How to Discover Your Story
When I was in grad school one of my classes had us do this exercise. I found it so helpful and insightful that I thought I'd share. First take a piece and draw a large rectangle, covering most of the page. On the left side write, "born", and on the right side write, "now". Then by the top of the left vertical line write, "good", and on the bottom write, "bad." Now, plot your life up to this point. You can start by making dots representing the major high points and low points of your life. This can include things ...
Personality Matters in Leading Your Team
Blindspots A few weeks ago I wrote a post about 4 quadrants of our life representing our public persona, secrets, blindspots, and potential. You can read it here. If we want to grow as a leader, we need to attack our blindspots (things everyone knows about us that we don't know about ourselves). One way we can decrease our blindspots is by learning more about ourselves. Earlier this week I asked a group of our leaders to take a simple personality test. It's actually one of the most simple tests out there. You can find it here. Also here's an even more ...
The Most Important Thing I Learned from a Life-Sized Singing Songbook
A Singing Songbook Memories are a funny thing. Growing up there were probably toys you played with or shows you watched you thought were the coolest. But, now when you go back and see those same toys or shows, they seem ridiculous. I grew up listening to tapes starring a giant, blue, singing songbook named Psalty. He helped teach kids about God through song. The tapes about Psalty are still great, but the movies are another story. A man with a blue afro, wearing more makeup than the Ronald Mcdonald clown, while sporting a big blue book costume and singing ...
How Blind Spots and Boogers Can Better Your Leadership
That Song Have you ever heard a song on the radio and then had that song stuck in your head the rest of the day?! You can't shake it, and without warning you begin singing it quietly to yourself out loud. Pretty soon everyone around you has it stuck in their head as it spread like a melodic virus! Something like this happened to me a few week ago, except not with music, but an idea. At our staff meeting one Monday morning, a church planter named Scot shared a personal development tool which divides our life into four quadrants. Ever since ...
When Faith Feels Like the Hamster Wheel to Nowhere
Rainbows and Leprechauns Growing up, I used to love hearing stories about leprechauns and their hidden gold held at the end of a rainbow. I admit, there are times today when I’ll see a well-formed rainbow and only the adult pressure of responsibility keeps me from throwing caution to the wind and trying to find the end of the rainbow. It’s not that I actually expect to find the end or gold, but there’s still that little boy inside wanting to try. Now, I know that finding the end of a rainbow is impossible. No matter how fast or far ...
3 Questions Every Volunteer Asks
The moment someone signs up to serve on a team, the clock begins to tick. With every passing moment initial interest in your team begins to fade. So, the question is, how do you capture new volunteers and turn them into a fully engaged member of your team? Communicate! When someone signs up for your team, the most important thing you can do is communicate with them! Call them and introduce yourself. Also try to introduce yourself in person so you each have a face to go with a name. Communicate how your team works, the process to get involved, ...
I Dream of Pants
Getting the Mail Getting the mail often feels like an exercise in moving paper from my mailbox to my trash can. Every once in a while something breaks through and catches my attention. That’s exactly what happened a few days ago. This one advertisement sucked me in, and even after I threw it away, has continued to haunt me. Who knew one advertisement could hold such power. Here’s the advertisement (The first pic. is from the Gap webpage, followed by the advertisement we received in the mail which I had to save from the trash for the photo): The Jeans I’ve ...
Setting Spiritual Goals and a Hot Date
Hot Date Last week I sat across from my wife on a hot date at the Cheesecake Factory. We were about to order our favorite foods when she asked what goals we could make for the new year, which I thought was awesome. Every new year is a new chance to become a better person. It was fun to dream about our upcoming year, including 5k’s, inviting more people over, and finding new ways to give. We’re still trying to nail down the specifics, but it was great to get the conversation started. Thinking I’ve ended up thinking a lot ...
11 Laws of Having a Meeting (#’s 6-11)
We'll continue our discussion on the laws of having a meeting. If you missed the first post, click here. Setting a Meeting Agenda 6. People are looking for CONNECTION as much as information. The more your team knows and enjoys each other, the better the chance they'll prioritize attending meetings. 7. Start within 5 MINUTES, end ON TIME. Start within 5 minutes of your scheduled start time to respect those who came on time. If you start any later, those who are already there will wish they were late and will be next time. ALWAYS end on time! When you ...
11 Laws of Having a Meeting (#’s 1-5)
A Great Time to Build The second half of January and into February is a great time to build your teams. (You can read more about that here) Many people are thinking of having a team meeting for the first time. We've all been invited to meetings we dread. We contemplate every excuse we can think of to not go. But, it doesn't have to be like that. So, I thought I'd share 11 essential parts (laws) to a holding a great meeting I've learned over the years. (I'm still learning, so please add your own add-ons below.) Before you set the meeting 1. Know WHY ...