Josh Young

Just reread this article from Jim Collins. If your life is busy (and most of us can relate), then you should take a minute to read this.

• A Stop Doing List by Jim Collins (author of Good to Great)

Josh Young Devotional Thoughts, Leadership, Ministry, Personal, Productivity

Here are some great thoughts from John Maxwell on communication and connecting from the Chick-fil-A LeaderCast. What a great day getting to hear some of the greatest leaders of our time.

“He that leadeth and hath no one following him is just taking a walk”
- Old Proverb

Connecting means the ability to identify with and relate to people in such a way that your influence begins to affect them.

1. Connecting is all about others.

• It’s not about you.
• If you are alone at the top, you’re not a leader, you’re a hiker.
• Leaders aren’t the first to cross the finish line; they are back bringing other people with them (it’s a little slower).
• When you become a leader, you give up your rights to think about yourself first

2. Connecting requires energy

• You have to work hard to connect
• If you are connecting, you are expending energy and time to do so
• For some people, it will take MORE of your energy
• The difference between dating and marriage: When you’re dating, you put all the energy into building the relationship. When you get married, there’s a power outage.
• If you’re going to connect, you’re going to have to give it a lot of effort/energy
• Make them feel special.
• Who do you need to expend energy on so that you connect with them?

3. Connectors find common ground

• Connectors are constantly looking for common ground.
• Connecting is based on similarities, not differences.
• Within half a dozen questions, you can find common ground with someone.
• Relate to them where they are, and once you find the common ground, stay there.
• When you find common ground, take them to higher ground.
• Make common ground choices in life, such as to walk slowly through the crowd (let people connect with you, care for them, etc.), be open with your life (people held at a distance won’t hurt you, but they won’t help you either), etc.

Dang.

Order John’s newest book, Everyone Communicates, Few Connect, here

Josh Young Leadership

It’s all about the story. It’s all about how we can be the one to make others’ stories better.

How to be a story shaper from Mark Sanborn at the Chick-fil-A LeaderCast

• Catch the other person’s story (slow down so you can catch it!)
• Respond
• Ask questions (what do you desire, what is your greatest fear, what would you most like to learn)
• Feel (listen with your heart)
• Tell your story (don’t focus on yourself, but focus on how to help them with your story)

Josh Young Leadership

1. Build a pocket of greatness
2. Do your diagnostics
3. What are your key seats – fill them to 100% with the right people
4. Build a personal board of directors (who will you allow to be your mentors)
5. Turn off electronic gadgets and create a pocket of quietness
6. Look at your questions to statements ratio and double it
7. Create a stop doing list
8. Experiment with creating titles (the right people don’t have a job, they have responsibilities)
9. Re-articulate core values so that when bad times come, you can stick with them
10. Marry your core values to big, hairy, audacious goals so that you can move forward

Josh Young Leadership

Carlos Whittaker posted about this story a couple of days ago, and I thought I’d share it with you all.

Rolling Hills Baptist Church in Fayetteville, GA was sitting on an almost paid for, million dollar church building, but the people in their congregation needed help. Instead of sitting there and doing nothing, the church decided to sell their building and use the million dollars worth of equity to reach out to the people and help. They’re going to try and find a movie theater to meet in after their building sells.

This takes a lot of faith and guts to do. Thank you, Rolling Hills, for striving to be what we have been called to be, and for inspiring us and teaching us what the Church is really about.

• Read more about this in the Christian Index

Josh Young Church Issues, Culture, Leadership

Perry Noble had a great post yesterday called “Innovation or Investigation?” that summarizes a lot of what we talked about Sunday at Amelia when I was introduced as our new Creative & Communications Minister.

Here’s what Perry had to say:

I don’t want to be an “innovative ministry leader” because in doing so the focus of my life may switch from being an obedient servant of the Most High God to being an obsessive slave of the latest and greatest technique!

I love innovation…I love doing what is new (God is always up to something new – Isaiah 43:18-19).  However, I think some in the ministry world have lost their freakin minds as they have become obsessed with all they can do…thus losing sight of all that God wants to do!  We want to be on a list rather than actually listening to the voice of God!!!

We are called to embrace innovation–WHEN God leads in that direction.  BUT…I believe that every step in life and leadership should be led by God–and so when we launch a “good idea” that isn’t a “God idea,” the results will prove to be fruitless.  (John 15:5)

This is why, as leaders, we should stay up with the times…but should also be DESPERATE for the voice of God!  Leadership is as easy as listening to God and doing what He says.  Our PASSION should be HIS VOICE, to INVESTIGATE HIS WORD and FOLLOW HIS VOICE…because by doing so we will see Him change the world we live in rather than us trying to do it all on our own!

We absolutely cannot get caught up ONLY in what is the latest and greatest. Rather, we need to get caught up in what God really wants for our lives and the Church. And through that, use ALL that he has given us to reach those who don’t know Him.

Let’s go investigate and follow.

Josh Young Church Issues, Leadership

Our church leadership team is gearing up to go to the Unleash Conference at Newspring Church in Anderson, SC this week. It’s going to be a great time for us to grow together as a group and recharge us all.

I’m looking forward to coming back with a renewed passion for what we do.  Our preaching minister, Mike Edmisten, and our worship/youth minister, Brian Morrissey, went last year, and they both came back on fire.

The only part I’m not looking forward to is 8 hours in a 15 passenger van with 11 of us.  Could get crowded…

Josh Young Amelia Church of Christ, Leadership

With all of this talk and thinking about training and education – bringing people to a point where they can learn things and then teach others the same thing – I thought I should probably do some reading on it.

I happened to be skimming through Dave Ramsey‘s recommended reading list, and I wrote down several books that I thought would be a great help (which were most of the ones on his list).  Then I searched the catalog of our local library to see if they had any of them.  They actually had several.

So on my way to band practice at church last night, I stopped at the Amelia branch, signed up for a library card (which I had been meaning to do anyway), and searched for some of the books.

I walked out with two books.  One of them was The One Minute Manager by Dr. Kenneth Blanchard and Dr. Spencer Johnson.  It was a small paperback – only about 110 pages.

I read the book in under one hour, and I have to say, it was better than I could have expected. It was very simple, and it was written in the style of a narrated story (which I wasn’t expecting), but it was chock full of some very practical methods of managing people and getting great results.

I won’t spoil the three secrets in the book for you.  I HIGHLY suggest you pick up a copy and give it a read.  It is definitely worth turning off the TV for an hour to read (which I need to do more of anyway).  This book is great whether you manage a home, a business, a family, or a life.

I’m definitely going to apply the things that I learned in this book, and I can already tell you that they are going to work.

On to the next book!

Have any of you read anything like this (or this one specifically)?  Any thoughts?

Josh Young Book, Leadership, Productivity, Reviews

Gee.  Where has the time gone?

Life is happening.  And my blog has fallen by the wayside.

I have a few thoughts stirring around at the moment, so I’ll probably start posting them on here.

One Word: Training.

I’m beginning to lay out a plan to train some people and bring them up to do some of the things that I do so that I can focus on the bigger things.  I haven’t done a very good job on this lately, and it’s starting to catch up with me.

Be ready for me to pick your brains about it.

Josh Young Amelia Church of Christ, Leadership

I’m watching the videos of the main sessions from the 2008 Unleash Conference at NewSpring Church, and Perry Noble just said something that really hit me hard.

He was talking about the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15, but he didn’t talk about the lost son. He talked about the other son.

Basically, his point was that the older son was so busy out in the field working for his father, that he didn’t know his father’s heart. He drew the parallel that we as the church can get so caught up in “doing the Father’s work” that they don’t spend any time with him to know his heart.

It’s not that we do the “wrong” things or that we’re not doing it for the right reason or in God’s name, but a lot of times we end up making it “our work” instead of the Father’s work. And we don’t spend any time with Him in the process.

I think this is one of the biggest things I can be guilty of. A lot of times I get so caught up in doing the Father’s work that I neglect spending time with him.

I really believe if we’re able to reconcile these two things, God will move in powerful ways in our lives and in our church.

Let’s spend more time with the Father while we’re doing His work.

Josh Young Leadership, Ministry