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Quick Hits about the Last 2 Weeks...

- Glad to be home from my trip to So. Cal.
- Weather = awesome! I didn't get to hit the pool as much as I wanted to, but the cool weather was refreshing
- In n' out burger = the greatest fast food place on the planet. No question!
- Saddleback Conference - I had a great time meeting people. I learned a ton listening to Rick. Still processing everything that was said. But a great time.
- Loved hanging out with this guy and this guy during the conference.
- I saw James Cromwell at LAX when I was getting on the plane (read: almost missing my flight) yesterday. I wanted to thank him for inventing warp drive (OK - bad Star Trek joke)
- Took Mia to Disneyland - I think she loves Mickey Mouse as much as she loves her mommy and I. (btw - Disney World is far superior in every way)
- Learned a lot at a church I visited (yes, I go to church even when I'm on vacation - isn't that when Christians are supposed to do?)
- Personal highlight: Meeting Steve Harris in Newport Beach on Wednesday! Took a picture with him and talked about their new tour. I started playing bass almost 20 years ago because of Steve Harris, so it was an honor to meet him and take a picture with him.
- I read a few books while I was out of town. I read this one, this one, this one, this one, and I'm 1/2 way through this one. This one was the best in my opinion.
- All in all, I had a great time learning and then I had an even better time connecting with my girls.

Balcony Time

Being away for a few days has been great for me and my family. God has given me tons of ideas for tweaking our systems and a few new ideas that will make us more effective. It's hard to be creative or even to be objective when you're in the grind. Ronald Heifetz in the his book, "Leadership on the Line" talks about 'Balcony Time'. This is where you get away for the purpose of getting a big picture perspective of your organization.

Baseball players can't examine their swing while their in the batter's box. They have to step away and review some film. They need to look at themselves from an objective position. That's the power of breaks and getting away for training. It causes us to see our churches from a new perspective.

These are the Breaks

So Mark and Bill went home. The conference is over and now the vacation starts. I am a firm believer in taking breaks.

The first 4 years of our church I rarely took time off. Looking back, it was very unhealthy and ended up hurting the church more than helping it.

So I have decided to be intentional taking time off:

1. I take a weekly day off
2. I take a short break (long weekend) every couple of months
3. I take an extended vacation every year

I encourage my staff to do the same thing. Why? Because I believe that a rested staff (or person) is twice as effective when they've taking scheduled breaks.

Saddleback Conference Day 2

- Great day today!
- I enjoyed the sessions, especially Rick's session on preaching
- Met a lot of people today. That was fun. I don't get to hang out with other Pastors a lot, so it was very refreshing to hear stories about what God is doing in other parts of the U.S.
- Had a great time at lunch with guys from my former Pastor's Coaching Network
- Bill had never seen Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, so we dropped by their Wednesday night service.
- Twitter has been very unreliable out here. I hope they fix it.
- Fish tacos for dinner! Life is good!
- David Cook is the new American Idol! Wow! I'm happy he won but I was sure America was going to vote for Archuleta.
- Time for bed...

Saddleback Conference Day 1

- I'm exhausted (running on 4 hours sleep and still not adjusted to Pacific time)
- Rick's 2 sessions were outstanding!
- I am blown away by his love for Jesus, love for the Bible and love for Pastors
- Got to catch up with a bunch of guys I hadn't seen in a while
- Got to meet some new friends
- Ate at In n' Out for lunch (that was worth the trip in and of itself)
- Saddleback's campus is fantastic. It's even nicer than the last time I was here.
- Great panel discussion on preaching (Ric, Tim Keller, Erwin Mcmanus, Kerry Shook, and Judd Wilhite)
- Filled a bunch of pages in the moleskin journal (I'm sure someone has the highlights of the sessions)
- Glad I'm here!
- Off to bed (6AM is going to be here soon)

Sunday Stuff...

- Today was great!
- We had a couple of technical issues, but I doubt more than a few noticed
- Crowd was really into the message
- I felt "on" today from the get-go
- I'm loving our "Frequency" series
- Vocalzone is still rockin' my world - my throat feels great after 3 services.
-Lots of first time guests. Always excited about that!
- Our set up/ tear down crew amaze me. These guys are sold out to Jesus and the vision of Calvary. Awesome!
- It was amazing hearing the stories of what God is doing in the lives of people. It keeps me fired up!
- A lady visiting from Panama came to CF for the first time and ran into a good friend that attends our church! I love when that stuff happens and I hear about it all the time!
- The verdict is in - I love Twitter :)
- Looking forward to LA this week. This weather is much better than Miami.
- Looking forward to being at Saddleback for a couple of days and then spending time with my girls.
- I want to visit a couple of churches next Sunday. If you have any suggestions, let me know.
- I have to finish packing...

Book Review: The Performance Factor

I needed a great book on building high performance teams and I got it! The Performance Factor delivers the goods on what great teams look like, how great teams are formed, and what a leader needs to do lead a great team.

Honestly, the diagrams were some of the most helpful things in this books because it gave all of the concepts he spoke of, a face and a flow. This is a great book for any leader to read.

Here are a few of the quotes that rocked me:

"A team is a group of people who choose to cooperate in order to achieve exceptional results."

"To achieve exceptional results, high performance teams creatively divide the task and thn cooperate like mad."

"Leadership is the existence of people with power to mobilize others and set constraints - is an important ingredient in making participation work."

"As a manager I can demand compliance, but commitment is volunteered."

"Communication does not take place until someone receives the message and understands it as the sender intended."

"Just in time is the best time for training."

"You don't form teams, you build them."

This is a great book and I definitely recommend it!

The Twitter Experiment

I don't know if I'm going to like this, but I'm testing out Twitter.

If you want to follow what I'm doing, here's the link...

What is Deep? What is Shallow?

I believe there's a misnomer in the church. It's the definition of deep or shallow preaching. Deep preaching gets defined as doctrinal and shallow preaching is defined as applicational. I think we have our definitions wrong.

Shallow preaching is when a speaker tells you what the text means, but fails to tells you what the text can do in your life. Throwing out a few Greek words doesn't make preaching deep. Talking about ancient cultures doesn't make preaching deep. A person could stand up and read a commentary and do exactly what some define as "deep" preaching.

Deep preaching is when a Pastor explains what the text means but when proceeds to apply the text to our lives. What creates depth in a message is the connection between me and the text. If no connection is made, then we're still on the surface. The greater the connection to my life, the great the depth of the message.

Does this mean commentaries are shallow? Not at all. They serve a wonderful purpose and I have 100's in my office. But commentaries aren't preaching, they're explaining. And God has called preachers to be more than explainers. He's called us to be equippers. (Eph. 4:11-12)

Messages that have Rocked My World

I've never been to the Leadership Summit (Although I am registered this year thanks to my friends at this church who are graciously hosting - so to Troy and friends, thanks!)

Even though I've never attended the Summit, I have the messages of every year of the last 12 years of Leadership Summits. Honestly, this is the best leadership stuff on the planet. The best speakers, the most challenging and hard hitting topics. Bottom line: It's no joke.

Anyway, I finally got around to picking up the messages from 2007 (which only 4 were available - was I annoyed, to say the least! It ruined my collection - that's the OCD in me coming out :)

I've listened to 3 of the messages so far and they are unbelievable! The 2 Hybels sessions are grand slam home runs and the John Ortberg session "A Leader's Greatest Fear" was the stuff legends are made of! If you have listened to them, do yourself a favor and pick them up!