Last Day in Czech

Sunday was our last full day in Czech. After I spoke Sunday AM at a local church, a group of us traveled to a town called OPAVA, a university town 3 hours south of Prague. There, Journey and Oak Hills are looking how we can partner together to start a new church there (there are currently no churches AT ALL in that city). In the pic below, the pastor with a tie is Boohosh Yoyner, probably the leading pastor of their district. A great guy, they will be the "mother" church to this new effort.

Benjamin and Erica

New friends are Ben and Erica, a sharp young couple ready to do great things. They will be involved with a church plant in the city of Opava ( a University town south of Prague). We are considering how we can help!

Group Shot of Conference

Above are all of the delegates/attenders of NLI's "Advanced Leadership Training" in Czech. It's been a great five days, with many great relationships formed!

I am in talks with helping a Czech pastor plant a "relevant" church in a nearby University town south of Prague. Could be very exciting as we even send teams over to help with the launch and further events!

Chris King from Calgary

One of the unique and necessary tools is the use of an interpreter. Chris King is a young adults pastor (500+ in his group!) from Canada and his teaching on Delegation, with help from a local pastor who is interpreting for him. I've met Chris for the first time and love his heart. He also has a desire to plant a new church - perhaps in the US or Europe. A great and talented leader.

Meet David - future Czech. church planter

I met David last night. He was introduced to me by his pastor, and they are planning to launch a new church in the town of Opava (60 miles away) with David as the pastor. David is a mid-twenties leader who is excited about reaching today's generation, yet is still figuring out how to make the sacrifices required for such a large step of faith. We prayed together after the service and I sense good things ahead for him!

New Friends

Rod Carlson launched Oak Hills Church near Minneapolis 17 years ago. He and his wife are new friends of mine, just meeting them on this trip. It's been fun hearing their story and sharing ours as well. At 50, he's one of the most authentic non-gen x leaders I've met. Very refreshing! Actually all of our trainers are fantastic and relational leaders in their own right.

Here, Rod is teaching on Team-building both for staff and ministry teams throughout a church.

Day 2 -

Attendees consist of both young 20-something leaders up to late 40's. It's been encouraging to hear of their desire to plant churches and raise up a new generation!

Topics that we have talked about have been both practical (team-building, delegation ,etc.) and inspirational. Each night we gather for more of a "service" with worship and personal teaching. It's all going great.

First Session

While you were sleeping, we are 6 hours ahead and getting ready for our first session today! This is the training team seated this morning. We are having a classic European breakfast - granola, yogurt and bread with butter or jam. (Where are the Krispy Kreme's???? I guess they haven't made it over here yet :)

I'm at the far right, back. The two guys to my left are leaders from Calgary, Canada -Clay and Chris. The couple at the front of the table, Rod and Melody Carlson, pastor Oak Hills Church in Minneapolis (a church similar to Journey). My long time friends Bill and Linda Howell are on the other side of the table. Bill serves on my Advisory Council and is speaking first this morning. So we are going to cheer him on!

Old Town Square, Prague

I arrived in Prague ahead of the team, and took a taxi down to the old town square in the middle of Prague. I found a little outside cafe, read a book and sipped on a cappuccino and took this pic with my phone.

If you've seen the movie VANTAGE POINT, you'd recognize this pic I took at a cafe' as the place where the President gave his speech. It's a popular place for movies to show people running thru the doves (and send them flying).

Today we leave for Ostrava, a retreat center south in Czech where our conference will be. Additionally, we'll meet up with the other trainers. It's going to be a great week as we coach these 80+ leaders! Right now it's 4:00am Indy time (10:20 am Prague time).

Last night I used SKYPE to call home, the free internet service you can download. I have a video camera on my laptop, so the boys and Angela could see me and I them. We ended the conversation by making funny faces in the camera at one another. That's how you show love to toddlers!

In Prague, Czech Republic

I flew out of the country yesterday for an 8-day trip, primarily for the purpose of helping coach and train church leaders in eastern Europe. I landed safely in Prague at 11:30am there time (5:30am Indy time). The flight was 10 hours from Atlanta. It's a good thing I brought foam earplugs so I could sleep a little!. Thankfully, the seat next to me was empty so I could stretch out a bit. I am meeting up some others tonight, so I had to get a taxi from the airport to the hotel. Interesting doing this all by yourself, in a city 5,000 miles away that you've never been to before!

I am working with a friend, Bill Howell, primary director of Next Level International www.nlieurope.org. NLI is a leadership training organization focused on Eastern Europe. We've supported them for years. We've known Bill and Linda for 14 years (Bill was the pastor that married Angela and I, and we served with him on staff at Calvary Temple in South Bend from 95-99'). It's great to be able to re-connect again.

Hopefully I will have the time to post pics and stories of the trip these next few days - all depends on internet access and schedule!

Stop Procrastinating today (not tomorrow!)

What does the word procrastination mean to you? If your answer is somewhere in the neighborhood of it being your middle name, there is help for you. According to Health magazine and Dr. Susan O’Doherty, author of Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued, here’s how to quit dragging your feet and get your tasks done:

For starters, most people procrastinate for one of three reasons.

1. Perfectionism. Your inner critic takes hold of you. You sit down to do something and suddenly you think...I am not good enough.....—so you put it off.

2. Emotional avoidance. You do not want to deal with the feelings that’ll surface when, say, you have to clean out your garage. So you postpone . . . again.

3. Fear. Fear of failure, fear of success—the fear of what happens
next.

But no matter what the reason for your delay, you can get the ball rolling on a project. Here is how.

I. Take small bites.
You are not going to clean out the garage. You are going to clean off one shelf.

II. Do something each day.
Just twenty minutes a day on a big project is all you need to make a significant dent. And before long, you will be finished and on to the next one.

III. Envision the end.
What will the finished product look like? How will you feel when you are done? Ask yourself these questions often, and you will start assuming that you will finish.

IV. Shun the slackers in your life.
You need to surround yourself with people who DO NOT hinder you. The more often you hear, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO GET THIS DONE RIGHT NOW the more likely you are to tie up all the loose ends that you’ve been avoiding.

Who am I? (you'll enjoy this)

Last night I happened across a personality questionnaire, and I filled it out without expecting much. Then I went to the more details page, and I was staggered. It nailed me so perfectly I had to read it twice.

(I almost want to print it and hand it out when I meet someone.)

What really helped however, was seeing the things I struggle with as part of my personality. It mentions other things as well, things I can now work actively to correct. Sometimes our lives get out of control, or we feel helpless simply because we're not sure who we are. God has given us tools to help us with that, and this test
is both fun and informative.

It is also important as a leader to not only understand yourself, but those you are trying to lead.

Follow this link - http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm

"Giving up to soon?"

Yesterday I went into SportsClips to get my hair cut. It's great - no wait and there's a soccer game on right in front of you. They do a good job and you don't have to schedule out 4 weeks to get a cut.

I thought this was cute....

Little Johnny watched, fascinated, as his mother smoothed cold cream on her face. "Why do you do that, mommy?" he asked. "To make myself beautiful," she replied as she began to remove the cream with a tissue. "What's the matter," asked little Johnny. "Giving up so soon?"

Isn't it amazing how a major source of our identity is our looks??! In the day of liposuction, botox, eye lifts and rhinoplasty (nose job), we just keep accessorizing ourselves like a new car. When is "enough"? When we look like the cover of Glamour or GQ I guess.

Do you have what it takes to live to 100?

How long do you think you'll live? Seventy-five? Eighty-five? Ninety years of age? The real question is how long would you want to live? What would you do with all those 'extra years'?

Most people are genetically equipped to live into their mid-eighties, says Dr. Thomas Perls, director of the New England Centenarian Study. But what is the secret of crossing two centuries? Dr. Perls asked the Centenarians themselves.

Of course eating right, exercising, and not smoking are pretty much a given. But people who reach a hundred typically have three important traits: They are assertive, they are purposeful, and they are resilient.

Being assertive means getting out of the house. As you get older, spend time with friends; be active. Being assertive is the opposite of being passive.

The Centenarians also say Don’t quit your day job . . .unless you have a good substitute to fill your time. That falls under being purposeful. People who work well into their old age—instead of withdrawing into themselves (there’s that passivity thing again)—still feel that they’re doing something important with their time. Working also keeps the mind sharp and the body active. As one Centenarian put it, You make a trip around the world, then what? You read all the books you want to read, but what do you do after that? A person needs to feel that they’re making a difference.

And the third trait shared by people who live to be a hundred is resilience. Keeping your spirits up, getting through hard times with a positive attitude, not letting illness or the passing of friends and family drag you down. To be resilient you need to believe that life still has a lot to offer. You need to believe God’s promise: I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV).

Virginia Beach = food poisoning??

I was at a small gathering of leaders out of in Virginia Beach late last week. It was great reconnecting with some friends and hearing all of the great things happening in relevant churches across the country.
Friday, a few of us went to a Cheesecake Factory (one of my favorites) and about three hours later - felt.....bad. I hope it was just a very short flu, because I would hate to think that I became ill at one of my favorite places!!! Who can say no to cheesecake??

As some know, our team starts setting up on Sundays @ 7am - but needless to say I arrived later. But, by 9:30 am I was ready for another Journey service and to speak about "Why do some prayers go unanswered?" That's what makes it great to have a team.

Self-diagnostic

I read where the late Fred Smith, founder of FedEx, would give himself a self-diagnostic to make sure he was centered in life. Here were the questions he used:

Love: Where do I fall on the loving scale? How do I avoid benevolent dictatorship?

Patience: How patient am I? Do I accept the difference between perfection and excellence?

Tolerance: Am I biblically tolerant? Do I know the difference between love and apathy?

Unselfishness: How unselfish am I? How do I implement “in honor preferring one another?”

Commitment: What is my level of commitment? Am I capable of having passion without crossing into obsession?

Flexibility: Can I develop a technique without sacrificing stability and principle?

Control: How often do I camouflage this tendency? Do I exhibit dictatorial or victim behavior?

Cynicism: Do I discount the current reality by wanting things to stay the same to make me comfortable?

Greed: Is my desire an appetite or a fire? A fire is never satisfied.

Selfishness: How often do I see others as serving me rather than an opportunity to serve?

Concretized: How realistic am I about change?

He said: "When I do my self-audit, I ask another person for counsel and accountability. This person must be chosen carefully. We are not looking for a critic; we are looking for a coach."