Raising Up a Team of Communicators in your Church

Last summer in order to give myself some breathing room for some writing I needed to get done, I did a “Summer Repost Series” of favorite articles. It worked well… so here we go again! The next 6 weeks will be a “Summer Repost Series” of some of my favorites. To start off, I’m tackling…

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When You Can't Trust Your Bullpen

As you probably already know, I’m a baseball fan and specifically a Tampa Bay Rays fan. And, as you’ve probably heard, our season hasn’t went how we wanted it to go. (It’s quite possible we could lose 100 games this year) ugh. That being said, I’ve found it interesting to watch what I believe to…

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Your Idea Stinks!!!

Dear “Idea Guy,” At the beginning, when you first present your idea, almost no one on the “team” you answer to, get approval from and are accountable to is gonna think your idea is great. They’re not. Just face it. And in fact, their job is kind of not to! The reason they’re around you…

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Firing Customers?!?

Seth Godin wrote: “If it’s not worth making the customer right, then fire her. Successful organizations (and I include churches and political parties on the list) fire the 1% of their constituents that cause 95% of the pain.” http://amzn.to/1li23L3 My thoughts: 1. Your organization is designed to do what you do as best in the…

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Some Days I want to Quit!

Recently, on a Sunday morning, I woke up feeling like I wanted to quit. Perhaps you have experienced the same thing. Maybe it’s not Sunday for you, maybe it was Monday, or Friday, but I bet you’ve had one of those mornings. As a pastor, mine comes frequently on Sundays… The point is, as a…

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The Thematic Goal of Health and Maturity

7 weeks after we opened the 2nd campus of our church, we had a leadership off-site with our Directional Team. The 2 days were intended to establish our new thematic goal for our church. A Thematic Goal is a 9-18 month “Rallying Cry” that the entire organization can get behind outside of our Regularly Scheduled…

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2 Clarifying Questions for Leaders

1. Why does this really matter to me? 2. What do I really want? When a leader gets clear on these 2 things, everything else falls into place. Try it. Think of a goal you are pursuing. A project. A sales goal. A revenue threshold. A weight loss goal. Now, ask the 1st question: Why…

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Defining the "Best-Case-Scenario Win" for Every Important Meeting

Every leader has meetings that are pivotal to their success and forward progress. Other meetings are confrontational. While others are opportunistic. One important lesson I’ve learned is to accurately “Define the Best-Case-Scenario Win” outcome for every meeting I am in. For example, I was working with a leader recently who needed to have a highly…

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What I'm Learning from Jimmy Fallon

I’m learning a lot from Jimmy Fallon these days. (@JimmyFallon) As a communicator, I am always watching a wide variety of communicators, artists and talent. Recently, one comedian I have been learning so much from is Jimmy Fallon! I love what he has done for the tonight show! He truly is a legend already, and…

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The 4 Step Guide to Learning from New Voices

Every so often, I will find a voice in the Leadership or Marketing space that I find intriguing. A voice that resonates with some particular belief I have or that is speaking to some area I want to learn about. When I find one of these voices here’s what I do: I submerse myself in…

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