On the Journey

= good times. A few shots from our team night out. Going to the Varsity truly is one of those things you ONLY do once a year, at most….. For those who’ve been there, you know exactly what I mean.

Recently spent some time with Pete Richardson, who is a good friend and consults with tons of ministries, not for profits, and businesses. Pete brought up a great analogy between growing as a spiritual leader and fly fishing, ultimately the inflow and outflow of life. For those who love to fly fish, you know that stagnant water is bad. The best water and ultimately the best fishing is in areas where water is moving and stays pure and filtered- areas that have a current and water flow. Areas of a river that don’t have great inflow and outflow tend to get stagnant, dirty, polluted and unpure. 

Similar to our life as a follower of Christ and spiritual leader. How are you creating rhythms in your own personal development, and creating a great inflow and outflow system that keeps you fresh and protects against becoming stagnant? All of us are aware how quickly we can become stagnant- in personal development, in Scriptural study and engagement, in community, in prayer and spiritual disciplines, and many other areas of life. It is important that we are constantly purging the things that are impure, and flowing in to our lives new things that are fresh, clean, and will purify.

Here is a recommendation on some books to read. Thought I’d give these to you by video to make it a little more fun. Chad Johnson, the popular voice and face for Catalyst, joins me. 

UPDATE: Here are the links to each book as well on Amazon. I just realized the titles are backwards on the video, thanks to Doug. Sorry about that. But all are now listed below. 

1. Just Courage by Gary Haugen 

2. Small Footprint, Big Handprint by Tri Robinson

3. The Sacred Echo by Margaret Feinberg

4. Wide Awake by Erwin McManus 

5. Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris 

6. Make the Impossible Possible by Bill Strickland

Ok, I am starting a new series, which will be my insights (highly unobjective of course….) into why most people shouldn’t fly on airplanes because they lack airplane etiquette. I have flown in the last 10 years around 600,000 miles, on basically every carrier, and visited 10 countries and almost every US state. Many of you have flown much, much more than me, so feel free to add your own points to this ever evolving list. Power to the flying people on this one. Will make a good coffee table book in the future…..

Part One

1. The middle armrest- here’s the deal, middle seat boy always gets first right of refusal on armchair left and armchair right of their seat. If someone is sitting in the middle, the least you can do is allow them to have elbow space. Leaner Larry sitting in the aisle seat has no right to invade your space, nor does Window Wally.

2. Quick draw cellphone man- seriously, this annoys me to no end. Wheels down and cellphone on. Can you wait at least a few minutes before getting on your cell phone and talking as loud as possible so that you seem somewhat important to those around you, when we all know that all you did was just call the person most likely to answer so that you could act like something was incredibly important and couldn’t wait. Give me a break. How about 5 minutes of downtime before you jump back into cell phone land- and start making calls once you are off the plane. 

More to follow….. feel free to add your own.

- The Roadtrip team was over at the Ignite Conference held at Perimeter Church in metro Atlanta over the weekend. 

- If you are a Thomas Friedman fan (I am) who is a regular columnist for The New York Times, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, and has written books such as The Lexus and the Olive Tree and Longitude and Attitudes, then you’ll want to check out this link. You can download a FREE audio mp3 of the book The World is Flat from Friedman, which is one of my favorites. This free download is building momentum for Friedman’s upcoming release of his newest book the first week of September. 

- Another great song and incredible story from Hillsong, in regards to their soon to release new album This is our God. 

- If you are a MAC user, you need to download and use the application 1 Password. It is amazingly simple to use and will allow you to keep all of your passwords in one place. Thanks to Chris for helping me set mine up. 

- The Yankees are making a major comeback right now. Red Sox beware.

- Check out our Catalyst Voices video segments on vimeo. Some good stuff on there.

Get to know Ben Arment, the newest member of the Catalyst team. And the bumper sticker is not endorsed or condoned by Ben, just so you know….

Our team loves Chick-fil-A. And today was a special day at the local Chick-fil-A…. whatever you bought, keep your receipt and then up until the end of August you can go in and show your receipt and get the same amount of food for FREE! I’m not sure if this is running nationwide, but if so, head to your local Chick-fil-A this evening and get in on the deal.

We of course took advantage, as evidenced by the receipts….. 

When is the last time you got outside your typical routine? Stepped outside the norm and the comfort of a ”normal” day, learning environment, or group of friends? When did you last learn from, or for that matter event talk with someone you don’t agree with? Are there people in your life who challenge all of your paradigms and stretch your thinking on a consistent basis? Or do you simply surround yourself with “yes” men and women?

Do you typically like to spend time with those whom you feel are inferior to you (in your industry, work environment, and career) or those who are much better than you? Are there certain people who intimidate you? If so, plan a lunch or meeting with them and become a student. Typically those who intimidate us are those we should probably learn from, but aren’t sure how. 

Over the next week, make a plan to spend at least one hour in an environment or with a person who stretches you. Nothing morally or ethically sketchy (obviously). I think you’ll find it to be a refreshing time. And please report back so we can all learn from your experience.

Recently, several friends had a conversation regarding who they felt the best communicator was in the Church today, regardless of topic or environment. Several names were given. I know it is hard to only pick one name, so how about your top Three? 

Mine: Andy Stanley, Louie Giglio, Francis Chan

How about you?

Margaret Feinberg is in town to speak at 7:22 at Buckhead Church tonight, but stopped by the Catalyst offices yesterday to hang with our team a bit. The red couch in our offices is becoming the Catalyst hot seat! Margaret and her husband Leif are great folks. They live in Colorado and are going to end up being on the road speaking 180 days this year. Wow. Her most recent book Sacred Echo is soon to release, and she is working on a very cool book project for 2009 that you’ll be hearing more about. 

Margaret and Leif also had the chance to ride in the Catalyst Vanagon to Chick-fil-A for lunch, in 100 degree heat with no air conditioning!

Great article in the latest issue of Time Magazine on Nelson Mandela. I was reading it last night, planning to post about it today. But noticed that Carlos had posted about this very article. So instead of me giving my perspective, head over to Ragamuffin Soul and read the 8 lessons on leadership straight from Carlos’ blog. Good stuff. 

Mandela has retired for the most part from the public square but still is involved in a few initiatives. His legacy is undeniable. Most would count him among the greatest leaders of the last 100 years. I sure do.

Check out a recent interview with Brenda Salter McNeil, author of Credible Witness and a frequent speaker at conferences all over the country, and she will be joining us at Catalyst in October. We also sit down with Chris Heuertz, author of Simple Spirituality and Director of Word Made Flesh. 

You can listen via itunes or if not an itunes user, then listen here.

- Wow. Greg Norman has turned back the clock, leading by 2 strokes after 54 holes of the Open Championship. 

- A few blogs you should check out: Jeremie, Brian, Chris, and Kristian. 

- The Roadtrip boys are back after 16 states in 8 days. Unbelievable. Plus no air conditioning in the Vanagon during the middle of July. Yikes. 

- Have you heard the song “Jesus Messiah” from Chris Tomlin? It has anthem song of the next 2-3 years written all over it. Sang it (and heard it) for the first time last week with 10,000 other folks at the Forward Conference. You would have thought the crowd had known it for years. 

- Another unbelievable song- Healer from Hillsong. The story behind the song will both inspire you and kick you in the gut. Wow. 

- Two great sites you should frequent: Hulu and Pandora. Hulu has tons of tv shows and movies for free. I have been watching Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip the past couple of weeks. Amazingly well written show- too bad it didn’t make it to season 2. Pandora is an online radio station where you can control the kind of songs you hear and program based on artists or genre.

I am walking through the airport 2 days ago, and overhear a conversation among several employees griping about something. Their conversation was centered around “I can’t believe THEY decided to make that decision…. they are asking us to show up early but they don’t understand.” Who is they? 

You hear it all the time…. “they” don’t want me to succeed. “they’re” the reason the project is failing. It would have worked if “they” wouldn’t have messed things up. It wasn’t my fault- “they” were supposed to take care of that. 

as leaders, we need to constantly be aware that the idea of “we” and “me” instead of “they” should be our compass. Passing the buck to an unknown entity like “they” just causes confusion and frustration. It’s easy to put all the blame on “them” because “they” don’t have a name or face or personal connection. The onus is on US, WE and ME, not THEM or THEY, whoever those folks might be…..

Who is in your current inbox? Mainly emails from internal staff or employees? Friends? Bills? Requests from Facebook? Spam? Here is a snapshot of my inbox from today:

Jerry Shirer- regarding his wife Priscilla Shirer speaking at an upcoming Catalyst event.

Steve Fee- regarding a Catalyst program meeting in early August.

Chad Johnson- constant in the inbox- regarding a number of things, including some important emails to our Catalyst VIP folks, and also our British Open office pool (I have Robert Allenby, Geoff Ogilvy, and Trevor Immelman).

Ben Arment- emails back and forth regarding the Catalyst west coast event and Catalyst Filter.

Margaret Feinberg- follow up email from our meeting in Orlando and setting up plans to meet on Monday.

Daniel Decker- friend from Jacksonville. Associated with Jon Gordon and other leadership authors. 

TED Conference- the latest crop of free videos from this community of innovators.

Francis Chan’s assistant- regarding an upcoming Catalyst event and his involvement.

Stephen Brewster- setting up an important call to discuss some Integrity artists.

Tim Willard- working on articles for the Catalyst GroupZine.

Ragamuffin Soul- one of the few blogs that I subscribe to directly into my inbox.

New York Times- alerts from the giant newspaper. These are great and keep me up to date.

Google alerts- constantly getting these on all kinds of key words and issues. Highly recommended.

Michael Palgon- Deputy Publisher for Random House discussing some specific authors and opportunities for partnering on events.

Jesse Phillips- how we are doing with targeted Facebook ads.

Tony Morgan- some book ideas. 

Melissa Kruse- an FYI on Jim Tressel’s new book.

Anything interesting in your inbox? 

Round 2 of the recap of meetings from CBA in Orlando. 

- Spent some time with Alex and Brett Harris. Twins, 19 years old, and started a movement called Rebelution. They are authors of the recent hit book Do Hard Things. Really impressed with who they are, what they are doing, and the vision and purpose behind their message. 

- Caught up with Margaret Feinberg. Margaret has a new book releasing soon called Sacred Echo, and she is also working on a very cool project right now for 2009. Margaret and her husband Leif are incredible people, and great to work with.

- Good to see Hayley and Michael DiMarco from Hungry Planet. Michael and Hayley are highly creative, write great books, and speak major truth into teenagers and students. 

- Have you seen the cover for Rob Bell’s new book? Interesting. Look close to see the way the blocks are being used. Very creative. 

- Met with Stephen Brewster from Integrity. Had a great conversation regarding music, Catalyst, Integrity, Hillsong, blogging, and leaders. Look forward to working more with Stephen and Jay on a number of projects.

So as you know based on my last post, I have been in Orlando the last two days at the International Christian Retail Show put on by the Christian Booksellers Association. More on day two visits later today. 

But for now, I wanted to conduct an informal poll of sorts. This polling data quite possibly may end up in the hands of publishing executives at the Big 5 Christian publishers.

Here are the questions: 

1. Do you visit/shop at Christian bookstores? Yes or No

2. If yes, how many times have you visited in the past month? 

3. If no, how many times have you visited a Barnes & Noble or equivalent in the past month? 

Easy enough. Respond away. Mine- No. 5.

I’m in Orlando for a couple of days for the International Christian Retail Show, which is put on by the Christian Booksellers Association. A few highlights from today:

- Gabe Lyons and Dave Kinnaman were the featured speakers at this morning’s general session for all attendees. Plus they were on the cover of the daily ICRS Newspaper. I have secured several copies for my friends in Atlanta……

- UnChristian has now sold over 100,000 copies in 11 months. This is pretty incredible. When Gabe and Dave launched the book at Catalyst last year we had no idea that it would be such a big hit. Congrats to Dave and Gabe for the success and impact of the book. 

- Ran into Paul Young, the author of the uber popular book The Shack. His book was recently picked up by Faith Words, so he was at their booth signing copies. The line was really long, but I cut in to just say hi. Shout out from Paul to the Catalyst Road Trip Crew on their trip around the northeast US!

- Had lunch with Mark Batterson, who is soon to release a new book entitled Wild Goose Chase. Always great to hang with Mark. We discussed at length his upcoming trip in August to Scotland, and the fact he will be playing at St. Andrews, the birthplace of golf.

- Saw Tony Dungy roaming the halls, but wasn’t able to get a picture with him. Bummer!

- Went to Epcot for dinner and watched the fireworks at sunset. Very cool. They use lasers, smoke, an LED ball (not wall) that is set up as the globe, and lots of fire. I think the Magic Kingdom fireworks show is much better, but the Epcot “illuminations” show is a good runner up. 

- Ran into Mark Steele and Kevin Anderson from Steelehouse Productions. Those guys are a blast to hang out with. Also ran into Mark Sanborn, the author of the Fred Factor, and soon to release book entitled The Encore Effect. 

- Went to a fun get together put on by Yates and Yates. They are celebrating their 20th year of representing authors and serving tons of clients as literary agents. Their client list is a who’s who of Christian authors, including John Maxwell, Rob Bell, Charles Swindoll, Erwin McManus, John Eldridge, and many others. There were a ton of friends in the publishing industry at this celebration gathering, which is a testament to the friends Sealy, Susan, Matt, Curtis, Chris, and Jeana have made through the legal and literary agent work they have done over the years.

We’re launching a new “store” on the Catalyst website, and I wanted to let you in on a few cool deals before anyone else knows about it. Go to the Catalyst store and check it out. Free shipping, free giveaways, a pretty cool prize to try and win, plus some specials on books and resources you might be interested in. You are the first to know about these deals, so consider yourself a VIP or in the know, or both.

Also wanted to provide a few pics from our creative brainstorming meeting last week (as promised a few posts ago). It was a blast- lots of ideas flying, snacks, laughing, balls being thrown, and fortunately nothing broke or no one injured!

Had the privilege a couple of nights ago to join around 50 leaders from the Atlanta area at the Carter Center to see a private screening of the upcoming documentary (rockumentary) titled Call and Response. Justin Dillon, the director, was there along with Erik Lokkesmoe, a good friend who originally informed me of this project. Erik is the founder of Different Drummer, a marketing agency that works with films, projects, and innovative initiatives. 

Call and Response is an activist film designed to raise awareness regarding Slavery, forced labor, Child Soldiers, and Sex Trafficking, all four major issues in our culture today, including right here in Atlanta. The project involves a number of bands and artists who collaborated on a music concert that is pretty unbelievable, and highlighted throughout the film, all in an attempt to raise awareness on this issue. This documentary will release in September, and you need to make sure you see it, and take your friends with you. All of the proceeds from the film will be given towards projects designed to end slavery and sex trafficking around the world. And it will disturb you. In a good way. Believe me. 

Jeff Shinabarger has a great post on the film as well over at his blog. 

View the trailor below.