· Categories Family, Leadership
The ice maker portion of my mother in law’s refrigerator hasn’t been working for 2 years. The refrigerator itself works fine, but the ice maker quit making ice and then she developed a leak behind the fridge. After having an appliance repairman take a look she was told it would cost $200 to fix…so she cut off the water line and bought ice trays for her freezer.
While I was there this weekend for my niece’s birthday party she mentioned not having ice, and I said “let me look at it.” (I am no Bob Villa, but I’ve recently completed some projects around the house, my wife bragged about me to her friends, and I have a new found confidence) It appeared to my novice eye that a little rubber piece connecting the water supply line and the pipe that feeds the water into the ice maker had a tear in it. My little brain thought, “I bet if we replace that little piece with a new one, the water wouldn’t leak allowing it to get to the ice maker and make ice”. So I took it to Home Depot and bought a replacement and some silicon tape. I replaced the piece, turned on the water, and we waited. Today I received a text message from her that said “I have ice”. My total investment…$4.
The refrigerator was falling short of it’s full potential because of one bad piece. The bad piece wasn’t allowing water to flow correctly from point A to point B. Eventually it became more harmful to let it leak so that functionality was turned off altogether after getting some bad advice.
Now think of your organization, team or ministry. Is there a problem that might seem like a $200 problem that could be fixed with $4 worth of investment? Could it just take a fresh set of eyes to look at the problem? Maybe someone to start working on it, instead of talking about it?
Look for areas where things aren’t flowing as smoothly as they should, or where functionality has been turned off completely. Get creative. Imagine what might happen if you change just one piece.
August 30, 2010
· Categories Personal
(this picture was taken at the Rascal Flatts concert in June for her birthday) 
(this was right after Corrie found that Tucker had gotten into the frosting Branson had gotten into and left on the table)
This past weekend Corrie and I got to hang out. With 3 little boys that is a rare occurrence these days. I don’t say that like I would change anything about our life. I am extremely blessed, and love my boys more than I ever thought possible, but…
I love hanging out with my best friend. I won’t bore you with the details (though I still think it’s a pretty cool story) but Corrie and I have been friends since we were 13, so when we got married it truly was like the fairytale story of marrying your best friend. That proved to be so beneficial because we had Cooper so early in our marriage. We were married 3 months and found out we were 3 weeks pregnant. Thankfully we had almost a decade of relationship to build on which I can’t imagine not having.
Since then we’ve moved to Atlanta, added 2 more boys to the mix and we stay pretty busy. But this weekend my mother-in-law called an asked to keep the boys so we met her on Friday night with them. Our weekend consisted of:
- dinner at Copeland’s with WAY more conversation than usual
- lots of Netflix on the Wii
- Pacific Seafood & Sushi Buffet
- 2 movies
- dinner at the Varsity
- a trip to the Mall
- & more Netflix on the Wii
We just enjoyed being together. We laughed a ton. We pulled our couch and love seat together in the living room to make a bed type thing and were just LAZY together.
I love her with all my heart and had an amazing time hanging out…just me and my best friend!
August 23, 2010
· Categories Movies, Quotes
Over on Michael Hyatt’s blog he had a line that grabbed my attention:
To quote Eric Liddell, from the movie Chariots of Fire expresses this beautifully: “I believe that God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast. When I run, I feel His pleasure.”
I realize he was quoting Liddell from the movie, but being reminded of the quote stirred something in me.
So let’s have a conversation today. Fill in the blank:
“I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me __________. When I ______________, I feel His pleasure.” Feel free to expound on your answers. This is not about tooting your own horn, so don’t feel self-conscience. This is about acknowledging and honoring a God-given ability.
Jump in!
August 12, 2010
· Categories Leadership
I ran across this post from November 2008, loved the practicality and decided to rebirth it.
How far can you see?
It has been said that leaders can see farther than those they lead, but do we?
I was in a meeting yesterday with my Pastor and he showed an incredible ability to see far into the future. He had such a great view of the next few years, that it made some of the more immediate decisions easier to navigate.
As a leader do you tend to only look at the near future? Do you/can you see farther into the future? How do you articulate that to the people you are leading? When do you let them in on it?
My observations:
Reasons we can’t see very far into the future
1. We haven’t spent time with The Father. He sees it all. The more time I spend with Him, it’s quite possible I’ll get a clearer picture of what He’s up too.
2. We aren’t planning to be here that long. As the statistics of pastors and youth pastors tenure grows shorter and shorter it’s harder to make plans much beyond 12-14 months.
3. We aren’t organized. The more organized I become, the farther I’m looking into the future. It’s a natural by-product.
4. We don’t take the time to look. I have to have a day every month or so that I pause from the busy-ness of my normal routine. Those days I do 2 things. I reflect and project. I got this from my former pastor. Once a year we made a presentation to the whole church called, “Reflections and Projections”. We looked back to highlight wins and in that context presented the future. It was time consuming to plan and pull off, but well worth it.
How can you improve your ability to see the future?
August 6, 2010
· Categories Leadership
I’m confronted today with the tension between these 2 terms as I fulfill responsibilities of my job that fall in both areas. I believe these terms are often confused for one another and while they are in the same family, they are not the same thing.
Leadership is about recognizing where we are now (Point A) and defining where Point B is going to be. It’s saying, “here’s our direction, let’s go”. Obviously, if no one follows, you aren’t leading no matter how good the direction is. It’s dreaming the dream, setting the course, and communicating those things effectively to at least one other person (or a group of people) who can help start the process of following the leader toward the destination.
On the other hand it’s been said that Management is maintaining but I don’t think that’s entirely fair. Effective management can create efficiency and momentum that push an organization forward. However, a lot of management is about tasks and process. It’s about making sure once we know where we’re headed, that we are moving in the right direction, that we don’t leave anyone behind and that we hit all the necessary steps along the way.
Even still, Leaders most likely have to manage something or someone and Managers usually have to lead something or someone. So there is a good bit of crossover.
Frustration usually arrives for leaders when they see the dreams fall to the ground because no one is managing the process. Frustration for managers shows up when they don’t see a compelling leader that they can follow. So leaders start managing (meddling) more than they are effectively capable of, bringing more frustration for everyone. And managers start leading outside of their responsibilities, creating silos and competing visions.
Ideally, every leader would have an efficient manager (or 9) to carry out the process and every manager would have a trusty-worthy, visionary leader to chart the course.
Otherwise you might find yourself managing to lead no one, no where!
August 5, 2010
· Categories Personal, Student Ministry
- 4500+ miles driven
- Took students to Rincon, Jesup, Destin, Roanoke, and Panama City Beach
- Worked NGA COG youth camp in Homer, GA
- Went to Orlando, FL for Church of God General Assembly & sat on the floor of the General Council as an Ordained Bishop for the 1st time.
- 7 nights in my bed in July
- 17 days in the office in June & July
- 4000 invite cards distributed for Baypointe Church during summer camp outreach
- 26 MS & HS students baptized
- “Someone” moved all the SM offices into the main church building while I was gone.
Our MS and College ministries took kids rafting, to do ministry at camps, served in local outreaches and had a MS camp in Tennessee.
It was a great summer. I can’t wait for the fall schedule! It’s gonna be great! (and I’m going to try and blog more)
August 4, 2010
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