The Accidental Guru

Link: Fast Company | The Accidental Guru.

I discovered Malcolm Gladwell by accident … somebody suggested I read his book, The Tipping Point. Well I did, and I was impressed with his ability to tell a story that connected one to truth.

The Accidental Guru Malcolm Gladwell, says one fan, is "just a thinker." But what a thinker. His provocative ideas are taking the business world by storm. So who is this guy, and what can he teach you about business?

Danielle Sacks, "The Accidental Guru," Fast Company, 90 (January 2005), p. 64. Photographs by: Ofer Wolberger

"I really like that term ‘momentary autism,’ " a woman says softly into the mike. She is in the back of the Times Square Studios speaking to a room of some 200 people, and more important, Malcolm Gladwell, who’s standing solo onstage. It’s the second day of the fifth annual New Yorker Festival, and Gladwell has just finished a detailed reprise of the seven seconds that led to the infamous 1999 fatal shooting of Amadou Diallo. Minutes before, every eye in the room was locked on him as he unspooled the nanodecisions that misled four New York cops into thinking the innocent Guinean immigrant was an armed criminal, resulting in 41 shots, 19 to the chest.

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The 6 Myths Of Creativity

Link: Fast Company | The 6 Myths Of Creativity.

A report of a study challenging these myths about workplace creativity:

Creativity Comes From Creative Types

Money Is a Creativity Motivator

Time Pressure Fuels Creativity

Fear Forces Breakthroughs

Competition Beats Collaboration

A Streamlined Organization Is a Creative Organization

Bill Breen, "The Six Myths of Creativity," Fast Company, 89 (December 2004), p. 75.

Creativity.

These days, there’s hardly a mission statement that doesn’t herald it, or a CEO who doesn’t laud it. And yet despite all of the attention that business creativity has won over the past few years, maddeningly little is known about day-to-day innovation in the workplace. Where do breakthrough ideas come from? What kind of work environment allows them to flourish? What can leaders do to sustain the stimulants to creativity — and break through the barriers?

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Rick Warren on Facing the Crisis

Five biblical principles when facing a devastating crisis by Rick Warren

We were all stunned to hear the news about the massive earthquake and tsunami in southern Asia. The images we see in the newspaper and on TV are heartbreaking. It's hard to fathom the horror and grief that literally millions of people are enduring minute-by-minute.

There are many Purpose Driven church leaders in India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia, Maldives and Malaysia, and we're helping congregations like yours to connect directly with churches in this devastated region. Several of the articles in this edition of the Ministry ToolBox explain what is being done and how you can help.

This disaster gives us all an opportunity to minister God's love in the lives of people in Asia who need to hear about abundant, eternal life in Christ Jesus. While each day's headlines are filled with news about this tragedy, we also have an opportunity to teach our congregations about facing crisis.

Whether you're planning to help in South Asia, or whether it's the next time a wildfire, flood, earthquake, tornado, or hurricane devastates your own community, sooner or later, your congregation will be called to minister in a time of unparalleled grief. When that happens, here are five biblical principles you can teach your members about helping spiritually in the midst of massive crisis:

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The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience

Link: The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience – Books & Culture.

Ron Sider is at it again. He so wants USAmerican evangelical Christians to be Christian, yet the overwhelming evidence is that evangelicals are succombing to the dominant USAmerican culture. Think Ron has it wrong … read his discussion below about evangelicals and divorce, materialism and its implications for caring for the least, the last, and the lost, sexual disobedience (!), and racism. Fortunately, we can learn from the church at Laodicea (see Revelation 3:14-20) about being transformed from lukewarm christianity into signs of God’s hope for the world.

Ronald J. Sider, "The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience: Why don’t Christians live what they preach?" Books & Culture, 11.1 (January/February 2005), p. 8.

Once upon a time there was a great religion that over the centuries had spread all over the world. But in those lands where it had existed for the longest time, its adherents slowly grew complacent, lukewarm, and skeptical. Indeed, many of the leaders of its oldest groups even publicly rejected some of the religion’s most basic beliefs.
In response, a renewal movement emerged, passionately championing the historic claims of the old religion and eagerly inviting unbelievers everywhere to embrace the ancient faith. Rejecting the skepticism of leaders who no longer believed in a God who works miracles, members of the renewal movement vigorously argued that their God not only had performed miraculous deeds in the past but still miraculously transforms all who believe. Indeed, a radical, miraculous "new birth" that began a lifetime of sweeping moral renewal and transformation was at the center of their preaching. Over time, the renewal movement flourished to the point of becoming one of the most influential wings of the whole religion.

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John Maxwell is Wired (7.24)

GET CONNECTED By Dr. John C. Maxwell

When I was growing up, I was pretty good at getting into trouble.

I wasn't a bad kid. But I did have a high energy level and a creative mind, which, as you can imagine, often led me into all kinds of mischief.

Once, when my fourth-grade teacher was playing the piano with her back to the class, I talked all my classmates into sneaking out of the room and into the hallway. Mrs. Tacy didn't even know we were gone until she finished her song and turned around.

That kind of behavior might have caused some teachers to write me off as a troublemaker, but not Mrs. Tacy. Despite all the orneriness I displayed in her class, she saw my potential. And she loved me in spite of my conduct.

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