The American Church’s Dirtiest Little Secret

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Check out this amazing post by David Foster on “The American Church’s Dirtiest Little Secret”…

The real dirty little secret in the American church is that we regularly, relentlessly, and without mercy beat-up, chew-up and spit-out our leaders.

I have to say that I have experienced every one of the five characteristics Foster lines out.

1. We starve them
2. We have outrageously unreasonable expectations of our leaders.
3. We strip them of power.
4. We let pretend leaders bully them.
5. We leave them in financial peril.

I really appreciate a ministry veteran who sticks out his neck to help change the system. That has been my prayer all these years when I have been in the middle of being “beat-up, chewed-up, and spit-out”– that I would be able to help the next generation of leaders behind me. Read more

Undercover Boss – United Van Lines

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I absolutely LOVE Undercover Boss. It is really cool to see how great leaders are able to assess whether the vision and values of the organization are working or not out there in the workforce. There are some really smart leaders out there making things happen.

Rich McClure is longtime friend of our family. He is the CEO of United Van Lines based out of St. Louis. His sister is a dear friend and hero of mine. His family grew up at my home church First Baptist Church, Springfield, MO. Before going to United, he was Chief of Staff for former Governor of Missouri, John Ashcroft and worked in the public service sector in both Missouri and Illinois state governments. He was a student at Missouri State University (Go Bears!) when my father was a political science and public administration professor there. (He couldn’t remember if he had Rich in class or not as he taught a lot of those huge lecture sections that his colleagues didn’t like to teach.) Link to the full episode and bonus videos after the break! Read more

C3 Conference 2011

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I attended the C3 Conference at Fellowship Church in Grapevine way back in ’06 or ’07 (the year the conference packet was a big question mark.) I was profoundly impacted by all of the speakers, but specifically Andy Stanley’s talk. I remember he talked about having the courage to change things in your church, even if it would be really, really difficult.

I had the opportunity to attend the conference this year with a few people from Calvary Baptist Church. They have been attending the conference for many years as well. I didn’t know what, but I knew God was going to speak to me through this opportunity. Even though I am kind of “in between ministry assignments” right now, it was really great to go and “dream again.”

This years theme was “EXC3ED: Go Beyond What is Allowed.” Here is a Finale video that will give you a taste of the conference.

C3 2011 Finale from Fellowship Church on Vimeo.

I will post later some of the nuggets of truth I took away from this year’s conference. I am very thankful for the opportunity to go and it was a great blessing! I really missed Jenny and the boys, but it was worth it to hear from the Lord in a powerful way!

Plus, we got to see some old friends from our church I served in while attending seminary; which was awesome! Mike and Kris Zumwalt were some youth workers. Jerrell and Brenda Fiske were youth workers as well and Brenda was the church secretary. And Ruby Tucker was Jenny’s prayer partner and our Tucker’s namesake. It was awesome to see them and catch up with all God is doing in their lives!

My Soul Friends::Darrin Patrick

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The idea for this category came from Dr. Daryl Eldridge.?It is based off of the name of his blog–“My Soul Friends.” ?He is one of “my soul friends” too, by the way!

I first met Darrin at the Missouri Baptist Convention’s “Baptist Building” in Jefferson City, MO in the Fall of 2001 at a church planting assessment.? He and I were both walking through the process to plant a church in Missouri; Darrin in St. Louis and myself in Nixa.

My first thoughts about this guy were, “wow, this dude is pretty sharp” and “he knows what he is doing”–both were things that I didn’t feel I had going for me!? (Don’t let the “dumb jock” stuff fool you.? Darrin is a very bright church leader.)? I just felt like God had called me to plant a different kind of church in Nixa to reach people who were not churched. I thought I had my stuff together, but he was a whole lot further down the road with his church than we were with ours.

Darrin had been through several other “boot camps” and was describing the process to me and a couple other guys that were there for the assessment.? (I didn’t even know what a boot camp was, except that I watched my brother’s graduation from boot camp in Chicago from the U.S. Navy!)? From that first meeting, I knew that God was going to do amazing things through my “friend.” (I use friend very loosely because we are not close; I have just admired and kept up with him and his church from afar and the occasional time I would bump into him at conferences–that he was LEADING!!)

God has truly done an amazing thing in The Journey Church in St. Louis, but I think more importantly God has done in his life.? Darrin has been faithful to learn and grow in his walk with Christ as well as hone his “craft.”? I love to hear him teach his people on their podcast each week.? He has been

This sounds like a total love fest for Darrin–and I guess it is. However, there is nothing really “special” about Darrin.? He is simply a guy that takes the Gospel seriously and has followed God’s calling on his life to reach the nations for the Gospel in a city that he loves with a great passion.

Take a look at this interview (you can also download just the audio here) and you will hear his story and insights from his new book, Church Planter.? It is a great read…like sitting down across the table at the Baptist Building in Jefferson City in the fall of 2001.

Conversation with Darrin Patrick ? Justin Taylor.

A note for Jesus

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I saw this post on The Buckhead Church Blog…very cool post!? The Church needs to embrace the fact that these little guys are going to be leading us sooner than later!? We need to help them follow hard after God!

A note for Jesus ? The Official Buckhead Church Blog.

Leaders & Readers Online Experience

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leaders&readersI am online watching a Leadership Experience sponsored by Leadership Network called “Leaders & Readers.“? Check it out and register online here.? Best of all…it is free!? Technology is amazing, isn’t it?

Who are you listening to?

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Tonight was our first baseball game for Taylor’s team. I am managing his team this year and it has been a lot of fun. We played really well but came up a bit short tonight. However, one big thing that I know I personally learned was that we all need to learn WHO we should listen to–in baseball…and especially in life. Read more

Seth’s Blog: I’m mad at everyone

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Great, simple post from Seth Godin. ?I had to include it in it’s entirety it is so good!…

I’m mad at everyone

No, not you. Not anyone in particular, actually.

I’m angry at the idea of ‘everyone’ and what they want and what they say.

Everyone says you should do your site and your online presence a certain way.

Everyone is upset at what you did.

Everyone is frustrated at the slow pace government is getting this done.

Everyone knows you should listen to your customers and do what they say.

Everyone knows that our school is wasting money.

Everyone says you need to go to a ‘good’ college.

You get the idea.?That everyone.

The one that’s almost always wrong.

Seth’s Blog: I’m mad at everyone.

Van Halen & M&Ms

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Just got the new book, Switch from the Heath Brothers. It is really good so far. Interesting article in Fast Company about making sure we catch problems early before they become even bigger problems. ?Also a good lesson in making sure we read ALL of the fine print…

Van Halen buried a special clause in the middle of the contract. It was called Article 126. It read, “There will be no brown M&Ms in the backstage area, upon pain of forfeiture of the show, with full compensation.” So when Roth would arrive at a new venue, he’d walk backstage and glance at the M&M bowl. If he saw a brown M&M, he’d demand a line check of the entire production. “Guaranteed you’re going to arrive at a technical error,” he wrote. “They didn’t read the contract…. Sometimes it would threaten to just destroy the whole show.”

In other words, Roth was no diva. He was an operations expert. He couldn’t spend hours every night checking the amperage of each socket. He needed a way to assess quickly whether the stagehands at each venue were paying attention — whether they had read every word of the contract and taken it seriously. In Roth’s world, a brown M&M was the canary in the coal mine.

Where are your brown M&Ms in your organization?

Business Advice From Van Halen | Fast Company.