Radio Free JoJo

I am at the Erie, PA satellite site of the Global Leadership Summit produced by the Willow Creek Assocation. I’ll blog my notes as appropriate.

What is the Summit=Leadership development event that is unabashedly Christian.

Goal=we get 5-10% better as leaders each year, so that in time, you have been revoutionalized as leader

Leadership slump – unsolvable challenges that can’t get head around, stumped

Four points

1. Leaders move people from…here à there //a preferred future that produces passion

What do you do when people want to stay…”here”

1. First play is to make “here” sound awful!
2. Build the case of we cannot stay her
3. Describe where there is and vision the opportunities

Our job is to figure out what God wants done in this world, what our role is, and why we can’t stay where we are.

2. Fantastic People-one of the greatest joys of leadership is knitting together teams

• Character
• Competence
• Chemestry
• Culture (what kind of person flourishes on our team?)

High challenge, servant

The Holy Challenge – assemble a team of fantastic people  - sensitive conversations to have

3. Mile markers and Celebrations

In a journey from here to there, the middle third of the journey between here to there gets really hard

Recommendations:

• Refill their vision bucket (everyone’s leaks)
• You have to put mile markers in and celebrate each one of them
• What keeps people on the journey is a sense of hope that they will get there someday

40% differential between an inspired teammate/church member and one without – inspiration matters

4. Whispers from God

Vital to be voracious reader of God’s Word to open yourself to God’s leading

Do you believe that God still speaks today? I think He trys to speak to you every single day!

How concerned are you on the quality of our antenna to God? Listen to the Spirit…do everything in your power to hear the voice of God and heed it.

The smartest moves Bill made didn’t come from his wisdom but from promptings.

What are the whispers you are hearing?

This is a strange election year. Usually mid-term elections don’t generate a lot of interest, and often there are few competitive races on the ballot.

Not so in 2010.

Besides state-wide races for Governor/Lt. Governor, and U.S. Senate, this year is up for grabs in the Third Congressional District of PA. The incumbent is freshman congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper, who faces one primary challenge. However, the big horse race is on the Republican side, where six contenders want to be the nominee.

If you watch much local television you would think that there are only two candidates in that race: Paul Huber, and Mike Kelly. Those two have a full-blown media cat fight going on ripping each other to shreds. I would encourage you to reject both of them; their money and nasty campaigns.

Let me tell you about a citizen/statesman if there ever was one: Ed Franz. Ed is one of us; a blue-collar guy that works “at the GE.” He’s been a lifelong veteran of grassroots campaigns; the “go-to” guy for conservatives over the years trying to win Crawford County. He has a firm grasp of the challenges and ill-fated decisions our government is making and has a plan for action. He’s also independent-minded enough not to get sucked-into the Washington establishment debacle; an unfortunate fact of Cong. Dahlkemper’s tenure so-far.

Ed has long-standing pro-life and pro-family credentials…and he is just an honest, down-to-earth, passionate guy who would truly represent the values I hold dear.

If you are a Republican in PA-3, when you go to the polls look for Ed Franz at position #5 on the ballot.

It’s 6:00 on Christmas morning. A magical hour, with the Christmas tree ablaze and no sound except the furnace blowing, and the muted “tap, tap” of my laptop keyboard.

I can’t sleep, even though I only went to bed a few hours ago. The music from our Christmas Eve services at church last night are running through my head on a continuous loop; “Come let us adore Him!”

As I look around the tree at all of the presents I’m amazed again at how blessed my family is. Not because of the stuff, but because of the love and thought behind it. I’m thankful for the grace and caring that keeps this home intact and covered with love. I’m truly thankful for God for this moment.

My thoughts this morning have also turned to what other kids are waking up to this morning on Christmas here in Erie.

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Erie County PA 1895

If you were to look at a movie of my life 10 years ago, you would have seen me scrambling to make provisions for Christmas broadcasts and coverage of First Night-Erie and the Y2K date change as part of my management job at WCTL. At home I had two active elementary school-aged boys and a pregnant wife getting ready to deliver our Millennial Baby.

Let your lens widen out to the Erie community at large and you would have seen an optimistic community, ready to head into the new century tackling our challenges and accepting responsibility to make change. Soon after New Year’s, the region through the Economic Development Corp. of Erie County engaged Brian Bosworth to do a comprehensive 12-month study and propose a developmental strategy for the future.

The much-referred-to Bosworth Report was released on October 16, 2001 and it gave a frank assessment of where our region stood and where it needed to go. Plenty of Erie stakeholders were involved in providing input into his findings, delineated by a 13 point Executive Summary.

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Believe it or not, but this was my first chance to lead worship at our Erie site of McLane Church, which happens to meet Sunday evenings at 5:00 at The Cell Block, which is a very large bar. Thus the nickname, “church-in-a-bar.”

The great thing about that environment in the center of the city is the pallatable “turning back the darkness” experience that you feel as you worship the Savior. And indeed we did worship!

The small and stellar band:

• Ron Yarmin: Acoustic Guitar
• Brian Boleratz: Bass
• Brandt Fuller (Dir. of Worship): Acoustic Guitar/Vocals
• Joel Natalie: Worship Leader/Vocals

The familiarity of the set had them singing:

• Friend of God/Phillips, Craig & Dean
• Medley in E:
  • Open the Eyes of My Heart
  • Sometimes By Step (just chorus & alt chorus)
  • Here I Am to Worship (chorus & bridge only)
• Wonderful, Merciful, Savior/Selah (a bit faster & fuller than recording)
• Revelation Song

Thanks for the privilege to be with everyone at “church-in-a-bar!”

Note: I am participating in the “Sunday Setlists” blog carnival at FredMcKinnon.Com.

It technically isn’t “Taxation without Representation,” but it has been 14 years since a Republican sat on Erie City Council. So as one of the 25% of voters who live in the city and have an “R” after my name, it can be easy to feel disenfranchised by the those who are obligated to represent all of us. Often the values of limited government, low taxes, more efficency and less bureaucracy are not priorities by a local government comprised totally of elected officials from the Democrat party.

Most of the time, there are no Republican choices offered in city races, however this year we do have a real choice for City Council: Tim Butler. Tim has an excellent grasp of the challenges facing the City of Erie, and has a strong, effective agenda for taking on the problems head on. His experience as a local staffer for Sen. Rick Santorum shows that he understands the political landscape and can work effectively with all of the players.

Of course, we can vote for four council members in this general election. But with the lopsided registration tally for the Democrats, accompanied by great numbers of those that will just press the big Democrat button, it is very difficult for anyone outside the Dems to rank in the top four vote-getters to win a City Council seat.

That’s why I intend to, and want to encourage other city voters to vote only for Tim Butler for City Council. Those who wish Tim to win should not defeat their own efforts by adding to the vote totals of other candidates. Instead, “bullet vote” for Butler and no one else and give his fresh new voice a fighting chance…for a new Erie.

Our band of musicians and vocalists once again had the wonderful privilege to lead worship at the Edinboro site of McLane Church this weekend. We continued our series on the Old Testament on Nehemiah, as Bill Cox preached a message on confession.

We welcomed visiting Spanish River Church worship leader Ashley  Bowersox on vocals, who sang a stirring lead on “Amazed.”

We closed the service introducing the incredibly powerful song from Pastor Ross Parsley and New Life Worship titled “Overcome.” I get the feeling that this anthem will make a huge impact on our congregation.

Here’s the band:

• David Van Matre: Electric Guitar
• Brandt Fuller (Dir. of Worship): Acoustic Guitar/Vocals
• Brian Van Matre: Keyboards
• John Gersims: Drums
• Jared Leininger: Bass
• Ashley Bowersox: Vocals
• Joel Natalie: Worship Leader/Vocals

And the set:

• Let God Arise/Chris Tomlin
• Forever/Chris Tomlin
• Never Gonna Stop/Tommy Walker
• Amazed/Desperation Band
• Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)/Chris Tomlin
• Overcome/This Is My Story/New Life Worship\

This post is part of Fred McKinnon’s Sunday Setlist blog carnival.