Sunday Inspiration

Sundays are generally a great day at our house.



We are involved in a great church, which gets us out in front of the lunch crowds :-)

But sometimes we get off to a slow start and wake up on the wrong side of the bed, if you're having a bad day, watch this...you'll be glad you did, and may even feel a little guilty for your own feeling sorry for yourself...

Thursday Thoughts

I'm headed home today from Colorado

I leave Tuesday for Florida, week after that California, week after that Florida

I'm ready for a real live vacation

The Detroit Tigers are making me pretty happy lately, I think they've got a shot

I am about to unleash some seriousness on this blog, we'll see how long it lasts

SERVOLUTION

We're having our first quarterly Saturday Servolution Event on June 20th, and we're getting pretty excited about it!

We have several great volunteer opportunities already lined up and several more in discussion. If you'd like to get involved you can sign up on our church website. And just so you don't think this was an all original idea...

Servolution 2009 Recap from Healing Place Church on Vimeo.

Top Three #33

In celebration of the end of the eighth season of American Idol (is anyone else getting tired of it?) I decided to do a little research for you and give you a list of...

Top Three most successful Idol contestants based on album sales to date--

3. Clay Aiken--the only American Idol alum to already have a greatest hits album! It was released in March and has sold 3,400 copies, though his total is nearly 5,000,000.

2. Carrie Underwood--Will likely take over the #1 spot with the release of her next album total sales to date are over 9,600,000

1. Kelly Clarkson--The original American Idol! Yes, it helps that she has had the most time since winning, with four albums totalling over10,000,000 in total album sales.

Honorable Mention- Chris Daughtry is closing fast having sold over 4,400,000 copies of his debut album, new album due in July should move him past Clay.

FYI- Five other American Idol contestants have sold over a million albums...winners Ruben Studdard, Fantasia, David Cook, Jordin Sparks, and contestant Kellie Pickler.

Quote of the Week

Happy Memorial Day--


"Our great modern Republic. May those who seek the blessings of its institutions and the protection of its flag remember the obligations they impose."--Ulysses S. Grant

"The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war."--Douglas MacArthur

Why?

It's a question I ask a lot. So I thought it would be worth giving an answer...

Why do I have advertising links on my blog? Because Google targets the ads in the boxes based on related topics and items, and when you click, I get money, BUT when I get money, I pass EVERY penny on to charity.

So far it hasn't been much (less than $200), but every time you read this blog and click on one of the advertising banners, you are providing mosquito nets for African Children, homes for Cambodian families, and food for Haitian orphans.

Just another reminder that we CAN do good, even when no one is looking...but if you look, we can do even greater good!

Who's doing your Watering?

I resonate with the first few verses of First Corinthians Chapter 3...

I'm often very carnal, and need to be preached to as such, but occasionally I'm more in Paul's role of speaking to the "church people" who must still be talked to/at as carnal humanity.

I spend a few hours a week helping in a church plant in one of the most overchurched towns in America, Cleveland, TN. And countless more hours talking with other people at various stages of the church planting journey, from pre-launch to several years in to a "successful" church plant.

As I was reading today, I fell into a couple words I've often thrown away, verse six"I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase."

A few translations use growth instead of increase, but this is not one of those verses that gets dramatically different if you use NIV,KJV,ESV, etc...

No, it wasn't my first time noticing the verse, there is a biblical example of church planting there! It's ultimately all about God! But I had never really paid attention to those two words in the middle, Apollos watered.

In most of my conversations with church planters there is lots of talk about me this and God that, but it's a rare occasion that we start talking about their "Apollos" the person(s) that will water the work.

In order to do the watering this person(s) need a few basic skills--

3. They must have desire--Few things could be worse than having to use the laborer who needs to be constantly coaxed into helping...if they don't want to be involved, you are better off focusing your energies elsewhere. There may be a way to motivate that desire up a few notches, but if its something you are spending lots of time and energy on, look elsewhere.

2. They must have water!--In any organization, especially at the beginning we'll sometimes accept any help we can get, but this can often choke and slow long term progress because those given responsibility don't have the skill necessary to complete the task...it can even make things worse because now you're focusing attention away from your primary objectives onto fixing the mistakes that these eager water sprinklers made. One way to prevent this is by spending more time up front in the training and equipping before you send them outside with their water pale to get to work.

1. They must have direction--some need more than others, but you'd never just give someone a bucket of water and say go put this outside if you had a specific place that needed watered; tell them and show them, but be careful not to micro-manage, this will not allow them to come up with better solutions than you ever would have.

It seems that anything worth planting is worth watering, so who is watering your plant, and what are you doing to make sure they succeed? If you focus on planting and equipping others to water, God can cover his part!

Thursday Thoughts

My family has been visiting my parents in Louisiana this week and I'm joining them today for the long weekend. Here is what's on my list of to-do's...

-See Mike the Tiger--Alexander cannot be in Baton Rouge for a week without visiting the big cat, Benjamin will meet him for the first time and my wife has prepared for the introduction by making sure Ben has a nice Tennessee Vols outfit to wear.

-Ease my Cafe du Monde withdrawals--must make at least one, preferably three or more trips to Cafe du Monde for Chickory Coffee and Beignets...I'll take pictures!

-NOT take any work related calls for five days--this one is tougher for me than it sounds. I don't do vacation well...heck, I'm making a to-do list!



-Visit Healing Place Church--I love what Dino and his team do. Their focus on being a Healing Place for a Hurting World is a great one line mission statement for the church, and Dino's book Servolution tells their story well and may even inspire you to start your own Servolution initiative.



-Do lots of important stuff--like sleep in, play with my kids, go swimming, and have a generally great time!

What Your Non-Profit must share--REPOST

Saw this yesterday and it's solid!

What absolutely must go on your home page
Posted by katya on Tue, May 19, 2009

If you’re a nonprofit, here’s my list:

1. Something that tugs the heartstrings - an arresting image, a bold statement, the start of an incredible story

2. A 2-second statement that sums up who you are and what you do so that anyone glancing at the page gets it right away

3. Clear, intuitive navigation that is organized according to the brain of the people who come to your website and NOT your org chart

4. A quick case or link to a case for why you’re THE organization to support

5. A way to capture people whose interest has been captured (a great email signup that entices people to provide their email address)

6. A big donate button for people ready to give

7. A third-party endorsement (ratings from Charity Navigator or a testimonial from someone)

8. Something that shows where the money goes or links to information on where donations go (this can be part of #4)

Top Three #32

I travel a lot, I try to be responsible/sustainable/green/eco-friendly, these two are tough to reconcile...

Top Three Environmentally Friendly ways to travel

3. Public Transportation--This actually includes bus, light rail, train, etc. Increasingly we are seeing these move to CNG and even electric (the buses in downtown Chattanooga are electric!) While Buses obviously use more fuel than a car, they use far less on a PER passenger basis.

2. Walking--Yep, the good ole left right left is pretty tough to beat for earth friendliness, not to mention that it's much better for YOU.\

1. Bicycle-- Why is it better than walking? Because you can travel at least four times as far in the same amount of time and still produce no emissions.

Honorable Mention--Ok, so what about those longer trips and business meetings far far away (like downtown), for those I'd recommend train, WEBEX, or the revolutionary new invention...CARPOOL

Thoughts--Is that client, congregation, conference attendee, etc, really going to be that much better off for you being there face to face? Sometimes the answer is absolutely YES, but more often than we currently admit, they could get just as much from our virtual presence and follow up as from our in the flesh presence.

Quote of the Week

"Preach the Gospel always. Use words if necessary." - St. Francis of Assisi

Things that annoy me about Worship Leaders

I was inspired to create this after reading a recent post by Chico...

I chuckled as I read the list because it was all so true, but then it also made me think of the things that have annoyed or frustrated me with various worship leaders over the years. I get the chance to sit in a lot of services of various style, but here are a few that have stood out to me...

--The Diva, you know the one, they go off on tangents of vocal drama that leave everyone watching in disbelief at what's happening...not in a good way

--The Rockstar, this guy usually shows up with a hangover...ya he's cool, but not THAT cool

--The Employee, it's obvious to everyone in the building that they're only here for the paycheck.

--The Choir Director, do we really need you to turn your back to us to direct the choir... really?

--The Teacher, I appreciate you helping me out by telling me the words before we repeat them in song, but they are on the screens and I can read...

--The Wanna be Preacher, that part comes AFTER you're done, so please get back to singing and stop with your sermonettes between verses...can I get an Amen

--The Copycat, yes Chris Tomlin is great, but you're not Chris Tomlin so please stop trying to sing "How Great Is Our God" in his voice... EVERY week.

--The Pained, sometimes it's the Bassist or Drummer, almost always the electric guitar and keyboard, the faces they make are AMAZING, makes me wanna offer them some Pepto...

--The Emo, enough with the hair and SKINNY JEANS!

Thursday Thoughts

I have had a few great meetings with great ministries the last few days, I really needed that!

I was super excited to check out the Flourish Conference at Crosspointe Church, which billed itself as the first conference on Creation Care...some really good stuff, but all in all a little disappointing. So much to be done!

I am in the midst of Minivan shopping for my wife. I bought her one a few years ago and she HATED it, now that we have another son she's decided she's ready...we'll see!

I read Servolution, Dino Rizzo's new book...great title!

I am looking forward to date night this weekend with the Mrs., think we'll see Angels and Demons!

I'm excited about some upcoming events at Lifepoint... Brickhouse series this Sunday, One Prayer series in June, a great Servolution event June 20th, and Lookouts Baseball for the benefit of the Caring Place on July 25th, it's gonna be a busy summer!

Book Review--Helping People Win at Work

As many of you know by now, I'm a reader...I have read an average of about 50 books a year my entire adult life. One of my goals this year was actually to read LESS...so far, that's not working out too well, I'm on pace for 40something, I had hoped to finish only around 25...

I was unaware of my latest read until last week when I saw a dozen copies on my Boss's desk and hoped aloud that I would be getting a copy, turns out they weren't for me, but he was gracious enough to find me one...on the condition that I give him some feedback.

Since I needed to give him feedback, and since I'm trying to do better at taking notes for retention, I've decided to share some basic impressions here.

Helping People Win at Work by Ken Blanchard and Garry Ridge, came out a week ago.

It's a bit of a twist on the average Managing for Success and Servant Leadership ideas that have been popular of late. I found this book to be high on inspiration and quotables, without a whole lot of new info, they talk Tribes, SMART goals, Hierarchy of needs, Vision/Mission, etc...really felt a little all over the place.

It's written by two authors and they split the book by each taking chapter sections, I found Garry's info to be much more fresh and applied, while everything I read from Ken left me with a Dejavu feeling...

The highlights for me--

-The concept of "Don't Mark my Paper, help me get an A"--Seemed simple enough, until I walked that through to execution and started to get a headache at how you undo the age old ranking and ordering of performance...

-Is your Company "Partnering for Performance, or using performance reviews as alarms to send in the seagull manager"?

-Effective Performance Review System= Planning, Execution, Review and Learning...spend a lot of time time planning ("Don't just do something, sit there"), and make the review and learning a frequent and ongoing piece rather than an annual event.

-Tribes vs. Teams--Yes, this seems to be a bit "borrowed" from Seth Godin, but that's the sincerest form, of flattery right?

-Rank Ordering your values--I liked this idea, we all do it whether we think about it or not, but to put them in rank order is great. For instance, Our corporate values may include Doing the Right thing and Profitability, but profits never come before doing the right thing. "Life is about value conflicts. That means sometimes you can't honor two values at the same time."

Good Quotes from the book--

"At Best Leadership is a Partnership"

"All Good performance starts with clear goals"

"Don't save up feedback until somebody fails"

"A tribe is a place you belong; a team is something you play on once in a while."

"The real key to organizational vitality is operational leadership."

Summary--

Easy, fast read, with some good concepts and a little more fluff than I care for, which is surprising since it's less than 160 pages. I'd recommend the Intro and Chapter One to nearly everyone, my recommendation gets lighter the farther you go. If you don't read much in the way of leadership, this would be a good intro, as they discuss many ideas at a high level.

Top Three #31

My employer is in the process of changing the phones we use, we've been using some form of Treo smartphone for over three years with varying degrees of success and usefulness. So here are the...

Top Three Smartphones by sales (Q1, 2009)

3. Blackberry Storm--this is the touch face Blackberry that was supposed to give Iphone a run for its money, it's been getting mixed reviews.

2. Iphone-- launched a niche, and catapulted AT&T to new heights in subscriber growth. I have one, I love it...BUT, not a big fan of AT&T coverage, I'd rate them behind Verizon and Sprint in that area.

1. Blackberry Curve--this is the phone that our company has chosen as the Treo replacement, I'm looking forward to getting it and comparing the pros and cons vs the Iphone.

Honorable Mention--Blackberry Pearl...so it's pretty clear that Blackberry dominates the Smartphone space...

More info...According to The NPD Group, consumer sales of smartphones to US consumers represented 23% of all handset sales in Q4 2008 compared to just 12% in Q4 2007. Led by the release of iPhone 3G at $199, the average price for a smartphone fell 23% from $216 in Q4 2007 to $167 in Q4 2008. While half of smartphones on the market now sold with touch screens, 70% of all models instead offer QWERTY keyboards. 66% of smartphones now use 3G networks, compared to just 46% a year ago. 52% of smartphone buyers purchased an accessory at the time of their phone purchases, compared to just 41% among all other phone buyers.

Quote of the Week

"Moral Indignation is Jealousy with a Halo"--H.G. Wells

Wednesday Ramble

I left my house at 4:45 am...baby was awake

I think I'm gonna start working on a M.A. in Theology, probably wait til next year...new baby

Travel schedule has been pretty hectic the last month...not sure I see an end soon...missing baby

Starting to think about an RV again...more time with baby

I like the new blog look, black consumes less power...better earth for baby

Gone from home til Saturday night...Baby dedication on Sunday.

Top Three #30

In Celebration of Cinco de Mayo and the Swine Flu that originated in our neighbor to the south... and since we recently had a new baby and seem to always have a couple friends who are pregnant, I thought I would check out the

Top Baby names---

This information is from the United States Social Security Administration and generally lags a few months, here is the most up to date info available...

3. Ethan/Emma-- The E's have it

2. Michael/Isabella--Isabella was our pick if our most recent addition had been a girl...

1. Jacob/Emily--I know several little Jacob's in diapers

Honorable mention--the fourth placers are Joshua and Ava...so there you go...

Quote of the Week

“put your best people on your biggest opportunities, not your biggest problems”--Jim Collins

5daysinmay.com

I want to be a part of the change, I want to help, I need to help, I can't do it alone...

WE can make a difference, WE can be a part of the solution, WE can change the world...

Join www.5daysinMay.com now to help!

Visit Shawn Woods post on the topic with more details HERE.