- living the dash (this blog has moved to livingthedash.tv)

Mark Batterson included the following quote from a John Ortberg article in a post today.

People don’t care what I know. They care about what I’m learning.

I love that because that is what this blog is all about.

If you’re a regular reader and your tuning in to read about what I know, you’re in trouble.

This blog is mostly about what I’m learning. I’m learning as I go.

I posted earlier about Mavericks at Work

This book profiles innovative, imaginative, and unconventional companies like……

ING Direct……Southwest Airlines……GSD&M……..HBO………Cranium……….Craigslist…….and others

These companies figured out that ‘business as usual is a bust’…….and it has paid off nicely for them.

Something similar is happening in the church world.

I believe that the church should be the most innovative, imaginative, creative, cutting edge, and forward thinking organization on the planet.

Here are a few Mavericks at Church that are leading the way……..

• Perry Noble & Tony Morgan at Newspring Church

• Craig Groeschel, Bobby Gruenewald, & Terry Storch at Lifechurch.tv

• Kerry Shook & Larry Lundstrom at Fellowship of The Woodlands (Kerry & Larry…Where’s the blogs?)
  

• Mark Batterson at National Community Church

• Mark Beeson & Tim Stevens at Granger Community Church

I posted earlier about Learning….but that is only half of the story

Mark Batterson wrote…..

Half of learning is learning. The other half of learning is unlearning. Unfortunately, unlearning is twice as hard as learning.

My 2 boys are in learning mode right now. They are full of questions. They are curious and they want to learn.

Me, on the other hand…..I am having to ‘unlearn’ a lot of stuff. This world passed on a lot of bad info to me about life, relationships, parenting, marriage, career, success, money, etc.

Is there anything that you need to ‘unlearn’?

What about your organization? Does your team, company, church, etc. have the ability to ‘unlearn’ stuff?

The following line in this post by Mark Batterson caught my attention

I feel like part of my job as a parent is to create memories.

In my household we often fall into a pattern where……..

Tuesday looks very similar to Monday

the 3rd weekend of the month doesn’t look all that different from the 2nd weekend of the month

and the only big difference between March and February is the number of days

I want to break that pattern and ‘create memories’ for my children like Batterson suggests.

As parents, let’s create days…..weeks……and months that stand out from the rest.

Patterns are safe, comfortable, easy.

Stand out days, weeks, and months require effort and intentionality.

Loved Mark Batterson’s In a Pit With a Lion On a Snowy Day.

So I have been wanting to give his first book, ID: The True You, a read.

Finally popped it open tonight. Great so far.

I noticed something in both of his books. He is great at packing wisdom into simple 1 liners.

Here are a few from my reading tonight:

If anything is going to undermine your reliance upon God and become a source of pride in your life it’s going to be your gift.

Here’s the problem with worshipping yourself. If you’re anything like me, you run out of stuff to worship real quick.

And so it is in our relationship with God: the more we grow the bigger God gets!

The significance of uniqueness is this: no one else can worship God like you.

All of us start out as one-of-a-kind originals. Too often we end up carbon copies of someone else.

You need to come to terms with who you’re not, but don’t let what you can’t do keep you from doing what you can!

You need to know that God does not call the qualified. He qualifies the called.

Everything God allows in your life today is preparation for something He wants to do in your life tomorrow!

What you need to understand is that preparation for the frontlines of life usually happens on the backside of life.

Who you are is more important than what you do because what you do will ultimately be a reflection of who you are.

I was really pumped for Session 3 at Innovative Impact.

Mark Batterson was scheduled to speak. One of my favorite authors and one of my favorite bloggers.

Mark is the author of a great book called In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day.

Here are a few notes from his session…..

• Your best thought about God on your best day is still about 13.2 billion light years away from how great God is.
• I don’t want to live like ‘the best I can do is the best I can do’…….i want to live like ‘the best I can do is the best God can do’
• I don’t only want to see things in my life that I am capable of.
• Am I going to run away or am I going to chase the lion?
• There are ‘Action Regrets’ and ‘Inaction Regrets’. In the longterm, we regret inactions more than actions.
• At the end of your life, your greatest regret will be the lions you didn’t chase.
• You can do nothing wrong…….and still do nothing right.
• God has called us to play offense.
• Do little things like they are big things.
• Share wins before every meeting.
• Coffee houses are post modern wells.
• When do you feel like you are failing as a parent? Probably when you are reacting. Start being proactive.
• My greatest challenge & deepest desire is to disciple my 12 year old son. (that line was starred and underlined on my notepad)
• Develop a weekly FSM…..Father Son Meeting (more stars, more underlines)
• Are you playing offense spiritually?
• Dreams are a barometer of spiritual maturity.
• Pray ridiculous prayers.
• Go after some God sized dreams that will fail unless God intervenes.
• Don’t accumulate possessions……accumulate experiences.
• Live your life in a way that it is worth telling stories about.
• Calling is more important than qualification.
• When we don’t step out and do what God has called us to do, we are robbing Him of the glory he so rightfully deserves.

I will be attending the Innovative Impact | This Changes Everything conference at Fellowship of The Woodlands tomorrow.

Looking forward to hearing from Mark Batterson. Also speaking are Kirbyjon Caldwell and Nelson Searcy.

I will post notes from each speaker on Sunday or Monday.