brad lomenick :: on the journey

I am walking through the airport 2 days ago, and overhear a conversation among several employees griping about something. Their conversation was centered around “I can’t believe THEY decided to make that decision…. they are asking us to show up early but they don’t understand.” Who is they? 

You hear it all the time…. “they” don’t want me to succeed. “they’re” the reason the project is failing. It would have worked if “they” wouldn’t have messed things up. It wasn’t my fault- “they” were supposed to take care of that. 

as leaders, we need to constantly be aware that the idea of “we” and “me” instead of “they” should be our compass. Passing the buck to an unknown entity like “they” just causes confusion and frustration. It’s easy to put all the blame on “them” because “they” don’t have a name or face or personal connection. The onus is on US, WE and ME, not THEM or THEY, whoever those folks might be…..

Who is in your current inbox? Mainly emails from internal staff or employees? Friends? Bills? Requests from Facebook? Spam? Here is a snapshot of my inbox from today:

Jerry Shirer- regarding his wife Priscilla Shirer speaking at an upcoming Catalyst event.

Steve Fee- regarding a Catalyst program meeting in early August.

Chad Johnson- constant in the inbox- regarding a number of things, including some important emails to our Catalyst VIP folks, and also our British Open office pool (I have Robert Allenby, Geoff Ogilvy, and Trevor Immelman).

Ben Arment- emails back and forth regarding the Catalyst west coast event and Catalyst Filter.

Margaret Feinberg- follow up email from our meeting in Orlando and setting up plans to meet on Monday.

Daniel Decker- friend from Jacksonville. Associated with Jon Gordon and other leadership authors. 

TED Conference- the latest crop of free videos from this community of innovators.

Francis Chan’s assistant- regarding an upcoming Catalyst event and his involvement.

Stephen Brewster- setting up an important call to discuss some Integrity artists.

Tim Willard- working on articles for the Catalyst GroupZine.

Ragamuffin Soul- one of the few blogs that I subscribe to directly into my inbox.

New York Times- alerts from the giant newspaper. These are great and keep me up to date.

Google alerts- constantly getting these on all kinds of key words and issues. Highly recommended.

Michael Palgon- Deputy Publisher for Random House discussing some specific authors and opportunities for partnering on events.

Jesse Phillips- how we are doing with targeted Facebook ads.

Tony Morgan- some book ideas. 

Melissa Kruse- an FYI on Jim Tressel’s new book.

Anything interesting in your inbox? 

Round 2 of the recap of meetings from CBA in Orlando. 

- Spent some time with Alex and Brett Harris. Twins, 19 years old, and started a movement called Rebelution. They are authors of the recent hit book Do Hard Things. Really impressed with who they are, what they are doing, and the vision and purpose behind their message. 

- Caught up with Margaret Feinberg. Margaret has a new book releasing soon called Sacred Echo, and she is also working on a very cool project right now for 2009. Margaret and her husband Leif are incredible people, and great to work with.

- Good to see Hayley and Michael DiMarco from Hungry Planet. Michael and Hayley are highly creative, write great books, and speak major truth into teenagers and students. 

- Have you seen the cover for Rob Bell’s new book? Interesting. Look close to see the way the blocks are being used. Very creative. 

- Met with Stephen Brewster from Integrity. Had a great conversation regarding music, Catalyst, Integrity, Hillsong, blogging, and leaders. Look forward to working more with Stephen and Jay on a number of projects.

So as you know based on my last post, I have been in Orlando the last two days at the International Christian Retail Show put on by the Christian Booksellers Association. More on day two visits later today. 

But for now, I wanted to conduct an informal poll of sorts. This polling data quite possibly may end up in the hands of publishing executives at the Big 5 Christian publishers.

Here are the questions: 

1. Do you visit/shop at Christian bookstores? Yes or No

2. If yes, how many times have you visited in the past month? 

3. If no, how many times have you visited a Barnes & Noble or equivalent in the past month? 

Easy enough. Respond away. Mine- No. 5.

I’m in Orlando for a couple of days for the International Christian Retail Show, which is put on by the Christian Booksellers Association. A few highlights from today:

- Gabe Lyons and Dave Kinnaman were the featured speakers at this morning’s general session for all attendees. Plus they were on the cover of the daily ICRS Newspaper. I have secured several copies for my friends in Atlanta……

- UnChristian has now sold over 100,000 copies in 11 months. This is pretty incredible. When Gabe and Dave launched the book at Catalyst last year we had no idea that it would be such a big hit. Congrats to Dave and Gabe for the success and impact of the book. 

- Ran into Paul Young, the author of the uber popular book The Shack. His book was recently picked up by Faith Words, so he was at their booth signing copies. The line was really long, but I cut in to just say hi. Shout out from Paul to the Catalyst Road Trip Crew on their trip around the northeast US!

- Had lunch with Mark Batterson, who is soon to release a new book entitled Wild Goose Chase. Always great to hang with Mark. We discussed at length his upcoming trip in August to Scotland, and the fact he will be playing at St. Andrews, the birthplace of golf.

- Saw Tony Dungy roaming the halls, but wasn’t able to get a picture with him. Bummer!

- Went to Epcot for dinner and watched the fireworks at sunset. Very cool. They use lasers, smoke, an LED ball (not wall) that is set up as the globe, and lots of fire. I think the Magic Kingdom fireworks show is much better, but the Epcot “illuminations” show is a good runner up. 

- Ran into Mark Steele and Kevin Anderson from Steelehouse Productions. Those guys are a blast to hang out with. Also ran into Mark Sanborn, the author of the Fred Factor, and soon to release book entitled The Encore Effect. 

- Went to a fun get together put on by Yates and Yates. They are celebrating their 20th year of representing authors and serving tons of clients as literary agents. Their client list is a who’s who of Christian authors, including John Maxwell, Rob Bell, Charles Swindoll, Erwin McManus, John Eldridge, and many others. There were a ton of friends in the publishing industry at this celebration gathering, which is a testament to the friends Sealy, Susan, Matt, Curtis, Chris, and Jeana have made through the legal and literary agent work they have done over the years.

We’re launching a new “store” on the Catalyst website, and I wanted to let you in on a few cool deals before anyone else knows about it. Go to the Catalyst store and check it out. Free shipping, free giveaways, a pretty cool prize to try and win, plus some specials on books and resources you might be interested in. You are the first to know about these deals, so consider yourself a VIP or in the know, or both.

Also wanted to provide a few pics from our creative brainstorming meeting last week (as promised a few posts ago). It was a blast- lots of ideas flying, snacks, laughing, balls being thrown, and fortunately nothing broke or no one injured!

Had the privilege a couple of nights ago to join around 50 leaders from the Atlanta area at the Carter Center to see a private screening of the upcoming documentary (rockumentary) titled Call and Response. Justin Dillon, the director, was there along with Erik Lokkesmoe, a good friend who originally informed me of this project. Erik is the founder of Different Drummer, a marketing agency that works with films, projects, and innovative initiatives. 

Call and Response is an activist film designed to raise awareness regarding Slavery, forced labor, Child Soldiers, and Sex Trafficking, all four major issues in our culture today, including right here in Atlanta. The project involves a number of bands and artists who collaborated on a music concert that is pretty unbelievable, and highlighted throughout the film, all in an attempt to raise awareness on this issue. This documentary will release in September, and you need to make sure you see it, and take your friends with you. All of the proceeds from the film will be given towards projects designed to end slavery and sex trafficking around the world. And it will disturb you. In a good way. Believe me. 

Jeff Shinabarger has a great post on the film as well over at his blog. 

View the trailor below. 

Check out this short clip from The Fermi Project website highlighting the comments of Michael Luo, a well-known reporter for the New York Times, at the Q Conference in New York City in April. 

As a follow up to Turning Ideas into Reality post from last month.

We had a 1/2 day Catalyst Programming brainstorm meeting a few days ago (more pictures from that meeting to follow). When you combine that meeting with 7-8 previous meetings over the last couple of months, there are lots of ideas to consider and research. Around 500 true program ideas right now we have on the list to consider for Catalyst in October along with upcoming events (not all on the boards below). Yikes! The hardest part is deciding what NOT to do.

Many of you have asked about these black creative boards that we use incessantly in all of our planning and programming. You can order them through Don at StoryboardTools.com. His phone number is 724-229-0954 (thanks to Betsy for the correct info on this). Highly recommend them, plus some trusty 3 x 5 cards from your local office supply store, some silver push pens, and you’re ready to go.

One person. Throughout history. Besides Jesus. A Dinner. Who and where?

Mine: Abraham Lincoln in the White House.

How about you?

Here you go, the July edition of the Young Influencers List- these are young up and coming leaders whom you should have on your radar. The order doesn’t matter - #1 is not necessarily “more influential” than #5, so no order of importance.

1. Jon Tyson- church planter in New York City. Launched Origins NYC, and is now set on helping plant churches and leaders in strategic cities around the world.

2. Blake Mycoskie- founder of TOMS Shoes. You may know about Blake’s story already- if not, it is worth knowing and getting involved.

3. Bethany Hoang- director of the International Justice Mission Institute. Bethany is very involved in a number of projects around the world, is a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, and a frequent speaker.

4. Eugene Cho- pastor in Seattle of Quest Church. Also soon to launch a new organization focused on global poverty. You can watch a video introducing the idea here.

5. Carlos Whittaker- writer of the uber popular Ragamuffin Soul, service program director at Buckhead Church, and also worship leader and musician.

Below are a few recent installments of the Young Influencers List:

June

May

April

If any of you were at Catalyst last year, you know that we provided coffee for every attendee. Well that coffee was Rwandan coffee, and provided by Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee Co. I recently spent a few minutes at their headquarters in Roswell, GA, getting a tour of their offices, coffee shop, and brewing center, and also spending time hanging with Jonathan Golden, the founder, and Robert Crow, who is the relationship director and works with churches and organizations around the country. Since Catalyst last October, they have now partnered up with several other events, and also are now working with several hundred churches in providing coffee for congregations on Sunday morning. Check out this story from the local Fox TV station that recently aired.

The coffee is great, but what is even better is the story behind the coffee- how hundreds of Rwandans are now being paid fair wages for their coffee growing. Literally, communities in Rwanda are being changed because of us choosing to drink their coffee. So make sure and check out Land of a Thousand Hills and get involved- order coffee for your office, your church, your home, or next party. Coffee with a Story.

I recently spent an hour with Erwin McManus on the phone interviewing him for a Filter private conference call. You can listen to an excerpt of the interview on the latest Catalyst Podcast, either via itunes or on the Catalyst website. 

We talked about Erwin’s most recent book that has just released- Wide Awake: The Future is Waiting Within You. We also discussed his take on creativity, current challenges in the Church, and some of his most recent projects.

A few notable quotes from the interview: 

“As pastors, we should make sure we are spending 6 days a week listening, and one day a week talking.”

“Our problem is not a deficit in resources in the Church today…. the problem is we haven’t learned how to develop human talent in our church communities.”

“We need to be doing more of what we are created to do, and less of what we are obligated to do.”

“We have incredible communicators in the Church today…. the challenge is we’re just not talking about anything the world cares about.”

Interesting article today in the New York Times regarding Barack Obama and whether he can attract young evangelicals, many of whom have voted largely Republican in the past. This is an interesting question that will be raised consistently over the next couple of months. 

My good friend Gabe Lyons is quoted in the article. Click here to read. 

How do you get your audience to care about your latest innovation? Well, the latest issue of Fast Company has a great article on this topic. Chip and Dan Heath’s regular column digs into the practical side of this problem. The article is entitled “Selling Your Innovation: Anchor and Twist.” I highly recommend checking it out, particularly as it relates to making your idea “customer friendly” so people will relate and understand your concept.

And if you haven’t read Chip and Dan’s book Made to Stick, go out and get a copy. It is almost two years old now, but a great read. They are working on their next book that will release in 2009, and I recently received a short teaser for it. Good stuff. These guys are really smart!