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We included a monologue in last week’s service that preceded Perry’s message. The monologue was a little provocative. It’s the type of story you don’t normally hear in church. Ironically, this element was inspired by Proverbs 7:10-23. Check out the video, and then you may want to watch to the message.

Based on Proverbs 7:10-23 from NewSpring Media on Vimeo.

By the way, we’ve started a new video podcast (vodcast) of our messages. They’re available on iTunes. This particular message was part of the Beautiful series and it was called “Caught”.

I shared with a few of my friends earlier this week that I was brainstorming a list of why I don’t like Christians. That may sound odd to you coming from a pastor. After all, I’m in the help-people-become-Christians business.

Honestly, though, with some exceptions including the friends I get to work with on a daily basis, I typically try to stay away from Christians. They aren’t much fun to be around. Among other things, they kind of make it difficult for me to explain why I find joy through my faith.

I may share  my list of reasons that I don’t like Christians sometime in the future. In the mean time, though, one of my buddies found this article from The Onion. It’s filled with sarcasm which I know some Christians in the audience won’t like. Since I happen to appreciate sarcasm as a valid form of humor within the bounds of my faith, I know I’ve already broken several rules that will certainly doom me to the hot place.

That aside, Janet wrote:

“I’m here to tell you there are lots of Christians who aren’t anything like the preconceived notions you may have. We’re not all into ‘turning the other cheek.’ We don’t spend our days committing random acts of kindness for no credit. And although we believe that the moral precepts in the Book of Leviticus are the infallible word of God, it doesn’t mean we’re all obsessed with extremist notions like ‘righteousness’ and ‘justice.’

“My faith in the Lord is about the pure, simple values: raising children right, saying grace at the table, strictly forbidding those who are Methodists or Presbyterians from receiving communion because their beliefs are heresies, and curing homosexuals. That’s all. Just the core beliefs. You won’t see me going on some frothy-mouthed tirade about being a comfort to the downtrodden.”

Check out the rest of Janet’s article. I promise you it’ll make you feel uncomfortable. Remember it’s only one person’s perspective of Christians. I wonder, though, how many perceive us as Janet does. My guess is quite a few.

I hate to admit, but I’m a Christian and I’m not sure I like Christians.

Yesterday I sat down with Cherie Duffey to ask her questions about children’s ministry at NewSpring. That included a great explanation of why we require kids to worship with kids and adults to worship with adults. Among other things, we also chatted about the benefits and challenges of working on staff with her husband. Here’s the interview with Cherie.

My Xbox Live update has downloaded. I’ve launched the New Xbox Experience. Loving it so far. The new update includes integration with my Netflix account so that I can take advantage of unlimited streaming of Netflix movies on the Xbox. Here’s how it worked:

• Xbox provides an activation code for Netflix.
• I hopped on my computer and entered the activation code on the Netflix website.
• Immediately I had access to my “Watch Instantly” queue from Netflix on the Xbox.
• The Netflix streaming includes HD format when available. (It looks incredible!)
• Here’s a video from Xbox showing how this portion of the NXE works.

So, I just have to admit this, technology sometimes amazes me. This is one of those instances. It’s fun to see television and the Web and media colliding like this. Truly amazing.

In case you’re interested, here are some more details about the New Xbox Experience.

This morning I recorded our daily check-in meeting to give you a chance to meet the folks serving on my team. There are some new faces that you’ve probably not met before. I love this team! They’re a fun/talented group of people.

Kate Sweetman, author of Leadership Code: 5 Rules to Lead By, as quoted on FastCompany.com (November 14, 2008)

“Strategy is often delegated upward to the CEO or senior management team, which have a legitimate responsibility to shape the direction of the entire company. But strategic traction comes when employees at all levels of the company not only understand where the company is going, but they are excited by it, remember it, and know what to do to make it happen in their day-to-day decisions. They will have valid points of view about how the strategy will be operationalized internally, including which difficulties need to be overcome and how.”

Last week one of the folks on my team was chatting with my wife, Emily. During the conversation, that staffer shared:

“I can tell Tony hired everyone on our team because we all get along so well.”

That’s encouraging for me to hear. Not to be too boastful, but it’s true. I get to work each day with a world-class team that has huge capacity. It’s a dream team. Here’s the best part — I actually enjoy hanging out with them as well. They’re fun!

You can have that kind of team as well, but you’ll have to work at it.

• You’ll have to have tough conversations when you find that someone is in the wrong role or doesn’t have the right personality fit.
• You’ll have to hire people using the “I Like You” test instead of just using the “Can You Perform the Job?” test.
• You’ll have to be patient (it took me about 18 months) before you can bring the right people together.
• You’ll have to dream big to attract big talent.
• You’ll have to be intentional about scheduling “fun time” to complement the “work like maniacs” time.
• You’ll have to give people the freedom to do their thing instead of just telling them where they can go.
• You’ll have to be interested in things like their family, their health, their spiritual journey and not just their job performance.

You could have a dream team as well, but something tells me you’re too lazy, too afraid or not disciplined enough to make that happen.

Hope you feel challenged by that statement. You should be. Our mission is a big one, and you deserve a dream team to accomplish it.

It also makes ministry and life a lot more fun.

Earlier today, I had the opportunity to have lunch with Tally Wilgis. Tally is launching a new ministry in Baltimore. You can learn more about what he’s doing on his blog and at TheBaltimoreProject.com.

After our lunch, he asked me for a brief video interview. Not sure why, but he questioned me about Gary Lamb. I took the opportunity to set the record straight about Gary and his ministry in the “sticks.” Here’s the video:

On Friday, part of the discussion I had with the coaching network guys was related to the differences between empowerment and delegation. We took about 15 minutes to brainstorm a list of the differences between the two. Here’s part of where we landed:

Here’s the reality. It’s a lot easier to delegate tasks. And, there are instances, particularly in emergency response situations, where delegation is necessary. In the long run, though, empowering other leaders is the way to build healthier organizations. It will be messier along the way, but you end up in a place where your organization can have a much bigger impact and more people will be fulfilled in their roles.

Do you agree? What would you add to the list?