Fun on Friday

Our family recently took a long-weekend trip to Washington, DC. A great family time visiting museums and monuments and riding the Metro. Along the course of our trip the boys asked some fun questions:

Turner (he's 3) while riding the Metro:
On a Thursday morning train ride into the city: "Why people sleeping"?
On a Friday morning train ride into the city: "Why nobody happy"?

Parker (he's 6) on seeing the front lawn of the White House:
"Wow. Who mows all this grass"?

Love those boys.

Great Quote Thursday

To attempt to be strong everywhere is to be strong nowhere- old military maxim

Catalyst Conference- Perry Noble

Perry Noble is the founding and Senior Pastor of NewSpring Church (www.newspring.cc) with campuses in Anderson, Columbia, Florence and Greenville, South Carolina. At Catalyst, he spoke from the Old Testament book of I Kings chapter 17.

More time on your face and less time of Facebook will bring great revelation from God.

If it's explainable, then God didn't do it.

Elijah thought the brook was his supply, but his supply was God.

Don't run from a situation that God reigns over.

Catalyst Conference- Beth Moore

Beth Moore is a best-selling author and the founder of Living Proof Ministries (www.lproof.org). Here is some of what she shared at the Catalyst Conference.

Due to social media, there is no more secret keeping. But social media is a way to reach the world with the Gospel.

Followers of Christ should surrender to Him, not a specific ministry or position.

One of the greatest difficulties in ministry is being misunderstood.

Pride is the graveyard of good leaders and insecurity is the psych ward of good leaders.

We're all miracle material.

Catalyst Conference- Seth Godin

Seth Godin is an author (Purple Cow, Linchpin), blogger (http://www.sethgodin.com/) and entrepreneur (Yoyodyne, Squidoo). Here is some of what he shared at Catalyst:

Most people wear a watch because the system demands that we arrive on time. There must be some standard.

Schools teach children to be obedient and fit in with others; in rows. The factory wants you to fit in so it can ignore you.

Competent is not special and is easily replaceable.

Businesses race to the bottom to be cheaper, closer, etc.

Be graceful so that when you leave a room, people hate to see you leave.

North Korea is compliant but it's not working.

It's okay to fail in a different way. Cupcake failure (trying a new recipe) is not fatal.

Apple is in the movement business, not the technology business.

Art and painting are different.

Change sometimes mean failure in the short-term.

Change is made by people who eagerly accept responsibility.

Do work that matters.

Leadership is different than management. Compliance and accountability are different.

Fun on Friday

Heard a radio spot for Fifth Third Bank yesterday. What exactly does Fifth Third mean?

While scanning for some sports on the radio, I found out this week that if you're a fan of Kenny Chesney, you can basically keep hitting scan on your car radio and listen to his song "The Boys of Fall" all the way from Knoxville to Nashville.

Great Quote Thursday

Each of us are facing great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible problems- Chuck Swindoll

Book Review- The Grace of God by Andy Stanley

In his new book, The Grace of God, Andy Stanley takes the reader through the pages of Scripture to show the depth of the grace of God. From chapters titled "In the Beginning, Grace" (Adam and Eve); "Chosen by Grace" (Abraham); "Surprised by Grace" (Joseph) and ten others, Stanley draws deeply from the Bible to detail facets of grace that may often be overlooked.

Much has been written about the grace of God, yet Stanley's book remains enlightening. As Stanley writes, "Grace. It's what we crave most when our guilt is exposed. It's the very thing we are hesitant to extend when we are confronted with the guilt of others- especially when their guilt has robbed us of something we consider valuable". As with many of his other works, Stanley paints word-pictures that vividly shed light on a subject.

While many of Stanley's works revolve around the concepts of better communication or better leadership, this book is firmly grounded to Scripture. It's even divided into two sections, the first containing Old Testament examples of grace with the second section containing New Testament examples of grace.

I reviewed this book in conjunction with Thomas Nelson's BookSneeze program, was not compensated for this review and the opinions expressed are entirely mine.

Great Quote Thursday

If you're a leader, lives should be better because of the influence you've had- Tony Dungy

Catalyst Conference- Andy Stanley

I was fortunate to be able to attend the Catalyst Conference last week. Over the next several days, I will post some of my notes from the conference sessions. The opening speaker was Andy Stanley, the Lead Pastor at North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia. Here are some notes from his session:

All leaders have an appetite for something. Those things could include: progress, responsibility, respect, the "win", growth, fame, achievement, to be envied. But appetites always want more.

3 things about appetites:
Appetites were created by God, sin destroyed them
Appetites are never fully and finally satisfied
Appetites always whisper now, never later

We should not strive to be famous but strive to be faithful.

Fun on Friday

If people are apathetic, do you care?

Bluetooth mobile phone headsets make me smile.

Speaking of cell phones, if my cell phone isn't a smart phone, does that make it a dumb phone?

For the sports fan, this is a great time of the year. The MLB playoffs are beginning; the NHL season has begun; NBA camps are opening; and the NFL is well into its season. NASCAR is in the middle of its Chase for the Sprint Cup and college football is on TV most weeknights. Good times.

Great Quote Thursday

In a moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing- Theodore Roosevelt