LeadingSmart

The Pain of Ordering an iMac

My daughter has been saving for a year to buy an iMac (she is a video editor), and today was the big day when we could finally place the order. I had high expectations for my first Apple computer experience. I fantasized that they would answer on the first ring, call me by name, play high-def music and agree to deliver the machine in 30-minutes or less.

My experience, however, made me realize one possible reason why Dell is selling more machines.

• They didn't show the total of my order (including tax) before asking for credit card.
• There was no way to pay for the order with a gift card AND a credit card.
• The phone representative couldn't duplicate the problem and had no way to pull up my shopping cart.
• Pressing the "help" button took me to an outdated link to a page that no longer exists.
• A woman gave up trying to help me...said she would transfer me to someone else, but just ended up sticking me back in the hold cue so she didn't have to talk to me anymore.
• The next representative put me on hold for 20 minutes while he was talking to a supervisor.
• The on hold music was distorted.
• They had to authorize my credit card for $180 more than the actual purchase price.

I'm confident this is the right machine for Heather to pursue her interests, and I'm proud of her for saving her money to reach this goal. I'm just hoping the experience gets better once the machine arrives.

Trying Something New This Weekend

Two pretty cool things happening this weekend...

1. This weekend, we are doing a video re-cap of some Great Moments of 2007. We have selected a few great examples of drama, video, humor and teaching highlights from the past year--and weaved them into a package that will leave some laughing, remembering, perhaps crying, but all thinking about their next step.
2. You might wonder why Kem Meyer has been mysteriously silent on her blog for the past 10 days. Well, it's because it was about 10 days ago when I informed her she would be the Host of this coming weekend. (Actually, I asked her, but she was quick to agree. Well, actually it took her 24 hours to sweat, think and fret, but she finally succumbed to the pressure). We've met together three times to program the weekend, and I'm pretty excited about what she has come up with. She will be telling a bit of her story and leading us all to what I believe will be a spiritual moment.

Oh, and if you want to make her crazy, tell her that you heard she is preaching this weekend.

Christmas Eve...According to John, Paul, George & Ringo

The truth about Christmas Eve services at Granger...

• Included kite flying and ribbon twirling by professional kite-flyers and ribbon-twirlers.
• Multi-sensory.
• Three stages built in the crowd throughout the auditorium.
• A 10' high, fiber-optic, star floating out above the audience.
• Amazing choreography by more than 30 cast members.
• A guest appearance by the Culps.
• The story of Joseph and Mary and baby Jesus using the songs of the Beatles.
• Attended by more than 10,500 people -- a record.

Watch it yourself here.

Some of my favorite pictures (thanks to Jeff Petersen)...

Innovation and Failure

You know why success is so dangerous? You never know which factors actually contributed to the success, so everything becomes a sacred cow. Over time, you dare not take certain factors away because, for all you know, they're part of the reason you made it. The best time for innovation is when you're struggling... when you're down for the count. You've got nothing to lose. You can start throwing off the organizational ballasts and see which factors actually make a difference.

From the blog of Ben Arment on 12/17/07.

This Makes My Heart Beat Fast

Only 3 weeks until LOST begins season #4 on ABC. This trailer gets my blood pumping!

Merry Christmas from the Stevens' Family

Hunter (10), Megan (13), Tim & Faith, Heather (14), Taylor (7)

Message to Churches: Quit Whining!

My publisher, Tad Long, passed along an interesting article from The Indianapolis Star:

"Along about now, pulpits and church newsletters bristle with whining about the culture's theft of Christmas.

There's the so-called "commercialization of Christmas." The manic retail spending but hesitant church pledging. Bustling malls but empty pews. Spotlights on Santa Claus but not on Jesus. The 'taking Christ out of Christmas.'

Need I go on? We'll even gripe about the people who finally do show up en masse on Christmas Eve and then scorn them for not being there every Sunday.

Never mind that these paradoxes are precisely the same as the cultural context into which Jesus was born. Never mind the teachable moment, the opportunity for compassion. Never mind that the religious holiday called Christmas has been a political and cultural icon from its inception.

This annual whining is a perfect expression of why many churches dwindle to irrelevance. This is "provider-driven" religion. We are blaming people for not wanting what we provide. It would be far better for us to ask ourselves: Why don't we provide what they want?"

Read the rest of the article here.

Over 14,000 Tickets Distributed

The Christmas Eve services tomorrow are going to be amazing...we are doing some stuff we've never attempted. I think we are taking our best Christmas Eve services ever and bumping it up about 10 notches. I'm serious!

We started with 15,600 tickets to distributed...and have given out more than 14,000 so far. It is interesting that our first service to "sell-out" was 3:30pm, followed by 5:00pm.

Through years of experience, we have discovered a 30% no-show rate when we offer free tickets. Therefore, we really only have 12,000 seats available. Since we've already distributed 2,000 more tickets than we have seats available--hopefully our historical no-show rate won't backfire. If it does, won't that be fun!

New Book Deadline

I talked to my publisher yesterday, and they would REALLY LIKE this book finished by mid-January so it can be in bookstores by mid-May. I'm hopeful I can make that deadline.

So, this is what I'm doing today...and tomorrow.

Funny Flashback

The year was around 1999. Mike Adkins was on staff and was looking for Tony Morgan. Tony was nowhere to be found, so Mike called him at home.

Kayla (then around 5-years old) answered the phone: "Hello, this is Kayla Morgan, how may I help you?"

Mike: "Can I talk to your daddy?"

Kayla: "He's in the shower."

Mike: "Okay, then can I talk to your mommy?"

Kayla: "She's in the shower too."

I love honest children and strong marriages!