As you study these 3 graphs allow your inner voice to speak ideas and strategies on moving your ministry goals forward to reach the Millennials and Gen-Z’s.
Resource: Technology Promises Connection, but Gen-Z Sees A Paradox. https://www.barna.com/research/teens-devices-connection/ ACCESSED 22 November 2020.
When you stop and really think about the summer of 2020, it is breath taking. George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Jacob Blake, NBA, WNBA, MLB, Soccer, Symbols, flags, hashtags, Religious leaders, Government Leaders, Businesses, and top-selling books have all invited a deep and public examination of their actions. You might assume all of these events have served to increase awareness of racial injustice and the motivation to address the problems in America. According to Barna Research the story is not so straight-forward. Current research in a joint effort between Dynata and Barna reveal there are signs of clarification regarding racial injustice. However, this does not mean that people actually see the issue or their role in providing a solution with greater urgency. This is especially true in the church world. Study the Info-graphic below and you will see that motivation to address injustices has declined within the past year.
What is the answer? I am still of the opinion the Mercy Pathway is the solution. It is not a short-cut but more of a long view. Biblical Mercy begins in the heart of every person – All lives are created by God. The family unit must instill the principles of Biblical Mercy in the fabric of the family unit – teaching respect for God’s creative design in each person. The Place of Worship has a responsibility to instill Biblical Mercy throughout their teachings and then putting this into community action as a Church. Let the world see Mercy lived out in the community of faith!
Shepherds Advantage provides Servant Leadership that helps people close the gap between where they are and where they want to be. Shepherds Advantage closes that gap by providing Leadership Development, Key Note Speaking, and Executive Coaching.
As we begin to emerge from our National Quarantine there will be a number of mental health issues that we all will need to address on some level. Many people will come out of this season healthy and invigorated. Others are going to come out of this season stunned and even shocked at how different life feels and looks. “Normal” will not return, history shows us this very fact following other pandemics and major crisis points in history. What is certain is that all pandemics conclude, and all crisis pass. What remains uncertain is whether all will emerge mentally healthy and stable!
The week leading up to Mother’s Day 2020 is a glaring reminder that under the surface things are unstable to say the least. Amad Arbery is a victim of racial hatred that led to murder and Darrin Patrick, Mega-Church Leader apparently ended his life at a gun range. Let’s be clear, racial bigotry on any level is not acceptable! Church Leaders that are placed on national pedestals without true and real safeguards is not healthy for the minister or the church.
With the Arbery and Patrick stories that brought us to Mother’s Day 2020, I simply cannot remain silent. I am offering an 8/30 Self-Awareness Coaching Experience (8 hours in 30 days) for Faith Leaders and your spouse as a bonus, by utilizing 2 World Class Tools. This will be a one-on-one experience. So, I am asking for your response….
I am compelled to action! I am a Faith Leader just like you! I have vested my life into Kingdom purposes to Make A Difference, With People Just Like You, Who Are Making A Difference!
I am not asking you to TRUST me – I am asking you to TEST me!
We have been examining the impact of digital technology on our habits and work flow. While we do not know completely the impact of digital technology on our lives, it is safe to say that we have all changed because of technology. Just look around you the next time you visit your favorite eatery. We have baked into our consciousness the need to stay connected, therefore we must keep our electronic devices at our side at all times. After all who wants to experience FOMO (Fear of missing out).
FOMO is so pervasive that our relationships, routines, social interactions, and our careers have “pickled habits” that are now ingrained into our brain. Science states that once a cucumber is pickled you cannot return to a cucumber. One of the first steps in conquering the impact of digital technology in our lives is to recognize that we are all pickled in some aspect of technologies effect in our daily routine.
The million dollar question is to answer what habits are we pickled? To discover these habits below is a “Pickle Audit” (courtesy of Brian Johnson). Follow this simple exercise to see what habits are now pickled. Remember you cannot unpickle a pickle. You can change your behavior once you see it’s negative impact in your routine.
Authors Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz suggest in their book The Power of Full Engagement, suggest that cycles of full throttle training coupled with cycles of rest are important to take your ability to the next level. Notice what they say, “Nature itself has a pulse, a rhythmic, wavelike movement between activity and rest. Think about the ebb and flow of the tides, the movement between seasons, and the daily rising and setting of the sun. Likewise, all organisms follow life-sustaining rhythms—birds migrating, bears hibernating, squirrels gathering nuts, and fish spawning, all of them at predictable intervals. So, too, human beings are guided by rhythms…. The concept of maximizing performance by alternating periods of activity with periods of rest was first advanced by Flavius Philostratus (A.D. 170–245), who wrote training manuals for Greek athletes. Russian sports scientists resurrected the concept in the 1960s and began applying it with stunning success to their Olympic athletes. Today, ‘work-rest’ ratios lie at the heart of periodization, a training method used by elite athletes throughout the world.”
If increasing your performance is the goal in life – there are no shortcuts in achieving this goal. Simply stated you must balance your sessions of intense work with seasons of rest. I might add that rest is not doing chores (cutting the lawn, washing the car, painting the house, etc.). Rest is defined as a verb – cease work or movement in order to relax, refresh oneself, or recover strength. When the same word is defined as a noun – an instance or period of relaxing or ceasing to engage in strenuous or stressful activity.
What does an exhausted person of faith look like? What is their potential in that condition? If we desire to live our fullest lives then we must align our activity with the rhythms of life. This is a powerful piece of content yet it is simple content. Unfortunately, it is overlooked far too often. STOP – take an inventory right now. Look at the intensity versus rest cycles. What is one thing that you can change today?
In recent years, a very popular Broadway play has been Hamilton. Hamilton was hand-picked by George Washington at the age of 20. One of the chief setbacks of Alexander Hamilton was his insecurity. His insecurities made him…..
In Hamilton’s youth he had great tragedies as a child and hurts that he never fully overcome or healed.
In his book Eyewitness to Power, David Gergan states that Richard Nixon was one of the most brilliant men he had ever worked for. However he writes that Nixon was also the most insecure and that was probably a major contributor to his downfall.
INSECURE LEADERS…….
What can great leaders teach us?
Recently, I had the privilege to listen to Alan Mulally share his life journey that has shaped him into the renowned leader that he has become. In his own words he stated that he came from meager beginnings. As a young boy he bought a bicycle from Montgomery Wards and was paying $1.50/week on that bike. He started out delivering TV Guides in his neighborhood. This would turn into a Papoose motor scooter and a full paper route that led to becoming a Dilan’s Grocery bagger to cashier to management, to college.
His college education started at the University of Kansas, KU School of Engineering and MIT Sloan School of Management. He would move into a career at Boeing and would become CEO and gave oversight to the 700 series of Planes from the 730 – 787 before becoming CEO of Ford Motor Company. He aided in the complete turn around of Ford from a $17 billion deficit to a $2 billion profit. He retired from Ford in July of 2014.
While listening to his story there are a number of takeaways that I would share with you.
While enjoying my awesome cup of coffee this morning made by my Aeropress method (No they are not a sponsor, but I would highly recommend this method) I came across some thoughts that awakened in me the changes that are occurring all around us. For example, the era of the Gutenburg press is now coming to a close with the death of bookstores and the emergence of digital books. Think about the transistor radio that allowed children to listen to pop music without their parents knowing. Better yet, you had to attend the movie theater to see the latest blockbuster. Now you can access thousands of songs and watch the same in the movie industry by means of “Live-Streaming.”
The point is that we tend to relish in conveniences of the moment without realizing our need to adapt to new ways of thinking and behaving. Things change! Consider some of the benefits according to Seth Godin:
Computers connect us–to resources, to truth and to each other (which can mean folk-truth instead of actual truth)
Medicine is truly a science, not a series of half-understood superstitions
Musicians and writers can find an audience without a gatekeeper
We’ve changed the narrative about fairness (even though we’ve just begun to make progress)
It has never been easier to spread an idea or start an enterprise
Access to information, just about all of it, is cheap and fast
If you care enough to learn something, you can.
The challenge of this blog is to become a Systems Thinker! This way of thinking about life’s trajectory is to reframe what we are looking at and where this potentially can take us. It is generally accepted that six components make up Systems Thinking. I will be writing more about these in the coming blog articles. For now, allow me to list them for future discussion.
Leave a comment below and share your thoughts about the “LONG VIEW” of life and what is changing in your world. Let’s start a discussion!
“Optimalists tend to be benefit finders – the sort of people who find the silver lining in the dark cloud, who make lemonade out of lemons, who look on the bright side of life, who do not fault writers for using too many cliches. When a knack for turning setbacks into opportunities, the Optimalist goes through life with an overall sense of optimism.” Tal Ben Shahar
What are your thoughts on the comparison of Fault Finders Vs Benefit Finder? Which are you? Do you see opportunities in lemons or do you complain about the sourness of your circumstance?
What is the #1 thing that is stressing you out at the present? If in fact that it is really bothering you, we can be sure that you are in “fault finder” mode. Flip the switch to your benefit mode!
What are the top three things that you can appreciate in your current challenge? List them now while enjoying a tall glass of ice-cold lemonade.
Perfectionism and optimalism are not distinct ways of being, an either-or-choice, but rather they coexist in each person. And while we can move from perfectionism toward optimalism, we never fully leave perfectionism behind and never fully reach optimalism ahead. The optimalism idea is not a distant shore to be reached but a distant star that guides us and can never be reached. As Carl Rogers pointed out, the good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination. Author Tal Ben Shahar – The Pursuit of Perfect
About the author: Tal Ben- Tal Ben-Shahar, Ph.D., is the New York Times bestselling author of Happier. He taught the most popular course at Harvard University and currently teaches at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel. He consults and lectures around the world to multinational organizations, the general public, and at-risk populations. He obtained his Ph.D. in organizational behavior and his B.A. in philosophy and psychology from Harvard.
DO YOU WANT YOUR LIFE TO BE PERFECT?
We’re all laboring under our own and society’s expectations to be perfect in every way-to look younger, to make more money, to be happy all the time. But according to Tal Ben-Shahar, the New York Times bestselling author of Happier, the pursuit of perfect may actually be the number-one internal obstacle to finding happiness.
OR DO YOU WANT TO BE HAPPY?
Applying cutting-edge research in the field of positive psychology-the scientific principles taught in his wildly popular course at Harvard University-Ben-Shahar takes us off the impossible pursuit of perfection and directs us to the way to happiness, richness, and true fulfillment. He shows us the freedom derived from not trying to do it all right all the time and the real lessons that failure and painful emotions can teach us.
YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE PERFECT TO BE PERFECTLY HAPPY!
In The Pursuit of Perfect, Tal Ben-Shahar offers an optimal way of thinking about failure and success–and the very way we live. He provides exercises for self reflection, meditations, and “Time-Ins” to help you rediscover what you really want out of life.