• Again, Chris, Ritz, and PJ beat me to their version of Sunday Wrap-up. Check ‘em out.
• I got up at 4:30 and hit the office…love that space. It’s totally stripped down and clean. It was the perfect place to re-write my notes and have some quiet time.
• At 8:15, I hit the theater.
• When I arrived, a two piece jazz band was playing in the lobby and chocolate fountains for dipping marshmallows, strawberries, and a ton of other little snacks were on tap just for our ladies.
• I immediately had a ton of explaining to do because I was wearing a suit and I have proof.
• Jesse was in Chicago. The Messengers (Bill Finch, Terry Brown, Rick Swintek, and Michael Betancourt) stepped right in…great stuff.
• During the message, I asked, “Whose side is God on anyway?” in week 2 of Fortune Cookie (Romans 8:31-34). The notes are below.
• Now, here is the cool thing: There is no way we could pull off what we do every week without the amazing women of Life Pointe. The list is long. Their commitment to Jesus was illustrated throughout the day. I cannot stress how honored I am to serve alongside them.
• We headed out from the theater to meet up with my family for lunch at my house. My mom was late getting there. Proving what I was just saying about our women, she was late because she drove back to the theater to take gifts to all of the women working at Flagship Cinemas. Awesome.

worship guide notes

FORTUNE COOKIE – week 2
“Whose Side Is God on Anyway?”
1. God is not on your side.
2. God is on your side.
Romans 8:31-34, John 3:16-18
3. God + you = a majority
Philippians 4:13
4. God – you = a majority – you
Mark 8:38, Daniel 4:34-37
5. A broken you + a perfect God= a revolutionary force
2 Corinthians 12:6-10

My mom used to sing “I’d Rather Have Jesus” at bedtime.  That song remains the most soothing song in the world to me.  And, she imparted a value in me for the things of God through her voice.  My mom works hard, lives grace, and loves me, my wife, and kids beyond belief.

Kelly was my friend, then my girlfriend, then my wife.  Now she is the mother of my three children while excelling in the aforementioned relational attachments to me successfully negotiating me into watching chick flicks on Friday nights instead of Iron Man. She develops our kids to be self sufficient, bright, adventurous, and to have an inquisitive heart for who Jesus is.

Happy Mother’s day to the two amazing moms in my life.  I’m blessed to have a terrific mom.  I’m even more blessed to have married a hot lil’ mama that keeps my life interesting and who loves me so much.

This is a leadership lesson Sun Tsu’s Art of War style:

Sometimes you just have to break things and burn things down to get people where they need to go.

Have you ever had someone tell you that you shouldn’t burn bridges?  Me too.  It is good advice…sometimes.  In the case of mission, sometimes you just have to grow a backbone and leave yourself with no exit plan.  When you’re backed into a corner, you have to fight because there is only one way out.

Tactically, you shouldn’t position an army between your enemy and a body of water (river, lake, or ocean).  In the event of a retreat, you’re in mega trouble. But, sometimes there are more important things than survival.

Counter-intuitive lesson to be learned?  Provide no way of retreat and people must move forward.

Pray.

While we’ve made the move from our old offices to our new offices successfully, there are still a ton of things to do to bring order to our world.  I’ve also got a few leadership lessons learned in my back pocket.  They are:

• Throw stuff out. Quit hauling non-essential things.  If you don’t use it, lose it.  Focus.  Spend your energy working the essentials.  Stop consuming your life space with non-essential, negative side stuff, activities,  and (shock) people.  Every person is valuable.  But, some people work hard at destroying the value in others.  Leader beware.  Know who is essential and work like the devil to protect and develop those people.
• Consolidate. Every leader should be required to wait tables.  I first learned consolidation in that arena.  I relearned it this week.  Don’t make 5 trips.  Consolidate and make 1 or 2.  Think through your process.  It is hard work.  But, it honors people, time, and makes you more productive in the long run.  Of course, if working unnecessarily hard assuages your guilt, then by all means, continue not thinking through your processes in advance.
• Take a break to have fun in the middle of the hard work. Work hard.  Play hard.  When you’ve led people hard, take a great break and have a blast. Wednesday night after the move, all the guys and gals hit this awesome taco shop downtown called “La Cruzada Taqueria.”  I went home and collapsed.  The last thing I remember though were the jokes, stories, and flaming sauces we were daring each other to eat.  Looking back, this has been on of the longest weeks of the year…also the funnest.
• Compete. If you want to be productive, compete.  Tell a young kid that you can load 3 boxes to his 1.  You’ll load the truck faster.  Double your productivity by telling everyone working that they’re a bunch of girls.  Quadruple your productivity by pointing out the workhorse.
• Hire people to do it for you. If you cannot afford the time interruption or do not value the team building aspects of doing it yourself or if you do not have the expertise to do it yourself, hire someone to do it for you.  There is a lot of upside to outsourcing as you will soon see with our new website (soon…I promise).  However, expect things to be broken at a great rate because hired hands don’t appreciate how you’ve had to sweat, bleed, and skimp for your stuff.  At the same time, you can demand excellence.  If they don’t perform, you can cut them free and withhold money while severing a short term, low investment relationship.  You cannot do that so easily with close, high-investment, personal relationships.
• Don’t hire people to do it for you. Outsourcing may maximize your time and productivity.  But, it may not foster relationship, learning, team, or growth.  If you can afford the downtime associated with learning and interruption, go for it.  You’ll bond to people, create loyalty, ownership, cast vision, and get to know people on a level you wouldn’t otherwise.  You’ll also impart and gain knowledge that you wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.  The key is to know when to do it yourself and when not to.  If you don’t have and can’t muster the expertise internally, don’t even think about it.

This week, we’ve been renovating new space and moving our offices.  Pulling off projects requires effective marshaling of people and resources.  If you are out ahead of the project, you’ll encounter bottlenecks which eat up time, resources, and frustrate people, who are ultimately your greatest resource.

When we first began doing setup in the theater, we would have 10 guys show up at 6:30 AM to setup.  It was a major league drag when the trailer would show up at 6:45 AM.  Ultimately, the 15 minute bottleneck had a price of 2.5 man hours in addition to 10 high-output volunteers now becoming 10 frustrated guys who will think twice about being on time next time.  

In leadership as your organization grows or as you encounter activity spikes, the bottlenecks that have always been around get exposed.  In response, a good leader will:

• root out bottlenecks, 
• challenge the people who cause them, 
• rework systems that cause individuals to be the bottleneck, and ultimately
• examine the skill sets of the guy in charge (in the case of Life Pointe, me)

This weekend was crazy busy, crazy fun. Kelly and Luci tell a bit about it. Summed up? Chili’s with our life group (last gig of the Spring Semester), Guitar Hero with James and Mark, paint the offices, locked out of car, 2 services, IKEA, a little bit of sleep.

• Chris, Phil, and Ritz have the scoop on Sunday.
• Ritz also has the scoop on his first real life girlfriend!
• Sunday was one of the most enjoyable days at Life Pointe for me.
• We receive communion weekly towards the end of our song set using a common cup.
• During the first song, we open the table for prayer. During the 10:30, people basically continued to come forward for prayer at one of the four tables throughout the worship set. Beautiful. Not only do we have a God that knows about our troubles, who is moved by our troubles, but He also intervenes on behalf of our troubles!
• The curtain has been killed in the 10:30…should have been gone a few weeks ago.
• The 9 AM vibe was unreal. A ton of people made the move from the 10:30 to the 9…perfect.
• I met a guest in the 9 am and asked her how she found out about Life Pointe? 3 invites at three different places in one day.
• Second time guests were seriously high. I love it when people come to church for the first. BUT, when people come back, I’m jazzed.
• We asked the question, “Do We make our own fortunes and call them fate?” (Romans 8:28-30). Worship Guide fill-in-the-blanks below.
• Listen here.
• After church, we jetted to IKEA where we got some stuff for our new digs.
• We’ll now have as many empty desks as we currently have occupied. As we add staff we’ll need them. More importantly, our volunteers have some great workspaces…no longer have to drag out folding tables.

WORSHIP GUIDE NOTES:

FORTUNE COOKIE – Why Did I Have to Get the Crappy Cookie

“We Make Our Own Fortunes and Call Them Fate?” week 1

destiny, fate: A. an event (or a course of events) that will inevitably happen in the future. B. the ultimate agency that predetermines the course of events (often personified as a woman); “we are helpless in the face of Destiny.”

FATE and DESTINY IN LITERATURE

The Odyssey - The Fates - The Daughters of Necessity - Daughters of Zeus and Themis
FATE and DESTINY IN POP CULTURE
Romans 8:28

OBSERVATIONS OF FATE AND DESTINY CONCEPTS IN THE SCRIPTURES:
The future is inevitable.
Your future is changeable.
Acts 17:30
Out of control inevitability does not = God’s will. It = fatalism.
Fatalism generally refers to several of the following ideas:
1. That free will does not exist, meaning therefore that history has progressed in the only manner possible.
2. That actions are free, but nevertheless work toward an inevitable end.
3. That acceptance is appropriate, rather than resistance against inevitability.
2 Peter 3:9
God polishes your missteps and causes them to work in synergy with His best hope for your life.
Jeremiah 29:11
Your path is determined by your next decision.
Joshua 24:15
Because God is omniscient (all knowing), He knows how it all turns out.
Ultimately, He calls us to Himself for redemption.

Yesterday, Hillary Clinton was sporting Kentucky Derby hats. A journalist asked, “Which horse of going to win the derby?” She said, put your money on the only filly in the race, Eight Belles. Bad news. The only female horse in the race came in second but also broke both her ankles and had was killed right there on the track! The Winner? Big Brown! I’m not making this stuff up!

I’m not into fate, fortune cookies, or omens. But, it does make you pause and go, “hmmmmm.” I bet she wishes she wouldn’t have put her money on Belle. I bet Belle’s owners wish she hadn’t either.  Barrack has to be smiling.  Does anyone else find this completely bizarre?