Greg Darley:

Been a little while since I could sit down and post for all you loyal readers (hi mom!). This past weekend we were in D.C. for a friends wedding. My wife was a bridesmaid (she was smoke’n) and I got to hang out most of the weekend. Highlights from the trip:

1. Free Chains Shirts came in right before we left….they look sweet.

2. Ate at 5 Guys for the first time…a dang good burger

3. Ate at Chipotle and saw Indian Jones 4….disappointed to say the least.

4. Ran my long run for the week…longest I’ve run since basketball conditioning in high school

5. Witnessed my first fainting at a wedding….maid of honor went cold on stage (she was ok).

6. Played Frisbee golf Sunday at Clemson with my brother for his birthday…he’s freaking 30

7. Had a foreign student try and steal my frisbee on hole 15…chris got it back…then I won.

I call Tire Kingdom today to see if I can get an oil change…pretty basic request I would assume.

They say, come in in an hour.

I come in in an hour.

They say, can’t touch it for 2 hours. Can you drop it off?

Sure, but I’ll still be here?

They say, come back in 5 hours, we’ll get it done and you wont have to wait long.

I come back in 5 hours.

Lady in front is told her oil will be changed in 2 hours and tires rotated in 4.

(lady in front cusses out “they” and takes up another 10 minutes.)

I step up to the counter.

They say, “do I need to repeat that?”

I say, no, I think I understand. But I have to have it done before noon tomorrow.

They say, can you be here first thing in the morning.

I say, I don’t have a choice.

They say, we’ll do it for free.  See you in the morning.

This past weekend, we had some friends come into town for a day. They are getting married next weekend. It made me think about my wedding and how it seems like yesterday it was all happening. There are some things that I wish I could share with Greg before he got married. Things that would help him be a better husband. Things that would help him lead the type of home he wants to live in. Here are a couple of the things that I wish Greg would have learned back then…

1. If you want something to be a habit for the family, start early and continue often. Here are some things that fall under this umbrella: Budgeting and Spiritual disciplines as a family. If you want to pray together as a married couple/family, then start early and do it often. Do not wait, for habits form very quickly.

2. Learn to listen. Hearing doesn’t count. Listening does. Listen for her point of view before yours. Its amazing how much frustration is eased when you understand where the other person is coming from.

3. Be intentional with your marriage. This includes how you spend time, date nights, praying together, cutting the cell phone off, cutting the computer off, cutting the tv off, etc.

4. Exercise doesn’t fit into your life unless you make it fit. Life gets busy. Make it a priority to stay healthy.

What are some things you would have told yourself the week before you got married?

As a sub note, as I have been implementing these practices into my marriage, our relationship seems to grow at an exponential rate. But, they take time and you need to take a long term view…nothing great happens over night!

Branding is such a buzz word right now.  Maybe it has been for a while and I’m just catching up. Either way, I’ve been paying more attention to it lately and realizing that branding is more than a logo or slogan.  Branding is what people think of when they think of you, your product, your company, your church (yeah, your church is branded too), you ministry, even your family.

What are the things that make up your brand?  Let me give a few observations I’ve seen:

Do you return emails or voice mails?  How soon? I met someone last year that is doing some pretty cool stuff.  I asked if I could take him to lunch or email some questions to get his thoughts.  4 emails, 2 phone calls and 3 more in person conversations and have received no attempt from him.  That’s Branding.

Do you show up for meetings on time? I just left a meeting with someone trying to sell me something and he was 5 minutes late.  No thanks.

Do  you hand out professional materials? I was in a meeting a few weeks ago and met sales person that had his cards printed from a “free” company. Of course I knew this because the company that printed them had their info and logo on the back of the card.  I wonder if he thought no one would look there?

The issue here is that as Christians, we represent the biggest and most important brand ever…the name of Christ.  All the things from emails to websites reflect back on Him.  Are you selling that name short?  That puts a new spin when Paul said to watch your doctrine and  your life carefully.  What you believe and how you live matter.

First day of Ministry @ the Max was just that…sooooooo much information.  There was a lot of good information.  A lot to digest. A lot to dig through.  It was pretty much the opposite of the Q conference last month which centered around big ideas, future thinking, innovation, creativity, etc.  This was more of the nuts and bolts of how to make all that happen. (In other words, all the stuff I’m not good at).  Let me give a brief overview:

-85% of start-up businesses (and ministiries) fail within the first five years because of inadequate planning, structure, and systems.

How do we not become a statistic?

Ministry Venture’s 5 Best Practices are a step.

1. Prayer

God is a God of order.

“Putting things in order is Wise and faithful stewardship”

That is a very convicting statement for us dreamers, visionaries, idea guys, and big thinkers.  Have to work on that.

3 Biblical Principles:

1. Build on a solid foundation of prayerful planning.

2. Build a ministry that can withstand adversity.

3. Build around process and not personality.

I’ll be attending a seminar tomorrow that is supposed to help with the foundational issues of leading a non-profit.  I’ll post notes tomorrow and share all the info that I’m taking in.  Should be a great time of learning about systems and effective communication.

Always striving to get better (and Lord knows I’ve got a long way to go!)

Jim Collins (author of Good to Great) must have been very proud of Sergio Garcia yesterday.  He confronted the brutal facts.  After winning the TPC at Sawgrass, Sergio thanked Tiger Woods for not being there!  He said it does make it easier with Tiger at home.  I loved it.  It’s true.  Not many “professionals” would want to admit it, but its true.

This is an idea that if embraced could have great impact in many areas of life, business, and ministry. Confronting the facts of your current situation will help you make better choices and decisions.  For World Causes we’ve looked at all our current human and financial capital and have seen what we can and cannot do right now. We want to do everything with excellence, which right now is Free Chains.

Check out his speech and think about areas where you need to confront the brutal facts.

Little disappointed with the episode. It was pretty good, but at best average.

Hopefully they’re just setting up for a big finale. Will Jim propose?

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I think I have a slightly better understanding of what happens when a non-Christian looks at a believer when they are clearly no living out what they say is a foundational belief for them. Be it love, patience, faithfulness, honesty, you name it. Any of the foundational truths that a Christian should not only profess, but live.

So, I go tonight to pick up some dinner for my wife and I. I need something quick, so I think where can I get something that is Hot’n Ready?  Where can I walk in and walk out with dinner in just a few minutes?  According to Little Caesar’s, you can get a pizza that is hot and ready for you.  Well, after sitting for 15 minutes to get my pizza, I also watched the other 7 people waiting for their pizzas.  I was thinking…this is why we come here over the other guys!  This is what you’re supposed to be doing!  This is what you’re known for…allegedly.

I wonder how me people have had the expectation of me and they sat there amazed because I didn’t live up to my key brand.

Mark Batterson talks about the importance of unlearning in his book, In a pit with a lion on a snowy day. Thinking Steps Not Programs is the practice that we have to unlearn some stuff, before we can effectively apply this practice.

Having a program is natural for those who grew up in church. You have a need, you build a program…its simple. But that is not necessarily the most effective way to achieve results. Here’s the difference.

A program is a system/project to meet a need.

A step is a series of actions taken to achieve a goal.

A program asks “what is the need?”

A step asks “where do we want people to be?’

The goal is to figure out where you want people, then create steps to get them there. You want to have teenagers have an intimate walk with Jesus, don’t just create a “youth program” create steps that will help get them there. There are numerous applications.

For World Causes, we want people to ultimately commit to being a part of the solution of the issues of poverty, injustice and epidemic disease. Commitment is the goal, and the steps to get them there are:

1. Raising awareness to the issue (this is one of our “wins”. To raise true awareness. To shorten the gap between our reality and their reality. Repeating a statistic is NOT awareness)

2. Getting people to respond to those needs.

3. Creating ways and possibilities to commit.

Commitment means altering lifestyles, changing behavior, changing character. Its big stuff. But that is where we want to take people and that is the only way that 2.5 million girls will be freed from sex trafficking, and 1.2 billion people can live on more than $1 a day. There are also distinct forms of commitment that we’ll be shooting for with different groups. Individuals, churches, business owners, students…commitment may look different for all the groups, so we’ll need steps for all different groups to get them there. Andy calls this “doing ministry with the end in mind.”

What are your steps?