I am Jamaica's husband, Foursquare's comm director, Personality's founder, and a catalyst for CFCC.
I'm also blogging at:
Personality™
Church Marketing Sucks
January 2007 Archives
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January 31, 2007
Vital Friends
Filed under: Inspiration
Finished reading Vital Friends by Tom Rath earlier this month. Tom is a Gallup guru so the book is driven by deep research and analysis.
The premise is that we spend too much time focusing on the wrong kind of relationships in our lives. We focus a lot on psychology (our relationship with ourself), sociology (our relationship with groups), and anthropology (our relationship to culture). We spend very little time focusing on that one-on-one relationship with another person.
Rath started his initial research when he was working on a Gallup project about homelessness. He found that the reason many people become homeless was due to a relationship with someone (perhaps the last and only relationship they had left) that was lost. Perhaps a spouse who gave up, children who won't talk to them anymore, or a parent who has resolved to let the child fend for themselves. Furthermore, Rath found that many people get out of being homeless because someone began and cultivated a relationship with a homeless person.
It was the absence of a one-on-one relationship that resulted in homelessness. It was the presence of a one-on-one relationship that resulted in home-full-ness.
Continue reading "Vital Friends"
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January 30, 2007
Heated Meetings
Filed under: Brad Works
Coming off of the "high" from last Friday's meeting, we had a follow-up pow wow this morning. Today was much shorter and very helpful toward solidifying details. I love it when things get heated in meetings because it means passion is coming out and people are believing in what they're saying. There were a few heated moments today when everybody squirmed a bit, especially me. I hate conflict but I love its outcomes.
It's times like these when you're grateful for a team that loves each other and wants to work through the tough stuff!
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January 29, 2007
Telling People What They Want to Hear
Filed under: Leadership
I was on a conference call last week when the gentleman on the other end of the phone asked for an update on how many people were registered for a particular event my team is responsible for promoting. Knowing that the numbers would be lower than what he was wanting to hear, my mind began racing for creative ways to communicate the real numbers. I was trying to avoid that downer moment when everyone in the room and on the call would look at me as if I had just taken the bottle away from a starving infant orphan.
Instead, I chose to go for the baby's bottle and reported the real numbers. It was a downer. No one took into consideration that the numbers were actually right on track. They instead suffered from that disease so many of us can relate to that says success isn't measured by reality, it's measured by perception.
When perception dictates our success, reality seems unbearable. I believe at the core of this problem is our driving need for acceptance. We want people to accept us, but we're unwilling to accept ourselves, so we hide behind a perception that is ultimately untrue.
I'm tired of hiding. And trying to see behind your mask is getting a little old too.
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January 26, 2007
A Personality Day
Filed under: Brad Works
Spent the majority of today with the Personality team. If you don't know these people, you just have to meet them. They are a crazy fun crew!
We're always refining our service offerings so that we can stay a leader in the cause marketing world. Several months ago we decided to test some of our own "genius" out on the company (us). So today we put ourselves through one of the processes we do for our clients and it was powerful! I think more organizations should be doing this. How do your products, services, promises work for you?
We spent four hours dissecting who we are, what we do, and who we do it for. It was some of the most productive four hours we've spent together in a long time. The results will be seen in subtle and significant ways in the weeks and months ahead.
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January 24, 2007
Meeting of the Minds, NextGen Summit
Filed under: Brad Works
Spent the last two days at the Anaheim Convention Center meeting with 100 leaders from around the country who are converging together for the Foursquare NextGen Summit later this year (December 29-31, 2007). I made a couple presentations about the communications plan, how we're going to bring 8,000 people together, and what happens when we all get there.
I love that we're all about three causes for this event: poverty, orphans, and human trafficking. Last night we saw a screener of the upcoming April 13 release of the Lion's Gate film Trade with Kevin Kline. Powerful movie!
Being around these leaders (young and old) is energizing. I love it when people catch it and start taking things further than you originally imagined.
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January 18, 2007
Meetings That Go Pow
Filed under: Brad Works
I spent the whole day hopping from meeting to meeting to phone appointments and back to meetings. I observed three things today about meetings:
1. When scheduling meetings, I always try and cluster them. The tendency is to want to space them out to allow for re-grouping time. When I cluster meetings it keeps my mind flowing and rolling. It also allows for my non-meeting time to also be clustered, resulting in larger periods of productive time. I'd much rather have 90 minutes of non-meeting time than six breaks of 15 minutes each.
2. When you're in a debriefing meeting, processing something that has already happened, it is important to be thinking about how this information applies to what is next. This is especially difficult when you're debriefing something that you are not going to repeat. This was the case today -- I kept asking "how and where can I apply this lesson?"
3. I love it when you're in a meeting and an idea is shared that everybody gives a "wow" to. It's that moment when you realize that one statement/idea was worth the whole meeting. It's important to look for those moments, and the sooner they happen the better. The energy that zaps everybody else is contagious and often spurs on the rest of the participants.
By the way, I really dislike meetings.
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CFCC, Smart?
Filed under: Brad Works
I was mildly amused to see that earlier this week the Center for Church Communication made the list for one of the 59 smartest organizations online. The list is put out by Seth Godin's Squidoo and a couple of other organizations.
I didn't think much of the recognition until talking with Josh Cody this morning. Josh made an obvious but overlooked point. The fact that mainstream media has acknowledged a "church thing" as smart is quite a statement. We didn't start CFCC to be seen as smart or even gain the attention of media. We started it to elevate the conversation about church communication so that churches would get better at telling the Story.
Many thanks to the CFCC community for being so smart -- now don't let it get to your head!
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January 17, 2007
Know Compromise
Filed under: Politics
Politics = The art of compromise.
Religion = No compromise.
Problem = You can't compromise and not compromise.
What gives?
Who gives?
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January 16, 2007
Blue Like Jazz
Filed under: God, Faith & Spirituality
Just finished reading Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. The book has been out for quite sometime but I never jumped on the band wagon for whatever reason.
Miller is poignant, pugnacious and pithy. He's one of the only people I know that translates almost identically as a speaker. It's as if I could read him or listen to him and feel like I am engaged in the same experience.
The book is a perfect pause in the journey for those of us that grew up in church. I found myself relating to many of Miller's ramblings and encouraged by his random and risky behavior as it related to living faith.
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January 15, 2007
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Filed under: Inspiration
I am really getting wrapped up in today's holiday. This day is just a reminder -- his birthday actually. But the reminder is of a man who did some huge things with implications that are still being realized and still being forgotten.
I wrote a few different entries over on the Personality and Church Marketing Sucks blogs. Check them out:
- Irrelevant Social Clubs: Martin Luther King Jr. on the Church
- MLK Day On, Not Off
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2007
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Charismatic Leaders Council
Filed under: Rant
I flew to Orlando this morning on the Delta red eye. I'm traveling with Foursquare president Jack Hayford on a quick 36-hour trip as he facilitates the fourth annual "Charismatic Leaders Council." This gathering of about 100 "industry" heavyweights is hosted by charismatic publishing mecca Strang Communications. I'm here more for the journey than the destination, as the travel time is prime opportunity to have uninterrupted face-time with the boss.
Continue reading "Charismatic Leaders Council"
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January 10, 2007
Job Openings
Filed under: Brad Works
Between Personality™ and Foursquare, I have a few job openings on my teams. Both teams are completely different, but they share the same cruel boss.
Personality is looking for a project director to replace our existing one who is leaving prematurely due to the news that her sister is in the advanced stages of cancer.
Foursquare is looking for two people, an art director and copywriter.
If you know of anybody who would be a good fit, send them our way. Thanks!
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January 9, 2007
Apple TV, iPhone
Filed under: Stuff I Like
Apple does it again with Steve Jobs' announcment today of the all new--much hyped--Apple TV and the amazing iPhone. I shared a few glee-filled moments with the Personality creative team as we all discovered the new products together. As each page loaded, we were shouting and drooling and checking credit lines. How can Apple continue to do this? Wow.
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Backpack from 37signals
Filed under: Stuff I Like
I am really liking this Backpack from the geniuses over at 37signals. I started off with the free version which worked nice for a few weeks, but I upgraded so I could have a little more functionality. I use Backpack mostly for a handful of different to-do lists I have that don't fit nicely into a calendar (they have no due dates, but I want to get to them). I also keep track of my reading lists, strengths fodder, airline frequent flyer accounts and more. The reminder thing is pretty cool too, again, for stuff that doesn't fit into my normal calendar system.
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January 8, 2007
Your Future, As Seen in Memories
Filed under: Inspiration
I took a class a couple years ago on the book of Psalms. One of the things that has stuck with me from that class is the concept of moving forward while looking back. The teacher shared a story that has been handed down through the generations that paints the picture of a rowboat. When you sit in a rowboat and row, you are facing backwards but you're moving forward. In other words, in order to navigate your forward motion and where you're headed, you actually have to face your past and where you've been to end up where you want to be.
The parallel is that in life, sometimes our future is best determined by looking at where we've been. I know that sounds kind of anti-motivational-speaker-ish, but I think there is some truth to this. The Bible is full of moments when people made altars to God to remember what had just happened (Noah, Abraham, Moses, etc.). Imagine running into those altars years later. Yep, that did happen. And yep, it can happen again.
It appears that this idea of looking back to look ahead is also backed by scientific research. This week's memo from Roy H. Williams has an excellent summary.
According to lead researcher Karl Szpunar, "Our findings provide compelling support for the idea that memory and future thought are highly interrelated and help explain why future thought may be impossible without memories."
This is one thing I love about blogs -- it's kind of a digital altar of sorts to remember what has happened. Artists do it through music, pictures, and books. How are you remembering your past? It's likely to be similar to how your future is already looking.
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January 1, 2007
My 2007 Daily Prayer
Filed under: Life's Journey
Here is my daily prayer for 2007. I borrowed heavily from last year, hoping to continue a regular posture of dependence, gratitude and wisdom.
Dear Lord, help me TODAY as I…
- Express gratefulness, the foremost quality of a trusting disciple
- Pursue the ideas that require faith and fear to go head-to-head
- Determine what I can eliminate from my to-do list
- Ask, “Is this sustainable?”
- Learn to discern between busy-ness and fruitfulness
- Encourage others in their strengths
- Respect and honor Jamaica, never getting too familiar with her
- Find evidences of grace in Jamaica
- Learn to be where I am, not where I am not
- Learn to rest and relax
Abba, I surrender my will and my life to you today, without reservation and with humble confidence, for you are my loving Father. Set me free from self-consciousness, from anxiety about tomorrow, and from the tyranny of the approval and disapproval of others, that I may find joy and delight simply and solely in pleasing you. I realize that every hunger that entices me in the flesh is an exploitation of a need that can be better met by you. So Jesus, I trust you. May my inner freedom be a compelling sign of your presence, your peace, your power, and your love. Let your plan for my life gracefully unfold one day at a time. I love you with all my heart, and I place all my confidence in you.
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