Had fun hanging out with our staff last night. We invited everyone over for grilled quesadillas. Had fun playing corn hole and shooting the breeze! Man, so grateful for our team. Great people! Great chemistry!
Getting excited about Unplugged.
I've referenced it a couple time so I thought I'd blog about it. In a couple weeks I'll take our entire staff off-site for a daydream day. We'll rent space at the National Cathedral--very cool place to pray, meditate, dream, and hang out. Plus I love the observatory. One of the best views of the city. We actually went their before launching our second campus so it's one of the places we go to dream.
Alright, here's your last chance to get a Chase the Lion t-shirt. We're giving away a free t-shirt with every purchase of a case of books. Once they are gone they are gone. Look for prices to soar on Ebay. Or not. The case is 50% off plus a free t-shirt through May 31st.
Thoroughly enjoyed my time in South Carolina! Gotta love sweet tea and southern hospitality. And the Chase the Lion message never gets old to me. Man, I love preaching that message!
Just finished reading the entire typeset version of Wild Goose Chase. Gotta admit. I can't wait for this thing to hit bookstores! It was so hard for me to get perspective on the book while I was writing it. I call it the writing forest. It's sort of like the preaching forest. Sometimes you get lost in there and you can't see the forest through the trees! But I'm starting to see it for what it is and I'm so grateful for the way it all came together.
Since I'm coming out of a writing season I'm doing a lot more reading these days. Loving it. It's fueling lots of creative ideas. Just thought I'd share a few books I'm reading.
Off to South Carolina for a few days. Speaking to the South Carolina District Council.
Definitely had some fire shut up in my bones this weekend. Whenever I talk on the topic of dreams I get pretty passionate. I know talked a little louder and a little faster than usual. But I felt like I wasn't going to be able to say it all.
This weekend we kick off a new series titled The Ghost in the Machine. We'll spend a couple weeks talking about the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.
Just spent an hour with two of my favorite people. Dino Rizzo and Marc Cleary from Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana were in DC for a couple days so they swung be Ebenezers for a cup of coffee. Feel like they are kindred spirits. Great to catch up and talk about family, ministry, and life.
Had a conversation today with Jon Gordon. Jon is the author of several books including The Energy Bus and the soon-to-be-released The No Complaining Rule. He is currently working on a fable and one of the characters in the book is a pastor in Washington, DC. So we've been dialogging back and forth about that.
My head felt like it was going to explode today. Allergies were rockin my world. I think part of it was that I was outside a lot yesterday. I was in Winchester, Virginia with some of our staff for our district council and we played corn hole until 1 AM. I'm thinking all that "fresh country air" triggered my reaction. I'm paying the price, but man corn hole is fun!
I was reading the latest issue of Fast Company and came across an article that inspired me. Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide are known for their extraordinary customer service. upscale hotels. Here are some of the ways they serve their guests and create a unique hotel experience.
I keep reflecting on last night's Catacombs.
Thoroughly enjoyed this weekend. We did another sermon experiment. We ended our Potential series with an offsite sermon. Dick Foth has been my friend and mentor for the past decade. We've had a Paul/Timothy relationship. So we decided to hang out and videotape a conversation about a range of topics from mentoring to legacy. I think it'd be worth watching the webcast. We'll post it Tuesday.
This is one of those spring days where it's impossible to be in a bad mood. Beautiful DC day. And I didn't have any appointments today so I've got my sandals, t-shirt, camouflaged cargo shorts, and backwards baseball cap going. That's how I roll.
I just spent part of my morning hanging out with Michael Lukaszewski from Oak Leaf Church in Cartersville, Georgia. They are doing a cool series called Summer Reading. They are talking about four books over four weeks and one of them is In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. So we sat down and had a thirty-minute conversation about the book.
I recently read an article by John Ortberg titled People of the Book. Love the way John writes and speaks! Thought I'd share a few things that made my synapses fire in new ways.
The early bird deadline for Unplugged is two days away. If you register by April 30, the cost is $149. Love to hang out with some blog readers for a couple days! We'll have conversations around the five greatest challenges that every leader faces.
What a great weekend. Steve Saccone from Mosaic came out and did a seminar helping us discover our strengths. We continued the Potential series. And capped things off with our variety show. Too much fun. Although, I have to admit that I was thoroughly embarrassed during our 80's triathlon.
What's got 48,000 BTUs and 667 square inches of cooking space? My new grill. And all this for the price of $159. That's what I'm talking about. Our old grill was down to one burner. I could cook about about 3 dogs at a time. Pretty pathetic! Nice to have four burners. Plus, my old grill had to be lit with a match so my mid-digital hair on my fingers got singed every time I lit the thing!
Had a great day in Kansas City. I did an afternoon session on creativity. And I preached the ordination service tonight. Ordination was such a powerful milestone in my own ministry. Brought back lots of memories. Also enjoyed reconnecting with some old friends.
I hop a flight to Kansas City this morning to speak at the Kansas District Council. I'm doing an afternoon session on leadership. And I'll preach a Chase the Lion message tonight.
Loved Andy Stanley's session at Exponential. He talked about how to make vision stick. Here are the five vision principles he shared:
"Vision leaks." As your church gets larger, you need more vision and you need to share it more frequently. One of the unique challenges we face at NCC is our turnover rate. 44% of NCCers have attended less than one year. So we need to communicate vision more consistently.
Today I'm doing a session at the Exponential Conference titled: the five greatest challenges every leader faces. It's a dry-run for our Unplugged event in June.
Wild Goose Chase is out of my hands!
Headed to Orlando for the Exponential Conference. I'm doing a pre-conference seminar on creative communication. Look forward to hanging out with the church planting tribe!
This weekend we continued our Potential series. Loving this series on lots of levels. I feel like helping people reach their God-given potential is the core of my calling. And I'm really enjoying hanging out in I and II Timothy.
