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Mr. Michael Keesee: A Look Into Project Management
Author: David Markopoulos | Living Education
These summaries are written to give our audience an idea of the special forum messages our students have access to as part of the Living Education-Charlotte program.
Mr. Michael Keesee is a Project Manager serving in the IT department at the Charlotte headquarters office. In a recent forum to the Living Education-Charlotte students, Mr. Keesee shared some of his background in the project management field, as well as important principles that you can use in your own life.
The Profession of Making Things Happen
Put simply, project management is the process of overseeing and managing projects. Mr. Keesee described project management as the profession of making things happen. This is a basic principle that can reorient a professional tool into a method for approaching things in our own lives.
We use project management on some level every day. Whenever you make a to-do list, create a system for yourself, or take on a task, you’re managing a project. Sometimes the ideas you or I have can be broad, nebulous, and hard to apply to reality – the skills project managers bring to the table helps turn visions into fruition.
Why Make a Project?
There are plenty of instances where you might undertake a project. Whether you’re in school, a career, or being given a particular responsibility in some other area, at some point you’ll likely find yourself being given a major project to accomplish.
Some important first steps would be:
- Find out who the experts are in what you’re trying to do and get their input.
- Meet together.
- Determine constraints such as time, money, and manpower.
- Narrow the scope of the project as needed. What might contribute to or hinder your success?
- Anticipate potential roadblocks.
- Create a timeline for the completion of the project.
- Build your team.
It’s important to build strong bonds of cohesiveness within your team, and to delegate when possible. Being able to share ideas and work well with people is an important trait of an effective project manager.
Family Weekend Games
Mr. Keesee shared anecdotes from many years of helping to organize winter Family Weekend games. When organizing a Church activity, it’s important to ask:
- How can we facilitate building bonds of brotherhood in the Church?
- How can we include everybody?
By applying the steps from the previous point and applying them to these specific questions, it’s easier to keep the big picture in mind, especially with Church activities. An effective Church activity should foster bonds of brotherhood and honor God. Mr. Keesee stated that although he hadn’t expected to help out in this capacity, he has grown to enjoy coming up with ideas for these games, and his experience in project management has helped simplify the process of organizing them.
Lessons From Project Management
Mr. Keesee’s past experience in software development has helped him adapt to his role in IT at headquarters, and like him, we all have opportunities in life to take responsibility for different projects. A project manager is someone who takes a vision and is able to make it happen by using the tools at their disposal, and especially by working well with people. The application of these principles is not merely for working professionals, but can be applied to all areas of life.
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David Markopoulos is a Living Education alumnus from the 2023-2025 school years. Originally hailing from Chicago, he currently works for the Living Education program.
Field Trip: Winter Kick-Off Weekend
Author: David Markopoulos | Living Education
The Spring semester is now in full swing, and this year’s Living Education-Charlotte students are hard at work with their studies. This semester began with a special kick-off weekend in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina. After regrouping from winter break, the students, accompanied by director Jonathan McNair, his family, and other staff, traveled to a beautifully-situated rental home in the Smoky Mountains.
Lasting from Thursday to Sunday, the itinerary included a pleasant balance between fun activities and relaxation time. On Friday morning, the students enjoyed snow tubing for several hours before returning to the house just in time for a lively game of Bible Jeopardy. As we entered the Sabbath, we enjoyed a Sabbath brunch before Mr. Jonathan McNair led the students in a Bible Study. After sunset, the students were divided into two teams captained by the men’s and women’s RAs. Their objective: work together to create honey taffy. While messes were made, each team enjoyed the delicious fruits of their work, and as we headed for home on Sunday morning, the students were rejuvenated, enthusiastic, and ready to take on the remainder of this new semester.
David Markopoulos is a Living Education alumnus from the 2023-2025 school years. Originally hailing from Chicago, he currently works for the Living Education program.
Mr. Jonathan McNair: How to Use Powerpoint
Author: David Markopoulos | Living Education
These summaries are written to give our audience an idea of the special forum messages our students have access to as part of the Living Education-Charlotte program.
In a recent forum to the Living Education-Charlotte students, Mr. Jonathan McNair shared key principles of using Powerpoint for effective presentations. These steps can lead to an elevated, more professional presentation that reflects a higher quality of design.
Death by Powerpoint
It’s easy for a good presentation to be sidetracked by too many details. The colors, graphics, images, and transitions you apply to your presentation can either add to or detract from your presentation. It’s important to keep basic design principles in mind, avoiding overly complex or visually overstimulating elements that distract the audience.
The Basics
Mr. McNair offered a few basic points for the students in their presentations:
1. Create your content first and think about your slides last.
2. Create a consistent look and feel
3. With text, less is more
4. Use photos that enhance meaning
When it comes to the more technical elements of Powerpoint, Mr. McNair reminded the students that it’s important to:
- Use effects and transitions sparingly
- Direct the audience’s attention in images
- Don’t use autoplay when embedding videos
- Use handy QR codes to share your slides for the audience to follow along as you go
- Reproduce simple charts and graphs
Powerpoint presentations can be powerful tools that can aid in your presentation, and chances are that we all will need to use it at some point in school, our careers, or other areas. Having a firm grasp of basic design principles and knowing how to create smooth, professional presentations is a step to being a more skilled communicator.
David Markopoulos is a Living Education alumnus from the 2023-2025 school years. Originally hailing from Chicago, he currently works for the Living Education program.
Field Trip: NASCAR Hall of Fame
Author: Katelyn Wissinger| Student, Living Education – Charlotte, 2025-26
On December 7, the Living Education students toured the NASCAR Hall of Fame museum in Charlotte, NC, where they learned more about racing cars and enjoyed time together. The exhibits they walked through explained the history of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing from its inception to its current state. Life-sized models of the cars and samples of the track surfaces were on display. A racing simulator and pit stop simulator provided an opportunity for friendly competition, as the students got a feel for what stock car racing involves. All the attendees came back from the trip having learned something and made new memories.
Mr. John Robinson: Being the Managing Editor
Author: David Markopoulos | Living Education
These summaries are written to give our audience an idea of the special forum messages our students have access to as part of the Living Education-Charlotte program.
Mr. John Robinson is the Managing Editor for the Living Church of God. In a recent forum message to the Living Education-Charlotte students, Mr. Robinson shared some of his experiences working in the print media industry, as well as some aspects of the Managing Editor’s job.
Experiences Are For a Reason
Mr. Robinson has a long background in print and publishing. He related to the students that many of the experiences, skills, and knowledge he gained as part of this career were not always directly applicable to his then-job. As time went on, he wondered why he would have certain experiences in life. It was 12 years ago that the job offer was posted for the Managing Editor for the Church—and the description matched him perfectly.
Since then, it became clear to Mr. Robinson that the experiences he was given earlier in life were meant to suit him in the role God gave him later. This was an important lesson Mr. Robinson stressed to the students—while you may not always understand why you’re experiencing something, God is working out all things for good (Romans 8:28). The experiences and skills you gain now may come into play later on in ways you never imagined.
Principles of Design
One major aspect of Mr. Robinson’s job involves design. In his words, design is organizing information. This goes further than organizing visual elements in an aesthetic way, but also includes assessing the purpose of the design, accounting for every detail that goes into the creative process, and eliminating mental clutter.
One challenge designers face is the fact that the human brain is always looking for a reason to stop reading. As a result, the layout process for the Church’s print media must be completed with care and deliberate intent. Mr. Robinson spoke in detail about the intentionality behind the design elements the Church uses. Everything—the fonts used, the sizes, the colors, even the amount of words in a line—serves a purpose, and is designed to make the reading experience as easy on the reader as possible, while also retaining the core intent of the original author’s vision. Mr. Robinson is a large part of this process, overseeing the layout, versioning, and editing of print media, from the Tomorrow’s World/Living Church News magazines to the booklets.
Design in Your Life
Mr. Robinson’s previous career in print and publishing led him to be a qualified and valuable asset to the editorial process in the Church. Just as the experiences that helped him reach that point did not always make sense, sometimes the things we experience in our day-to-day lives do not always make sense until later. The lessons we learn, skills we gain, and experiences we have may become relevant later on, and we must always have faith in God that He will be able to use those experiences for His benefit, in His timing—and it may mean you end up somewhere you never expected. Mr. Robinson stressed to the students that God is actively involved in all our lives, and is tailoring a life experience unique to all of us.
David Markopoulos is a Living Education alumnus from the 2023-2025 school years. Originally hailing from Chicago, he currently works for the Living Education program.
Dr. Richard Franz: Self Control – Don’t Give it Away
Author: David Markopoulos | Living Education
These summaries are written to give our audience an idea of the special forum messages our students have access to as part of the Living Education-Charlotte program.
Dr. Richard Franz, a pastor serving in the Midwest, took the time to address the Living Education-Charlotte students in a recent forum.
Choices We Make
Dr. Franz began by highlighting the importance of choices in our lives. It is very easy for choices we make repeatedly to become habits. That’s why it’s important for us to ensure we are choosing what God would want us to choose. One major mark of our conversion is the degree to which we are able to make informed decisions based on what God would choose. Furthermore, it’s important to realize the impact our choices have on others. What will be the legacy of your choices?
Importance of Self Control
Proverbs 4:26 states: “Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established.” This is an important reminder to be mindful of the choices we make in life. Having the discipline to make right, wise, and godly choices involves a great deal of self control.
Dr. Franz pointed out that it is the discipline of self control that enables us to benefit from God’s—and others’—wisdom, instruction, and correction. While we may want to do the right thing, it sometimes comes at the cost of other things we may want. It’s easy to hold on to our human nature, get angry, become depressed, or try to justify ourselves. It can be especially hard when others seem to be actively working against us. Even when it’s unintentional, it’s easy for us to let go of our self control and become reactive to the things people do and say—but a strong sense of self control helps us gain a handle on those impulses and make the right choices.
Choose Right
Dr. Franz pointed out the example in John 5:6 where Jesus asked a paralytic an important question: “Do you want to be made well?” So much hinges on our desire and willingness to put aside our human nature and choose to do the right thing. It involves the discipline, integrity, and self control to guard our hearts with all diligence, and strive to do the godly thing in spite of everything else.
Dr. Franz encouraged the students to reject ungodly attitudes, and to always choose right, choose to forgive, choose to give the benefit of the doubt, and to choose to live with purpose and direction. We can choose to have an internal battle, or we can choose to live proactively with the help of God’s Spirit, maintaining self control and developing strong character every day.
David Markopoulos is a Living Education alumnus from the 2023-2025 school years. Originally hailing from Chicago, he currently works for the Living Education program.
Dr. Roedolph Opperman: God’s Awesome Universe
Author: David Markopoulos | Living Education
These summaries are written to give our audience an idea of the special forum messages our students have access to as part of the Living Education-Charlotte program.
Dr. Roedolph Opperman is a lead systems engineer with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and advanced degrees in Aerospace Engineering from MIT. He has worked on the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover with NASA, and has a great deal of experience in the engineering field. In a recent forum to the Living Education-Charlotte students, Dr. Opperman talked about space travel and the beauty of God’s creation.
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To the Moon
Throughout history, 12 men have had the distinction of walking on the moon. Dr. Opperman mentioned that NASA has been planning to send people back to the moon – a notable feat of human achievement. However, it is important to keep in mind that sending humans to space is dangerous, difficult, and expensive. For the past several years, NASA’s space exploration work has occurred through the work of several smaller companies receiving funding.
Dr. Opperman worked as a fault protection engineer on the Perseverance Rover, and described his job as helping to minimize issues. The rover had to be tested repeatedly to ensure it would function properly and to account for every situation. Anyone working on the rover had to wear protective suits so as to prevent anything from going into space that wasn’t supposed to – no human DNA was supposed to travel along with the rover.
The Future
Dr. Opperman also addressed Elon Musk’s ongoing endeavors to colonize Mars. Recent rocket launches and testing of SpaceX’s propulsion systems are leading to further advancements in this area, and it is Musk’s hope to begin colonizing the stars before long.
However, Dr. Opperman pointed out that human beings are not designed for space travel. Astronauts have to undergo physical training to be prepared to enter space, and are trained for the zero-gravity environment by floating in water tanks. Space travel takes a physical toll on the human body and immune system, and the strain it causes shows how underprepared we are as a species to begin taking on the cosmos.
We can look forward to the time when our physical forms are changed into spirit, and we have the opportunity as God’s begotten children to experience creation from His perspective when that change occurs. When Jesus returns and creation is liberated, we will be able to explore the beauty of the stars without the limitations of our current technology or the dangers that threaten our physical bodies. We will have the chance to appreciate and experience the beauty of creation in a way we never have before.
David Markopoulos is a Living Education alumnus from the 2023-2025 school years. Originally hailing from Chicago, he currently works for the Living Education program.
Mr. Gerald Weston: Opportunities and Regrets
Author: David Markopoulos | Living Education
These summaries are written to give our audience an idea of the special forum messages our students have access to as part of the Living Education-Charlotte program.
Mr. Gerald Weston, the Presiding Evangelist of the Living Church of God, took the time to address the Living Education students about important life principles, pulling from his own experiences. In life, we all have opportunities and regrets, and it’s important to have a well-balanced perspective on the lessons life teaches us.
My Way
Mr. Weston referenced My Way, a famous song by Frank Sinatra. The attitude in this song is far too easy to fall into at times, and Mr. Weston reminded the students that doing things our way doesn’t always lead to positive outcomes. Instead, we should keep in mind that as we write our life story, it is ultimately God’s way that we should be following.
Early Days
Mr. Weston related some stories from his early days. Growing up in a military family from California, he found himself moving very often. From Sacramento to Utah to Alaska to England, the Westons frequently moved around.
In those days, young people coming up lived under the shadow of the bomb. The threat of nuclear war—and the onset of the Cold War itself—were sobering pressures on society that affected many young people as they entered adulthood. Similarly, each generation has unique and difficult challenges that affect them as they enter maturity.
Mr. Weston fondly related his days playing Little League baseball, and football in junior high. Baseball, football, swimming, and physical fitness were important to Mr. Weston as he grew up, and the lessons he learned from them helped frame his outlook for the rest of his life.
Value of Experience
Mr. Weston mentioned that we often don’t realize how the things we experience and learn will come into play later in life. Recognizing how our experiences have affected us and how they will become useful later on is an important skill. For example, Mr. Weston mentioned that in his youth he enjoyed fishing as a hobby—but it became a helpful skill in pastoring to better relate to and spend meaningful time with members.
Experiences and Opportunities
We all have unique experiences and opportunities in life, and Mr. Weston encouraged the students to develop positive habits now that can become useful later in life. Take the opportunities life offers, and while rejection may come, don’t let it get you down. Learn from the experiences that you have and become a positive force for good in the world. Just like the LivingEd-Charlotte students’ parents have invested in their ability to come to Headquarters to study, God is investing in all of us through the opportunities He gives us. It’s important for us to make the most of those opportunities and prove a valuable investment to God.
David Markopoulos is a Living Education alumnus from the 2023-2025 school years. Originally hailing from Chicago, he currently works for the Living Education program.