Godin dismantles the modern theory of work with a very post-modern view of where the society is currently going. The principle of his book is based on the premise that everyone is an artist and we have a gift to give and bring to society and that gift is our art.

He rolls out the concept that our work and job are two separate things. Godin describes our job as what we do and our work as how we do it. The art of what we do makes us the “Linchpin” in our job. Every “Linchpin” adds “emotional labor” to their work, which enhances what they do on their job.

You get paid to go to work and do something of value. But your job is also a platform for generosity, for expression, for art.

- Linchpin (p. 57)

 

Art is a personal gift that changes the recipient. The medium doesn’t matter. The intent does. (83)

Art is a personal act of courage, something one human does that creates change in another. (84)

Linchpin explains an artist gets joy when he/she gives away her art.

We are to do our job, but the work we do… the art is our gift to those around us. When we give our art away, we become indispensable. We become Linchpins.

This book is a great read for anyone wanting take it to the HNL (Hole-Nother-Level)

See larger image Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? (Hardcover) By (author) Seth Godin List Price: $25.95 USD New From: $12.00 In Stock Used from: $16.31 In Stock

I have a brand new Pulse 5 piece drum set for sale. It’s never been played. I bought it to use for our contemporary worship service at our church…..but that never happened.

Olathe | Sunday at 9:30a & 11a.
Lenexa | Friday at 6:30p | Saturday at 5 & 6:30p | Sunday at 8:30a, 10:00a, 11:30a & 1p
Speedway | Sunday at 9:00a & 10:20a

Click the link below to invite a friend.

It was on our radar, because we believe we have been called to make an Impact on our community. It was also on someone else’s radar because of the potential 5000+ people catching a vision of having an Impact in their community would bring.

We have things go wrong every week. It’s part of being in a culture where we produce such a highly involved service with media and various elements. But this weekend had different barriers.

I’m not a “devil behind every corner” kind of person. Nor am I ignorant of his potential and ability to discourage and create chaos.

This weekend, was on his radar. Here were two of several things that went awry.

Saturday, our Lenexa campus sound system goes out. Yes. Out. A power supply to something important (Jared would know the exacts) went kaput.

On Sunday, I was driving the Olathe Campus trailer and because of the snow:

1) I couldn’t get it out of the space it was parked. After 20 min of trying we were successful.
2) I couldn’t get it into the parking lot of the school to unload. While trying a different approach, the van pulling the trailer became stuck, placing us way behind schedule and conflicting with the needed time we have to setup.

I begin to go into back up plan. We are calling people who might be able to tow us out or pull the trailer in, but no luck. Robert, our worship leader, runs home to get the back-up plan: an acoustic and a small sound system.

Here’s the cool part

On Saturday, Jared figured out a solution with minutes to spare before service.

On Sunday, a man named Nathan, who had just finished plowing his morning lots comes by 15 min later and clears the entry and hooks the 8,000lb trailer to his 4×4 and pulls it to the landing.

By 9:15a, we have the school set up and are making last minute adjustments for a 9:30a start.

Our volunteers were amazing! Making it happen despite adverse conditions.

Our Student Ministries Pastor was cheerleading the whole gang and our people heard a great message on community Impact.

I’m grateful for our team at Westside and for the volunteers that serve at our Olathe Campus. They are ALL IN!

Happy TGiv to all of our friends, family and foes! I believe that covers it.

I spent the majority if my day putting up the new set design which I’m excited about as well. I’ve posted a pic of what we have so far.

Well back to the life group. Speaking of. I need to go. Cutting this short – adios.

She gives a practical, non-linear appraoch to leadrship which I appreciate since I have seen few situations where a step by step formula worked with leading people.

Below are some highlights I took from this book.

::::: UNLEASHING THE POWER OF RUBBER BANDS – Nancy Ortenberg :::::

Opportunities, challenges and a relationship make a powerful crucible for development.

The core of leadership is hope.

Great leaders think about vision a lot. But the problem is that most of us are thinking about it more than we are talking about it.

Vision is about stirring and provoking, reminding and Imagining.

We work to create an environment that inspires greatness.

A vision’s power lies in what it can tap into.

Leading an organization requires a collaborative discussion about vision, reality, and strategy.

The first job of a leader is to define reality – Max Dupree

The despairity between vision and reality establishes a gap. What fills that gap is strategy.
Strategy puts feet to the vision and breathes encouragement into an organization as it takes it’s first step towards the future.

Perhaps one of the most powerful things a leader can do is to deeply value the contributions of everyone in the organization.

Great leader push themselves to understand the unique and valuable contributions of everyone on the team.

Power is released in someone who knows he or she is being paid attention to.

Leaders determine whether something is a problem to be solved or a tension to be managed.

You will always have to manage the tension between infastructure and innovation, between structure and creativity.

Questions that lead to Defining Moments:
How do we recognize the signs of stagnation or decline, and do the work of leadership in reminding people what a great thing it is to work, to strive, to generate, and to build?

How do we learn to use the right touch and not to pile up relentless requirement for work that makes the soul weary?

How do we clarify that continual call for people to give their best in such a way that stimulates ideas and moves us to new levels?

How do we create an environment where everyone knows that no matter how great the past was, it will never compete with the future?

There is often an enormous disconnect between the vision of an organization and the events that make up the daily calendar pages of the organization’s leaders. While vision can be a defining moment in an organization, often day-to-day responsibilities seem to have no connection to the realization of that vision. This inevitably leads to discouragement for leaders, teams, and organizations.

Ask: Does this activity move us toward our vision?

Teamwork is a Strategy, not a slogan.

Leaders who take action and initiative to make sure the right people are in the right places engender trust. Those who don’t, create cynisism and mistrust.

Leadership is the promise of development.

Is the life you are inviting others into, the life youbare leading?

Good leadership is about developing a rhythm of life, not an equation.

The job of a leader is tobdevise creative, compelling, and repetitive ways to communicate the vision to the people. Vision is simply the motivation, and motivation implies doing something. What we are going to do and how – now that gets everyone in the game.

Leaders are only right about 50% of the time. – Max DePree

Good leaders teach their teams to think. One of the strongest responses a leader can use is: “I don’t know ; what do you think?”

You honor the dignity in another person, you do not bestow it. – Max DePree

Asking questions is one of the most important tasks of a leader.

Good leadership changes things. Relentlessly. Significantly. And after it celebrates the movement, it takes another look to see what might have been overlooked. Then good leadership goes at it again.

When the change on the outside of your organization is greater than the change on the inside of it, you are in trouble.

Change builds on the past. (What has led us up to today?)

Change lives in the reality of the present. (What are our strengths and weaknesses; failures and successes?)

Change sketches out a future.

3 levels of change: Reaction, adjustment, initiative.

When a culture is created where fear of failure is decreased, people are better able to quickly move beyond the understandable first reactions of embarrasment and disappointment, and lower their defenses enough so that new learning begins to occur. People rarely so their best or most creative work in an environment of fear.

Become a leader who shapes people and organizations through their mistakes by:
1) Start admiring your own.
2) autopsy the mistakes.

Teams that get along all of the time and never disagree ought to make you really nervous.

Conflict is a crucible for change.

He IFI program is for inmates who have shown a desire to be discipled and would like to serve. They have church every Sunday in the prison and the worship is all inmate led.

We spent the majority of the day working with this group of men who were a part of the music program in IFI. Troy worked with their singers. Jason worked with their musicians and Lee and I worked with some of their tech guys.

It was great interacting with these men and hearing the stories of how God changed their lives.

We were talking to men who society and their actions had labeled them as criminals and talking with them now, you’d never think that they possessed such a past. The men are gentle and kind and full of love.

The highlight of the day was the service that evening. I wish I could have taken pictures of the night as these men who haven’t seen what freedom is in many years worshiped with a freedom that 95% of those in our church seats have never experienced. These men had a knowledge of mercy and grace that compelled them to passionately return praise to the Man that set them free.

We were there to teach them, but the teacher was the student on Wednesday. And the topic: true freedom.