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Play Well

August 21st, 2010 | 1 Comment | Posted in Great place, Leadership, Simple, third space

Ever been to Lego World at Walt Disney Village?  It’s unbelievable.  There are kids everywhere dragging parents along as they build things from piles of legos, and beg parents to buy them another lego “thing”.  There are millions and millions of legos at Lego World.  These kids love to put legos together to make the “thing” on the box, or to make the “thing” that they see in their mind.  They work together, helping each other.

Starting with only pieces, these kids create their “thing” as they connect the pieces together.  Each little piece snapping onto another, interconnecting becoming part of a larger “thing”.  Sharing ideas, excited, laughing and enjoying each other’s company these kids build community, as they build their  “things”.

Tomorrow starts a new year at my church.  We will have a strong emphasis on building community this year.  Community within the walls and community outside the walls.  Building community is all about building relationships.  Bible Study is a great way for people of all ages to learn and develop through relationships.  God wants people to connect with others.  We are going to expect people to connect with members and non-members as they build their “thing”.

We will be looking at our Bible Study groups to see if they are connecting.  Some of the things we will look for are: are people sharing prayer praises and concerns for others, are they talking about how God is working in other people’s lives, are they getting together outside of structured times, are they serving together outside the walls in the community.

We know if someone is in your church for 3 – 6 months and they do not have 2 – 3 relationships they probably won’t be around for long.  A lot of lives depend on the success of our Bible Study legos.

The creator of legos took the first two letters of two Danish words meaning “play well” to come up with the LEGO name.  What he didn’t know was that one meaning of the word LEGO in Latin is “I put together”.  I believe that God wants our Bible Study to function like LEGOS.  Taking all the little pieces, connecting them together to make a bigger “thing”.  Something He will look at and say “I put together”.

Play well friends, someone’s eternity depends on it.


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Make love, not war

August 5th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Leadership, Simple

Back in the ’60s the world was in turmoil.  Our country was at war, (an un-popular war on many fronts), in a small country thousands of miles away, the economy was crazy, music was loud and rebellious, parents struggled “to parent”, children resisted parenting, anti-God sentiments were escalating, tolerance for everyone’s point of view was huge from a lot of people, and did not exist from others. It was a time of testing for everyone.  Some of us made it through without major scars, other friends of mine still carrying deep hurts from that time.

I think it was the beginning of people moving from one pace of life into the fast lane for many, many people.  A new pace of life was launched.  Faster and faster and faster.  Multi-tasking, 24/7, electronic leashes, helicopter parents, smart phones, www.whatever, it continues to consume us.

I read an article in the NY Times a couple of weeks ago that spoke to this life that many of us have adopted, or been sucked into, myself included.  I’m not as bad as I used to be, most of you know why, but I still am a fringe player in this crazy game.  The name of the article was Tweet Less, Kiss More.  It spoke to my insides.  Since most of you will never click over and read it, if I was to give you a link, here it is, copied in part.

“I’m not opposed to the remarkable technological advances of the past several years. I don’t want to go back to typewriters and carbon paper and yellowing clips from the newspaper morgue. I just think that we should treat technology like any other tool. We should control it, bending it to our human purposes.

Let’s put down at least some of these gadgets and spend a little time just being ourselves. One of the essential problems of our society is that we have a tendency, amid all the craziness that surrounds us, to lose sight of what is truly human in ourselves, and that includes our own individual needs — those very special, mostly nonmaterial things that would fulfill us, give meaning to our lives, enlarge us, and enable us to more easily embrace those around us.

There’s a character in the August Wilson play “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” who says everyone has a song inside of him or her, and that you lose sight of that song at your peril. If you get out of touch with your song, forget how to sing it, you’re bound to end up frustrated and dissatisfied.

As this character says, recalling a time when he was out of touch with his own song, “Something wasn’t making my heart smooth and easy.”

I don’t think we can stay in touch with our song by constantly Twittering or tweeting, or thumbing out messages on our BlackBerrys, or piling up virtual friends on Facebook.

We need to reduce the speed limits of our lives. We need to savor the trip. Leave the cellphone at home every once in awhile. Try kissing more and tweeting less. And stop talking so much.

Listen.

Other people have something to say, too. And when they don’t, that glorious silence that you hear will have more to say to you than you ever imagined. That is when you will begin to hear your song. That’s when your best thoughts take hold, and you become really you.”

SLOW DOWN, SAVOR THE TRIP,…..TRY KISSING MORE AND TWEETING LESS.

If you like what you’ve read in this post, re-tweet it so others can share in the enjoyment.  Just kidding, try kissing instead.


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Coulrophobia

August 4th, 2010 | 1 Comment | Posted in Leadership

Have you noticed we live in a crazy world?  I was driving down Southside Blvd yesterday and saw a great church sign.  I’m not sure who the “target” of the promo message is.  You may go to the church on Sunday and find the church packed with a lot of these:

Maybe the promo was referencing the speaker, or maybe it is to address a problem a lot of people have “coulrophobia”, a fear of clowns.  Here’s the sign:

If you don’t have a place to go to church this Sunday, you might want to go by and see what’s happening.


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Sunday’s coming

July 5th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Great place, Leadership, no way

You have to be very sure of yourself and that what you are doing is connecting with “your crowd” to be able to spoof yourself.  Great job Northpoint!  Keep raising the bar.

“Sunday’s Coming” Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.


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Summer reads

July 2nd, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Leadership

Busy reading schedule over summer.  What are you reading?


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Follow the money…

June 30th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Great place, Leadership

Deep Throat talking to Bob Woodward in All the President’s Men said, “follow the money”.  He was telling Woodward that the money trail leads to those behind the “deed”.  We hear “follow the money” a lot these days, with all of the financial meltdown that continues to happen in our world.  Who made money on this deal or that deal?  Who took the money and ran?  People that are big money control businesses, communities, organizations, politics and even churches.

Daniel Newman, one of Fast Company’s most creative people has built a web that helps us “follow the money” in politics. His award-winning not-for-profit database cross-references public records, giving everyone instant access to political contributions — what once took investigative reporters weeks or months to uncover is available within an hour of a congressional vote. This site has over 100,000 visitors a month from people who want to know who is influencing our politicians.

You will find this site very easy to use and very informative.  Check it out: http://maplight.org/.


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Caffeinated Nation

June 29th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in no way

The numbers are in and the USA is the most caffeinated nation, and it’s not. While we have more Starbucks than any other country, over 11,000, and consume more coffee than any other country, we aren’t even in the top ten of consumption per capita! Really? Americans consume 105.9 liters of coffee per capita, ranking sixteenth worldwide.

It’s hard to believe that fifteen countries drink more coffee per capita that we do, but it’s true.  Even the tea drinking Brits out coffee us, consuming 134.7 liters per capita. What country takes the gold? Finland with 608.2 liters per capita followed by Norway with 322.6 liters, then Denmark with 180.6 liters.  I see a pattern here. Countries with those very cold winters and long dark nights keep saying  pass me the coffee.  Historically the very cold countries have had the biggest coffee addiction, but that is changing.  Brazil, the world’s largest coffee producer is on track to pass the USA as the largest consumer of coffee.  They are even serving cafe com leite – coffee with milk – in school meals for kids 5 and up. Wow.  “Could I have a decaf with my mac and cheese?”


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You’ve got to love Jan Brewer

June 28th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Leadership


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Evil Spirits catcher

June 22nd, 2010 | 1 Comment | Posted in Great place, Simple

Bottle trees go all the way back to Africa and Egypt.  The story is  that evil spirits come around at night, and then get attracted to the bottles and jump inside them.  When morning comes and the sun is up, they are trapped inside, so they can’t bother the world of the living.  I spotted this bottle tree over the weekend near Neptune Beach.  It must work because I saw no evil spirits in the neighborhood.


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Great read at the beach…

June 21st, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Great place, Leadership, Simple

Oh yea, we’re at the hospital having a baby.  Will have update later.


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