Life in the Suburban Jungle

Live to Tell

I was recently invited to travel with Hope International to Rwanda and was quite embarrassed at my lack of knowledge about the  country and their history (especially the genocide in 1994). In my research I came across this book and was completely blown away by it. I cannot fathom what this lady went through any more than I can fathom that fact that basically the entire world stood by and let this happen. Where was I for that matter? The following is from the synopsis of her book:

Immaculee Ilibagiza grew up in a country she loved, surrounded by a family she cherished. But in 1994 her idyllic world was ripped apart as Rwanda descended into a bloody genocide. Immaculee’s family was brutally murdered during a killing spree that lasted three months and claimed the lives of nearly a million Rwandans.

Incredibly, Immaculee survived the slaughter. For 91 days, she and seven other women huddled silently together in the cramped bathroom of a local pastor while hundreds of machete-wielding killers hunted for them.

It was during those endless hours of unspeakable terror that Immaculee discovered the power of prayer, eventually shedding her fear of death and forging a profound and lasting relationship with God. She emerged from her bathroom hideout having discovered the meaning of truly unconditional love—a love so strong she was able seek out and forgive her family’s killers.
The triumphant story of this remarkable young woman’s journey through the darkness of genocide will inspire anyone whose life has been touched by fear, suffering, and loss.

Reveal

I first learned about Reveal at the Leadership Summit a couple of weeks ago. It is the culmination of a process that began several years ago at Willow Creek Community Church in south Barrington, IL initiated by Greg Hawkins, Executive Pastor. He began asking questions about the best use of the church's financial resources to help people grow spiritually.  Three years or more later, after thousands of hours and surveys and meetings later, the Willow team discovered some amazing information that has implications worldwide about the church. Their research is ongoing and will now include about 500 churches from around the world to assess the information and it applicability.

The biggest piece of the puzzle (IMHO) that they uncovered and figured out was that people were increasingly more UNsatisfied with their churches as they grew more spiritually mature. This would seem to be counterintuitive, but as folks grew up (spiritually speaking), the churches were unable to continue to provide the spiritual nourishment that each needed to grow more in their faith.  The Willow team concluded, and the Bible completely backs this up, that they had failed to educate their folks on the disciplines of self-feeding. Their people expected the church to continue to do it for them. Paul talks about the importance of learning how to "feed" yourself as you mature in belief in Christ in the New Testament.

If I had a nickel for every believer I knew that expressed frustration that the church wasn't meeting their needs I'd have a lot of nickels. These folks do not have a plan or routine for their own spiritual growth and aren't growing! The church can do more and will - but folks are going to have to realize what's going on and address it!

I have included below more information about Reveal, with links to order. ENJOY!

Overview
It started with a church doing a congregational survey. The initial results provided exceptional insights into individuals’ spiritual growth and development. Now we're opening the door to other churches—of all shapes and sizes—to work together to help people grow in their love of God and others.

So, what is REVEAL?

It’s an ongoing conversation among a community of pastors and church leaders who have been called by God to help people grow in their love of God and others.

Fueling the conversation are the insights gathered from millions of answers to survey questions given to (thus far) thousands of people from churches all across the country.

Why the name? According to Greg Hawkins, the point leader for REVEAL: “We truly believe that God revealed new insights to us about the people of our church—and how our church can help them grow closer to Christ. Our prayer is that other churches will join with each other so that we all can keep building on these insights.”

Short History of REVEAL
Since the early 1990s, Willow Creek Community Church has used congregational surveys to find out about its congregation. As with most surveys, the data provided a strong understanding of some key basic demographics:

• Life Stage: age, marital status, sex, etc.
• Spiritual background
• Involvement: serving, small groups, services, etc.
• And more

By 2004, the church’s leaders were looking for more information. They found it when they connected with Eric Arnson, founder of ORIGINATE, a research and strategy consulting firm that develops and applies new approaches to understanding consumer-based loyalty for corporations.

Here’s how Eric describes his business approach: “I use scientific methods to look beyond surface characteristics such as demographics into the deeper issues: emotions, motivations and needs.”

After he had met Eric, Greg Hawkins asked him if his methods could dig below the surface to better understand the spiritual development of people. Eric believed it could. How? “We ask people behavioral questions about things like serving, Bible study, small group involvement, spiritual practices including prayer and solitude, attendance at services—anything that tied into their spiritual lives.”

The results? According to Greg, “God began to reveal new insights—biblically based insights—to us as we looked at data from a congregational survey at our church in 2004. We discovered through this research, we could gain a unique understanding of the spiritual lives of our people—how they grow and what we can do to help them.”

Click HERE for more info.

American Band

I finally put myself on a self-imposed book moratorium.  No more new books until I finish all the ones that I have started. I actually started and finished this one last week and must say that for anyone that has ever performed in a high school marching band, this one is well worth the trip down memory lane.  I actually had to fight back tears at the end - what a sap! For those of you that have wondered what the big deal is with the whole marching band thing, well here you go.

From the book:

Author "Kristen Laine went back to the heartland-- to the America so many of us fly over without blinking an eye-- and uncovered ... a world where salvation and ambition and teenage angst collide in strange ways no outsider could ever understand, unless you read American Band."
--Michael Bamberger, author of Wonderland: A Year in the Life of an American High School

Every fall, marching bands take to the field in a uniquely American ritual. From the stands, it looks easy. You don’t see them sweat. For millions of kids, band is more than a show. It’s a rite of passage—a first foray into leadership and adult responsibility, and a chance to learn what it means to be part of a community. Nowhere is band more serious than at Concord High School in Elkhart, Indiana, where the entire town is involved with the success of its defending state champion band, the Marching Minutemen.

In the place where this tradition may have originated, in the city that became the band instrument capital of the world, band is a religion. But it’s not the only religion, as director Max Jones discovers. After four decades, Jones’s single-minded devotion to musical excellence has fallen out of step with a younger generation increasingly focused on personal salvation. In what his students do not know is his final season of directing, he has assembled his most ambitious show ever, for the strongest senior class he has ever directed. Amid conflicting notions of greatness, the band marches through a season that starts in hope and promise, progresses through uncertainty and disappointment, and ends, ultimately, in redemption.

AMERICAN BAND is an unusually intimate chronicle of life, in all its triumph, disappointment, and drama, in the kind of community in which most of America lives. It is an especially timely portrait, capturing as it does the spirit of the heartland at a time of profound change. If you have ever been—or yearned to be—part of something bigger than yourself, you will be rooting for the kids whose voices fill this book.

Excerpt from the first chapter HERE.

The 4-Hour Workweek

I read an article by TIm Ferris in the latest issue of Fortune Small Business and some of the ideas were worth sharing. He also has a new book out by the same name. The book looks interesting if you overlook the hype. Here are some of the main points of the article:

• concentrate on the 20% of the customers that generate 80% of the revenue (Pareto's Law)
• eliminate or push high maintenance customers to the back of the bus
• eliminate or reduce incoming information such as news or newsletters (email)
• avoid meetings (ask for an agenda in advance)
• set times to check email (2-3 times per day max) and stick to it
• outsource emails
• empower those around you to make decisions without your constant approval

From the book:

Whether you're an overworked employee or an entrepreneur trapped in your own business, The 4-Hour Workweek is the compass for a new and revolutionary world.

Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan—there is no need to wait and every reason not to. Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, high-end world travel, monthly five-figure income with zero management, or just living more and working less, this book is the blueprint.

You can have it all—really.

Join Tim Ferriss, popular guest lecturer in entrepreneurship at Princeton University, as he teaches you:

• How to outsource your life and do whatever you want for a year, only to return to a bank account 50% larger than before you left
• How blue-chip escape artists travel the world without quitting their jobs
• How to eliminate 50% of your work in 48 hours using the principles of little-known European economists
• How to train your boss to value performance over presence, or kill your job (or company) if it's beyond repair
• How to trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and frequent “mini-retirements”
• What automated cash-flow "muses" are and how to create one in 2-4 weeks
• How to cultivate selective ignorance—and create time—with a low-information diet
• Management secrets of Remote Control CEOs
• The crucial difference between absolute and relative income
• How to get free housing worldwide and airfare at 50-80% off
• How to fill the void and creating meaning after removing work and the office

The 4-Hour Workweek also includes the sample e-mails, voicemails, and real-life deals (with dollar figures and all) you will need to master the new world of luxury lifestyle design.

Who is Tim Ferriss?
Serial entrepreneur and ultravagabond Timothy Ferriss has been featured in The New York Times, National Geographic Traveler, MAXIM, and other media. He speaks six languages, runs a multinational firm from wireless locations worldwide, and has been a world-record holder in tango, a national champion in Chinese kickboxing, and an actor on a hit television series in Hong Kong. He is 29 years old.

www.4hourworkweek.com

Better Add Another Mile

It's natural to want to treat yourself after a tough workout - but it's all to easy to eat more than you've earned. In his book The Diet Detective's Count Down, Charles Stuart Platkin gives the exercise equivalents for 7,500 foods. Here are how many minutes you need to run to burn off the calories of a few typical pre- and postrun foods and treats. (All calculations are based on a 155-pound person running 12 minute miles).

• one large banana = 12 minutes
• one 12 ounce beer = 16 minutes
• one Snickers bar = 30 minutes
• Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino (10oz) = 31 minutes
• one cup of cooked pasta with tomato sauce = 31 minutes
• half cup of Grape Nuts mixed into one cup of plain, low-fat yogurt = 38 minutes
• two bean-and-cheese burritos = 40 minutes
• one cinnamon-raisin bagel with two tablespoons of peanut butter = 41 minutes
• one scone = 45 minutes
• two slices Pizza Hut cheese pan pizza = 58 minutes
• two pancakes with a tablespoon of butter and 1/4 cup of maple syrup = 70 minutes
• cheeseburger with large french fries = 117 minutes

From Runner's World April '07

Love and Respect

Caroline & I co-lead a weekly small group study based on the book entitled Love & Respect by Emerson Eggerichs. I recommend it for every married couple - in any stage of marriage! The following outlines the basic framework of the material:

What is Love and Respect?

A wife feels loved when her husband...

* wants to be face-to-face with her;

* isn't secretly mad at her;

* empathizes with her;

* resolves and reconciles with her;

* is completely committed to her; and

* treasures her above all else.

A husband feels respected when his wife...

* appreciates his desire to work and achieve;

* appreciates his responsibility to protect and provide and even die;

* appreciates his strength;

* appreciates his analytical bent and counsel;

* appreciates his shoulder-to-shoulder friendship; and

* appreciates his sexual desire for her. 

Rev. Emerson Eggerichs Ph.D. Copyright Love and Respect Ministries Inc. 2003
www.loveandrespect.com

One of My Favorite Quotes

I heard this quote twice in the same week in two entirely different places and thought it was worth sharing:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

It is from a book by Marianne Williamson called A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course In Miracles.  I confess that I have not yet read it, but am adding to my reading list. Enjoy the quote.