Life in general

Leadership

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BNI-Logo-transparent_mOur BNI leadership team met today to discuss an upcoming Visitors Day that we are sponsoring.  We should be sending out about 400 invitations if everyone gives us the requisite 20 contacts.  In the course of preparing for this we asked our district representative to talk to us about recruitment, and she gave us some excellent tips on things we need to tighten up as we get ready for this influx of people.

Which led me to think about the importance of high standards.  Organizations of any sort that allow themselves to be loose and sloppy are not healthy and do not grow. Generally speaking, people want to belong to something that is excellent.  BNI has a guide book of practices that result in strong local chapters, and strictly following the guidelines produces healthy results.

Organizations will reflect the character of their leaders.  Weak, ineffective leaders produce weak groups.  Strong leaders cause their followers to rise to their level of leadership.  Are they courageous?  So will the group be.  Are they visionary and focused?  The group will be that as well.

Leaders owe it to their groups to provide strong leadership.  Otherwise the groups will be dragged down by the weakest and least effective members.  It’s hard work in the beginning, but it results in fewer problems, stronger organizations, and more effective work.

Church planting, Editorials, Missional, People, service

Missio Dei

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Missio DeiFred Peatross, from Huntington, West Virginia, is a friend of mine that I’ve never met in person.  Our relationship is facilitated by e-mail.  I live in California.  We became friends because of Jim Henderson who lives in Seattle, Washington.  West Virginia, California, and Washington—this is a great picture of our times.

Fred’s new book, Missio Dei, is an insightful look at what is happening in Western culture, particularly as it relates to disciples of Jesus.  Twenty years ago the e-mail relationship Fred and I have developed would have been unheard of.  Also blogging, Google, My Space, and social networking.

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Church planting, Life in general, LifeSpring Church

Four Weddings and a Funeral

WeddingLast November I met a pastor from Chicago’s Willow Creek Church.  We were both at a conference in Seattle.  He told me about a project he had started called “Wedding Pastors USA dot org.”  He also invited me to put my own page up on the site.

The impetus for Wedding Pastors is that many pastors are unwilling to do weddings for people who are not members of their own church.  Therefore Wedding Pastors offers this service to people who would like to have a pastor help them through this important moment.  I now have a page at that website, and people looking for a pastor in the Merced area can find me.

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Life in general, People, service

A Misunderstanding

KohlsBev was looking for a new dress to wear to the Chamber of Commerce dinner and installation.  We went to Turlock because Bev likes shopping there, and we ended up in a Kohl’s.  I found a chair in the customer service area and took up residence.  Why stand when you sit?  I had a book to read.

That’s when I became aware of tense voices at the service counter.

A lady was trying to return some dishes she had purchased the day before.  I had a hard time trying to figure out why she was returning them.  I do know that she and the Kohl’s person waiting on her were not communicating at all.

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Food for Thought, Leadership, Life in general, theology

Ignorance is not a good thing!

Henry Ford 02“The only thing worse than training your people and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.”  Henry Ford.

 

 Organizations that do not train their people are poured in ideological and methodological concrete.  In some respects they are like a university that never allows research or thought that is dated after a particular time.  This effectively freezes all learning, and the university (or organization) gets no benefits from new discovery.

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Leadership, Life in general

To the Next Level

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Chamber LogoYesterday Jennifer Krumm, COO of the Greater Merced Chamber of Commerce, and I went to an all-day seminar at the California Chamber of Commerce.  The seminar was entitled “Taking Your Chamber to the Next Level,” and it was sponsored by Superchex, a Chamber group that provides training for local Chambers to help them offer better programs and leadership to their respective communities.

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Life in general, People, theology

Joy

In his book, Letters to Malcolm, pages 92–93, C.S.Lewis wrote the following:

Dance and game are frivolous, unimportant down here; for ‘down here’ is not their natural place.  Here, they are a moment’s rest from the life we were placed here to live.

I have been working on a summer sermon series about the Fruit of the Spirit, and this week I have been writing a sermon about joy.  That has prompted me to think about and observe whether the people around me appear joyful or not.  It has been my observation that, in too many cases, joy is woefully lacking.

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Life in general

Anti-Siphon Valve

Anti-Siphon ValveI hate it when an inanimate object is smarter than I am.  I’ve had that experience the past couple of weeks.

The fill valve on our swimming pool hasn’t worked since we moved into the house.  Whenever I opened the valve it leaked badly.  So for our first year in the house I filled the pool with a hose.  It was a nuisance, and sometimes I overfilled the pool.  Not good.

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Life in general

Memorial Day

It’s a nice morning.  The cool California air feels good.  I’m enjoying having the day off and my taste buds are already tasting the chicken that Bev is going to marinade for dinner tonight.

We’re going to go to Costco later today to look at small picnic tables.  We’d like to have one to go on our small patio outside the kitchen door.  We both think it would be nice to be able to eat breakfast out there or to have dinner when it’s not too hot.

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Writing is life!