Just read this morning an interesting article on "Discretionary Energy." Here's how the author defines it: What is Discretionary Energy? For our purposes, we define an employee’s discretionary energy as: Their willing application of knowledge and skills in service towards espoused strategy and goals, and Their demonstrated positive enthusiasm for their work, their team & its members, and their customers. Discretionary energy is at play when an employee goes beyond the minimum. Sometimes discretionary energy is about innovation and creativity, but more often it is about jumping in before being asked, going beyond the basics to meet a need or solve a problem. The article is about how leaders motivate employees to use their discretionary energy towards furthering the mission or vision of the organization. Source: Driving Results Through Culture.
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Do you fold your hands when you pray? Is closing your eyes during prayer a prerequisite to receiving God's answer? If you're like me, many of us maintain certain rituals even when we don't fully understand why. Not all of them are bad. We might say "God bless you" or "Gesundheit" when someone sneezes; what we may not know is that this originated from a belief that a person's soul might fly out of their body when they person sneezed. Most religious rituals are comforting and provide a consistency to life. A family tradition might be appropriate for birthdays, but when a religious ritual replaces personal faith in God -- then we've wandered into dangerous territory. This weekend we will be exploring the tension between placing our faith in rules and rituals instead of God. I hope you'll join me as we dig deeper into Romans chapter four!
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The following article is from Michael Palin from Monty Python and it's about how to keep an interesting diary (or blog). The article appears in Vanity Fair but lest you think I secretly stick on in the grocery cart at King Soopers, it appeared in a daily news aggregate that I get from SmartBrief. Read "A Dogged Diarist's Dos and Don'ts of Diary Writing."
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"It's in Apple's DNA that technology alone is not enough -- it's technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our heart sing." - Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, as quoted by TechCrunch That's an interesting but insightful statement from a technology company. It recognizes that technology is not simply utilitarian but humanitarian as well -- it interacts with people, impacts people, and inspires people. But what about you? In your life, marriage, business, or team ... what is not enough by itself? Having spent twenty-plus years as a pastor, I've seen churches that believe right doctrine alone is enough. Or a certain worship style is enough. The list of "enoughs" in the church world is more than I can list in one article. Here's how you might hear it: "If we just did ____, that would be enough." Here's what a person…
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