I’d love your input!  I’ve been invited to speak at a conference where the theme is “Game changer”.  I’ve been reflecting for a week now on some game-changers in my life…and I’m not sure what to choose.

There have been a few, but I really want to find one that resonates.

Sooo….

1. What’s been a game changer for you personally, spiritually, in ministry or in life?  What defining moment do you look back on and say “that pretty much changed everything?”
2. For those of you who know our ministry or me, what do you think a key game changer for us has been?  Sometimes the best person to judge that kind of thing is someone slightly outside an organization. So what do you think?
3. A third angle:  if you could pick any game changer to speak on, which one would you choose?

Love to hear your thoughts….over to you!

So it’s Monday and everyone is wading back into the fray of life.  But one more venture into some New Year’s talk if we might before the ordinary swallows us whole.

A new year is about a starting new things, but what about finishing what’s been started before you just settle for ‘almost’.

One of my new year’s resolution is to lose the final ten pounds I’ve been carrying. Last year I joined a gym and I lost 15 pounds, but I’ve clung to the final ten like they are good friends. From everything I hear, the final ten is the hardest.

I’ve been thinking that might be true in life as well.  When we’re trying to make progress in an area and God is chipping away at us, making changes, it’s tempting to settle for some change without going for profound change.  Maybe God is working on your anger.  Or you are trying to make progress in being more compassionate.  Or you are almost out of debt. Or you have almost nailed a bad habit. See, I’ve lost enough weight to feel good about what’s happened, but not enough to really finish what I started. It’s that last 10 that takes so much more effort.

Some thoughts:

• You can lose the first ten with some change, but you can only lose the final ten with deep change.
• You might have made peace with the final ten because they’ve been part of you for so long.
• Your whole image of yourself might have to change because you are going from “a lot” to “some” to “none”.  None is a long way from “a lot”.

The difference between losing the final ten and keeping it is surrender.  Maybe it means giving up making peace with the enemy and actually deciding he has to go.  As it is with the body, so it is with our character and spiritual life.  I’m sure God would love to get at the final ten of so much inside of us.  I wonder how different we would be.

What do you find when you’re trying to lose the final ten in any area?  In which area do you need to lose the final ten?  What’s hardest about it?  What scares you most?  What has helped you most?

So January is almost here.  You’ve got resolutions…so do I.  How do you handle it?  I used to make a list and forget about most of them by March.

Over the last few years, here are some changes I’ve made to how I think about personal change that I thought I’d share.  So far, I’m finding this approach bears more fruit.  Here’s what I’ve been doing:

• Reflect constantly. Self-awareness is key to understanding.  Over the last year, I’ve sought feedback from my wife, my kids, our leadership team, staff, elders, mentors and others.  I’m always seeking to grow and learn.  I also am integrating personal growth into my prayer life.   Keeping a running tab of the issues you are working on can help select a few focal points.  Who do you have in your life that is giving you honest feedback on strengths and weaknesses?
• Start early. Our leadership team did a complete strategic plan for 2010 back in October/November 09.  I’ve been in ‘what can I do differently/better’ mode for a few months now.    It isn’t January first yet.  Take a few days to reflect, pray, consult and identify a few areas.
• Get a system. Life is busy.  I have a lot of inboxes and some days get more messages than I think I can handle.  When that happens, I live out of ‘reactive’ mode.  The urgent always wins out over the important.  As soon as that starts to happen, I start the slow slide to dropping balls. Two weeks ago on a flight (airplanes are great workspace), I completely reprogrammed my Things app, which I use as a project management/to do list.   I organized my life into areas of responsibility and projects, and entered every imaginable task and issue I’m facing into a series of neatly organized, time sensitive task list.  I’m two weeks into this system and love it.  Way fewer dropped balls.  Far ahead of where I would have been without it.  Whatever system you use is up to you.  I just know I need a system.
• Narrow the focus. I can’t get better at everything, but here are five areas I want to make progress in during 2010:
  • Focused Family Time.  Between my lap top and iPhone, I can be working far too much.  I’m going to shut it down more often at night and be fully focused on my family.  Work when I work.  Play when I play.  I thought I was doing better than I was at this, so a change is needed.
  • Clearer Messages. I preach over 35 messages per year and do conferences and other talks on top of that.  The best path to clarity for me is to spend time planning a message weeks or months before I give it.  Clarity is hard work.  I want to be in front of series, talks and messages than I ever have been.
  • Lose the Last 10 Pounds. I joined a gym to kick off 09 and lost 15 pounds this year, but I’m still at least 10-15 pounds above where I need to be.  For me that means diet.  Self control, self control, self control.  (That’s a spiritual discipline, isn’t it?)  This will no doubt be the hardest goal in 2010, because I haven’t been under 200 pounds since I was in college.  Here we go.
  • Become a Better Manager I have no trouble leading an organization and am passionate about casting vision for our mission, but I struggle in management.  I want to stay focused on my strengths, but the reality is I will serve the people I work with much better if I develop stronger follow up and better attention to organizational detail.  Reorganizing my Things app was a first step in the right direction. I’ll be looking for constant improvement and constant feedback on this in 2010.
  • Deepen My Prayer Life. Scripture reading was a major focus for 2009, and the passion in my Bible reading is probably at an all time high.  I want to see a deeper, more intimate prayer life emerge.  Not sure how to accomplish this, but God has a way of partnering with you when you seek Him more deeply.  So I’ll keep at it.
• Keep your goals in sight all year. If you’re only working on a few things (I’ve got five), you can make progress more easily than if you were trying to do 10.  Because there are only five, I can keep them on my dashboard all year long.

Those are thoughts on how I plan for the new year.  How do you do it?  What are some best practices that have helped you?

Talking to a friend of mine last week who shared a blunt observation: every organization faces one of two options – slow death or deep change.

It hit me hard because it was so stark.  But it also hit me hard because it’s so true.

Even successful organizations who are not intentionally going through deep change are headed toward slow death.  Now occassionally we find ourselves part of a movement that is not heading toward slow death, but rapid death.  That’s easy to spot.

But what if every successful, moderately successful or plateaued organization embraced the concept that the two choices facing them were deep change or slow death?  In fact, the more successful you are, the more seriously you need to take this truth. The greatest disincentive to change is success, because people only change with the pain associated with the status quo is greater than the pain associated with change.  No pain, no change.  And if you are successful today, why change?

Slow death…deep change.

Got me thinking into 2010 and beyond.  How are we going to change?  If we (and every church) keep missing the 90% of the population of Central Ontario that don’t go to church, what will we change?

Even got me thinking personally, how am I going to change as a leader?

Slow death or deep change.  Do you agree?  What do you think most needs to be changed?