Recently, several friends had a conversation regarding who they felt the best communicator was in the Church today, regardless of topic or environment. Several names were given. I know it is hard to only pick one name, so how about your top Three?
Mine: Andy Stanley, Louie Giglio, Francis Chan
How about you?
Margaret Feinberg is in town to speak at 7:22 at Buckhead Church tonight, but stopped by the Catalyst offices yesterday to hang with our team a bit. The red couch in our offices is becoming the Catalyst hot seat! Margaret and her husband Leif are great folks. They live in Colorado and are going to end up being on the road speaking 180 days this year. Wow. Her most recent book Sacred Echo is soon to release, and she is working on a very cool book project for 2009 that you’ll be hearing more about.
Margaret and Leif also had the chance to ride in the Catalyst Vanagon to Chick-fil-A for lunch, in 100 degree heat with no air conditioning!
Great article in the latest issue of Time Magazine on Nelson Mandela. I was reading it last night, planning to post about it today. But noticed that Carlos had posted about this very article. So instead of me giving my perspective, head over to Ragamuffin Soul and read the 8 lessons on leadership straight from Carlos’ blog. Good stuff.
Mandela has retired for the most part from the public square but still is involved in a few initiatives. His legacy is undeniable. Most would count him among the greatest leaders of the last 100 years. I sure do.
Check out a recent interview with Brenda Salter McNeil, author of Credible Witness and a frequent speaker at conferences all over the country, and she will be joining us at Catalyst in October. We also sit down with Chris Heuertz, author of Simple Spirituality and Director of Word Made Flesh.
You can listen via itunes or if not an itunes user, then listen here.
- Wow. Greg Norman has turned back the clock, leading by 2 strokes after 54 holes of the Open Championship.
- A few blogs you should check out: Jeremie, Brian, Chris, and Kristian.
- The Roadtrip boys are back after 16 states in 8 days. Unbelievable. Plus no air conditioning in the Vanagon during the middle of July. Yikes.
- Have you heard the song “Jesus Messiah” from Chris Tomlin? It has anthem song of the next 2-3 years written all over it. Sang it (and heard it) for the first time last week with 10,000 other folks at the Forward Conference. You would have thought the crowd had known it for years.
- Another unbelievable song- Healer from Hillsong. The story behind the song will both inspire you and kick you in the gut. Wow.
- Two great sites you should frequent: Hulu and Pandora. Hulu has tons of tv shows and movies for free. I have been watching Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip the past couple of weeks. Amazingly well written show- too bad it didn’t make it to season 2. Pandora is an online radio station where you can control the kind of songs you hear and program based on artists or genre.
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.