I'm just continually blown away by our church family. I don't use the term loosely either - they really are as close as any family. Christmas wouldn't have been what it was without them and their financial gifts this season. Thank you all who were involved.
Christmas eve Cher and I cried like babies as they gave us a minvan. Not just any minivan, but THE one we would've bought ourselves if we could've - a 2006 Kia Sedona. We're told it will arrive next week and we're so excited it hurts.
Just wanted to say thanks for the WOW we're feeling. Thanks for making our Christmas amazing.
It's been a while. I've always said that as therapeutic and fun as this blog is, it's not a top priority.
I'm dusting off my tool belt and taking on a second job. Moving into the new year required budget cuts at The Carpenter's Church. We labored over them for weeks as the Elder Team and came to the necessary but unfortunate conclusion that salary cuts were imperative. I've taken a 25% cut in my salary beginning in January. I've been blessed over the passed year to have a friend that has let me join him doing construction and remodeling on my days off to earn some extra cash. I'll be splitting my time between him and the church. I've actually started already to get myself used to the schedule.
The fact is that God loves opportunities to show up... BIGGER. This is a church and it's his, of course, but what better story to tell than one of redemption from hardship. It's the stuff I think God loves to blow us away with.
We're trusting that this is temporary, but if my life really is rested in Him, what cause do I have to worry or whine ?
As for the other things that have transpired recently, the rumour mill is spinning just fine without my two cents. Frankly, it's not time to talk about it yet. There is hard work ahead and your sincere prayers for the leadership are desired.
Got to hang out with some of my favorite people today - our Student Leadership Team. Today was our 1st of many SLT Adnvance's (it's the new cool word - it's a retreat that's moving forward). So I got to do something I've been wanting to for a while - throw down a podcast with them.
I don't believe that you can truly be thankful without acting on it. It's one thing to say " I'm thankful for..." but it brings clout to it when we give sacrificially. Thankfulness is recognizing that it's outside of yourself that your circumstances are comning together. When true love is laying down your life for a friend, we've gotten preoccupied with a selfish way of thinking that says "Whew! Glad I conquered that!" If there is not consistant sacrificial giving in our lives, then we are not truly thnakful.
It's great to see things come to fruition. I've been talking for a long time about letting go of responsibility to people who are better gifted and equipped. There are two areas where I've seen this come to pass recently:
Production Director. I got this idea from Los. Basically I've turned over a large part of my worship and communications responsibility to Dan as our production director. His role is directing the production that is Sunday AM. It's taken some transition time, but Dan now schedules all our music and our musicians. He tells me what to sing. As we move forward he has a great passion for events that I'm excited to see come to frutition as well (our Good Friday benefit concert last year? That was all Dan's idea). He's also deeply involved in the creative process. It's exciting. And he's a volunteer. What a great example of giving someone a task that fits their gifts to combat volunteer under-commitment.
SLT. Last week we met as a leadership team for Ignite Students and I started the ball rolling on so responsibilities for the Student Leadership Team. I've been encouraged to see even in the past few days some efforts expanding. For example - our website is never up to date. That's now in the hands of a few students. and just like Dan, now a couple of students schedule all our music and musicians - they even held auditions (they learned a lot through that one!). I'm also getting some students ready to teach on Tuesdays.
One thing I'm really pumped about is our focus for 2009 - the environment for Ignite Students. Our goal is to create an environment with an element of shock due to the care and effort put into just the surroundings... that can be built up and torn down every Tuesday. I already have a student gifted at staging (she's been helping produce Nazareth High's theater programs for years - even helped host Ms. PA this year) coming into help adjust our stage lighting. It's my area and I'm clueless.And our 1st Impressions team is getting more and more creative.
Just talking about this stuff fuels me up. I never want to hog responsibility and ministry. This success helps me keep that in the front of my mind.
We did it for the 5th time or so this past Sunday and it always blows me away. No matter how many people jump in... literally, it's always something that moves me. When you can combine the power of the gospel message with an opportunity void of excuses, something drastic is about to happen. We originally got the idea from Furtick and in August when they did it again at Elevation, then open sourced all their material. everything from Steven's talking points to instructions for the photographer.
What would have done differently? I think we need to change the feel of it next time. It's become redundant for the leaders. Fortunetly we have a lot of new people that haven't seen it as many times as we have, so they don't know any better. Next time I'd like to work hard at creating an environment that was more relaxing than a spa... somehow.
One thing that was huge this time though was passing off the responsibility to Marlene. She was A... wait for it... MAZING! She has a very blatant gift for caring and welcoming people and took this and ran with it. It's great to find people to do things that are better at them than you.
My dad was a church planter. He had 2 under his belt that he was deeply involved in. Neither were wildly successful in terms of numbers, but it was still very much a part of early life. In recent years Cher and I have developed a passion for church planting. No, we're not announcing any big move. At this point we simply love seeing people pursue God's kingdom with extreme risk and supporting them any way we can. Among some awesome ministries that we're involved with and know about are two church plants that I wanted to just highlight for a few minutes. I think both of these are going to change lives and communities on a big scale.
The Lehigh Valley Project (Legacy Church). I met with Richie Merritt about a month ago. He's coming from Forefront church in Virginia Beach to plant a church right here in the valley. He's got a persona and passion unmatched in the valley. He's from the area originally and he's coming back after years of being away. Why do I think this church will make a huge impact? I grew up in the valley and if Legacy Church is going to be anything like Forefront, there's nothing like it for 100 miles. It's a passion that echoes with my own heart of pulling out all the stops when it comes to changing lives. I'm looking forward to being involved and networking however I can. It's exciting stuff for this area.
The Baltimore Project (Captivate Christian Church). Tally has been a trench buddy - one of the guys I mentioned yesterday. We've been through stuff together and watching each others ministry journey has been a ride. He hooked us up with the Charm City Church in Baltimore where we were this past summer. He's planting a church outside Baltimore with the goal of captivating that city. I'm excited to see God blow that up! Why I think he'll succeed: He's spending a lot of time preparing. In fact right now he's touring the south hanging out with, in my opinion, some of the coolest people around in church ministry with the intent of just listening. His passion for the city where he grew up will fuel life-change in a big way. He's got an awesome blog too - tallywilgis.com.
These are 2 church plants that are on my mind daily and I can't wait to have a part in in some way. Visit their sites and get to know them. This is time with spending on a cause worth dying for.
So... by tomorrow, i meant next week. I gotta stop doing that.
I want to wrap this group of thoughts up with this question: do we have a person or people in our lives that we can be our absolute true selves in front of and who will tell us what God wants us to hear?
This is probably the most uncomfortable lesson to learn, but it is coupled directly to growth on every level. Whether I'm in ministry on any level or simply human, I am too close to myself to always see objectively my next step. Paul had Peter and Barnabas. Timothy had Paul. Moses had Jethro. And even Jesus had the Father.
What we can see in all these relationships is a degree of awkwardness and discomfort because these people were willing to confront sin and expose weakness for the others good. But even more than that, they remained close to walk the journey together.
I honestly only have 2 guys in my life right now who can walk that path with me (besides my wife of course). They have not only critized, but praised, guided, and encouraged through every step of my recent life. A couple of things that are key to this relationship are regular communication and conversations that go both ways. I pray that we'd all have a person set on our mind right now that we could have a serious conversation with about growth and accountability this week. And when you do, be clear. It's not an opportunity for flatery, but for absolute honesty.
I'll get back to regular blogging tomorrow. It's been a nice break. After two and a half weeks, the twins are home. And no, it's not going to get crazy now. Now it's going to get normal and relaxing because we love our kids and especially love having them all home. Why do people keep assuming we either chose to have twins or hate kids? Anyway... happy family at home. (I've been waiting for 9 months for this first shot - the quintessential twin shot!)
So just because we finally saw them with out the hospital on their faces, here's a few more pics. We're hoping to hold Jonas for the 1st time tomorrow. They're progressing forward - slowly, but moving.
One of the little hands.
Elsa. I know what you're thinking, but I sleep like that too.
Elsa without the hospital on her face. The joy was immense.
I've found this is true no matter what field you're in. It breaks down into two different paths: either the leader you're following doesn't inspire followership, or their vision is different from yours. Either way you're left with the problem of too much leadership. There is you and them and there's only room for one.
The solution here is for leaders to learn to follow. Our culture has set in front of us this norm of acceleration - that if you want to succeed, you move forward. Thus creating an environment of constant movement in many jobs. This causes many to not only miss the opportunity to learn to follow, even as a leader, but to believe strongly that learning to follow is not for true leaders.
Jesus did it - he talked many times of "the will of the Father". The truth is that no matter what your career or place in life, following will always be more than just part of life. I believe that Jesus' example tells us (mainly through the foot washing passage in John 13) that following should be our goal. We should not strive for more leadership, but to serve our existing leadership.
There's a lot of "what ifs" - what if my boss is like this or believes this?. This principle is not dependant on the heart, vision, fashion, experience, or any other quality of the boss. Our goal is to let leaders lead and learn to follow. Don't we truly want to learn eveything we can about leading?
Alright, so as I said before, these pics are... inaccurate. They are, to be honest, not cute to me. Not the twins - the pictures off them. But here are the twins.
I'll take a break from this posting series to update on the twins.
I've gotten online in our room but I don't have the cable for our camera - so no pictures yet. Besides, these early pictures aren't truly good looking to many people anyway. You have to be able to see through the heath apparatuses and glimpse the baby to really fall in love.
Thanks for all your prayers for Baby B - from now on Jonas David Hibbs. His heart rate came down last night around 10:30 and has remained down. This is due to God's hand through medication, which he will be on indefinitely.
Baby A - from now on Elsa Denise Hibbs - is dealing, as Jonas is, with a typical preemie issue - under developed lungs. They are both being slightly assisted in breathing well. We are now praying and looking for them to sustain their own breathing properly, their temperature, and to feed well.
Cher's doing well. We are relaxed in our room a short walk from the NICU and visit whenever we want. She's been up and walking and is her pain meds are working well.
I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow. Mean while I'll update through twitter. Thank you.
I wanted to spend a couple of post talking about something I've been wrestling with. Pastoring is a self motivating job. There's rarely anyone looking over your shoulder making sure you complete certain tasks or meet deadlines. The goal is often objective - you may interpret it differently than I do - so it's vital to keep passion alive daily. But this goes for anyone in any job. Here are some things I've noticed sap my passion and creativity.
A lack of the Word. It is simply supernatural. There's nothing that can revitalize you like the Word of God, but what we often fall into is reading God's Word instead of letting it mess us up - really letting your heart drop it's defenses and learn something new each day. In Vince Antonucci's words, getting your face in front of God's face and letting it change you.
We sink into this idea that either (1) we can do without change today or (2) we have changed enough and this change that today would bring won't be that big of a deal. We must let the Word of God breathe on us daily. Without it we will loose our passion.
I haven't been blogging much because I've been at the hospital every other day for at least an hour or two. That's cut down on my work schedule so, like I've said in the past, if something has to go - as much as I love blogging - it's not important. Not really much change with the baby - just a lot of monitoring. The doctors are a lot more relaxed about this whole things than we are. They're cool watching the heart rate run like it's on speed as long as it comes back down every once in a while. We, on the other hand crumple in fear, every time we hear it - which is every other day.
So a week from today the twins will be here. I'll post pictures that day if I can - I'll definitely twitter about it. (It is time - if you have not already - go here and sign up for twitter and hook it up to your cell. It seriously still hasn't lost it's fun).
Some good news: Baby A has flipped. This means, depending on other circumstances, Cher may be able to deliver naturally and not need a C-section. Thanks for your prayers.
Last night was the final teaching of our Exposed: The truth about sex series at Ignite. Next week we're having a no-holds-barred Q & A about sex to finish it off and I'm pumped.
I noticed specifically with this series that it was a wrestling match every week I taught. I had a bad attitude, I was drained creatively, and just flat out exhausted before we'd start. But each time, as I was drained and asked for the Spirit's help, amazing things happened. The past two weeks we had guys and girls come and get prayed for. I know it doesn't sound like much, but we haven't done that much. I just felt a pushing to do it and we saw some awesome things happen.We've seen awesome revelation in students lives and had awesome Small Group discussion.
The point is this: we can't do it. We can limp by on our public speaking and our humor, but the result that we crave - LIFE CHANGE - can only be accomplished through the Spirit filling you and moving through you. What does it mean for me to empty myself out and allow that to happen?
Tomorrow we start our new series that we lovingly stole from the generous Open network of Lifechurch.tv, So You're Dead... Now What?
We hit 20,000 houses in the Lehigh Valley with a mailer I designed (holy crap I hope I didn't spell anything wrong). So to kick off the service we're learning how to stretch our light board, finally, and opening the service with Lenny Kravitz's Are You Gonna Go My Way? I'm pumped. The band is pumped. I instructed to the Tech Team to get at least one noise complaint.
Thank God. Between twitter and Tally's minute by minute blog posting, it WASN'T like I was there! It was like I was starving and someone was dangling donuts at my nose. Sounded amazing. I'm going next year to join the 12,000.
Just wanted to post a quick update. Our OBGYN was on vacation this week and got back into town yesterday. He's awesome, by the way, and called to make sure we weren't freaking out. But he also told us that after consulting with the Pediatric Cardiologist and the Perinatologist, it's best to deliver the twins at 34 weeks. That's 6 weeks before the official due date, but only 2 weeks before the due date we expected with twins. We have an appointment today at which we'll most likely schedule the C-Section. Thanks for your prayers. We're pryaing for healing and specifically maturing of Baby B's heart. I'll keep you up to date.
I never used to like expositional preaching - walking through a book or passage of the Bible. I know. I'm ashamed of that now.
A few weeks ago a friend and mentor told me about how he had started to tackle some issue like tithing and communion by just exposing the truth of scripture - and people ate it up. That's the wrong termanology. People were rocked. It got me thinking. I usually would find scripture to support my topic and show what God wanted to. But I thought I'd try something different. I waited on God to point me to the right passage and then in the "God" part of my message (me, we, god, you, we - thanks Andy Stanley) I just walked through the passage. The difference from before came in two chunks. (1) There was more scripture. In stead of a verse or two, it was 5 or 10. (2) I was learning.
The last three messages I've preached - two during our Exposed: The truth about sex series at Ignite, and one this past Sunday AM about service, have been the most powerful I've preached in years. Not because of me, because of the power of The Word.
We lose that supernatural power sometimes and get in the way. Let the Word speak and expose the truth it says.
The first part of that meaning "upper heart" and the second part being "fast beating". That's what Baby B has. We met with the pediatric cardiologists a few hours ago and got a lot of questions answered. It looked like - on the echoe - a regular beat, then an extra one - like a bad drummer. That then triggers a period of rapid heart beats - today it went to 233 per minute (you and I are around 100).
The good news is that the periods of rapid beating are seldom and this could go away as the cells in the heart matures. If it gets bad the heart may enlarge and the different organs would fill with water. If that were to happen (we're now going twice a week to the perinatal center for monitoring) we'd deliver the twins right away. They could survive now - Cher's gotten 2 steroid shots to help her lift more and run faster (and to help the twins lungs develop so they're ready for life).
I'm resigning myself to pop into the office as needed but pretty much work from home for now. I got some awesome people to take over Ignite tonight so I can hang at home tonight.
If you'd like to pray with us, pray for peace. We want, above all else, to see God's purposes clearly and be at peace with it. We'll keep you updated.
It's been an unbelievable season lately. Filled with confusion, at times, but when the clouds clear I've been finding myself closer to God than ever before. It's discipline that's brought me here. I wanted to share the ways that it's helped me, in hopes that you can learn these lessons before the shame and guilt that brought me here. Or perhaps the shame and guilt has brought you here and you're ready for an enlightening.
First, discipline in the area of my time with God. The more stuff that you say "no" to so you can spend time with him is in direct relation to the clarity of His spirit. It's numbing process, which is why it's so hard. It's getting up early. It's turning off the TV. It's saying "no" to the things you enjoy. Something in us tells us that face time with God is not as enjoyable as it really is. One of the things that clarity brings is recognition of the lies that Satan feeds our culture... and us. Another thing I've had to come to grips with with this discipline is that it IS a fight. One that I'll lose without effort. But that's why it's a discipline. How would your life be different if you were simply closer to God? What's keeping you.
The second area of discipline I've been learning in is sexual purity. At Brave Generation a few weeks ago I heard God very clearly press me to find an accountability partner. It had been a whisper for weeks, but now it was time to set the example and pull the trigger. Sexual purity is a taboo subject... especially in church. We avoid what is uncomfortable. And what is uncomfortable is sin: lust, temptation, masturbation, adultery, pornography, looking at the right part of a woman. Now that we're all a bit displaced, let's address the issue - selfishness. It sounds so simple, but left unchecked it will tear your life apart from the inside out. So check it. At Brave Generation I asked someone to pray that the right person to hold me accountable would be revealed and immediately he popped into my head. Over the next 2 days we had some of the most awkward conversations that I've ever had, but I refused to turn away simply out of discomfort.
I hope these help you. As part of my accountability, I started x3watch on my office laptop. It emails my accountability partner anytime I go to a site that's pornographic. It's free and since telling a few students about it they've signed up and asked me to hold them accountable. Check it out. Students want a way out, just like we do.
If anyone knows anyone that, even 7 degrees removed, is closer to the almighty because of this, please... tell someone. I'll bet anything that members of both of these bands still wear the same clothes. It was their 15 minutes - why throw that away!
Trade leadership potential for true leadership. - I know I rave about our Student Leadership Team - they rock and blow me away daily - but a hard lesson I've had to learn is to ignore leadership potential and go after manifested leadership. We can all see potential for the most part and love the challenge of building a student into a leader (like someone did for us), but there's a lot of time wasted on students that have potential but don't care. A true leader that's ready will be leading already. All you'll have to do is point them in a direction. The problem with students that have potential but no desire is that they're usually the popular ones that you think will be good leaders. They don't lead though, as true leaders create more leaders. These students simply create followers.
You can find true leadership in the students that others want to be like already. As harsh as it is, the best thing to do with students that exhibit potential is not to give them attention, as it will back fire into an attention party - pulling people away from the vision.
This is not to say that we don't make acceptions. When we do though, we are clear and strong up front with the standards. If they get off track, they're done. The true leaders that are ready for leadership are focused and remain on track... for the most part. They're still students.
Small is short lived, so love it - So our numbers dropped over the summer and for the first time I embraced it. There's a fight that rages in many of us as ministers to bring the numbers back up when they drop. Don't get me wrong - I'm all for it. For me, larger numbers means more ears to hear the Word. But God often presents us with the unique opportunity for intimacy and we miss it. There's a dynamic that, for most of us, is a season that's short lived in smaller numbers. Whether it's because of the summer, or the fan being hit by the proverbial selfish poo, I'm embracing a season of the small crowd. See, there's an intimacy that we strive to create in the small group ministrythat we often miss in the small crowd.
Here are some benefits: getting to know each one better so I can speak more directly, focusing less on media quality (like graphics and videos) because those that are here are, for the most part devoted, allowing Student Leaders to learn to lead more hands on. Embrace the small crowd and don't miss the chances that are coming.
I've been so encouraged though our student ministry lately that I thought I'd take a few posts to talk about what I've been learning. I started participating in student ministry in high school leading worship, but I've been doing it for a living for about 5 years. I feel like I just started to figure out what works - after three years here in the Lehigh Valley.
Learn from students.It's a simple concept but how often can I humble myself to the point of being real with a student and saying "Thanks for teaching me that"? The past few weeks God's been reminding me of this concept over and over: that to lead by example is to truly lead like Christ. If I want them to learn from me, I need to learn from them.
A great example of this is our challenge to students to get out of their comfort zones and invite their friends to our events and to create dialogs with them about their following of Christ. We all have those students that latch on and get it... but when was the last time I latched on and shared my Christ-experience with one of my friends? Simple and basic, but profound. It's easy to know what to do. But often what we should be doing though is watching them go after a task and mimicking their results.
Steven Furtick came up with this idea two years ago and we jumped on board then. This year they came out with a free do-it-yourself kit. If you've never done it before it's amazing. DO IT! If you wonder why we do it, you can read a little about it on Steven's Post.
This is the first election that Cher and I are both excited about voting in. ONe of the coolest things that has been done this election year is Rick Warren's Civil forum in which he interviews both cantidates. It more than helped us choose our vote.
...stinks. I don't like it. However, Firefox 3 rocks. I like the new features and updates. If you're still using Internet Explorer, go here and get out from under the bureaucracy of Microsoft and join the independent movement... for free.
I first heard about Firefox about 3 years ago from Louie Giglio at a Passion event the we went to in NYC. I've used it ever since. they have less pop-ups and they came up with the idea of the "tab" where you can have multiple sites open simultaneously without reopening the program. Internet Explorer came out with their own version of this in version 7, but Firefox, in my opinion, has been progressing far beyond them for a few years now.
I'm in the process of writing the message for the workshop I'm teaching this weekend at Brave Generation and this morning in my devotional time I got the scripture that I'll base the teaching on. The workshop's called A Sexual Revolution and I thought I'd give a sneak peak.
Matthew 17:7-8 - Then Jesus came over and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” And when they looked up, Moses and Elijah were gone, and they saw only Jesus.
After the transfiguration, Jesus' touched caused Peter, James, and John to see only Jesus.
I'm looking forward to developing this more throughout today.
So our band is playing outfor the 1st time tomorrow. We'd love to have some support/fans if you're free. Check out the gig, Refuge Cafe. It's raising money for a good cause and the guy putting it together has been doing a stellar job with the monthly event. So much so that's in a few short months it's gotten a name in the community. Tomorrow is an all-day concert starting at noon with a ton of local bands. It's $5 per car load and we go on at 5 PM.
We'll be rocking our repertoire. We figured rather than doing stuff we'd have to learn, we'd do the stuff we're tight with. Hope to see you there.
Episode 6 of The Little Big Church Podcast is up. I wanted to share some of the useful resources for church development that I've come across, so that's what this episode is dedicated to. Here are the links. Check them out now or get a more in-depth view of each one on the podcast.
I wanted to have my devotional time in front of you today. Fact is, is a severe weakness for me - simply setting aside time to devote. So here's my accountability - an exercise in progress.
What hit me today, Lord, is your contrast between vs. 14 and verse 16 - in 14 the disciples list 3 people: John the Baptist, Elijah, and Jeremiah... all who are dead. In verse 16 Peter makes a point to say you are the son of the "living God".
In my Christian experience there's always this emphasis on "life" and you conquering death. Why? I'm not saying it's not huge to conquer death, but why a living God?
This is what I'm feeling God say back to me: This emphasis is my life, not yours. Think outside of your earth and sky and think of how life was meant to be: reunited with me, love-filled, purposefully full of joy, meaning in everything, and knowledge of the true pursuit of the right - what it means and what it is. This is life. This is my breath that I breathe into you when you say "yes" to my life in you and abide moment by moment. Find death and life together and you'll find me there - building my life for you - constructing it out of the ashes of death and sin in this world. My life is full. My life is Joy and Peace. My life is what you all NEED. Only a living God can make that life.
It went great Tuesday night. One of our best events ever. I'm so over counting students, but it was a good crowd last night. I'm not totally over counting, i'm just seeing the benefits clearly of a smaller group. We miss that sometimes when we're only focused on getting out of the numbers hole we're in.
We had planned 5 events for the competition but times ran short fast and we cut it down to 3 - losing Powerball (probably for the best- it was gonna be the roughest game of the night) and Devour - the butter eating contest. The Bubbles won the Team Luncheon on Sunday and Jon Gonzales grabbed a free ride to Brave Generation by bringing five 1st-timers.
It was a long night, but a good one. Our prayer was that it will be used as a catalyst to change someone's life. Next week we start Exposed - The truth about Sex and are excited about seeing eyes opened and wills strengthened.
I feel lazy today. I typically do one wednesday's due to a 12-14 hour day on tuesdays. I was thinking of just veging when I read this post by furtick from a few days ago. It was a kick. I've also been slacking off on the podcast. I'm hoping to get back in the "studio" tomorrow and bang one out about resources.
We've been in the process of rolling out some big changes with our new org chart and we've found that when people's hearts are clearly devoted to the cause of Christ, we get huge confirmation. But when their hearts are in the wrong place - often seeking selfish gain at the core - they ask the kind of questions that reveal that heart clearly. Questions that have a lot of "me" and "my" in them - it's a red flag for turf-guarding.
What I've learned therough this is that if God's challenging me to do something, I need to go into it with my eyes atune to the Holy Spirit so I can see people's hearts. That will be my confirmation - not great success, but great buy-in. But not from great numbers - from great hearts.
I've been seeing a lot of things in our society lately - and the american church - that are done because they've simply been done before.
I can't remember where I heard this story, but it's about a newlywed couple that goes to make their 1st turkey and the wife insists that that you must cut the top half of the turkey off. After arguing for a while about the purpose for it, the wife calls her mother to ask why she always cut the top of the turkey off, since that's who had always done it. The mother-in-law couldn't remember why, except that her mother had always done and since the turkey was always so good, it must be a necessity. So they get grandma on the phone and let her know about the discussion that has held up thanksgiving. The Grandmother simply responds, "Oh my oven was always too small so I had to cut the turkey in half so it'd fit."
How much do we do at the church and in our lives with outdated purpose? We must, as leaders, be constantly reevaluating and asking "Is this still working?" We must do things for real - because they work and are effective and not energy-drains.
We're gearing up for Brave Generation - Holyfire Ministry's New Jersey conference. If you'd like to help a student get there it's $170 per person. We're suggesting getting together as a small group and all chipping in. We'll be giving away a free pass to the Student who brings the most 1st-time visitors to American Gladiators at Ignite next week.
If you'd like to tag along with us you're welcome to - though you'll have to pay your own way - only V-Staff get the privilege of a free ride because they are glory revealed. This is the one conference we'll invest in this year because we're sure of the results. And they're letting me teach a workshop too. Rock on - I'm pumped. I'll be challenging the students to begin a Sexual Revolution.
We rolled out our org. chart last night for the first time to some of our ministry leaders. It was met with good vibes and anticipation for the future. I can't help but think 2 things at once: (1) Why did it take us so long to get here? and (2) Holy crap! Look how much more there is to do!
For anyone walking through or thinking about walking through the process of organizing like this, be patient. Leading people means effective communication and that takes time. More than that it means you as the leader learning the best way to communicate to various audiences. It's more challenging than preaching. You can't blow through it and hope that people will get it eventually - especially at the the stage when you're displaying it for your leadership. But at the same time there will always be some that refuse to get on board, so don't hold the train up for ever, or it will empty out and your work will start over.
Anyone need a cell charger for a G'zOne? Seems I have a surplus now that I found mine... after a wash and dry. Must have been in a pair of shorts from SLT Training weekend. It's a little melted. Still works though. It's been off since Sunday afternoon. Just got half way through my text inbox and it filled back up again. When I turned it on it vibrated for 5 minutes straight.
I need to talk on it less. Text less. It was an addiction as it interfered with everything. Cold turkey was good. Thank God for his love of personal interventions when you procrastinate change.
Being phone-less is weird - I love the freedom but it still feels like something is missing. Looks like it will be into next week before I'm back up. I think this is how freedom works though - I'm apprehensive about it. I've been used to captivity. I wonder if this is how the recently post-enslavement Israelites felt?
I'm really looking forward to this weekend. We're meeting up with some friends from Indiana that we first met last summer. Cher's been involved with a mothering website since Rory was born and last year we went to Ohio for a camping excursion to meet some of the people she'd been talking to for so long. I love meeting new people and it was fun. This past Sunday Cher went to NYC with a couple of girls. But this weekend we get to reconnect with Patrick and Jen. We met them camping last summer and hit it off. Patrick's in Iraq right now and I'm looking forward to some cool stories. He even reads my blog sometimes (praying for you bro if you're out there). Sesame Place is on the schedule - haven't been there since I was small enough to ... well... go there. I feel ready to face the day just thinkin about it.
That's what my car rides are like now. Quiet. I lost my cell charger and my phone went dead. It's been about 36 hours and I'm ashamed that I was so reliant on something technological. I've been feeling, and I know know now that it was the Holy Spirit, like I should shut it off for a while. Now I've been forced to. They discontinued my phone and it's accessories, so I had to order one on line. It's gonna be a few more days. But now, I'm enjoying it. I'm forcing myself to.
Inconvenient? Sure. But nothing compared to the amount of time that I felt I needed to find worth in communicating with others. The need to have constant connections, I believe, was detracting from my desire for closeness with God. It was a distracting that I ran to because I didn't feel like connecting with God.
The cool thing is, I've been praying more clearly than I have in years and I feel like I actually have more time on my hands. I've been spending less time trying to control everything - think about it: we try be aware of every situation through our cell connections so that we can make sure it all goes as planned. While there's nothing inherently wrong with the principle, the definition it was bringing to my day-in, day-out life is scary. If you need the phone on, you need a priority shift. And this one's uncomfortable.
So I'm looking at my To Do List for the week and I was really motivated when I wrote it, but now I'd rather go back to bed. There is a drain on pastoral energy and if you don't refuel you'll go dry. I'm feeling like a conference or a vacation. Money's tight, so I'm not sure either are on the horizon.
What I've done in the past though is taken a day trip to visit a friend or ministry. It's cheap and fun. Last one was Holyfire - that will refuel anyone. Might be time to just get out. Even if it's just me. I've got this need to be with people that I don't always think is healthy.
I've envisioned a successful Student Leadership program since I started in ministry. This year is going to be our best year... I can feel it. Here are a few things I've learned along the way:
Spend time on the process. The first year we chose the most the popular kids - both culturally and spiritually (you know what I'm talking about). That BOMBED and it was my fault. The 2nd year was a big improvement - we had an application process that they went through and they chose us, instead of us inviting them. The problem there is that if you have a hard time saying no, you'll end up with some awesome leaders... and some not so awesome ones that bring down the moral of the team. But you'll learn your lesson. This year we stuck with the application process and handed out 2 freshman scholarships to freshman that we believed had increased leadership potential (usually 10th grade is the cut off). We also required parents to be involved in the interview process so they new what they were getting into. Up until that point we reserved the right to cut, or for them to opt out. I could go on, but the point is, spend some real time thinking through the process with some honest Devil's advocates.
Redefine every 3 months. The one new thing we decided to do this year is reevaluate every three months in the form of an Advance (it's the new buzz word taking over "retreat"). It will allow us to address our concerns to that point and let them honestly communicate as well. It's not gonna be as involved as the training weekend, but quality time will be the focus.
Have a quote book. This really applies to student ministry overall, but recently the hilariousness of some of the things that have come out of the students mouths have been noteworthy. Do it on your phone - twitter it or something. But do something that you can reflect on. Everyone loves "remember when..." moments.
Here's a really bad picture of them under the LOVE monument in downtown Philly late Friday night. We focused on leadership being serving this weekend so we went to Philly to work with the homeless.
So this one is a long time coming. It's been on my heart. I've seen it in the hearts of people around me. I've seen it in myself. Cherie was sharing with me the other day something that her mom said recently that I think sums it up best: Christians in America don't have serious problems... so they create them.
The more I see it the more it frustrates me and turns me off to people. It's this need for attention that overcomes one to the point that they create an issue out of nowhere, or intensify one that could've gone smoothly.
A few thoughts... first, it's all about security. We talked about this in our Elders Bible Study just this morning. If we are secure in our identity as Jesus was here in Philippians 2:6, I'm confident that we wouldn't need to drum up controversy. Second, we must realize that this (not creating dramatics) is counter cultural - everything revolves around drama - movies, celebrities, TV. If you're gonna to counteract this tendency, it may require changing your circle of friends to one that doesn't gossip, or changing your influences and routines.
The bottom line is that it reflects a lack of faith in God. Is He in control or not? If He is, then why use the circumstances that surround us to demonstrate that we are? Someone who lights a fire to watch it burn is called a pyromaniac. I do it. You do it. Let's stop it
So I'm DVR-ing all... ALL the Olympics. I've noticed through watching (or zipping through) 12+ hours a day that the commentators , well, suck. None of them are that impressive. None have given me anything that really accentuated the experience. However, it can be very comical. Next time Phelps swims, listen to Rowdy Gains man crush on the perfect swimming specimen.
I wanted to highlight a few things that have helped me gain a relational connection through some sort of non-traditional media.
Twitter- OK this one I was skeptical of and I still get giggles when I say the name to adults. Check out the video HERE. Here's the low down: Twitter is a simple website designed to broadcast what your doing throughout your day to people who follow you. You login in and in 140 characters or less describe what you're doing at that moment. Then it sends that update to the people that follow you. Here's the cool thing - you can get your cell phone involved. You can link your cell phone to your account and text to a certain number and update from your phone so it's accurate updating. The other cool thing is that you can follow people as well and get their updates, also through a text message to your phone. And there are some cool people out there that you can follow - pastors, innovators, BIG leaders.
How has this helped relationally? A couple of ways. I got some students into it and now I follow them and they follow me each day - which grows our relationship from one or two days a week. Also, I've been making it accessible for parents during our overnight events (during which we take students phones away) and I make sure to twitter throughout the event so they get 5 or 6 updates a day during an event. You can also add your twitter to your blog (look -->)
Blogging - So obviously you know what it is, but do you use it? One of the things I've tried hard to keep going is consistency with my blog. It's a way for me to make infinite connections with people in the church, other people in my field, and random people throughout the world. So if you don't have one, get one and market it to people. If you have one, shoot for 3 times a week. Just journal your thoughts. it's like having a 3 minute conversation with a group of people that you want to know you.
Make sure that you read some too. There's a bunch out there that are funny and great assets for ministry and leadership. Here are a few.
I'll admit, I'm a sucker for media. I love the newest and latest electronics and computer software. I've taught our leadership team over the past few weeks about Google's multiple assets - like email, calender, and docs. We use Aviom's in ear monitor system. We have a sound both with lots of buttons and we make our own videos. But here's the thing, without a relational co
nnection that runs deeper than the glow of the latest gadgets, it's all in vain.
I believe that they are proportionate. The more cutting edge assets you employ, the deeper your need for human connection. Simply because people will question your motives - are you trying to impress, or actually using the assets to a purpose. No doubt they can
be assets, but they can also be counteractive.
I've seen the temptation in myself to let the technology su
rge ahead of the connection and am even more convinced. This is why simple churches without all the latest tech grow - they realized the need for the connection before the assets of technology and thus that is what's primarily their focus. We all know that the focus should be on the relational connection that proves the depth of true love, but do others see it. Perception is reality.
So before you go and splurge financially on iPhones for everyone or computerized lighting, maybe we need to splurge some quality time on our 1st impressions team training or small group integration.
I have found however some media elements that have directly helped out in the area of relational connecting. I'll highlight some tomorrow.
So I'm on this tangent of leadership and un-involvement. Here's my thought: how much of the Bible is exemplified in our lives? Let's take stock...
Love without limits?
Compassion on the least?
Passion for justice?
Life colored by a communal sacrifice?
Selflessness?
Mercy and patience to those who don't derserve it?
See, we take the easy ones... like number of Jesus bumper stickers or T-shirts and claim a kingdom mindset. Or claiming a drive for Christlike-ness and living in a house that's too big and driving a more-than-reliable car.
When are we going to get our hands dirty in the sinful crap of life and let go of the fear of God being an impostor? That's really how we see Him sometimes, isn't it? An impostor that invades our lives. I don't want a big house, I need shelter. I don't want a nice car, transportation helps me get to and from opportunities. I want to see lives changed and joyful about their future because now it has direction.
What do you need to let fall to the side so you can get dirrty?
That's the symbol for the olympics... without the offset of the 2 lower rings. They start tonight and Cher and I are poised - having cleared the DVR of unecessary footage. Our favorites are swimming and track and field. We had a blast watching the qualifiers. Delilah.. yeah the one from the song - she didn't qualify. She ran the steeple chase, which we didn't even know existed as a sport, let alone an olympic one.
So I got this email from David himself... kinda. But I thought it was cool enough to let you all know about. His upcoming DVD of his latest concert club tour (yeah... we were there in the front row) is going to hit selected theaters.
How often do I send mixed messages from my platform? We all have a platform. Maybe it's just your home. Maybe your job. Whatever it is, we must gut check ourselves with this question that has plagued me (or Holy Sprited me): Am I ready to live this now?
It's always easier to direct. It's simpler to see the big picture than it is to get there. The task though for us as leaders, wherever you're leading, is to accomplish the goal. It's not to tell people what the goal is.
Two thoughts on what I've learned about this thus far: people learn better, meaning what they learn lasts longer, when they see the task accomplished passionately. Don't miss that last word. The second thing is that if we as leaders remove ourselves from the task for too long we'll loose the goal entirely. Those who are ADD I'm sure are with me here. How often do you start a task only to forget why you're doing it? The same thing governs leadership.
We've redone (because Charles was awesome enough less than a week before traveling to an undisclosed area in Southeast Asia to redo it) the interview that sucked. The audio quality was so bad on the 1st interview with Charles that I was ashamed. But Episode 5 of The Little Big Church Podcast - The Sticks - is done and up.
I wanted give you some links to some of what Charles and I talked about and give you his info.
Here's Charles blog and you can email him through that.
Here's the link to the Andy Stanley book Charles referenced - Choosing to Cheat.
I'm a big fan of cheat codes in video games. They let you try again and again until you get it right and win. So I know the quality of the Charles Hill interview was like like nails on a chalkboard due to the audio quality. Charles is quality though - he's redoing the interview so we can nail it. It should be up by tomorrow evening. Charles... you're awesome.
Cherie cut Rory's hair this week. It's only her 2nd hair cut, but I found myself cringing as Cher took her 1st stab at being a Stylist. It was time for a change. She looks bigger, doesn't she? It's amazing how change that makes us cringe in fear ends up making us actually look more grown up in Christ.
We're (Cher and I) building up our foundation. As we look down the road, we see a great need to have a team surround us to pray for God's direction. So this week we're building up that team by sending out some personal correspondence to some of our closest supporters - people that we know will be honest, will actually pray for us, and will rally with excitement or heartache. The pressing of this need on us is greater and greater as we see God move in ministry.
So Sunday we concluded Go Home, our 1st ever local retreat. I just wanted to tell you a little bit about what we did and perhaps you might gain some inspiration in one way or another. I hope so, since we've never done it before and I'd love to save you some trouble.
Overall it was a huge success and we'll do it again. It was risky from a chaotic standpoint to do it the same week as our Vacation Bible school (our summer children's program), but it really worked to our advantage. Each day the 14 students that participated in Go Home worked with the children from 9-12 and then we headed off to Habitat for Humanity's Blitz build. Every night was a bit different, but mostly there was some acoustic worship and Bible study. Here are a few lessons we learned:
Go Habitat! Habitat for Humanity hooked us up. Their policy is typically that each student under 18 needs a chaperon, but they worked overtime to find tasks that we could do around their work sites. It included everything from moving building materials to moving rocks to moving gabage. Lots of moving. To the students, it may have seemed menial at times, but the tasks they jumped on freed up the more skilled workers to get more done. We also happened to land Go Home during their Blitz build, which is where they throw extra effort towards marketing and get more people there. This helped create a team environment greater than usual. The students stepped up and few of them complained at all.
Build in free time. So this is no surprise, but over schedule a week-long activity and you'll have a mutiny on your hands. We let the students choose what we were doing, what songs we worshipped to, even parts of the schedule. It let them own the event a bit and they bought into it for the duration.
Come down hard. This is one I should've known, but didn't put into place. Two things I will definetely do differently next retreat (whatever it is) is to remind the V-Staff (volunteer Staff) of their authority to send students home. The V-Staff stepped up for Go Home and let me sleep at home most of the week. But occasionally when I left the building, they were disrespected. I have always made it clear to our staff that I will back them up when they have to make hard decisions, like sending students home from an event, but it's never really had to be practiced. It's well known that students are looking for boundaries and will push to find them. I believe in freedom of restriction for the most part so that the students learn responsibility, but when the few rules that are in place are disrespected, you and you're staff need to come down hard in love.
Turn your leaders loose. Devin and Amanda, two of our Student Leaders, stepped up huge this week and confirmed for me this principle. They did everything form help plan major parts of the week to handle some tough relational disputes, and they hit it out of the park. I've been trying to teach students to be responsible and treat them like adults - because they deserve it - but it was awesome to see it come together.
So if you're thinking of keeping things cheap (we charged $125 per student, or $25 per day) and local, learn from this. Flex with the economy (that's not in a recession).
Ok, this one I have DOWN! I've noticed, and not just in my life, that the passion that great leaders share is accompanied not by the need for organizational help. They surround themselves with people that fill their weaknesses and many times, organization is one of them.
What's awesome about this is that it's ok. Leaders don't need to be amazingly organized. In fact many of the leaders that I've been around that are anal about the organizational aspect are not great leaders at all.
What must consume us as great leaders is a sensitive passion for the vision and goal. Vision casting often goes hand in hand with someone else who's greatest strength is administration. Leaders cast the big goal and all it's details out in front of an audience and then we must learn to step back and let others lead us through the terrain of our weaknesses.
The hang up comes right there... letting others lead us. I believe in a team leadership mentality, where we are all equal in quality as members of the team, but not in every area that necessitates the goal. One of two failures often consume us if we miss this principle: isolation due to thinking we can organize it all ourselves, or complete failure to reach the goal because we didn't invest the time in finding the right people to fill our weaknesses (probably because we don't have any).
A great leader admits a lack of organization and finds someone with that strength in their top 3 abilities and allows them to lead. I've found lately that allowing others to lead often means shutting my trap.
Last night I asked God to get me up when He wanted me to. Usually that's an excuse for sleeping in (don't lie!), but this morning at 6 Tate woke up... and went back to sleep. He never does that. In fact he's been getting up really early for a few weeks now. The spirit was loud... I got up. I got to meet my other neighbor - which never would have happened if I hadn't gotten up that un-godly early .
I've noticed in the great leaders of today that publicizing their weakness, which goes against an entire generation's view on leadership, never mind the culture itself, creates a bond with their audience that is unmatched. I want to follow someone that has been there and screwed up - because if you want me to go there, chances are that something's going off kilter and I want to know that I'm not the only mutant.
The mentality that clergy are closer to God and thus have a better life makes me want to puke. That's like saying because I'm a mechanic I have a nicer car, or because I'm a carpenter I have a nicer house - and we know both those cenarios are rarely true.
I was going to hell, then I made a decision that changed that. It was God that saved me and my life is not mine. Easy to say, right? Then why does it always look like my life when I walk it out?
The bottom line is that we all have failures and struggles and no leader is above that. Publicizing them let's those you are raising up be on your team, and not under your thumb. Hiding weakness is pride and people can sense it eventually. They know it's fake.
Join a team and stop building your empire.
Here's one of mine - I'm scared to meet new people. I have a real issue with acceptance. I could tell you about my reasons, but it doesn't matter. I will make a fool out of myself to feel accepted. Usually this means profuse nervous joking in public. It also keeps me from going out of my church box to meet anyone else. I have 3 neighbors. Up until a month ago I only had met one of them. I've gone golfing with Travis, we have each other's cell #'s, etc. But God's really challenged me over the past few months that these are the easy relationships to be Christ to. Just live next to them. I met Carlos and Rachel about a month ago - he's a UPS driver and they just had their 2nd baby. This morning, After 2 Years, I met Ed. He's taken my garbage cans in for me numerous times. Today I helped him change his flat.
Let me just say this to finish - I wrestle with these things and I need you to get through them because on of the main reasons you are in my life is to help me because I need it.
I've been swamped this week getting ready for our 1st ever, never been done before, local summer retreat. I have a few more thoughts on rare leadership qualities, but I might not get to them til next week. Honestly, blogging is not my top priority.
Also next week (as long as I figure out the technology) will be episode 5 of The Little Big Church Podcast with an interview with Charles Hill, founder of The Sticks conference that will launch this fall. It's an awesome idea for the small town/small church that I won't be attending due to SOMEONE"S due date. Check it out here. See you next week.
We know that we have to fail to learn - and we do. But do we as leaders, in any field, choose failure from time to time?
I know it's typically not a strong leadership quality, but I think if we looked deep enough, great leaders choose the knowledge that comes from failure at the onset of a task.
Here are some great examples: a missions trip that seems way too expensive, a service change that is edgy enough to drive people away, or raising up a leader no one else will touch.
I love listening to Clayton King when he's filling in for Perry Noble. A few months ago he left me with this nugget: "Why do we feel like we have to pray about the things that God has already commanded us to do?" Like sharing the gospel. Why? Because we hate choosing failure and God may be leading us down that road on purpose occasionally. It's a pride thing and deep down we all know it... we don't want to look like a loser.
These are the qualities that good leaders risk that make them great. If I can just put these all together, I could actually speak from experience.
Among the things that I just don't get about how God works is the fact that you can lead, period, let alone a church, without humility. Pride in one's own abilities and ambitions is an epidemic in ministry and clogs the arteries of popular culture.
Why? Because pride is sneaky? No. Because pride feels good. I have a new polo shirt. It's lavender. I got a lot of compliments the first time I wore it. The other day a student asked me why I wore it to an event and I said "Because it makes me feel good about myself." It's true across the board. We all have lists of things that we have done that have been successful or have gotten praise that make us feel good. Note here that they don't go together. Honest people are hard to find today and people will praise you for their own recognition more than for yours. Kinda takes the wind out of the sails, but that's the point.
I"m studying through Matthew and in chapter 4 Jesus is tempted by the Devil, John's imprisoned, and He calls his first four disciples. One of the things that struck me that should be in all of us is a back-seat willingness. In verse 17 we see that He didn't start preaching 'til John stopped, due to imprisonment. How often in our ministries do we push ourselves to the front, take the spotlight, or start our own initiative? We must approach life and ministry with this thought: I am who I am only because Jesus loves on me. And oh, can we twist things out of that to make our pride look like humility. Here's simple key that I see many people miss (myself included): when you brag about your humility, you've missed the boat.
Work on it today. If we can instill this rare quality we can be more useful to God.
I'm making a few exceptions to my healthy effort. 1) Sweet tea - the love is too strong to sever the relationship. 2) While we will try to choose healthier dinners, I'll eat what's served - I'm not going out of my way too much with the food choice, more food portion.
I've learned this about myself: if I don't make exceptions on endeavors I'll miss the journey and one of two things will happen: either I'll miss the journey of life and end up lonely, or I'll abandon the quest for fear of missing life. So, although it's against many instincts, I build in exceptions to things now. Case and point -today's event. We had a great block party today to get people involved in Power Lab (our summer, week-long, children's program) that took all day to pull off. I spent the day riding around with some of the students that would make it a success and got into a short conversation with Devin, one of our student leaders, about this point. Explaining to her my past mistakes of missing the fun for the sake of a successful event reminded me to enjoy it - really have fun. One of the exceptions I made today was I took Rory (my three-year-old) with me everywhere. It took some more effort, but I saw her more than I would have otherwise. It was worth it.
So It's been a long day. It was almost 11 when I got home from Ignite. Since the day included a good 2 miles or so of walking and tomorrow is the Tatamy block party, I'm not running in the morning. Not coping out in the morning when the alarm goes off (someone reading this had to do that this morning), making a wise decision now. Then Thursday, back to the run.
So when you do a blitz week, just in case you were wondering "What's a marketing blitz week for a church event like?", you don't have time for anything else.
Family first. Middle school "better than" stories second. Blog 3rd.
I've barely had time to breath today and it's family time now. But a quick note - i've decided it's time to get healthy and if I don't make it public, I might get lazy. Starting today, I'm eating better (and less). Meaning less sugar and grease. And I'm running everyday for about 10-15 minutes. Here are my 2 motivations:
First, I simply want to be around for their lives and the lives of their kids as long as I can.
Second, I'd like to lose this...
It's gotten worse since I started my "twin diet" and let's face it, it's ugly. Yes, your metabolism will slow down and this will happen to you.
And so I embark on a new season. Started reading the New Testament from start to finish today to commemorate the event. Stay tuned for updates.
Ok - no deep spiritual philosophy. Just simplifying life. We had one of these when I was a kid and I snatched one up at a yard sale a few months ago thinking of the kids and how I hate to peel Tate's apples (if I don't he spits the chunks of the peel everywhere). But then I discovered something remarkable: you could put a potato on this thing and it will peel it and cut it up - skipping a whole step! You miss a few spots of the skin, but it peels enough to just run it through the device and toss it in the pot.
We've been eating a lot of mashed potatoes lately.
Rule 4: Focus on as little as possible. A few weeks ago I had to have two hard conversations with two different people that I know love me - because they had the conversations with me. I preach focus like it's my job - and it is - but these brothers both had to tell me to scoop some stuff off my plate and regain mine.
This rule isn't real in depth, but again, hard to practice. Many of us leaders are fixers - we want to see success and we succumb to the lie that if we do it, it will be successful, but if anyone else does it, it' might fail. This leads to the gravy sloshing off one side of our plates while the greens beans are rolling off the other. Our plates are full of stuff to do and that violates rule 1. But the bottom line is this: the less you focus on, the better it will be.
The key here is that scary word many leaders shy away from... no. It means that things go undone and people get upset. But think about this, if we would build a culture around us that says "I don't do everything because I'm not good at everything and I refuse to sacrifice quality", would people get as upset?
Get started now - just pick something to say no to that you would really like to see done well... and see what happens. I've found that the outcomes are limited to 2 categories: either it's not getting done and nobody cares - so drop it, or it's not getting done and now the need is finally clear to to the masses. Unfortunetely, most of the things I've dropped, no one cares about, which hurts at first and you'll try to come up with excuses like "well... they'll only notice after it's too late!" But once you accept your responsibility alone and drop them, it's very freeing.
Whether you're a CEO or a high school student, these rules apply.
Thanks for listening to my short list of the things that are changing me. I hope God uses it to change you.
