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This weekend, Mark Beeson read “A Letter to the President” on the eve of President Obama arriving on campus at Notre Dame amidst all the hub-bub… If you get a chance… view it here on/before May 24th.

A simple takaway… when talking to your team, employee, spouse, kids… stop and T.H.I.N.K.

• Is it True?
• Is it Helpful?
• Is it Important?
• Is it Necessary?
• Is it Kind?

The right thing said the right way at the right time has a chance of connecting… otherwise, we can expect to swing and miss. At the end of the day, we all have people in our lives we would like to influence. How can we connect/influence?

• Encouragers are influencers. Who do you like being around? People who beat you over the head or those who call out the best in you?
• Integrity Matters. Having principles that guide your discussions and actions allow you to be consistent and trustworthy to those values. Wild cards, hot heads, and unpredictability don’t make it to many circles of trust.
• Work for Other’s Success. Sure…this goes against the crowd, however… when people know you’re “for” them and celebrate their success… they may listen to constructive feedback.
• Apologize when you’re wrong or screw-up.
• Keep Casting. You’re not in control of other people. They may not respond the way you want, expect, or not at all. Keep casting your net… sometimes you end up connecting with an unexpected audience. Perhaps, that’s where you should have been all along.

“We all will have an opportunity to speak Truth to those in power…”- Mark Beeson 5/17/09

The question is…. will we connect?

Notes from Granger Community Church this weekend, you can watch it here beginning tomorrow the 14th…

Favorite Quote: “If you have a dream or mission that can be done without friends, your church, and without God- your dream is too small…. it’s paltry.”- Mark Beeson

The Challenge:

• Text, Hosea 4:1-10 v.9 “You can’t tell the people from the priests, the priests from the people…” Currently in the church of America, statistically there is little difference in the how Christians look vs. those who aren’t… divorce rates are similar, money management, promiscuity… Where have our priorities gone? Have we lost vision of what is means to “give our lives to Christ” and settled for having our faith be part of a list of a bunch of other things we also are? Who would seek “deprivation” (No pastor, no church, no friends, no Bible) in their walk/mission with Christ?

Questions to Ask Ourselves… how important is:

• VISION: A picture of what could be and should be… Prov. 29:18 Where there is no vision the people will perish… If I’m different, what does that look like to others?
• KNOWLEDGE: Clarity on mission strategy and parameters… What are steps I need to take to be a person that loves others and communicates hope? What do I need to learn?
• COMMUNITY: Do I have true friends in my life to help me in my focus, valleys, and direction? Ecc. 4:9-12 Two are better than one… a cord of three strands is not quickly broken…
• TEAMMATES: Dependable people who depend on me. Am I dependable? When I serve in a ministry or organization, am I giving leftovers? Is it the first thing that comes off the calendar if I’m tired? Am I a great volunteer? Who is depending on me? If the answer is no one… I need some teammates… I need to engage…
• REMINDERS: Tell me again, what are we doing? Much of being part of a church is simply to remind us of stuff we already know… It’s the exception to hear something brand new, paridigm shifting, or transformational… most are reminders that help us keep a vision of who we are are where we want to go…

(And by the way, that spells VKCTR for those who love acronyms)

• Technology now gives the mesage of Christ “viral” potential, a video on You Tube can be seen by hundreds of thousands in a matter of a few days…
• “If this isn’t a church and/or pastor where you can find your mission and press in to what God has for you, you should leave and find one where you can.”

Personal Takaways and Mind Drifts:

• I want people to see Christ in me through my actions, not my words.
• I love vision, yet sometimes the needs in our world are so overwhelming it becomes paralyzing for me. Where do I begin? Is what I do even making a difference or is it like shooting a forest fire with a squirt gun? That’s why I need teammates, friends, and my church… to help me keep on keeping on….
• Focus is important… I see a lot of people with big visions and big ideas… they create a little stir… and then they’re on to three other visions… I can get spread too thin and try to wrap my time around too much…. Focus is important. I need to be dependable and work or volunteer with excellence to make a real impact and be on mission.
• They showed “The Truth” video for the second time at GCC, it reminds me that great art has the opportunity to be viral. The product and excellence matters. Seen over 700,000 times on You Tube..

This weekend at Granger we finished up the “I Love the 80′s” series, here are my takaways from this weekend, “The MacGyver Plan”- Do a lot with a little…. You can watch it here….

• The mission/vision God has for the church is huge- God’s plan for resourcing this mission is through the tithe (giving 10% of our income)
• Mark answered 3 common questions, What is the tithe? Why would anyone tithe? What happens with the tithe?
• Only 1 in 9 people at Granger tithe- I wonder… what would happen if 2 people in 9 tithed? How much more could continue to be done?
• Favorite quote: “Casual anything won’t change anything”- If we’re casual in our faith, marriage, business/work, exercise/eating plan, etc… that won’t git’ er done
• For kids, take 3 jars, put 10% in one for God, 10% in another to save, the rest to spend- start teaching them early… (I want to do this..)
• The tithe is 10%- that’s literally what it means… (We need to look at our monthly number and make sure we’re not at 8 or 9%)
• There’s always a part of me that “cringes” when sitting in a service like that- I’m so sensitive the stigma of churches asking for money- I want people to get it… I want them to know it truly does change one’s life to give…. I’m glad we shoot it straight… I just wonder how people process it….
• I believe the church is the hope of the world- what if we did all give? What if governments world-wide didn’t need welfare programs because the church had is covered? I want to be part of that…
• With the time change, I went to a service I rarely go to.. I slid in a row near the back only to realize I was sitting behind the very person my brother said to “look for” sometime at church only a few days earlier… hmmm… odd service, out of 1000 plus in the service I sat right behind them… we have a cool God….