Filed under: Life
So I finally finished “Simply Strategic stuff”. Here are my 10+ takeaways on the read. Its pretty practical, but great stuff for the in house leaders.
1. (Check Data) It’s very easy to get caught in the moment and make decisions based on that adrenaline rush. Here is what they say, “There’s an appropriate place for emotions in decision making.. We can’t push them aside, but they shouldn’t drive our decision making. Just because your church calendar is completely full doesn’t mean things are good.
2. If churches across America don’t begin strategically targeting specific segments of our population, we risk losing ground in accomplishing the great commission.
2.5 Keep the tasks that add the most value, and give everything else away. This is not the easiest thing to do, but its the greatest investment we can make into others as leaders. In doing this we gain more time to focus on________________.
3. We should continually be figuring out the best way to communicate the timeless message of the gospel.
4. Maintain an appropriate balance of creativity(chaos) and efficiency(order). Keep the vision clear at all times. Balance and harmony need to be present.
4.5 Many times we’re involved so deeply that we can’t rise above the meetings, the events, and the people to see objectively
5. Don’t micro-manage your church. Instead, create systems that release decision making responsibilities. Empower the people on the front lines…
6. It is about perception. Its not about trust. Its not necessarily about strengths and weaknesses. Its not even about your vulnerability to certain sins. It is about perception. It is about what people think. Perception is reality. It may not be your reality, and it may not even be true. The fact is, it’s reality for someone. Our mission is too crucial and our message too important to let our ministry be sidelined for a week or a year by accusations based on perception.
6.5 Give Your Staff cool gifts…”this is my favorite takeaway…LOL
7. “Giving” is one of the only tangible pictures God has given us that directly reflect a person’s heart condition.
8. The Journey is as important as the destination. we forget that in order to build the church, we must be the church. We must love one another. We must encourage one another. We must work through hard times together. We must celebrate success and mourn failure together. We have to pray together and cry together and love together and learn together. If we are to build a church that reps Jesus’ heart to the world, we must model that.
9.5 When the church focuses on the right thing and does it well, it transforms lives.
10. People crave spiritual truth when it’s presented in a culturally relevent context.
Remember, without vision, the people perish.
The Dark Knight: Phenomenal movie! The characters, the plot, everything. I’ve never been much of a comics dude but this movie was amazing. Yes, it is very dark movie. All the characters portray a very dark melancholy image different from what I have been used to. I won’t give any details away but it takes you on a twisted ride the whole time. Things that seem a certain way don’t turn out like that…if that makes sense. The Joker totally makes this movie. Heath Ledger totally transforms himself, its almost disturbing to some degree. I can see why people would rather not see this movie and its connection with his role in this movie to his death. Its chilling…But you should see it. Great Movie.
This was a really cool article in Newsweek, I’ll it you up with my thoughts on it later this week. For now that’s it. I’m tired, it was a looooooooong. Saturday.
