i Stepped Up [and i liked it] – part ii – The Presentation/Presentatie/Présentation

In the previous post i spoke about the process of crafting this presentation, titled ‘Lost in Translation’ that i did last night for the Outliers ‘Step Up’ evening, and here is the talk itself:

INTRO

Anyone who knows me well, knows that my default talk setting is long [51 minute wedding speech anyone?] and so short is a challenge. But i practised my talk and timed it twice on the day and both times came in at around 9 minutes, which gave me a whole minute to play with. Schweet.

[Side Note: While my wife, tbV, knew the overall vibe of what my talk was about and how it was going to go, i decided to keep this intro part secret from her so that she would have a surprise, and possibly some extra stress for a moment]

i Stepped Up [and i liked it] – part i – The Premise

My friend Heidi asked me a few weeks ago if i would be one of the presenters at an event that her organisation ‘Outliers’ was putting on called Step Up. The idea was 9 presenters each given the space for a 10 minute talk using 10 powerpoint slides with a broad theme of Education.

Not having too much – in the official sense – to do with Education since i got my Primary School Teacher’s diploma at a no-longer-existing Teacher’s Training College [about 100 years ago] i felt a little out of my depth. Seeing a name like Craig Stewart [someone i really respect and admire in the field of social justice, who helps lead the Warehouse] on the speaker’s bill made it a little more so.

for all the daters out there

so i have just posted the last [for now at least] post in the marriage series which ended up being a great 18 blog posts written by a whole bunch of my friends who are married well and passed along some really great marriage-enhancing advice and tips and wisdom. the beautiful Valerie ad myself might add some thorts of our own later but we’re about to head for Texas to visit my sister and her family…

anyways, looking at blog stats, this has been the second hugest blog visitation i have had with the largest being the series i did on dating and so i thort it would be good to repost links to some of those that were really popular in case you missed them and want to check out some insights on that area of life:

i think this was the intro blog to the series and links to future blogs…

followed by ‘i kissed dating, part Step up! [Both of you!] – for the Ladies!’ which was muchly visited and discussed and forwarded

a two parter written by the beautiful Val which is a must read as with most of what she writes…

and of course for the men – ‘i kissed dating, part Step up! [Both of you!] – for the Men?’

and then if you find any of those really helpful, there was a whole series of them that you could discover on my blogsite but just thort these would touch a different group than those who the marriage ones have been for… hope you find them helpful and if so please pass on…

i kissed dating, part Step up! [Both of you!] – for the Ladies!

Jesus-loving single ladies, this blog is for you:

i would love to hear from single Jesus-loving ladies who read this blog. This seems to be a really huge cry from Jesus-loving women out there and i really think it’s important that we address it and hear both sides. I don’t believe this is only a guy responsibility. I think there are issues on both sides of this dilemma and the best way to move forward on it is to hear from girls and guys in the situation.

Here are some of my questions for you:

* what are the main issues that you have with regards to this situation? [There are no decent guys in the church? The guys aren’t asking you out? The guys aren’t serious in relationships?] Help us define the problem.

* what do you think the girls are contributing to the issue and where do you need to take responsibility? [Do guys feel intimated by Christian girls? Are your standards too high in terms of ‘the perfect guy’? Are you approachable? Have girls been playing games so much that the guys are over it?]

* What do guys do or fail to do that exacerbates the issue?

* Are there any things that you can do to make it easier for the guys to initiate relationship/ask you out?

In case you were not yet aware of what issue we are talking about, the topic was raised when I wrote that you need to date someone who has Jesus as their number one focus. A bunch of girls responded by saying “where are these guys?” – either they don’t exist (Christ-following girls outnumber Christ-following guys in church) or else they are not asking us out.

Your comments will be most appreciated. Hopefully we can start to get to the bottom of this and at least find some ways of making things easier for both sides.

i kissed dating, part Step up! [Both of you!] – intro

i recently received an email from a friend of mine who is a girl who loves Jesus but is getting quite frustrated with the guys in her church not stepping up in the area of asking girls out [you can read the email and the responses i gave here]

after posting it, i received a pretty huge number of responses from Christian young adult women going “Yeah, step up boys!” or something like that. someone commented that mathematically there are more christian women than christian men so they’re already on the back foot.

then i read some comments that my new friend M Joshua had written at the end of his worth-reading Love Subverts blog on Christian Dating which you can read here.

and so, having dealt with this topic, i realised it needed a bit of a closer look – which i will do in my next two posts – but also that this is not just a guy thing – it’s a guy thing AND it’s a girl thing and i will look at both briefly with the hope that you will carefully look at the one that relates to you and give it some serious thort – i am also hoping that these blogs in particular will get you responding so we can hear exactly what you’re thinking and feeling and saying on the matter…

this seems to be quite a big deal, so let’s treat it like that – start by asking yourself the question: How do i as a Jesus-following guy/girl need to step up in the area of showing/receiving interest to members of the opposite sex?

you ready for this? read on…