I am Jamaica's husband, Personality's founder, Foursquare's comm director, CFCC's evangelist, and more.
I'm also blogging at:
Personality™
Church Marketing Sucks
Inspiration Archives
June 16, 2008
Lunch With Michael Reagan
Filed under: Inspiration
Last week I had the opportunity to have lunch with Michael Reagan, son of former President Ronald Reagan. By the way, if you never heard the eulogy Mike did for his dad, it's quite moving. I originally bumped into Mike on a plane flight when a mutual friend onboard introduced us.
Mike is extremely passionate about making sure every child in the U.S. is living in a loving family. He quotes statistic after statistic about the affects of messed up kids and how they in turn mess up society. Mike is the perfect advocate for such issues like foster care and adoption because he himself was adopted after a despicable childhood experience of sexual abuse and fear, among others.
In addition to hosting a daily radio program, Mike is an author, including the book Twice Adopted.
It's difficult not to get fired up about this stuff after you spend any amount of time with Mike. When I asked how he is engaging churches on these issues he said not as much as they should be. However, Mike is a part of rolling out a test campaign in September, in partnership with Arrow. I look forward to seeing how that goes.
Jamaica and I have been considering adoption for several years. Conversations like this certainly add fuel to the fire.
Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
May 9, 2008
Harold Taber's Baker's Dozen
Filed under: Inspiration
I was invited by a Personality client to UCLA last night for a small gathering of business professionals from the SoCal area. The topic was "doing business as mission" and the room was loaded with people right in the middle of it. Although I was asked to come and lead one of the round tables, the real highlight was getting to know some of the people there.
One of those guys was 69-year-old Harold Taber. After being the group president for Coca-Cola Bottling of Los Angeles and selling it back to Coke in 1987, he bought Hansen's and took it public in 1992. Harold's life story is pretty amazing, including beating cancer twice. In addition to being on the board for Hansen's, Harold is also the director of mentoring for the MBA program at Biola.
Harold shared with me his "Baker's Dozen."
1. Employees are an organization's greatest asset.
2. Develop people through work rather than getting work through people.
3. Organizational values drive behavior.
4. People leave managers, not organizations.
5. Servant leadership is focusing on those to be served.. customers, clients, etc.
6. Leader insurance... Mentoring.
7. Focus on strengths, not weaknesses.
8. Attitude is not something you can teach or train.
9. Ethics trump law.
10. Focus on character, not image.
11. Accountability > Responsibility > Authority
12. Efficiency, doing things right vs. Effectiveness, doing the right things (Drucker)
13. Investors bet on management, not the product.
After last night, I was definitely re-energized about my desire to get an MBA and the impact that could have on so many people.
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
April 19, 2008
Q Thoughts
Filed under: Inspiration
Last week I attended the Q conference in New York City at the beautiful Gotham Hall. It was my second year to attend Q after checking out the first one in Atlanta last year.
As expected, Q was a great place to think about big ideas and discuss them with big-idea people. The size of the event is intentionally small--about 350 I would guess--which makes way for some great conversations. The bulk of the crowd were pastors, although I did hang with other types as well--a former Amazon exec, ad agency creatives, educators, etc. Great mix, although everyone kind of looked the same which kills me.
Scott Hodge did a marvelous job blogging the entire 3-day event, so for my purposes here I'm just going to highlight the stuff that I've been chewing on since I've been back.
Jim Wallis: Change the the direction of the wind
The controversial Jim Wallis had some great things to say about politics and social justice. Politicians hold their fingers to the wind to determine what they should be thinking about or voting on. If the wind is blowing one way, so will they. As Christians, we need to quit trying to change politicians and instead change the wind. Martin Luther King, Jr. never endorsed a candidate. Rather, he had the candidates endorse his agenda.
Dan Merchant: The gospel of love is dividing America
He is the producer of a docu-drama-dy called Lord, Save Us From Your Followers. I saw the preview at Q and then found out this week that Dan is a part of the Foursquare tribe up in Beaverton, Oregon. Small world. Looks like it's going to be a great movie with the pompous, pace and perseverance of a Michael Moore flick.
Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
March 15, 2008
David McCullough Knows History
Filed under: Inspiration
I've been a fan of David McCullough ever since I read his book John Adams. Speaking of John Adams, I just learned that HBO is doing a 7-part miniseries on McCullough's book, executive produced by Tom Hanks. It looks incredible.
Back to David McCullough. He's brilliant and articulate. I read an article of his in the Winter 2008 issue of American Heritage magazine (no link available). After a little poking around, I found a link to the original speech it was derived from. He talks about knowing who were are and knowing where we came from. It's an excellent read for the argument of why history matters and more importantly why it should matter to us.
"History isn’t just something that ought to be taught or ought to be read or ought to be encouraged because it’s going to make us a better citizen. It will make us a better citizen; or because it will make us a more thoughtful and understanding human being, which it will; or because it will cause us to behave better, which it will. It should be taught for pleasure: The pleasure of history, like art or music or literature, consists of an expansion of the experience of being alive, which is what education is largely about."
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
January 5, 2008
Chris Seay
Filed under: Inspiration
I've had the opportunity to hear Chris Seay speak a couple times now, both at Catalyst and Q. I've been following some of Chris' media and writing projects over the last 18 months, including Here the Voice, a project of artists and scholars coming together to tell the story of the Bible in very creative ways.
Chris is also a part of the Advent Conspiracy, an international movement restoring the scandal of Christmas by substituting compassion for consumption. Jamaica and I were spurred by this as we mentioned in last year's Christmas letter.
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
September 23, 2007
The Irresistible Revolution
Filed under: Reading Room
As much as I dislike flying, I do love being able to read a book from start to finish in a round-trip. My trip this past week to Grand Rapids was no exception with The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne.
I grew up a good "Christian" boy. Church every week, sometimes twice a week. A student leader for youth gatherings. Mission trips to domestic and international places of need. I prayed and read my Bible. I obeyed my parents. I never did drugs. Unfortunately, I think I spent more time learning the Gospel than living the Gospel. And I continue to suffer with this despicable disease.
It seems as though Shane Claiborne can relate. Quoting from a letter he received sometime ago, Shane echoes that we're living in days full of "unbelieving activists and inactive believers." Fortunately for his readers, Shane Claiborne is not just another guy teaching us how to live, he's showing us how to die.
This is a book for ordinary radicals. It's for "a generation that stops complaining about the church it sees and becomes the church it dreams of."
Continue reading "The Irresistible Revolution"
Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
September 17, 2007
Jason Fried, 37signals
Filed under: Inspiration
Here's a great little video interview with Jason Fried, founder of 37signals. I've been a fan (and customer) of Jason and team for quite sometime. I appreciate their approach to business, design and communication.
One of the pull quotes for me from this interview was when Jason says they don't do long-term planning. They look ahead 90 days at a time. This past year I've been doing the same thing with the Personality team but I've always felt a little guilty. It seems like we should think further along. But when you break it down to 90-day outlooks, you're dealing with real decisions instead of hypothetical tangents.
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
September 15, 2007
John Wood the World Changer
Filed under: Reading Room
I don’t typically buy books from over-priced airport newsstands, but this week was an exception. I usually always have a backlog of magazines to catch up on (I subscribe to a couple dozen different publications), but for some reason, my stack was empty. So I faced a couple options for this trip to Nashville: 1) pull out the ‘ol laptop to catch up on work during this four-hour flight, or 2) rely on the in-flight movie option. As I made my way down the terminal toward the departure gate, a book caught my eye that was proudly displayed in a kiosk that protruded into the terminal walkway. Leaving Microsoft to Change the World by John Wood. I impulsively developed a third option: read a new book from start to finish on this trip.
And read I did.
The first 177 pages of this 260-page book were literally page-turners. I got choked up twice and that doesn’t happen to me very often (much to my wife’s chagrin).
Continue reading "John Wood the World Changer"
Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
February 26, 2007
My King
Filed under: Inspiration
I've always been a fan of this brilliant oration given by Dr. S. M. Lockridge, a minister from Southern California. It's linked all over the web, including a video that Igniter Media put together. I originally heard the sermon mixed up real fresh by Scott Blackwell back in the early '90s. I think the album (Walk on the Wild Side) dates back to 1992. I'm playing the song as I type this. I'm so glad I copied over my CDs to iTunes a few years ago!
I'm putting the transcript here, although it does not do justice to the rhythm, emotion and soul happening when this was captured.
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
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"
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
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
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
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.
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
October 14, 2006
Work or Play?
Filed under: Inspiration
"The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both." - James Michener
Comments (3) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
June 27, 2006
The Cobbler's Stall
Filed under: Inspiration
From the book, Morning and Evening, by Charles Spurgeon.
Some persons have the foolish notion that the only way in which they can live for God is by becoming ministers, missionaries, or Bible women. Alas! how many would be shut out from any opportunity of magnifying the Most High if this were the case. Beloved, it is not office, it is earnestness; it is not position, it is grace which will enable us to glorify God. God is most surely glorified in that cobbler's stall, where the godly worker, as he plies the awl, sings of the Saviour's love, ay, glorified far more than in many a prebendal stall where official religiousness performs its scanty duties. The name of Jesus is glorified by the poor unlearned carter as he drives his horse, and blesses his God, or speaks to his fellow labourer by the roadside, as much as by the popular divine who, throughout the country, like Boanerges, is thundering out the gospel. God is glorified by our serving Him in our proper vocations. Take care, dear reader, that you do not forsake the path of duty by leaving your occupation, and take care you do not dishonour your profession while in it. Think little of yourselves, but do not think too little of your callings. Every lawful trade may be sanctified by the gospel to noblest ends. Turn to the Bible, and you will find the most menial forms of labour connected either with most daring deeds of faith, or with persons whose lives have been illustrious for holiness. Therefore be not discontented with your calling. Whatever God has made your position, or your work, abide in that, unless you are quite sure that he calls you to something else. Let your first care be to glorify God to the utmost of your power where you are. Fill your present sphere to His praise, and if He needs you in another He will show it you. This evening lay aside vexatious ambition, and embrace peaceful content.1 Corinthians 7:20: "Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called."
Source: Crosswalk
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
March 8, 2006
Servanthood Demands Leadership
Filed under: Inspiration
During a working lunch yesterday, one of the vice presidents of Foursquare, Glenn Burris, made an interesting observation when he said, "The more you want to serve, the more people want you to lead."
What an astute comment. I'm reminded of the many times when Jesus modeled the life a servant and in turn the progressive increase in people's expectation on Jesus' leadership.
Yet another example of how in God's Kingdom, things are often seen better upside down and inside out.
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
January 28, 2006
Success
Filed under: Inspiration
Tim Hansel, in his book Dancin’ Toward the Dawn, had a great quote:
In my sterile search for success, I have sometimes chosen to be effective rather than committed. I have chosen to be successful rather than merely being faithful. Sometimes my calendar is full, but my heart is empty. The Lord tries to fill my cup, but I poke a hole in it. Perforated trust. Am I afraid to trust Him completely? Am I afraid to love others without knowing whether or not I’ll be loved in return? I still don’t understand His kind of love—a love which expects nothing. I tend to calculate and define. Evaluate and measure. Make sure that everything is equal. I am an accountant rather than a disciple. It’s hard to give with a closed fist, or receive with a calculator in your hand. My feelings go up and down more than the Dow Jones charts. As Ian Thomas says, "God doesn’t ask us to be sensational—He simple asks us to be a miracle." A miracle is something that cannot be explained apart from Jesus Christ. He wants to borrow our humanity to communicate His truths to the world. He doesn’t give us His strength, He is our strength.
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
July 12, 2005
Mr. Big Shot
Filed under: Inspiration
Your title doesn't determine your contribution, it determines your accountability.
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
March 19, 2005
Where'd All the Good People Go?
Filed under: Inspiration
Listening to Jack Johnson's latest album In Between Dreams, I'm tapping my toes to the song "Good People" getting lost in the rhetorical reminisce of wondering what happened to the good people that used to be.
I've been changing channels I don't see them on the tv shows
Where'd all the good people go?
We've got heaps and heaps of what we sow
I met some good people last night. Through Church Marketing Sucks, I got an email from Pastor Robin Bailey of The Annex, a new church plant beginning later this year. Robin is part of a group of seven guys from Canada here on a grant from the Lily Foundation doing a study on an interesting approach to ministry. I've blogged more about this over at Church Marketing Sucks, but lets just say I was honored to share a meal with some of these guys and participate in conversation that was stimulating, startling, and strategic. I imagine we'll be hearing more about them in the future.
I love hanging with pastors. Especially pastors who are authentic and caring.
Thanks for dinner guys.
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
February 27, 2005
Book Review: Peace Child
Filed under: Inspiration
This book has been out for many years, but I just read it for the first time.
Peace Child
By Don Richardson
"As You prepared the Hebrews and the Greeks, so also the Sawi were not too insignificant or too pagan to receive this much of Your providence." These were the words of Don Richardson as he prayed to God in thankfulness for all that had transpired over the last several years as he and his wife Carol had gone as missionaries to Irian Jaya Indonesia (formerly Netherlands New Guinea). What started as a holy call at just twenty years old in a little Canadian Bible Institute would turn into a holy mission that would bring the Gospel to a culture steeped in tradition, treachery and trouble.
Continue reading "Book Review: Peace Child"
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
January 14, 2005
Say not the Struggle Naught Availeth
Filed under: Inspiration
Say not the struggle naught availeth
The labour and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faints not, nor faileth,
And as things have been they remain.
If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;
It may be, in yon smoke conceal'd,
Your comrades chase e'en now the fliers,
And, but for, you possess the field.
For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
Comes silent, flooding in, the main.
And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light;
In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly!
But westward, look, the land is bright!
-Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861)
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
November 29, 2004
Zean Nielsen
Filed under: Inspiration
I wrote an entry over at Church Marketing Sucks about Zean Nielsen, the director of marketing for Bang & Olufsen America.
I share a similar story with Zean in that I too was hired at age 23 into an organization that had never hired anyone so young to serve a role with so much responsibility.
I'm encouraged.
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
November 27, 2004
Dawn Hudson
Filed under: Inspiration
In the premier issue of Point, a new magazine (supplement) to Advertising Age, there was a cover story on Dawn Hudson, president of Pepsi-Cola North America. Through the penning of Thom Forbes, I learn Dawn is a 46-year-old wife of a stay-at-home dad and mother of two daughters. I learn that "her devotion to her children is legendary" and that she is "an exercise nut." I learn that Dawn was not given her role at Pepsi on a silver platter, but that she earned it.
I am inspired by Dawn Hudson because of her tenacity to win, her passion to prove, and her unquenchable drive to learn.
It is remarkable to think that just two generations ago Dawn wouldn't have even been able to vote.
Way to go Dawn. I don't know you, but I'm sure you're an inspiration for many.
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink