but I don’t like causing drama. I’m a drama diffuser. Drama is obnoxious, but it happens. And I don’t want to support the cause. Therefore, I often keep my ill-willed thoughts and feelings close to home. Sometimes it’s because I know it’s not right of me to feel the way I do, and other times it’s because speaking up isn’t worth the backlash it will garner from the people around me.

However, there is something that does really bother me. And it bothers me enough for me to tell you. It’s when people are extremely passive aggressive. We all act this way from time to time - but it’s when it becomes consistent that it bothers me most. It’s comparable to using Facebook to ‘be friends’. You’re not really friends just because you know one another on Facebook. Being passive aggressive is extremely similar in that just because you left a rude note about not leaving the toilet seat down for the ladies, it doesn’t mean you are communicating. It just means you left a rude note. Come talk to me and we’ll hash it out. That seems like the mature thing to do.

Oddly, I have no real reason for writing this post at this time (if I did, wouldn’t THAT  be passive aggressive?) - other than that I came across passiveaggressivenotes.com. It’s hilarious. It’s a collection of images of passive aggressive notes that people have written, and it includes commentary for each post. Just another useless, yet entertaining website to keep you busy, and an excuse for me to rant and be negative because I dont’ get those feelings out often enough.

On May17 at 4 p.m., I became a married man.

Meredith Herrmann (now CADE!) and I were married at St. George’s Episcopal Church in Belle Meade, an extremely nice area of Nashville, Tennessee. Episcopal weddings (and services, for that matter) are rich in tradition, and therefore are a bit longer than most weddings. However, with tradition comes meaningful rituals. And with meaningful rituals comes a side of faith that many of us protestants never get to be a part of - at least not in the same way. Liturgical services have much history and reasoning behind what takes place during them, and you can learn a great deal from talking to a priest (in my case, Meredith’s father) about them. Ever since I started dating Meredith, my faith has been challenged and incredibly strengthened as a result of finding new ways to worship God. It sounds odd in today’s average church; ‘reverting’ to old ways to learn new things. But it’s something that many of them should try.

The reception was at War Memorial Plaza on 6th Street in downtown Nashville. The venue was perfect; elegant and relaxing. Just big enough for a medium sized wedding like ours.

I’ve mentioned Meredith several times on my blog before, but I haven’t really gone into detail about what makes her so unique to me. It all starts with how…right she is. All of the time. SERIOUSLY! The whole ‘better half’ thing is TRUE. See guys, right now, you’re just the worst half (unless you aren’t meant to be married, of course) and have nothing to redeem yourself. For those of you that are meant to be married, calling your wife the ‘better’ half is an understatement. Because, as guys, we know we aren’t good to begin with. So it’s not just relative. She is great; you are not. Ha… But in all seriousness, Meredith is the cutest, most supportive, loving, beautiful, God loving woman I’ve ever met. There’s no one else like her! She compliments my procrastinating, naive way of life like no one else could. And that’s not a joke.

Getting married is fun. But the process of getting married is hard work! And I don’t mean planning a wedding, though that is extremely difficult as well. I’m more or less referring to the details behind, say, moving in together. I didn’t realize I would have to stand behind the sink for nearly an hour to wash all of the new dishes, silverware, coffee and tea potts, cutting boards and steak knives that we received as gifts. But I did. Cutting the cabinet liners to be a perfect fit for the dishes to sit on was tedious as well. I think you get the point. There’s a million details you don’t think about. That’s part of the fun though…the surprises of what it takes to get settled. Our house is still cluttered with empty boxes, out of place decorations, and makeshift furniture. It’ll be weeks before this place starts to look like a home. But ‘nesting’, as they call it, is one of the most fun aspects about getting married - at least to this point - 9 days in.

As with any relationship, part of getting married is taking on some baggage that your partner may have. Most people say baggage in the symbolic sense; in my case, however, I’m referring to the 8 huge plastic bins that are filled with every memory possible from the time she was born until we got married. I mean really - won’t you just remember the important stuff? That’s one of the things that makes Meredith so great though. She is very sentimental. It gives me quite a tough job (providing her with opportunities to be sentimental). But in reality you can never collect too many things that ‘take you back’. Nostalgia is a beautiful thing. And it’s something we’ll never be short on.

We went to Banff, Alberta and Calgary, Alberta (Canada, for those of you who are geographically challenged) for our honeymoon. We didn’t want to do the beach thing. Our take on it was that the beach is always an option on some level; splurging to go to the Canadian Rockies for 7 days is not! Fortunately we paid for all of it in cash, even after staying at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel. I’m pretty proud of us for that. There are plenty of financial obligations that need our attention, and creating another one was not on our list of fun things to do.

Thanks to everyone who came to the wedding and/or reception. It was a great time! I hope everyone got acclimated to the New Orleans second line - it went off without a hitch, and was one of my favorite parts of the night. We are also extremely thankful for all of the prayers, time, encouragement, and gifts that were given to us.

Well, I’m off to curl up with my wife in bed and get a little rest before going back to work tomorrow.

For the first time in my life, I’ve won a design contest!  Granted, the last one I entered was probably when I was 13 years old.  The design itself is pretty simple.  However, I feel like I captured the Bonnaroo feel pretty well.  Here it is!

That’s right - we are now on Twitter!  Follow us!

I had an interesting conversation today about the online strategy for the student ministry at LifeWay. Though it was merely the first of many conversations to come about developing this strategy, we established something extremely important: We have to be more social.

It doesn’t seem groundbreaking to say this in 2008, but as with any company the size of LifeWay (2000+ employees), things don’t/can’t move as fast as they do in smaller firms. Not to mention, my position has been vacant for quite some time now, so the content of the site has been managed by a few different people over the last several months. They have done an excellent job, but this situation likely caused a disconnect between LifeWay and the end user. Which brings up yet another point that we discussed: We have to build relationships.

Being social and building relationships are not the same thing; one is a result of the other. Anyone can attend a gathering, talk to people, get a few business cards and go home. It’s what they do with the information they have received after the gathering that matters. By creating an online presence that allows people to be on the same level as us, we are being social. It’s the follow-up interaction that builds relationships.

LifeWay is the largest producer of Christian media in the world. Using social media outlets and producing new media will garner a lot of attention from our audience (many areas of LifeWay are already doing this). I hope for the student ministry specifically that it will be a leap forward in creating a more comfortable arena for our potential customers to start a conversation with us - to ask questions, and say “Hey, John - We don’t feel like you are accomplishing X - can you take care of this?”. This brings up one of the most important challenges regarding our position in the marketplace that we discussed today: People think of the corporation, not the people inside of the corporation.

How does a company our size make the potential customer feel like they are face-to-face with us? How do we overcome any preconceived notions they have about dealing with a company that is so big? How do we convey that we are a ministry-based-business, not just another company trying to make a buck off of them?

These questions can only be answered through a process of trial and error - at least in relationship to our online presence. There is no right answer to overcoming relational obstacles like this. However, with intelligent risk taking and the use of new media, we can attempt to break any barriers that currently exist.

And that, my friends, is the essence of what I have walked in to as one of the newest employees of LifeWay. I will attempt to transform the online presence of the student ministry into something that lets our customers know this:

We want to know you; We want you to know us.

Where do we start?

I’m John. If you’re on the StudentZIP mailing list, you’ll be receiving newsletters from me weekly. I’ll be responsible for providing student leaders with the tools and information they need through our student site on LifeWay.com. If there’s anything I can do for you, or if you have suggestions about what online resources would benefit you the most, please let me know. You can reach me my emailing john.cade@lifeway.com. I promise, I will respond to every email I receive as fast as I can. Don’t hesitate, please. I’d love to hear from you.