Easy scheduling
Do you get frustrated like I do when trying to schedule a meeting with lots of people (or heck, even one person!) and you can’t seem to easily find a time that works for everyone?
I just stumbled upon doodle.com. It is an online poll form that helps you figure out what meeting times work well for everyone. Best of all, it is super simple, and IT IS FREE!
doodle.com home page
I hope I don’t sound too much like an infomercial (I wasn’t paid to post this). I’m just always looking for helpful tools like this. As I discover them, I’ll post them.
Archibald Hart on Burnout, Anxiety, and Depression
I heard this lecture by Archibald Hart a few years ago at a California Classis meeting. It impacted me in a great way. If you struggle with depression, anxiety, or burnout (or you are a workaholic or tech addict), give it a listen.
Answers to Some Honest Questions about Echo
Our elders are currently preaching through a series at Infusion called Echo. Echo is our discipleship process that is based on the idea of becoming missionaries for Christ. We start with Jesus’ command to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves. For the series, we have challenged people to commit to loving 5 neighbors unconditionally (Jesus style) for the period of 12 months. I have received several honest questions and concerns regarding this challenge, and here, I’ll try to answer some of them.
My 10 lame excuses for not sharing the best news ever
We have many excuses for not sharing the best news ever. Here is my confession, and ways God is changing me with this… Read More…
Are You Under-appreciated?
The next time your love and generosity is forgotten and you are scorned or misunderstood, remember that Jesus is perfectly loving and generous, and they killed him. Yet another opportunity to live in Christ.
Planning Your Sabbatical
You read a lot these days about pastors burning out. The statistics are ridiculous (like those found here), and I had become one of them. I had been consistently working 80-100 hour weeks for 10 years of planting churches. One day, I started fainting, visited the emergency room, had every brain test you could have done, and they ended up diagnosing me with a social anxiety disorder, panic attacks, exhaustion, and burned out adrenal glands. The strange part about this, is that if you had asked me if there was anything wrong before the fainting episodes, I would have told you life couldn’t have been better! I was completely oblivious to the fact that I needed some rest.
As a result of this, our leadership team and some other very supportive pastors requested that I take a 3 month sabbatical and re-evaluate if I needed more rest after that.
My sabbatical was invaluable for several reasons: Read More…
Replacing Yourself
Great thought from “Activate,” by Searcy and Thomas (p. 66) on replicating yourself as a leader:
“…teach your leaders to grow new leaders by learning to replace themselves in four steps:
- I do and you watch.
- I do and you help.
- You do and I help.
- You do and I applaud.
Gaining Wisdom
Trying to gain wisdom is a vain pursuit.
Everyone knows it does not come easy. At some point, all humans have a limit to how many wisdom-building experiences they can pursue or endure. For example, it would be easy to look at the list of characteristics in Ecclesiastes 7:1-11 and get overwhelmed at the kind of life one needs to maintain just to be called “wise.” The thought of trying to become wise is far too daunting of a task. In fact, it is impossible.
