Start With A Yes

“Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them.” (Robert Jarvik)

Today I want you to think like a comedian and grab the microphone. The most basic rule and premise of creating comedy (which makes for strong leadership skills) is agreement. Radical agreement.

When you're improvising on the fly, this means you are required to agree with whatever your partner has created and thrown out there. Always agree with a Yes.

When two performers agree in the moment, the scene moves forward. To create a Holy Shift, your default must be to start with a Yes.

When you start with a Yes, you will generate ideas faster and more efficiently. Yes-thinking helps you pivot out of tight and uncomfortable spaces at church by creating agreement and a shared path forward.

“No” grinds invention, innovation, and forward-movement to a screeching halt. Pressing into the Yes reminds you to respect what your partner has created and to start from an open-minded place. The fun is found on the other side of Yes.

I am the founding pastor of Life Church Michigan which serves the Great Lakes Bay Region of the High Five State. Launched on St. Patrick’s Day in 2013, we are one church in two locations growing faster than water on mogwai. I get asked all the time why our church is growing so fast when we started with absolutely no people and no money. The answer is simple: I believe deep down in my core that Christ followers are given the mission by God to reach the lost at any cost.

Because of that passion, I am willing to do whatever it takes to reach people who normally will not darken a church door. As goes the leader, so goes the church. If you want your people to be fired up about reaching out and making heaven crowded, look in the mirror, because it starts with you!

Excerpt from Holy Shift: Laugh Your Mass Off and Quickly Reach More People Far From God

Midland Comic-Con Craze

Comic Con Craze: Midland Mall hosts largest Comic Con yet, drawing an estimated 9,000 to 10,000

5th annual event took place March 7-9

By Max Milne,Community News Editor

Parking lots surrounding Midland Mall were packed over the weekend as cosplayers, creators, and collectors from all walks of life gathered for the fifth annual Midland Mall Comic Con, held March 7-9.

With the addition of a third day this year, Midland Mall declared 2025 the largest Comic Con it has hosted so far.

"I’m happy for the big turnout of Comic Con this year," said mall owner Jordan Dice, who estimated a total of 9,000 to 10,000 attendees over the three days. "It was a lot for the mall to take on internally, but as a team we did it, putting on the largest Comic Con event that has happened here.” 

In a social media post on Saturday, the mall said, "We NEED a bigger parking lot."

"We had people parking in the Meijer lot and walking over (on Saturday)," said Beccah Billmeier, operations manager for Midland Mall. "We estimate that we had over 7,000 people just through (Saturday)."

This year marks the first year that Midland Mall itself has organized Comic Con, after deciding to part ways with the former organizers. The mall received help from 35 volunteers through Life Church in Saginaw. Life Church Pastor and founding member of the Midland Mall Comic Con, Jonathan Herron, led the event volunteers.

"Because the event has grown so much, you need a solid team of volunteers," Herron said. "Back in 2020, when we started (Comic Con), we only needed a handful of volunteers - now we have people handling crowd control, helping with contests and activities." 

Although the mall was equipped to handle security, Billmeier stated no incidents had been reported as of Saturday night. She believes security was not an issue in part due to the event schedule the mall had in place.

"There was so much going on that people didn't have time to be bored," she said. 

In addition to more than 130 vendors, visitors could participate in or watch multiple cosplay contests, gaming tournaments, and other activities throughout the weekend. Vacant store spaces, including the BatCave and the old Men's Warehouse store, were opened to accommodate more vendors.

Stores throughout the mall, as well as food court tenants, reported record sales on Saturday. Some event vendors even sold out of products.

"I am so happy that Sarah (Thomas, Midland Mall event coordinator) invited me this year," said vendor Heidi Abbey, owner of Simple Treasures Handmade Crafts. "I've done the Midland Antique Festival for about 10 years now, but this is my first time doing Comic Con. I'm doing really well and meeting and making a lot of new friends with the other vendors and customers."

Other businesses, like Kakes the Great Popcorn Co. — another first-time vendor — were embracing the Comic Con culture.

"We're sort of new to the area and very new to (Comic Con)," said Kaylynn Martin, owner of Kakes. "It's a great treat to take pictures of the people all dressed up that walk by."

Cosplayers had plenty of photo opportunities and contests to participate in at Comic Con. There was a Kids Cosplay Contest on Friday, a Fursuit Contest on Saturday, and Individual and Group Cosplay Contests as well as Cosplay Parades on both Saturday and Sunday.

Additionally, cosplay panels were held on Saturday, including Ladies of Cosplay and The World of Competitive Cosplay.

"A lot of people said they didn't know what to expect - being that we are a mall - but that they were blown away and are already excited for next year," Billmeier said. "We didn't quite know what to expect because this year is our first year taking it over, but it has surpassed all of our expectations and then some."

The Midland Mall intends to make the Comic Con bigger and better next year, but has not yet announced the dates.

What to Say to New Guests

Every get dry mouth or nervous when faced with a new guest in the lobby? Print this out and keep it handy in your pocket or wallet. This is what we use at Life Church:

Culture Eats Strategy For Breakfast

3 Simple Tips that Create Momentum in Winning Organizations

Leadership Tune-Up

Sermon on the Beach

This past weekend I was away on a vacation with my wife in the Bahamas — it was awesome! Since I would be missing a Sunday morning at Life Church, I had already set up a guest speaker to speak in my absence. However, two days before speaking, my guest speaker had to pull out due to health problems. Suddenly I was without a speaker and Sunday was coming!

I improvised and filmed an entirely new message on the beaches of Paradise Island in the Bahamas. I was able to pull this off because of three things I had going for me:

1. An amazing shooting location

2. Technology for filming and uploading

3. Knowledge of the Scriptures

LOCATION: Obviously the outdoors were working in my favor since we were in a tropical paradise. It was easy and simple to find quiet areas on the resort where we could film segments. From the ocean shore to a rocky enclave, we worked within the environment we were placed in (by “we” I mean my wife and I).

TECHNOLOGY: Thankfully I had remembered to pack my iPhone 14 to film on along with a Wireless Lavalier Microphone. My iPhone offered HD quality video recording on location. Because it had noise cancellation embedded in the mic, I was able to stand along the ocean’s edge with the shoreline roaring yet my voice being able to be heard clearly and crisply. Because it was wireless, this also allowed me to move around on-screen and not be stuck in one position. My iPhone had preloaded video-editing software so that I could re-order the filmed segments and add a few little graphics. Thanks to Dropbox, I uploaded the edited film on Saturday afternoon and a volunteer at Life Church downloaded the finished product, dropping it into ProPresenter for Sunday.

KNOWLEDGE: Being a student of Scripture paid off as I improvised 14 minutes of live teaching at several locations for the filming. We need to always get into the Word so that the Word can get into us. 1 Peter 3:15 says to always be prepared to share the hope that you have. Because we are currently working our way through the Book of Mark, I was able to dissect chapter 9 and keep up with the calendar structure.

---

I love inspiring and pouring into church leaders!

That's why I formed the Fearless Leadership Network.

Discover how you can go further, faster in 2025.

Life Church hosts Midland Comic-Con this March

Here’s something you don’t hear everyday: a church hosting a comic-con! Turns out the event we founded in 2020 has grown to become the state’s largest free comic-con. We’re proud to be part of this event and can’t wait to see it all unfold this March…

---

Midland Mall Comic Con Adds Kids' Night, Expands Cosplay Events

Originally published in the Midland Daily News on February 3, 2025.

Article by Dominic Sevilla.

Pick up your cape from the dry cleaners, start preparing your cosplays, and get your Pokemon cards ready to trade at the March 7-9 Midland Mall Comic-Con.

Midland Mall Event Coordinator Sarah Thomas is looking forward to this year’s event.

"One of the things we really wanted to concentrate on this year was making it a real Comic-Con," Thomas said. "So when you walk in, you see everything you would see at a Comic-Con—comic collectors, toy collectors, cosplay accessories. You name it, we've got it this year."

The Midland Mall Comic-Con is now being run directly by mall staff, with volunteers and event staff provided by Life Church Midland after a change in event organization in 2024. 

Life Church Lead Pastor Jonathan Herron and Thomas said the emphasis this year is on being a family-friendly event, with the introduction of Kids' Night on Friday, March 7.

"What I'm really looking forward to is Kids' Night on Friday," Herron said. "We have a lot of local businesses coming together to provide a free, fun, family event with contests, games, inflatables, lightsaber-making, and all kinds of stuff."

"The other thing we really concentrated on this year was making it family-friendly," Thomas said. "I have four children, and everywhere we go, it is ridiculously expensive. One thing we really wanted to do was make it so families could come in, not pay a ridiculous amount, and have a good time. This year, we put a lot of emphasis on Kids' Night, and there are tons of businesses that stepped up to do activities for kids for free."

Families and kids can expect to see the following at Kids' Night:

• Wand making

• Face painting

• Lightsaber making

• Free Pokémon cards

• Make-a-superhero-mask station

• Make-a-superhero-cape station

• Temporary tattoos

Additionally, there will be a free show on Saturday for kids on the main stage, presented by Neverland Entertainment, along with a free kids' cosplay contest to help introduce them to the world of cosplay.

Speaking of cosplay, Thomas and Herron said they hope to make this event feel like a full Comic-Con experience by offering different cosplay contests, cosplay vendors, and more.

"There are five cosplay contests over the course of the weekend," Herron said. "It's really exciting that we've been able to expand to categories like group, furry, and things like that."

Other vendors will be on-site selling items, such as:

• Chainwear

• Furry costumes and accessories

• Jewelry

• 3D toys/gadgets, dice towers, helmets, and resin figures

• Original work from artists and authors

• Cosplay designs

• Lego

• Tabletop games

• Pokémon, Tamagotchi, Splatoon, and Ghibli items

• Handmade horror, paranormal, true crime, and pop culture vinyl decal stickers

• Potion bottles themed around Harry Potter and Greek gods and goddesses

• Pins, stickers, and posters

• Hand-painted dragons

• Plushies

• Oddities

• Knives and swords

• Anime merch

"I'm a voracious collector of Funko Pops," Herron said. "I'm definitely in the community of loving pop culture. What I think it means to us (at Life Church) is that we get to serve with no agenda. That's been our heartbeat the whole time. It helps that I'm a bit of a nerd myself, and my son is excited about Pokémon cards being exchanged. It's kind of bringing all of these passions together."

More information and a full schedule can be found on the Midland Mall Comic Con Facebook page.

It's Time to Go Offense

Stop playing defense; offense is so much more fun.

There's for sure different seasons of your life. Sometimes we play offense... sometimes, we have to play defense. But if you played for too long… you're just letting life happen to you. You're not pursuing.

Are you making things happen or letting things happen? It’s time to become Fully Alive in 2025!

Here’s 5 simple ways to switch to offense:

1. Wake up ready

-How you wake up will set the tone of your whole day.

-If you lay in bed and hit snooze you'll be doing that all day.

-Get up with urgency and excitement!! You've got stuff to do!

2. Use the HALT method

-You're not playing offense if you're: Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired (HALT)

-Sometimes you're playing defense because you're just trying to catch up.

Stay on top of your meals, take a sec to cool off if you need, get in community, and get good rest. Otherwise you don't have a shot.

3. Perfect your to-do list

-Your to-do list doesn't have to be perfect... but perfect your method!

-Is it best on your notes app? Written in a journal? Morning of? Night before?

Find out what works for you to be most productive, and stay on it! there's nothing better than checking things off...

4. Know your weaknesses

-We all have stuff that sets us back.

-Make a plan to attack those things, and try to predict when they'll come for you.

Maybe you need to set a reminder on your phone, tell a friend to let you know when you're acting some type of way, or set boundaries. just don't ignore it!

5. Stay focused on the present

-The past is just the past and the future isn't here yet,

-What's most important is what's right in front of you.

When you worry about tomorrow or overthink about yesterday, you're wasting the most valuable thing you have... the present!