Seth Godin asks 8 questions that are appropriate in every season, especially as we approach the new year.

Who are you trying to please?

What are you promising?

How much money are you trying to make?

How much freedom are you willing to trade for opportunity?

What are you trying to change?

What do you want people to say about you?

Which people?

Do we care about you?

(and after each answer, ask ‘why?’)

via sethgodin.typepad.com

Loius Weeks asks “Should pastors know what members give?” Answer: YES!

Louis Weeks, retired president of Union Theological Seminary, answers the question should church leaders, lay and clergy, know what people give?  His emphatic answer if YES!

“Only the church treasurer should know the giving of members here.”

“Our giving is one the best indications of our spiritual health. Of course the Session and the pastor should know what we give.”

These opposing claims came from two different leaders of a Presbyterian congregation in Alabama during a recent weekend retreat. As you might imagine, we had a good discussion about questions like these: Who should know what people give? Should the pastor know? Should lay leaders?

Ask in most churches, “Does the pastor know what you give?” and you will receive a double-take of horror and some response that amounts to “Heavens, no.” Most congregational cultures now severely restrict the knowledge of receipts. Many retain the same “Offering Counters” for years.

Let me state baldly here what I put in more measured terms in my recent book, “All For God’s Glory: Redeeming Church Scutwork” (Alban): Pastors and lay leaders should know what people in the congregation give.

via Duke Divinity Call & Response Blog | Faith & Leadership | Louis Weeks: Should pastors know what members give?.

You will want to read the rest of his post, but his conclusion is timeless: “This topic [is] complex. But I find that the proverb, ‘A little knowledge is a dangerous thing’ has a corollary: ‘No knowledge is even worse.'”

There’s a lot of hype behind measuring social media ROI. But what about the payoff on an individual basis? Those who invest time into social media on a daily basis need to see a return on that time to make it worthwhile. Journalists who regularly use social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook on the job with success make it part of their daily routine, and focus on communicating quality content that’s worthwhile to recipients. Here’s a look at five journalists who use social media, their attitudes and approaches to it, how they fit it into their schedules, and the ROI they got from it. Though this post focuses on journalists, many of their tips can be more broadly applied to anyone working with social media tools.

Check out a journalist’s guide to maximizing personal social media for ideas about your work (via Mashable).

Seth says: “How much life insurance do you have?” Zig Ziglar liked to say that with that one question, you could tell if someone was a successful life insurance agent. If they’re not willing to buy it with their own money, how can they honestly persuade someone else to do so? And this point hurts me as a pastor: My favorite: if you work for a non-profit and you don’t give money to charity, what exactly are you doing in this job? I’ve met some incredibly generous people in the charitable world, but I can also report that a huge number of people—even on the fundraising side—would happily cross the street and risk a beating in order to avoid giving $100 to a cause that’s not their own. And the shame of it is that this inaction on their part keeps them from experiencing the very emotion that they try so hard to sell. Money is more than a transfer of value. It’s a statement of belief. An ad agency that won’t buy ads, a consultant who won’t buy consulting, and a waiter who doesn’t tip big—it’s a sign, and not a good one.

Seth Godin challenges us to follow the money … are you invested in what you say you believe in?

tompeters! management consulting leadership training development project management

Tom Peters offers his thankful thoughts about the importance of the small stuff of life and offers several quotes:

“Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart.”—Henry Clay

“I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble.”—Helen Keller

“We do no great things, only small things with great love.”—Mother Teresa

Seth’s Blog: The people you should listen to

Seth Godin asks if the people we listen to have earned the right to be listened to? Here’s an excerpt:

Who do you listen to?

Who are you trying to please?

Which customers, relatives, bloggers, pundits, bosses, peers and passers by have influence over your choices? …

Just for a second, think about the influence, buying power, network and track record of the people you listen to the most. Have they earned the right?

Seth’s Blog: Boundary makers

Seth Godin reminds us that there is a season to tear down boundaries and a season to see the edge of the box:

Some artists continually seek to tear down boundaries, to find new powder, new territory, new worlds to explore. They’re the ones that hop the fence to get to places no one has ever been.

Other artists understand that they need to see the edges of the box if they’re going to create work that lasts. No fence, no art.

Can’t do both at the same time. …

In my experience, either can work, but only by someone willing to push harder than most in their push to be remarkable. Going with the flow is a euphemism for failing.

Duke Divinity Call & Response Blog | Faith & Leadership | Jason Byassee: Innovate (non) violently

“Innovate violently”: That’s the advice the great Pablo Picasso heard from and shared with his fellow groundbreaking artists in France in the early 20th century. The phrase also highlights “Picasso and the Allure of Language,” an exhibit at Duke’s Nasher Museum of Art through Jan. 10. Who could argue Picasso and company did anything but innovate violently? He and Georges Braques and others entirely reshaped how artists create — and how the rest of us contemplate — art. Why shouldn’t a viewer be able to look at a figure from multiple vantages at the same time? Why can’t text be part of a painting? Why shouldn’t a bicycle handle be the head of a bull? Countless more innovations led Picasso into Cubism and helped him give inspiration to the surrealism pioneered by his fellow Spaniard, Salvador Dali.

“Innovate violently” contrasts nicely with “traditioned innovation,” a practice in which the church does a new thing, but always by reaching back into the treasure trove of our past. This difference came clear to me thinking back on an interview with Andy Crouch of “Christianity Today.” I asked him what he would do if he got to be a seminary president all of a sudden. “You can break everything,” I said. “How would you start over?” He paused and squirmed a little. “Well, I wouldn’t want to break everything. I might not want to break anything. A lot of how the church trains seminarians is something we should treasure.” Crouch wouldn’t innovate violently. He would do so cautiously if anything, especially at first.