A few days ago, I had the privilege of interviewing Charles Jacobs, the author of Management Rewired. I recently finished reading the book and sharing some of my highlights. The book challenged my thinking so much that I decided to connect with Charles and ask him a few more questions. Here’s the recording of our interview:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Interested in more information about the book? You can visit the Management Rewired website for more information including an excerpt.

In case you haven’t heard, Matt Chandler shared this news on Twitter on Thursday (fyi… “dye” was supposed to be “date”):

Here are the updates from The Village Church website:

Update 11/28/09 – Prayer for Matt today: The Village Church (HV) parking lot. 12 p.m. – 12:30 p.m. Come out and pray if you can.

Update 11/27/09 – Matt spoke with a neurosurgeon this afternoon & will meet w/him on Tuesday. He and Lauren are in good spirits.

Update 11/26/09 – Matt Chandler suffered a seizure Thursday morning while at home, was taken to a nearby hospital and is now at home resting with his family. Matt hit his head when he suffered the seizure and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. Doctors ran several tests on Matt and will continue to run tests in the coming days. We will keep you posted. Please pray for Matt, Lauren and the kids. The best we can do as a church body right now is to give him space and our prayers. He is surrounded by family members, the elders and friends.

This was news to me since I was engaged with family over the holiday. Guessing it might be news to some of you as well. Now we can pray together.

Here are the 10 winners of the Cockroach Christmas contest. Each of them will receive a free copy of Killing Cockroaches for their Christmas stocking. In no particular order, the winners are:

• Alicia White
• Rob Shepherd
• Tim Hart
• Elle
• Darrell Jordan
• Chris Hill
• Rick Faulkner
• Ken McGarity
• Tyler Tufte
• jb

If you happen to be one of the winners, email Jennifer your mailing address so we can shoot a copy to you.

It may be different for you, but this is the primary reason I celebrate Thanksgiving. I’m thankful for the freedom I have to live out my faith.

Yesterday in China, a pastor and four other church leaders were sentenced to prison for worshiping in their homes. It would probably be healthy for you to read the entire article to both be reminded to pray for other people throughout the world who don’t have our freedom and to thank God for the freedoms we have in the United States.

I know it’s not politically correct to say this, but I still believe I live in the greatest country in the world. I’m thankful for it. I don’t take it for granted. And, I pray for others who don’t share that privilege that they will stand strong in their faith when persecution is at its worst.

I’ve not met these folks from New Life Church, but apparently at least one of them is familiar with me. Check out this video from the Dirt Conference poking fun of a Christmas brainstorming process.

Sorry. If you’re hoping I can help you with your Christmas brainstorming, it’s too late.

3NNM33CKBTRZ

I recently revisited The Starbucks Experience by Joseph Michelli. Here are some key thoughts that jumped out to me this time through. Needless to say, I think several of these merit consideration in our ministry leadership roles.

• “People want to do the right thing, they want to create and offer quality things, they want to do good in the world, and if you give them the opportunity and the resources to do so, they will shine.”
• “Starbucks consistently spends more on training than it does on advertising.”
• “I have worked in horrible places, and it’s hard to do a good job when you hate the company.”
• “What are you doing to encourage the discovery of the unique needs of those whom you and your colleagues serve?”
• “Rather than waiting for cues from the home office, everyone at Starbucks is charged with searching for new and better ideas for meeting and exceeding customer needs.”
• “Leadership has created the expectation that partners are to be involved in improving Starbucks and has gone the extra step of creating a culture in which partners expect to be heard when they offer ideas.”
• “While great leaders spend most of their time looking at big-picture, strategic opportunities, they cannot overlook the systems and training necessary to ensure the quality of every aspect of the company’s products, services, and processes.”
• “When the economy turns bad or business hits a rough patch, training and education budgets suffer. This short-term financial fix often compromises the long-term health of the company.”
• “Starbucks leadership understands that playful and positive work environments produce vital and engaged staff members.”
• “Every company’s brand, is nothing more than the sum total of the individual actions its people take.”
• “Consumers want the predictable and consistent, with an occasional positive twist or added value thrown in.”
• “Many companies focus too much on the basic ingredients and not enough on adding that extra something that differentiates them from their competition and builds brand loyalty.”
• “With consistency comes customer trust. Consumers gain stability when they know that they can depend on having a reliable experience.”
• “If, at the end of each day, you and your colleagues have invested the extra energy to delight others rather than simply satisfy them, you will ultimately be rewarded with extraordinary results.”
• “Because of the amazing diversity found within this country, some communities may have unique requirements that are quite different from those of neighborhoods only a few miles away.”
• “We are often too close to our own ideas to objectively evaluate their viability.”

If you’re interested in picking up the book so you can read more insights from Starbucks, here’s my Amazon link for The Starbucks Experience.

Your turn. What of these ideas is the biggest challenge facing the Church?

So I recently found out from my publisher that Killing Cockroaches is in its fifth printing. I guess that means people are buying the book. And, given the fact that the book has only been out for 9 months, that’s probably a positive sign.

Since everyone will be in the Christmas shopping mood on Friday, I thought I might offer some helpful advice:

• Order a copy of Killing Cockroaches and wrap it as a gift to yourself. If you do it this week, you’ll forget about it by Christmas and it’ll be a fun surprise.
• Order a copy for your spouse. That way they know how to support you when the cockroaches begin to creep into your life.
• Order a copy for your boss…but make it an anonymous gift. Your boss doesn’t need to know you think they’re addicted to cockroach killing.
• Order a copy for everyone on your team and read through it together.

Oh, and just to get you in the holiday mood, I also have ten copies of Killing Cockroaches that I’m ready to give away. Just leave a comment on this post and I’ll put your name in the hat. The drawing will take place on Black Friday.

(Bonus points will go to the best cockroach carol.)

We did something today at West Ridge that we’ve never done before, and the stories are already starting to flow in from people who were deeply impacted by the experience.

We’re in the middle of a brief three-week series on being “Fearless.” Basically, we’re teaching about how big our God is and that Christ-followers should be champions of hope and courage in today’s rough economic times.

After teaching a couple messages from 2 Corinthians 9:6-11, Brian challenged our church to immediately demonstrate generosity and faith. Following the example of something we heard about from Rob Bell…

• We took several thousand dollars from the church’s funds and put them in two big buckets at the front of the auditorium.
• At the end of the service, we asked folks to bring cash offerings to add to what was already in the buckets.
• It felt like just about everyone in each service came forward to make an offering. Literally thousands of people participated.
• Then we encouraged people who are hurting financially to come forward and take the money from the buckets. Some people grabbed one handful. Other people grabbed two handfuls depending on their needs.
• In one service, the buckets were emptied and people just started writing checks to other people.

Obviously, since we didn’t count the money between the offering and the giving, there’s no way to know exactly how much was given away today. All I know is that this was a great picture of the church in action. People who God has blessed gave an offering from what God have given them. Then God used that offering to bless people who needed help.

Wouldn’t it be something if the Church in America became known for its generosity?

This is a great story from West Ridge Church. Two people literally have new life because of the faith and generosity of two women from the church. Check out this news story: