Test Driving TypePad

For the next 14 days, I'll be blogging via TypePad on a 14 day FREE trial. You can follow my updates here.

I am seriously considering the move because TypePad has a sweet app for the iPhone. I'll keep you posted. See you over at TypePad.

To Lead Others, First Lead Yourself

We are finally back from vacation and glad to be back in the saddle.

Yesterday I spoke at Journey for the first time in three weeks. The break was nice, but it sure felt great to be back in the mix. I shared the second talk in our current series: Momentum--The Art of Self-Leadership.

Early this afternoon an email popped in my inbox that was promoting a new John Maxwell article. Despite your opinion of John, he's written some really solid words on self-leadership.

Here's a link. It's worth your time.

P.S. Loving my new iPhone 3G!

National Prayer Luncheon

Tomorrow afternoon, I will be speaking in Anderson, Indiana at my tribes National Convention. My assignment is to speak at the National Prayer Luncheon. Obviously, my topic is prayer. I invested several hours this week pulling together my thoughts. I am really excited about the invitation and how God might use it.

Personally, I was deeply challenged as I prepared to share on the topic of prayer. If there is one area I could identify that must go to the next level in my personal walk with God it is most definitely prayer.

Every great move of God begins with a prayer people. I want to be in that number.

Marraige Matters

The media team at Journey Church has worked real hard the past few week to pull together a video trailer of our new fall marriage series. I would love to have your feedback. Leave a comment.



* In case they're reading, thanks for all the hard work media team!

This I Believe

Andrea was doing some cleaning yesterday and discovered a gem. She found a descriptive paper Ty wrote earlier this year. Tytus gets my vote for coolest and brightest soon to be 7th grade boy (err teenager) on the planet.

Beat The Heat

Last Sunday, I challenged Journey Church to beat the heat and invest the summer months growing spiritually. Below are FOUR things you can do to grow this summer:

Don't skip out on Sundays - We hope you will take a weekend or two to get away, but make it a priority to be a part of Journey Church the rest of your weekends this summer. Sundays are a great time to connect with one another and encourage those around you to take the next step. When you miss a Sunday, make sure to catch the Journey podcast!

Read the Bible and pray for a few minutes every day - Bible study and prayer are necessities for a Christ follower to grow in their journey with God. Make a commitment to read a book or two of the Bible this summer. John and Proverbs would be great places to start. Invest your commute to work or the first few moments of your day in prayer.

Connect with others on a monthly basis - The summer months are great for connecting, especially with someone new. Summer is a great time to invest some relational time with someone who is disconnected from church. The relational investment this summer will prepare you for an invitation to Journey Church this fall.

Begin or continue to financially partner with Journey Church - Each of us are feeling the crunch of basic living expenses increasing. Just as your bills do not disappear in the summer, neither do the financial responsibilities at Journey Church. The summer season is the perfect opportunity to begin contributing to Journey Church on a regular basis. Your financial faithfulness this summer is needed and will continue to empower our community to make a difference.

Reveal Conversation

I'm headed to bed. It's been a long and productive day. Before I finally put head to pillow, here are a few things I was reminded of during our Reveal survey conversation tonight:

- Growing a church is a team sport.
- Vision leaks.
- Just because vision gets cast doesn't mean people get it.
- New voices bring new energy!
- Connecting in a church of 400+ is not obvious. Structure and systems are critical.
- Journey has tons of untapped resources waiting to be used. Cannot wait to watch God use them!
- I love my job.
- I love Journey Church!

Reveal Study

In January of 2008, I encouraged Journey Church to participate in the Reveal study. We figured it was perfect timing as we entered our third year of ministry as a church.

A few weeks ago, our results were sent to us. I will be meeting with a small group of Journey peeps tonight to hear their thoughts on the survey results. I have invited some new faces to this conversation. By new I mean people who haven't participated in any leadership type conversations in the past. I figured it would be good to get some new perspective.

The purpose will be to have a conversation to share insights and create a list of some potential takeaways. This group will NOT be a decision making group. I am really looking forward to the conversation tonight. I plan to do a lot of listening.

Katie Reider Album

I am sitting in my office about to bring a productive day to an end. I am listening to the Katie Reider album I linked earlier.

As I listen to her wonderful voice pour from the speakers of my laptop, I can't help but remember the first time I heard Katie sing. We invited her to sing at a Christian coffeehouse I was helping run. I have a vivid memory of how her seventeen year old voice filled the room that night. It was powerful and deeply moving.

When I read Katie's story last night, my heart sank. I hurt for her. I hurt for her family. I really do hope you will take a few moments to read her story and buy her album. It's worth it. If we all chip in we can help and make a difference.

Leaders Are Readers

I have spent countless hard earned dollars on books. I have also read my share of leadership, ministry, and business type books. I have to admit that I wish the time I invested in the collection of books that decorate my office included more personal takeaways and integration in real life.

I stumbled upon a post and a few bullets from Seth Godin that are worth your time.

Follow this link to the full post. Here are the bullets:

"1. Decide, before you start, that you’re going to change three things about what you do all day at work. Then, as you’re reading, find the three things and do it. The goal of the reading, then, isn’t to persuade you to change, it’s to help you choose what to change.

2. If you’re going to invest a valuable asset (like time), go ahead and make it productive. Use a postit or two, or some index cards or a highlighter. Not to write down stuff so you can forget it later, but to create marching orders. It’s simple: if three weeks go by and you haven’t taken action on what you’ve written down, you wasted your time.

3. It’s not about you, it’s about the next person. The single best use of a business book is to help someone else. Sharing what you read, handing the book to a person who needs it... pushing those around you to get in sync and to take action--that’s the main reason it’s a book, not a video or a seminar. A book is a souvenir and a container and a motivator and an easily leveraged tool. Hoarding books makes them worth less, not more.

Effective managers hand books to their team. Not so they can be reminded of high school, but so that next week she can say to them, 'are we there yet?'"

Thanks Seth!

Katie Reider

Read this story. Buy this album.

ALWAYS Plugged In

Here's a message from Tim Sanders that I need to hear often...

Turn off your alerts and email notifications: "

Today I attempted to do everything in uni-task mode (as opposed to multi-task).

The secret for me was to turn off all the distractions that make it difficult to concentrate. Let me see…Yahoo Mail alert, my Entourage alert (sound, plus the little envelope icon in the toolbar), Yahoo alerts, my cell phone, instant messenger, etc.

Each one of these alerts provides an avenue for interruption. Not only does these little intrusions hamper our concentration and productivity, they are annoying.

When I participated in the New Economy Depression Study with Heartmath Institute in 2003, we noticed that information overload, combined with constant interruptions (decision shift in psych speak), leads to stress and depression.

I know its tech-cool to be 100% one, Twitterfied and ready for any stimuli, but really – don’t you want to do GREAT work?

So, unless you are waiting for a critical announcement or offer 24/7 instant response service, turn off your alerts and protect your sanity. You can find these alerts in the preferences of your email client, instant messenger or web service. At the very least, turn off the audio portion or ability for it to generate pop ups.

"

(Via Sanders Says.)

NCCPN Meeting #1

The first meeting of the north Cincy's church planting network went well. The planters seemed even more excited about the conversation and gathering than I expected. Today's meeting was invested in sharing our church planting call and story. It was very cool to hear each planter's story and how they landed in norther Cincinnati.

It will be fun to watch relationships form in and from this group. Over the next several months, we plan to tackle our biggest leadership challenges as we gather quarterly for a couple of hours. I am looking forward to the conversation!

I am glad I sent that email...

North Cincy Church Planters Network

In the past couple of years, I have been amazed by the number of new church starts ups in the northeastern quadrant of Cincinnati. After a little research, I have a count of 18 new churches and I am sure I likely missed a few.

I am convinced that church planter is one of the loneliest ministry roles one can assume. It is so easy to go into hiding and lose the valuable connection with others who are walking a similar ministry road.

I have decided to pull this group together for quarterly conversations over lunch. There will be very little agenda other than creating a safe circle where people can share the emotionally load that often accompanies the church planting animal.

Our first meeting will be tomorrow. I am really looking forward to the meeting and seeing how God uses this ongoing conversation.

My New Favorite Red

It's no secret that I love baseball. I have been a Cincinnati Reds fan as long as I can remember. I grew up listening to the voices of Marty and Joe on 700 WLW. I have fond memories of Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Barry Larkin, and the Nasty Boys. I remember the 1990 world series sweep like it was yesterday. I have watched or listened to parts of a majority of the Reds games for the better part of twenty years.

With all that in view, last night was truly one of the coolest moments I can remember as a Reds fan in a really really long time. If you do not know Jay Bruce you will. Jay Bruce, a 21 year old baseball stud, reached in all five plate appearances in his MLB debut. It doesn't get much better in baseball.

Welcome to the show Jay Bruce! I'm glad you are on our team.

Memorial Day

Today was a great day...

It began with dropping 1,000 bottled waters on the West Chester Memorial Day parade. This was the fourth year Journey has participated. We now have a reputation at this event and it's a good one. Great work Journey peeps!

The afternoon and early evening was invested in hanging with family and friends. Good times!

I cannot believe June is upon us. Where does time go?

Gathering With Bill Hybels

This afternoon, I am having lunch with Bill Hybels. Dave Workman invited 30 other Christian leaders in Cincinnati to join him for the gathering.

I have one question: how did my name end up on that list?

I have always had a deep respect for Bill's leadership and ministry. I have very vivid memories of several of Bill's sermons. I can recall content, tone, and how I responded internally. Those moments were life changing in my early twenties.

I am very honored by the invitation and I can't wait to hear what he has to say. I plan to twitter from the gathering. You can follow that here.

Favorite WiBo Quotes and Tweets

"We underestimate God…by a lot. Our dreams are too small. We all need dreams that are way beyond our ability to accomplish." - Mark Batterson

"Mark Batterson is talking about cognitive shifts. It's going to take a major cognitive shift for me to understand it." Tony Morgan Tweet

"Jesus was called a friend of sinners. Could that be said about you?" -Vince Antonucci

"Leverage the culture or risk losing your impact." - Tim Stevens

Whiteboard Sessions

Wishing I could be here today. I love the concept of this conference: 1 day, 8 influential church leaders, 30 minutes each.

I'll be watching parts of it live here.

Library Additions

I added three books to my library today.

1) Pop Goes The Church
2) Vintage Jesus
3) The Four Seasons of Marriage

Pop Goes The Church was too intriguing to pass up. I dig Tim Stevens and had to pull the trigger. I am doing a teaching series in June on Jesus. Couldn't pass on a little Driscoll. The book on marriage is begging to be a Journey Church weekend teaching series.

Purpose Driven Network Summit

I have been following some of the action of the summit here. It is worth a few moments of your time.

Blogging Tools

I have managed to finally sync a few programs I use on my Macbook Pro with my blog. This will ensure the consistent addition of content to this blog in the coming days.

I'll be using MacJournal and NetNewsWire to add content with only a couple clicks of the mouse.

Now I just need an option for blogging from my iPhone and I'll be all set for a full re-entry. Pumped!

Twitter

I have recently developed a new communication passion. It's called Twitter. You can learn more about Twitter here and here.

You can follow my Twitter here. I hope to see some of you faithful readers on Twitter. Find me so I can follow you too!

Out of Hiding

I'm bringing my blog back online. If you are still following then leave me a comment.