2007 December | haRdLy NOrMal

Archive for December, 2007

Another great series of posts from Swerve: Tough Conversations

Published by December 11th, 2007 in Bible, Blogs, Change, Character, Friends, Just Me, Leadership, Learning, Life's Lessons, Ministry, My Big Mouth, Personal, Personal Growth, Remarkable

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Pastor Craig Groeschel has started a series this week: Tough Conversations. He talks about confronting

Check out the first post here

And the second post here

Swerve is a daily read for me. Probably the best Christian and leadership blog I read.

The Bible teaches us in Matthew 18: 15-17 God’s way of dealing with conflict although it is rarely used even by people in ministry. Peacemaker Ministries lists “The Slippery Slope of Conflict” on their webpage. A few months back one of my mentors taught me that you limit God if you are too passive! God may work if you do nothing but maybe it is God’s will to teach you how to confront His way. Also, the other person may need to hear the honest truth and be corrected. Lots of people are disconnected from reality and will not see the need to change unless someone with courage points it out in love! Being passive in everything and leaving everything “for God to work out” is simply rationalization. God works more ways then one!

Being too quick to confront or confronting the wrong way, anger, violence and even murder is far to the other extreme.

Of course, we need balance. There are times we simply must let the offense go without saying a word. Then there are times when immediate correction is needed. For most people, it is far easier to be passive because it takes a lot of courage and strength to properly confront someone. Truthfully, I don’t see passive in Matthew 18: 15-17 nor do I see anger. When I read this scripture I also believe that, out of respect, the assumed offending party gets a moment to defend themselves. The devil loves to mess with communications and relationships! There are two sides to every story. I believe it is important to seek the truth before a person is assumed to be guilty.

Good friends and family tell each other when they have a bugger in their nose. Personally, I want to know what I am doing wrong so I can change! Most problems in the church today could be avoided if people were honest with each other!

Pastor Craig gives some great guidelines in his post on how to confront someone. Everyone should read these posts.

All I want for Christmas

Published by December 11th, 2007 in Friends, Just Me, My Big Mouth, Personal

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Being honest I probably have a few really important needs that top this but right now, thanks to my good friend A-dizzle, I am lusting for Yang Chow. Perhaps 10 years ago or so A-dizzle turned me onto this Chinese restaurant located right in the middle of Los Angeles’s China Town District. Their Hot and Sour Soup (I always call it Hot and Spicy Wonton) is to live for! Right from my first experience Yang Chow became my favorite restaurant and I admit I am a Yang Chow addict!

Last night A-dizzle sent me this pic. I responded “well at least you didn’t send me a pic of the soup”

Yang Chow sign

So tonight she sends me these two pics. Of course, there was a little delay in the second pics arrival.

Full bowl of my favorite soup
Empty bowl that once was filled with my favorite soup

Add to your vocabulary: “DNK.”

Published by December 8th, 2007 in Blogs, Character, Community, Just Me, Leadership, Learning, Managment, Marketing, Ministry, My Big Mouth, Personal Growth, Remarkable

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I love management and leadership guru Tom Peters. I was first turned onto him by a rant in a Seth Godin book, “The Big Moo”, which I believe might have come from a free pdf download on his site Tomato, Toma[h]to! Tom also has some very cool stuff to download on the free section of his website that you can find here. I also recommend his books. Great stuff!

On his blog today I noticed two great posts “DNK”! and 100 Ways to Succeed #99: – Reward “DNK” When You DNK..

I was once called into an executive management meeting, which was very intimidating so there was added pressure to impress. In front of a room full of executives I was asked if I would go to Africa, Southern Sudan to be exact. I had absolutely no international production experience to begin with and they wanted to send me into a war zone. As always, I was honest and said “yes sir, I’ll go but I have never done anything like that before” basically I responded with a “DNK”!

The executives in the room didn’t think anything less of me. In fact, they appreciated my candor. They decided to team me up with another producer that had lots of international experience so I could learn. On my second trip to Sudan I was the more experienced person and I am so glad that I was truthful. If my pride had me to not be honest and say I could do it, not only would the project be a wash but people could have been seriously hurt!

See, I have learned that my ego and pride is not as important as doing the job right, even if that means the task gets assigned to someone more qualified. It is far better to be honest then to fail!

I know it is not easy. When tasks get assigned to us it is a normal feeling to say “yes, I can do that” when the truth is someone else could do it far better then you. It is not easy to admit we “do not know”! We think if we are truthful then management will judge us as being a failure. Any good leader or manager will respect your honesty and actually be able to say “DNK” themselves.

If we are truly the body of Christ we have to do what is right for the body and not ourselves. We must know our own strengths and weaknesses and when we cannot do something we need to be honest about it. Everything should be about Him and not me!

By request – Jim Bakker Christmas photo

Published by December 7th, 2007 in Change, Character, Friends, Just Me, Life's Lessons, Media, Ministry, My Big Mouth, Personal, Remarkable, Television

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Jim Bakker Christmas photo - I’m in the way back

Ok, this photo has always freaked me out in two ways. My first impressions of Jim Bakker came from Saturday Night Live parodies. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would be hanging out with the man much less be in his Christmas card. Jim even introduced me to Koo Koo Roo’s where he took me to dinner a few times. Sure wish they were in the Midwest!

Actually, Jim still tops my list of most remarkable sermons. When he was released from jail his first speaking appearance, or so we were told, was at the Dream Center. He spoke for 2 ½ hours and that sermon is still number one on my list. He was amazing and it changed my paradigm of him.

Second, this photo was the photo used in that years Christmas card Jim sent out. That means all kinds of important leaders all over the world received this photo (with my face on it) for Christmas. I often wondered if Ronald Reagan, Billy Graham, Menachem Begin and the like displayed this photo on a wall or door like most people do. Wild huh? The photo (with me and A-dizzle) even made it into Jim’s second wife, Lori Bakker’s book “More Then I Could Ever Ask”, which is more then I could ever imagine.

Many many years ago I would get stoned with a bunch of friends and we would go to a Howard Johnson’s bar to watch SNL every week. Then me and my friend A-dizzle end up on his Christmas card and in his wife’s book. Only God could do that!

See if you can find A-dizzle and me.

Culture Versus Vision & Culture Is More Important Than Vision

Published by December 6th, 2007 in Blogs, Change, Character, Guest Blogger, Just Me, Leadership, Ministry, My Big Mouth, Vision

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If you work, volunteer or have any interest in Christian media Phil Cooke’s blog is a daily must read. Today Phil has Chris Busch as a guest blogger and Chris is one of my all time favorite people. Phil isn’t too bad either and I owe Phil a world of thanks for all he has done for me

Two great posts on: Culture Versus Vision & Culture Is More Important Than Vision

You can find Chris’s post here

And Phil’s original post here

VERY IMPORTANT – make sure to read all the comments on both posts.

Great stuff and well worth taking the time to read!

***update -As I was thinking about these posts and leadership I remembered a great post by Tony Morgan which you can find here and one I wrote that you can find here. Both posts indirectly speak about creating a healthy culture