Seth Godin is the author of twelve books that have been bestsellers around the world and changed the way people think about marketing, change, and work. He earned his MBA from Stanford, and was called "the Ultimate Entrepreneur for the Information Age" by Business Week. For more information visit his website or read his blog. He recently listed 20 reasons why people choose to spread ideas: I spread your idea because it makes me feel generous. ...because I feel smart Read More …
Common Strategic and Pastoral Myths (#0174)
Will Mancini is the founder of Auxano - a church consulting group with a unique approach to developing a church's vision frame before providing traditional consulting services. Mancini's pastoral experience includes helping lead two congregations to grow to over 3,000 in weekend attendance: Clear Creek Community Church and FaithBridge UMC. He is the author of Church Unique: How Mission Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture, and Create Movement. To connect with Read More …
Inviting Ellen – A Lesson in Silly Creativity (#0173)
The United Church of Christ, a progressive mainline denomination with 1.1 million members, recently launched a creative campaign designed to land Ellen DeGeneres as a keynote speaker at their General Synod, which will be held from July 1-5 in Tampa, Florida. Geoffrey A. Black, the UCC's General Minister and President, wrote a letter explaining why and how the denomination is pursuing Ellen: Your life, values and humor represent the best of what our church hopes to embody Read More …
Uniquely UCC (#0172)
The United Church of Christ's Still Speaking Campaign is the most well known marketing campaign undertaken by a mainline denomination in recent years. The campaign started in 2004 with television ads, which can be viewed here. In April 2010, the campaign moved online with an ad designed to spread via social media called The Language of God, which I wrote about on my blog. Today Uniquely UCC launched in conjunction with Still Speaking's National Read More …
Theological Humility(#0171)
Roger Olson is Professor of Theology at George W. Truett Theological Seminary of Baylor University. He is widely regarded as one of the important evangelical voices and writes prolifically for both popular and academic audiences. Olson has written a number of books including How to Be Evangelical Without Being Conservative, The Story of Christian Theology, and The Westminster Handbook to Evangelical Theology. His next book, Against Calvinism: Rescuing God’s Read More …
Learning from Starbucks (#0170)
Waited the full 30 mins and went in RR to checksmall leakage on pantyremoved - all about 1/2 to 2/3peed and didn't have muchencouraged her to try again and be sure bladder fully emptypassed just a little moreMom on her way back - so she's planning to just wait and try OB in a couple of mins Leonard Sweet's The Gospel According to Starbucks: Living with a Grande Passion has helped many people give greater consideration to lessons the church can learn from Starbucks. In an interview about Read More …
Leadership Lesson: Learning to Ignore (#0169)
Dan Rockwell writes Leadership Freak: a daily leadership blog designed to help leaders reach higher in 300 words or less. He also serves as Pastor of Good News Bible Church and works as a consultant to Pennsylvania College of Technology. To connect with Rockwell, consider following him on twitter or reading Grace Freak, his Christian blog designed around the idea of breaking the bondage of legalism in 300 words or less. Recently he wrote about an important yet Read More …
All Saints Day Reflections (#0168)
All Saints Day is celebrated each November 1 as a day to remember those who have gone before us. Today, as we remember women and men we have met and those who lived long before our time, let us give thanks for their witness. I invite you to pause to read through, pray, and reflect upon a prayer, written by Christine Sine: God we are surrounded by a cloud Faithful witnesses who have gone before Those who have loved where we would have hated Those who have healed Read More …
Souper Bowl of Caring (#0167)
From a simple prayer by a seminary intern in 1990 (Lord, even as we enjoy the Super Bowl football game, help us be mindful of those who are without a bowl of soup to eat) to a movement involving over 250,000 youth in 2010, the Souper Bowl of Caring has been a youth-led movement to help hungry and hurting people around the world. According to the organization's website: This prayer . . . gave birth to an idea. Why not use Super Bowl weekend, a time when people Read More …
National Porn Sunday (#0166)
In 2005 Craig Gross and Mike Foster debuted their documentary, "Missionary Positions," and began talking in local churches about pornography and the problems they believe it creates in people's lives. These experiences were marketed as "Porn Sundays" and later became the foundation for an annual National Porn Sunday. To date, over 300 congregations have participated in this event. In 2011, National Porn Sunday has been moved to February 6 to coincide with the Read More …