Strangely Unfamiliar

Last week, I spent 48 hours saying goodbye to my childhood home in Indiana. This week’s blogs center around that…

The house looks the same, relatively speaking. What I mean is, my dad is a handy-man extraordinaire so every square inch of the house I grew up in has been completely remodeled at some point in the last 30 years. Seriously. There’s not one inch of the place that hasn’t had an improvement made to it, including the barn!!!

So, even though the interior of the house looks different, it still feels the same. I can still run up the stairs 2 by 2 and make it to the top just in time to make the right turn into my bedroom without running into the doorframe. The basement still has a unique, damp smell and the shower head is still too low.

Every piece of our 3 ½ acres of land holds a significant memory for me. Wiffle ball games in the back field, 6th grade swimming party around the pool, shooting baskets in the driveway. Snow sledding down the hill by the 3 apple trees.

Everything about the place is strangely unfamiliar and yet like an old friend all at the same time.

Great memories of a great childhood in a great house,

Matt

48 Hours to Say Goodbye to 30 Years

So I had one of those rare, once in a lifetime opportunities this week. I got to say goodbye to my childhood home. It was a bit surreal to be honest with you. After 30 years, my parents are selling their home in Indiana and moving permanently to Southwest Florida.

1st, let me say we are absolutely pumped that they are going to be Full-Time in our lives and the lives of my 2 boys. But getting from Indiana to Florida requires going through 30 years of memories, pictures and various items from the past.

So, last week, I flew up to Indiana for a couple of days to help them go through so much of our life and memories there. Forgive me for deviating from the standard “Leadership Stuff I’m Learning” track to take a trip down memory lane. This week’s blogs center around those 48 hours saying goodbye to 30 years.

Here’s to 30 years at 3908, (My old house’s street address)

Matt

4 Things I’m Learning about Leadership Right Now

4. In order to get to the Next Level, you have to be willing to STRETCH.

Ask my team and they will tell you that I’ve been overusing a term lately. It’s: “We’re in the Stretch…”

What that means is that we, as an organization, are being stretched to go to the next level. For the first 8 months of the year, we were in a Fortify Mode. Circle the Wagons, get strong, get healthy, protect ourselves, hunker down (nice use of the word hunker, huh?) and fortify the troops.

Now it would seem that God has allowed us to Enter the Stretch. Growth is happening and everywhere we turn, we are feeling the STRETCH. Internally, Physically, Spiritually, Numerically, Externally, etc.

the STRETCH is a good thing. It’s not an easy thing, but it IS a good thing. Stretching leads to the Next Level. The key to the STRETCH is to not be broken. Flexibility reigns in the STRETCH. Oh yeah, and not letting go. If you let go of a rubber band while it’s in the STRETCH, it will sting you. That’s bad.

I’m learning that the STRETCH is the only way to get to the Next Level.

Ever been STRETCHed?

Have a great weekend,

Matt

4 Things I’m Learning about Leadership Right Now

3. The Distance between NEEDING a Creative Spark & HAVING a Creative Spark can be a million miles sometimes.

If you’re creative or are required to create a weekly message that must inspire, challenge, entertain, motivate, provoke and teach several hundred people each week like I am then you probably understand the statement above.

For communicators, there is nothing worse than the lack of a SPARK! However, once you have it, the rest flows downhill pretty quickly. All I need is a SPARK, once I have that, I’m set. But SPARKs don’t live around every corner and they certainly don’t work 9 to 5. They hide in weird places like on road trips, or in books. They tend to stay awake late at night and run for cover whenever the phone rings or the e-mail is open.

SPARKs tend to live in the quiet places, which in our world, are hard to come by.

Yeah, I’m learning that the Distance between NEEDING a Creative Spark & HAVING a Creative Spark can be a million miles sometimes. But it’s the search for the SPARK that is most of the fun.

I hope that made sense,

Matt

4 Things I’m Learning about Leadership Right Now

2. Advancing takes Twice the Energy of Staying the Same.

There are just some things that we have to do as leaders simply to maintain. Put another way, there are some baseline responsibilities we have manage in order to “stay in business” from week to week. It’s like putting gas in your car. If you don’t do it, you don’t go anywhere. No matter how nice of a car you have.

When it comes to advancing our organizations, truly great leaders understand that progress requires twice the energy that maintanance does. Progress doesn’t just happen. It takes strategy, tenacity and determination to push past the daily grind and actually move forward.

That’s easier said than done. I’m learning that right now.

Just a bloggish thought,

Matt

4 Things I’m Learning about Leadership Right Now

1. It’s a Marathon not a Sprint.

Every race has ups and downs, highs and lows, ebbs and flows. Leadership is no different. Leadership is certainly not for the faint of heart.

If you want your life to matter and you want to impact other people’s lives, then there is a serious commitment level involved. and sad to say, only a few survive the rigors of the Leadership Race.

Running a good race has everything to do with pace, rhythm and encouragement. Running the leadership race is exactly the same.

I’m learning that right now,

Thoughts???

Matt

The Official “LEAK” of My 1st Book!

Hey everyone,

I’m totally not supposed to be doing this, but I can’t hold it in any longer! We are officially 1 week away from our deadline to have the entire book submitted to our publisher. That means that we are definitely on target for a January 2009 Launch of my 1st Book!

I can’t tell you anything… except that the Title is: The Up the Middle Church &…

(and this is a big and…)

There may be a chance that we have a few “Limited Edition Pre-Release Copies” available to us prior to 01/01/09.

I’ll keep you in the loop & let you know if you can get your hands on a copy…

Keller

S.O.A.P. – Why Everyone Else is Having All the Fun!!!

5. Start Again.

There is a famous saying that says, “If you fall off the horse, get up, brush yourself off, and get on and ride again.” (Okay, I don’t know if it goes exactly like that, but that’s how I remember my dad saying it to me when I was growing up.)

Anyway, when it comes to spending time in God’s Word everyday or S.O.A.P. ing as we like to call it around NLC, the best time to start or start again is Right Now! Download a reading guide, listen to GPS – Part 5 and get going. (Click Here)

Jesus wants to meet with you today. Spending time in the Bible is how.

Commit to all 3 days this weekend, it will be worth it,

Matt

S.O.A.P. – The One, The Only, The Original, The Best, The Undefeated One

4. Embrace where you are.

One of the overwhelming things that can happen when you set out to read daily through the Bible like so many of us are, is that if or when you get behind you can feel overwhelmed by it all and become tempted to give up.

Don’t do it. Instead, embrace where you are. Pick up the reading guide and find today’s reading and start there. Don’t worry about everything else. God’s Word is alive and He is faithful to speak to us, each and everyday.

Read a portion of the Bible.
Write down 1 verse.
Write your Observation.
State how it applies to your life.
Write out a simple prayer of dedication.

It’s that simple. Any of us can embrace that reality!

For more information on S.O.A.P. click here.
Just a bloggish thought,

Matt

S.O.A.P – The Other White Meat…

3. Resist Condemnation.

Spending time with Jesus everyday is a priority for every believer. God wants us to be self-feeders. Not to be dependant on someone else to tell us how God wants us to live. He has given us His Word, The Bible, so we can daily center our lives around it and learn from the mentors contained within its pages.

If you have struggled to spend time in God’s Word recently, resist condemnation. Satan knows that if he can get us feeling condemned then we won’t live victoriously and when we don’t live victoriously, we end up in the wrong place. Just ask David with Bathsheba. (See 2 Samuel 11)

? Have you been feeling condemned recently? Pray right now for God to give you the power to breakthrough it… then go S.O.A.P.

Matt