Catalyst Articles

Leaders must, must, must recognize what can happen when we use words the wrong way OR when we allow an environment to develop where words are used the wrong way.

While I applaud the engagement of this generation of parents and teachers, it’s important to recognize the unintended consequences of our engagement. We want the best for our students, but research now shows that our “over-protection, over-connection” style has damaged them.

Something deep inside each of us longs to count. We want to matter to the world. We long to make a difference. We get bored, tired, even depressed by routine and monotony. We’re desperate for significance. We’re searching for acknowledgment. We want to be known.  But to be known begins with knowing ourselves.

I hear this all the time. In organizations, on the street, coffee shops, stores, and seems like always at the airport!

As I sat in silence with these creatures, I had a God-thought pop into my mind that simply said, “You do this sometimes, too.”

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Marketing has changed in the last 10-15 years. Used to, if you had a good ad campaign, eye catching design and a well-written tagline, people would notice and take action. Not necessarily anymore. In today’s economy, your best marketing tool is a great product.

Feelings of pressure, adrenaline, failure, joy, conflict, and paralyzing fear seem to all bounce in me on any given day. Because, here is the thing about leading something.... you will be loved and hated.

We’d be foolish to think we are invulnerable. But we’d be just as foolish to think that evil wins the day.

Ministry can be a very lonely place if you are not surrounded by authentic people. It’s very important for you to know and be known.

People today do not long for a return from Baby­lonian exile. We are not under Roman occupation. What is the contemporary relevance of Jesus’s message of liberation?

When I told my friends and family that God called me to do this, they all had the same reaction. “But you don’t know how to grow anything,” and that was true, I’d never grown anything successfully in my life. Someone once told me, “God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called,” and I clung to that.