A friend emailed me yesterday to ask if our company had any openings. His son was out of work and was struggling to support his wife and newborn baby. I hurt for him and his son. As fathers our hearts are so closely connected with our kids. It was a sobering reminder of our shifting [...]
Posts Tagged ‘vision’
Five Keys to Reinvention
Posted in Empowering Leadership, tagged building momentum, Connecting, connection, Empowering Leadership, Leadership, vision on November 17, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
14 Ways to Raise the Bar
Posted in Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Relevant Ministry, tagged clarity, community, Connecting, Consumerism, Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Leadership, Missional Ministry, Relevant Ministry, Valuable life goal, vision on September 26, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Over 100 years ago, Charles Spurgeon proclaimed every Christian here is either a missionary or an imposter. Recollect that. You either try to spread abroad the Kingdom of Christ, or else you do not love Him at all. You are either doing good, or you are not good yourself. That kind of challenge has been [...]
Do Young People Desire Anguish?
Posted in Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Relevant Ministry, tagged Authentic, building momentum, Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Faith, Leadership, legitimacy, Purpose, Relevant Ministry, Valuable life goal, vision on July 14, 2011 | 6 Comments »
They may frustrate you with their expectations or intimidate you with their social connections. They’re “Digital Natives” while we struggle as “Digital Immigrants”. What they want from church is very different as well. Here is research data from Dave Tonen regarding what the 18-30 year old crowd want from you and I at church: Community [...]
Sage Advice from Billy Graham
Posted in Culture, Evolving Culture, Relevant Ministry, tagged clarity, Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Leadership, missional, Missional Ministry, Relevant Ministry, vision on May 28, 2011 | 2 Comments »
In his new book, The Next Christians, author Gabe Lyons writes that every generation must confront the unique challenges of their era. Here are three questions that must be addressed to do so: What does mission look like in America in the 21st century? How should the message of the Gospel go forward? What does [...]
A Careful Man
Posted in Bahler Family Doing Life, tagged Authentic, Bahler Family Doing Life, clarity, communication, Empowering Leadership, Hope, Leadership, love, Purpose, trust, Valuable life goal, vision on March 18, 2011 | 17 Comments »
My dad passed away last night. He suffered from Alzheimer’s and deteriorated rapidly over the past few weeks. It was a blessing to have my mom and all eight of us kids around his bed as his breathing grew slower and slower. It was a special time as we told stories and sang old hymns [...]
You’re Not Typical?
Posted in Evolving Culture, tagged alignment, building momentum, Evolving Culture, Relevant Ministry, vision on March 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The typical person in the world right now is a 28-year-old Chinese man that makes less than $12,000 a year. He has a cell phone but no bank account. But typical is always relative. How does this impact the future for you and me? What does it mean for our grand kids? Check this video [...]
Barnes & Noble, USA Today, and The Church
Posted in Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Relevant Ministry, tagged alignment, building momentum, communication, community, Connecting, connection, Consumerism, Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Leadership, Purpose, Relevant Ministry, vision on September 7, 2010 | 6 Comments »
I used to love hanging out at Barnes & Noble, sipping tea and browsing books. But I haven’t been there in months. Here’s a great read from the “Church and Culture” blog that explains why Barnes & Noble has been floundering and offers excellent advice for the church: “How did Barnes and Noble fall so far [...]
Do They Mimic You?
Posted in Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Relevant Ministry, tagged alignment, clarity, Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Hope, Leadership, vision on September 2, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Half of all the churches in America failed to add one person through conversion last year. Every week, 43,000 Americans are leaving the church for good. And on average, churches 20 years old and older are shrinking every year, as the chart here shows. It’s because of statistics like these that I invested three days [...]
Never Give Up
Posted in Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, tagged building momentum, Empowering Leadership, Faith, Hope, Leadership, love, trust, vision on August 13, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
We can commit to years of preparation for a great cause or challenge. Even so, things beyond our control can cause deep disappointment. Those are moments of great truth. Those are moments that define us. 400 meter British Olympian Derek Redmond had a defining moment on the back stretch of the 1992 Olympics. Despite 13 [...]
The Most Important Person
Posted in Bahler Family Doing Life, tagged Bahler Family Doing Life, communication, Connecting, Consumerism, Faith, Hope, Leadership, legitimacy, love, Purpose, trust, Valuable life goal, vision on July 16, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Pastor and sociologist Tony Campolo explains the concept of “The Looking Glass Self” like this: We see ourselves as we believe the most important person in our life sees us. Tony tells us that if we make Christ the most important person in our life and recognize that he loved us enough to die a [...]
Don’t Be Ridiculed for the Wrong Thing
Posted in Empowering Leadership, tagged Authentic, clarity, Relevant Ministry, vision on July 8, 2010 | 6 Comments »
Do you relate with these comments from Phil Cooke? For most of my life, Christians were laughed at or ridiculed for the wrong things. The non-believing culture made fun of boycotts, our protests over irrelevant issues, or crazy promotional stunts in the name of the gospel. Far too often, some Christians took the “peculiar people” [...]
Trusting He’ll Come Through
Posted in Bahler Family Doing Life, tagged Bahler Family Doing Life, love, Missional Ministry, vision on May 2, 2010 | 12 Comments »
Last Friday my wife and I celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary. Well, we didn’t really celebrate it. In fact, I had forgotten it until my sister emailed with congratulations. I quickly called Annette and in my sweetest voice crooned, “Happy anniversary baby.” She had forgotten too. I expected life to be different at 52. I [...]
Sitting in the Smoking Section
Posted in Evolving Culture, Relevant Ministry, tagged communication, Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Leadership, legitimacy, Relevant Ministry, Valuable life goal, vision on March 11, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Neal Cole, one of the national church-planting gurus, recently asked if we care enough about connecting with smokers to sit in the smoking section. That was a challenge, especially in light of the fact that I gave up far less threatening risks like coffee, meat, and milk products after my heart scare last year. He [...]
Safe Can be Dangerous
Posted in Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Relevant Ministry, tagged alignment, building momentum, community, community needs, Connecting, connection, Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Hope, Leadership, love, mega church, ministry, Purpose, Relevant Ministry, third place, vision on February 17, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I grew up in a small Indiana town of 1,200 people. It was so safe that we didn’t own a key to the house, didn’t take the keys from the car, and knew most families two to three generations back. But what often evolves within safe circles is low trust for ideas outside it. That’s [...]
How Are You Behaving
Posted in Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, tagged vision on February 13, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
You may be as burnt out as I am with the endless churn of pithy little quotes on Twitter, Facebook, and blogs. Even so, here’s one that deserves some real thought in light of all the unknowns that the recent economic trauma has created for us: Intelligence is not the measure of how much we [...]
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