simple church revealed

The staff and elders at RCC are reading Simple Church together with the hopes and plans that it will encourage us to evaluate what we do…and then make some changes. I really excited about it and I see great things coming from this self-study of our church.

We’re also getting ready to go thru Willow’s REVEAL self-assessment. Each member and  attender in our church will have the opportunity to go online and walk through a survey to assess our processes for growth.

I’m really encouraged by these steps the leadership is taking in the effort of refining what we do. I truly believe in the ’simple’ idea. I like simple.I like simple things. Heck, I even like to read Real Simple magazine!  I think simple makes most sense. I would rather concentrate on a few things and do those really well than spread things thin and do a mediocre job.

So I’m excited to see the results of REVEAL and to make our way through Simple Church. I think God has some good things in store for RCC.

a day at Legoland

Last week, we took President’s Day to take Colin & Aubrey up to Chicagoland to visit Legoland Discovery Center. And I have to say…it was worth the 3 hour drive. What a fun day we had!

Karen, our friend from back in Mass, came out for a visit and went along with us. We had so much fun playing with all the Legos, watching their 4d movie and looking at Chicago made out of Legos. I’d recommend it to anyone.

And of course, we had to hit Woodfield for a bit while we were there. The kids weren’t thrilled with that…at least they had a really cool Lego store there too!

Being in a metro area really felt good! I do love big cities…being there made me miss Mass even more…but it also gave me a ‘fix’ for a while. We’ll look forward to our next trip to Chicago…soon!

re-fuel…

Today I took a day away from the office for personal study. I always enjoy these days away… don’t always get to take them each month, but that’s my fault. I need to be diligent to carve out a day each month to get away from the office, the phone, email, decisions, crisis…to just read and reflect and pray and journal and plan…

Today was one of those days. I spent my day reading… I’ve got a tall stack of books I want to get through and today was I able to knock out one of those. I read Tony Morgan’s Killing Cockroaches today (you can read my review in my last post). It provided some great thoughts for me to wrestle through… I can see some pretty long journal entries from my thoughts from that book.

Days like today re-energize and re-fuel me… gives me creativity and ideas and stretches me in ways the normal, day-to-day routine can’t. I came away from today refreshed and ready for what lies ahead for the next thirty days. So I’m thankful for days like today. And I’ll look forward to my time next month…

How about you? What do you do to re-fuel?

Book review – Killing Cockroaches

I recently read Tony Morgan’s newest book, Killing Cockroaches: And Other Scattered Musings on Leadership. It was a great read…one I’d recommend to anyone in leadership in the church.

Here’s a reveiw of the book I posted on Amazon.com.

Killing Cockroaches is Tony Morgan at his best. These quick snippets of wisdom allow the reader to gain a glimpse of the heart and mind of Tony. Real life examples of leaders in the trenches who are making the hard decisions of what to say ‘no’ to are an added bonus to Tony’s ideas.

The book is filled with leadership principles that can be put in place immediately. Tony helps us as leaders to give some serious thought as to what we need to give our full attention to and those things that need to be delegated out to others.

Written with a conversational feel, each leadership idea (which is creatively presented in alphabetical order) is enough for some serious thought and consideration. In fact, many of them could be used as leadership exercises for a staff team…something I intend to do with the staff I lead.

Killing Cockroaches is a must read for any pastor or leader who wants to take his or her leadership to a higher level of effectiveness.

who’s leading?

Jesus words in my youversion.com reading this morning from Mark 8:

Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am.

Holy, moly… is that blunt or what? How often do I try to take control of my life and forget who is really in control. Needed that reminder today.

Anyone else with me on this one?

hanging out with the kids…

took some pics yesterday with Lynda’s camera. she’s got a Nikon D40…love it! now, I’m not a professional photographer… heck, i don’t even consider myself an amateur either. but I think this camera takes great shots.