Church

Soft drink companies are continually researching and developing new ideas.  In 1985, to much fanfare and after spending millions of research dollars, Coca Cola release New Coke.  The result?  It bombed.  Fast-forward to 2006.  Trying to dip a straw into the coffee market, Coca Cola introduced us to Coca Cola BlaK -- a cola drink infused with coffee.  The result?  Anderson Cooper tried it on live television and spit it out.  It bombed, too. In my own opinion, it's almost sacrilegious to taint the reputation of coffee in such a way. Why did these two products fail even though the company millions of dollars and untold hours testing and refining them?  The short answer: they weren't the original Coca Cola.  In fact, the company quickly discovered this and tried to market original Coke as "Classic Coke."  How often do you still here that phrase? When it comes to finding meaning…

Last night and this morning we're giving people the chance to send me a live text message during my sermon.  Using a shortcode, they can text their answer to a question on the big screens and have it routed in real-time to my laptop on stage.  I can scroll through the texts and choose which ones to pop on the screen. It was fun last night seeing what people answered to this question: "What is it about Christians that turns off non-believers?" Many of the answers had to do with having a judgmental attitude, hypocrisy, being pushy, not willing to listen, etc.  My favorite was one word: meanieheadness.  OK, it might not be an actual word, but you get the point.

The Gallup organization released these numbers just before Christmas: 78% of Americans identify themselves as Christian. In 1948, 91% of Americans identified with a Christian faith. Twenty years ago, in 1989, 82% of Americans identified as Christian. Ten years ago, it was 84%. This year, as noted, 78% of all American adults identify with a Christian faith.  To read the entire article, click here.

Mac Lake offers a good working agenda for the next time you meet with a direct report or someone you're mentoring: Personal - I like to start my one on ones by asking about the individual and how they are doing personally.  I may ask about their family, spiritual health or a circumstance I know they are going through personally.  But this is my opportunity to connect with them and also to care for their soul. Priorities - I have each of my direct reports write up to five goals each semester.  So when we meet one on one (usually every two weeks) we talk about those priority goals and how things are going.  This allows me to hear about progress or challenges they’re facing and gives me the opportunity to coach them on their top priorities. Problems - I always  like to ask, are there any problems you are…

Regarding how Christ-followers tend to behave around non-believers, one helpful analogy is to explore the difference between a travel agent and a tour guide. A travel agent is a paid expert who sits behind a desk and dispenses information.  They know all the right information (or can find it) about where to go, how to get there, what to do when you get there, and so on.  They might even have posters of exotic destinations on their office wall, even though they themselves have never been there. But you don't expect your travel agent to go with you to Tahiti or even Tacoma. A tour guide, on the other hand, is a person that walks the path with you.  They wear the same gear.  You listen to them because they have been there before.  A tour guide can lead you around because she is familiar with the landscape. Some Christ-followers…