Axiom—6 x 6
We’re going to do more blogging on this chapter in a few weeks because we are trying this as a staff right now. The concept is great—giving yourself “permission” to focus on some important projects for a concentrated amount of time. If we made this a regular habit we would become more effective and feel better about ourselves. Sometimes we get caught in “work” mode—working hard but not feeling like we have accomplished much. This axiom, if incorporated into our habits, assures that we regularly feel like we have accomplished or finished something.
One thing we are noticing in our experiment with this, is the constant encroachment of the “daily routine” seeking to divert our promised attention from the 6 to the daily. Once again, letting the urgent set our calendars for us. Staying focused may be the biggest challenge we face.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Axiom Chapter 15
Axiom Chapter 15—Incrementalism
Hybels once again does a great job of sharing a very important principle with us. It is almost a continuation from last week’s chapter about keeping the heat turned up. We are all challenged with the “ebb and flow” of passion. One week we are ready to change the world and tackle the toughest devils and the next week we just want to make sure our kids are doing well in school. Then the next week we just don’t understand how anyone has time to change the world. And we incrementally drift away from the very thing that made our lives so exciting and fulfilling. Soon we are able to discount the value of our time, talent and resources and our effectiveness and influence are shrinking.
Incrementalism turns growing vibrant churches into maintenance mode churches that are just trying to keep what they have instead of aggressively moving forward and taking more territory and touching more lives. As Hybels explains so accurately, that is the road to a dying church since natural attrition is about 10%. His explanation of that also makes it easier to not take it personally when someone doesn’t choose to make CAML their church or if someone leaves CAML. As Chris Hodges says, “Don’t focus on the few you will lose. Concentrate on the thousands you will change.”
Let’s hear your comments this week on ways you have found to overcome incrementalism and keep the passion for changing our city and our world alive.
Hybels once again does a great job of sharing a very important principle with us. It is almost a continuation from last week’s chapter about keeping the heat turned up. We are all challenged with the “ebb and flow” of passion. One week we are ready to change the world and tackle the toughest devils and the next week we just want to make sure our kids are doing well in school. Then the next week we just don’t understand how anyone has time to change the world. And we incrementally drift away from the very thing that made our lives so exciting and fulfilling. Soon we are able to discount the value of our time, talent and resources and our effectiveness and influence are shrinking.
Incrementalism turns growing vibrant churches into maintenance mode churches that are just trying to keep what they have instead of aggressively moving forward and taking more territory and touching more lives. As Hybels explains so accurately, that is the road to a dying church since natural attrition is about 10%. His explanation of that also makes it easier to not take it personally when someone doesn’t choose to make CAML their church or if someone leaves CAML. As Chris Hodges says, “Don’t focus on the few you will lose. Concentrate on the thousands you will change.”
Let’s hear your comments this week on ways you have found to overcome incrementalism and keep the passion for changing our city and our world alive.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Turn Up the Heat
Axiom Chapter 14
I really like the statement at the end of the 3rd paragraph: “Whatever the value, if its alive and well in a local church today, it is not by accident. Its only there because of intentional, committed, dedicated effort.”
Whether it is our church, our personal lives or our business, we must be intentional about our values. For instance, in our church, if we are not intentional about thinking big church-big influence strategy we will quickly slip into doing good things that have little impact. We receive offerings very rarely for a couple of reasons—to remove the misperception of being all about money and to make our offerings have huge impact. If we begin asking people to constantly give to “good” projects, we will lesson the impact on the “God” projects that create lasting influence.
We must stay committed to those things we value. That means when other things are demanding our attention, time, talent and resources that we remain committed to the values and vision. Being dedicated means we do not have the option of letting our values or vision slide while we give our attention to other things (beware the squeaking wheel). At Lockheed, when we said a machine was dedicated to a certain process that meant the use of that machine was that process only. Even if someone had an extremely urgent project that needed to be done, we did not do it on the dedicated machines because, in the long run, the whole process would suffer. Don’t fall for the trap of letting urgency determine priority.
Lastly, it takes effort to keep our values and vision hot. I have noticed that being wild, barbarian church planters does not get easier. The challenges are different but they do not get easier. It takes effort, intentional effort, to make sure everything we are doing is infused with God’s presence and not just something we have become good at doing. It takes intentional prayer, Bible reading, being around like-minded people, and seeking God’s face. Otherwise, we slip into a program driven church with a maintenance mindset instead of being the Wild Barbarian Church Planters that were so attractive to those looking for a place to see their lives transformed.
Examine yourself. Are you still a wild barbarian or have you settled into just doing what you do? Be intentional, committed and dedicated to put some effort into turning up the heat this week!
I really like the statement at the end of the 3rd paragraph: “Whatever the value, if its alive and well in a local church today, it is not by accident. Its only there because of intentional, committed, dedicated effort.”
Whether it is our church, our personal lives or our business, we must be intentional about our values. For instance, in our church, if we are not intentional about thinking big church-big influence strategy we will quickly slip into doing good things that have little impact. We receive offerings very rarely for a couple of reasons—to remove the misperception of being all about money and to make our offerings have huge impact. If we begin asking people to constantly give to “good” projects, we will lesson the impact on the “God” projects that create lasting influence.
We must stay committed to those things we value. That means when other things are demanding our attention, time, talent and resources that we remain committed to the values and vision. Being dedicated means we do not have the option of letting our values or vision slide while we give our attention to other things (beware the squeaking wheel). At Lockheed, when we said a machine was dedicated to a certain process that meant the use of that machine was that process only. Even if someone had an extremely urgent project that needed to be done, we did not do it on the dedicated machines because, in the long run, the whole process would suffer. Don’t fall for the trap of letting urgency determine priority.
Lastly, it takes effort to keep our values and vision hot. I have noticed that being wild, barbarian church planters does not get easier. The challenges are different but they do not get easier. It takes effort, intentional effort, to make sure everything we are doing is infused with God’s presence and not just something we have become good at doing. It takes intentional prayer, Bible reading, being around like-minded people, and seeking God’s face. Otherwise, we slip into a program driven church with a maintenance mindset instead of being the Wild Barbarian Church Planters that were so attractive to those looking for a place to see their lives transformed.
Examine yourself. Are you still a wild barbarian or have you settled into just doing what you do? Be intentional, committed and dedicated to put some effort into turning up the heat this week!
Friday, August 21, 2009
Axiom Chapter 13
Vision Leaks
Nehemiah teaches us that vision should be re-visited every 25 days or so. If not, we get vision drift—thinking we are on target while we are actually moving further away from it. It is so important to know where we are going, in our marriage, our money, our business, and our ministry. The Word teaches us that we perish for a lack of knowledge. The word perish means several things in this application—languish, wander, flounder, or die—none of them good! Vision is knowledge, it is the defining of where we are going, the target, the goal. It starts with first steps—what we can see—and enlarges as we move forward. That is why it must be continually and consistently revisited and updated—it grows as we move toward it. If our vision is not growing, and does not require me to connect with others to accomplish it, then it is not a God vision. We keep ourselves, and those we are leading, from wandering when we make sure the vision is clear, consistent, and constantly updated.
I love the questions Hybels gives us in the last paragraph. What a powerful tool for leading in vision!
How full is your vision bucket these days?
Do you sense progress around here toward our vision?
Which part of our church’s vision is most meaningful to you?
Use these with yourself and your team and we will always be moving forward and defining new opportunities in our vision.
Nehemiah teaches us that vision should be re-visited every 25 days or so. If not, we get vision drift—thinking we are on target while we are actually moving further away from it. It is so important to know where we are going, in our marriage, our money, our business, and our ministry. The Word teaches us that we perish for a lack of knowledge. The word perish means several things in this application—languish, wander, flounder, or die—none of them good! Vision is knowledge, it is the defining of where we are going, the target, the goal. It starts with first steps—what we can see—and enlarges as we move forward. That is why it must be continually and consistently revisited and updated—it grows as we move toward it. If our vision is not growing, and does not require me to connect with others to accomplish it, then it is not a God vision. We keep ourselves, and those we are leading, from wandering when we make sure the vision is clear, consistent, and constantly updated.
I love the questions Hybels gives us in the last paragraph. What a powerful tool for leading in vision!
How full is your vision bucket these days?
Do you sense progress around here toward our vision?
Which part of our church’s vision is most meaningful to you?
Use these with yourself and your team and we will always be moving forward and defining new opportunities in our vision.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Axiom-Take a Flyer
Tony and Sheryll: Some of the best results we have ever gotten in ministry happened when we “took a flyer.” The Revolve Campus is a great example—we didn’t bet the bank, but we took a chance that it would work and the result is teenagers giving their lives to Jesus and taking ownership of the church. Churches, businesses, and our lives stagnate, get in a rut, when we move into “maintenance mode”-maintaining what we are doing instead of looking for new opportunities. It is an easy trap because we find ourselves doing something well and getting results, so we spend our time, talent and resources on that instead of seeking God and sensing His Spirit for new opportunities. The result is a rut—we, and those we lead, lose focus, energy wanes and, instead of maintaining the level, we actually begin to fade.
Make it a leadership lifestyle to be continually seeking God for His ideas on new opportunities. Encourage those you lead to join you and make leading an adventure. God promised us he would lead us in finding creative ideas and witty inventions. (Proverbs 8:12) He says about himself, “Look, I am doing a new thing.” Let’s follow his example and take a flyer.
Here’s a couple of tips on making sure you are taking a flyer and not betting the farm. Make new ideas something you are trying for a short period. If it works, you just make it part of what you do. If not, it was something you were just trying and people don’t view it as a failure. Make sure it does not compromise the current level of ministry. For instance, trying Revolve did not lower the level of ministry at Pavilion. It was not an increase in cost because we were already paying for the property. If it failed, our members would have still thought it was cool that we tried to do something extra special for our students. It would not have been a failure, it would have been an idea that didn’t work.
Make it a leadership lifestyle to be continually seeking God for His ideas on new opportunities. Encourage those you lead to join you and make leading an adventure. God promised us he would lead us in finding creative ideas and witty inventions. (Proverbs 8:12) He says about himself, “Look, I am doing a new thing.” Let’s follow his example and take a flyer.
Here’s a couple of tips on making sure you are taking a flyer and not betting the farm. Make new ideas something you are trying for a short period. If it works, you just make it part of what you do. If not, it was something you were just trying and people don’t view it as a failure. Make sure it does not compromise the current level of ministry. For instance, trying Revolve did not lower the level of ministry at Pavilion. It was not an increase in cost because we were already paying for the property. If it failed, our members would have still thought it was cool that we tried to do something extra special for our students. It would not have been a failure, it would have been an idea that didn’t work.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Axiom Boiler Fund
Tony and Sheryll: This is an area too many people dismiss when thinking about ministry and life. If we don't handle the money part well, we won't get to do the other parts. Jesus taught the way you handle money is one of the determining factors in what else in His Kingdom you will get to handle. Handle the money well and we get more and more chances to handle the important things (people) well. This is not a side issue, it is at the heart of Kingdom business. Jesus said you can determine where someone's heart is by looking at their checkbook. As ministries, and as individuals, we must place a high priority on handling the money. Hybels is teaching a principle in this chapter that Chris Hodges has become famous for teaching--learn to live on margin. If you think about it, the whole tithing principle is one of the ways God teaches us a healthy, peaceful way to live--learn to live on less than you bring in. Too many of us see our income as what we have to live on and if it is not enough we seek raises, promotions, another job, more hours, side jobs, etc. Instead of looking for ways to live within a margin of what we make, say 80 to 85%, we are always looking for increase and always increasing the pressure and demands on our time and peace. Our goal is to see CAML live on less than 80% of what comes in. Think about the peace and the flexibility. Think about the peace, flexibility and giving power of a whole church living on less than 80% of what comes in to our personal homes. Now there is a worthwhile goal.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Axiom- Big Idea
Sheryll: sometimes what may seem like the smallest idea is the big idea that will change a job, a business, a ministry or a life forever. don't dismiss quirky ideas because sometimes they are what will get someone's attention.
Tony: I think it is so important to create & nurture a culture that encourages ideas. A yes environment doesn't mean every idea is used but that every idea is heard. Lay our ego aside & admit the obvious-sthere are sometimes better ideas than our own. make sure those we lead feel they can present their ideas. find ways to use them and they will bring even bigger & better ideas.
Tony: I think it is so important to create & nurture a culture that encourages ideas. A yes environment doesn't mean every idea is used but that every idea is heard. Lay our ego aside & admit the obvious-sthere are sometimes better ideas than our own. make sure those we lead feel they can present their ideas. find ways to use them and they will bring even bigger & better ideas.
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