Not exactly a No.2 pencil and a Big Chief pad...

In the words of Bob Dylan, "Oh the times, they are a changin'"...

Palm Zire's for school kids. I personally think it's a great idea, and that coming from a guy that can remember standing around the wood stove to keep warm in our FFA class in high school. I am, of course, a high-tech redneck.

An incredible book I'm just now discovering...

OK, this book is four years old and all the really sharp and well informed people I know have heard about this book and many have read it. I must admit that I've been a bit behind the leadership learning curve the last couple of years. I seemed to have slacked off since I changed church cultures. Church plants don't have too many stumps to plow around (And all of God's people said, "Cool.") I got lazy and in the meantime could have been a better leader. Thanks to my good friend Tony McCollum for getting me into a loop that is challenging me to be a better learner and leader...

No big review here, except that this is the best book on leadership I've read. I'm a big John Maxwell fan, but frankly this book is the best because it's academically sound and built on empirical data. If seminaries don't begin teaching tracks on leadership they're going to keep churning out pastors that are preaching idiots.

Other books in the learning pipeline waiting to be read...The Tipping Point, The Five Temptations of a CEO, FOCUS; The future of your company depends on it, and The E Myth Revisited.

"Fish" says he's retiring...I don't believe him

My daughter is a classmate of one of Ed Jasper's kids. Pretty cool. It made it easy to get an autograph during training camp. After the crushing loss to Philly (in more ways than one), Ed says he's retiring. He's been playing in the NFL since 1997...so that makes it seven years his body's been beaten by professional 300+ pound offensive linemen. Back surgery in '03 and a nasty wrist injury this year are making him think twice about returning to the Falcons after an emotional loss.

Whatever...His son tells my daughter the other day, "You have to keep this a secret, but my Dad makes $2.5 million a year." Well I guess the secrets out, right? Fortunately for Nick, the AJC beat him to it. Fish has two more years left on his contract at $2.5 mil per year. Retirement? That's what he told reporters right after the loss. Ed wants to retire to a couple thousand acres out west so he can hunt and fish and enjoy the money he's made as a solid defensive tackle. I say it's just an emotional decision and he'll come back after surgery on his wrist. Of course, he'll probably say "Whatever!" and take the money he's saved (no bling-bling for Ed and his family) and move back to Texas.

I don't blame him, I just wish he would hang around. For the love of Pete, I need more autographs.

Family news for January 24, 2005

Abby made it to 8th grade chorus All State this past Saturday. We're pretty proud of her, especially since it's the second year in a row. She was nervous and freaking out about not being prepared. Prepared in her mind is perfection. In reality, the judges only wanted to make sure that she knew 70% of the pieces they'll sing at All State. Her anxiety was quelled with a trip to one of her previous chorus teachers. She whizzed through with just one mistake. It just goes to show that golf isn't the only "mental" game...

An aside that played a role in her anxiety is that she was recently accepted into the Gwinnett Young Singers and she decided to be a part of the group. It's relatively elite, with the group being nominated for a Grammy in its relatively short history. She was in a big concert with GYS on Friday night, the evening before final All State auditions. That made things a bit worse. I must say the concert was well done.

Our family, as a unit, has come to the conclusion that sacred music is something we all enjoy. The only disclaimer being that it has to be in a concert type setting. There's just too much baggage that goes with it when experienced in the context of traditional church culture. None of us miss the First Church county seat gig one bit.

A series of fortunate events...

A blog that is a result of an almost-complete religious detox. No more IEDs at business meetings, email threats, or anonymous letter bombs from pharisees. Free to blog without the risk of getting verbally flogged.

From traditional pastor to an after-modern church planter...this is a blog of a mid-life crisis gone very good. A blog of a guy and his family transformed from goldfish in a bowl to fishermen of men.