GODsequence

"How about if we send wreaths to our pastors at church?" My wife suggested this while I was in the process of ordering Maine balsam pine wreaths for my Convene members for Christmas.  We used to do this several years earlier but due to budget constraints the last several years, we had forgone it.  This year would be different. For two of our four pastors I didn’t have home addresses, so I had their wreaths shipped to our home so I could personally deliver them.  They arrived the week after Thanksgiving so I took them to the church.  Not finding either pastor present, I left the boxed wreaths in their offices.  As I came out of the building, I ran into one of the pastors, John David Crowe, our youth pastor, and we began chatting about how he and his wife were doing.  In April of this year he and his wife Jessica had lost their four-year-old son Noah to cancer.  This has been a particularly hard year for them.

As we chatted his wife Jessica came out of the building, walked up to me and hugged me.  She had found the wreath in the office, and she seemed extremely grateful for the gift.  She then asked me quietly, “How did you know?”  I replied that I wasn’t sure what she was talking about, and she asked again, “How did you know?”  She then turned to John David and mentioned the wreath, and he teared up as he began to explain how he had told Jessica earlier in the month that he couldn’t have Christmas this year.  He couldn’t have the tree and all the trimmings.  He couldn’t have any of those things that would remind him that his son Noah was not going to be there for this Christmas.

But Jessica had to have something that said Christmas.  Not something big, just something that would remind her of this important season, in spite of her deep hurt.  So the day before I came to the church she asked John David if she could at least get a wreath for Christmas.  He said she could.  And God appointed me to deliver it the next day.

We stood in the parking lot weeping.  Weeping over the joy of knowing a Savior who sees to all our needs, before we even see them ourselves.  And as we talked and praised God, our tears turned to laughter as we started to imagine the kind of Christmas that Noah was going to have with Jesus—a Christmas that we couldn’t begin to think about—but a Christmas that Noah would never want to miss out on.

This Christmas Eve John David preached a wonderful sermon on “Being Like Shepherds,” and he coined a word I’ve never heard before:  Godsequence.  As he said the word I flashed back to our wreath experience, and I knew just what he was speaking about.  I silently praised God that He allowed me to witness that Godsequence.

Deciding to Either Manage Tough or Hire Smart

One of the wisest things you can do is hire people who are better than you. This can be frightening because they could outshine you. But it’s no longer all about you. Are you secure enough with yourself to do this? A decision every entrepreneur needs to make is whether to manage tough or hire smart. For a Christian, this choice seems obvious, but fear and control issues can subconsciously cloud our judgment.

Managing tough limits business growth to your own personal capacity, while hiring smart and delegating effectively creates freedom and opportunity.

By hiring the right people, you can lead more and manage less. Does that sound appealing?

One entrepreneur studied the Bible to answer the question, “Who am I in Christ?” He came away with a much-improved self-image and more confidence. Another CEO had a breakthrough by surrounding himself with peers who saw his strengths more clearly and encouraged him.

If fear is a challenge for you, and you can’t get past it, you’re destined for a business career filled with managing tough, enduring high turnover, and living with a lack of joy and paralyzing insecurity. Instead, use your God-given abilities and hire people who match your values, fit your culture and have complementary natural talents and abilities. Work within your strengths and staff to your weaknesses—you, your family, your team members and the whole company will enjoy the benefits!

Francis Chan speaking at CEO Summit

With a theme like “Unlimiting God!” you’d expect a powerful line-up of speakers and informative breakout sessions, as well as engaging and encouraging peer interaction. The 2013 CEO Summit promises to deliver on all of these levels. For example: Francis Chan is one of the featured keynote speakers and he will be speaking on… you guessed it… “Unlimiting God!”

Francis is a uniquely gifted speaker and teacher, and the best-selling author of the books Crazy Love, Forgotten God, and Erasing Hell. He is also the host of the BASIC. series (Who is God and We Are Church).

Francis is the founding pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California, and Eternity Bible College. He also sits on the board of directors of Children’s Hunger Fund and World Impact. Currently, Francis is working to start a church planting movement in the inner city of San Francisco, and is also working to launch a countrywide discipleship movement.

Isn’t it time we unlimit God and allow Him to enable us to lead lives, families, and businesses more significant than we ever dreamed?

It’s never too early to mark your calendar! Click here for all the details.

We are not "just like Vistage"

Describing a Christian CEO peer counsel group to someone can be difficult.  I often hear others default to, “We’re just like Vistage—only Christian.”  Sadly, I admit I’ve done it myself but am now resolved to say, “We’re not like Vistage!” There are many choices in secular CEO peer advisory groups.  They encompass a common model of peer accountability, cross-industry perspective, one-to-one mentoring, speaker workshops, and national networking.  Convene is fundamentally distinctive.

Convene’s core values hold Business, Faith, and Family as equal and parallel priorities in the fiber of our lives. Serving God with significance in all areas of our life, growing exceptional businesses, and shepherding those in our sphere of influence have equal emphasis during our Forum Days and One2Ones. We understand and believe that none of these areas can fully thrive if any one area is deficient.

Convene Teams strive to understand the heart of an issue as we seek to grow our businesses and become better leaders. Every month, our members bring real business opportunities and challenges to the team in order to obtain wise counsel from CEO and business owner peers who have similar values. Often the most obvious solutions to issues can be difficult for members to implement: their fears and preconceptions can be obstacles to clear and definite action. As a team, we seek to understand the issue behind the issue and help members make breakthroughs with encouragement through biblical principles and God’s promises.

Along with the opportunities and challenges of growing exceptional businesses, Convene Chairs work on “Inside-Out” Leadership—knowing that transformation starts from within. What we place on our hearts affects our thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, priorities, actions and results, in that order. Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Discovering and developing the God-given purpose for our life and business flows directly into our attitudes and actions, impacting our relationships at work and home.

As a Convene Chair, my greatest joy comes in witnessing real transformation—transformation that manifests in business growth, better leadership, and healthier relationships at work, home, and in the community that will have eternal impact.

Just Do It

The phrase, "Just do it," strikes a chord with me. What I find with other members as well as myself is that if I expect something to happen, it needs to happen IN MY RHYTHM or in the member’s rhythm. I have developed a monthly rhythm of sending in reports to Convene, including my monthly chair report and updated goals.  It is not easy to get all of these done, but it will happen because it’s in my routine. And each thing that becomes part of my rhythm knocks out something else. The key is finding the right combination of meaningful activities and efforts. So if I don’t blog, it won’t be because it is a big task or I need to “just do it.” It will be because I have or have not developed the technique and rhythm for doing it.  I haven't yet placed value in doing it. I didn’t think I’d like Facebook, but it became a rhythm that is kind of automatic now.  When I first enrolled, it was a month before I visited the site again.  The difference was my son looking over my shoulder and saying, “Pops, see that number in red up there?  You need to click on that and answer those notifications and messages…that’s your prompt.”  Duh.  So the FB prompt now appears on my favorites bar and I see I have four messages. Enough to make the difference for me to hop on and see what's happening.

How many members have a Dashboard, operating plan, updated annual strategies, 90-day action plan, and more?   Most of my members have these because I make it part of the rhythm of being in the group.  I say, “It’s Dashboard Month,” and they all show up with a copy for the group. Most of the plans, dashboards, and strategies are completed in the rhythm of the Forum or One-to-One meeting. I don’t expect them to do it on their own…it's not yet part of their rhythm.

Blogging has not yet become a rhythm for me. How can I/we become accustomed to a rhythm of blogging?  I believe that if it could become rhythm/routine for us, Convene would have plenty of entries for our blog….we would “just do it.”