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Category: Just Thinking

Write It… And Toss It

Saw this Calvin and Hobbes and it reminded me of some GREAT advice my dad once gave me… but first, enjoy the cartoon: Ever gotten so upset about something you sat down and HACKED OUT A LETTER? I have! There were many a letter I wrote that after showing to my dad for his input, he quietly read and then said, “It’s a great letter! Well written! Excellent points! Well organized and presented! Perfect arguments. Now throw it out.” Throw it out?! How could he compliment it so highly, and then tell me to throw my masterpiece out? He was helping me not make a bad situation worse since my letter would only pour gasoline on the fire. So was my letter a waste of time? No! My dad explained that “hot letters” are still good to write because they help you organize your thoughts… process your emotions and sort out the details of what happened. Then, after you toss your flaming masterpiece,  you’ll be better prepared to write the more diplomatic letter that will get results. OR, better yet, pick up the phone if you can’t meet in person. E-mail and text messages have kinda ruined it as people…

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A Prisoner to Ministry?

As the year comes to a close, are you starting to make plans for next year? We all want next year to be better than this year, right? I know I do! In the midst of celebrating Christmas and enjoying friends and family and hopefully a little bit of downtime, this is the perfect time to start to think ahead to make some plans for the new year! Do you ever feel like a prisoner to ministry? Let me introduce you to a video training that I did many years ago that is as relevant today as a day I filmed it. It was the final installment in a five-part Leadership Lab training series. As we head into a new year, it would be a great investment to pick up this fifth segment, Define, Refine and Shine, and if you are feeling the early stages of burn out – pick up part one too, First Things First I have been to that place where you feel trapped and overwhelmed – feeling like you secretly hate what you love because it’s just too much. You can’t blame your boss, your church, your spouse, or anyone or anything external. Control starts within.…

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Bring a Kid to Church

Bring a kid to church! There are so many unchurched kids who need a caring adult to invite them to church. Moody Church in Chicago was started because a man named Dwight started bringing lost poor kids to church. Since people rented pews back then the church leaders began to complain that the kids weren’t paying or supporting the ministry financially – so Dwight start renting pews for the kids. When it got to be too many kids, they told him he could no longer bring the children, they were too disruptive. So instead he rented a warehouse and started what he called a “Sunday School” to teach the children how to read using the Bible as a textbook as a strategy to lift them out of poverty. It grew and grew until it was hundreds of children every Sunday morning. It got so big it drew the attention of the President of the United States of America and launched a national Sunday School movement. President Abraham Lincoln visited to check it out. Today it is the Moody Church on LaSalle Boulevard. I got to be their first children’s pastor over 100 years later. You may know Dwight today as…

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50 Life Lessons I’ve Learned

Happy Birthday to me… a year later. I’m now 51, not a very exciting number. But last year I celebrated the BIG FIVE-0 by writing a book! FROM THE INTRODUCTION: Hello friends, I turned 50 today. I’m as old as Red Robin, Cracker Barrel, Tic-Tacs, Scooby-doo, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The GAP, Wendy’s, Sesame Street, The Brady Bunch and even the Internet. I celebrated by enjoying some down time in the mountains with my family. I decided to write out fifty lessons I have learned over the past fifty years. At first, I thought it would be hard to come up with fifty. In the end, I had to wrestle with which to delete. Some of these will be familiar – but I hope some will catch you by surprise and perhaps give you pause to consider them. Many of these were learned the hard way! Perhaps your learning can be easier by reading this! The sources for these are Scripture, my parents, friends, teachers, colleagues, and likely famous people I’ve either read or heard speak. I claim no originality to any of them, even as half of them are likely my unique way of expressing what I’ve…

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Led to Jesus by Candy

It was October 13th, 1972. I’ll always remember the date, because it’s my little sister’s birthday. Whenever my sister, Melissa, celebrates her birthday, I celebrate my spiritual birthday. Her physical age (no worries, sis, I won’t tell!) is my spiritual age! When my mom went into the hospital to deliver Melissa, my older sister and I were both sent to different homes to be cared for so dad could focus on Mom. I was only four years old. When I heard I was going to Candy’s house I was delighted! Candy Crowell was a favorite of all the children at church. Not only was she a sweet old lady who volunteered in the children’s ministry, but if you shook her hand on Sunday a butterscotch candy magically appeared in your hand! I can still remember her home vividly. I can imagine the front room, the kitchen two steps up, the table where I sat eating snacks, and even where the bathroom was. (Very important when you are four!) I remember the front yard filled with scattered toys over a scarce lawn, the scruffy hedges that formed the boundaries I had to play within, but most of all I remember the…

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