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The Blog has Moved

In the effort of continuous improvement and making a new start in 2010 the blog has moved to:  

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Let’s have a great 2010!

Mark

Is it Time for Mentoring?

As most of you know, I prefer Twittering to Facebook.  I love all the people I follow.  Some of the people I follow on Twitter are for friendship, some family, and some for the “little nuggets” they tweet throughout the day.

A few weeks ago, Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, twittered about winning a book on his blog if you would leave a comment.  The book he was giving away was Mentor Like Jesus by Regi Campbell.

The title of the book intrigued me.  I also felt that I had benefitted from some good mentors at various points in my life.  My father passed away during my teen years and some of the men that showed an interest in me during that time were invaluable.  And then later during my business career,  I benefitted again from several men, specifically from Bob Fisher, now President of Belmont University in Nashville.

Not only was I selected by Mike to receive the book, but Chris Hornsby from Next Generation Mentoring contacted me saying if I didn’t get selected to receive the book, he wanted to send me one.  Chris and I exchanged a couple of emails about Next Generation Mentoring including sending me a link for further information.

Long story short – this book was humbling.  The objective of the book is to get men into a mentor – mentee relationship.  Regi describes throughout the book a “how-to” approach to setting up mentoring groups and offers a template and materials for a year-long relationship for a nominal fee.

Here are my issues.  While I would have no problem setting up a relationship like this with eight men, I have made a TON of mistakes.  I’m pretty sure there aren’t eight men I know who would be interested in doing this with me.  There are better mentors.

With the above said, this is a great book.  Mentor Like Jesus is a perfect rationale and template for mentoring.  If you think you could be a mentor, get this book.  If you think you would like to find a mentor, get this book.  If you’ve benefited from mentoring – pay it forward!

Primal – A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity

Primal is a book whose time has come.  In this day of complexity and multiple choices, the gospel gets lost in confusion, denominationalism, and politics.  Primal is a call to reformation.  A reformation back to where you met God and God met you.

Primal is a call to live the Great Commandment . . . or Primal Commandment.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

What would happen to this world if a movement of people really lived the Great Commandment?  What if our churches were all about this Commandment and less about religion and doing church?  As Mark states, “Christianity was never intended to be a noun.  And when we turn it into a noun it becomes a turnoff.  God doesn’t reward what we know.  He doesn’t reward what we say.  He rewards the expenditure of energy.”

Implementing Primal is daring.  It’s exciting.  It ignites the next reformation of God’s people.  It’s regaining the fire that obsessed Christ’s disciples that turned the world upside down.  It moves Christianity from a noun to an action verb once again.

This book is a must read for pastors, church leaders, and small group leaders.  Read, discuss, and start a new reformation.  Make Primal the 1^st book your read in 2010!

Personal Update and Upcoming Book Reviews

I’m closing in on a six month assignment in upstate New York.  It’s been a great experience, in spite of spending a lot of time away from home.  I will return this week and then I’m home for a couple of weeks for the holidays.  I’m looking forward to catching up with friends and family.

Neither Jared, Stacie, or myself ran the St. Jude Marathon.  Stacie has a stress fracture, I had a kidney infection, and Jared contracted a stomach virus the night before the race.  Funny thing about plans. . . no matter how much you plan and prepare, our future is ultimately in the hands of the Maker.  Stacie is out of running indefinitely.  Jared and I are thinking of trying another one in late winter or early spring.

In the coming days, I will be publishing a couple of book reviews.  Both are books that I received advance copies from the publishers to read and make comments.  The reason I’m telling you this now is that in my opinion both books are sure to make a huge impact.

The first book will be Primal – A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity by Mark Batterson.  This book is so refreshing and if implemented by churches and Christendom would change the world!  More about that later.

The second book is by Regi Campbell titled Mentor Like Jesus.  This book is about the need to establish mentoring relationship like Jesus did with his disciples.  But the cool thing about this book is that it not only describes the need but also gives a blueprint for establishing these relationships.

I will post Primal on Tuesday December 15th and Mentor Like Jesus on Monday December 21st.  Please look for both these posts and consider purchasing both of these books for yourself or someone else who likes to continually learn and grow.

Have A Little Faith

While traveling back and forth to upstate NY for the past six months, I’ve had an unbelievable amount of time to read.  Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom was my latest airline read.

First I have to tell you that I love Mitch Albom books.  I have read three of his previous books, For One More Day, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, and Tuesdays with Morrie.  When I start reading one of his books, I feel like I’m with him.  I feel as if I’m experiencing and seeing exactly what he is seeing as he tells his stories.

In Have a Little Faith, he tells a beautiful story about his interaction with two very different men.  The first, a childhood Rabbi that was given only a limited time to live and has asked Mitch to speak at his funeral.  The second, a black ex-con and former drug addict struggling to feed and clothe the members of his inner city church in Detroit.  It is through the influence of these two very different men, that Mitch finds his faith.

If you ever have doubts and struggle with your faith, this is a must read.  If you are like me, I can identify with Mitch’s story on so many levels.

One of the nuggets in the book are the Reb’s (Rabbi’s nickname) sermon notes from 1975.  The end of the sermon has the following quote:  “My friends, if we tend to the things that are important in life, if we ae right with those we love and behave in line with our faith, our lives will not be cursed with the aching throb of unfulfilled business. . . . we can sleep in a storm.”

Read the book.  And Have a Little Faith.

De-Railed

I just finished reading the book De-Railed by Tim Irwin, Ph.D.  My thoughts through the early part of the book were “Ouch!  This is cruel!”  The critical review of six failed CEO’s seemed brutal at times. 

Being in leadership most of my life, I’ve never had to look far to find critics no matter what my results or methods.  But, as I continued to read the lessons learned from each CEO, I began to think how this could apply to some of my managers or CEO’s under which I had previously served.  I kept thinking,  “how could I get (insert name here) to read this book.  Maybe they would see the error of their ways and change.”

By the end of the book, I realized that all these potentials for derailment were me!  It had nothing to do with my boss or my CEO.  It was about what I needed to do to prevent the possibility of being ”De-Railed.”

I was still pretty confident in myself even though I knew this applied to me.  I felt sure once I took the free on-line assessment that  I would have little if anything to work on.  But to be sure, I took the assessment.  The results of the assessment made the book personal.  I have work to do.

It is my intention to share my results with a select few and give this book to my whole staff.  My biggest regret is not having access to something like this available earlier in my career.

De-Railed is a must read for anyone in leadership or aspiring to leadership.  It is NOT a business book.  It is a leadership book.  When you finish – take the assessment and take actions to stay on track!

Marathon Dreams and Realities

As I write this, the St. Jude Marathon is just over 4 weeks away.  Stacie, Jared, and I registered over a month ago – before we were into our long mileage.  Since that time Stacie has pulled a hamstring (or something).  Jared won’t run without Stacie as his training partner.  And me, I have been in upstate New York every week for almost 4 months.   We are at crunch time.

I think I still have a shot at running, even though my mileage has been dangerously low during the week.  I promised Jared I would run 18 with him this weekend and do the 5 minute run, 1 minute walk routine.  Stace is still testing the leg day by day.

I know this will be my worst time in my marathon history.  My best time is 3:37.  But this year I am predicting 4:30 finish.  But, let’s see what the next 4 weeks have in store!

Mark

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

There are very few books that I read twice, especially in one setting.  A Thousand Miles in a Thousand Years was one of those books.  I had pre-ordered it from Amazon so I would get it on the release date.  I’m not sure why, since I’ve never read anything from Donald Miller. but something about the description hooked me.

This book took me inside the covers from the moment I read the first chapter.  I felt like I was actually in the room with Don as he told the story of “story” and how he learned to create and write story.

I also learned the very thing that I complain about in other people, I had become a victim of myself, thinking that circumstances were writing my story instead of me authoring my own story.  Sure circumstance do happen, but I write the narrative around them.  I decide what I will do and how I will write my story.

A good friend of mine sent me an email about a month ago and said he had several options for the fall as far as work, training, doctoral dissertation, etc. and wanted to know what I would do with that kind of time.  First of all I was shocked that anyone would ask my opinion since it has only happened in say about three times in my 50 years of life.  Secondly, I was shocked that I had a ready answer.  My response: “What do you want said about you when you die?  What do you want to be known for?”

Good advice, but not sure I had really applied it to myself that well.  I thought about my own advice for several weeks and then A Million Miles in a Thousand Years comes along.

Wow!  I’m going to go make a story!

A Mile Wide and An Inch Deep

I was chatting on Twitter with a good friend who lives in Florida this week when he used the term “A mile wide and an inch deep” to describe a situation we were talking about.  The phrase stuck with me throughout the weekend.

The Urban Dictionary defines the phrase A Mile Wide and an Inch Deep this way:  Impressive at first but with experience, found to be stupid or unimaginative.  A pretty good interpretation, if I do say so myself.

We see this in people, relationships, organizations, businesses, churches, and governments.  It usually happens when we work on appearance or self promotion more than internal growth and depth that we become this way.  Or, it could be we totally lack mission or committment.  Either way we are hollow eggs.  Once cracked – nothing comes out.

If you want to read something really awakening, look at the article from Daylight Atheism about Christianity in this country today.  They use the same term, a mile wide and an inch deep, when referring to Christianity in this country.

How are you growing deeper and not just more wide?