Christian Women in Leadership: February 2010

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Chris Rice quote

"Rob our sin and make us holy, perfect son of God."

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Things I learned about Team Dynamics from watching "Men's Pursuit"/"Women's Pursuit" Olympic relays

In the relay called Team Pursuit. (disclaimer, I was actually watching the women's race, but I couldn't find a good picture to download from online)

You will be successful when you:

#1 Stay in sync as much as you can.

#2 Save as much energy as possible so when it's your turn to lead, you have enough energy to lead. (the entire team will benefit that way)

#3 The time stops when the third skater crosses the finish line. (therefore, the team is only as strong as it's last competitor).

Labels: team dynamics

someone's lovely facebook status

from this blog

"We are the fragrance of God, the Aroma of Christ... so, When the Spirit blows, where a heart's prepared, a reaction is birthed and a praise is heard. We are only then united with a king whose only dream was to hear us sing. "

Read this book

Overcoming Your Shadow Mission by John Ortberg

p. 100 "You can die to your shadow mission and lead with joyful freedom because God is always at work in and around you in unseen, unknown, unnamed, and unlikely ways...He's at work behind the scenes in wars and famines and floods and disasters. He is present in both dictatorships and democracies. And he's got his hand on churches, businesses, organizations, and individuals everywhere. God wants to use you because of what you do (your mission), but - as Samson shows us- he will also use you in spite of what you do. He can turn even your shadow mission into something he can use to his glory and the coming of his kingdom here on earth."

Friday, February 26, 2010

You're Awesomer Than You Think You Are

This article rocked my world Wednesdsay, http://perrymarshall.com/awesomer

here it is below

You're awesomer than you think you are.

When I was in 8th grade I was in the boys room at school and heard this whooshing sound coming out of a hole in the wall. I smacked it with my notebook a few times to see it it would sound any different.

Didn't make it sound any different.

Just then, Mr. B, one of the teachers, heard the noise and walked in, grabbed me, and ushered me back to my classroom. He informed Mr. C, the art teacher, that I had been slamming my notebook against the wall in the bathroom and needed to be brought under control.

Mr. C made me come in after school to talk to him about this incident.

After school I go to his room. There were a couple of other people in the room working on art projects, and Mr. C sat me down and said, loud enough for everyone else to hear, "Perry, I'm really concerned about you. Do you need some kind of professional help? I can arrange for that if you want. Maybe you need to talk to someone about your problems."

I can tell the girl across the room, who is working on a painting, can hear everything that is going on. But she's politely trying to look like she's ignoring it. I feel a hot flash of humiliation sweep through my body. I maintain a stony face and ignore Mr. C's questioning. He and I had a hostile relationship to begin with, and it felt like he was deliberately trying to shame me.

Finally after 10 minutes of getting nowhere, he released me and I walked home.

Years later, it occurred to me that I probably *could* have used some professional help right about then. My dad had gotten demoted from his job because my mom had gone bi-polar, our whole entire life was fighting and bedlam from the time I got home from school to the time I went to bed, and a couple of kids at school were threatening to beat me up. My only escape was my music, my electronics catalogs and my stereo.

Surely everybody ought to know you can't humiliate a 13 year old kid into bettering himself.

Frankly I don't know ANYONE who doesn't have some kind of story like that. A time when you really could have used an encouraging word and someone decided to rub salt in the wound instead. Some people let those stories define who they are. The rest of their life becomes some sort of revenge on Mr. C.

Maybe they succeed to show Mr. C was wrong. Or maybe they fail to show Mr. C that he was unable to teach them anything useful.

Whatever.

Personally, I don't think you ever get much of anywhere if you let Mr. C define you. I think the best thing you can do is forgive Mr. C and decide that it's God's job to fix him, not yours. Actually it's tremendously freeing to get the bitterness monkey off your back.

What's REALLY going to propel you, I think, is the people who DID believe in you.

Mrs. Washburn, my kindergarten teacher, told my parents she thought I could be president if I wanted to be. Honestly, I can't think of any job I'd enjoy less than running the biggest political machine in the world, but that wasn't the point. She believed in me. My mom told me what Mrs. Washburn said over and over again until I believed it.

Mrs. Snoberger was my high school counselor and when my dad died of cancer and I was just starting my stereo business, she was the one who pointed out to me that very few kids are that entrepreneurial at age 17. She thought I was special. She wrote some recommendation letters that helped me get a much-needed scholarship.

Dr. Knoll was my college English teacher when I was 20. He was the first person to ever explain to me that I understood people *AND* things. He said most people are good at one or the other but not both. (I didn't know that.) He predicted that I would someday be good at technical sales, and maybe even the president of a company.

It was mind-bending for me to even contemplate such a thing, back then. I was so keenly aware of my *limitations.*

Those words of encouragement from Mrs. Washburn, Mrs. Snoberger and Dr. Knoll carried me very, very far. It's not even like those conversations were very long. It's just that they had impact.

My friend, you've had your Mr. C's and you've had your Mrs. Snobergers. You had them both. You get to decide who you listen to. Let's just admit, they *might* both have been telling you some version of the truth.

But some truths are told to harm. Others are meant to heal.

The words that will propel you forward are the healing words. Not the hurts.

I've got this lady who consults for me, her name is Sue. One of her jobs is, literally, to pray for my customers. I know that sounds kind of strange, but I truly believe that every single day, thousands of people out there are on the edge. The edge of either discouragement or encouragement. The edge of either success or failure. The edge of negative judgment or positive inspiration.

I can only hope that when I blast out these crazy emails to my various lists of thousands of people, that I'm helping at least a few of them break whatever chains that have held them back. Whatever limitations of knowledge or belief, whatever barriers of confidence and security.

Because you're only going to build a successful life out of your strengths.

Last night, after an exhilarating, exhausting Sunday, my buddy Nathan and I went out for burgers at 10pm. We were relaxing and unwinding at Bar Louie, bantering, philosphizing, solving the problems of the world.

Nathan says, "What if we're aweseomer than we think we are?"

I smile and look at him. "Yeah… what if?"

He says, "What if we're really operating at less than our potential simply because we don't realize what our potential really is?"

I say, "We ALL are capable of even greater things.

"Dang, Nathan, that would make a great Facebook post."

I get home and post. This morning, Jack Born, my resident marketing genius, replies with this quote:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that frightens us. We ask ourselves 'who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?'

Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; its in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same….

As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

-Marianne Williamson

Amen, Jack and Marianne. One last thought for you:

During the last couple of years, most of our friends, including ourselves, have hit some MAJOR crucibles in life. One friend's husband left her for another woman. Another's 13 year old son died of leukemia in October. Another has major chronic health challenges. Another came to the brink of losing their marriage.

Another has battled a series of addictions. Another has been beleaguered with financial setbacks. Another lost pretty much everything in the real estate crash. Another had two businesses fail and is $800,000 in debt – which is about 10X his current annual income.

But with only a very few exceptions, everyone has stood proud and tall and NOT run from their problems. They have extended their roots, they have deepened their relationships with their closest friends, they have strengthened their faith, they've honed their ability to listen and their resolve.

They've become stronger, more resilient, more joyful, more resourceful, more centered.

I am immensely, indescribably proud of all of them. Better days are coming.

My friend, life is either going to polish you up or grind you down. Focus on the polishing, not the grinding. Focus on the end result.

Please listen to everything the laboratory of life is trying to tell you. And never ever forget:

YOU'RE AWESOMER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE.

Perry Marshall

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Stand Up and Be Counted

the title taken from : an HTB Sunday Talk on Courage!!! by Jon March.

I decided to listen to this message again, I think it's from 2007. Anyway, I didn't remember hearing this the *first* time that I listened to this message, but I was so stuck by this statement, what he said. read below.

He asked a pastor, "What's the one thing I should take away- one thing I should never stop doing?" and he said to me, "Jon, the one thing you should never stop doing --you should never stop doing Evangelism, because that's what your heart is for." He said, "In that way, you will never dry out, because if you keep doing what your heart is for you won't dry out."

some Tuesday thought.

Monday, February 22, 2010

special speaker today

The students asked, "Can we go down to hear the special speaker?" I said, "No." Then, another person came by and said they could go. So, I ended up sitting through a holocost survivor story.

Regarding the success of her life, at the end she said, "I DON'T WANT HITLER TO GET A POSTHUMOUS VICTORY." Whoa.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Nelson Mandela quotes

I learned that courage was not the abscence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.

As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

As I have said, the first thing is to be honest with yourself. You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself... Great peacemakers are all people of integrity, of honesty, but humility.

the lovers, the dreamers, and me.

the lovers, the dreamers, and me!

Yes, I'm going to present a "teachable moment" from a Muppets song. (in my defense, it was an oscar-nominated song.)

Later, you can listen to "the Rainbow Connection."

I think this thought came about from watching an old episode of the Salad Years. (which I just discovered are posted on vimeo) where the host takes a kermit the frog puppet and starts singing "the Rainbow Connection."

anyway, I had an email from my friend, Kelly, on facebook. Actually, more than one, but the second fb message, I realized, "oh, it's like the rainbow connection!!!" because I think that *we* (Christians) are part of *the rainbow connection* = peace with God (...Noah from the Bible)

what it also means...if I could just describe "prophetic destiny" is one phrase, I would use the line from the above song, "maybe our dreams will come true," if that makes sense. God created me, and my dreams: he knows what my idea of cool is (I know that's a another post.) Maybe our dreams will come true. The song, here.

Monday, February 08, 2010

51679

I suppose I will always be...my Wheaton College Student number!!

more on this later.

Saturday, February 06, 2010

follow the yellow brick road

read Dorothy on Leadership

Some quotes, "At first glance, Dorothy is all wrong as a model of leadership. She is the wrong gender (female) and the wrong age (young). Rather than being a person with all the answers, who knows what’s up and where to go and what’s what, she is herself lost, a seeker, often bewildered, and vulnerable. These characteristics would disqualify her from modern leadership. But they serve as her best credentials for postmodern leadership.

...When you think of Dorothy, the picture is so different. Basically, instead of sitting pretty in a control booth, she’s stuck in a predicament – still a little dizzy from the tornado, lost, far from home, needing to find the way. As she sets out on her journey, she finds other needy people (actually not people exactly, but you get the point), one in need of courage, another in need of intelligence, another in need of a heart. She believes that their varying needs can be fulfilled on a common quest, and her earnestness, her compassion, her determination, and her youthful spunk galvanize them into a foursome (five, with Toto) singing down the yellow brick road together. Dorothy doesn’t have the knowledge to help them avoid all problems and dangers; she doesn’t protect them from all threats and temptations. But she doesn’t give up, and her passion holds strong, and in the end, they all get what they need. Maybe one of the film’s many enduring delights is hidden in Dorothy’s unwizardly leadership charisma. Maybe people in the 1940’s were just beginning to yearn for a way of leadership that now is becoming ascendant – a post-wizard kind of leadership

... know, you’re thinking, why take a silly kid’s movie so seriously? You’re right – it’s just a movie. But I find the film’s repudiation of more traditional modern leadership to be fascinating, maybe an early expression of a cultural shift that we are more fully experiencing today.

And ultimately, of course, I find in Dorothy’s way of leadership many echoes of our Lord’s. After all, you can never imagine the great and terrible Oz washing his subjects’ feet, or his voice booming out, “I no longer call you servants, but friends.”

Maybe some of us are trying hard to be something we’re not. Maybe we’re imitating styles of leadership that are becoming outdated, inappropriate. That’s not to say we don’t have a lot to learn, but maybe the best thing that could happen to us would be to have the curtain pulled back to reveal us not as XXL superheroes, but regular size-M men and women. Maybe then, with the amplifiers turned off and the imaged dropped, we’ll hear Jesus inviting us to learn new ways of leading in his cause."

Christian Women in Leadership