One of the biggest ah ha moments I've had in any kind of leadership/coaching role is the realization of where motivation comes from.  Dwight D. Eisenhower said "Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he (she)  wants to do it. ".  You see it's impossible to really control anyone to the point of motivating them. Motivation always comes from within your people not from you.  I can choose to be motivated by something someone says or does.. or for a million and one reasons I can choose to blow it off.  (Usually I will blow it off because of that persons lack of influence in my life) anyway...I try to teach people how to motivate themselves. By encouraging, by showing them how they are unuquly gifted by God and put in this place and time to do this thing. By giving them resources and trying to stay out of there way. By gently correcting ( still working on that one). And by managing agreements. You see I don't think you can manage people. You can only manage agreements. We agree that this is the vision and this is what we are going to do about  it and these are the steps we will take. Someone misses a step.... lets talk about that and  how I can help you be succesful with what we've agreed upon. If you don't agree with the vision or the steps?  Well we agree to disagree and  we've just saved each other a lot of headache  and heartache now haven't we.

?The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.?

~George Bernard Shaw

So a group of Crossroaders cruised up to one of my favorite cities tonight (Thursday) and checked out the opening show of what is the promotional tour for Rob Bell's new Book Sex God. Big Mad props to Rich Behnke for the heads up, (to Tim and Lissa and Jay for sharing the ride and Marc and Tina for driving) And bigger props to my  beutiful wife Barb, who sacrificed going so I could.

Rob was pretty brilliant I must say. Mr Bell came out and instead of talking about the book he opened the floor and answered questions for an hour. Yup. He basically  got up in front of a room full of University of Michigan students and said ask any question you want and I'll answer it. Crazy Good Stuff. Go if you get the chance, everything from predestination to the Church's role in depression from sin to hell as well as violence in the old testament and other goodies. The thing I love most about him is his ability to make me ask my self questions. And the biggest one I walked out of there with is... am I becoming more about Love.. For Christ and My wife and people OR am I becoming more religious and puffed up and like a brood of vipers? Go. Trust me. Just Go.... Oh Yea.. I got the book. Ill start it in a minute.... Double Ps... they  debuted the new Nooma short "You".... killa!!!

So yesterday for part of the day  I was in a crappy mood, for 100 million reasons but not one good one. See I had forgotten a truth that my mom taught me, "All you have is today, and really all you have is right now, because at any second God could take it away." ...and then she'd ask me what does today hold for you? I'm reading a book about UCLA basketball coach John Wooden.  He Created his whole coaching and life philosophy around one sentence. "Make Each Day Your Masterpiece".  Some coaches would get their players to focus on big games but Wooden always focused on today, right now... be it some game that didn't matter  or practice or whatever. My mom and John Wooden had the thought... that there was no reason not to make today the greatest ever, there was no reason not play as hard in practice as a game. Sometimes I wonder about a day being a microcosm of our lives. Your born ( you wake up) You live ( your day) you go to sleep ( you die).  Maybe we really do  live our whole lives everyday, day after day. Why not go to sleep thinking "Today I did the very best I could in every situation ,with what I had."

This is one of my favorite books. We use it kick off a lot of creative meetings. It's a wealth of idea starters. and here's one for you today from page 91 of the book.

Your task is to comment and list three things that meet the criteria described.

1. A  musical group, movie title and drink that all have a color in the name.
or
2. An actor or actress, an animal and a city name that all have a number in their title.

Today is Day 5 of no sodie pop. Not going to bad. I feel rather odd but I suppose its the way most people feel all the time. My buddy Matt says I used to act like this guy. Anyway found an interesting way to consume Coca Cola... if I go back to it. Seems like in Texas ( why does all the weird stuff come out of Texas?) the newest fad is to take balls of batter deep fry them and pour coke syrup all over them. Check it out.... the equivalent of shoving a syringe of grease in your neck :).

Found this great post at this great blog (church of the customer). According to the folks at BigResearch these new findings from their 15,000-person panel  are  dedicated to understanding how all of these people use media in some large purchases. Word of Mouth was clearly #1. What does this have to do with a Church? Everything. I talk to a lot of people who think that if they can just get their information, their card, whatever in front of people that it will be enough. That people will flock to whatever they are doing or putting together. It just doesn't work that way. People don't think that way. Not anymore.

Right now think about your favorite restaurant. Why or how did you end up going there for the first time? I'll bet dollar to donuts it was because someone told you about it or invited you. Not because someone stuck a flyer on your door or mailed you a postcard. We see this over and over. We estimate somewhere around 90% of people who come to Crossroads came for the first time because they were invited by a friend.

Obviously getting strategic information in front of people is important. But it's not the answer. At Crossroads we tell people ...."give them something to talk about it." and get them to tell their friends. If you are creating a classroom teaching situation,a small group, a serving team, whatever.... make it the best environment  for life change  and as helpful as it can be. When God changes someone life in that environment, they will run and tell everyone about it.

So I go to staff meeting on Wednesday and this guy reads this article from John Tesh that describes in detail the effects that sodie pop has on your body.( my favorite part is the part about phosphoric acid not allowing you to puke up all the sugar.)  Now I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure I was born with a Coca Cola webbed to my hand. Literally ....It's nothing for me to drink 6-10 bottles a day and not even think about it. Since I was knee high to a grasshopper. So...combine that with the fact that I can't remember the last time I drank a glass of water I've decided to give it up for 7 days and see how I feel. ( Just pop not caffeine) an addicts got have his fix.) I figure one vice at a time... So we'll see how it goes. You may want to stay out my way this weekend.  And If you see one in my hand  pull a Dwight and knock it out.

PS. I've made it a little over 24 hours so far.. and so good.

Andy is a A buddy of mine from back in the day ( I used to do demos with him at my old studio)  Andy Just got picked up by the management agency and has a new album out that is outstanding.... if you like acoustic contemporary Christian art. You can pick it up at itunes, amazon or circuit city.  Andy was one of the first Christians I met after accepting Christ and he gave me hope that God wasn't going to turn me into a freak. He's a great  guy and a great musician so if you get a second go check his stuff out.