A friend of mine came home from vacation with this picture. They say "beggars can’t be choosers," but I think this guy proved them wrong. Rather than pitch the same message that other’s have used before, he chose to be a little bit creative. He distinguished himself from the crowd. Tossed in a bit of humor. And, I’m guessing gets better results than others on this same corner. He may not really be looking for karate lessons, but he just taught us a lesson in communications. That makes him a ninja in my book.

You didn’t believe me did you? I just received the updated numbers for Unleash 08 this morning. The one-day conference is still about 8 months away (March 13), and we already have 250 registrations. Now you know why I think there’s a good possibility this thing is going to sell out…quickly.

Here are more fun facts about the big event:

• Right now, we have more people coming from Georgia than any other state including South Carolina. Gary will be happy about that.
• North Carolina is currently only 2 registrations behind South Carolina. The South Carolinians need to get on the ball.
• We received our first international registrations last week. There are two folks coming from the United Kingdom. Guess we’re going to have to serve strawberries and cream at the breaks.
• We think there may be spots for about 2,400 people. So, if you’re good at math, you know over 10% of the seats are already gone.

With all that in mind, I’m strongly recommending that you register your teams before September 30. For one thing, you’ll get the ultra-low rate of $45 per person. Secondly, you’ll potentially be in a position where you can mock the poor folks who aren’t able to get a seat. (Mocking other people is always fun.)

If you have questions, email Sarah. She’s sharp, friendly and she knows how to multiply by 45.

Can’t wait to see you in Anderson!

Just wrapped up The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive, another leadership fable by Patrick Lencioni. I’ve read a couple of other Lencioni books and loved them as well. His writing and speaking always seems to be full of practical insights. Here are some things I picked up from this most recent read:

• "No one but the head of an organization can make it healthy."
• "Initially he insisted on seeing every candidate who cleared the first round of interviews. As the company grew, he limited himself to senior managers and partners."
• "Build and maintain a cohesive leadership team."
• "Create organizational clarity… Essentially it’s about eliminating confusion with the company, especially at the executive level."
• "Over-communicate the identity and direction."
• "He was adamant about not using anything slick or glossy, as he called it, to convey the identity of the company."
• "Reinforce organizational clarity through human systems."
• "Success is not so much a function of intelligence or natural ability, but rather of commitment to the right disciplines."
• "When an executive decides not to confront a peer about a potential disagreement, he or she is dooming employees to waste time, money, and emotional energy dealing with unresolvable issues."
• "For cohesive teams, meetings are compelling and vital. They are forums for asking difficult questions, challenging one another’s ideas, and ultimately arriving at decisions that everyone agrees to support and adhere to, in the best interests of the company."
• "Even teams that get along well together should be experiencing regular conflict and intense debate during meetings."
• "The search for fundamental values requires a significant level of focus and introspection, and a willingness to acknowledge that all things good are not necessarily essential to an organization."
• "Effective communication requires repetition in order to take hold in an organization. Some experts say that only after hearing a message six times does a person begin to believe and internalize it."
• "What they need from leaders is clear, uncomplicated messages about where the organization is going and how they can contribute to getting there."
• "Healthy organizations use their values and other issues related to organizational clarity to guide their decisions about moving employees out of the company."

Here are my thoughts and highlights from II Thessalonians as I continue my journey through the Bible:

• "Our God gives you everything you need, makes you everything you’re to be."
• I admire how often these Bible guys were willing to encourage their friends and say stuff like, "We’re so proud of you."
• God uses our ideas and actions for his purposes. "Pray that he’ll fill your good ideas and acts of faith with his own energy so that it all amounts to something."
• "May Jesus himself and God our Father, who reached out in love and surprised you with gifts of unending help and confidence, put a fresh heart in you, invigorate your work, enliven your speech." Don’t you just love it that God does that in our lives? I do.
• God doesn’t want me to get lazy or refuse to work. "If you don’t work, you don’t eat."
• "May the Master of Peace himself give you the gift of getting along with each other at all times, in all ways."

I finally had a chance to update my "cool links" to include the guys staffers on our NewSpring team that are blogging. That’s right. As far as I know, there are no female staffers blogging at this point. Let me introduce you to a few folks on our team:

• Alden Ellis — Alden is the Middle School Pastor and leads our Ignite team. He calls me "T-Mo." I let him do that because he used to play football, and he’s about twice as big as me.
• Joe Sangl — Joe is one of our pastors and, among other things, leads our financial counseling ministry. He wants to be the next Dave Ramsey, and I’m not going to be surprised if that happens.
• Ken Wilson — Ken is the Visual Director which is a fancy way of saying he creates motion graphics and videos for our services. You can check out his work.
• Lee McDerment — Lee leads worship at NewSpring. The boy can sing. Only he’s not really a boy anymore–he just turned 30. You can listen to and download some of his music from his Virb page.
• Perry Noble — Maybe you’ve heard of him? Perry is the senior pastor, leader, teacher, funny-man, visionary, Buckle-jeans-wearing friend who keeps the church pointed toward the future. I’m just trying to keep up.
• Pudge Huckaby — Pudge is our Elementary School Pastor and helps lead our Majestic Children’s Ministry. Let’s just say, Pudge makes life interesting. And, I like that.
• Sandy Gibbes — Sandy is one of our graphic designers. He draws cool pictures. He’s also one of a number of staffers who regularly beats me at golf.

If there are any other NewSpring staffers with "active" blogs, let me know. In the mean time, take some time to visit these sites and tell these guys Tony sent you.

UPDATE: Here are some additional NewSpring staffers who are blogging.

• Lanna Coates — Lanna is the assistant to the Outreach Pastor at NewSpring. She’s also a skilled photographer. Her blog shares some of her work.
• Will Rodes — Will is the production designer, and he serves with Ken helping with our video creation. His wife, Kelly, is the "voice of NewSpring" when you call our offices.

Here are my thoughts and highlights from Micah as I continue my journey through the Bible:

• "The villagers of Bittertown wait in vain for sweet peace." I think I know some citizens of Bittertown.
• There’s a typo on page 1672. The word "at" should be "as." Thought it was funny that there was a typo in the Bible.
• As Christ-followers, we are filled with God’s power.
• "God will give you new life again." No matter what our past, we get a fresh start with Jesus.
• "Keep all God’s salvation stories fresh and present." We should share our stories of life change.
• "Don’t take yourself too seriously–take God seriously."
• "You’ll plant grass but never get a lawn." I thought I was the only one with that problem.
• "Don’t nurse your anger and don’t stay angry long."

In case you missed it, almost a half million votes were cast recently to name the Top 100 Webware Sites for 2007. I just completed a similar process. It hasn’t received as much press, but I know you’ll be just as intrigued. I took a vote of the entire staff of tonymorganlive.com (it didn’t take long to count the vote), and arrived at the Top 25 Websites that Tony Couldn’t Live Without. Here’s my list:

1. Google.com — Google search. Gmail. Google maps. Google docs and spreadsheets. My whole life is stored on cookies from the great Googleplex.
2. Bloglines.com — I’ve tried Google Reader several times, and I keep on coming back. I’m currently tracking 102 feeds.
3. TypePad.com — This is the home base of tonymorganlive.com. I like it so much that I pay for the service.
4. My.Yahoo.com — My personalized Yahoo! page has been my home page for years.
5. FeedBurner.com — This is how I track the subscribers to my site. It also helps me pay the bills.
6. ESPN.com — It’s God’s gift to men. There’s really no other way to describe it.
7. Technorati.com — I really find it hard to believe that there are 92.6 million blogs to track, but I’m not going to take the time to find out.
8. iTunes.com — This is my
   only connection to Apple. I get the best of both worlds–the
   productivity of my PC and a small taste of the Apple culture.
9. Amazon.com — Just in case you’re curious, there are 287 irrefutable search results for books attributed to John C. Maxwell.
10. Wikipedia.org — Do people still buy encyclopedias?
11. CNET.com — Technology reviews. Price comparisons. Downloads. (I think it’s OK to lust on this site.)
12. BibleGateway.com — Currently, it’s the best way to look up Bible passages online. I can’t wait, though, for YouVersion to launch.
13. BusinessWeek.com — Love the combination of news and articles featuring today’s business marketplace.
14. Del.icio.us — It’s how I bookmark the websites for the cool churches on my radar. Quest Community Church in Lexington, KY is the newest addition.
15. Dictionary.com — Because my spelling steenks.
16. Expedia.com — I can’t believe I used to call a travel agent.
17. UrbanDictionary.com — Sometimes it’s just safer to make sure that word or phrase doesn’t have another meaning.
18. StatCounter — This is the site that tracks the visitors to tonymorganlive.com including 66.177.162.54 from Jacksonville, Florida.
19. Bible.Crosswalk.com — When I can’t figure out what a passage in the Bible means, I usually stop here.
20. VRBO.com — If I run out of friends to let me stay in their guest room, I find cheap vacation rentals by owner on this site.
21. Pandora.com — I designed my own radio station to discover new music.
22. IMDb.com — That’s short for the Internet Movie Database. You’ll find television shows as well.
23. YouTube.com — It’s the first place I go to find viral videos that make me laugh until my gut hurts.
24. Weather.com — How else would I know that the highest recorded temperature in Anderson, SC was 108°F in 1952, while the lowest recorded temperature was -5°F in 1985?
25. Facebook.com — It’s really too early to tell, but my friends are trying to convince me I can’t live without this site.

Today, we had the pleasure of hearing from Steven Furtick, the lead pastor from Elevation Church in Charlotte. He was the guest speaker at NewSpring today. I’ll fill you in on more of those details in this week’s "box score." While you’re waiting for that, though, I wanted to share a portion of the intro video that we used in today’s services. Steven took a few moments to talk about his relationship with Perry and NewSpring. He also shared some of the story of Elevation Church. It’s an amazing story. The church is only 17 months old and has about 2,000 people attending each weekend. God’s on the move in Charlotte. Check out this video.

Emily and I were heading up to Greenville last night and we passed by this sign:

It’s been hot in Anderson, but I didn’t realize it was that hot. The high temperature in Hell, Michigan was only 81 degrees yesterday, so it actually was hotter than Hell in Anderson.

I’ve heard folks in town talking about the humidity in this area. Honestly, I haven’t experienced it yet. Maybe it’ll happen in the coming weeks, but humidity here doesn’t come close to the humidity I’ve experienced in the Midwest. I’m waiting for one of those step-outside-and-immediately-sweat-through-your-shirt days. It’s not summer until that happens.

By the way, you may be wondering whether or not Hell is a real place. That’s a great question. Perry will be sharing more on that hot topic in a few weeks.