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Leadership

One Principle of Attaining Success in Life

By Encouragement, Leadership, Life Plan, Vision

Here’s a principle I’ve learned the hard way:

Sometimes the most successful are not the ones who do it perfectly but the ones who do it…

Whatever “it” is…

Many times we wait until the perfect timing, until all our questions are answered, or until the perfect set of circumstances are aligned before we move forward. In the meantime the world keeps moving and those who move, even though conditions are less than ideal, realize the victories others miss.

What dream, vision, call of God do you need to move forward on today?

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Whiteboard Conference: An Interview with Jason Young

By Church, Encouragement, Leadership

I’m excited to introduce you to Jason Young and the Whiteboard Sessions 2011…a church conference for everyone. I’ve been advertising for it on my blog this month and thought you should hear a little more about it. I’ve been to Whiteboard and Jason is the new director of this conference. I’ve spent some time with Jason and I’m convinced he’s going to make this conference a “must attend” event this year.

Here’s an interview I did with Jason recently about Whiteboard:

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A Theory: Speed of Growth Determines Speed of Decline

By Church, Church Planting, Culture, Leadership

Theory: The rate of increase, often determines the rate of decline.

In my early twenties, I was working in retail and this theory developed in my mind as I watched dozens of items gather immediate interest, grow rapidly in popularity, quickly rack up sales, but then as a fad changed, the item sales just as quickly decline. I called it my “fad theory”. Other items grew slower, but styles changed gradually and so they slowly began to decline in sales.

Let me give you two classic examples I observed firsthand:

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Friday Discussion: Is Social Media a Blessing or a Curse?

By Culture, Innovation

There’s a consistent debate about the role of social media in our lives today.

There’s no doubt that I’ve embraced the cultural shift of socail media, but because of it, I received criticism for not doing other things. I’ve been online doing ministry for over 16 years and have developed good systems that allow me to do much online efficiently, but I knew it was “catching on” when my mother got on Facebook. Still, it does take time and, with limited time for all of us, that time has to take away from something else.

I’ve heard people say it would have been better for the family had the television never been invented. I’ve heard the debates on social media also. Some feel we shouldn’t be doing it all at all. I wonder wgat the same people would say of social media.

More importantly, I’m wondering today what you will say.

Let’s discuss the role of social media. Consider these questions, then add your thoughts in a comment.

Should the church be involved in social media?
Does social media help or hurt a relationship?
Are Facebook or Twitter beneficial to a relationship or is a distraction in building true friendships?
In a perfect world, would we have social media?
Does it add to or take away from the quality of our lives?
Is it an unavoidable evil or a blessing for us all?
Be honest!

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The Path to a God-Given Assignment

By Church, Encouragement, Faith, Fear, Leadership

God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful. 1 Thessalonians 5:24

I’ve learned that the path to accomplishing a God-given dream is paved with faith.

When you experience fear, face risks, have set-backs, encounter critics and realize frustrations, it’s the faith of knowing the God who called you to the task will be faithful to complete it. f you are facing the temptation to give up a God-given assignment, perhaps instead of quitting, you need to spend some time renewing your faith in the God who chose you for this assignment.

Have you experienced this firsthand?

Do you need this reminder today?

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Help Me Address Organizational Fear

By Business, Encouragement, Fear, Leadership, Organizational Leadership, Team Leadership

We have a healthy team. It’s full of grace, which works well, since that word is in our name. We consistently laugh together. We encourage each other to accomplish our goals. As a leader, I solicit feedback consistently. (I even allow the staff to anonymously evaluate me each year. Read about that process HERE.) We are generally flexible and laid back as an organization, yet we accomplish much towards our mission. I’ve worked in lots of environments and this is a good one…a healthy place to work. I’ve written articles about healthy teams, many of them based on the team on which I serve. (Read some of them HERE, HERE, or HERE.) I think our team would agree.

Still, I’m not sure we have eliminated what I call organizational fear. I’m not sure there is 100% freedom to share what’s on a person’s heart. I consistently address this concern. I’ve even said that sometimes we are too “nice” as an organization. We need to challenge more, even enter into healthy conflict, but sometimes it seems we are timid towards sharing our true feelings; especially some on the team. Problems exist…people see them…they continue for months…everyone recognizes something is wrong….yet no ones brings them to the surface. This is not a huge problem, or we wouldn’t be as healthy or successful as we are, but for whatever reason, some I may not understand, team members at times shy away from sharing what’s really on their mind.

Why is that? ….

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The Inner Resolve to Overcome: Lesson from this week in Chicago

By Culture, Encouragement, Faith, Fear, Life Plan, Vision

I’ve been amazed this week at the resolve of the people of Chicago. Reportedly this week saw the worst snow storm since 1967. I’ve not been through a blizzard before, so this was an experience. You can read why I’m here in THIS POST.

What amazes me is how the people responded so quickly. Even before the storm hit, people were taking precautions, but during and after the storm, people spread salt, shoveled snow, pitched in to help one another, and quickly got back to normal. Many places were closed early Wednesday, hours after the snow ended, but many were open by the afternoon. By Thursday everyone was seemingly back to normal. There’s still a lot of snow on the group, you have to be careful where you walk, but people have gone about their business…in spite of the largest snow the average Chicagoan has ever seen.

Why?

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The Danger of Living in a Moment

By Change, Culture, Encouragement, Innovation

The current thought process for most of us these days is about what’s new…

It’s important to be current…which means often we are making decisions quicker…

It makes the word “moment” more important than ever…

We all want to live in the moment as much as possible, and culture is demanding it these days…

I want to join the party, but I’m reminded of an important principle…

Living in the moment can be dangerous…

It’s great in theory, but some moments can get you off track…

Unless…

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