Shai Agassi is a 40 year old wildly successful founder of Better Place, a company deep into the green energy production boom. He left a very lucrative career with software giant SAP just before they were to name him CEO to take a giant leap towards his dream. Harvard Business Review recently interviewed him. Here is an excerpt from that interview.
Yesterday we were blessed at Grace Community Church with a production crew filming for a new reality television show featuring families who raise special needs children. The Garcia family have hearts bigger than most of us can imagine. They have one child with downs syndrome, but their desire is to adopt another one. They already have the child placed on their heart and are just waiting until God provides the resources. You can read more about the Garcia’s HERE.
I was talking with a friend recently who said one of his biggest turnoffs to Christianity, before he became a believer, was a Christian who freely talked about his faith, but had the worst work ethic in the company where both of them worked.
This is a re-post from November, but it is back by request. Several people have asked me lately how I accomplish as much as I do. Here’s my plan:
If you aren’t doing so already, I want to encourage you to plan your week for efficiency. Every Monday (or Sunday night if you prefer), as the first thing you do, consider the week ahead. Follow this formula:
This morning something I already knew was reinforced. We have some of the most awesome volunteers in the world at Grace Community Church. It takes 150 or more volunteers each week to make a Sunday work. All our volunteers give selflessly to the vision of Grace from the parking lot, to working with children, to greeting and the stage crew. Their dedication each week amazes me.
Recently some friends of ours 12-year-old pug was lost in their neighborhood. The dog has numerous health problems, so they naturally assumed the worst. They were obviously upset about it and asked us to pray. Thankfully a few days later they found their pug. I wanted to share the story of how their 3-year-old son reacted to the dog’s disappearance.
The simple fact is that economies like this cause all companies (and churches) to get better, refine what they offer, or close. The organizations who survive will be stronger and better, creating real value to the economy through jobs, local investments, owner equity and long-term growth.
This clip is hilarious and shows the power of editing. Apparently John Maxwell’s okay with this.
A journalism student at Ohio University, Ty Komjati, asked to interview me for a story he was writing on the state of marriage and divorce. I decided to share my answers here:
Guess what? I don’t’ know everything. I don’t know everything about the Bible, about God, about life’s problems, about death and the afterlife, sometimes I don’t even know everything there is to know about me. (Actually that happens many times.) In fact, sometimes in my church I’m the last one to know anything. Sometimes people avoid telling me things either because they think I already know or they don’t want me to know.
This year, instead of another card that someone else wrote, I decided to make my own Happy Mother’s Day tribute. My mother is one of the greatest women I know. I am blessed to have her for a mother. She is the picture of a Proverbs 31 woman. She is strong, hard working, loving, and kind. Here are 20 random things I love about my Momma:
Twitter works well for me because it allows me to express my thoughts as they occur, which are also why they appear so random at times. Extroverts need to understand that even though an Introvert may not say anything, it doesn’t mean they don’t have anything to say. When I have a thought, I can quickly express it in a 140 characters or less through Twitter, which automatically updates my Facebook page. Longer thoughts can be expressed on my blog. Twitter gives me an outlet I didn’t previously have to express myself, without invading my need for introversion.
This is not just good advice for business leaders. This is good advice for pastors, husbands, wives, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers….well, pretty much all of us. In fact, some might argue that those three words are necessary for one to become a believer in Christ. I must be willing to admit I’ve messed up before I can recognize and believe the gift of Christ’s sacrifice on my behalf.
Recently as I have thought about our sustainability as a church, I’ve been reminded of the hundreds of people who are in our church today that never experienced our first year as a church plant. We have new people coming all the time. They need the benefit of fully understanding the vision we have set from the beginning of who we really are as a church. To instill this vision into them we must continually find new ways to repeat our vision.
One resource helpful for assigning and evaluating responsibilities for a specific task or ministry is the RACI Matrix. It forces the organization to assign specific responsibility and understanding to a project. This eliminates confusion, helps insure projects have the people resources to be completed and provides for accountability.
