Let’s Go Cow Tipping
This post was originally written for the Merrimac United Methodist Church in Merrimac, WI. Since it was written in Wisconsin for a Wisconsin audience, we’re going to assume you’ve at least heard of cow tipping. If not, just google it & get in a quick laugh before you start reading…
The statistics are sobering:
- 6 Christian churches close their doors every day.
- 85-90% have hit a plateau in membership and are declining.
- Wisconsin UMC has almost 130 churches with full-time Pastors that have fewer than 100 people attending.
How do we change this, and is it even possible? Yes, it is possible. In April, several members of our church attended the BMZ Church (Boscobel and Mt. Zion) 3rd Annual Leadership Summit to see that change and growth happening first hand. BMZ has worship at 4 campuses each week–Boscobel, Mt. Zion, simulcast at a movie theater, and a live video stream online. Their growth has been so rapid that they have had to expand their space and locations, and they are in need of further expansion.
Excellence & the Opportunity to Work
“A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist” –Louis Nizer
I just love to watch anyone who has mastered their craft. Whether it’s an author, editor, designer, developer, or client consultant, it doesn’t seem to matter. When someone has so much experience that their work becomes second nature, and they love what they’re doing, it moves beyond work and they make it an art form. I can’t seem to get enough of watching that.
What’s Impossible?
A friend of mine recently sent me an email with the photo above & several others like it (below). As I started looking through the images, that picky art director side of me popped out & my first thought was, “It has to be Photoshop, that’s impossible.” Many of the emails we all get have been through the software program Photoshop at some point. Read more
7 Famous Failures That Will Inspire You
Guest Blog by Ingrid Elfver
According to Walt Disney, “You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.”
If you’ve ever failed (or you feel like you’re failing right now), it means you’re in good company… and it’s something that you should actually be thankful for. Most, if not all, successful people have failed (often many times), before they reached their dreams. So don’t think you’re going to be any different.
All of us fail. It’s perfectly normal and it teaches us what NOT to do. Sometimes, failure is the only way to get to the next great idea. So don’t judge failure by its cover, and remember the words of Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich) who said: “Opportunity often comes in disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat.” Read more
Definition of a Book
Main Entry: book | Pronunciation: \ˈbuk\ | Function: noun | Etymology: Middle English, from Old English bōc; akin to Old High German buoh book, Gothic boka letter | Date: before 12th century
1 a : a set of written sheets of skin or paper or tablets of wood or ivory b : a set of written, printed, or blank sheets bound together into a volume c : a long written or printed literary composition
After centuries of remaining generally the same, that definition could use some updating. Along with every other industry and product, books have been changing, & changing fast.
At the moment, you can find a ‘book’ in many ‘flavors’: print, interactive pdf, epub, mobi, kindle, nook, html…or just name a smartphone – there’s a way to read an entire book on it. With the growing ease of printing with POD (print on demand) publishing, anyone can publish their book nearly ‘risk-free’ in print & many of these other formats. How then can you set your book apart from the mass quantities of books now available, because ‘anyone’ can publish? Read more
Social Media ROI
We’re still seeing that many organizations have not yet developed a social media plan.
Maybe you’ve heard (or thought):
- Why spend all that time online? It’s just a waste of time.
- It’s something my kids are doing.
- My business is busy enough as it is, I can’t do that too.
But the reason we say things like that is because we don’t see the value in it. If you’re running an organization, you’re not sitting around twiddling your thumbs looking for something to do, or thinking “oh maybe I’ll play some games on Facebook”. Unlikely. If you invest your time in something, it should actually improve your business, right?
