Church

I'm reposting this blog because I think you'll really enjoy it.  It speaks to the difficulties organizations (businesses and churches) have when leadership and constituencies span multiple generations. Let’s say we are a luxury car company.  We’re doing a year-end review of marketing.  We’re looking at everything, including person who supplies the “voice over” for our ads. The room is filled with around 25 people.  This room is mostly Boomers with 8 Gen Xers and 4 Gen Yers (aka Millennials). “I say we stay with John-Boy,” says the most powerful person in the room.  There is a pause as other Boomers nod their heads sagely.  Richard Thomas has been the voice of the brand for many years. But Generations X and Y are thinking, “Who the hell is John-Boy?”  They don’t say anything.  Then the penny drops.  “Oh, they must mean that guy Richard Thomas.” Their confusion is forgivable.  Richard…

We'll be starting a new five-week session of E4U on March 16.  I'm excited the three new classes we'll be offering.  Here's information on the first one. Encounter Track:  Life of David Teacher: Tim Rodgers Course Description: Let's learn about the great king of Israel.  David was a man after God's own heart, with failures and successes, human in every sense of the word.  He was selfless for God, selfish for himself, prideful, and humble.  His love for others was alive, his love and honor of God is a testament that stands forever, just as God promised.  David was a leader we can learn from, in a five week adventure. Teacher Bio: Tim was raised in a Christian home in Texas with Godly parents, brought up in baptist churches, saved and baptized at age 11.  Tim married his wife Debbie in 1980 and will celebrate their 30th anniversary this year. …

"In some people religion exists as a dull habit, in others as an acute fever" (William James).  Jesus didn't die to pass on to us a dull habit.

I began preaching before I was old enough to drive. The church I grew up in was a fantastic place to preach my first sermon.  I was fifteen years-old the first time I preached.  It was on a Sunday night and I can still remember surveying the crowd and seeing the faces of Sunday school teachers who had taught me when I was still in diapers.  Honestly, it was a bit intimidating. Our pastor took a special interest in me and encouraged me to try preaching (I think he enjoyed having a Sunday night off every now and then).  Looking back, I am so thankful to have had a church and a mentor that encouraged me to get in the game. This weekend I will be concluding our current series with a message about how you will grow spiritually when you move from spectator to participant.  Why settle for a…

In a Harvard Business Review article entitled "Rebuilding Trust: Why Capping Salaries Isn't Enough", author Diane Coutu talks about how a leader goes about rebuilding trust.  Among the four values she lays out, I thought I would pass along this one: Consistency is the real engine of trust. Even if a leader shows competence, integrity, and respect, but fails to behave consistently, she won't capture people's hearts and minds. No one wants to follow a leader who is trustworthy one moment and unpredictable the next. Without reliability, there can only be pseudo trust between people - especially in relations where the power is asymmetrical.