Karl on Christine Yount’s Podcast

If you follow DiscipleBlog.com, you may have caught my post What Happened To The Bible. It fueled a healthy discussion over on Kidology.org. Then, Christine Yount, editor-in-chief at Children’s Ministry Magazine featured it on her blog. Then, I was honored when Christine asked if she could interview me for her podcast on the subject. You can listen to the podcast here. Christine Yount is a leading voice in children’s ministry and someone you need to keep in your virtual circle of advisors. I’m excited to see her blogging and podcasting now. I’ve been listening to her for as long as I can remember and her longevity in children’s ministry leadership is a true mark of someone who is dedicated to a mission, not to a business or just trying to being heard. When Christine Yount speaks, I listen. (That doesn’t mean I always agree – but it does mean she forces me to think and constantly be evaluating. And I love that!)

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Get a FREE copy of CM Professional Edition

In the current edition of Group’s Children’s Ministry Professional edition, I was honored to be featured in an interview in the Career Coach section titled: Following God’s Call. If you don’t get Group’s Children’s Ministry Professional edition, I highly recommend it. Other topics in the current issue include: Leading Leaders Taming a Talker The Top Job? No Thanks Gut Check During Interviews Families in Crisis Rumor Weeds Hopping to Greener Pastures Good Habits Beware Informal Communication Restoring Lost Administrative Tasks New books on the market and more! To find out how you can get a free sample copy of the current issue with my interview, go here. If you read the interview there is a discussion on Kidology here.

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SLAYING THE E-MAIL MONSTER!

First, watch this funny video of me doing what you may WISH you could do to your computer: Then, check out my 5th Kidology Leadership Lab: Define, Refine and Shine! (Link works for Kidology Members) The 5th installment of Kidology Online Training is now available. This Leadership Lab, titled Define, Refine, and Shine, is priced at only $9.99 for Kidology Members so that everyone can afford this valuable resource. We think it’s that important! Are you exhausted? Stress robbing you of the joy of ministry? Overloaded with more to do than time and resources allow? Then now is the time to evaluate your life and ministry. Yes, life and ministry. In this Leadership Lab, Karl Bastian will walk you through a thoughtful process that will bring definition, margin, and joy back into these areas. PLUS! This Lab includes a FREE BONUS REPORT: Slaying the E-Mail Monster. Learn 10 AMAZING SECRETS from a leader who personally manages hundreds of e-mails a day. What’s he’s learned the hard way will put YOU back in charge of your computer again! Purchase the accompanying Leadership Lab Download Kit for the complete training experience! Watch video online – Purchase Download Kit Share your thoughts in…

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Sean on Time Management

Here are some Time Management Tips from the designer of this blog, Sean Copley from Timbuktoons. (Don’t miss my Podcast interview with Timbuktoon founder Todd Hampson) Sean is a great guy and I know from personal experience, well organized. In their recent newsletter Sean gave away some of this secrets… CREATIVE PROCRASTINATION There are not enough hours in each day so you know you will always have to procrastinate on something. The trick is to force yourself to choose to procrastinate on the small things in order to get things done. Keys: Don’t clear up the small things first! Resist the temptation- we often underestimate how the small things add up and seemingly never end (especially e-mail)! Choose to do the most valuable and important first. Place value on the items you need to accomplish each day. The 80/20 rule states that 80% of what you do is the least valuable, while 20% is the most valuable. Do it tomorrow! Work on the e-mails and phone messages that came in yesterday and file today’s away for tomorrow. The benefit is that when your mailboxes are empty, you are done for the day regardless of what comes in! For example, I…

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The 6 1/2 Biggest Myths about Creativity

I’m sitting in the auditorium at Willow Creek’s Leadership Summit live in Barrington, IL, and just met a fellow MacBook Air user in the atrium blogging, so we swapped blog addresses and I returned to get a good seat. (enjoying free WiFi!) Anyway, I LOVED a post on his blog, and wanted to share it with you here. (From Patrick Mayfield. I originally linked to his post, but he keeps moving it, so I have posted the rest here so I don’t have to keep updated it.) 1. Only a few people are creative “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you are probably right.” I’m not sure who said that, but it sums up what I have come to realise about each of us in the matter of being creative. Ultimately this myth is perpetuated by a negative and self-fulfilling perception of oneself. Our self-perception as ‘uncreative’ people is probably due to an unchallenged internal script from our critical faculties. When we have attempted something creative in the past, the script may have run something like this: “You see? That’s pathetic! I can’t be creative…” Many say, “I can’t draw”; then coaches such as Betty Edwards come…

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