Christian Leadership Development
I watch NHK World and DW TV on PBS World. I try not to watch American TV because there is to much commentary and not enough substance.
I also use Google news, and NewsMap.jp. They both ofer quick headlines and rundowns for the day.
If it is not news to me, it is not news.
I have a friend in the copier/printer business who is a team trainer. He used a talk about using the right kind of toner in your copier into three new clients who each bought several copiers with maintenance contracts. At first I found it hard to believe, but he swears all he did was add the talk as a podcast to his personal blog and link back to the company he works for.
What He Did To Generate Website Traffic
1. He told everyone he talked to at the trade show about his blog. Yes he had a forum by giving the talk, but you can do the same thing. This may sound like it is a hard thing to do but getting into a trade show is usually paying at the front door and you can walk right in. Carry your business cards and hand them out like you have a booth. Don’t act like it’s unprofessional just do it and shut-up.
2. He put a digital recorder in his coat pocket and used a small mic on his collar. Yes it is low quality, but it is what he had. You can do this at your house if you don’t have a venue. Just act like you are talking to a giant audience go with it.
3. He used Audacity to turn it into a useful mp3 then uploaded it to his blog. That’s it. Other than closing the deals, but that’s on you. I just tell you how to use the technology, not how to sell stuff.
Happy Hunting, I hope this helps.
(Audacity is a free audio editor. I used it to turn my old tapes into mp3′s. It is fairly easy to learn if you are the least bit technical)
Find Digital Audio Recorders at Amazon
As a blogger on several different sites I need to be able to accumulate information to read at a later time. Every note I took used to go into a filing cabinet, then two filing cabinets, then two filing cabinets and filing boxes. You get the point. Now I have one filing drawer, for needed home documents, and every note is filed on Evernote. I learned several years ago from John C. Maxwell that filing things away will help you be creative in the future. Having a quote from an author, blogger, or speaker can spark a paragraph, a post, or even a series of posts.
So here is what I use it for:
Filing Notes – I have the Evernote plugin for the Chrome browser so all I have to do is highlight what I want to save and hit the plugin to clip it. It is really that simple.
Helps Stay Organized – Like I said, I have gotten rid of two filing cabinets and a couple of boxes so that has freed up room in our house. I don’t keep anything paper around anymore. Magazines get noted and thrown away instead of torn and filed. My email is smaller. Instead of keeping emails I had annotated I clip them and delete them.
Brainstorming Blog Posts – I have a folder for brainstorming I can open up from anywhere. Whether it is a dedicated time for brainstorming or if I am out I can take an audio note from my iPod and sync it to the Evernote Web when I get home.
Keeping My Wifes Recipes – I got this idea from Karen at Saving The Family Money. She takes pictures of recipe cards with her iPhone and saves them to Evernote. Again saving space and being able to tag each one by ingredient you can search and pick easily.
So you can see these are just four of many different way you can use Evernote to help you get organized, save time, and unclutter.
I heard about the Walk to Emmaus retreat a couple of years ago from a man in a church I was pastoring at the time. We left the church and lost contact with him before my wife and I could attend a Walk. This past fall I coached soccer at a local Methodist church and mentioned Emmaus to someone on the leadership team who it just so happened knew someone in the church I attend now that volunteers with our local Walk to Emmaus chapter. Needless to say I knew right away I wanted to go.
If you have read this blog for anytime at all you know that I believe one of our calls as Christians is to be deep people. I know this is not what most people want in relationships today, but when we are deep, we are strong. I think, the Walk to Emmaus retreat will help me to grow deeper in my walk with Christ, and with my friends and family. I put this video up to explain the walk, but also encourage anyone who see it to take the walk for themselves.
An Introduction to Walk to Emmaus, The Upper Room from Beth Richardson on Vimeo.
I guess this is what I need to do now based on all the chatter about Rob Bell’s new book that I have not read and have no intention of doing so. Not because of the author or content, it is just not something I would read.
One of the teaser questions for the book is,
Millions of Christians have struggled with how to reconcile God’s love and God’s judgment: Has God created billions of people over thousands of years only to select a few to go to heaven and everyone else to suffer forever in hell? Is this acceptable to God? How is this “good news”?
I don’t struggle with that question at all and neither should anyone else but Calvinists because that is what they believe. I and the majority of Christians do not believe God creates people to go to hell. God Knows before hand who will and won’t because he knows everything, but he does not create them for that purpose.
My Example:
If I meet a strongly believing Buddhist and become friends with him over time I assume we will discuss the Gospel at some point. I will give him my best apologetic on the gospel of Christ, and he will counter on the best beliefs of Buddhism. I will still be his friend if he does not accept Christ. I will still pray that God would open his heart, but if he truly believes that Buddhism is the only form of salvation, he will not accept Christ and I believe will go to and eternal hell.
Calvinist will argue that man can not choose for himself and God has to make the man accept Christ. If that is true, why do we do evangelism, because God will only let in who he wants to anyway.
God is God, and is the only sovereign one. He knows about every one of us and I think we do Him a disservice arguing about whether he is going to let some in and shut some out. Hell is a real place and real people will spend a real eternity there (Bill Hybles). We need to spend our time and efforts trying to get as many out as we can.
My Soap Box
We have spent many years in the church as a whole trying to get people in the door and giving them an easy believism. All that many “Christians” are doing is trying to get out of hell, or just get into heaven. We have omitted Jesus’ teaching about discipleship and discipline so people won’t feel like they don’t fit in. Hang the apologetics and live what you believe. If you really believe what the bible teaches then live it out unashamed.
P.S I know today that if we have a different view on a subject we are supposed to dislike them. I don’t hate or dislike Calvinist, I graduated from Liberty University and have several Calvinist friends who don’t agree with each other or me. So if you want to argue your lapsarian view please don’t — I’ll just delete it. 
The inspiration from theis blog came from many more that I read but mainly from Frank Viola’s post What is God Really Like? Hell, the Old Testament God, and Love Wins – An Interview with the Author of “Is God a Moral Monster?” He interviews Paul Copan author of the book Is God A Moral Monster. It is a deep article and a little long, but suffer through it because it is worth your time.
Featured Image on homepage used under cc2.0 license from http://www.flickr.com/photos/nostri-imago/
Liked Nigel’s talk from TEDxSydeny. Good lesson we need. Get Nigel’s book; Fat,Forty,Fired
I know what your thinking. Why is Steve using those big words? First theologian is not that big of a word, and second because if I had said, “We are all people who make speculations about God, faith, and religion” you would have thought me just as weird. So, theologian it is, let’s get on with it.
What is a theologian? The web definition says that a theologian is someone who is learned in theology or who speculates about theology. I like speculates about theology the best.
So What is theology? (from the web definition) Theology is the study of a god or, more generally, the study of religious faith, practice, and experience, or of spirituality. (Yes I know God is not capitalized here, I will address that later, just go with the definition.)
Having stated all that I will make my case. We are all theologians because we all make speculations about, faith, religious practice, spirituality, and/or God — or the lack there of. No one on earth will spend his or her life without making one decision at least about God. The main decision most people will make is, “Does he/she/it, exist?” No matter what they decide, their life will be different from that point on.
As for Christians we believe that God does exist, and Jesus was His Son. But, in the United States at least we have left theology up to pastors and college professors. When we have done this, many times we have put our faith in what that pastor or professor has told us instead of doing the work ourselves. We have let other people form our beliefs and that has made us weaker in our faith. When someone challenges our faith, many of us deny or cower down. When we leave our theology to someone else we give up our ability to think. If you are listening to someone else to get your view of God and not exploring for yourself you are not being honest with yourself.
Take the time to study the bible and learn about God for yourself.
Free bible study stuff :
Two books that helped me are Grasping God’s Word
I’m going to be straight with you. I am Going to tell you the honest to God truth.
1. If your content sucks, nobody will read it.
2. If you redo some one else’s stuff, nobody will read it.
3. If you try to get everyone to buy your crap, nobody will read it.
4. If you lie, nobody will read it.
5. If your page is covered with affiliate links, nobody will read it.
6. If you are a tool, nobody will read it.
7. If you try to get rich quick, you will go broke.
8. If you think you can make a name for yourself, don’t. You are going up against people who have made millions of dollars doing other things. They already had a name for themselves before they started selling you their stuff.
9. If you can’t make friends, you will never ever make money blogging. You need people to trust you before they buy your stuff.
10. It is not going to happen over night. For some it will, for most it won’t. Deal with it and write the next post.
Much of what we see in the news today has to do with the rich getting over on the poor, or the poor getting freebies from the government, or the disappearing middle class. Today in the Life Journal Reading Plan from YouVersion the reading is from Deuteronomy 5:28-29. God, speaking to Moses say,
Moses, I heard what the people said to you, and I approve. 29 I wish they would always worship me with fear and trembling and be this willing to obey me! Then they and their children would always enjoy a successful life.
Some people will read that and think, “That is exactly what I needed to hear.” While others will read it and think, “I am not worshiping a God who I have to tremble in front of.” Don’t Miss The Point! God wants to be first in your life because he loves you and wants what is best for you. He doesn’t have to be, he wants to be. When we put other things like money and worldly success in front of him we lose focus and our lives become unbalanced. After we have put God first then everything else comes into perspective. We see money as a tool not as a status symbol. Our house becomes a home not an asset to be traded.
I think real success, the most important part of putting God first, is being able to be ourselves instead of trying to be someone we think the world wants us to be.
Who’s Talking