My Last Post...

...on this site!
Ha, got ya!

I have a new and improving blogger site.

georgesaylor.blogspot.com

Please go there, subscribe and follow my blog!
All these old posts have been imported, so everything you need is there!

Thanks,
George

I just read a review of All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin. I may be picking this one up at it has some very interesting insights. These are from a discussion board of other church leaders. This is what they said...

• “Either you’re going to tell stories that spread, or you will become irrelevant.”
  
• “Stories are shortcuts we use because we’re too overwhelmed by data to discover all the details.” [Think about the parables of Jesus.]
• “People pick and choose. Everyone will not listen to everything.” [So don't try to be everything for everyone.]
• “You can no longer force people to pay attention.” [Why do we even have bulletin announcements?]
• “The best marketing techniques are the simple stories that are the most likely to break through, the most likely to be understood and the most likely to spread.” [People don't talk about Connections, they talk to me about the people who have been changed at Connections.]
• “When we encounter something for the first time, we compare it to the status quo. If it’s now new, we ignore it.” [New is better. Different is better.]
• “If a consumer figures something out or discovers it on her own, she’s a thousand times more likely to believe it than if it’s just something you claim.” [This resonates with my own experience, and is why I continually resist neat and tidy "pre-packaged" Christian growth/ discipleship programs. This is counter to the discipleship strategy of almost every church.]
• “If you want to grow, make something worth talking about. Not the hype, not the ads, but the thing. If your idea is good, it’ll spread.” [If it requires an announcement from the platform and a bulletin insert to succeed, then it's probably not "worth talking about" and it probably won't grow.]
• “Your goal should not be to create a story that is quick, involves no risks and is without controversy. Boredom will not help you grow.” [One "secular" article on public speaking gave this recommendation that has really stuck with me: if you have to choose between information and entertainment, pick entertainment. But if you can communicate your information in an entertaining way, even better!]
• “It’s hard to be remarkable when you and your organization insist on not changing the status quo.”

Interesting things to ponder as we move into our second year and feel a growing confidence in the mission of our church. More and more people want to "promote" Connections. The question isn't that we need to do it (we do need to share the story of Jesus with the world),

the question is how we do it.

Sometimes my wife's blog is just too good not to pass along. Like today...

Sometimes my wife's blog is just too good not to pass along. Like today...

Go, Go Google Gadgets

Once again it's confession time, time to let the real me show.
Here it is ... I confess that I am a GEEK. I love my computer. I get excited when Picasa/Google introduces cool new updates. I'm a freak for anything that claims to help organize my day (Google calendar being my favorite!). And more recently, I go goo-goo for iGoogle gadgets.

My latest iGoogle gadget find is "verse-a-week memorization". It picks a verse for the week. On Monday you get to see all the words. On Tuesday they cover up a few. On Wednesday they block out a few more. And, well you get the picture. By Sunday the whole verse is hidden and you should know the verse by heart. Clever. Effective. It worked for me.

With Yana's surgery, Gram in the hospital and me sick with a cold I have had a less than pleasant week that just ended with Justin throwing up on me during church (yeah, it was as disgusting as it sounds). Here's where the truth of God's word meets with reality of my life through the technology of Google gadgets. The verse-a-week for this past week was Philippians 4:6,7

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

God knew just how to speak to my heart. It was exactly what I needed to hear. Everyday as I opened my computer I was greeted with this word of assurance "don't be anxious" "the peace of God will gaurd your heart". Thank you.

You can see the original post at http://robinsaylor.blogspot.com/2009/01/go-go-google-gadgets.html

Why Students Need a Soul Revolution

I'm so excited about this Soul Revolution series and how God is changing me. He's drawing me closer, and pushing me to grow in some great ways.

As I've been preparing for our "REORIENT" service tomorrow, I'm particularly struck by the relevance of this series, and this message, for our students.

There are certain stages of life where we are in phases of radical re-orientation. In many ways, and for many young people, life up through age 18 is a pretty steady course. Yes, you have the ups and downs of growing up and maturing and hitting puberty and stuff like that. Perhaps your parents separated so you have had to deal with that radical re-orientation. But for many, their lives are very packaged and protected during that phase.

Then they hit the college or university years. They have to reorient almost everything in their lives- location, finances, relationships, life goals and dreams. They are told, "these are the best years of your life- live it up and have a blast." And that pressure only adds to the fact that they are miserable and stressed out and messed up and can’t pull it together.

Who are you, where are you, what are you going to do with your life? You are disoriented and you need to figure some things out that are going to re-orient your life and get you to a place where you can hold some ideas and believes that are going to make sense, be truthful, and help you navigate life.

The student years are perhaps the most challenging years of dis-orientation. (Why else would they have so many freshmen orientation courses?) But the real goal should not be to orient our lives to the university, but to God. And when we are oriented to God, he will navigate our way through our studies, relationships, career plans, etc.

So students, get on board with the Soul Revolution Train!

Dis-oriented and Re-oriented

Just a few thoughts as I'm preparing my message for Sunday...

When we talk about our orientation in life we are talking about our integrated set of ideas and beliefs.

When we talk about re-orientation, we are talking about doing something that is very difficult.


We are talking about stepping out of ourselves, examining our ideas and beliefs which guide and ground our lives, and making fundamental changes. To literally say- "This idea, this belief, this conviction which has guided me, perhaps for a life time, perhaps in very powerful ways, needs changed, or even removed. It is wrong, it is misleading, it is even a lie, in opposition to the truth."

Misguided and misleading orientations need removed and replaced. But the truth is we all need to be engaged in this process as a spiritual discipline. I need to re-orient my life around God, and all that is true.

For example. Perhaps your whole life has been oriented around the conviction that a good education leads to a good job which leads to good money which leads to comfort which removes stress and worry, which leads to happiness, and leads to retirement, which leads to a condo in Arizona, which leads to ultimate joy, which leads to death. None of that is necessarily wrong or misleading.

But what if on that path you get a great education, but your education is void of a moral framework. SO you take a job that pays you vast amounts of money. But in that work, since you are guided simply but the highest return, you legitimize all sorts of lying, cheating, and basically stepping on or over other people. You need to re-orient your life.

Or say along that line you discover more money actually leads to more stress, because just following the stats, you are becoming one of those unhappy, medicated and messed up successful people. You need to re-orient your life.

Reorienting our lives to point us toward God is not always easy, and is often difficult. But it is always best, and ultimately leads to the best way of living. Re-orienting our lives toward God gets our nose up and out of the daily grind, and points us towards a better horizon.

Is your live oriented towards God? Are you on course? Or are you deep in uncharted territory?