Tag: Great Leaders

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Bet your Senior Pastor doesn't do this.

That's probably not the right way to begin this post, but I love that our Senior Pastor has a heart for young people!  He doesn't just say it...he LIVES it. Pastor Beeson goes to our middle school camp every year AND HAS for the last 36+ years!  I don't know many Senior Pastor's, at a church like ours, who brave that challenge year after year.  We have two weeks of middle school camp because we can't fit in one week and he goes to both of them!  That's tight! In most places Middle School camp "is the youth staff's" job...and might I add there's nothing wrong with that, because it IS the "youth staff's" job.  But it is also nice to have a Senior Pastor so on board with raising up the next generation that they would actively take some time out of their schedule to do life with the next generation for a week at a hot sweaty camp! Pastor Beeson wrote about his anticipation of our camp here HERE.

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Great wisdom about 'Mountain Top Experiences'

(Random Photo from web)

Great wisdom about "Mountain Top Experiences" HERE.

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Repost: How to protect your kids in a digital world

Great post from a great parent:

Here's the main bullet points:

1. Internet filtering
2. Computer game time
3. Cell Phone privileges
4. Cell Phone Limits
5. iPod Touch restrictions
6. Email monitoring
7. Facebook monitoring
8. TV time

Check it out here

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Wisdom gives me a concussion sometimes

THIS POST talks about getting concussions from crushing G forces and I feel like I get a mental concussion every time I read the wisdom on this blog, this blog, this blog, and this blog.  I feel like my head is being slammed into the reality of the knowledge I have yet to learn! This is one of the most profound posts of the year for sure! You HAVE to go read it! Thanks guys for letting me still feel the glory of concussions even though I'm not out on the football field anymore!  Reminds me of my playing days only I don't sweat as much. I have other favorite blogs but these few I'm consistently amazed!

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Denzel Washington keeping the Faith in Hollywood

I tried not posted the whole article but it is REALLY GOOD!!! Denzel is by far my favorite actor and this article title "Keeping the faith" seals the deal.  Man on Fire is my favorite movie of all time. Some excerpts in the article read: "Denzel Washington is more than just an Oscar-winning superstar. He's a Christian who's serious about his roles ... even when they get a bit bloody, like in the Book of Eli." "...Though Washington isn't a huge fan of the word "religion" and refrains from any sort of "I'm right, you're wrong" talk, he is not ashamed to speak bluntly about his Christian beliefs. "I believe that Jesus is the Son of God," he says. "I've been filled with the Holy Spirit. I know it's real. I was in the room. My cheeks blew up, I cried like a baby, and it scared me to death. It kind of scared me off it. I backed up and went the other direction, to be honest with you. I didn't know what was going on. It was too strong. It has taken me many years to come back around." Sitting in his house recently, reading the Bible (he's on his third time reading the whole thing straight through), Washington came across a passage about wisdom and understanding in Proverbs 4, which made him reflect on his life. "I'm in this big house with all this stuff," he observed. "I've heard that saying, 'You never see a U-Haul behind a hearse.' You can't take it with you. The Egyptians tried; they got robbed. I said, 'What do you want, Denzel?' And one of the devotional words that day was wisdom. So I started praying on that. 'God, give me a dose of that.' I can't get any more successful. But I can get better. I can learn to love more. I can learn to be more understanding. I can gain more wisdom." Like his character in The Book of Eli, Washington believes in prophetic calling and tries to make the most of what he believes God has given him to work with: In his case, worldwide fame and one of the most storied acting careers of his generation. Washington recalls a story from when he was 20 years old that demonstrates how intimately he relates his faith with his career. The day was March 27, 1975, and Washington—who had just been kicked out of school—was sitting in his mother's beauty parlor. An old woman who was under the dryer kept looking at Washington and then asked him for a piece of paper, on which she shakily wrote the word "prophecy." The woman was named Ruth Green, one of the oldest church members in the town, known to have a gift of prophecy. That day she said to Washington, "Boy, you are going to travel the world and speak to millions of people." That summer, Washington was a counselor at a YMCA Camp in Connecticut. The counselors performed skits for the kids, and someone suggested to Washington that he had natural talent and should pursue acting. That fall, Washington went back to school at Fordham University's Lincoln Center campus, where he started his training in acting. "Years later," remembers Washington, "I asked my pastor if he thought I was called to be a priest, and he said, 'Well, aren't you talking to millions of people? Haven't you traveled the world?'" Recognizing that he has been placed in a unique position, Washington feels compelled to make the most of it, "preaching" positive messages however he can through his acting. "I've tried to bend my roles," he says, "even the worst of roles like Training Day. The first thing I wrote on my script [for Training Day] was 'the wages of sin is death.' In the original script, you found out that [my character] died on television. And I said, 'No, no. In order for me to justify him living in the worst way, he has to die in the worst way.' I had Ethan [Hawke] pull me out of the car, and I crawled like a snake. The whole neighborhood turns their back on me, and then I get blown to bits." It was a littler easier to "bend" the character of Eli in a positive direction, "though not really," jokes Washington, because "this guy is more violent than the guy inTraining Day. He's more violent than Malcolm X." Similar to Washington's character in Man on Fire, however, Eli's violence is in the service of protecting the innocent. READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE.

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Church, where is our relentless pursuit?

I was talking to some Student Ministry folks a couple of weeks ago who were frustrated with their current enviornment in their church.  They felt like the overall church culture didn't give them enough freedom to make some of the changes they wanted and needed to make in the student ministry to reach their desired vision EVEN THOUGH it was killing their ministry. I'm not much of a people pleaser at times so I told them, get with your team, get with your leadership, get with your supervisors/elders/etc. and explain to them that you feel like these are the changes that need to be made in order to reach the vision you all say you want for your students.  Then YOU just have to make the call and make the changes you feel are necessary to bring about the agreed upon vision...which, might I add in both cases, was TOTALLY in line with what they church SAID they wanted.

I've found that, as leaders, sometimes what we SAY we want and what we're willing to do to get what we want are on two totally opposite ends of the spectrum.  odd...but common!

I wish I would have had this quote when I was talking to them because you know sometimes you can say something profound to someone and it doesn't produce the motivation you anticipated because it's a tough reality to deal with.  YET, the moment it's backed up by other brilliant leaders we all look up to, the motivation to "go do it" kicks in. Here's the quote:

"A leader has to be able to change an organization that is dreamless, soulless, and visionless...SOMEONE'S got to make a wake up call." - Warren Bennis

I'm praying that anyone in the shoes described above, will have the courage to make that tough/challenging wake up call to reach the vision God's planted in their organizations mind.  If the vision is that compelling, shouldn't our actions DRIVE US toward fulfilling it at all costs? Churches...where is our relentless pursuit of bringing the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven?

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What I look for in a mentor

(This is no secret.  Mark Beeson is one of the greatest mentors on the planet!)

As I sit at camp this morning I can't help but think about all the "mentoring" that is going to go on this week.  Mentoring is one of my passion areas and I study Paul and Timothy a lot to see how to get better at both ends of it.  I've always had a really closed mind about mentoring relationships.  I believe that while I can learn from anyone, there are flat out some people I DON'T want to learn from.  Just sayin.

Here's some things I've always looked for in a mentor:

1. Unforced Relationship.  Don't try to force it, if it doesn't happen naturally, let it go.

2. Mutually beneficial.  It shouldn't be one-sided, both people should benefit from the interaction.

3. Reputation.  This one is a soft-side sort of judgment call but I actively seek people who have a good track record or some history of success when it comes to mentoring.

4. Knowledge in an area i'm pursing.  Is there legitimately an area this person can help me with.

5. Trustworthy.  Can I trust them with my life, family, thoughts, vision, dreams, innovations.

(Just to name a few of the big ones.)  

Some things you deliberately did not see on my list:

1. MOST sought after.  I could care less who MOST PEOPLE wish they could be mentored by.  I need what I need.

2. MOST recognized.  I don't look for the most recognizable person and seek a relationship with them.

3. Credentials. Sometimes there's an area I need help with that doesn't require a PH.D it simply requires life experience. 

4. Older.  I don't deliberately look for someone older than me.

(Note: if a person has these, it's not a knock against them by any means.  These are just things that I don't specifically look for in a mentoring relationship.)

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Wisdom on Credibility

  Mark said some things at Leadership Live a few weeks ago that gave me a lot to think about.  Hope it does the same for you. "Credibility is gained over time but can be lost in an instant." - Mark Beeson

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two of the most inspiring days = speechless

I just had two of the most inspiring days I've had since beginning my full-time ministry run bar none.  It was so good I'm not even sure what to say about it at this point.  I just know that I've been to many conferences, heard many seminars, but never been inspired like being apart of Leadership Live.  (More to come on why later) Tim, posted the picture of the crew here.  Other Leadership Live specific info here.

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Will you be faithful?

This post really helped me  READ IT HERE

Here's a glimpse: "Scripture seems to imply that God will often test us before God blesses us. He wants to know if we’ll be faithful before giving us more."