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"Nothing demotivates people like the equal treatment of unequals. When you hire a bozo and treat him the same as a rock star, it deflates the rock star."

Joe Kraus, Cofounder and CEO of Jotspot as quoted in Fast Company (April 2005)

I’m making lots of new friends in the world of the blogosphere. Gary Lamb is a good example. Gary is the pastor at Ridge Stone Church, a new church plant in Canton, Georgia. The church is only eight months old and they’re already running right at 300 people each weekend. That’s very cool!

Gary had a great post recently on his blog about staff values. Check it out. It may start a good conversation about the key values that shape your team.

There’s one thing you should probably know about me, and that’s the fact that I have a strong aversion to traditions particularly as it relates to holidays. Because of that, I typically hate going to church on holidays like Christmas, Easter and Mother’s Day.

I think the reason that bugs me so much is because there are some people that only go to church on holidays. If churches deliver the exact same holiday message that they used last year and the year before that and the year before that, then these holiday-only types never hear anything new. Likely, that also means they never experience a message that leads them to Jesus and life transformation.

With that in mind, I set about trying to find a cool church somewhere in the country that wasn’t advertising a traditional Mother’s Day message this weekend. As you might expect, it was a pretty difficult task. There are lots of opportunities out there for those of you who are looking for a sappy, "Mom’s are the best" service this weekend.

As for me, I’ve decided that if I wasn’t attending the new "Stomp Out Loud" service at Granger Community Church this weekend (not your mother’s traditional Mother’s Day service), I’d probably visit NewSong Church in Irvine, California. NewSong is in the middle of a series they’ve titled "Blink." The series is focused on the choices we make. Senior Pastor Dave Gibbons is helping people understand that the decisions they make, sometimes in the blink of an eye, can dramatically impact what happens in people’s lives. While you’re checking out the NewSong site, make sure you read about the new multi-site venue they’re hoping to launch in southeast Asia. That’s a vision!

Well, I hope I haven’t offended you pastors that will passing out pansies to all the moms this weekend. Your ministry will probably survive the experience, but, really, you should have called 1-800-ASK-TONY.

Word to your mother.

This week I heard a replay of a session that Bill Hybels did for a CCN broadcast a couple of weeks ago. I, of course, am amazed at what God has done through Bill Hybels. He and the ministry of Willow Creek Community Church have truly revolutionized the way we "do church." With that in mind, I listen closely whenever Bill has some leadership principles to share. Here are the four key principles he outlined in his talk:

1. Leaders always feel restless in harbors. They have to head to the open waters. It involves danger and risk, but sometimes we need to inspire others to leave the harbors as well. God does not do his best work at a dock. He challenged us to consider: "Will this be an open water church?"
2. Leaders learn that responding to promptings is more important than learning new leadership skills. You have to build your skills, but you also have to cooperate with the whispers of God. What is God whispering to you about today?
3. Leaders turn "no’s" into opportunities to get on the solution side of barriers. If you have a God-honoring vision, no human force should be able to stop you. Where is God looking for you to discover that "there must be a way" spirit?
4. Leaders have a positive view of the value of people. We need to love people who need love the most including those outside our normal bandwidth of relationships. Bill challenged us to consider: "Do all people matter to you?"

As one of the "simply" strategic guys, it should come as no surprise to you that simplicity is one of my key values in leadership, communications, life, faith, etc. I’ve found that simple works. Here’s a great post from Bruce Johnson that encourages us all to "keep it simple."

Just in case you live in a warm climate and happen to follow my blog, I thought I’d let you know that it was 26 degrees here in South Bend this morning. Yep, that was a new record low for May 4 here. We have a frost warning for tonight. As long as it warms up by Friday, though, I’ll be OK. My tee time is at 3:00, and I get cranky if I have to golf when it’s below 60.

Thanks to my friends over at Pastors.com for running one of my latest articles in today’s edition of the Rick Warren’s Ministry ToolBox. Here are the 10 Questions Growing Churches Should Ask. Is your church addressing these questions?

How do you encourage someone to attend your church for the first time? Do you tell them how great your church is? Or, do you tell them how the experience may impact their life?

Don’t let this post from Creating Passionate Users scare you, because it includes a foundational lesson on how we need to communicate with people who are deciding whether or not to attend our churches? If you hear nothing else, remember this: "Quit telling us how great you are, and start telling us how you plan to deliver something that helps the user become greater."

"I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out–plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen. When you come looking for me, you’ll find me."

Jeremiah 29:11-13 (The Message)

I read a great article today in the April issue of Fast Company that talked about a shift taking place toward a design-based economy. The article suggests that this is the next evolution from the information economy (before that the service and manufacturing economies). I don’t know that I buy that completely. I still think we’re in an experience economy; however, this concept of design-based strategy has a place in understanding why some companies (and churches) are successful in creating Wow! experiences for their customers (and weekend guests).

The bottom line of the article is that we need to think more like designers.

• Rather than permanent assignments, we need to organize around projects.
• Rather than waiting until something is "just right," we need to design the prototype, improve on it and then act on it.
• Rather than rewarding big-time managers, reward the big-time problem-solvers.
• Rather than waiting for proof that it’ll work or that it "must be," reward those with the courage to explore what "might be."

The article cited the example of Apple, "Companies such as Apple act like design shops by saying, ‘If everything must be proven, we’ll never make the likes of an iPod.’" The bottom line: we need to be less concerned with incremental improvements–getting better at the same thing–and get better doing something completely different. I love this challenge: We need to be about "devising clever solutions to wickedly difficult problems."

If there’s any organization facing wickedly difficult problems it’s the local church. This article was a great reminder to me that we must always be about designing new methods to deliver an unchanging message of forgiveness, love and hope found only in Jesus Christ.