Here's where you grow
We grow more through our interaction with other people than we do from books we read and classes we attend. Don't get me wrong, I love both. But, let's be real- the best part of attending any class, any workshop, or any seminar is really the people you meet. More happens outside of the sessions than it does inside the scheduled event itself. Right?
I participated in this exercise a leadership workshop one afternoon in which the facilitator lined us against the back wall of the room, asked us to make a paper plane, and then had us toss them one-by-one, launching them across the room.
Predictably, most planes took a quick nose dive...
...a few made a bit of distance and then veered radically to the right or left...
two made it across the room.
You read that right. Two. Only two people of the 40-50 who were present could make a plane that would fly all the way across the room.
Do it again, but...
The facilitator then did something interesting. He had...
Who's on the bus?
In our task-driven, production-oriented culture, we often look at WHAT we want to do, first. However, the greatest thing is not WHAT we do or even HOW we do it... it's the WHO, the people you ride with.
When you get that in order, everything else seems to take care of itself :-)
Let me back my bus up and explain...
Professor Jim Collins studied what makes some businesses ultra successful while others are simply successful. In his book Good to Great he noticed the “great” companies start from a different point of reference than the “good” companies.
Collins used the analogy of a bus- and likes companies to them. Most “good” companies work through the following process:
* What- they first decide “What” the bus (read: the company) will be like. At this point, they usually define the mission of the organization.
* How- companies that will be successful then move on to not only defining what they will do and what they will be...
The Imago Dei in you
When I was in college, finding "The Will of God" was the buzz phrase of the moment. It seems every few years the Church-as-a-whole cycles through a new trend-
* Like contemporary music vs. hymns
* Doing church "campuses" online
* Social justice
Now, don't misread me. None of these issues are bad- at all. Part of growth and maturation is a willingness to ask questions and wrestle with them honestly.
So, back in the early 90s (yeah, that long ago), everyone was writing, talking, taking classes, and asking the big questions about "The Will of God." We all wanted to know it. We wanted to find it. We wanted to live it. Certainly, given the option of being "in it" or "out" of it, we wanted in...
At some point along the way here, a wise pastor told me, “Instead of chasing the will of God simply seek God.”
Turns out, truth is relational
The Bible tells us that truth is embodied- not in facts and figures and data- in a person. Again, truth is...
Paper Plane
I participated in this exercise at a leadership workshop one afternoon in which the facilitator lined us against the back wall of the room, asked us to make a paper plane, and then had us toss them one-by-one, launching them across the room.
Predictably...
* most planes took a quick nose dive...
* a few made a bit of distance and then veered radically to the right or left
* two made it across the room
You read that right. Two made it across the room. Two of, like… 40 or so.
Do it again, but...
The facilitator then did something interesting. He had the two people who launched their planes the farthest each take half the room and show them how to make a plane. It didn’t take long.
In fact, the instructor put a clock on it. We had 60 seconds to be instructed, to make the new planes, and then to get back in line.
When we returned the second time, to hoist our creations into flight, that second time, the majority of the paper...
