Big Is The New Small

GUEST BLOGGER: Today’s guest blogger is @pastorMichaelP.   You can find him blogging at http://theperkinsblog.com/ where he writes about Scripture, life, and stuff.   If you would like to submit a Guest Blog Post for BigIsTheNewSmall.com, click here:

I Messed My Undies!

I was reading in Acts 20 the other day and the story about Eutychus made me laugh hysterically.

⁷ On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. ⁸ There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting. ⁹ Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. ¹⁰ Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He’s alive!” ¹¹ Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. ¹² The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted. (TNIV)

Can you imagine how embarrassed this guy was?  He literally fell asleep in church and fell out of a window.  That is crazy!  I bet he wanted to cry or just crawl in a hole and hide.

This made me ask myself, “What is the most embarrassing thing that I have ever done?”  I have many stories but I don’t think any of them can top this one.  Well, here it goes:

When I was in college, I worked as an assistant manager at McDonald’s.  As the assistant manager I got stuck working night shifts on the weekends. (Not so fun)  At the time I was not very mature (Still kinda not) and one of my best friends was working for me. (Not a good combination)  We had taken our lunch together and we essentially took turns “passing gas.”  You can only imagine what happened next:  I had to go to the restroom and throw away my undies because I had messed in them.  I had to work the next 4 hours with…no undies on because I was an idiot.

Once the people realized that Eutychus was alive and okay they were comforted.  I’d like to think that this brightened their day and they could laugh about it later on.  Messing in my undies was by far the most embarrassing thing I have ever done, but you know what?  I can laugh about it and hopefully someone else does as well and it brightens their day.

What about you?  What is the most embarrassing thing that you have ever done?

Pronunciation: “A Leader” Uh-Leader and “The Leader” Thuh Leader

Just because you are “A Leader” doesn’t necessarily mean that you are “The Leader”

Just because you are “A Leader” who leads a church of 500 people; doesn’t mean that you are “The Leader” to take that church to over a thousand people

Just because you are “A Leader” that has a position, a title and a nice office; doesn’t mean that you are “The Leader” that people believe in, respect and are excited to follow

Just because you are “A Leader” that people look up to today; doesn’t mean that you are going to be “The Leader” that people look up to tomorrow

Just because you are “A Leader” on this team; doesn’t meant that you are going to be “The Leader” on that team

Just because you are “The Leader” to this particular group or faction; doesn’t mean you will be “The Leader” to that group or faction

If you are “A Leader” and think that you are “The Leader” remember that self-deception is a killer… know your place and respect your space

Although both are important, there is definitely a difference between being “A Leader” and “The Leader”

The harsh reality is that some people who are “A Leader” will never be “The Leader”

The harsher reality is that with determination, hard work and a teachable spirit “A Leader” can and will become “The Leader”

~Scott Williams  dream BIG. think BIGGER.

What Do You Think?  Share your thoughts and experiences!

I know this may sound like a rhetorical question, but go ahead and answer it anyways: Do You Know How To Think? It’s one of those questions that makes you, well… “Think!”

Recently, I was sitting down visiting with this really sharp, young, female, ministry leader that I have had the privilege of mentoring and coaching for a season.   As we were talking she posed this question:  ”Scott, will you teach me how to think?”   I had to pause for a minute and before I answered I asked her to explain.

To paraphrase, her response was this: “I’m a feeler and I tend to either make decisions, not make decisions or have my overall actions affected by my feelings.  If I feel good, If I don’t believe I can do something, If I’m fired up about something, If I’m fearful of something… I respond to those situations based on how I feel rather than what I think.”  What I think she was saying is that she wanted some concrete action steps for what she thinks, without them being manipulated by her feelings.

My mantra is this: dream BIG. think BIGGER. You will see it branded all over my new blog, which will be rolled out in the next week or so.  Thinking is the next step after dreaming and is the action of making your dreams a reality.

Do You Know How To Think? In other-words, Do you know how to take your conceived thoughts and make them a practical reality?   Here are a few quick thoughts on how to operate from a thinking mindset and how to make those thoughts a reality:

• Give your thoughts some action steps.
• Give your thoughts some time-lines.
• Take the time to process your thoughts and minimize your feelings.
• Recognize that your thoughts can control your feelings “think BIGGER.”
• Remember you are what you think you are.

French Philosopher Rene Descartes is known for “Cogito ergo sum” or “I think, therefore I am.”  I would modify his thoughts to say this “Because God thinks I am, I am.”  Let your thinking trump your feelings, learn how to think and continually refine the way you think.  dream BIG. think BIGGER.

Do You Know How To Think?

Have you ever heard the phrase “My Supervisor Is Holding Me Down!” or some variation of it?   Most of us have either heard that phrase or uttered it ourselves.  The reality is this phrase can definitely be a harsh reality and many times it’s unintentional.

I am a firm believer that an individuals success within an organization is directly correlated to what their immediate supervisor thinks of them.  In other words, the supervisor can put a lid on, or take the lid off of an individuals success.  Ultimately leaving an employee’s success in the hands of the perception/reality of their supervisor.

I call this the Supervisor Lid Principle (SLP) and I have seen it in full effect throughout my various careers and even within sports teams.  This principle results in individuals failing, not performing and even faced with termination.  These negative effects permeate until they’re placed under the tutelage of another supervisor, whom has a different set of lids or removes the lids altogether.

The most effective way to combat against (SLP) is to merely recognize that it exists.  Once you recognize that it exists you can begin to identify methods, strategies and techniques to remove the lids that your supervisor may have either inaccurately or unintentionally placed on you.  Overall, the removal of those Supervisor Imposed Lids will inevitably allow you to be more effective and free.

Supervisors need to be aware of the unintentional or inaccurate lids they place on their employees.  Both supervisors and employees need to recognize that (SLP) is real.  Dear Mr. or Mrs Supervisor, if you want an employee to fly, free up their wings or rather remove their lids.  If you want your employees to struggle, fail, be tentative, second-guess themselves and not soar… keep putting your unnecessary, narcissistic and limiting lids on your people.

The organizations and supervisors that tend to “Hold Their People Down” must begin asking these questions:  Do I live with an abundance or scarcity mentality?  Do I operate by freedom or control?  Am I secure or insecure?  The answers to these questions and making the necessary adjustments is key to raising up a pot full of boiling leaders, that nobody can hold down.  Let em’ Boil and Let em’ Fly!

“In any organization, you will only be as successful as your supervisor thinks you are or allows you to be.”

What Do You Think?

If I was Butler’s Coach I would simply play this video for my team and tell them to substitute “The Soviets” for Duke.  You have to love a true David and Goliath match-up.  I like Coach K, but I say “Let’s Go Butler Bulldogs!”

Who do you think is going to win, who are you pulling for and what do you think of this video?

TwitterBlogology — is The Scientific Method of Leveraging Twitter For Your Blog.  I’ve been blogging for nearly three years now, which doesn’t necessarily give me the credibility to be a blogging expert; however this small little blog BigIsTheNewSmall.com has really taken off.  It started out as a place to journal, connect, share, inspire, encourage, life-stream… and that’s what it continues to be and the neat bonus is that over time people have begun to make it a daily read.

In the last year BigIsTheNewSmall.com is up substantially in unique visitors (over 16k last month), subscriber numbers are over 3,500 and some of my most read posts have gone viral because of Twitter.  One was re-tweeted by superstar actress @alyssa_milano and let me tell you she has the right chemistry to make Twitterblogology an amazing science.  Alyssa’s one tweet about 70 Reasons People Follow You On Twitter, was single-handedly responsible for 5oo plus people being on my blog at the same time.  Before I outline Twitterblogology, let’s establish the one most important foundational principle that needs to be present for a blog to gain readers: Your blog must provide consistent content worthy of reading…  (Repeat) Your blog must provide consistent content worthy of reading.

Twitter has positively impacted my blog and here are some ways to become an effective TwitterBlogologist: This post is a bit lengthy, but worth the read if you Blog and Twitter.

Tweet Your Posts- Of course I don’t mean tweet your entire post, but rather tweet to let your followers know that you have a new post.  Make sure that your title is a catchy one and you can even use a quote from the post instead of the actual title.  Be sure to add a shortened link.  In my opinion bit.ly is by far the best tool, as some of the other link shorteners limit the ability for other’s to add proper links to your posts.

I’ve come to the conclusion that there is a science to the number of times you tweet a link to your blog post.  If you tweet a link to the post too many times, you will lose people and if you don’t tweet a link to the post enough times, you will… well loose people.  The scientific-unscientific number for the number of times to link to your post is 3-5 each day.  For me it’s specifically 1 in the morning, 1 at lunch, 1 on the drive home and 1 late in the evening and 1 discretionary.  This has become the new RSS feed for many readers; therefore making consistency very important!

Relational Re-tweets- This is the science of leveraging the relational connections with your friends on Twitter.  In other-words people are more likely to re-tweet you post links if they have some relational connection with you.  Those relationships may evolve to a level in which you can simply ask someone to re-tweet something and they will.   The key to being successful in this type of situation is to make sure you have the relational equity before you ask someone to re-tweet.

It amazes me how many people will ask me to re-tweet something and I have never had a prior relational connection with them; not an @reply, a blog comment, a DM or anything.  I simply say “No Thank You!”  I have developed some relationships with some high profile tweeps that won’t mind re-tweeting something if they consider the content to be worthy.   Develop twitter relationships and understand these relationships must be reciprocal in nature.   You may remember the old slogan from the video stores in the old-days of VHS “Be Kind, Re-wind” well in Twitter it’s “Be Sweet, Re-Tweet.”

These relationships and many others led to many posts going viral including 20 Types Of Twitter Profile Pics., Did You Know “Twitter” Is In The Bible and others being re-tweeted nearly 400 times or more.

Twitter Presence- Twitter has to be present on your blog and you should use any and all of these methods: Option to re-tweet post, visible twitter stream, display your latest tweet… There are many twitter plug-ins and tools to twitterize your blog; your blog must have a twitter presence.

Don’t Sweat The Comments- Since twitter has become so popular the number of comments on most blogs has been drastically reduced.  Don’t let this bother you or think it’s an indication of fewer readers.  There is a good chance that the comments that you used to receive on your blog are now coming in the form of @replies, DM’s and Facebook replies.  Embrace these replies as the new blog comments.  Be sure to interact and always try to respond when questions are asked.  @Replies  Are The New Comments.

Call To Action-  Periodically you should call your tweeps to action on your blog.  It can be as simple as asking them to join a conversation that’s happening on your blog, encourage your blog readers that currently don’t twitter to try it out, you can even ask them to subscribe to your blog…  BTW- you can subscribe to my blog here.

Blog About Twitter-  This might be shocking but people on Twitter love to read blogs about Twitter.  I dedicate at-least one post a week for Twitter Tips, Tools or Thoughts.  You don’t have to be a Twitter ”Expert” to blog about Twitter and believe me your readers will digg it.  I shared a post entitled 111 Twitter Tools which was re-tweeted over 500 times.

Moderation- This moderation is not where your blog comments stay until they are approved.  This moderation applies to everything that is listed above, and the fact that it should be done in moderation;  incremental steps taken with the understanding that blogging is a marathon and not a sprint.

The bottom line is that there can definitely be a positive correlation between Twitter and increased blog traffic, presence, subscribers etc.  You simply have to use the Scientific Method of Twitterblogology and become a Twitterblogologist.

Please Re-Tweet This Post… see how easy that was to ask!

Share your thoughts on TwitterBlogology and add any additional effective methods that you have used!

GUEST BLOGGER: Today’s guest blogpost comes from @BrianJRussell.  Check out his blog here:  BrianRussell.me. If you would like to submit a Guest Blog Post for BigIsTheNewSmall.com, click here.

Martin Luther, Facebook & The Muslim World

A friend of mine recently told me he sensed God ask him, “Are you willing to no longer be a missionary, if it means being a more effective cross-cultural minister for Me?”  In other words, are you willing to give up status, title, and position if it means actually having more impact for Christ?  Over the past few years I’ve met an increasing number of ‘professional ministers’ experiencing similar challenges of heart and paradigm.  Living and working in some of the least Christian nations of the world, I have seen this vision and challenge often birthed initially out of necessity.  In most of the Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu areas of the world, if you want to minister, you can’t do so as a ‘missionary’.  I used to see this as an unfortunate obstacle.  Yet, lately I’ve begun to understand and appreciate the benefits of this reality.

What can be good about countries refusing missionary and minister visas?  It is forcing many of those on the front lines of outreach to tear down the walls that still exist between clergy and laity (that applause you hear is Martin Luther cheering from the grave).  More and more, the most effective ministers in these parts of the world are not ‘missionaries’, but rather engineers, doctors, teachers and business people.  What’s more, national leaders of these emerging church groups are pleading for assistance in becoming successful in the marketplace, enabling them to be relevant forces of positive change in their communities.  Already some recruiters of cross-cultural workers are looking more for MBA’s than M.Div’s.  And many of those former ‘missionaries’ circumstantially forced into a ‘secular’ occupation abroad can now never imagine trying to reach a nation any other way.

We in the Church in the West have much to observe and learn from this move of God’s Spirit in the Middle East and Asia.  Certainly there is a place for paid church staff members who can devote their full energy, time, and efforts to helping teach and equip other believers.  Yet, may we continue to fight against remaining dualistic tendencies which separate the sacred and secular, placing higher value on people and positions on the ecclesiastical payroll.

Do we fully value the callings our policemen, retailers, physicians and mortgage brokers have and encourage them to maximize their potential for Kingdom impact  Tragically, it often seems more like we as Church leaders pull the cream of the flock out of the world so they can be trained on how to be effective/relevant ministers to those who are in the world.  I think the irony and futility of such a perspective is obvious.

Here enters the beauty and power of social media for Jesus’ disciples today.  Twitter, Facebook, and blogging also attack that tendency to draw a distinction between our holy and unholy worlds.  Fortunately there is not yet a filter on status updates which allows us to decide which ones are seen by our Christian followers and which ones go to our unchurched friends.  There is something wonderful about the authenticity and single mindedness this is producing in much of the Church today.  The reach of this second reformation will surely only extend as Generation Y, and those following in their wake, become more vocal and mature in leadership.

What Do You Think?

Often times people are assessing their jobs, roles, callings… by asking themselves the following question over and over: “Should I stay or should I go, Should I stay or should I go…?”

Below I have outlined what I consider to be 10 Signs or Reasons It May Be Time To Move On.

10 SIGNS IT MAY BE TIME TO MOVE ON

• 1. You get an upset stomach every morning on your way to work.
• 2. At-least once a week you think the following thoughts “If so and so does (_blank__) again today I’m going to quit.”
• 3. You’ve asked God for signs that it’s time to move on and HE has spoken to you through people, places, circumstances, His Word… in other-words you’ve heard its time to move on from God in every way besides hearing His audible voice.
• 4. You can’t find anyone within a square mile radius of your job that you like, trust or believe in.
• 5. Your boss has said to you “It may be time for you to move on!”
• 6. You are 100% certain that you could have a bigger impact, be happier, put your family in a better situation etc. by moving on and the only thing that’s holding you back is fear.
• 7. You tell yourself, your spouse and your friends on a regular basis that it’s time to move on and they agree.
• 8. When you hear the phrase “Dim The Lights” or see an American Idol Contestant sent home, you begin envision greener pastures for yourself.  You then draw parallels to yourself being in the Top 10 and imagine how being kicked out of your workplace will be better for you.
• 9. March Madness is the terminology that you use to describe your workplace during the month of March.  You also think of the Final Four as being a countdown to the number of days before you put in your two week notice.
• 10. You’ve read through the 9 signs above and said to yourself “That’s the confirmation that I needed.”

Life brings us many seasons and we have to be prepared for each and every one of them.  There is always a “Time To Stay” and a “Time To Go.”  Many people are absolutely supposed to stay exactly where they are; however there is a percent who should definitely Go.

Whatever decision you make, don’t merely make it on emotions alone.  Seek wise counsel and make it a family decision.   Don’t be the miserable person sitting around saying “Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda but never Dida!”

Shh, be quiet & listen to God’s Whispers.

Share your stories, perspective & thoughts?  What are other signs that it may be time to move on?

Policy is defined as a course of action, guiding principle, or procedure considered expedient, prudent, or advantageous.  In other words a policy is supposed to guide things and make them overall more advantageous.  The problem with policies is that although they’re intended to make things more expedient for an organization, that expediency may be to the detriment of the people the organization is attempting to serve.

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard people use the company line and say “We don’t or can’t do XYZ, because it’s company policy.”  Policy is fine and dandy as long as it is not the 100% trump card over people.  There are times when your organization’s little written policy should be trumped by the need of the people the policy is intended to serve.

From time to time you will be faced with a situation where you feel that in order to do the right thing and serve the needs of people, you should do “Do ABC.”   On the other-hand applicable policy insists that you should  ”Do XYZ.”  When faced with these situations, I think that it’s important to consider some version of “ABC.”  In other words put People Over Policy.

People Over Policy is not an excuse to be someone that breaks all the rules.  People Over Policy is an excuse to be like Jesus, break the rules from time to time and embrace the notion that sometimes People Trump Policy.

People Over Policy!

What do you think?  Share your thoughts about a time where People Over Policy was or should have been utilized.

Simple Question: What is “One Thing” that you learned at church this weekend?

Please Share and remember what you learned may be just the thing that others need to hear.

Ready, Set, Go!