a light in the darkness

I want to echo the words Jim shared about the candle light vigil held in honor of the body of the young girl found in a trash bin last week in St.Marys (presumably murdered). Growing up in St.Marys/Kingsland, I remember the Pines apts and it was a rough area then. Guess it's only gotten worse.

This gathering seems like such a display of grace in the midst of such horror. It shows a beautiful coming together of people from differing backgrounds. As the gathering emphasized, "the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it." Just as Jesus is the light of the world, so must the body of Christ shine that light deep in the darkness. Jim, Frank, and others, I commend you on how you responded to such tragedy and darkness by shining the light of God's love into that community.

Read more here.

Technorati tags: logue, pines, murder, dumpster

RISK!

Ahh, Risk.
The game of global domination diplomacy.

Technorati tags: risk, board games, late nights

Notes on: Think Big Act Small

This one's mostly for me, but you're welcome to peek. It's my reading notes as I work through "Think Big Act Small". Comments are welcome...

Notes on:
think big act small - jason jennings

p5
Four types of thinking and acting:
-Think Small, Act Small : think of how this rings true in churches
-Think Small, Act Big : this is the cocky, annoyingly arrogant
-Think Big, Act Big : this becomes the cold institution
-Think Big, Act Small : this "gets it"

Chpt1 : Down to Earth
Seven Attributes of Humility
1.stewardship - sense of responsibility and duty to the company and the resources
2.transparency - miscommunication creates problems, everything's out in the open, there's zero personal profit or gain to be achieved in hoarding, trading, or trying to protect knowledge, everyone's on the same page, leads to collegiality
3.accessibility - not just good tactic but part of dna to be available and side by side with those with whom the leader is partnered with
4.work ethic - turns me on, makes me happy, work w/ great people, see them grow, creates value, get to reward those who contribute to success
5.stand for something - what the leader stands for becomes what the organization stands for, not plaque on wall but real values
6.erase superficial distinctions - if it's dress, room arrangement, it's about collegiality and collaborating for the achievement of our agreed objectives
7.no big offices - removing distinctions, equality of the team

Down to Earth
-be a steward
-make info available to everyone
-be accessible
-praise others
-love what you do and lead by example
-stand for something good and noble
-erase superficial distinctions
-stay humble

Chpt2 : Keep Your Hands Dirty
avoid "that's not in my job description", if it needs to be done - do it.
stay in touch - notes, letters, return calls, emails (Cabela's)
this will help generate "those" ideas (Sonic)
*management by walking around*
*"vendors" and "suppliers" are not, they are "partners"*

Keep Your Hands Dirty
-never become too important for customer contact
-turn workers into valued team members - not employees
-turn suppliers into partners
-be available to people who want to do business with you
-give all team members a voice in the decision-making process
-respond to every customer communication

Technorati tags: tbas, jennings, book reports

Most Powerful Country in the World?

Good grief this make Americans look like a pile of idiots! Some of this is sad, some is absolutely hilarious. If there's anything to that whole bell curve idea, I hope this would be representative of the lower end. To be fair, everyone has areas of strength and weakness, and maybe "life" just isn't their thing...

Technorati tags: idiots

What's in a name?

What's in a name? that which we call a blog
By any other name would smell as sweet;

This weblog began as a place to record my questions and musings. It's grown and changed as I've figured out just why I want to do this and what this is for me. It's headed in a different direction for a little bit already. While it will still serve in that original capacity, a great number of the posts will not be that specific or narrow in scope. Thus, I felt a name change was needed and appropriate. After quite a bit of thought, I settled on "the lid". "the lid" will simply be an open forum for the thoughts that float through my head, where I open up and let you see what's on my mind - like it or not, questions or thoughts or just what I've been up too.

Just for a little fun, can anyone id where the new name came from? It's not too tough (maybe), but thought I'd just see who'd recognize it first.

So, there's the update... Now, back to your regularly scheduled program.

Technorati tags: new blog name

Porn and Pancakes

Some of you may have heard of xxxchurch. It's an online ministry that serves to guard, warn, and educate people on the issue of pornography in our society. It's legit, and it's a good and necessary ministry given the world we live in. Saw this this morning...



So, I think this is an issue that too many churches ignore. Maybe it's a touchy subject. Maybe there's concern about digging deeper than many people would be comfortable with. Maybe it's too private or personal for many church leaders. I know it's not the most comfortable subject for me to figure out how to address with teenagers, but it's another one of those subjects that is out there... that people are dealing with... that culture is presenting loud and clear... and many faith communities are silent on.

Technorati tags: xxxchurch, pornography, porn and pancakes