Averageyouthpastor

Ouchie

I am assuming that this hurt a little bit.  

Photo is from Fight Magazine

Hello Blog

Dear Blog,

Sorry I have been so distant this week.  I got caught up in the business of life this past week and did not make you a priority.  I commit to more life changing blog posts starting next week. 

Until then...enjoy your time off!  

Your Friend,

The Master of the Blog

Generation We: The Movement Begins...

Just saw this video on Lanny Donoho's blog and had to share it.  This is a powerful and exciting video.  Especially for those of us that feel called to be an influence and to empower the next generation of leaders. Take a minute to think about the message in this video.  How can we take their passion, their diversity, their strength and create opportunities for them to use it for God's Kingdom?  

To Love.

To Serve. 

To Be The Church. 

 

Disclaimer - I am moved by the passion and message of this video....however I am not saying that I support the movement or direction of the website gen-we.org.

Thanks Andrew for the thoughts...

Are You Ok With This?

A friend of mine, Andrew Statezny, recommended a blog post to me yesterday by, Mark Batterson titled, "Are You Ok With This?".  In the post he shared about attending the Civil Forum on Global Health in DC that was put together by Saddleback and Rick Warren.  I read it last night and the post is still shaking me up today.  Here is just a short excerpt from it. 

"I'm not sure I can do this justice, but Rick shared three slides that made a profound point. The slides showed the western province of Rwanda, population 700,000. The first slide showed the locations of allhospitals. There are only 3 of them. The second slide showed the location of all the health clinics. There are 22 of them. And the third slide showed the location of all the churches in Rwanda. There are 728 of them. Then Rick made a simple observation:The church is the largest organization on earth. What if we viewed churches, especially in less-developed countries, as distribution channels for things like education and health care? The church already has the infrastructure. The church already has the workforce. The church already has the motivation. We just need to strategically mobilize to make a difference." 

He goes on to share that more than 8000 people will die from AIDS today.  

That is staggering.  

Seems like the answer isn't to build more churches in Rwanda...it's to be the church and help people.  He ended the blog post that you can read by clicking here with this quote that I will end this post with too...

Are You Ok With This?

Defining a Win

What would you do if the team you were coaching was playing against the team with the leading scorer in college basketball?  Your strategy would probably be to limit the points he gets and give your team the best chance to win the game.  On Monday Loyola played Davidson and the leading scorer in the nation, Stephen Curry. Loyola decided that they had to stop Curry at all costs and played to defenders on him at all times.  It took Davidson a couple of minutes into the first half to realize this and once they did they exploited their 4 on 3 advantage by leaving Curry in a corner at the end the opposite end of the court while they had the ball.  Even after they were down by double digits the coach for Loyola stuck with the plan...matter of fact, he stuck to the plan until the final buzzer sounded.  Final Score 78-48.  Stephen Curry finished the game with 0 points on 0-3 shooting.  

Here is what the coach for Loyola, Jimmy Patsos, had to say after the game about the strategy that cost him the game,

"Anybody else ever hold him scoreless?" Patsos said. "I'm a history major. They're going to remember that we held him scoreless or we lost by 30?"

As a history major he should be reminded that history helps us to remember winners not losers.  Patsos strategy was to keep the leading scorer without a point knowing that the strategy would most definitely cost his team the game.  Stupid Strategy.  Do you think the 3 Loyola players that gave up 78 points were excited each time a player other than Curry scored?  Were they frustrated that they were down by 30 or were they watching the clock with anticipation that they were about to keep the leading scorer without a point?  

Whatever career you are in, defining the win is crucial to your ability to gauge success.  Take the time this week to evaluate what a win would be for you.  Maybe you have been focusing on the wrong things and it's causing you and your team to be frustrated.  

If you own a restaurant make food that people will crave and tell their friends about.

If you are a Christian live your life like you know the Jesus you want others to accept.

If you are a model....I have know idea what you need to do.

It's not too late change your coaching strategy.  

Thought this would be a good post to start the week.  If you are in ministry a great read on this subject would be Andy Stanley's book, "Seven Practices of Effective Ministry".  

Now go win your week!