Nickie's Koretelopet Adventure

My dear friend, Nickie Kohler's delightful story of winning her 1974 Kortelopet trophy, was featured on Keetha Broyle's excellent blog, The Eclectic Company.

Keetha and her husband, Greg, came to Hayward last weekend to experience Birkie Fever first-hand.  Some wonderful Birkebeiner pictures from Main Street are included if you scroll down a bit.

Check it out!

Fire in the Pulpit

"The power of Christ's dispensition is a fiery pulpit-- not a learned pulpit, not a popular pulpit, not an eloquent pulpit, but a pulpit on fire with the Holy Ghost... This power is not the mere power of iteration or reiteration of truth well learned or well told, but it is the enabling force to declare revealed truth with superhuman authority. The preacher must have the power given by direction connection with God."
--E. M. Bounds

Here is Love Vast As The Ocean

In my book, Filled Up, Poured Out, I include the lyrics to the following song, which was known as the Love Song of the 1904 Welsh Revival:

Leonard Sweet Goes Viral

"The current generation is driven by a God-given desire to know others and to be known by others.  Most of them, in seeking to connect in meaningful ways, have found a place of belonging that is outside the organized church.  Why not bring the two together?"

Viral, the newest book by Leonard Sweet, explores the potential of social networking in an evangelism/ministry context. 

Initially, I cast a wary eye at the subtitle:  "How Social Networking Is Poised to Ignite Revival."  Really??  Seems like a stretch.

However, as Sweet unpacks his point, I see where he's coming from.  It's all about relationships.  The TGIF Generation (a Sweet moniker for Twitter, Google, I-phone/pad, Facebook) is connecting in ways previous generations could never imagine.  How can we leverage this movement for the advancement of God's mission in the world?  Perhaps we can learn a few things about connecting from the rising generation, who can't stop texting, tweeting or updating their facebook status.

As usual with his writings, Sweet packs this book full of pithy quotes, and poetic phrases.

A good read, that challenges those of us in the Gutenberg generation to think a little more like Google.

Purchase Here

(A complimentary copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher for review on this blog.)

Seven Personality Traits of Great Leaders

Thom Rainer recently researched common personality traits of great leaders, drawing from history as well as contemporary examples.  Here's what he discovered:

What then are the personality traits of effective leaders? Here are the seven I discovered in the order of frequency. I use the past tense in the seven items below since a majority of the leaders I studied were deceased.

1. They had intense personalities. The list included both introverts and extroverts, so intensity is not the same as an exuberant personality. Rather, these leaders had a focus and determination that was evident even if they were quiet and calm on the surface.
2. They had attitudes of gratitude. These leaders saw each day and each opportunity as a gift. They had the opposite of an entitlement mentality. As they rose through the ranks of their respective professions, they rarely complained or whined about their environment, pay, benefits, or lack of promotions. They were just grateful for the opportunities they had been given.
3. They were intensely loyal. They were loyal to the organizations, to their superiors, to those who worked for them, and to their fellow employees and co-workers. Theirs was not a blind loyalty, but it was a deep and forgiving loyalty.
4. They were joyous. Though their personalities were diverse, most of these leaders had a joy about them that was contagious. Some of the leaders manifest their joy with a winsome sense of humor. Others demonstrated joy by their ongoing contentment of life and its opportunities.

The other traits can be found on his post here.

Posers

Man Posing as Denny's Manager Cooks Himself a Burger -- Gets Himself Arrested.

As police escorted him out, he shouted, "This is why you don't dine and dash, kiddies!"

Reminds me of those posing as pastors -- "Shepherds who feed only themselves.  They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind." -- Jude 1:12

Sample Chapter of Filled Up Poured Out

Click Here to read Chapter One of Filled Up, Poured Out:  How God's Spirit Can Revive Your Passion and Purpose.

Note:  Though this first chapter is geared primarily to pastors and church leaders, the rest of the book is geared to every person who desires to follow Christ.

Purchase Here.  Book releases March 15.

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Preparing to Preach -- Aaron's Drest

The following poem, Aaron, by English country parson, George Herbert, describes beautifully the necessary preparation of a preacher:

Holiness on the head,
Light and perfection on the breast,
Harmonious bells below, raising the dead
To led them unto life and rest.
Thus are true Aarons dressed.

Profaneness in my head,
Defects and darkness in my breast,
A noise of passions ringing me for dead
Unto a place where is no rest.
Poor priest thus am I dressed.

Only another head
I have, another heart and breast,
another music, making live not dead,
without whom I could have no rest:
In him I am well dressed.

Christ is my only head,
My alone only heart and breast,
My only music, striking me even dead;
That to the old man I may rest,
And be in him new dressed.

So holy in my head,
Perfect and light in my dear breast,
My doctrine tuned by Christ, (who is not dead,
But lives in me while I do rest)
Come people; Aaron's dressed

Three Signs of a Great Leader

Artie Davis hit the nail on the head with this one:  Three Signs of a Great Leader!

Nothing Personal, But. . .

When someone says "Nothing personal, but. . ." what follows is almost always personal.

Disunity Halts Progress

“[...the spirit of division and discord, which prevails in the church…] is one of the leading causes by which Christianity has been staid in its progress through the world, and the precious blessings have been retained within a narrow compass, which God designed to have no bounds but those of the inhabitable globe. It is also one of the darkest clouds which overhand our prospect for the future; for the signs of the times hold out little or not promise of its disappearing, and so long as it exists it must operate most injuriously upon the interests of religion, and hinder its revival in the hearts of men...”
--  Rev. Patrick Fairbairn
From Worldview Church Pastor to Pastor