Coffee press for a perfect evening

I don’t know how many of you have discovered the delight of a coffee press. I’ve been through three now. Mainly because I broke one and had to reorder it. (No, it’s not a Donald coffee press… But that does make me wonder if I have an advanced case of break-ism.) I now have two coffee presses, one that’s a two-cupper, and the single cupper above in the picture.

If you’re unfamiliar with coffee presses, they’re wonderful inventions. Also known as the French press, it’s been around for a while. Basically, you put a scoop of fresh ground coffee (or if you’re lazy, Maxwell House) into the glass beaker, add hot water, stir and let steep for 2 minutes. Afterwards, you slowly “press” the plunger down, pushing the grounds to the bottom of the beaker. The result is a fresh, espresso-like cup of incredible goodness. There’s a good article here about how to achieve the best brew.

It’s become a part of my evening routine. It makes for a perfect evening, after the kids are in bed to press a cup or two of coffee, snatch up the book of the moment, climb into an easy chair and drink up the quietness of the evening. (Of course, the quietness is often interrupted by Caro’s favorite shows – Design on a Dime, Deal or No Deal, or Dancing with the Dorks.

So what’s your nightly routine look like? Post kids? Keep it clean, please! ;)

 

On living biblically

I have been taking a slow stroll through A.J. Jacob’s The Year of Living Biblically. Adelyn bought it for me for Christmas. She picked it out herself. There’s a picture of Jacobs on the front cover looking scarily like Charlton Heston in his Moses’ garb.

I didn’t know quite what to expect. The book is about Jacobs’ quest to live one year in literal obedience to the commands of scripture. He was not a follower of Christ at all as he began his quest, and I’m anxious to discover what the conclusion of his spiritual journey becomes. (If you’ve read the book or know it, please don’t ruin it for me.)

Jacobs says after his first week of biblically-attempted living:

“The learning curve remains crushingly steep. I continue to second-guess everything I say or do. I’ve noticed my speech has slowed down, as if I’m speaking English as a second language. This is because I mentally check every word before allowing myself to utter it. Is it a lie? Is it a boast? Is it a curse? Is it gossip? What about exaggeration? …

I’m poring over religious study books, desperately trying to get a handle on this topic and every other. My reading list grows exponentially. Every time I read a book, it’ll mention three other books I feel I have to read. It’s like a relentless series of pop-up ads.”

I’m particularly enthralled by Jacobs self-willed attempt at complete obedience. Most of us who have been Christians for a while will quickly recognize the futility of strict self-willed obedience. Scripture teaches us that a person simply can’t be perfectly obedient to the law.

In fact, the Bible teaches that only through faith in Christ’s perfect obedience will any of us ever be justified before God. Our attempts at self-created righteousness, no matter how sincere, are destined to fail. Sin is part of us. We need the deliverance offered by a Savior.

However, that’s what makes this particular journey a fascinating one. Other skeptics have investigated Christianity and the Bible with purposeful angst, only to emerge from their crusade dramatically transformed into faith-filled believers. Lee Strobel is one such. What will happen with Jacobs?

I find myself laughing hysterically one moment and pondering his profound insights in the next. One instance that drew some har-de-har-har’s was Jacobs’ description of his visit to an Amish community in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania:

“The trip takes four hours. Incidentally, I’m proud to say that I had absolutely no urge to make a double entendre when we passed Intercourse, Pennsylvania, which I see as a moral victory.

We pull into the driveway, and the first thing I lay eyes on is a woman in full Amish regalia – ankle-length blue dress and a white bonnet – wielding a gas-powered leaf blower. This isn’t an image I expected to see. She doesn’t have a video iPod, but still. It punctures my Amish stereotypes right up front.”

I’ll keep you posted on the book as I continue, but right away, I can recommend it. This Esquire magazine editor-at-large’s experience with a year of living biblically is immediately engaging.

Jesus takes the wheel of American Idol

For those of you who didn’t watch last night’s American Idol, you missed a profound shift in the cultural understanding of the power of faith in God.

Throughout its insanely dominating reign over the airwaves, AI has had contestants verbalize and demonstrate Christian faith. Ruben Studdard was overtly Christian, and his genre is Gospel music. Should-have-been AI from last year, Chris Daughtry, was the lead singer in a Christian band for a while and remains committed to his faith. Carrie Underwood’s song about a girl’s near-fatal car accident has been sung in churches across the country as a musical parable of surrendering one’s life to Jesus.

Hundreds of auditions and songs by contestants have been songs of faith. Yet last night raised the bar and turned the 2-hour special “American Idol Gives Back” into a near-worship concert as the remaining contestants closed the show with Darlene Zschech’s song “Shout to the Lord.”

What is the dynamic occurring with AI that seems to consistently lean it toward Christian faith? Have the producers “got Jesus?” I don’t know, but I did notice that although Dolly Parton sang freely about Jesus the week before, “the name above all names” was edited out of the first lines of “Shout to the Lord” last night. (Update: Even as I was writing this, Carolyn started watching our TiVo of tonight’s show, and they opened with “Shout to the Lord” again! This time, they left “Jesus” in the opening!! What is up?!)

It’s interesting that in a culture that preaches and rabidly enforces “tolerance,” there’s apparently little for that particular name being sung in a song (or mentioned by political candidates in this election year). It’s OK to default to an innocuous and occasional “God” or “Lord,” but Jesus’ name seems to be forbidden fruit.

Why? Simply because there’s “something about that name.”

Yet, the entire stage was filled last night with white-wearing, swaying singers, backed up by a choir, singing one of the most moving and popular Christian choruses of this decade.

Is it because when AI gives back, they discover a profound spirituality present when humanity shares? Jesus said, “Freely you have received, freely give.” Is this brush with holiness caused by the fact that rampant generosity short-circuits evil? That by giving, we release control and seek another’s good?

Another interesting observation is simply that it’s music that has provided the medium for TV’s largest viewing audience to once again experience the passion of love present in the person of God in Christ. There are varieties of music, of course, but it’s distinctly Christian music that resonates deeply with every human heart.

It’s one thing to sing about the gal who left you or the dog who got run over, or about killing a cop or rude sensuality. It’s another thing entirely touching to sing about themes that reverberate within the human soul – love, hope, peace, patience, kindness, joy, purpose, beauty. These themes in music lift the heart and mind above the temporary and base affections we’re so prone to and revive our souls.

Though the American infatuation with AI borders sometimes on true idolatry, last night’s show rose above the cultural noise to glorify the Author of Generosity, Love, and Music. Jesus took the wheel.

Review: Getting Things Done

I’d heard so much over the past year about GTD this and GTD that. I had no idea what folks were talking about until Richard Poole began blogging about his desire for personal organization and how using the “Getting Things Done” principles found in David Allen’s book had helped him.

During his process, he also began reviewing several pieces of software that applied the GTD concepts. They included Thinking Rock, iGTD, and Omnifocus.

Since I am a fluid thinker and tortuous multi-tasker, I filed the book away mentally as something I’d like to get done… It wasn’t too long before a particularly overwhelming week hit that provoked me to finally order the copy of the book that had been sitting in my Amazon Wishlist.

I’ve been plowing through it for several weeks, and I must admit that it almost immediately began transforming my workspaces and habits. One of the primary points of Allen’s material is that our brains are profoundly able to retain information…. That’s not necessarily a good thing for many of us.

Every little to-do, project, honey-do, and urgent item that has ever crossed your mind is still buried in there somewhere. Over the course of time, you began to feel stressed and overwhelmed because you’re juggling so much mentally. Even things that carry relatively no weight – things that you just occasionally want to get to “someday” – occupy your mind with equal frequency as the need to finalize that big project.

So the first thing you do with GTD is simply to begin the collection process. Allen recommends setting aside an entire day for this. It’s a literal, physical collection process. Everything that lying around your house, office, in files on your computer, bulging email inbox, and floating around in your brain becomes part of this process. The goal is to simply empty it all into appropriate “collection buckets.” Whether file folders, trash cans or folders on your computer, Allen’s book guides you through this process.

As I’ve done this, I must admit that it’s mentally freeing to see accumulated piles of stuff – some things in them dating back a few years! – disappearing and being acted on, filed, or trashed.

The next step is “processing.” After collecting everything into one spot, now begins the time-consuming step of going through it all. He advocates a 2-minute rule in this step. If you come across something that you realize you could get done within 2 minutes, then stop and do it then. You’ll be surprised – I was – of how true that is. It’s also VERY encouraging to see things dwindling and getting done.

The next step is “organizing.” It’s this step that I’m still working on, but I’ve purchased a little file stand for my new filing system. Allen recommends the following broad categories: a “tickler” file (Someday/Maybe), Errands, Waiting (things that you’ve passed off to someone else but need to remind yourself of), Projects, and Reference (things you don’t need to act on but want to keep).

Obviously, you’ll also begin to create a more indepth filing system, but those are essential. Allen’s book is definitely not “pie-in-the-sky;” rather, it’s extremely practical and immediately useful.

After processing comes “reviewing.” You must carve into your weekly calendar a set time to sit down and review what you’ve filed. If you don’t, you’re in danger of simply getting things out of your mind and forgetting what you got them out of your mind for. You do the mind-dump in order to become more proficient and focused on what you begin to “do.”

And that’s the final step – “doing.” Start asking yourself about each project, task and floating idea, “What’s the next action step I could take on this that would advance it forward?” As you take that step, (and more like it as you then identify the next step after it), you’ll see even the largest, most daunting duties reducing in size and complexity.

I’m passing this book off to wifey, in the hopes she’ll digest it as well. It’s going on my yearly read/review list because I sense it’s one of those areas that in which I’ll need to be challenged again.

By the way, I finally bought Omnifocus after writing this review and using it for a while. It’s incredible. I especially like the ability to email myself and it automatically be put into my Omnifocus task or project lists. Another interesting new tool – with less features but a cleaner look – is Things.

Here’s the process:

U.S. has slowest “high speed” internet?

Watch this 8 minute video featuring Walt Mossberg as he discusses before a panel in Finland the necessary steps for the digital revolution to take the next step in the United States. He points out that the U.S. has the slowest high-speed internet around, and that provider companies of DSL, cable internet, etc. purposely “throttle” speeds (bandwidth) so that they can charge more. 

One startling statement he makes is that what we consider high-speed internet in this country is laughed upon in other developed countries. He calls upon the next President to weigh in on creating some bandwidth policies and access readily available. He says that we should consider it just as strategic as we did the interstate highway infrastructure. 

What’s your homepage?

Top ‘o the week t’ya!

I’m curious this morning… what do you have set for your homepage when your browser comes up?

Here’s mine:

Mourning duck damage

I just can’t believe it.

Twice in one week, I have inadvertently broken two priceless family heirlooms (no wise cracks there, please).

The first accident came Wednesday evening as I was putting clean coffee mugs back into the cabinet after unloading the dishwasher. I saw it happening – as if in slow motion – but could do nothing about it. My Donald Duck coffee mug (one of my oldest) tottered on the edge of the shelf, teetering for a split second as if in hesitancy, before it committed suicide onto the counter below.

I was shocked at such utter disregard for the value of life. I wondered if I hadn’t been using it enough lately. What could it have been thinking, I wondered in numbness. I had obviously yelled out during the moment because my wife and daughter came running. They saw my crestfallen face and each responded in their normal fashion – Carolyn cackled; Adelyn comforted. Specifically, Adelyn went promptly to her room and drew me a picture of Daisy kissing Donald (which she traced from one of her books). It’s now hanging on the wall behind my computer.

The second incident occurred this morning and resulted in some perfectly parsed profanity, I’m sad to say. I reached across my bureau to get our Noble Media Services file folder, and in doing so my porcelain, musical wind-up Donald jumped off the shelf in another fit of self-hate. Fortunately, my foot broke most of its fall, but not before Donald broke his foot in the process. You can see the chip off the foot in the picture. Now I have a chip off the old duck…

I have collected Donald paraphernalia since reading Disney comics as a kid. Donald is my favorite character – bar none. I am deeply worried about his self-esteem however and am looking for duck depression doctors – but don’t recommend to me some quack.

I really thinks something fowl is afoot. My feathers are ruffled, and I’m worried about what Donald may do when I’m not looking. So, if you have any helpful thoughts, be sure to leave them as you take a gander at the rest of my site. By the way, beak-airful out there. It’s a dangerous world for ducks.

Stealing from a church?

The following video is one church’s response to the folks who took their trailer with sound equipment, Bibles, children’s ministry items, and everything this new church owned, basically.I’d encourage you to watch it and see how grace can drastically impact a Christian’s response to setbacks. 

I’m thrilled to be part of a church that also welcomes losers. I should know since I see one in the mirror daily!

First-time blogging and Tumblr

“Blogging” is such a huge, insurmountable concept for most people. Even if they journal or write regularly, the thought of trying to produce a blog – the technicalities, the how-to’s, etc. are overwhelming. After all, for someone who simply wants to type something in and have it show up in an attractive fashion on the net, there’s few options.

Even services like Typepad, Multiply, Vox, WordPress.com, and others offer so many features, that a first-timer can go cross-eyed and in a sudden case of info-overload, give up. Yet, there are probably thousands of folks like that who could make invaluable contributions to friends, family and the globe if they could be encouraged to “take the next step.”

That’s why I recommend Tumblr for first-timers. It’s wonderfully easy, and very intuitive. For instance, this is what I see when I log into my Tumblr dashboard:

Pretty simple, huh. If I want to post a simple paragaph or two, I click “Text.” If a photo, then voila, click “Photo.” It’s that easy.

Now for the really cool part… some of you have been following the Lifestream series with interest, and Tumblr allows you to combine the different services you use and have them all posted in your Tumblog (the name given to a blog on Tumblr). While most first-time bloggers aren’t using Twitter or YouTube or Flickr, they might in the future, and Tumblr lets you import your information in the form of an RSS feed from those services. Most of the stuff in my Tumblr are feeds imported from other places. I actually don’t input directly into Tumblr that often. It may be one of the best Lifestream compilers out there – since you can customize its look and feel.

So… for those of you would-be bloggers out there, stop by Tumblr today, and create your first Tumblog. Send me the link, and I’ll be sure to publish it here so you’ll get some initial traffic and feedback! If you do stop by, mention my name, and you’ll get a good seat…

For further reference and resources:

• Theme customization:
  - wisdump.com – 5 Tumblr themes
  - tumblrthemes.com – Nice assortment of attractive Tumblr themes
  -And, of course, you can always Google “Tumblr themes”

Rain and preaching

I left Little Rock Sunday morning early so that I could arrive in Newark, Arkansas in plenty of time to visit with pastor/friend Jody Smotherman. It rained on me the entire way there, and as I exited Highway 167, the words my dad said to me the night before bounced around my cranium, “Do you think you can get there?”

I had been aware of the massive flooding in north and northeast Arkansas over the past two weeks as a result of a stalled weather system that dumped 7-9 inches of rain on the area. As the system moved out of the area, to the north and east, it continued to fill rivers and creeks with damaging waters.

However, as I sat there, with my car idling on Highway 14 staring at the blocked road, my only thought was “uh-oh.” How was I going to get to church to preach on time?

Fortunately, I was able to drive down a parallel highway for a half mile or so and found a connecting gravel road that put me on the other side of the flood. After preaching, I returned home another way – through Batesville.

All of that brings me to a question… do you remember a place in scripture where someone had to “return another way?” Where was it? Why was it? And go further… What practical implications for our lives might there be in doing things differently than we’ve done them before?

WordPress theme winner, blog commenting, and networking

Woohoo! Just got word this past week that I won a premium WordPress theme from ithemes.com. Many thanks to Ian Stewart over at themeshaper.com for the contest. All you had to do was…

Just let the community know what you think the next WordPress default theme should be like. All you have to do is leave a comment here with your great idea or ideas. Any idea is fine. You don’t need to be a theme developer, all you need is an opinion. Not enough room? Write a post on your own blog outlining your ideas (and to make sure I find it, leave a comment here with a link to your post). The three best ideas/proposals, as judged by iThemes and ThemeShaper, will be awarded the prizes. If we think they’re good ideas, you win! Simple.

A couple of thoughts about this process…

1. Commenting on blogs is important. For reasons that I’ve listed before, I prefer having interaction with readers and authors. There are only a couple of blogs that I read that disallow commenting. The authors’ reasons for doing this (for the specific two I refer to) are to enable them to focus on quality content. My contention, however, is that content is augmented and enhanced by the comments of others. It also allows readers to feel more ownership and to feel like they’re contributing to that particular blog’s community.
2. If I hadn’t commented, I wouldn’t have won.
3. There is network value in blog participation. Readers who see my/your comment on someone else’s blog – if it is an insightful or significant one – will often swing by your site to see who you are/what you’ve written. Every now and then, one of those will become a regular reader of your own site.

Here was my contribution to the contest:

I think the next theme should be able to teach beginning users of WordPress more about the basics of WordPress. Rather than simply clicking on the theme, I think it would be awesome if the next them contained a mini database of WordPress how-to’s that the user could peruse at his own leisure.I also think the header should be more customizable. I’d vote for something like Derek Punsalan’s Grid Focus.

I threw it out as a kind of pie-in-the-sky idea. Anything that could be built into WordPress to facilitate an easier blogging experience for beginners is better for all of us. I’ve been blogging for more than two years – regularly – and although my blog hasn’t ever hit the “big time,” I do consistently hear from friends, colleagues, former classmates, church members and others that I wouldn’t hear from otherwise.

I began on Typepad, fell in love with the discipline of writing and the generation of a network that I wouldn’t have otherwise. Blogging has enabled me to begin several online friendships, build a better business network and meet some really sharp pastors and Christian leaders from across the globe as a result of blogging.

My idea about making the next default theme of WordPress a built-in tutorial for bloggers would make an immense contribution to the blog world. It would make it easier for others jump into the global conversation. Some of you out there who have always been readers to this point have wonderful things in your head. You might not ever be a daily blogger, but perhaps your weekly or monthly contribution to your own blog would generate its own following.

So WordPress gurus out there, please give this idea some thought. The WordPress Codex is a great contribution and resource, but it’s generally difficult to navigate unless you know what you’re looking for. At present, you need to be able to speak “WordPress” or php in order to find what you need. A more user-friendly introduction and walk-through would be a wonderful help for us all.

Thanks to those over at themeshaper.com who left encouraging and kind comments about my idea as well. Digg it. Who knows? It might catch on.

Compiling social website lifestreams

Over the past few weeks, I’ve used several sites to test out their lifestream capabilities. You can see some of them in other entries in this series. However, I wanted to comment on three in particular here: FriendFeed, Plaxo, and MyBlogLog.

Each of the three are able to take the different social networks you use and compile them into one RSS stream. You can see the result in the image below from my Plaxo feed:

Of those three, I would say that Plaxo and FriendFeed do the best job. MyBlogLog kept missing things, inexplicably. Also, with the first two, you can actually subscribe to this compiled RSS feed so that friends and family who have no life and want to live vicariously through you can subscribe to your lifestream feed from one of these services.

I continue to use the Actionstream plugin to pull my various feeds into my column on the right, but I suppose I could simply pull in one of the feeds from these two services above, rather than enter all the different feeds individually in the plugin. I am also using the RSS Stream plugin to generate the feeds on this page.

I’ve yet to decide which service I’ll use the most. I find myself using Plaxo to help sync my contacts the most – it works great with Mac Address Book. Google has yet to develop a nice lifestream or a way to sync contacts with the Mac well, or I would probably be using it because with BusySync (review to come later), I can now sync my Google calendars with my iCal from either end.

I think there’s a lifestream race on at the moment. The service that compiles all of these features into one of easy integration with your computer and portable device will win out. (Hello, iPhone?)

Oh, and of course, there’s Tumblr…

Got a vision? Sit on it.

Fonzie from Happy Days used to dispense “Sit on it” as if it were a prescribed medication for overactive teenagers. Spoken in the midst of an exasperating situation, the leather-coated royalty of cool would command, “Sit on it!” and all in earshot would respond immediately.

I began reading Andy Stanley’s Visioneering this week, and only two chapters in, I am enjoying it immensely. It’s probably the first book on vision-casting that I’ve read many moons. Of course, I’ve read dozens – many of them by vision architext Aubrey Malphurs. back in the late 80s and 90s, a corporate or organizational vision was the surefire way to get us all out of the mess we were in.

Things have settled down since then, mostly because company presidents, pastors, CEOs and others realized it wasn’t enough to have a pithy vision statement scrawled on marble, letterhead or church walls. Simply having a vision didn’t direct, implement, or assist anyone in pursuing a preferred future.

Visioneering was written on the tail-end of the vision rush (compare to the Gold Rush). Authors, motivational speakers, leaders and pastors exhausted the vision vein at the end of the 90s, not because vision had been tried and found lacking, but more often because vision tried us and found us lacking – in energy, commitment, resources, tenacity and old-fashioned follow-through.

Stanley’s book offers a much-needed corrective to the jump-on-the-bandwagon folks in chapter 1. Got a vision? he asks. Sit on it.

“The truth is… that a clear vision does not necessarily indicate a green light to begin. In fact, I have witnessed a good many people with what seemed to be God-ordained visions charge out of the starting gates too early. And the result is always the same. Failure. Discouragement. Disillusionment.

A vision rarely requires immediate action. It always requires patience.”

The rest of the chapter is devoted to what happens in us and through us as a vision is allowed to percolate. Perhaps the best storage for a vision is a crock pot.

I’ll try to share more on vision as I digest this excellent resource. I know many of you have already read the book, but if you haven’t pick it up used off of Amazon, and join me in this feast of future thinking.

Review: Charlie Bone, Midnight for Charlie Bone (rated 3 stars)

Midnight For Charlie Bone (Children of the Red King)

by Jenny Nimmo

I have seen these Charlie Bone books occupying bookshelves for a few years now. I heard they were disappointingly similar to the Harry Potter books. Since I’ve completed the Potter series, I decided to give the first one a try.

A young boy discovers he has magical powers. His discovery produces family conflict. He is sent to a school for other kids with magical powers where he engages in heroic deeds and brings the book’s plot to a satisfying conclusion. Nope, it wasn’t Harry. Neither was Hogwarts the destination. Try Charlie and Bloor’s Academy.
After completing the book, I had one of those senses of strange verified entitlement. Everything I’d heard was true. After book 1, the CB series is a knockoff of the success of the HP series. It’s rare that such rumors and cultural whisper prove true.

Yet… I found myself engaged in the fresh storyline, and before book’s end, I had chuckled a few times and become engaged with this new cast of characters, plot twists and personalities.

I’ve ordered book 2… off of the used list at Amazon. (Local library didn’t have 1 or 2). I’m willing to give this series another chance in the second book.

See more about Midnight For Charlie Bone (Children of the Red King)

The Age of Conversation

I’ve been selected (actually, I asked to be included, and I was!) to be an author for the Age of Conversation 2008! I’ll be writing about the topic “Life in the Conversation Lane.” The first edition has been released, but wait until March 29 to buy it. The publishers and authors are hoping to make a statement at Amazon.com and are staging this day as a “bum rush.”

Here’s the details about last year’s release:

If ideas are the currency of our times then this is, undoubtedly, the Age of Conversation, for without the art of dialog, the cut and thrust of debate and discussion, then the economy of ideas would implode under its own heavy weight. Instead, the reverse is true. Far from seeing an implosion, we are living in a time of proliferation — ideas build upon ideas, discussion grows from seeds of thought and single headlines give rise to a thousand medusa-like simulations echoing words whispered somewhere on the other side of the planet. All this — in an instant. In what began as a half dare, the editors, Gavin Heaton and Drew McLellan challenged bloggers around the world to contribute one page — 400 words — on the topic of “conversation”. The resulting book, The Age of Conversation, brings together over 100 of the world’s leading marketers, writers, thinkers and creative innovators in a ground-breaking and unusual publication.

I’m delighted to be able to contribute to the new edition of this book, and all of us authors would like to ask your help in getting the word out about the first book to generate support and a base for this next work in progress (ideas here). The theme for the new book will be “Why don’t they get it?” – it’s sure to generate some interesting and engaging contributions in an election year with everything from environmental issues to the writer’s strike to new media forms.

So stop by Drew’s blog and check out the continuing development of the book, and I’ll also keep you updated here. Oh, and be kind and grab a copy of this year’s book – on March 29th. If you buy the sequel when it’s released, I’ll be glad to autograph my page for you! ;)

The 275 co-authors and their blogs (talk about link love!):
Adam Crowe, Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob Carlton, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Bradley Spitzer, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Clay Parker Jones, Chris Brown, Colin McKay, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Cord Silverstein, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Goldstein, Dan Schawbel, Dana VanDen Heuvel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Darryl Patterson, Dave Davison, Dave Origano, David Armano, David Bausola, David Berkowitz, David Brazeal, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Emily Reed, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, G. Kofi Annan, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Graham Hill, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, J.C. Hutchins, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeremy Middleton, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, Joe Talbott, John Herrington, John Jantsch, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Flowers, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kris Hoet, Krishna De, Kristin Gorski, Laura Fitton, Laurence Helene Borei, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Barnes-Johnston, Louise Mangan, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Marcus Brown, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Han****, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Mark McSpadden, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Hawkins, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Monica Wright, Nathan Gilliatt, Nathan Snell, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul Marobella, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, R.J. Northam, Rob Mortimer, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Cribbett, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tiffany Kenyon, Tim Brunelle, Tim Buesing, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Longhurst, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

Review: The Fifth Discipline

The Fifth Discipline

by Peter M. Senge

It’s been a while since I chewed on this much at one time in a book. Recommended in a Catalyst podcast by Andy Stanley, pastor of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, GA, I knew that I needed to digest the book. Stanley said that the leaders of his church went through the book together when they were in the pre-planting days for North Point as a way to try to understand “systems thinking.”

He said something to the effect that once your organization starts rolling, you get consumed with people, issues, problems and the like and if you don’t have the proper perspective on how organizations and people work, aka, a systems perspective, you will always be responding to crises and events rather than seeing the whole picture.

His promotion of it sold me.

I wasn’t disappointed.

The book definitely isn’t a “light” read – it took me almost two months of steady chewing to work through it all. (We bought copies for our leadership team as well, but I’ve not heard a peep of evaluation from any of them except my copastor). Although it is a different kind of reading than I’m used to, I thoroughly enjoyed being stretched in this area. I actually found myself being deeply fascinated by organizational behavior theory.

You can imagine all the immense practicalities for a pastor being well-versed in helping an organization see the big picture, make decisions with the long view in mind and addressing problems and issues with the entire system as a reference point, rather than that particular problem at that particular time.

Doing systems thinking means becoming a learning organization. It’s a group of people all committed to the truth of where their organization is/isn’t and working from there with a broad, compelling vision as their reference point and goal.

The author, Peter Senge, shares the “laws of the Fifth Discipline” in chapter 4 as being:

1. Today’s problems come from yesterday’s solutions. Basically, he means that all the stuff that an organization struggles with today is simply the delayed consequences of decisions made in the past. Most of those decisions were simply addressing symptoms of larger problems rather than seeking to address the larger issues.
2. The harder you push, the harder the system pushes back. Senge refers here to “feedback loops” and reinforcing processes that are a little difficult at first to understand. However, I think I began to interpret this as simply “It took you a while to get in this situation; the organization ain’t gonna fix itself by your first feeble efforts overnight.”
3. Behavior grows worse before it grows better. When you begin making strategic decisions that are truthful and right for the organization, things will probably continue bumping along as they have been for a while, with the same problems. Of course, you now have the additional stress of new direction and the pressure of “will it work?” Most “right” decisions and systems-thinking-inspired ones will take a while to begin to show results. Be patient.
4. The easy way out usually leads back in. There are dozens of illustrations from a business context throughout the book that illustrate this point. Typically, we just want things to “get better” and NOW! However, the temptation for a quick fix in these instances does nothing to promote health for the organization. Don’t choose the easy way out; it will just compound your problems and make it more difficult later – if there is a later.
5. The cure can be worse than the disease. Ouch. Ever had cancer? Case in point. Treatments like chemotherapy basically almost kill you in addition to the rogue cells in your body. Truly addressing deep, root organizational issues can be extremely painful.
6. Faster is slower. This doesn’t sound very affirming because we all want to see immediate results, don’t we? However, the author urges leaders not to become discouraged. The end result takes hard work on the front end, but moving your organization to a systems perspective enables synergy, productivity, and unity in the long run.
7. Cause and effect are not closely related in time and space. This is probably one of the biggest downers in all of life. If consequences happened immediately after making great or stupid decisions, we’d all be rich.
8. Small changes can produce big results – but the areas of highest leverage are often the least obvious.
9. You can have your cake and eat it too – but not at the same time. If you persist in leading your organization toward a vision-oriented and long-range perspective, you’ll enjoy both harmony in relationships and immense productivity (in the business world = profits) later.
10. Dividing an elephant in half does not produce two small elephants. Senge uses the elephant illustration to help us see that most American organizations (including churches and non-profits) tend to try to address problems and issues by isolating them. “Let’s form a committee/team and study this.” This tends to cut off part of the elephant. It prevents you from seeing the whole beast/issue. Every part of the organization affects every other part (sounds like 1 Corinthians 12, doesn’t it?), so decisions must be made with the entire elephant in view.
11. There is no blame. This is a refreshing rule for systems thinking. Rather than blaming someone or them or even a competitor, this rule helps us to remember that we’re the problem. “There is no outside” – you and the cause of your problems are part of a single system. It’s all within the organization and the systems in place (or not) to respond to and deal with issues, problems, successes, backlogs, etc.

I particularly enjoyed the chapter on “Personal Mastery” in which he describes the qualities necessary for a leader of a learning organization to pursue. The chapter on “Mental Models” is one of the best about studying worldviews because he addresses such a heady topic in a very readable fashion. It was in this chapter that some very practical ways of dealing with folks who “don’t see it your way” are shared, including some tips for advocating your own view. In fact, all the chapters in this section of the book called “Core Disciplines” were excellent. The other two were “Shared Vision” and “Team Learning.”

While I know that most of my readers will not rush out to purchase this book, I would encourage any leader of an organization to digest this book and do it slowly. Make it a goal over a year’s time span to chew through it. You’ll be glad you did.

One practical thing anyone can take with them after skimming through the book is simply this: It’s not just about you. Learn to fit in, submit, discover your unique contributions, listen diligently, and make decisions that are best for the long haul – not on what would make you feel good right now.

Eighty-two

Review: Preaching the Cross (rated 4 stars)

Preaching the Cross (Together for the Gospel)

by Mark Dever

Four preacher-friends have come together not only to form a new ministry alliance but now have also written their first book. Mark Dever, CJ Mahaney, Al Mohler and Ligon Duncan III are from different churches and ministries, but together they have founded Together for the Gospel, a ministry seeking to defend and proclaim the Christian gospel.

Their book about preaching also includes contributions from John Piper, RC Sproul, and John MacArthur, all of them renown biblical scholars and teachers.

The 7-chaptered table of contents looks like this:

• A Real Minister: 1 Cointhians 4 – Dever
• Preaching Christ from the Old Testament – Duncan
• Preaching Christ with the Culture in View – Mohler
• The Center of Christian Preaching: Justification by Faith – Sproul
• Preaching as the Expository Exultation for the Glory of God – you guessed it, – Piper
• The Pastor’s Priorities: watch Your Life and Doctine – Mahaney
• Why I Still Preach the Bible after Forty Years in Ministry – MacArthur

The appendix contains a Together for the Gospel declaration of faith separated into doctrinal categories, or articles. You can learn a lot about why they wrote and what they’re concerned about by reading the appendix first. For example:

We affirm the centrality of expository preaching in the church and the urgent need for a recovery of biblical exposition and the public reading of Scripture in worship.
We deny that God-honoring worship can marginalize or neglect the ministry of the Word as manifested through exposition and public reading. We further deny that a church devoid of true biblical preaching can survive as a Gospel church.

I particularly enjoyed the chapters by Piper, Mahaney and Mohler. At times, I felt like Dever, MacArthur and Mohler were more mad than instructional. Their barely-disguised angst is directed at preachers and current Christian leaders who they describe as being market-driven and cultural-adopters rather than being informed and directed by God’s Word. Perhaps a re-read of the book might change this impression, and I certainly wouldn’t want that observation to keep you from reading it, because the book is definitely a great resource.

Any pastor/teacher/preacher needs to digest the material slowly. Much of it is a steak meant to be chewed slowly and thoughtfully. I agree with the overall assessment of the book that preaching in America today has suffered a serious decline as more and more churches and their leaders turn to a type of communication that is more intended to draw and keep crowds than it is to mature, grow and equip the body of Christ for God’s glory.

I had the blessing of growing up in churches where deep exposition was present, and I teach/preach that way today out of conviction. I too affirm that God’s Word is inherently powerful, and if you present it, interpreted rightly, to God’s people, then God’s Spirit will ensure that it doesn’t return to Him without accomplishing its purpose.

Many of the authors seem to be addressing the emergent movement as much as they are seeking to inform the reader. Especially in MacArthur’s chapter where he has several references to pastors who are practicing the opposite of what he would recommend.

He has strong words for those Christian leaders who follow a market-driven strategy of church growth rather than simply teaching and preaching the totality of God’s Word.

There have always been men in the pulpit who gather crowds because they are gifted orators, interesting storytellers, entertaining speakers, dynamic personalities, shrewd crowd-manipulators, rousing speechmakers, popular politicians, or erudite scholars. Such preaching may be popular, but it is not necessarily powerful. No one can preach with power who does not preach the Word. And no faithful preacher will water down or neglect the whole counsel of God. Proclaiming the Word – all of it – is the pastor’s calling.

What he mean by “the whole counsel” is simply every verse and chapter. He notes a distrubing tendency of pastors today to create series, self-help focuses, and other “sermonettes for Christianettes” that never progress through a single New Testament or Old Testament chapter. It’s a constant pulling-out-of-context approach to address topics that they feel like should be addressed. This is in contrast to expository preaching which seeks to allow the text to speak for itself. The latter requires careful study to determine context, authorial intent, historical background, and the principles being communicated.

All in all, the book has much to offer. Although relatively short, it has several profound implications for today’s church and preaching.

See more about Preaching the Cross (Together for the Gospel)

Lifestream plugins

I’ve been trying out four different lifestream plugins and wanted to offer a review of them. The four I tried are SimpleLife, RSS Stream, Lifestream Manager, and Actionstream. The picture below is how each showed up in a page created for them in my theme.

• Simplelife… It’s implementation was buggy and gave me the following crazy stuff in the plugin window. Too plain for me, but it did work right after I activated and created a page template with the proper code in it (but I’d like to see simple code copy and paste).
• Tried RSS Stream… I really like how you can customize the icon in the added feeds. It has some built in, but I added icons for Tumblr and Youtube. It was through this plug-in that I realized I could simply do Tumblr and Youtube, and that would cover my whole lifesteam… Come to think of it, if I import my Youtube feed into Tumblr… The RSS-Feed interface was the most user-friendly. B
• Lifestream Manager plugin by Chris J. Davis was relatively easy to set up, but I couldn’t get the icons to show up properly. I DO like how the backgrounds to each service are colorcoded. You can also do this with SimpleLife manually in the options window, but I could never get it to work. It’s not supported by the author any longer. Here’s another link to the plugin with some more information. C+
• Actionstream plugin is the one I’m currently using. Download and easy instructions here. The author has been extremely helpful and responsive in dealing with some setup issues. However, now all is working well, and you can see the Lifestream it generates in the column to the right. The icons from each service show up well, but not in my page. B+

I fully expect more development on all of the above as Lifestreaming becomes more popular. I think you’ll also see some newer plugins created as well. Features I’d like to see automatically included are:

1. automatic icon insertion (with option to create your own) for imported feeds
2. feed import by user name rather than feed address (with option for feed address for non-supported services or blog entries)
3. checkbox inclusion for services (much like Hellotxt.com)
4. smart importation (if my Twitter status and Facebook status are the same, import only one or include icons from both?)
5. thumbnail display for services like Flickr and Youtube

BTW: In reviewing this and deactivating the plugins I’m not using, I discovered that it was the SimpleLife plugin that had caused my InSeries plugin to stop working. Users be aware.

New look for Notes

I’ve switched to a new WordPress theme called Wp-Poloroid by Adii after much tweaking. I think I’m going to really enjoy using it for the next several months. I loved the Grid-Focus theme I was using by Derek Punsalan, but like all designers, I was ready for a change.I’d love to hear your thoughts and input on the new look. Any feature suggestions?