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
October 2008 Archives
October 31, 2008
Reformation Day
Filed under: God, Faith & Spirituality
Today is Reformation Day. In Wittenberg, Saxony (present-day Germany), 491 years ago today, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the All Saints' Church, which served as a notice board for university-related announcements. The result would be arguably the most significant transformation in church history.
Jamaica and I traveled to Germany three years ago and we traced some of Martin Luther's steps. We visited the place where he nailed the 95 Theses (the original building had burned down).
Although Facebook, blogs and Twitter were non existent in those days, something else had been gaining major mainstream momentum. Thanks to the printing press, "the 95 Theses were quickly translated from Latin into German, printed, and widely copied, making the controversy one of the first in history to be aided by the printing press. Within two weeks, the theses had spread throughout Germany; within two months throughout Europe."
If you haven't read the theses, I encourage you to do so.
We must not forget that the Reformation was a reformation of the church. I think too many times we think culture needs a reformation or that "they" need a reformation.
No my friends, we need a reformation.
Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
October 30, 2008
Tribes by Seth Godin
Filed under: Reading Room
I've been a Seth Godin fan for many years and appreciate so much of what he suggests through his books and his blog. As with most things that become increasingly popular and mainstream, my enthusiasm and interest has the tendency to dwindle a bit. I like discovering unknown people and ideas, as Seth was so many years ago. I realize this is a direct result of my own pride and arrogance, but I'm working on those issues. So forgive me if this reflection of Tribes is more a reflection of my temperament.
I had the opportunity to read Seth's latest little gem, Tribes, this past weekend. The first third of the book is excellent. Fresh, insightful and worth the cost of admission alone. The remainder of the book, as with so many of Godin's goodies, seems to be redundant and tangent-filled as you progress to the end. This is the case for most books so Seth is not alone. I'm sure it's that balance between having enough pages to justify a book versus a booklet. I digress. Again.
The big shift for Tribes is that Seth has moved away from his familiar marketing speak to a different conversation about leadership. In his previous books, Seth suggests that "everyone is a marketer." In Tribes, he suggests that "everyone is now also a leader."
Being both a member of several tribes and a leader of a couple tribes, I resonate with so much of what Seth writes about. "You can't have a tribe without a leader, and you can't have a leader without a tribe."
Seth's big call to action is that there are tons of different tribes all waiting to be led and "We need you to lead us." "It takes only two things to turn a group of people into a tribe: 1) A shared interest and 2) A way to communicate."
If you're looking for a fresh take on leadership, this is an easy-breezy read. Tribes will give leaders a game plan for:
- Challenging the status quo
- Creating culture
- Developing your curiosity
- Using charisma to attract followers
- Communicating your vision
- Committing to a vision
- Connecting followers to each other
Go tribes!
Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
October 21, 2008
Jesus Wants to Save Christians
Filed under: Reading Room
Have you ever read a book and had that overwhelming sense that what you're reading is not just another book? A book that has that 'my-life-is-about-to-be-changed' quality that doesn't seem to go away, page after page after page?
It's not often that I have this experience, but this latest manifesto from Rob Bell and Don Golden has done exactly that. Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile was so stirring, I finished it in two days and I've been reading it a second time to Jamaica this week. Wow.
Unfortunately, there is no way I can capture or convey my thoughts and feelings in a blog post or book review. This just doesn't do it justice. But I'll try.
Jesus Wants to Save Christians is a re-telling of the Bible in a way most of us here in America have never read or experienced. It's the story of humanity and how we've been moving "east of Eden" ever since we were kicked out of the Garden. Not only have we been moving east, we've been settling there, establishing ourselves and getting further away from the way things are meant to be. "From the very beginning humans [have been] moving in the wrong direction."
Continue reading "Jesus Wants to Save Christians"
Comments (3) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
October 18, 2008
Strength to Love
Filed under: Reading Room
For awhile now, Jamaica has been lovingly encouraging me to read Strength to Love by Martin Luther King, Jr. I finally took her advice and wow, what a book. It's a collection of sermons that King re-assembled into book form, but he was clear that "a sermon is not an essay to be read but a discourse to be heard." Strength to Love could perhaps best be summed up into King's pursuit of "a tough mind and a tender heart." "Never must the church tire of reminding men that they have a moral responsibility to be intelligent." His clarity is poignant: "A nation or civilization that continues to produce softminded men purchases its own spiritual death on an installment plan."
King was a man of action, not one to let good intentions end there. "One of the great tragedies of life is that men seldom bridge the gulf between practice and profession, between doing and saying." He was also convinced that action by a few wasn't enough, it would take everyone getting on board the justice train. "I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be."
The "worship of bigness" is something King wrote strongly against. "Success, recognition, and conformity are the bywords of the modern world where everyone seems to crave the anesthetizing security of being identified with the majority."
But King aimed some of his choicest words directly at the church. "Nowhere is the tragic tendency to conform more evident than in the church... the church has hearkened more to the authority of the world than to the authority of God."
He continues: "The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority."
Speaking about the significant progress being made in America, King doesn't mince words. "Through your scientific genius you have made of the world a neighborhood, but you have failed to employ your moral and spiritual genius to make of it a brotherhood." "But, America, I wonder whether your moral and spiritual progress has been commensurate with your scientific progress."
Strength to Love is a great book, but it would be unfortunate if it stopped there. This is a call to action!
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
October 16, 2008
Failure Magazine
Filed under: Stuff I Like
I was reading the latest issue of Ode magazine earlier this week and really appreciated their feature and focus on failure. The whole issue was about the "upside of down." I just recently blogged about failing faster so this was a nice supplement to my recent pondering.
I was especially intrigued to stumble upon Ode's mention of the online Failure Magazine.
Jason Zasky learned firsthand the potential of tinkering with an offbeat idea. As a writer for the now-defunct Musician Magazine, he and the the staff were laid off in 1999 when the magazine folded. He found himself walking the streets of New York City with his cousin, who suggested he start a magazine about failure. Now co-founder and editor of the online Failure Magazine, which just celebrated its eighth anniversary, Zasky jokes, “As soon as I heard those two words together, I like to tell people now, I saw failure as my future.”
And naturally [Jason Zasky] has a lot of perspective on the topic after eight years writing about it. Mainly, he feels, failure is in the eye of the beholder. “Success is kind of boring,” Zasky says. “Failure is much more interesting to read about, and to study, and certainly to work on. It’s a universal experience we can all relate to.” Often, he says, success is completely accidental, and is built on something that is viewed initially as failure.
Having failed way more times than I have succeeded, I am always encouraged by failure's many advantages. Did you know Viagra started out as a mistake? Ode's Marisa Taylor says that in 1992, "Pfizer was testing the drug sildenafil for the alleviation of angina, chest pains caused by heart disease. The men involved in the clinical trials for the medication found that, while it didn’t affect their chest pain very much, it did have a marked effect on their libidos. Pfizer’s blunder launched a multibillion-dollar industry."
Talk about an upside (no pun intended) to failure!
Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
October 14, 2008
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Filed under: Reading Room
I just finished another Kindle book by Patrick M. Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. I enjoyed Lencioni's Three Signs of a Miserable Job so much I knew I'd like this one.
The five dysfunctions are really basic:
1. Absence of Trust, no one is open or vulnerable
2. Fear of Conflict, incapable of engaging in unfiltered and passionate debate of ideas
3. Lack of Commitment, no buy-in because trust and healthy conflict are lacking
4. Avoidance of Accountability, no commitment to a plan means nothing to measure
5. Inattention to Results, no individual accountability means collective goals are dormant
Another way to look at the five dysfunctions is next to their evil cover up. The dysfunctions look less dysfunctional because they disguise themselves in what most of us would dismiss as petty weaknesses.
1. Lack of Trust is because of Invulnerability
2. Fear of Conflict creates and Artificial Harmony
3. Lack of Commitment fosters Ambiguity
4. Avoidance of Accountability means Low Standards
5. Inattention to Results leaves room for Status and Ego
So with my teams, I am resolving to turn these dysfunctions upside down:
1. We will trust one another
2. We will engage in unfiltered conflict around ideas
3. We will commit to decisions and plans of action
4. We will hold one another accountable for delivering those plans
5. We will focus on the achievement of collective results
This won't always be easy, but we can do it!
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
October 3, 2008
Fail Faster
Filed under: Brad Works
Growing up, my education path was not typical. I dabbled in all of it: public school, private school, home school, no school, college at 18 and college at 26. I finished high school when I was 16; not because I was smart but because I was bored. It was the entrepreneur in me that kept me motivated to learn and keep figuring things out.
In a meeting with my team earlier this week, we were working through ideas for overcoming some significant obstacles in front of us. It's amazing how easy it is to over-process and over-think so many options. How many times have you had a meeting about a meeting to discuss a meeting's meeting?
One antidote I've learned along the way—and I think it comes from my atypical learning path—is to fail faster. The sooner I learn what doesn't work, the sooner I'll stumble upon what does work.
The guys at 37signals are a great example of this philosophy in action. They don't tinker around with products until everything is perfect. They get it out there an innovate along the way.
I'll admit, this approach doesn't make life easier nor is it a path to take if you have problems in the humility department, but failing faster sure does set you up for more successes.
This failing faster approach is not an excuse to avoid learning from others or adopting what's already working out there. Rather, it's an attempt at creating a fail-safe in the absence of overwhelming clarity.
Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink