The Seabourns

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The internet is our mountain

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I’ve been looking out over the beautiful mountains surrounding our conference room in Addis Ababa for the past several days. I’m sitting in the room training and strategizing on using the internet to expand our ability to reach everyone.

The words of Isaiah 40:9 have been a very real picture:

You who bring good news,
go up on a high mountain.
You who bring good news,
lift up your voice with a shout,
lift it up, do not be afraid;
Say to the towns,
“Here is your God!”

God was telling them to use what he had provided to accomplish his purposes. Use the high mountains to shout “Here is your God!”

During our time as God’s ambassador’s, God has given us the gift of the internet: social networks (Facebook, Twitter), simple websites (WordPress, Blogger), video and audio (YouTube, Vimeo), inexpensive phone (Skype). God is telling us:

  • Use these things God has provided
  • Lift up your voice. Be bold. Be “loud” in embracing these opportunities.
  • Do not be afraid
  • Show God to everyone

As one church leader said, Inhabit the digital universe with a believing heart and to help give a soul to the endless flow of communications on the internet.

3 thoughts on Maturing as a leader

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I’m a 59 year old leader. I want to finish well. I think we all do.

Finishing well

I read three things today that are insightful in finishing well.

1. @destinoeric retweeted @crawfordloritts:
One of the signs of spiritual maturity is that you no longer charge others for the deficits in your life. Eph. 4:31-32

I’ve always appreciated Dr. Crawford Loritts’ direct, non-nonsense approach to my spiritual life. But… wow! There is no wiggle room here! Ouch!

2. @kencochrum retweeted @GaryRunn‘s blog post Leading Old – Again. Gary unpacked maturing leadership more. 1) Invite the input of others, don’t ignore it like older leaders frequently do. 2) Refuse to blame others as a way to maintain my respectability as a leader. 3) Cross the divide of being able to serve under a younger leader.

3. @michaelhyatt tweeted his blog article 5 ways to energize your team. But before he listed his 5 ways (which are good), he tells a story from this week that richly demonstrates @crawfordloritts‘ point about lack of maturity and @garyrunn‘s leadership principles.

I’m still learning.

Email authoring wisdom from Dr Seuss

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It has often been said
there’s so much to be read,
you never can cram
all those words in your head.

So the writer who breeds
more words than he needs
is making a chore
for the reader who reads.

That’s why my belief is
the briefer the brief is,
the greater the sigh
of the reader’s relief is.

~ Dr. Seuss

Think about Dr. Seuss’ wisdom the next time you are writing an email to someone! I will.

Keith

Miracle appointments

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I read these quotes in the latest Rick Warren newsletter. These are GREAT!

I especially like the Wilkinson quote: God is … “planning miracle appointments on earth and looking for people who will volunteer to partner with him in delivering them.” Gives meaning to every person in my day. Do they need a miracle smile from someone who recognizes them as another human being. A miracle door held open by someone who isn’t thinking only of himself. A miracle conversation about Jesus by someone who overcomes his fears of how they might respond.

“I used to see Heaven as a place where I might live someday. Now I recognize that Heaven is also a place where God is busy right now planning miracle appointments on earth and looking for people who will volunteer to partner with him in delivering them.” ~ Bruce Wilkinson, You Were Born for This (Multnomah Books, reprint, 2011)

“Church is not a meeting or a place you enter. It is an identity that is ours in Christ. It is an identity that shapes the whole of life so that life and mission become ‘total church.'” ~ Total Church: A Radical Re-Shaping around Gospel and Community (Crossway, 2008)

“What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.” ~ American author Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Bible reading plans help me stay on track

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I did it! I finished reading through the Bible in a year. I’ve read through the Bible several times, but I’ve never made it in a calendar year period.

I think five things helped me:

  1. My church started 2010 with a 90-day challenge to read through the New Testament by the end of March. Knowing others were doing the same plan helped me.
  2. I got a copy of the English Standard Version Study Bible. This was a new version to me. I found the newness refreshing as I read familiar passages.
  3. I also took time to read the introductory study notes before starting each new book. I found these notes very insightful and helped me stay engaged. As I read through the book, I looked for confirmation of the things I read in the introductory materials. It was kind of like a treasure hunt. And it was very engaging. I felt like I had completed a Survey of the New Testament when I completed the 90-day challenge.
  4. I chose the YouVersion.com reading plan called Chronological to read through the Old Testament in the remaining months of 2010. Reading chronologically gave new insights and connected historical passages with Psalms and other wisdom literature and with the Prophets written in the same time frame. YouVersion gave a calendar overview so I could see where I was in the reading plan. Seeing the green boxes appear each day I completed my reading was motivating to continue. It may seem a little thing, but having a visual picture of where I was in the plan was very motivating. The YouVersion app on my Android phone kept track so that when I finished reading a chapter, it checked it off. Very nice!
  5. I installed YouVersion.com’s Bible App on my mobile phone. Having the Bible with me all day, using a Reading Plan, having the App track my progress in short intervals as I had time to read another chapter all contributed to success in 2010.

I’m going to do a 30-day Gospels reading plan in January to start the year off with Jesus’ life and ministry. I’m also going to do a couple of shorter reading plans on Courage (1 week) and Prayer (3 weeks).

And I’m joining 1 billion in 1 month! Join in reading the Bible for 1 billion minutes in the month of January. YouVersion recently passed the 4 billion minutes of Bible reading. Imagine if around the world, the Bible is read for 1 billion minutes in January! Join me, not for YouVersion’s sake, but for our own! If you have an iPhone or Android or BlackBerry or Windows mobile phone, install their Bible App and read wherever you have 15 minutes.

Let’s do it! Let’s read 1 billion minutes in January!