PastorHacks

If you could do it all again?

Scot McKnight has been running a fantastic series...

If you could begin all over again, what one thing would you have focused on more? Or, put differently, what wisdom would you give to a new pastor if you were asked this question: What should I focus on? Here’s a reflection by Bob Smallman, pastor at Bible Presbyterian Church way up in northern Wisconsin where, if you’re not looking, you can get bitten by a muskie.

First of all, I am glad by God’s grace that we can’t “begin all over again!” Once around is enough for me. I’ll never understand why reincarnation appeals to so many!

For context, I’m 61 years old, and Linda and I are in our 30th year in our current parish. I was at my first congregation, a church plant, for nearly three years. And that would be my first suggestion to someone starting out: don’t try to start a new church right out of seminary! In fact, knowing what I know now, I would have looked hard for an assistant/associate position to get several years of seasoning. That first church just about finished me off, and only my wife’s faith in me and a return to seminary for an advanced degree kept me in ministry.

It’s almost impossible to answer the question, “What ONE thing would you have focused on more?” because the pastorate (at least in smaller and medium-sized churches) won’t let you do that (and I don’t have the iron will of a Eugene Peterson to stay focused!). With the exception of an incredible half-time youth director (who’s been with us for 15 years and built an amazing youth ministry), I am the only paid ministry staff member. Because we’ve invested our personnel dollars in youth ministry, we don’t even have a secretary (though a volunteer does put the Sunday bulletin together). So I am the classic “jack-of-all-trades” pastor — and I love it! It has forced me to lean heavily on the ministry skills of my people (and made me wish I were a better mentor/trainer than I am).

But if I could go back (now) and talk to myself as I was first starting out, I would say to myself...

Read the rest here

Wisdom

"Think of people you consider fanatical. They’re overbearing, self-righteous, opinionated, insensitive, and harsh. Why? It’s not because they are too Christian, but because they are not Christian enough. They are fanatically zealous and courageous, but they are not fanatically humble, sensitive, loving, empathic, forgiving, or understanding-as Christ was. … What strikes us as overly fanatical is actually a failure to be fully committed to Christ and his gospel...

What is the answer, then, to the very fair and devastating critique of the record of the Christian church? The answer is not to abandon the Christian faith, because that would leave us with neither the standards nor the resources to make correction. Instead we should move to a fuller and deeper grasp of what Christianity is. The Bible itself has taught us to expect the abuses of religion and it has also told us what to do about them."

Tim Keller: The Reason For God

Just do SOMETHING...

"Completion of open loops, whether they be major projects or boxes of old stuff we've yet to purge and organize, prepares the ground for cleaner, clearer, and more complete energy for whatever shows up. We're often not sure what's next or what to tackle. At that point, just clean or complete something- something obvious and right in front of you, right away. Soon you'll have the energy and clarity to know what's next, and you'll have cleared the decks for more effective responsiveness on every front. Process your in-basket, purge your emails, or clean your center desk drawer. You've got to do it sometime anyway." -David Allen, Ready for Anything

Watch your Church Credit Card closely...

Everyone knows that if your card gets stolen, you're only liable up to $50, right?

Surely that must apply to your church card as well?

Not so fast...

One thing that banks generally aren't eager to disclose (and so don't) is that they treat business cards differently. With these the liability can run into the thousands.

That means if you lose your wallet with your church card in it, you could be looking at some pretty hefty liability.

I don't know if there's a hack here, other than- Watch those cards and probably limit the number of church cards you issue.

Anyone ever hit with a big bill due to loss of church card?

Wisdom

"Preaching is not pastoring. Preaching is part of the liturgy for the community of believers. Pastoring is about the individually named people who have individual stories, with their individual dreams and wounds, their particular gains and losses, their anxieties and hopes, their longings for and fears of God. Pastors live within God’s grand Story of salvation and help others see how their individual stories can get caught up into God’s Story. I like the image Eugene H. Peterson uses for pastors: pastors are detectives searching out the slightest evidence of God’s grace in peoples’ lives. I’ve learned that pastors are artists of the soul, not religious scientists."

-John Frye, pastor of Fellowship Evangelical Covenant Church in Grand Rapids

(ht: Jesus Creed)

From (about) a year ago... Hacking a GTD Moleskine

If the title to this blog entry makes no sense to you whatsoever, feel free to just keep on moving. :)

I recognize that "Hacking a GTD Moleskine" will make sense to less than .01% of the English speaking world, but hey- he or she who has ears to hear...

Anyway- for those of you down with the GTD, but not necessarily wanting to hi-tech it, here's the lo-fi yet not Hipster version... mainly fo those of you looking for a way to add more functionality to that very cool Moleskine you bought but haven't really used in any significant way...

Here's how to make a Moleskine a mean, lean getting things done machine...

If you could do it all again?

Scot McKnight has been been running a fantastic series...

Cindy Nicholson, Asst. Pastor, Vineyard Christian Church of Evanston; Cindy is also on task forces and committees at the national level of the Vineyard; she responds to our pastor’s wisdom question:

If you could begin all over again, what one thing would you have focused on more?

I started leading in college 37 years ago and I have never stopped. I love this calling and I am so grateful to God that I am still pastoring all these years later. When I reflect on that time, the one thing that I would have focused on more has nothing to do with the art of pastoral ministry – and everything to do with it! I would have more diligently protected my times set aside to sit quietly before God, scriptures in hand, and to listen, to think long, slow thoughts and to let him inform my mind, soften my heart, and open the doors of my spirit to be filled again with the Holy Spirit .

When I think of the men and women I admire who are still practicing their calling in their elder years, I notice...

Read the rest here

Types of email...

There are only 6 types of email, and only 0 reasons to have an inbox full of them.

It's not a hard thing to process down to zero in your inbox- you just need to look at each email and decide which kind of the following 6 it is, and then you'll know what to do with it:

• Email you've read and there’s no next action for you in it or there is and you can do it in 2 minutes or less/have done it and you don’t need to keep it for reference. You may delete it!
• Email you've read and there's no action for you associated with it right now but maybe at a later time. So someday it or tag and file it!
• Email you've read and decided there is an action but you are not sure what the action is. So, either put it in waiting (until you know what to do),  or someday it!
• Email you've read, know what the action is and know you can't do it in 2 minutes or less. Put it on a to do/Next Action list in the appropriate context, and put the email either in the trash or the action folder.
• Email you've read acted on and are now waiting for a reply or next action from someone else to complete the loop. Put it in Waiting.

But Bob, you say... I counted the little bullet points and that's only 5 types  of email!
Very observant, padawan learner... what's the only kind of email there's any REAL justification for to have in your inbox?

"Unread."

Quick poll- answer in the comments...

How many emails do you currently have in your inbox?

Church Boys...

Some of the men of Evergreen hang out at the Lompoc pub on Monday nights... I had to leave a little early last night to go downtown for a meeting with homeless folks in front of City Hall...

Looks like I missed the best part of the night!

If you could do it all again?

Scot McKnight has been running a fantastic series...

Today I begin a series devoted to Pastor’s wisdom, and our question we asked of seasoned pastors was this: If you knew then what you know now, what would you have focused on? Or, in light of what you now know, what would you advise young pastors to focus on? Our first post is from Kent Anderson, pastor of a Covenant church in Naperville Illinois.

Hindsight is 20/20 but it often comes at less than productive moments but sometimes it does make a difference. I have served churches in Iowa, Michigan and Illinois; in rural, small town and suburban environs. I have dealt with everything from murder to suicide to sexual abuse to goofy boards to cranky members to bats in the church to you name it. Knowing this - the one thing I would make sure of if I was starting over again is this – read the Bible.

Oh I read the Bible regularly with some systematic method, but what I mean is to read through the Bible repeatedly every year. Make it a high priority practice. About 12 years ago I began to read the Bible from front to back three times a year. I read it in 20 chapter segments and this takes about an hour a day. I do this 4 - 5 time a week. I change version each time read through it, NIV, NRSV, KJV, NASB, Jerusalem, the Message, whatever. I mark the Bible up and have cheap notebook to jot down my thoughts and questions. There are times when I take a break for a month and do something else but this has been my foundational practice for years.

Why do this?

Read the rest here...

From (about) a year ago... How to Stife Creativity

Lifehack posts some good thoughts on How to Stifle Your Creativity...

Be afraid. Be very afraid. There’s nothing like fear to put a stop to any kind of creativity: fear of getting it wrong; fear of what other people may say; fear of embarrassment; fear of change. The more afraid that you are, the less creative you will be—and the less you will act on any creative thoughts that manage to break through the curtain of anxiety.

Remind yourself of all the times that you failed in the past.
Keep them fresh in your mind. Dwell on them—the pain, the shame, the hurt, the way others sniggered. Let your imagination go to work and really re-live those cringe-making moments. That should stop you ever trying again.

Some others...

Never waste time. Stay constantly busy.

Always try to fit in.

Stick to what you know.

Always defer to authority.

Don’t ask stupid questions.

Leave thinking to the experts.

Keep it simple, stupid.

There's a good run down of each point here.

And speaking of crass...

Hey everyone-

If you enjoy PastorHacks and are thinking to yourself "Is there an easy, yet tangible way I can show Bob some love?" look no further.

If you want to express a bit of appreciation, do one of two things. If you see an ad that genuinely interests you, go ahead and click. Some of them lead to truly entertaining stuff (like: The Jezebel Spirit or the DVD Player for Church which removes profanity, nudity, violence from DVDs).

Or, if you've been economically stimulated and you plan on buying some books with the portion of your money with which the government is so crassly (and speaking of "crass"...) attempting to buy your love, you could get to amazon through any of the book links on this blog, like this-

• Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices

A nice way to throw a couple of pennies Bob's way.

Tip of the hat to you all!
 

Monday morning pick me up...

In line with the post two down, here's a Monday Morning Pick-Me-Up courtesy of Monday Morning Insight

"

Did you have a rough Sunday yesterday? Lots of stress and pressure. Well, you need this as a Monday morning pick-me-up. No matter how bad your sermon went yesterday, at least you didn't have this on the screen behind you (at least I hope you didn't...

Youu’ll need to follow this link to watch. And make sure you’re not drinking (or eating) anything while you watch!

 

David Allen on...

Too much to do...

All right- if you've been hanging around here for awhile, you know we're technically a part of the cult of David Allen, he of Getting Things Done fame.

Allen has a column summarizing the whole GTD ethos in the Huffington post...

Here's this week's:

The heat is on. I've been noticing that the stress factor at senior levels in organizations seems to be increasing. Maybe it's just the particular clients I've been working with lately. And maybe it's just that I've been in the U.S. NE corridor a bit recently, where the tolerance for stress is probably the highest on the planet.

I think it's about agreements. Largely unspoken and unkept. We're giving ourselves so much to do, and we're taking on so much that we expect that others are expecting of us, that it would be virtually impossible to do even a portion of what's really been chunked off onto so many of our plates.

Most of you reading this right now don't even have time to finish to perfection some of your projects right now, even if you stopped the world from giving you anything else, and you took the rest of your life!

It's strange, but I work with people to define the work they are not doing. Unfortunately just half taking on responsibilities and commitments with ourselves and others, or just half clarifying and understanding what they mean, won't cut the pressure in half -- it doubles it! So much of what people feel are the pressures to get things done, but there is a resistance to defining that work precisely. We have to really focus and think, to clarify and define the outcomes and actions that would be required, on all the things that we might need or want to do.

Read the rest here

Monday Hacks?

Everyone knows that Monday is the worst day of the week for pastors, right? It's often hard to sleep on Sunday night, Monday is just chocked full of angst...

One of the reasons why I switched my day off from Monday to Friday is that if Sunday went poorly, I was unable to really relax because I had all this nervous energy, all these things to fix, all these ideas... and if Sunday went well, I was still unable to relax because I had all this nervous energy, all these things to remember, all these ideas...
You get the picture.

For me, Monday hack #1 was realizing that Monday, tired as I was, was no good as a day off. It might be a day off for my body, but never for my brain. It just feels good to see Sunday as day 1 of the week and Monday as the second day, and so on...

But... Every once in awhile (hopefully not more than that) you have a lousy, lousy Sunday.

So- what do you do?

You all tell me (and each other) how you recover from one of those weeks that leave you wanting to bang your head against a cement wall... seriously- I need to know!

A deal! 91% off of MS Office

From Lifehacker:

A Microsoft student promotion that slashes 91% off a copy of Office Ultimate applies to anyone with a .edu email address—and most universities offer .edu addresses to their alumni for free. Microsoft Office Ultimate, which retails for $680, is available to students for only $60 until May 16th. But if you can snag a .edu address, you too can cash in on the deal—all you have to do is get yourself an alumni email address at your alma mater. The promotion's web site says you have to prove you're enrolled in coursework, but the New York Times reports that a senior VP at Microsoft confirmed all you need is an .edu email address.

Mind like water...

David Allen of GTD fame has a metaphor he uses... "Mind like water."

Now, before you turn me in to WatchBlogs™ for being a New Age sympathizer, let's hear how he describes this ideal state for dealing with all the things (input) that comes our way.

He says "Behind all this lay the 'mind like water' concept, an image I'd come across years ago while studying karate. When you throw a pebble into a pond, what does the water do? It responds with total appropriateness to the force and mass of the rock. It does nothing more and nothing less. It doesn't overreact or underreact. It doesn't react at all. It simply interacts with the whatever comes to it and then returns to its natural state. The water can do that only by design. A human being can act this way only if he or she has a conscious system in place and if that system is built on principles that can withstand chaos and stress."

I find it odd that those of us (pastors) who preach the merits of life abundant and "peace that passes understanding" seem so often to live lives of neither.

Why is that?

Partly, it is the nature of our job. We're not just dealing with our own emergencies. In many ways, we're dealing with the life emergencies of everyone in our pastorate. For example, I worry not only about my own marriage, but the marriage of many others, in many different places on the continuum of health. Stress.

But a big part of it is a mess of our own making. We're the ones who live lives without margin, who over commit and underpray. We're the ones trying to run an organization (whether we like it or not) but who resist  accountability  for  our time and how we spend it, as if such a thing were an affront to our authority.

I'm coming to realize that, at least for me... and maybe for you... my disorganization is killing me. It's very literally sapping all the 'bundance out of my abundant life and leaving precious little peace.

Which is why I do this blog.

You know the old saw about the preacher and his/her pet hobby horses? That the guy who preaches a lot on lust is probably preaching to himself?

That's me.

But rather than lust (no, not perfect in that area) and preaching on it week in and week out, I do this little blog. It forces me to think about the level of crapitude in my systems, my inability to live with any sense of margin, my complete lack of organization and the resulting emergencies which cost me and my family so much. Got to get to a point where shalom is a reality in my life, and the peace that Jesus brings isn't drowned out by the chaos I create.

Got to get my act together. Mind like water. Hacking my life, my attitude, my systems to the point where I can deal with what comes my way appropriately, without over reacting, or underreacting.Working hard and trusting God with the results.

Wish me luck and hang in here at PastorHacks... gonna be fun.

Jott+ Web2.0= Crazy Delicious!

I spent some time rejiggering my system yesterday- I'll tell you more about that tomorrow (I'm ditching gtd app Things in favor (again) of a web/phone app).

In the process, I dug deeper into Jott. It's been awhile since I explored other uses for the service than just sending myself (or someone else) a reminder email.

1st, Jott's transcription has improved dramatically since I first used the service. Dramatically.

2nd, they've added an amazing number of links to other Web 2.0 type services. So now, through Jott, I can Twitter. I can post to my Typepad, Wordpress or Blogger blog. I can add to do's to a whole host of online GTD apps, like Backpack, Vitalist, Remember the Milk, Sandy, etc...
I can drop something onto my Google calendar (and since I can subscribe to a Google Calendar in iCal, that means I can Jott to my iCal, doesn't it?).

If it's been awhile since you checked out Jott, give it another go. It really is a pretty amazing tool. And let me know other ways you are using Jott..

From (about) a year ago... Memo to Me

So, not all of us have stellar admin. assistants! For those of us who don't, Backpack has a great reminder feature, where you can set an email to be sent to you as a reminder at a specific time...

However, if you're not down with Backpack (and you really should be), Scott Cheatham points us towards a great alternative...

"Here's something I've discovered that works nicely for me.

It's called "memo to me".  You can find it at "www.memotome.com". This handy little FREE app is designed to send you reminders of stuff like birthdays, anniversaries, etc...I use it as my digital "tickler" file. If you've read GTD by Dave Allen, you know he likes this idea. I still maintain my 43 folders paper tickler at my office but for little things like birthdays, or special sign ups for community events the church is going to be involved in, a due date for a library book, etc...this little app is all I need. I simply enter the date with a side note, set the note as a one time event (or yearly for birthdays), and then set up the reminder parameters..(i.e. do I want a reminder a week ahead of time, a day, or both!) and then, it's set. When I check my Gmail account that I use my GTD in, the messages pop in there, I assign them by GTD label and I'm ready to go with my actions list. It's just another way to keep things out of mind and onto a system I can trust."

Check it out

Ubernote...

Ever had a hard drive crash? Lost everything since your last back-up, did you?

As wi-fi becomes more and more ubiquitous, and as more and more of our apps migrate onto the web, the good news is this:
We'll lose less of the things that matter to us because we'll be keeping them "out there."

Maybe you're ready now to give this a go?

If so, check out Ubernote.

From their webpage:

            What is UberNote?

  UberNote is an all purpose notes and personal information manager accessible                         through your Internet web browser.   

 

       

What should I store in UberNote?

       

            Anything you want!  Here are some examples of what UberNote users are storing:

       

• Task lists
• Contacts
• Bookmarks
• Web clips
• Passwords
• Documents and text files in your "My Documents".
• Notes to self
• Meeting notes
• Recipes
• Research
• Any random thoughts or ideas

How is UberNote different than what I use to store my stuff today?        

       

                             Single Location - If you use UberNote, all of your stuff             is in one location.         

       

            Any Computer - Since UberNote is an Internet application,             you can access UberNote from almost any computer.

       

                    UberNote is one system at your fingertips.             You never know when you will have your next great idea or where you are when you need something from your notes. 

            I've seen other web apps just like UberNote, why is UberNote better?

       

UberNote is not just a Web 2.0 hyped application based around a sticky note. Once you use UberNote, you will realize how UberNote is like a real application.

       

            UberNote is easy to use -  UberNote's simple navigation,             ablility             to see many notes on one page, context sensitive menus, and dragging and dropping             all make UberNote extremely easy to             use.         

       

            Your notes are easy to find - Your notes are automatically             organized in a natural order both by when you created them and when you made changes.             If you still can't find something, you can also search for text anywhere in your notes.

       

            UberNote is smart - UberNote also has built in intelligence             to organize all your open task items and  internet bookmarks.  This is just the beginning, so look             for more built in searches in the future.

       

            UberNote is lightning fast - UberNote is built for speed             and performance.             No waiting on whole pages to load, just click and go!

Check it out

Why be productive?

David Allen, author of


"Getting Things Done : The Art of Stress-Free Productivity" (David  Allen) says this about productivity:
"The only two reasons to be efficient

I have concluded that there are only two good reasons for handling this physical material world as efficiently as possible:

(1) The physical world is important, or

(2) The physical world is not important.

If you care a lot about material success or production, you will obviously want to maximize your output by minimizing your resource requirements to make them happen. If you make it easier to get from here to there, you can go from here to there more often. Or you can go from here to farther than there with the same investment.

And if you don't care about material success or production, because of a greater allegiance to spiritual or aesthetic values, you will obviously want to be distracted and engrossed as little as possible in the physical world you still have to negotiate. If you want the freedom to spend time being contemplative, meditative, or reflective, you will undoubtedly want things done here with maximum efficiency."

Read the rest here

From (about) a year ago... Doodle

One of the most annoying things in the life of a pastor is trying to schedule meetings. We're dealing with volunteers who are being very generous with their time, but try getting a group of them together and you'll realize- we all have radically different schedules. To try to get more than 4 people together at the same time is to experience profound frustration...

Our elder team uses Doodle.ch.

I can create a poll with dates to choose from. Then I send it to everyone involved. They mark their open dates and their blackout dates. No muss, no fuss. And no clogging our inboxes with endless "What about Tuesday? No. Wednesday? No Tuesday... oh wait, I forgot so and so works Tuesdays..." And so on.

I really think you should check this out

David Allen on...

The Habit of Finishing-

All right- if you've been hanging around here for awhile, you know we're technically a part of the cult of David Allen, he of Getting Things Done fame.

Allen has a column summarizing the whole GTD ethos in the Huffington post...

Here's this week's:

One of the greatest challenges to keeping an empty head is maintaining the drill of processing our interactions to closure. In the course of our day, we often generate much more value-added thinking and many more agreements with ourselves and others than we realize, especially in the context of conversations and communications.

Whom have you talked with in the last 24 hours--personally and professionally? What did you tell yourself (or any of them) that you or they would/could/should/ought to do, in any of that? Any ideas, information or perspectives show up that could be important downstream?

I still have to work with myself to ensure I've captured, decided, and tracked all the commitments and creativity that happen with phone calls, meetings, social interactions, and even random communications in the hallways. I do know that this is one of the sources of the free-floating anxiety many people experience relative to the gnawing sense of overwhelm that is so pervasive. It seems that there is an unconscious part of us that hangs onto all of those incomplete creations. It is a part that will not let go until it can trust those agreements have been kept or re-negotiated with ourselves.

Read the rest here

Prayer list anytime via Jott/Sandy

David Rudd sent me this...

"I've used Jott (everyone should use Jott)and Sandy (my church can't afford a secretary for me, so i have a virtual one) to create a highly functional prayer list which can be updated from anywhere and quickly accessed via email.

Anytime I have a prayer request to add, I use my phone to Jott Sandy (use Jott links to set this up) and simply say "remind me to pray for _________"  then I add the tag "@prayer".
I can also email sandy with the information, the key is always to add the tag "@prayer."

Whenever I sit down to pray, or if I want to review my prayer list, I send Sandy an email saying, "lookup @prayer"

BAM!

She emails me my entire prayer list!

(if I wanted to, I could set up a dummy Gmail address which would forward all emails to Sandy with the tag "@prayer."  then I could tell people to email their requests to me whenever they want.  I haven't done this yet, though...)

Sandy

I'm exploring using virtual secretary Sandy for various uses...

So far, since I'm better at reading emails than keeping up on my calendar, I've got Sandy emailing me various reminders, including one every Thursday to do my weekly review (which iCal will also do, but Sandy is much nicer about it. Really)

David Rudd emailed me a cool way to combine Sandy and Jott to keep, add to anytime and access anytime a prayer list. I'll tell you about it on Monday, but for now...

Anyone else checking out Sandy? What other uses have you found?

Decrapifier

The only thing that bugs me more than seeing the screen of someone's brand new PC laptop and noticing the plethora of AOL Trial and Norton 360, Microsoft Office 2007 Trial and Activation Assistant, Napster, Memeo AutoBackup and Picasa 2 icons is seeing someone's 2 year-old laptop  and it STILL has all that crap sitting on the desktop.

Okay- so this one isn't really a Pastorhack per se.

It's a public service.

Get and run the Decrapifier

It's free, and while it won't keep your PC from inevitably going the way of all PCs (that is, inexplicably loosing function after function the day the warranty runs out), it will "uninstall many of the common trialware and annoyances" that come bloated... er, loaded onto PCs these days.

Password Management...

What is PassPack?

A Free Online Password Manager. Think of it as a password manager, automatic login and personal vault all in one. With PassPack you can quickly login to websites, as well as organize and store logins and private notes. Save up to 100 entries for free!

Check it out

HT: Jon Irvine

Notes...

How to take notes...

The Cornell System: The Cornell System is a simple but powerful system for increasing your recall and the usefulness of your notes. About a quarter of the way from the bottom of a sheet of paper, draw a line across the width of the page. Draw another line from that line to the top, about 2 inches (5 cm) from the right-hand edge of the sheet. You’ve divided your page into three sections. In the largest section, you take notes normally — you can outline or mind-map or whatever. After the lecture, write a series of “cues” into the skinny column on the right, questions about the material you’ve just taken notes on. This will help you process the information from the lecture or reading, as well as providing a handy study tool when exams come along: simply cover the main section and try to answer the questions. In the bottom section, you write a short, 2-3 line summary in your own words of the material you’ve covered. Again, this helps you process the information by forcing you to use it in a new way; it also provides a useful reference when you’re trying to find something in your notes later. You can download instructions and templates from American Digest, though the beauty of the system is you can dash off a template “on the fly”.

Leadership is...

"Leadership is about bringing out and mobilizing the best in the people around you. It’s about helping a group of people work together towards a shared goal or set of goals. When leadership works, it creates leaders, not followers."

What do leaders do?

• Leaders listen.
• Leaders empower those around them.
• Leaders recognize others’ strengths.
• Leaders are trustworthy.
• Leaders are confident.
• Leaders make decisions.
• Leaders recognize the value in other perspectives.
• Leaders commit to action.
• Leaders demand commitment from others.
• Leaders share ownership. As I said, leadership is about making those around us into leaders; ultimately leaders get out of the way. The best person for the job of creating change may not be the best person for the job of maintaining the new order (consider what usually happens when military leaders install themselves as political leaders after overthrowing a corrupt regime). Good leadership lies in creating in others the sense that the goals they are working towards are their own — as are the rewards. By giving up control and sharing ownership of their goals and passions, good leaders help to insure that the changes they envision — whether it is a successful product launch or a radical social transformation — will endure beyond their own active participation.

Read the rest, along with each of these points' explanation here

Using the internet for... "research!"

"The stealing of sermons is nothing new, of course, and the legends of such mischief abound. Typical of the genre is the story of Ernest T. Campbell, now retired as pastor of New York's Riverside Church. He was once invited to fill the pulpit of a church in a distant city, and he chose to preach "Adam's Other Son," a creative sermon on the biblical character Seth, one which bears the unmistakable mark of Campbell's style and which Campbell had published in a sermon collection. As he preached that Sunday, however, he had a sense that something was awry. "My sermon," he said later, "was landing like marbles on a tile floor." After the service, he was told that a young associate pastor had preached the same sermon nearly word for word the week before. No wonder the congregation had sat in shocked silence, convinced that the celebrated guest preacher had stooped to pilfering another pastor's material.

Pulpit plagiarism may not be new, but there is plenty of evidence that the practice is spreading and that the kerosene on the fire is the Internet."

Read the rest at Preaching Today.com here

Leadership is...

...relieving people of their excuses as to why they can't or shouldn't do what needs to be done.

What do you think?

real productivity...

"How can we keep our schedules rigid enough that we know what we need to do when we need to do it, but flexible enough that we can focus on the things that feed our passion? How can we educate the people around us who see us sitting in our office (or den, or on a bench at the park) staring into space and think we’re goofing off, so that they understand that this still time is part of our work — the most important part of our work? How can we break free from the economic model that posits time as a spendable thing, and measures only successful outcomes — when we learn most from the failures?"

Read the rest here from Lifehack

Does taking notes matter?

Don't you love those people who sit down front every week with their notebooks/Moleskines and take notes while you are preaching?
Yeah- we all start this at some point, and then, when we realize that we never read those notes again, eventually quit...

But.

Is it possible that taking notes in class, during a lecture or conversation or sermon makes a difference even if you never look at them again?

Yup.

"When we listen to a lecture, the part of our brain that handles listening and language is engaged. This passes some information on to our memory, but doesn’t seem to be very discriminating in how it does this. So crucial information is treated exactly the same way that trivia is treated.

When we take notes, though, something happens. As we’re writing, we create spatial relations between the various bits of information we are recording. Spatial tasks are handled by another part of the brain, and the act of linking the verbal information with the spatial relationship seems to filter out the less relevant or important information.

So here’s what happens: in one psychological test involving students watching a lecture on psychology (psychologists who work in academia have a virtually unlimited supply of research subjects — their students!) students who did not take notes remembered the same number of points as the students who did take notes. That is, the mere act of taking notes did not increase the amount of stuff they memorized. Both groups of students remembered around 40% of the information covered in the lecture (which as a professor makes me sad, but I guess that’s the way humans work). But the students who had taken notes remembered a higher proportion of key facts, while those who did not take notes remembered a more or less random assortment of points covered in the lecture.

What this and other tests suggest is that when we write — before we write, although indistinguishably so — we are putting some degree of thought into evaluating and ordering the information that we are receiving. That process, and not the notes themselves, is what helps fix ideas more firmly in our minds, leading to greater recall down the line."

Read the rest here

Track Mileage on your Pocket PeeCee

Seriously-it's hard to find good, free software for the pocket pc that was made anywhere in the last three years.

Here's the best I could come up with for all you iPac and Axiom users...