A local acquaintance made a very large donation to a worthy non-profit a couple of years ago and I attended the dinner honoring him and his wife.  This was not their first major contribution but it was far more public and caught everyone by surprise.  While everything was done with great taste to honor them and they were extremely appreciative ” there were a number of whispered comments. “I had no idea they had that kind of money.” “We’re going to see if we can get them interested in our project.” “Did they do this spontaneously or had someone been working on them for a while?” The evening concluded…

  My last piece on entrepreneur church leaders reminded me of a dinner I had one night with a number of Wal-Mart executives in Rogers Arkansas.  I was seated next to a man whose responsibilities were doing site selections for new stores – especially Sam's Clubs.  Being naturally curious I asked him what process he used to select sites.  I wanted to know how he started with the broadest general survey of the whole country (those stores were relatively new then) and narrowed the options down to a particular site in a local community.  Needless to say it was a science he had perfected.  Of course it was not just…

  A friend in Dallas asked me last week “What’s the reason for megachurches?”  That’s an easy one to answer!  Since I worked for twelve years with megachurches as President of Leadership Network in what some consider to be the period of largest growth for these churches I’ve been thinking about his question.  Coincidentally I was with Bob Buford the founder of Leadership Network a couple of weeks ago and he told me that while there had been 300 megachurches when we started in 1984 there are now over 3 “000 in the United States alone.  That’s quite a growth curve. However” I don’t think my friend was looking for…

  “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life ” and only a few find it.” John 10:13-14 This was the lesson assignment on Sunday and” frankly ” I was not too enthusiastic about teaching it.  A good part of that is residue from the wars over Rob Bell’s “Love Wins” and I did not want to get into a big (or small) discussion about who goes to hell.  As you know” the version of the passage in Luke begins with the question…

  William Bridges wrote “Transitions"” years ago which helped me think about the difference between “change” and “transition”.  It did not seem like much at the time but the distinction is important.   Change happens all the time and it doesn’t matter if it is small (change banks) or large (death of a spouse or loss of a career).  What matters is making a transition from one thing to another.  Change is situational and constant.  Transition is psychological and is a process where people gradually accept the details of the new situation and the changes that come with it.  Every  transition has three stages: The ending ” the wilderness (or neutral…

  A couple of years ago Carol’s friends gave her a satellite radio receiver for her car.  It’s a source of amusement to me because like cable television there are hundreds of choices – especially if you like sports heavy metal music talk shows country western country/country western/western and more sports.  The only time I use it is when we travel and I can find something closer to my taste – CSPAN book reviews PBS and Joni Mitchell.  As you probably know ” you just set your regular radio dial on 88.3 and the satellite does the rest.  Instant (and increasingly strange) variety.  Here’s what bothers me.  In Houston and…

  I have a friend who told me he read book reviews instead of books because it was more important to know about a new book than to have read it.  He called it “fake smart”.  It’s a good phrase.  I do the same.  I don’t want to be caught not having at least some knowledge about the latest book so I snack on the reviews and unfortunately ” lose my appetite for reading. I was at a conference a couple of years ago and realized we were doing the same thing with speakers.  We were “speed dating” with content.  We were curious about what they had to say but…

  David Brooks is so right about so many things – and his opinion piece last week on the "wonderful young people who are doing good" (Link) is on the mark as well.  His conclusion that their idealism is ultimately not enough because it does not address the harsh realities of politics systems corruption and the extent of "disorder" in those very places they are working is accurate.  Their ambivalence about the place of rough political process and their preference for cleaner and more virtuous nonprofit solutions will at some point bump up against the evils of the world.  The complexities ” trade-offs and deals that are inevitable will rear up…

  I love Jackson Browne's music ” and yet there are times when I don't want to hear one more song about how hard life on the road is for rock stars.  Yes” it's lonely. And yes it's a grind. And yes home is so much better. But really ” how bad can it be?  Rock stars enjoy a great lifestyle with loads of recognition and adoration – and not a bad annual income. Believe it or not”  it's sometimes the same with people in our business.  We could probably write some hits about the stress of reading grants the isolation you feel and the constant pressure to make grants that…