Pause Create || Josh Lee

Treat Your Meetings to a Little QA :: Tips :: The 99 Percent

Miles gets it, does your church?

"I pay my sidemen the highest prices because they're worth it and I've got the best rhythm section in jazz." Miles Davis

What I am reading right now

Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness 25th Anniversary Edition

So What: The Life of Miles Davis

Christian Consumerism Syndicate

If God is an author, than when you choose to be in covenant with him do you know the story he is writing?

Or did you buy his iPod to listen to his story rather than read it in order to relate it?

It is hard to win over the entire world, even harder is what meda you use to tell them your story. Should he use sky writing? Plagues, fire, stone, ice, salt?
Would you serve a God that used a sexy magazine ad plastered on the bus? Maybe but I think God knew exactly what he was doing when he was marketing his story. He used the most powerful form of media, us.

You.

Me.

Word of mouth at it's finest.

We are God's media for telling a fallen world about the transformational power of his son Jesus.

Not CNN, Fox......MTV.

The most useful tool in his box is his creation, a changed and renewed people willing to clearly articulate his story.

Here's to telling His story. Here's to not buying the Christian Consumerism Syndicate's materials.

Designers: Next time a client asks you for options say...

Designers: Next time a client asks you for a few options say,
"No, I will solve your problem for you and you will pay me. You don't have to use the solution and if you want options then you can talk to other people. I'll solve your problem the best way I know how and you will use it or not that's up to you, you're the client and you will pay me."- Steve Jobs talking about Paul Rand's relationship with NeXt branding.

Is your character a priority?

I have been reading "Heart of the Artist" by Rory Noland and working with my team on developing character in themselves as well as making it a high value in their own teams.
As we continue to take the next step in our weekend programming I am noticing that all to often the "production" becomes paramount to the "character" or competence of someone.

Rory puts it like this, "We can't expect to get by on talent alone. It's imperative that you and I keep growing spiritually." pg 35.

In Mark 10:17 Jesus has a dude come up to him asking how he can attain eternal life. After the man had told him he had followed all the commandments, Jesus looks him in the eye, and shoots the man straight by saying, "Sell everything you own, give it to the poor and then come follow me."
I imagine it like an old kung-fu movie where Christ has like a eyeball stare down with the guy and in love lets him know that he is on the right track but there is one more lesson he must learn to become a full on master.

This is character building at it's best. Knowing your audience, reading them correctly and then in love calling them to a higher standard.

Are you making sure that you are valuing character over competence?
Are you so competent that you you can't put the service order down, turn off your intercom and plug in spiritually?

I will leave you with a line I have been trying to live by since I read Rory's book,

"God never intended our character growth to be low priority." pg 37

Build me a barn!

Wanna be awesome? I’ve been needing barn for sometime now. And since I got some animals I thought I’d dive in.

Problem is that I don’t have a enough man power to raise it myself. So, that’s where you come in. If you’d like to help me out here are my thoughts:

Simple is uber.I’d love it have four walls and a roof, preferably a non leaky one.
A window so I can see out while I am or one of my family is milking the cow.

That’s it.

http://human3rror.com/2009/09/14/design-me-a-business-card/

All joking aside, when a person needed help raising a barn on his land, people in the community came and helped, brought food, sons, axes, drinks, a smile.
Seriously? I am a designer and I read John's post about business cards.

Are you freaking kidding me. Why don't we just throw gasoline on our careers because when a potential client comes googling our name to find out if we as a "designer" are reputable in our community and one of the top results is how we blasted a super honest a kind dude.....
Instead of blasting him because it struck a chord with our inherent "Must smash all posts that could potentially hurt our livelihood" and took on a servants attitude and actually helped him.

Who do we think we are as "designers" when this kind of bad behavior happens? How is this "helping" your livelihood?

If you call yourself a designer and have a problem with a "coder" like Jon asking for help when you have seen and there is proof of his help on numerous sites in regards to coding, than I truely wonder what kind of desinger you are. Let's be for building each other up, sharing in our abundance and build something worthy of being called "Design".

Conflict in Measure

We will be dealing with conflict in our Sunday morning experiences today at New Hope.

Money for nothing, and your "chips" for free

Just read a great post over at The Art of Manliness about "Paying your dues".

http://artofmanliness.com/2009/08/31/the-importance-of-paying-your-dues/

And yes I know that DIre Straits said a different word in their song but I am trying to get that word out of my vocab.

Simplicity Works