Fuel

Breakaway Outreach needs bowlers to come out and attend our Rock N’ Bowl fundraising events this spring to help send prisoners’ children and other at-risk youth to camp this summer. We have five locations to choose from in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Florida.

We need people to help us get word out about this incredible life-changing opportunity for underprivileged children.

To encourage that, we are giving away 10 FREE autographed copies of the Tony Dungy Perseverance In Pain DVD over the next few weeks.

Read more…

As a leader you must be able to clearly communicate your organization’s strategy, vision and value. Stacey Hanke of MORE Magazine offers five strategies to help you communicate with impact and influence, and ensure that your message is heard.

1. Pause
2. Make Eye Contact
3. Vocal Projection
4. Use Gestures with Purpose
5. Get to the Point

Read full article here…

We all have a negative response internally, to a negative occurrence that took place externally. “It is the basic stimulus response modality,” says Craig Sanders.

Although we can’t control the things that happen around us, we do have control over how we will react to them. In his blog, Sanders offers keys to turning your setbacks into accelerated comebacks in life, business, or career.

Read his advice on Three Ways to Break Negativity in your life.

I love these words adapted from Ron Hutchcraft’s book, “A Battle for a Generation,” pp 11-12.

Never in the history of the Life Saving Service (set up to rescue people on the North Carolina’s Outer Banks beaches) did a drowning person come to the door of the station asking, “Would you please rescue me?” In every case, someone had to leave the safety of the station to save lives.

Today, our life-saving station probably has a steeple with a cross on top. The title of the life-saving talk is on a sign out front, along with the name of the Head Rescuer. Inside, people are singing life-saving songs and having life-saving committee meetings. The station is a great place for the rescuers to have their needs met, their strength built. And it is the best place to bring people after they are saved. But it is not the best place to rescue people. In fact, when it comes to lost teenagers, most will probably not come to our life-saving station. If we wait until they do, most of them will die.

Youth ministry, Jesus-style, requires the courage to leave our comfort zone and plunge into the surf and the storm – as He did. Our rescue efforts will take us into places that are not comfortable, into methods that may not be understood, into a youth culture that is out of control. But that is where the kids are who are dying emotionally and spiritually.

In a sense, our work is not even youth ministry. It is war. A battle rages for a generation of young people – and the winner owns the future. “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21 ).

“Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain.. and most fools do.” – Dale Carnegie

Do you have a critical spirit or do you have a “can-do” spirit?

Or let me ask you the question in these terms: do you REPEL people from your life due to a CYNICAL nature, or do you ATTRACT people to your life due to a JOYFUL spirit and optimistic nature?

We are all either repelling people or attracting people. And a critical spirit is one of the most repelling characteristics of any human being. There are many damaging aspects to a critical nature, but I want to focus on a few major ones:

1. A damaging aspect of a critical spirit is that it prevents you from seeing and appreciating all the GOOD that GOD is actively doing in the world… and the PEOPLE he is using to bring about hope and change.

Invariably, Christians who spend the most time criticizing others are the same Christians who have no mission of their own. When you get consumed with the goodness of God in your life and are living for the mission of making disciples and serving others, it is hard to be critical. When you lack that purpose and mission in your life you find yourself constantly criticizing those who do. When we are overly critical, we fail to see the good God is doing and the people he is doing it through, regardless of whether we agree with their methodology or not.

2. It robs individuals of their greatest potential.

Are you a HOPE killer or a HOPE giver? Do you empower the lives of others or cause them to shrink back and lose confidence? After Moses sent the twelve spies into the Promised Land, only two of the twelve came back with a “can-do” approach. The other ten caused the rest of the Israelites to shrink back in fear with their negative report.

Contrast that with what is said of Caleb: “But my servant Caleb, because he has a DIFFERENT SPIRIT and has followed me FULLY, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.” Because Caleb had a “can-do” spirit he was able to see what others didn’t and go where others wouldn’t go.

Unfortunately, the negative report brought back by the cynical spies damaged the confidence of others and caused them to miss what God had promised. Cynical people are dream killers to everyone around them. They rob people of HOPE. As followers of Jesus Christ and bearers of GOOD NEWS, we should be the greatest HOPE DEALERS in the world. But unfortunately, too many people associate Christianity with BAD NEWS rather than GOOD NEWS because of critical and condemning people.

3. It disunites teams and dismembers organizations: nothing works against the unity of a team spirit like that of a cynical and critical outlook.

It undermines leadership, creates a divided focus, and distracts people from a single purpose and unified vision. Great movements of God have always come as a result of people losing themselves in something greater than themselves. One is too small a number for greatness but it can be all that is needed to stunt the growth of any organization, business, church, or team. One person spreading cynicism in an organization can cause more harm than ten people trying to cultivate singleness of purpose. A little leaven affects the entire lump. Wouldn’t it be a

But great things can happen when individuals lay aside their critical approach with a “can-do” attitude toward vision.

4. Perhaps the most damaging aspect of a critical nature is that it cultivates a judgmental attitude that condemns every one else and the good they are trying to accomplish… while bringing spiritual DEATH to the CRITIC.

The critical person finds themselves tearing down everything and everyone around them. They never build anyone or anything up. They constantly repel people from themselves because they aren’t happy or at peace with themselves. Cynicism is a cancer that will eat away every last fiber of JOY in your life. Where an overly critical nature will repel people from you – a JOYFUL spirit will attract people to you. But you can’t have sustained joy and a cynical spirit at the same time. Something has to give. If you want lasting joy – take your critical nature to the cross and let it be crucified.

What is the ROOT of a critical spirit?

First, a critical person is walking in the flesh, not the Spirit. Rather than drawing upon the Lord for strength and perspective, the critical person relies upon his or her own resources. Cynicism quenches the Spirit of God in our lives, causing us to walk by sight, not faith. As Spirit-filled followers of Jesus Christ, we will always be a people of hope, while a fleshly person will be one of despair.

Second, when you meet people who are constantly critical, you can be pretty sure that they feel rotten about themselves. Overly critical people are dying on the inside. They don’t have peace. Most of the time they are at odds with God and mask the dilemma with religion. They see themselves as unattractive, failing, or in some manner unworthy. Pointing out others’ weaknesses works as an anodyne to keep people from seeing and feeling their own pain.

The Bottom Line

Overly critical people need grace – they need it from others, but more importantly, they need it from themselves. They need to come to grips with who they are in Christ and not be torn down every day with a highly analytical, perfectionist, or judgmental mentality. Living in grace will help you move away from a negative spirit that repels other people in your life, and more sadly, repels people from Christ as well.

If you want to make a difference in your world, choose JOY over CYNICISM and let God’s Spirit turn you into an agent of HOPE, not a judgmental FREAK that REPELS people.

Until next time… SERVE well, LOVE well, LIVE well, LEAD well.

“Anyone who hasn’t experienced the ecstasy of betrayal knows nothing about ecstasy at all.” – Jeab Genet

During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. (John 13:2-5)

Every leader at some point in their leadership will experience betrayal and disloyalty. If you haven’t, then your sphere of influence is not very expanse.

Leaders that exercise their gift of discernment can detect well in advance a personality or attitude that has the propensity to be toxic to the organization and divisive to the team. It is how leaders handle these situations that prove their mark as a leader.

In John 13, Jesus knew Peter would deny him. He knew Judas would betray him. He knew the other disciples would abandon him after his arrest in the garden. But he washed their feet anyway. He SERVED those that would impulsively deny him, intentionally betray him, and rashly abandon him.

ARE YOU SERVING PEOPLE WHOM YOU FEEL INSECURE ABOUT?

Anybody can serve those they feel secure around. But WHO do you serve that makes you feel insecure? Who do you serve that will likely walk out on you as soon as they get their feelings hurt? As a leader, do you know someone on your team that could potentially be toxic to the unity of that team whom you are SERVING anyway?

This is the mark of a healthy leader – they don’t stress would-be betrayers, they wash their feet. They serve in love. Perhaps there is no greater catalyst to growth in a leaders life than to intentionally SERVE, in advance, those whom they sense will ultimately betray them.

Humbly serving those who would betray you means you are closer to the cross than ever before!

SERVE well. LOVE well. LIVE well. LEAD well.

I’ve been reading David Putnam’s Detox… for the Overly Religious. For Putnam, detoxing from toxic religion is simplified into living like Jesus lived, loving like Jesus loved, and leaving behind what Jesus left.

I love this segment I read this morning on loving like Jesus:

One of the most challenging aspects of loving the way Jesus loved is that it demands action. Like the Pharisees, I often find it easier to talk, preach, teach, and write about love than to live it. I can talk the talk, no problem, but that’s not enough. The good news is that Jesus’ kind of love is life giving. It rids me of all kinds of religion, the mindless activity that sucks the very life out of me. Jesus’ love takes me to new depths of surrender and new heights of experience, backing me into corners where only faith can lead me out…

Loving like Jesus is a challenge because it always involves death – death to your pride, death to your bitterness, death to your overly religious ways. It always comes with a struggle, and it always involves surrender. Loving like Jesus is impossible of our own accord. Our only hope is to allow Jesus to love through us.

This kind of Crazy Love, as Francis Chan called it, means I will have to follow Jesus into the Garden of Gethsemane and take up my own cross. This is territory the overly religious dare not to venture. But it’s the only place to truly follow Jesus – in the garden of surrender and self-abandonment. Jesus, love through me in ways I find it impossible to love.

In the early fifties a young man graduated from the University of Louisville with a brilliant passing record in football, but because Louisville wasn’t necessarily known for it’s power on the gridiron as much as it’s basketball excellence, this young man wasn’t deemed as NFL material.

He was drafted in the ninth round by the Pittsburgh Steelers but was cut before he even got a chance to throw a pass in a preseason game.

He went home and took an automobile tire, hung it from a limb of a tree, suspended it in action with a boy pulling it back and forth to stimulate movement, and learned to thread that moving tire with a football at ten yards, fifteen yards, twenty yards, thirty yards, forty yards. He went out every afternoon and on weekends for hours at a time throwing passes at that swinging tire. He even hired boys in the neighborhood to go out for passes. He kept throwing… throwing… and throwing… working incessantly on his accuracy.

That young man paid the price of a purpose that demanded his best. He had a VISION to play professional football. Opportunity always knocks for those who persistently prepare.

Eventually, he was called on to play semipro football with the Bloomfield (Pennsylvania) Rams for $6 per game. Later, the Baltimore Colts decided to take a chance on the kid with the crewcut and coach Weeb Ewbank signed him to a $7,000 contract.

Then when an injury sidelined Colts starting quarterback George Shaw in the 1956 season, Johnny Unitas got his chance and never looked back!

He led the Colts to three NFL championships, including one Super Bowl, and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979. He was also named the NFL’s Most Valuable Player three times.

At the time of his retirement, he held records for the most pass attempts (5,186), most completions (2,830), most total yards (40,239), most touchdowns (290), most 300-yard games (26), and most consecutive games throwing touchdown passes (47). He also had three seasons of 3000+ passing yards.

But without a doubt, it’s for his heroic performance in the 1958 NFL title game, often referred to as the “Greatest Game Ever Played,” that he is best remembered.

His tying and winning drives were textbook-perfect examples of what it takes to win under pressure. Late in the game, with the Colts trailing the New York Giants 17-14, Unitas completed seven straight passes.

That set up the game’s tying field goal with just seven seconds left. He followed that All-Pro performance with a perfectly executed 80-yard touchdown drive in overtime to win.

How is it that one young man, having been dismissed and written off, later became Mr. Quarterback? He paid the price. He drove himself to prepare and when his preparation met opportunity, greatness was birthed.

Preparation pays off!

Enjoyed a great weekend with family. My son got his green belt in Taekwondo then came home and handed me his yellow belt and said, “Here Dad, I don’t need this any more. You can have it.” Looks like I’m now an official honorary yellow belt in Taekwondo. Gotta luv it!

Had a great Italian Valentine’s dinner with my beautiful wife at Macaroni Grill. We heard a POWERFUL story of God’s redeeming LOVE in church. And we tuned in for some of the pothole infested Daytona 500. Exciting race to kick off the NASCAR season.

I’m thrilled with all that God is doing in our lives and ministry. I love this quote I read from Hillsong Pastor Brian Houston over the weekend: “JUSTICE [is] more than a project, a protest, or a crusade. Justice is a HEART. Let it be OUR heart!”

God, let us reveal the TRUE heartbeat of JESUS to this generation!!!

Ken Blanchard has posted some Leadership Lessons from Super Bowl XLIV. He believes the underdog New Orleans Saints defeated the Indianapolis Colts 31-17, in large part, to the power of their purpose.

After the game Brees was quoted as saying, “We played for our city. We played for the entire Gulf Coast region. We played for the entire Who Dat nation that has been behind us every step of the way.”

Blanchard states, “Teams of all kinds, whether in the sports world, corporate America, or the non-profit sector, can take a lesson from the Saints and the power of purpose. When chartering a team, one of the first priorities is to establish a clear purpose. ‘Why do we exist?’ and ‘What are we trying to achieve?’ are key questions that need to be answered.”

Read more…