Mike Henderson

Be Fired Up at Work

Over forty years ago we lived in a modest three bedroom house with two bathroooms.  My guess is the total square footage was about 1,000.  There were five kids, two girls, and three boys.  Our bedroom measured a meager 8 X 10 feet.  Smaller than some closets today.  Small, but enough room to sleep and get dressed.

But I remember my dad getting up early and going to work every day.  Plus he showed up early and loved to work.  The three key words here are every, early, and energetic. 

Dad ran a crane in the steel erection business.  However, during lunch break dad did not stop to eat.  He ate while operating the crane.  When the rest of the crew took lunch dad worked on the crane.  He always had rags handy to wipe the crane down in order to keep it clean.  He also serviced the crane on his own time.

Now here is the fascinating point.  All this time someone was watching.  In 1969 a guy by the name of Bill Butts came along and offered my dad a job.  Let me be honest.  In some ways it was a great deal, in other ways it was a terrible offer.  But dad took the deal and turned it into a great deal.

Without going into all the details, let me just say that life changed for our family. 

My dad did not become an overnight success.  No, he simply got recognized after two decades of being fired up at work. 

And someone was watching.  Someone is watching you.

So be fired up at work.

Football Provides a Great Metaphor for the Church

This past Sunday at New Hope I used football to help us better understand the mission, vision, and strategy of the church.  While not everyone follows football, it is difficult to find someone who does not watch the Super Bowl.

With that in mind, most then have a basic understanding of the game.  Also, in the New Testament the apostle Paul used running and boxing as metaphors for the Christian life.  Had football been around, I am certain he would have used it to help believers understand how to live as a believer.

Think of the similarities between the football and the church.

1.  Football has coaches, churches have pastors.  Coaches like pastors coach, call plays, evaluate, seek to get the right players on the field, and much more.

2.  Both want to win.  One thing I did this past week was share with the church what a short term win is and what a long term win looks like.  In football a touchdown is a short term win.  Winning a game is a short term win.  Winning the Super Bowl is a long term win.

3.  Unity is huge.  Everyone must be reading the same playbook, running the correct routes, and moving at the same time on the snap of the football.

4.  Teams are different and churches vary widely.  Some players prefer the 4-3 defense and others the 3-4.  The particular choice does not make one player right and the other wrong.  I know of churches that will absolutely not offer a cup of coffee inside the church.  One of America's best known Bible teachers and one of my favorite pastors fits in that category.

5.  Coaches are different.  Bill Belichick is very different from Rex Ryan.  They are both different from Andy Reid.  Yet each coach is effective.  It took 25 years for Bill Belichick to make his mark, Rex Ryan became a household name much sooner. 

6.  They celebrate once a week, typically on Sunday. 

As we celebrated this past Sunday my goal was to clarify what the church is all about.  Football provides a great metaphor.  For the remainder of the week I will share some more similarities. 

 

The Approach to Problem Solving is Always the Same

Recently I heard Herman Cain talk about solving the problems in America.  He has been a businessman, a politician, and been on the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

He once took over the leadership of 400 Burger King stores in the Philadelphia area where he turned it around from the least profitable region to the most profitable.

He is best known for his career at Godfather's Pizza where he was the chairman and CEO.  Once again he turned it into a profitable company.

So at least we know from his career that he has solved a lot of problems.  With that said, let's look at his five keys to solving problems.  Cain's view is you approach problem solving the same every time.

1.  Make sure you are working on the right problem. It could be a systems problem, a communication problem, or a people problem.

2.  Make sure you set the right priorities.  In other words, this is where you put your money.

3.  Surround yourself with the right people.  The wrong people may very well miss what the problem actually is.  The right people will have the necessary insight, understanding, and wisdom.

4.  If you do the first three you will come up with the right plan.

5.  Execute. 

Now what's your problem?  You know what to do!

Easter Brings Clarity

In my last post I mentioned how Walmart got a little confused as to what their mission was, "Low Prices. Every Day."  The fact is, life happens.  What is important gets forgotten.  As pastor of New Hope I cannot forget that prayer and preaching are my top two priorities (Acts 6:4-"Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word.”).  People are my third.  No one is around to watch  me pray.  Everyone gets to hear me preach.  You get the picture.  It's easy to let something slide.

That's what I like about Easter.  This year I have challenged our people at New Hope in three areas.  P.F.I.  Before I explain the three letters, let me add that everyone can clench their fist tightly, but only for a short time.  That's Easter.  Here are three things every believer can do a lot of for a short period of time.  Actually, these are constant things, but once again it's easy for some of these things to slide.  Easter has a way of reminding us as to what's important.

P is for prayer.  Yes, we should pray every day.  We should as a church be praying for the service, the music, and the message every week prior to coming.  Do we?  As least with Easter coming up it gives everyone an extra incentive to pray for a great day.

F is for fasting.  This year I encouraged everyone to pick three times or three days and fast and pray for Easter, opportunities to invite, and boldness to get the word out.  Fasting is overlooked by many.  I shared with the church how that last Easter I fasted and prayed three separate days for three big requests and all three prayers were answered.  I am always a little hesitant to share, because it is not like you can just fast and pray and you get automatic answers.  However, fasting is an important spiritual discipline.  Let me go a step farther and say that fasting may be the key to letter I.

I is for inviting.  The challenge this year has been to invite 5 families.  5!  Sometimes I think we look around and feel like we don't have 5 people to invite.  Have we fasted and prayed for 5?  It could be that having 5 families to invite is the big answer to prayer that I get.  I don't know.  I do know that people outside the church are overwhelmed and overloaded with something.  That's why we need to pray and fast.

And so let's remember that Easter brings clarity.  This may be our greatest Easter ever at New Hope.  That is, if we pray, fast, and invite. 

Could You Work for Tony Hsieh?

One of the great business stories of the past decade is the story of Zappos.  Tony Hsieh is the CEO and if there is one word that sums up his personal passion it would be happiness.  In fact, his book is entitled Delivering Happiness.

The book is a great read and details the story of his life from a little kid all the way to CEO of Zappos and the ultimate acquisition by Amazon for over $1 billion.  That was in October of 2009.  Every shareholder was awarded Amazon stock shares which have doubled since then.  So you could say the deal turned out to be worth about $2 1/2 billion.

At any rate what fascinated me are the values and principles in play at Zappos.  For instance, after they hire you they will actually offer you $2000 to leave. Quit.  Why?  Because they want people who have the same values and passions.

Delivering Happiness is now a global company.  One of the things obvious about Hsieh is that he enforces his values.  For instance, if you were to arrive in town for a job interview and you were rude to the cab driver, you would not be working for Delivering Happiness and Tony Hsieh. Of course, as pastor of New Hope I find myself asking that question.  Can you be on staff at New Hope, be rude and keep your job?  I don't see that happening.  Would I take some heat for dismissing a rude person?  Probably.  Amazing when you stop and think about it. 

It's refreshing to see people step up and live out their values.  How many would lose their jobs tomorrow because of rudeness?  A  lot.  Just look around.  Spouses are rude to each other.  Employees are rude to fellow employees.  Customer service people are occasionally rude to customers and vice versa. 

Have you ever let someone go because they were rude to others?  Was there any fallout?  Did others think that terminating someone for rudeness was out of line?  That's what makes someone like Hsieh stand out.

Yes, you can sometimes get by with rude behavoir where you are, but should you get by?  If it were someone else you wouldn't think so.  So let's keep it personal.  Could you work for Tony Hsieh?

New Hope Christmas Eve and End of Year Schedule

The next couple of weeks will go by quickly and the New Year will be upon us.  During this time of year our schedule departs from the normal.

On Christmas Eve we will have a Candlelight service that will last about an hour.  You will not want to miss the start.  If you do it will be like missing the opening scene of a movie.  We have some nice battery operated candles so all the kids can have one also.

The service starts at 5pm, but come early.

On Sunday, December 26 we will have no service.

January 2 we will launch into 2011 and all month long we will be taking about the Vision for New Hope in 2011: Living in 3-D.  The title for the message series in January will be "212."  Trust me, this series could greatly impact your entire year.

Plus be sure to use Facebook to invite your friends to Christmas Eve.

Right now we are ending the year strong, and I am excited about what's coming in 2011.

Sometimes You Have to See It First

Not long ago we needed to take both of our cats to the vets for shots.  The problem was we only had one carrier.  I looked around the house for a viable substitute, but I never found one.  However, that very day I happen to look right at the clothes hamper and realize I could use it to transport one of the cats.

So often that's how life is.  It's one of the reason people go to college or join the military.  Very few know exactly what they want, because so few have been exposed to enough.  

This is another reason why we encourage people to try different things at church and in the work place.  Carol and I have built three houses in which we have lived, but prior to that we had never built a house.  But I did grow up around commercial construction and my dad worked on his houses.  So I had at least been exposed to the concept.

The point is read new books, go to places you have never been, and do things you have never done. You will be exposed to ideas and things you had not thought of before.  Who knows you may just see what you have been looking for.

Sex and Porn

Two popular words.....among teenagers.  Those two words rank in the top 5 of what they search for on the internet.  Not good.  The truth is we can tell a lot about a person or a group  with just a few key words.

Let's take the guy who works all the time and is never home.  We refer to him as a workaholic.

We also toss around words like couch potato, social outcast, and spendthrift.  These words not only describe someone, they also describe the direction and the future of a particular person.

So what do we make of the two popular search words by teenager?  Sex and porn?  Looks like there are many relationships about to derail in the foreseeable future.  Why?  Because purity is the pathway to intimacy.  These two  popular words suggest that most teenagers are abandoning an intimate relationship with their future spouse even before they meet.

Sad.  Yet preventable.  First of all I think teens need a vision of what could be and then a plan to get there.  Also Jesus Christ can make an incredible difference and give teens a purpose beyond themselves.

Sex and porn.  Why not intimacy and purity?  Have we lost sight of what could be in our upcoming marriage.  After all, most people will marry at some point.  And sadly, many will never know what they are missing out on.  Intimacy will not be experienced and many will fail to go the distance.  

As a Christ follower I believe the answer lies in Jesus Christ and the local church.  Just think if those two words were among the most popular among teens?