15 Organizations worth a Year End Gift

It's end of the year, and lots of us wait until the last week of the year to give to churches, ministries and non profit organizations. 

Knowing that, I wanted to recommend a few organizations that I think are worth a year end gift. All of these organizations are ones that I'm invested in- both in terms of giving gifts and supporting them, as well as knowing the staff and the people behind these organizations. So as you think about year-end giving, I would recommend any of these organizations as a great place to invest.

Here are some organizations I can give my five star rubber stamp approval on: 

1. Convoy of Hope - they brought their trucks to Catalyst for several years, sponsored the Present: Hope Bike Tour a couple of years ago, and are now feeding hundreds of thousands of kids around the world. I've seen their work up close the last several years on several trips to Haiti and Nicaragua. Their feeding programs and disaster response and relief is amazing.

2. Red Eye Inc. - my friend Justin Mayo heads up this "under the radar" community of young influencers and creatives in some of the leading global cities (LA, NYC, Sydney, London) that are using their talents to make a difference in a positive way.

3. Compassion- go sponsor a child. I sponsor several. I've seen their work up close in Rwanda, Guatemala and Ecuador. Your money is being stewarded well.

4. Young Life- been involved with Young Life since college. No one creates better experiences for teenagers and introduces the Gospel in such a compelling and loving way.

5. Plywood People - leading a community of startups "doing good." Run by longtime friend Jeff Shinabarger. I have served on the board for several years, so I'm a bit biased. Initiatives such as Plywood Presents, Gift Card Giver, and coaching of young social innovators is part of the Plywood People mission.

6. San Francisco City Impact - a rescue mission run by Christian Huang, doing incredible work in the tenderloin district in downtown San Francisco, meeting spiritual and physical needs of the inner city. Including community outreach, homeless shelters, feeding program, and church. 

7. International Justice Mission- Gary Haugen and the team at IJM have been fighting sex trafficking and human slavery for the last 20 years. Rescuing victims as well as bringing justice to areas where no justice exists.

8. HOPE International- run by good friend Peter Greer, HOPE provides micro-finance loans all over the world, helping give dignity and lift people out of poverty. A $100 gift goes a long way.

9. charity: water- perhaps my favorite non-profit organization in the world. Scott Harrison and team have revolutionized the concept of providing clean water globally, and are only getting started.

10. One Days Wages- Eugene Cho makes it easy to see the impact of giving up one day of your salary. And he leads by example.

11. First Response Team of America- good friend Tad Agoglia and his team provide help and hope at times when communities need just that- following disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and floods.

12. Atlanta Mission- an amazing organization focused on ending homelessness in the city of Atlanta. One of the best run homeless missions in the country.

13. A21 Campaign- headed up by Nick and Christine Caine, rescuing those trapped in human trafficking and modern day slavery all around the world. Their goal is to end injustice in the 21st century.

14. Word Made Flesh- I love what they do in serving the poorest of the poor around the world.

15. Bearings Bike Shop - run by friends Tim and Becky O'Mara, providing hope through bicycles for kids in the city of Atlanta, building community one bike at a time. 

and most importantly- invest in Your Local Church! Make sure you are giving regularly to your local church body. That is the place to start! Mine is Passion City Church, and feel free to give there if you don't have a local church! 

Young Influencers List November edition

Here you go, the November edition of the Young Influencers List. You can see all the past editions here. 

1. Jon Chu - producer, director and LA based filmmaker, best known for movie Step Up 2. 

2.  Gawvi - DJ, artist, and music producer, part of Reach Records. 

3. Anthony Oneal - speaker and former youth pastor, now part of the Dave Ramsey personality team focused on Students. 

4. Amy Brown - communications director for IF Gathering, and a proud Oklahoman! 

5.  Josue Urrutia - founding pastor of Mizpu just outside of DC, and board member of National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. 

6.  Paul Sohn - award winning blogger, speaker and author of upcoming book on 20 somethings. 

7. Samantha Ponder - sports broadcaster with ESPN. 

Young Influencers List October edition

Here you go, the October edition of the Young Influencers List. You can see all the past month's lists and editions here. 

1. Daniel Murphy- 2nd baseman for New York Mets, who recently set a record for 6 home runs over six games in the playoffs. Check out this video of him sharing a bit of his story. 

2. Meredith Andrews- singer, songwriter, and worship leader, and part of the Vertical Church band. 

3. Jarryd Hayne- Australian born Rugby professional, and now NFL football player for the San Francisco 49ers. 

4. Branden Harvey- Portland and Nashville based storyteller, photographer, Snapchat sensation, and overall social media strategist with Clif Bar, Smart Car and more. . 

5. Liz Vice - filmmaker, singer, songwriter, and artist. CT describes her as if "Al Green and Adele got together to sing about Jesus." 

6. Ryan Graves- senior vice president of global operations at Uber, one of my favorite new orgs, and greatest apps of all time! 

7. Lindsay Van Zyl- director of marketing for Catalyst. 

October Brad Recommends List

A brand new list I am creating, The "Brad Recommends" List. 

Releasing monthly. With my recommendation on new resources, albums, books, websites and more. 

There will be 4 categories each month with the Brad Recommends list. 

Books

1. The Comeback - by Louie Giglio 

2. Live Love Lead - by Brian Houston

3. #Struggle - by Craig Groeschel 

4. Sandcastle Kings- by Rich Wilkerson Jr. 

5. Intentional Living - by John Maxwell 

** bonus ::  H3 Leadership - by ME!! 

Podcasts

1. Joshua Gagnon Leadership Podcast

2. 5 Leadership Questions Podcast

3. Dose of Leadership

4. Here's the Thing with Alec Baldwin

5. Coffee with Chris Caine

Blogs/Websites

1. Unsplash.com

2. Bill Blankschaen (Faithwalkers)

3. Matt Brown (Think Eternity)

4. ISideWith.com

5. Medium.com

Music

1. Deluxe Edition - Pentatonix

2. MSC (Live in LA) - Mosaic MSC

3. Open Heaven/River Wild- Hillsong Worship 

4. The Wonderlands - Jon Foreman

5. This Glorious Grace- Austin Stone Worship 

5 Tips on How to Have that Critical Conversation You're Too Afraid to Have

By Carey Nieuwhof

Pastor, Connexus Church and Author of Lasting Impact: 7 Powerful Conversations That Will Help Your Church Grow

There are always conversations you need to have but you don’t know how to have. It’s true in life and it’s very true in leadership.

How do you talk about the fact that so much needs to change in your church?

How do you get your somewhat resistant board to open their minds to new possibilities?

As a leader, you’ve probably already flagged more than a few issues you would love to talk about with your team.  Issues such as:

Why is our church not growing faster?

How healthy is our team (really)?

Why is it so hard to attract and keep high capacity volunteers?

What’s happening in our culture that we might not be responding to?

What are we actually prepared to change around here?

Maybe the future belongs to the churches that are willing to have the most honest conversations at a critical time. That's what my new book, Lasting Impact is designed to facilitate.

So, how do you get started? What do you say? And what happens if people disagree or things get heated?

5 Tips on How to Have That Critical Conversation You're Too Afraid to Have

Here are 5 tips that can help.

1. Frame the issue thoughtfully and in advance

 People hate to be caught off guard by a challenging conversation.

Understanding what’s on the table before you get to the table helps so much.

If you’re talking about a chronic issue that your church needs to address or a topic that can help lead you into a better future, framing the issue well and framing it in advance is critical. It helps everyone show up having thought through what’s at stake.

2. Stay clear about what you’re discussing

I personally find one of the greatest challenges of having conversations with leaders is keeping people focused.

How do you combat that? Write down the exact points you want to cover to keep you and your team focused.

And don’t just keep it to yourself. State what you hope to accomplish in the meeting so when you leave you know you made progress.

If you know ahead of time what you want to accomplish, you are far more likely to accomplish it. People will also feel their time has been much better spent. 

3. Attack problems, not people

If you’re really having an intense discussion (and you should be having these if you want to make progress), emotions may get heated.

When they do, make sure you attack problems, not people. It can be so easy to personalize conflict. We do it in our marriages all the time when we say things like “You always…” or “You never…”.

Big mistake.

Let the people you’re talking with know that you’re for them, and what you’re trying to do is to attack a problem together. 

4. Empathize with opposing views

I went to law school. It’s instinctive to me to dismiss an opposing point of view immediately. I can even come up with 5 reasons why their idea is a bad idea pretty quickly.

But when you do that, you don’t gain ground; you lose it.

A better approach is to actually show empathy for the opposing point of view.

Instead of saying “I can’t believe you won’t let that tradition go. That’s crazy!” what about saying “I can understand why that would be difficult to give that up. I’m sure if I were in your shoes, I would feel the same way. But what do you think about the people we’re trying to reach? Do you think our old strategy is the best strategy with which to engage them?”

Do you see the difference?

5. Find an outside voice to help

It’s one thing for you as a leader to float your ideas. And often you need to do that.

But it can also create tension because many leaders end up defending their ideas.

As a result, again and again in my time in leadership, I’ve solicited outside voices to help us arrive in a new place as a team.

The least expensive way to find an outside voice? Read a book together. Our teams have read many books together over the years.

That’s Why I Wrote Lasting Impact

When I wrote Lasting Impact, I crafted every chapter with team discussion in mind.

I hope the book can give teams and boards a chance to agree or disagree with someone who’s not the room in the hopes that you can agree together on what God is calling you to do next. Plus, I tried to cover the 7 issues almost every church of every size needs to tackle as they try to move forward.

As a special bonus, if you order your copy of Lasting Impact between October 6th and October 13th, you’ll get the free audio version of the book for free. Just go to www.lastingimpactbook.com after you order and fill out the bonus claim form.

Here’s hoping your future is filled with great conversations that will move your mission forward.