The critical question

I have been reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan and it has been rocking me for the last few days. When it comes to loving Christ, Francis quotes John Piper from his book God Is The Gospel and here it is:

The critical question for our generation and for every generation is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?

No matter who you are and what you do, as a christian this is a question that you will have to give an honest answer to yourself. You might be surprised at the answer yourself! This has definitely caused me to evaluate my life and love for Christ.

What about you?

Talk about ideas!

The saying goes "Big people talk about ideas, average people talk about things and small people talk about other people."

What category do you fall under? Talking about other people in not a bad thing all the time. It is bad when all you talk about is gossip and small talk about other people. If you talk about other people in the light of what they have accomplished or what they plan to do and how you can learn from it, it is a good thing.

For a little over a year I have had the opportunity to meet and get to know some great people who love to talk about ideas and talk about things most people are not even thinking about. This has helped me in many ways. It helps you grow personally and also lets you have a broader understanding of things around you. I also realized that once you start to talk about different ideas you will start liking certain subjects that you were not necessarily interested in before.

What do you think? What kind of ideas do you think about?

5 habits

I was recently reading an article 10 habits of successful people. Five of them really stood out to me and I wanted to share them. Most of them are "common sence" or things that you have heard before but I believe it is always good to be reminded of the basics, so here is the list:

1. Think long-term.
2. Talk about ideas, NOT people and things.
3. Learn to embrace change.
4. Take calcualted risks.
5. Continually learn and grow.

I know there have to be other things that can be added to this list. What are somethings that you would add?

Quote

"A man by his sin may waste himself, which is to waste that which on earth is most like God. This is man's greatest tragedy and God's heaviest grief." A. W. Tozer.

Kill the slogan?!

So after taking a econ final at school today, rushing home and then to airport, the flight to New York is delayed by two and a half hours. At this point I am hoping that I will reach New York in time to catch my flight to Dubai.

So in the mean time I thought I would just write this. I just read an article by Dan & Heath Chip about Killing the slogans dead in FastCompany magazine. Dan & Heath Chip are the authors of the book Made to Stick. 

In the article they ask managers and leaders to fight the urge to think in clever taglines. They talk about how it is important to connect an idea with stories so move people instead of just coming up with a good tagline and expecting the tagline to get the job done. I think this very well applies to preaching, presenting and giving talks. Stories connect with people much more than clever taglines. 

So to add to the 30 second rule, in order to get your point across and move people to action, have a story that they can connect with and remember even after you are done with your talk. 

Reading list

This is what I plan to read while I travel to India!

What are you reading?

30 second rule

The 30 second rule is pretty simple. If you are going to be giving a presentation or talk, you should be able to articulate the main point of your talk in 30 seconds or less. 

Most of the time we have too many ideas going through our minds and this often causes an information overload for the listeners. So next time try the 30 second rule before you present. 

What do you think? What are some ways that you get ready for a talk?

Did you know?

Here are some interesting facts

Honor

John Bevere was the guest speaker at my church yesterday. He did a great job teaching about Honor. There was a LOT of stuff that he covered from his book Honor's Reward. 

I just wanted to mention one of things that he talked about. He said that one of the definitions in the greek for the word dishonor simple meant "to treat as common".

With that in mind....

Who are the people in your life that you take for granted or teat as common?

Is it your wife, husband, Pastor, leader, father, mother, children, friend, employer, employee, teammates......? 

Do you properly honor the people God has placed in your life?

Take some time and think about it. Once you think of the people in your life, how do you plan on honoring them? How do you plan on making this a part of your lifestyle?

God's Love

Was true until...

I saw this on Josh's blog. 



I think its really well done!

Quick hits!

I have been pretty busy the last few days with school work and making sure i get everything done before I go to India for a short visit. 

Well my good friend Michael Ruffin who is a science teacher and a great guy to hang out with just started a blog and you can check it out here. 

I came across this really cool website on Shawn Wood's blog. The website is designed to help discover your purpose in life. I think you will really like it. 

I finally got on twitter today! You can follow me by clicking here. I also added a widget on this blog which will update my tweets. I am new to it so, still playing around with it and learning! 

You can follow Anthony here. Click here if you want to follow Matt Stakes!

and finally, Google's reader got a facelift today. Check it out!

Well thats it for now! Need to go to bed! Goodnight! (Good morning if you are on the other side of the world!)

What inspires you?

Economies of the world!

I got this from a friend of mine, so I thought you might enjoy it.

1. SOCIALISM:
You have 2 cows and you give one to your neighbour.

2. COMMUNISM:
You have 2 cows; the Government takes both and gives you some milk.

3. FASCISM:
You have 2 cows; the Government takes both and sells you some milk.

4. NAZISM:
You have 2 cows. The Government takes both and shoots you.

5. BUREAUCRATISM:
You have 2 cows; the Government takes both, shoots one, milks the
other and throws the milk away...

6. TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM:
You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. Your herd multiplies,
and the economy grows. You sell them and retire on the income.

7. AN AMERICAN CORPORATION:
You have two cows. You sell one, and force the other to produce the
milk of four cows. Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow
dropped dead.

8. A FRENCH CORPORATION:
You have two cows. You go on strike because you want three cows.

9. A JAPANESE CORPORATION:
You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of
an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. You then create a
clever cow cartoon image called Cowkimon and market them World-Wide.

10. A GERMAN CORPORATION:
You have two cows. You re engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat
once a month, and milk themselves.

11. AN ITALIAN CORPORATION:
You have two cows, but you don't know where they are. You break for lunch.

12. A RUSSIAN CORPORATION:
You have two cows. You count them and learn you have five cows. You
count them again and learn you have 42 cows. You count them again and
learn you have 2 cows. You stop counting cows and open another bottle
of vodka.

13. A SWISS CORPORATION:
You have 5000 cows, none of which belong to you. You charge others for
storing them.

14. A CHINESE CORPORATION:
You have two cows. You have 300 people milking them. You claim full
employment, high bovine productivity, and arrest the newsman who
reported the numbers.

15. AN INDIAN CORPORATION:
You have two cows. You worship them.

16. A BRITISH CORPORATION:
You have two cows. Both are mad.

17. A KENYAN CORPORATION:
You have two cows. You eat both

Feel free to add more if you can....

He did it!!

My leader and friend has finally dived into the blogosphere! I think this is going to be great! He has a lot of wisdom and insight.

Check his blog out by clicking here.

Forgiveness

We used this video when we taught the high school students about forgiveness. We had some great reactions and questions from the students.

I am thankful for (Part 1)

1. The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and for everything I have because of that! 
2. My parents, for the example they have been and for their love.  My Grandmother, for her love and prayers. My brothers, for their love, support and fun!
3. For the friends that have supported me through the years.
4. For the opportunity to travel to many places and meet people.
5. For the opportunity to have the experience of living both in India and America. 

Starbucks Church!

What do you think?

Apple apps

Here are some of the apps that I use on my iPhone 3G:

1. Jott: This is a free app that has worked great for me. I primarily use it to keep reminders. You can set reminders in advance for a particular day and time. You will be reminded by a text, email or both depending on your preference.
2. Evernote: This is also a free app that is great to store information on the go. You can also download it onto your computer and it makes it very easy to store things and keep them in different folders so that you can retrieve the information that you like when you need it easily. You can store both pictures and voice messages. 
3. Say Where: This is an app that is voice activated. I use it to find contact information and directions to places that I need to go to. 
4. Bible: There are many different Bible apps, but my favorite is the one by lifechurch.tv and it is free! Go ahead and click here to check out the website for it!
5. AroundMe: I use this app to see what locations are closest to me, depending on what I am looking for. It helps you look up lot of different places like, restaurants, theaters, banks, hotels, hospitals, parking, coffee shops etc. 

All the apps that I mentions above are free! So if you have an iPhone, what apps do you use? What else would you suggest?

Typical by Mute Math

Amazing band. I can't wait for their next album!

Finally!!

It is about time someone came up with this!

Links/Stories of the week

1. Plans for ONE prayer 2009 are underway. Click here for more info.
2. Relevant magazine is having some great deals for christmas, but you have to sign up for them. Click here. 
3. Japan developing paper thin loud speakers!
4. U2 reinventing rock 'n' roll!
5. Gmail introduced new themes.
6. Pixar's next movie. UP.
7. Catalyst One Day took place this week. Click here, here, here, here and here for notes.
8. Catalyst is going to the west coast.
9. This girl lived for 4 months without a heart!
10. Porn Again Christian by Mark Driscoll is available for free download here.

Oh.... and by the way don't forget about the challenge. Pass it on to others!

Have a great weekend!

Just do it!

With Thanksgiving round the corner I think this is pretty appropriate. A lot of times I find myself and some of the people around me complaining about some of the most minute things and sometimes about certain things that they cannot change.

What is the point of complaining? What does it accomplish? How is it useful? 

If you think it is cold outside, put on a jacket and stop complaining. 

If you think the economy is tanking, educate yourself, there is plenty of opportunity out there! stop complaining. 

If you have a lot of work that needs to be done, get started and delegate what you but stop complaining. 

If you think you have a horrible job, get out of there or do your best to get to the point where you will enjoy the work you do and stop complaining.

If you think there are too many people who are going without food, clothing and shelter everyday, do something about it and stop complaining about what others are not doing.

You get the point. 

Stop complaining. Be thankful and do something!

Complaining almost never gets anything done. It actually turns people away from you. If there is something that you think needs to change, start developing a plan for what you want to see changed. 

I know its not easy, but almost anything worth doing is not going to be easy.

Be courageous and lead the change! The world needs you to lead! That is how change and transformation takes place. This is especially important and true during tough times!

So next time you start complaining, stop for s second and think about what it is going to accomplish and think of what you can do about it!

Christmas gift!

I saw this video on Josh's blog few days ago.

For adults who serve teenagers!

This is from the The Skit Guys.

Make sure you watch this!


Skit Guys - The Chair from rockinyp on Vimeo.

Rescue by Seabird

I had a chance to see these guys live in Florida earlier this year at Relevant's party in march and they were great.

Click here if you want to listen to their album.

Beautiful feet.

I just bought a few pairs of shoes! Here is your chance to do the same and take part in this challenge and make a difference in the lives of many.

Don't procrastinate!! Do it! Do it now!! Click on the banner for more details!



This is a great oppertunity and i know you have $5 bucks!!

Watch at your own risk!

I know we still have a few days before the weekend but.......I had to put this up. This video might disturb you at many levels! Watch at your own risk at the end it might just make you laugh....just a little bit maybe.

The Renewed Mind Is the Key


If thats not enough, then check this out:



I couldn't stop laughing after the first one!

Any thoughts?

Veterans Day

November 11th is Veterans Day. This is a great day to take a few minutes and specially thank the brave men and women who fight to protect the freedoms of millions of people. Here are three links:

1. PBS
2. History Channel
3. USAsupportourtroops

You can read letters and stories about their lives. Click on the links, take a minute to thank them and their families who sacrifice a lot. 

Book Review: Visioneering

I have been reading Visioneering by Andy Stanley.

It has been a great read. There are too many things that i have learnt and picked up from the book, so what i have decided to do is give you some of, what Andy Stanley calls building blocks that are mentioned in the book about vision.

• A vision begins as a concern.
• A vision does not necessarily require immediate action.
• Walk before you talk; Investigate before you initiate.
• Cast your vision at the appropriate time to the appropriate people.
• Don't confuse your plans with God's vision.
• Visions are refined- they don't change; Plans are revised - they rarely stay the same.
• Visions thrive in unity and die in environments of division.
• Abandon the vision before you abandon your moral authority.
• Don't get distracted!
• The end of a God-ordained vision is God.
• Maintaining a vision requires adherence to a set of core beliefs and behaviors.
• Maintaining a vision requires bold leadership.

There is A LOT more in the book. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone that plans to live a life of vision and purpose.

Leadership Brand

What kind of leadership brand do you like to build for yourself?

History made!

I had no intentions of having many political posts on this blog, but I guess since I started it about a month ago and it happens to be a time, when one of the most important election in history has been taking place, I ended up posting some.....

Everyone knows the news by now. Barack Obama is the President elect of the United States of America. Even though I am not an American citizen I have a lot of respect and love for this country. This is the the second time I have seen a presidential election take place, after coming to America.

Weather you live in the US or another country, weather you like the US or don't, the truth is that that leadership and decisions made here will effect millions of people around the world. People in the US should be proud of their country and the political system.

Weather you voted for McCain or Obama, the votes have been counted and the winner has been declared. Now, it is time to respect the office of the President and support the President. If you are a christian reading this, you have the duty to pray for the President since he is your leader. Even if you don't agree with some of the policies (and I for one don't. I don't agree with all of McCain's policies either), it is your duty to pray that he makes wise decisions, pray for his safety, pray for his family and the future of the country.

Either way for those who are happy with the result, this is great!! If you are not, well this is a great time to be alive and practice some of the hard sayings in the Bible. Pray for the President. Its your duty!!

Martin Luther raps!!?

Enjoy!

Where they stand!

Here is a short video that shows where the candidates stand!

Billy Graham's 90th birthday!

Billy Graham is one of the most famous and well known christian leaders of all time! His impact has reached many generations including mine. As this great leader gets ready to celebrate his 90th birthday on November 7th, you have an opportunity to send him a message. I would encourage you to do so, especially if your life or the life of someone that you know has been impacted through him or his ministry.

You can do so by clicking here.

"Signature of Divine (Yahweh)" by Needtobreath

This video is comprised of over 3,000 photos and a 6-day shoot. Check it out!

Anybody thinking?

What are you thinking about?

Call of Duty - World at War

I bought a PS3 few months ago and so far it has been a lot of fun. Helps me relax...

I am looking forward to this....



Any games you think I should check out?

"Quote"

Never make a decision that has permanent consequences during a temporary season~Bishop McBath.

ChurchMetrics!

Here is a great new free tool from the Digerati Team at lifechurch.tv

It is a great tool to keep a track of records that relate to your church or organization.  


Introducing ChurchMetrics from ChurchMetrics on Vimeo.

Click here to check it out. 

Satan's thoughts on the Church!

This is a video by lifechurch.tv

Four ways to wreck a small group

1. Don't Prepare: Don't go over the lesson and try to do everything on the go. (this might help with a few leaders ego - to show that you might be more "spiritual") OUCH!
2. Let a student dominate the whole group: Let the guy/girl who always opens his/her mouth and has an answer for every question talk all the time, without giving others a chance to talk or share.
3. Don't have any guidelines: Let the students do whatever they feel like. Let them treat other students in the group any way they want to. 
4. ALWAYS stick to the lesson: Even if there is a student that needs to talk about an important issue in his/her life that needs attention, don't take the time to do that, since "the topic" is not a part of the lesson.

There you go!

So the next time you want to absolutely wreck the small group experience, simply follow the four ways mentioned above.

For those of you who want to have a great small group experience do the exact opposite of the four ways mentioned above!

Have other ideas.....go ahead and comment.

Me, running for president??!

Click here to check out the video!!

Let me know what you think?

Music Video - This is home by Switchfoot

Electing a US President

Here is my first post that has to do with politics.

Take your blog Mobile!

Almost every cell phone that is being introduced to the market, has the ability to access the internet and more people are beginning to use their cell phones to access websites more than ever before. With this is mind, it is important to have a mobile version of your blog/website.

If you have a blog and want to have a mobile version of it, well head on over to Mofuse.

They will make a mobile version of your blog, for FREE! All you have to do is register and it hardly takes a minute to get everything done!  

BOOKS!

Here are three new books that have either just come out or will be coming out in the near future. 

1. 13 ways to ruin your life by Jarrod Jones is available as a free download. Click here. I think EVERY guy SHOULD read this book!
2. Tribes by Seth Godin is available on itunes for only 95 cents.
3. MAD church disease by Anne Jackson does not come out till Feb. 09 but you can get a free chapter by clicking here. 

Karting in Dubai!

This past summer, I had a wonderful opportunity to visit Dubai with my family. These are some pics from the Dubai Autodrome. It was the best karting experience that I have had so far.

L3 - Leadership Lessons Learnt

As I learn about leadership and what it means to be a leader, one of the common phrases that has really been on my mind about leading is "Leading by example." In the last three weeks this has become more apparent to me then ever. 

Even though it is a very common and basic leadership principle I found myself neglecting it at certain times. If you are not intentional about it, you WILL end up neglecting it. In the last few weeks, I have been very intentional to address this and I have already seen a change in the team that I lead. No matter what you do it life, if there are people that you influence and would like them to do certain things, there is no better way to lead them then by example. 

I honestly believe that if you lead by example, the people will always be willing to follow. 

Let me know what you think.... or if you have any thoughts about this.

Music Video - Where the streets Have No Name (Live) by U2

U2 is my favorite band and I personally think this is one of the greatest songs ever. Here is U2 performing live in Ireland.

Small Group Help

I found two great articles about small groups. Anyone who has ever been involved in leading small groups knows that it is not an easy thing to do. 

Click here to remind yourself about 4 things you need to know as a small group leader.

and

Click here to look at some great sample questions that can be used no matter what the topic of discussion maybe. If you are already following a particular curriculum or questions, then go with it, if not these are good.

Frustrated? read this!

If you are a youth worker and frustrated with the way things are moving, reading this article and learning might do you some good.

Click here to read the article.

Effort - a myth?

I am a pretty big fan of Seth Godin's thoughts. I read his blog pretty regularly and have read some of his books. He recently had a post about effort and luck.  I think everyone should read the post. 

In the post Seth says "the paradox of effort: While luck may be more appealing than effort, you don't get to choose luck. Effort, on the other hand, is totally available, all the time."

Click here to read the post in its entirety.

Test run

I'm just trying to see how blogging with my phone is going to work out... So here goes!

The Unexpected (follow-up)

Just wanted to add a little something to the previous post about the unexpected.

I talked about building MENTAL RESERVES. To dig a little deeper, the next question would be HOW? I honestly believe that one of the best ways to do so is by reading about or learning from people who have accomplished something significant in whatever area it is that you are working on. 

When you read and learn from the challenges that those people faced, you learn to face challenges with a different perspective which might really determine the outcome of the situation. 

Music Video - Broken by Lifehouse

This song has been on heavy rotation on my computer, so i thought i would share it with you. I think the video is great too.

Check it out...

The Unexpected

In most cases when we plan for something, there is always the element of the unexpected: getting stuck in traffic, the powerpoint doesn't work, you spill something on you clothes and the list can go on. What do you do when something unexpected happens?

Do you get upset and give up and let that mess up everything else? If that is the case you will never really get much accomplished. It is very important that we have mental reserves built in when we plan for something. 

So the next time you are working on executing a plan and the unexpected takes place you will be in a better place of knowing what to do next. 

What unexpected experiences did you have? What did you do when you were faced with the unexpected?

Before you click SEND.

Most of us have sent/forwarded an email to someone which caused us embarrassment. Well here is a great list by marketing guru Seth Godin about things to think of before clicking SEND the next time!

Pepsi vs. Coca-Cola

Here is a link to a great post about the two huge brands going at each other.

You can check it out by clicking here.

Innovate Videos

When it comes to innovation and creativity, one of the best conferences that i have come to know about has been the Innovate Conference by Granger Community Church whose senior Pastor is Mark Beeson.

You can watch all the sessions from this year and the past years conference by clicking here.

Its Not About The Coffee (Book Review)

Here are some thoughts that i think are interesting from the book:

• Know who you are. Wear one hat.
• Goals are emotional. Accomplishing Goals needs effort and will not work if you are not emotional about it.
• Know what is important to you. Don't compromise.
• Be people driven, NOT project driven.
• Values are more important than money.
• If there was no praise or criticism in the world, where would you be and what would you do?
• Know why you are where you are? Spend more time in goals, strategy and people.
• Recepies are more important than rules. Rules set more of the ME culture.
• Communicate rules in such a way that they don't feel boxed, but rather make them feel that the rules will help the people that they serve.
• A business needs to be looked at as a group of volunteers who need to be given the freedom to unleash their creativity for the set goals.
• Honor and reward independent thinking in every area and department. Nurture independent thinking.
• The enemy of life is indifference!
• Focus less on what you are doing and more on why you are doing!!
• Good service is hands and feet but great service is heart!
• Listen with compassion without preconceived notions.
• Think like a person of action and act like a person of thought.
• Only performance is reality when it all comes down.
• Most of the time when things don't work it is because of the people involved.
• When trust increases, people will push each other to do better.

I would suggest this book to anyone involved in leadership or business.

Foldable Bathroom?

I thought this was really crazy...... swiss knife bathroom?

Check this out here.

Vision, Values and Strategy!

1. Vision: You need to know where you are going. It needs to be common to everyone involved.
2. Values: You need to have values, because values is what will guide you through the process.
3. Strategy: The strategy of how you plan to accomplish your goals is what makes you/you organization unique from the others. 

When you find high performance people in you team/business/organization, give them clear goals to focus and don't place too many restrictions.

Useful resources for Youth Workers

Here are some useful websites that i  found on Josh Griffin's blog.

gmail.com

blogger.com

youtube.com

myspace.com

facebook.com

yousendit.com

youversion.com

Read the entire list here.

First Run

Well this is my first go at blogging, so i am typing this just to see what it will look like once i click on "publish it"!!