Friday, December 21, 2012

5 Books I read that changed my life in 2012...

I purchase lots of books...and I do actually get to reading most of them!  I've had the chance to read lots of great content in this past year, but I think I would choose these 5 books as the most impactful and transformational as I scan back thru the millions of words I've looked at in 2012:

1. CIRCLE MAKER by Mark Batterson--a book that has deeply impacted how I pray for my family, my ministry, and the level of faith I long to have in God's work in our world...our soccer team directly applied some of Batterson's ideas to shape our season...


2. NEXT CHRISTIANS by Gabe Lyons--a book that offers an incredible picture of hope and fresh thought for the coming generation of Christ followers as they participate in the restoration of this world God created and loves so deeply...our Terra Firma leaders read it as a vision for what God wants to do in the lives and our world thru the new students coming into CU...


3. LOVE DOES by Bob Goff--a book that inspires you to believe that God really does want you to live out a compelling, vibrant, active faith as you enter into the lives of people in every way...we read it as a soccer team and it helped us to live out in a new way the love we have for the game, our teammates, the world, and our God...and I continue to see it impact lives of students across campus as I share it...


4. WRECKED by Jeff Goins--a great read that causes you to think deeply about and then seek to flesh out in real life what life must look like when God wrecks you and your view of the world and even faith thru a life-changing experience with those in great need in our world...we are using it as the de-brief book for all of our students as they come home from our global opportunities trips and seek to have those unique experiences truly affect the direction of our lives as Christ followers...


5. THE ZAMBIA PROJECT by Chip Huber--I had to put this one on here because I think I read it at least seven or eight times this year in the editing process...and I continue to stand amazed at what God has done and is doing in this generation of students as they care about the global issues of poverty and justice present in our world...and it calls me daily to continue to live up to the things I have written as an author and disciple of Jesus...I have loved sharing it with friends at CU, at Wheaton Academy, at churches and Christian schools and universities, and my friends at World Vision, particularly connected to the 30 Hour Famine program...




Thursday, December 20, 2012

Seven habits of highly ineffective leaders

This is a great, albeit different description of leadership truths and ideas from Steven James in Leadership Journal...he refers to it as time-tested practices to ensure complete and utter failure...it resonated with me...

1 - Don't plan ahead

Don't fall into the trap of writing down your goals and objectives, or even worse, handcuffing yourself to specific times when you're supposed to feel obligated to do them. Instead, respond to things as they come up. Put off big projects until you have large chunks of uninterrupted time to accomplish them, or when you feel inspired. Then try to complete the task with one herculean effort.

2 - Go it alone

If you need to have someone checking up on you, it's a sure sign of your incompetence and lack of self-control. Independent-minded people make the most progress when they bypass the team and do their own thing. Accountability is overrated.

3 - Aim low

Only arrogant people set lofty goals. Those who dream big often end up flat on their face. At the end of the day, it's much better to aim for mediocrity and reach your goal rather than trying to do something extraordinary, and becoming frustrated when you can't quite accomplish it. Better safe than sorry. Those who risk the most never experience the security of living in the status quo.

4 - Point out the mistakes of others

People need to be aware of their failures or they'll never be able to change. So, keep an eye out for others' missteps or mishaps and then leak the word to the rest of your employees or volunteers. Be specific and stern. Don't give the person a chance to explain his actions since that's usually just a way of denial or shirking responsibility. It's even more beneficial to make the shortcomings of others public, so that other people in the organization can keep them in line.

5 - Mentally relive old failures

If you lost a job or got a demotion or didn't get the position you were vying for, brood over it. Dwelling on past mistakes, unresolved conflict, and ongoing disagreements will help give you perspective on your current situation. Obsessing over negative experiences helps you avoid them in the future.
Get into the habit of thinking about hurtful conversations you've had and coming up with things you wish you'd said, or clever comebacks that might've ended things right then and there. It'll give you that fire and motivation to speak up more authoritatively next time around.

6 - Wait until the last minute

You never know what the future holds so why waste your time doing things that might not even end up being necessary? Who knows, you might get fired, quit, or die and you'd just have wasted all of that time on that project. It's much more beneficial if you just put off working on something until the consequences of not doing it outweigh the effort it takes to do it. If other people hassle you about this, it just shows that they're not as good at working under pressure as you are.

7 - Take things personally

If people criticize your work, they are, in essence, attacking you. Criticism of a project you've worked on is a direct assault on your intelligence, personality, and character. As a matter of self-respect, it's important that you don't let them get away with that. If you don't stand up for yourself, you might come across as a pushover.
So, show your strength and conviction by defending every idea you have. Rather than "choosing your battles," remember that if someone criticizes your decisions, actions, or suggestions, they've already chosen to attack your personal self-worth. Don't let them get away with that.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2012/february-online-only/sevenhabits.html

Monday, December 17, 2012

Quotes from the Call by Os Guinness

I've read Os Guinness' book several times...and had stimulating conversations with various groups of students about it...in fact, our senior capstone students at CU are reading it now as they get ready to leave CU...and today I am working on a talk I will give to our first year students on CALLING next semester as they begin to think about careers and life purpose and exactly what they hope their college experience will do in charting the course and mission of their life...

So here's a few quotes from the book that again stand out to me...such profound words...


Calling is the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion and dynamism lived out as a response to his summons and service.

Our primary calling as followers of Christ is by him, to him, and for him.  Our secondary calling, considering who God is sovereign, is that everyone, everywhere, and in everything should think, speak, live, and act entirely for him.

The truth is not that God is finding us a place for our gifts but that God has created us and our gifts for a place of his choosing—and we will not only be ourselves when we are finally there.

A life lived listening to the decisive call of God is a life lived before one audience that trumps all others—the Audience of One.

God’s call resonates in us at depths no other call can reach and draws us on and out and up to heights no other call can scale or see.

When Jesus calls, he calls us one by one.  Comparisons are idle, speculations about others a waste of time, and envy as silly as it is evil.  We are each called individually, accountable to God alone, to please him alone, and eventually to be approved by him alone. If ever we are tempted to look around, compare notes, and use the progress of others to judge the success of our own calling, we will hear what Peter heard: “What is that to you? Follow me!”

Challenged, inspired, rebuked, and encouraged by God’s call, we cannot for a moment settle down to the comfortable, the mediocre, the banal, and the boring.  The call is always to the higher, the deeper, and the father.

“You see things as they are and ask ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were and ask ‘Why not?’”
-–George Bernard Shaw

“I don’t do big things. I do small things with big love.” -–Mother Teresa

Doing the right thing at the right moment multiplies its effect incalculably.

“You have never talked to a mere mortal.  Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals who we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.” –-C.S. Lewis in Weight of Glory

Do you long to rise to the full stature of who you are created to be? To know the passion of the intensity of life at its fullest? To be your utmost for his highest? Listen to Jesus; answer his call.




Wednesday, December 12, 2012

10 Ways to an Extraordinary Life...by BOB GOFF

I've been reading and talking about the book LOVE DOES a lot this year...with a bunch of different groups of guys on the CU campus...and it is impacting everyone who reads it...Bob Goff has become an inspirer and motivator for us...and here's a piece from RELEVANT I loved...check it out below:
BOB GOFF'S FIELD NOTES FROM A LIFE WELL-LIVED...
1. Don't Let Anyone Go to Voicemail
“We get really busy,” Goff says. “But the less time Jesus had on earth, the more available He became to people.”
So when Goff put his phone number in the back of Love Does, he made the promise to himself to answer every call—regardless of whether or not he knew who it was. There are practical limits to this, of course. “I don’t feel guilty if I’m on the other line, or on a plane,” he says. But from where Goff sits, Jesus wouldn’t have ignored many phone calls. So neither does he. “If I get a call, I answer it,” he says. “And it’s been terrific!
“There’s a God we can talk to anytime, anywhere, about anything, and I’m so glad He doesn’t screen my calls—because I don’t have anything that’s particularly interesting to say. And I’m understanding that better because I’m available to people.”
2. Don't Make Appointments
Goff says, “When someone calls me and says, ‘Can we meet two Tuesdays from now at 3 p.m.?’ I say, ‘How about now?’ If you call me two Tuesdays from now at 3, I’ll probably say the same thing.”
That’s right. As implausible as it sounds, Bob Goff, lawyer and Ugandan consulate, doesn’t set appointents.
The benefit of this thinking becomes evident even now—he is, as we speak, driving home from an impromptu meeting with a young man who needed to talk.
“Guess what!” he says, laughing. “I didn’t have any appointments that I needed to cancel ... I’ve got all the time in the world because I don’t have any appointments.”
Goff insists when your life is appointment-free, your time is at the service of others instead of your personal demands. Plus, you become a different person when you structure your life around others’ needs.
“Can you imagine a lawyer who doesn’t make appointments?” Goff asks, recognizing the absurdity of it. “But it’s been great.”
3. Be Incredibly Inefficient at Love
“Don’t do an efficient brand of love,” Goff says.
Then he does what he does best—launches into a story without missing a beat.
“The woman who lives across the street from us has cancer. She called me up and told me the bad news, and I told her, ‘I’m not going to call you ever again.’ She’s like, ‘What?’
“I went to Radio Shack and got us two walkie-talkies, and it was terrific. For the last year, we’ve been talking on walkie-talkies every night. It’s like we’re both 14-year-olds and we’re both in tree forts.
“She took a turn for the worse about four days ago, so this morning, I woke up about 5, and I went to the hospital. I sent the nurse in with a walkie-talkie, and I sat in the next room and called her up. I heard her just start crying—because there’s something inefficient and beautiful about it. We were sitting in a hospital, separated by a room, talking on walkie-talkies.”
Here he breaks off and seems choked up for a moment.
Then he continues. “Be inefficient with your love. The more in-efficient, the better. It would have been a lot more efficient for God to not send Jesus to die for us. That was very inefficient love. But so sweet and so tender.”
4. Don't Have a Bible Study
When it comes to Bible studies, Goff says simply, “I’m done. I’ve got all the information I need.”
But this doesn’t leave the Bible out of his daily routine. To the contrary, he’s upped the ante.
“I’ve met with the same guys every Friday who I’ve been meeting with for a decade,” he says. “And we have a Bible Doing.”
The idea, Goff says, is basically that memorization is only effective if it motivates you to action. It’s great when believers meet together to internalize the Bible, but why not externalize it as well?
Goff is likewise unconventional in his approach to a morning quiet time. “I can’t do them,” he says. “I think I got sent to the principal too much when I was a kid.”
“Instead, I take Scripture, I let it wash over me, and I say, ‘What do I really think about this?’” Then he shares his reflections by sending out a morning tweet.
This morning habit helps his day start on the right foot in front of God and everyone else. “It helps me dwell in Christ,” he says. “But it also helps me not be a pill midday. I can’t send a beautiful tweet in the morning and then be a pill.”
5. Quit Stuff
“Every Thursday, I quit something,” Goff says. It’s one of his more infamous habits, one that he follows faithfully—and, often, dramatically. He’s been known to break apartment leases, throw out furniture and quit jobs. “You can quit cussing if you want,” he says, “but go a little higher up on the tree. It can be something really good.”
His most recent Thursday resignation was from the board of a prominent charity. “I called the guy that runs it up and said, ‘I’m out!’ And he said, ‘How come?’ And then he paused and said, ‘No! Thursday!’”
The idea is not to be a liability to charitable organizations (although that might be part of the fallout). It’s to give yourself room to grow and to give God room to work. The patterns of life can weigh down and hold back. Quitting things forces you forward to explore new opportunities, to try things you wouldn’t have time for otherwise and to fill your life with things that are fresh, different
and dangerous.
6. Do What You're Made to Do
In today’s functional culture, the common question is, “What am I able to do?” People take tests to determine skill sets and aptitude and then march off to pursue a career based on the results.
But Goff says the better question is, “What am I made to do?” He goes on to say, “It’s as simple as asking, ‘What are the things you think are beautiful? And you want in your life?’ ... And then there’s other stuff you stink at, and they cause you a bunch of stress. I just try and do more of the first and less of the second.”
7. Get More Unschooled, Ordinary Friends
For most people, friendship is accidental. You see someone often enough, find a few common interests, hang out and strike up an easy friendship. New friends probably come from the people you work with or go to church with. The childhood idea of “making friends,” a proactive pursuit, has been replaced with the idea of “letting friends happen.”
Goff suggests making friendship intentional and, moreover, risky. Because sometimes you can learn more from friends who stand just left of center than those with whom you share everything in common.
One of Goff’s dearest friendships began with a simple thank you, for example.
“They call me Mr. G at the airport, because I’m there just about every day,” Goff says. And before every flight, the same TSA security guard—Adrian—checked Goff’s ID. After a few months of this, Goff decided to extend his appreciation.
“You start every day for me,” he recalls telling Adrian. “When I think of you, I think of God. You’re so tender and kind to everybody!”
And just like that, the diminutive security guard put his arms around Goff and held him, in front of a line of waiting passengers. “It started this terrific friendship,” Goff says. “We spent the next six Christmases together with his family at our house.”
Adrian tragically passed away last summer, but not before coming to Jesus. “And now, when I think of heaven,” Goff says, “I don’t think of St. Peter. I think of a guy like Adrian, who’s checking IDs. And all of that came because I decided to get more unschooled, ordinary friends.”
8. Jump the Tracks
Goff spends most Wednesday mornings at Disneyland, prepping to teach his courses at Pepperdine University. From his vantage point on Tom Sawyer Island, he watches hundreds of park visitors board the monorail, content to be whisked wherever the train takes them.
And their park experience, says Goff, suffers because of it. The real adventure, both in Disneyland and in life, is when you venture outside the fixed loop.
But Goff is quick to point out there’s a difference between fighting the system and choosing to explore new paths outside the system. He says everyone should be jumping more tracks: “Not with a militancy. Not with a black arm band around your arm, just saying what you’re against. But with a resolve.”
And what can you expect to find off the beaten path? Adventure, and good company. “I’ll know more about my character, and I’ll know more about Jesus,” he says. “I’ll meet a lot of cool people.”
9. Crowd-Surf Each Other
At a speaking event, Goff met a man who had just received word that his 8-year-old son had been diagnosed with leukemia. Someone suggested everyone lay hands on him and pray for healing.
“That means the four dudes next to him put hands on him, and the guy in row 50 is really just putting hands on the guy in row 49,” he says.
Not satisfied with this set-up, Goff called out, just as the group was bowing their heads, “Let’s crowd surf this guy.”
So the man was passed up and down the rows of the auditorium. “That’s the picture that’s etched in my mind,” he says. “This man in agony and delight.”
Goff, who is big on physical touch, doesn’t shake hands. “If we say we’re the body of Christ, let’s act like it,” he says. “Let’s stop treating this faith thing like it’s a business trip. I want us to treat it like it’s a family. Family picks up the phone. Family surfs each other. Family hugs each other.”
Goff’s personal policy is to hug whoever he meets. It doesn’t suit everyone’s comfort zone, but he says it’s part of his identity as a believer. And the benefit of breaking through these bubbles of security is being opened up to a deeper understanding of community.
“I’m the big winner,” Goff insists, on crowd-surfing others. “I understand more about my faith and the idea of being a body.”
10. Take the Next Step
Many people are passionate but often have no idea how to get where they want to end up. Goff says you don’t really have to. You just have to start.
“If I could do this Jedi move over a lot of people, I’d just tell them to take the next step,” he says. “And then the next step. You don’t know all the steps, but most people know the next step.”
And even if not, Goff says that’s no excuse. “I’m not that freaked out about knowing what the next step is. Because I know that if I trip, I’ll fall forward. I’ll be moving toward the next thing.”
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/whole-life/10-ways-live-extraordinary-life

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Advent Conspiracy


The Advent Conspiracy is a movement. It's tens of thousands of Christians around the world throwing the kind of birthday party Jesus loves. It started in 2006 with just four churches. Today there are Advent Conspirators in over 20 countries, celebrating Christmas more deeply and blessing others with safe drinking water, offered in Jesus' name.


The conspiracy is based on four simple ideas:



WORSHIP FULLY

Christmas begins with a baby born in a manger. He changed the course of the stars and turned fathers' hearts to their children. The heavens sang his praise as angels sang glory to God in the highest and on earth his peace. Shepherds praised God and traveled to Bethlehem to see him. Magi journeyed from the East to worship him. His mother treasured these things in her heart. They called him "Immanuel"—"God with us." He proclaimed his presence to the end of the age.
What we do unto others, we do unto him.
Again this Christmas babies will be born in ramshackle homes. Herod will not try to kill them, but their drinking water will. Again Jesus will turn our hearts to children. We who still hear angels will journey to see Christ in the least of these. Our camels traded for drill rigs, we will bear the gift of life: clean drinking water, offered in Jesus' name. Mothers will treasure these things in their hearts. This is full worship.
Worship derives from Old-English words meaning "worth-ship."
What we give worth to is what we worship: possessions, God, shopping, children, money, Jesus. We worship all the time. Advent is a time to consciously direct our worship towards Jesus, Immanuel, God with us. A time to worship fully.

SPEND LESS

For God so loved the world he gave us a shopping season."
Wait a minute... Jesus came to give abundant life. So why does Christmas leave us feeling so spent? When we spend less anxiety, energy, worry, and money on things that don't matter, then the things that do will come to the surface of our lives. We all love Jesus, but it's hard to feel it when life gets clogged with obligation, traffic, stores, and debt.
Seek out just a few people you trust and agree that this year you are not going to commodify your love for each other. Figure out how to give each other time, attention, and love, then channel the money you save to something that reflects the heart of Jesus.
Christmas abounds with God's energy. If we don't misspend it, we will find ourselves free to worship, love, and give more authentically. Two percent of America's Christmas budget could drill water wells for half a billion thirsty people. That would honor God and save lives, but spending less is really about us having more life.

GIVE MORE

When you give a lot of gifts are you really giving much? People on their deathbeds never want more stuff. They want time—that's what's really valuable.
Life itself is God's gift of time to us. In the greatest Christmas gift of all—Jesus—God gave us a relationship with a person. We're giving more when we give our time. Giving ourselves to others is the original Christmas tradition.
Make a thoughtful gift that shows someone you've been paying attention. Spend time with the kids. Sled, ride a bike, play a game, take a hike, go fishing. Give a massage, baby-sit, fly a kite, talk. Buy a pound of special coffee you'll only drink with mom. Write a poem, draw a picture, bake something yummy.
By giving time you'll spend less; you'll be free to give away a little of what you saved and God will multiply it. In Sub-Saharan Africa, women spend 40 billion hours just hauling water. On average $1 provides water for one person for one year. Imagine 40 billion hours of mothers giving time to their children instead of hauling water. That's a lot of time, a lot of love, and a lot of joy.

LOVE ALL

The Christmas story is a love story. The grand narrative of God getting his long-since-fallen people to turn back to the manger. It continues with the cross and our Savior's perfect love transforming even the most tragic defeat into the ultimate victory.
This is a season for love to triumph. It's a season for love to make anything possible. Beyond the white-noise of holiday frenzy, God has never stopped inviting us into his heart. We know how our love story ends. It ends with God and the Church inviting all who are thirsty to drink of the free gift of the water of life.
The door to this possibility opens in a manger. We tell the story of Christmas with our lives. It can be about the prophets or about the profits. It can be about a newborn king or a gift-wrapped box and a thing. It can be about time spent with our families and clean water for the least of these, or about shopping, lines, payments, and fines.
It can start at the manger and end with redemption, or start at the mall and end with convention. It's not that there's something wrong with the shopping mall—it's that the better story is about loving all.