LeadingSmart

Pop Goes the Church Available on Amazon

I was searching around yesterday and found my book on Amazon. Pretty fun!

Welcome to Town!

A couple days ago I received this postcard (below) at my house about a brand new multi-site church starting nearby. Actually very near. It is 3.3 miles from the Granger campus. The church is called Christian Life Center and is being launched by a church of the same name in Tinley Park, Illinois, and led by Pastors Jerry & Chris McQuay. It is actually a re-launch of a church formerly called Christian Tabernacle.

Interesting bit of history--Back when we had no building and were renting various facilities, the people of Christian Tabernacle graciously allowed us to use their facility for some of our rehearsals.

There are well over 200,000 people in our area who don't go to church. One individual church is not going to reach them all. It is going to take scores of vibrant churches to make a lasting difference in our community. It is my hope that this new congregation reaches hundreds of people in our area and helps them know how much they matter to God!

It Just Makes Cents

I think that leadership translates beyond your professional career. A real leader pays attention to his/her marriage, gives time to his/her kids, and invests in relationships that matter. A real leader is also making wise decisions with money.

• Save for retirement now. We started setting money aside the first year of our marriage. That first year (we were 23-years old) we could only afford $5/month--but knew that we needed to start the habit early. We've increased it every year since.
• Don't use a credit card for anything you can't pay off right away. Use a credit card for convenience, but don't ever pay interest. If you can't control yourself, get rid of the cards.
• Tithe--I really believe that God blesses those who tithe. I think he keeps the car running longer, the roof from leaking as soon as it would have, and He loves to sprinkle you with raises and added cash you didn't expect.
• Give generously. The tithe is the minimum. We began our first year of marriage giving 10% of our income and then increased it every year until we got to 20%. The first 10% goes to the general fund at our church. The other 10% we use to support missionaries, give to new building projects at our church, and bless people who come into our lives.
• If you are married, don't ever make a big purchase without talking to each other. Really, trust me on this.
• No spontaneous purchases. Okay, buying a pair of shorts would be fine. But anything that would be a significant purchase can wait 24-hours. Avoid any vendor who says, "You have to decide now." If the deal can't wait a day, then decide to walk away.
• Live by a budget.
• Teach your kids to handle their money. They aren't going to learn financial management at school. No one else is going to teach them to be generous. By the time they've been out of your house a week, they will have already received 14 credit card invitations. Teach them early.
• Set aside money for fun. Fun with your spouse. Fun with your kids. Fun for yourself (for me, that means buying a geeky gadget on occasion).
• When you can, start a Rainy Day fund. It was many years into our marriage before we could do this, but we began setting aside $25/paycheck. Some day the furnace is going to break or a tree will fall on the side of your house. Or your house will get hit by lightning like ours did earlier this year.
• Put the stuff you want on a list and pray about it. Don't buy it until you can pay for it with cash. This builds your faith, teaches you patience, and gives you a journal to record answers to prayer.

Don't wait until you have more money to put wise financial management into practice in your life. Faith and I started this stuff when we we had no money and we were living on beans and weenies. It just makes "cents."

Note: I first wrote this on August 1, 2006 and it quickly became my highest accessed post during my first year of blogging. With several friends working through personal financial decisions, it seemed like the right time to bring it to the surface again.

Me & The Foo...Tonight

Tonight I head to Chicago with one, two, three friends for a fun Foo Fighter time!

Brand New Workshop

I'm getting prepared to teach Pop Goes the Church in an all-day workshop for the first time ever. It takes place March 14th on the Granger campus.

There are several pros and cons of attending on March 14th...

• Pro: You get to spend the whole day with me. Con: You have to spend the whole day with me.
• Pro: As a part of your registration, you will receive one of the first copies of the book. Con: You don't get a free knife set.
• Pro: On the same day and at the same time, Kem, Mark, Butch and Jason are also training church leaders. Con: You can't go to all of them...you have to pick.
• Pro: You might see this guy roaming the hallways. Con: He bites when provoked.
• Pro: You might find there are still several inches of snow on the ground. Con: We don't break for recess. Leave your snow pants at home.

I'd love to spend the day with you. Registration is open.

Oscar Thoughts

Tonight was the 80th annual Academy Awards. My thoughts...

• Jon Stewart was hilarious. I laughed for several minutes at his joke about Barak Obama and Gaydolph Titler.
• Never heard of Alexandra Byrne (who won for costume design), but someone should tell her to never wear a backless dress again.
• I remembered again tonight what a great movie Michael Clayton was.
• It is amazing how many older men are sitting with beautiful younger women. I'm keeping my woman, no matter how old she gets.
• Kristin Chenoweth performed a song from Enchanted. She is notable to me since my wife plays Taylor, The Latte Boy by Kristin about twice a day.
• Where was Matt Damon? His movie was up for several awards, seems like he would have showed up.
• Robert Boyle was honored for a life-long impact in movies. His speech was long, but he's 98-years old. Anyone who is 98 should be able to speak for as long as they want.
• There were a number of technical mistakes, like mics not being turned on. They have no limit on money or talent, and still make mistakes on a live show. We do "live shows" every weekend called church services, with volunteers, so I think we can lighten up a little bit when mistakes happen.
• There was a memorial for those who died in the past year. This year's group included Heath Ledger. I wonder who sitting in tonight's crowd will be in next year's memorial?
• Movies I want to see after watching tonight: Juno, Atonement, August Rush.
• Movies I wish I hadn't seen: Enchanted.

Lost: The Best Show on TV?

I should probably title this post, "Why Scott McClellan is the Smartest Man in the Blogosphere." At least today. That is because Scott, editor of Collide Magazine, agrees with me that Lost is the greatest show available on TV. Here are his reasons...

The story is key—Although the show has occasionally involved explosions, car chases, gunplay, and fist fights, those things are not what Lost is about. Instead, viewers are watching a huge narrative play itself out. The episodes and seasons are mini-narratives that comprise the overarching story of the island and its inhabitants. And that overarching story, so far, has been unlike anything we’ve ever seen on TV.

Nobody’s perfect—As the Losties’ backstories have been revealed, and as we’ve watched them interact on the island for 90 days, one thing is clear: there are no perfect people in the Lost universe. Isn’t that refreshing? In most episodic television, the characters are too good and things work out too well. Any character flaws are only skin deep, which allows them to patched up in a 30-minute episode. Real life just isn’t that way, which is part of why Lost resonates with its viewers.

Anything is possible—Redemption for sinners, polar bears in the jungle, and cancer in remission are just a few of the unlikely realities on Lost island. It’s really cool to watch a show that takes place in a world where conventional wisdom doesn’t always apply. In fact, rational science can’t explain everything that takes place on the show, which leads us into …

The supernatural—A lot of shows on TV dismiss the supernatural entirely (especially those courtroom dramas we love so much). Some other shows embrace the supernatural, but in a laughable way (think Touched By an Angel, Joan of Arcadia, The Ghost Whisperer, etc.). Lost’s acknowledgment of supernatural phenomena is creepy, suspenseful, and brilliant. Plus, it reminds us that for all its boasting, Big Science isn’t an omniscient monopoly.

Layers—Sure, Lost is pretty wide (it has characters and storylines out the wazzoo), but it’s also deep. Every character and event has multiple layers to it. That makes for pretty engaging entertainment, but it also might help us to stop reducing everything and everyone to a soundbyte. As it turns out, soundbytes rarely tell the whole story.

Mystery—When did the human race become so obsessed with overturning every rock and solving every mystery? Sure, it’s good to discover cures for diseases and new species of wildlife, but we need to learn to live with and appreciate the mysteries of life. Why do things happen the way the do? How do things happen the way they do? We don’t know, and nowhere is that more evident than Lost message boards.

Everything and everyone is connected—We tend to believe that people float in and out of our lives without consequence, but in reality, we’re all connected. Did you know that millionaire Hurley owned the box factory Locke worked in? Did you know Locke did some work (I think it was a home inspection) for Sayid’s long-lost love, Nadia? Lost often reminds us that we are all connected, and that the people around us are important in our personal stories and the bigger story we all find ourselves in.

Where Was This Kid During our Beatles Series?

Thanks to Trace Rorie for the link.

Doc and Marty Launch the 80's Series

Here is the promotional video we used to launch our I Love the 80's series on money management and stewardship.

Be Scared, Very Scared

Soon the roads won't be safe. I just took Heather, my oldest, to her first Drivers' Ed class.