Stuff I Starred

March 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Here’s a short list of some of the stuff I favorited on Twitter, starred in Google reader or clipped into Evernote:

  • In his day, Billy Graham spent millions promoting himself and his crusades, all so people could come HEAR HIM TALK ABOUT GOD. – Donald Miller in Some Thoughts on Self Promotion
  • Jenni Catron on the difficulty of ministry and work.  
  • I am a pilgrim and a stranger on the earth, but I am not an orphan -Vance Havner
  • Barna data on what churches are seeking to improve next year.  What struck me as backwards was only 6% of churches saying they would definitely work with an organization to help increase giving” but doing so would actually help accomplish all of the other goals!
  • There are only three real job interview questions.
  • Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity. – Louis Pasteur (via @tonymccollum)
  • The average email user receives 147 email messages a day.
  • Loved this story about a church helping an atheist. We love to point out the dumb things Christians do – so it’s nice to give some love to those who get it right.
  • “When you say ‘My people won’t do that’, what you’re really saying is, “I haven’t led my people to do that’.” @kevinpenry (via @geoffsurratt)
  • Mobile purchases on smartphones and tablets are expected to grow 73% to $4.6 billion in the US this year.
  • “The Father has so much more for you than just letting you come home.” – George Moxley
  • Can you tweet your sermon’s main point? If not, keep working. – @tallywilgis
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Jazz Church

March 29, 2012 by 1 Comment

A few weekends ago, I met a church planter who loved Jazz music so much that he was actually naming his church Jazz Church. When I asked about the meaning of the name, he shared a couple of interesting things with me. According to this church planter, Jazz started in one location and spread rather quickly throughout the world.

Jazz music started in one location and has since spread throughout the world. In the early 1900s, Jazz music took shape in New Orleans, and some say it truly began when the first jazz record was produced in 1917. Regardless, over a period of a few years, an entire genre was created. This church planter saw this as a metaphor for the gospel and the expansion of the early church. Jesus stepped into a specific culture, preaching a message of grace and Kingdom, and within a few years, the entire world was changed.

Secondly, jazz is both structural and improvisational. There are only so many notes one can play. There are scales and harmony – clear systems and structure. But jazz music calls for improvisation, intentionally going away from the structure in order to produce something beautiful and unexpected. Again, this is another great metaphor for the church. We know that God is a God of order and that structure and systems help the mission of the church advance. But one can’t put the Holy Spirit in a box, and we must continually create space for new ideas and a fresh move of God.

Jazz music isn’t really my thing, but the metaphors are strong.

Filed Under: Church, Leadership Tagged With:

Do the Dishes

March 28, 2012 by 1 Comment

We have three kids, which means that we’ve utilized the services of MANY babysitters over the years. But our favorite babysitter was not only loved by the kids, she was loved by us because of one very simple thing.

She did the dishes.

After the kids were asleep and she was left to her own, she took a little time to straighten up the kitchen and load the dishes into the dishwasher. We didn’t ask her to do this – we were perfectly content with the house not burned down. But our expectations were exceeded with this simple gesture. This action showed me that she wasn’t interested in doing the least amount required but that she really cared.

And this principle is true for the church world, the business world, and relationships. One of the best ways to distinguish yourself in ANY area is to exceed expectations.

Stop doing the minimum it takes to skirt by, pass or move on. Invest a little extra and show that you care.

Filed Under: Leadership

A Simple Formula for Good Decisions

March 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment

All leaders must make decisions. And while there are nuances and determining factors that can make some decisions difficult, here’s a simple formula for making good decisions most of the time.

Information + Time = Good Decisions

Good leaders crave good information.

That’s because good information often leads to good decisions. And good information plus enough time to process often leads to the best decisions.

Leaders become great leaders because they can make the right decision with little information. And great leaders can process information in a little bit of time.

But combine information with time, and good leaders will make the best decision in most circumstances.

If you work for a leader, one of the best things you can do is give him or her the best information possible with enough time to think about it.

If you are a leader, as your team to bring you the right information in plenty of time so you can let it simmer.

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: ,

Money and Time Are Popular Excuses

March 22, 2012 by 1 Comment

One of my favorite question in the world is “what do you want to be when you grow up?” I’ve asked that questions to college students and 80-year-olds and the responses are always amazing. Some people have no clue – other people have specific plans. Some people can’t see past their unfulfilling day job – some people can’t seem to put any feet to their passion.

For most of us, the reason we aren’t doing what we want to be doing has little to do with paychecks or time. Over and over again, we somehow FIND the money to do the things we really want to do. This is why Americans spend twice as much on alcohol and cigarettes as we do on life insurance. And it’s why $4.5 billion was spent on St. Patricks Day. Money might sound like a good excuse, but that’s probably not it.

What about time? If you sleep 8 hours a night, and work 40 hours a week, you still have 4,000 hours a year to do what you want. 4,000 hours is a LOT of time to take online classes, get involved in a community group, volunteer, refinish furniture, learn a skill, develop a hobby, train for a marathon, or fill in the blank.

What if we stopped using money and time as the excuses for not being what we want to be?

Filed Under: Leadership

Churches are Like Airports

March 21, 2012 by Leave a Comment

The other day, I had the wonderful opportunity to spend six hours in the Atlanta airport. In between reading magazines and complaining about the wi-fi not being free, I jotted down a few thoughts about the similarities between churches and airports.

#1 – It’s takes a lot of people to run. Ticket takers, baggage handlers, pilots, flight attendants, food service people, and more. It takes a bunch of different people to run an airport, and it takes a bunch of different people to make a church. It’s always cool to me to see people volunteer at church.

#2 – Each area depends on the other. If the guys don’t get the bags to the plane on time, then the plane doesn’t leave on time. Each area of service depends on another to function properly. A church is a body, and all the parts are important. If your stomach gets sick, it’ pretty much affects your whole system. When the kids ministry is healthy, it feeds into student ministry. We depend on each other for health.

#3 – Customer service isn’t always what it should be. In my case, the ticket agent couldn’t help me, and I had to go on the internet to book for a lower fare. Not good. I wonder how many guests have bad first time experiences at churches…checking in their kids, finding the restrooms, knowing where to go for help, etc. I want our church to keep pressing ahead to become the most guest-friendly church people could attend.

#4 – We’ve both got insider language. Next time you fly, notice how many airline-only terms are used in the flight attendants safety speech. Why don’t they use regular words like “turn off your phone” instead of “place electronic devices in the off position”?  I don’t tell my kids to put their lights in the off position.  But churches have their own vocabulary too, and we just expect people to understand what we mean. I have no idea why they call the inside of the airplane a cabin, and I’m pretty sure people in the world are freaked out when we say washed in the blood.

#5 – Not very kid friendly. So many people travel with kids (and they usually sit right behind me), but so few airports are kid friendly. Where are the play areas? Where are parent-friendly waiting areas? Churches can be the same way…we spend so much money on adults and programs for adults, and often forget about kids. The church should spend more money on kids and teenagers than ANY other ministry.

#6 – All the smokers gather in one place. All you have to do is just walk by the open-door smoking lounge to smell like a bowling alley. In churches, they usually gather out back. And they are usually deacons.

#7 – People are always coming and going. In the airport, people are always going somwhere…same is true for churches. Sadly, there are so many church-shoppers and church-hoppers. People don’t settle down and sit still. You’ll have people leave when you talk about money.

#8 – Many systems make it easier for employees and not the customers. I saw a ton of things that were designed with airport employees in mind, forgetting about the travelers. In the same way, churches often do what is easier for the staff or key volunteers, and forget about the guests. As a leader, one question I used to ask myself is “does this just make it easier for our staff or for the people in the church.”

#9 – People aren’t always happy to be here. You don’t see a lot of joyful people in the airport…they are stressed and hurried. And sadly, there are a lot of people that aren’t smiling at church. We’ve made it boring, informational, and something you have to endure. You know what…it’s okay to have a good time a church!

#10 – The best ones have free wi-fi. I like airports with free wifi…with so many mobile devices, it’s probably something that’s helpful in church too.

Filed Under: Church Tagged With: ,

7 Questions Every Church Leader Should Ask

March 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Here are ten questions that would be perfect for a staff meeting, lead team off-site, or personal reflections.

  1. What kind of people want to come to our church?
  2. What ministries are doing well?
  3. What ministries would we not start it we were doing it all again?
  4. Who is NOT coming to our church and why?
  5. Who are we uniquely called and positioned to reach?
  6. What people are not being reached by any other church in are area?
  7. Who are the leaders and influencers in our church?
Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: ,

How to Get More Done in Less Time

March 19, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I’m not a Getting Things Done guru or an organizational genius, but over the years I’ve learned three important principles about to get things done.

  1. Prioritize. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln once remarked “one war at a time.” You’re not going to be able to accomplish everything, so you must decide what can wait. Everything isn’t important.
  2. Write it down. I use Things to record all of my tasks, never keeping tasks in my email inbox. I capture every to do in my Things INBOX, move important things to the TODAY folder and capture future, unplanned stuff in the SOMEDAY folder. I’ve found that when I write things down, it has a much better change of getting done.
  3. Plan your week then plan your day. On Sunday night or Monday morning, I take a look at the whole week. I plan the week before I plan the day. Looking at the big picture helps me not get sucked into the whole picture. Sometimes, I give each week a theme. For example, this week is about “content” because I have 3 significant content projects that need to be finished.

What system do you use for getting stuff done?

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: , , ,

Start With the End in Mind

March 14, 2012 by Leave a Comment

A while ago, USA Today conducted an interview with John Grisham’s close friend Bill Ballard, who was the second person to read A Time to Kill.

He said, “[John] analyzed how best sellers were constructed, plot development, at what time readers would be engaged, at what time they would put the book down.” Bill said, “He knows the last page of the book when he starts writing the first one.”

In other words, before John Grisham even starts writing a novel, he’s got the end in mind.  He knows the plot line, the chapter-by-chapter progression, and the exact ending on the final page.

Seeing your vision become reality requires working backwards.  You’ve got to see the end in your mind, and then work in reverse until it happens.

Don’t set out on a trip until you know where you’re going.  Write the ending first.

Filed Under: Leadership

Help for Broke Churches

March 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Joe Sangl is one of my favorite people, and one of the few people I’d want to accompany to nine different cities or crash a Pentateuch-A-Thon.  I’ll have to tell you that story soon. But for now, I want you to know Joe and his team at InJoy are putting on a FREE event in Charlotte on April 19.  You should go.

They have assembled a great  lineup of some of the nation’s best Christian leaders who will teach from their own experience how to resource highly effective ministry. Here are some of the speakers:

  • Perry Noble who has seen the amount given per person at NewSpring Church increase by $10 or more each of the last several years.
  • Bishop Walter Thomas of New Psalmist Baptist Church whose church completed a $55 million relocation during the worst economy since the Great Depression.
  • Casey Graham, Founder of GivingRocket.com and PreachingRocket.com, who has helped thousands of churches increase their weekly giving.
  • Mike Madding of The Cove Church which had over 120 people give their life to Christ during the commitment phase of their capital campaign.
  • Plus Clayton King and Joe Sangl.

Space is limited so click HERE to register your team now.

 

 

Filed Under: Church Tagged With: , ,
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