When Philip K. Wrigley succeeded his father as chairman of the Chicago-based chewing gum company, he continued the firm's practice of heavily spending money on advertising to create and maintain consumer demand. During an airline flight one day, a seatmate asked him why he continued to spend so much money on advertising a product that was already one of the best-known in the world. Wrigley quickly replied, "For the same reason the pilot of this plane keeps the engine running when we're already 29,000 feet up." (Source: Louis E. Boone, "Quotable Business," Random House). What engine do you need to keep running? For the church to stay in flight, individual believers must stay on mission. Putting in a good word for Jesus is the fuel that keeps the engine running. For a marriage to stay in flight, husbands and wives must work on the little things and deal quickly…
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"I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand" (Psalm 40:1-2). Mud and mire. While playing in the mud was fun as children, most of us have spent our adult lives trying to avoid it. And not just the dirt mixed with water type of mud. Verbal mud. Emotional mud. Habits. Behaviors. Messy relationships. Toxic environments. Ironically, apart from mud-slinging (where someone else throws mud at you), I have to assume responsibility for generating a good amount of the mud that has entered my life. I make poor choices or get sloppy with words. I am a maker of mud. Not only has God offered rescue from the mud, but he can lift us out of…
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Tenzing Norgay was one of the best known sherpas of all-time, made famous for his climb of Everest with Edmund Hillary. In his autobiography he tells the story of climbing a different mountain with George Frey, an experienced climber. The story reminds us how important it is to have a climbing partner. At first the going was easy enough, following a long snow slope into which we could kick good steps, and not so steep that we needed a rope between us. But after a while the angle grew a bit sharper, and the snow harder, and I stopped and put on my steel-spiked crampons, so as to have a steadier footing. “Aren’t you going to put yours on?” I called up to Frey, who was in the lead. “No, I don’t need them,” he answered. And we continued climbing. Once again there is the question of whether I should…
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The following is a great post by Craig Groeschel from lifechurch.tv. It's about the who and what of leadership. ****************** Instead of always knowing “what” is happening with a project, what we really need to know is “who” is covering the project. If we have the right “who,” we shouldn’t have to worry about the “what.” If we have the wrong “who,” then we need to know the “what.” If you always need to know the “what,” you have one of two problems: You are not an empowering leader. You have the wrong “who.” Either way, the problem needs to be fixed.
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