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Oct 9, 2012    |      Comments Off on HYDRATE – Winning From the Inside 31 (Matthew 6:24) Magnify

HYDRATE – Winning From the Inside 31 (Matthew 6:24) Magnify

“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”Matthew 6:24 (NIV)

A man named Hippolytus was martyred in Rome in the third century. In the recorded incident it says he was a soldier who participated in the torture execution of St. Lawrence but converted as a result of that martyr’s example. He was then sentenced to be torn apart by horses. I mention this gruesome story for the purpose of trying to brand an image in our brains as to what happens to us (not physically…but every other way) when we try to serve multiple masters.

Have you ever said, “I’m torn between two ideas…I’m not sure what I should do?” Jesus warns us straight up that if you and I have multiple foundational authorities then we will end up hating one and loving the other. Which one do you think we naturally will have a tendency to obey? Its fair to say that if you obey one, that’s the one you love. If you disobey the other, that’s the one you hate. I think we naturally are drawn to love the easy master, the popular master, the master that requires less resistance, less sacrifice. That all sounds good until we think about the other master…the one that requires us to sacrifice, give, work hard, put in the extra effort, pay the price. What’s wrong with taking the easy road? I say, everything! I know you agree with me that the route that requires sacrifice, giving, hard work, extra effort, a price, is the route that is ultimately better for us. It most definitely makes for a better story when its over. But its so natural to want to travel the easy road. When we choose the easy road, who pays the price? The road doesn’t. We do! Why is it that we naturally want to choose the easy, lazy, and damaging path for a short term reward at the cost of a long term lasting reward? Its all crazy! The pull of the two forces is exhausting. We are actually told this in the Bible. The Apostle Paul wrote about it in Galatians 5:17. He said, “The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.” That passage has a heavy feel to it. It paints a picture of a man/woman in a continual wrestling match. A continual wrestling match is exhausting from all perspectives. It leads me to take another look at the picture above of the man being pulled apart.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Paul warns us that the two forces are constantly fighting each other. It doesn’t say that they will constantly being striving to pull you apart, it says they fight each other. This idea gives me hope in that it seems I can train myself to obey the right way every time. Isn’t that a possibility? If I have no hope that I can actually develop the discipline to choose the right path every time, then I am a dejected and hopeless man. Jesus says not to have two masters. Paul says the two masters will continually fight each other. We know that we will be tempted by both masters until we die, but we also know that we get to choose which one wins. This fact comforts me, challenges me, and inspires me to want to win and thus choose the right master/choice every time!

Some might argue and say, “Trent, we are sinners and none of us are perfect, its not possible to choose right every time.”

I would disagree. If I get technical with this argument then I would argue back that a choice is always a choice that can be made in the right way…every time. A mistake, an accident…even when it’s sin, isn’t necessarily a choice…sometimes mistakes/accidents happen so fast, it really wasn’t a choice. It happened. I think these accidental sins are what John references in 1 John 5:16-17. John mentions a sin that doesn’t lead to death and sins that do lead to death. Choosing sin and Falling into sin are very different motives and very different sins. Jesus has compassion for one and despises the other, although both can be forgiven, if the person who sinned confesses and repents as 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

I believe that we can choose the right way every time. Examples?
You can choose not to murder…every time you are tempted.
You can choose not to gossip…every time you are tempted.
You can choose to forgive…every time you are hurt.
You can choose to not to steal…every time theft is an option.
You can choose to only drink a little and not get drunk…every time you have alcohol present.
You can choose to do the right thing every time…even when the wrong thing is easier.

If I really love you, then I will stick to my guns on this thought. You and I can choose right every time! When we don’t choose right, the only person we should blame is ourselves. When we choose wrong, then the reality is that we actually chose wrong twice. When I choose wrong, I chose to commit a sin and also chose to ignore my best master Jesus Christ. Choosing to do this is inexcusable. I think when I make the wrong choice, I can explain it, but it doesn’t excuse it. I must, then, face the truth and admit that I simply chose to ignore what Jesus commanded me to do. When I do this, I can’t think of more dangerous way to live.

The hard truth is this. These choices to sin don’t just happen in one instant. A tough example is the example of when someone has a sexual affair. The people committing the sin didn’t just wake up the next morning wondering what happened. No! The affair more than likely started months earlier. In the case of a man who chose to go to a bar and have a one night stand, he actually started having marriage problems way earlier than just that night. In the case of a couple who had a sexual affair, it actually started at the office when they chose to begin to playfully and “harmlessly” tease one another. Then over the next couple of weeks and months this teasing couple actually look forward to getting to the office a bit early, they put on an extra spray of cologne/perfume before they leave for the office.

When we choose to obey the wrong choice at the cost of obeying Jesus, it actually started with a secret. In option one above, the man who had the one night stand refused to talk to his accountability partner at church and instead chose to keep it a secret that he was struggling in his marriage. In the example of the couple at the office, they both, secretly, put that extra spray on, and left for the office early.

Honoring the wrong master…always…starts with a secret. Whether the master is money…which I haven’t talked about in this post, or any other master that is trying to pull you away from Jesus who paid the price to be your master. Jesus earned the right to be your master. Every other master is simply a selfish bastard that wants to justify its evil by having you as company!

Here’s the way to wrap this post up. A Master is simply a Magnifying Glass. Many times the two masters that are pulling at you, are both good. In fact all sin is usually doing a good thing…out of bounds. Examples? Sex is good thing…only with your spouse. Money is good…love of money is the root of all evil. Alcohol is good…too much alcohol is evil. Ambition is good, selfish ambition is evil. Lust is good, lust for created things is evil.

Which master will you choose? Each choice you make, actually is two choices being made. Love one…Hate the other…two choices. When we choose the master who is not Jesus…we actually are saying with our actions…(actions speak louder than words)…”Jesus…I hate you!”

Masters are simply magnifying glasses that show, in a big way, who we really are. Money is just a magnifying glass that exposes who you really are and thus magnifies how you use the gift of money. Sex is a magnifying glass that exposes (no pun intended) who you are as you choose who you have sex with…do you honor God with your sex or the devil with your sex? (Love one/Hate the other) Jesus Christ is a magnifying glass, that when you choose to live for Him, it magnifies to everybody around you, who you are. The devil is a magnifying glass, that when you choose to live for him, he magnifies to everybody around you, who you are.

It helps me to think of everything as a magnifying glass that when I choose it, the whole world sees who I am, MAGNIFIED. Do I live big for Jesus or for other masters?

You cannot serve two masters…you will hate one at the cost of loving the other.

I choose to love Jesus Christ. I want to Magnify Him and when I do, He magnifies me back…and the world notices!
You will be presented with the opportunity to follow many different masters today.
Which one will you allow to magnify you?

Oct 7, 2012    |      Comments Off on HYDRATE — Winning from the inside 30 (Matthew 6:22-23) Light

HYDRATE — Winning from the inside 30 (Matthew 6:22-23) Light


22 “Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. 23 But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is! Matthew 6:22-23 (NLT)

Whoever said…”the eyes are the window to the soul” must have stole it from Jesus. Have you ever looked at somebody and noticed immediately that there was something shady about them? Or, think of it in the opposite….have you ever looked at somebody and noticed immediately that there was something very inspiring about them? I think we can instinctually recognize all kinds of things by looking at the eyes of the people we encounter. I think we can see pain, joy, love, inspiration, hate, and many other traits by just looking into the eyes of the people around us. The next time you are in a group of people, just sit back and do a little people watching….specifically looking at their eyes. Be careful with it…don’t stare too hard or too long! 🙂

Being a lead pastor for as long as I have now, and being privileged to interact with thousands of people, I have learned that you can tell a lot about a person, and what they might be experiencing, by reading their eyes. The phrase, “actions speak louder than words,” rings true and if you watch people’s eyes, you can predict with strong accuracy whether or not they are doing well or not. I have learned that you can actually tell how a person is doing by looking into their spouse’s eyes…this is especially true of wives. I can tell a lot about a husband by watching the eyes of his wife. The next time you are speaking with a married couple, watch the eyes and countenance of the wife. You will be able to guess pretty accurately whether or not the husband is a good husband. Do her eyes tell you she’s alive, encouraged, and full of joy? Do her eyes tell you she’s been verbally beat down and discouraged? Do her eyes show that she is embarrassed to be around him as his eyes wander to the young blonde who just walked by? If you pay attention, its pretty easy to read people. You can tell a lot about how parents really are by looking at thier kids eyes when they are with their parents. Do the kids eyes read fear, joy, courage, security or something else? In fact, anytime somebody is present with the person who is in authority over them, you will be able to tell what kind of boss/authority the person is by reading the eyes of the one who is under that person’s authority. I have personally discovered that when I am with someone who knows I’m a pastor, and they can’t look me in the eyes, time has proven that they probably have some kind of sin in their life they are engaging in. There are a thousand different scenarios here. What I am saying is that if we practice, we can get very good at reading how a person is doing by simply watching their eyes.

The danger in doing a lot of eye reading is that we might get really good at determining how other people are doing but miss the most important person we should be reading…ourselves.

Take a look in the mirror…read your eyes. Tired? Abused? Joyful? Peaceful? Angry? Resentful? Hopful? Prideful, arrogant, etc, etc…? What are your eyes telling you about you?

If you think about the simplicity of this teaching of Jesus’s, then you and I will recognize that we follow our eyes. If our eyes engage in pornography then we will be filled with lust for sex. If our eyes are engaged on all the toys our neighbor owns then our hearts will be filled with jealousy and greed. If our eyes are continually engaged in our work, then our hearts and minds will be absent from our home life. If our eyes are engaged in the Word of God, then our hearts and minds will be filled with the things of God.

The point is that our eyes are continually focused on the things we are committed to. What we are continually focused on with our eyes, is what we are committed to, and is what we become. I am actually excited for you that your eyes are currently reading this post about eyes, because it says that you actually are desiring to learn and be challenged about Holy things of God. You will become what you are committed to. What are you committed to? If you have a hard time determining what you are committed to…take a look at your calendar and your checkbook. It doesn’t lie. Eyes don’t lie either.

The most dangerous eyes to have are the eyes of pride. Do you know what that looks like? I have found that prideful people don’t know what it looks like. I think Jesus refers to prideful eyes when He says in Matthew 6:23, “And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!”

There is nothing like being around somebody who is obviously wrong about something, but they insist they are right. It could be a little thing like arguing about directions while driving, or it could be a person who is confidently “right” about Jesus being a fake. It could be someone or a group of someone’s who think they are right about moving the company/church forward, but all the while they are wrong and all the signs point to their wrong-ness, but they demand to be right anyway, all the while leading the company/church into destruction.

Most of the time, I have no problem admitting when I’m wrong. I am a very opinionated person and I have a lot of conviction when I make statements and decisions. I have made quite a few statements, and made decisions, thinking I was right, but actually I was wrong. When this happens, I personally do not have a problem admitting it. A majority of people can’t stand the person who can’t admit they were wrong, and even worse, they continue to live in their wrong-ness, even when everything around them is proving they are wrong. This kind of person is dangerous. This kind of person is not like Jesus at all. I think this is the kind of person that Jesus is referring to in the passage we are looking at today. This person thinks their darkness is actually light.

I think there are two dramatic situations that are eternally dangerous when it comes to someone thinking they are right, but they are actually wrong. I think of a person who says there is no God with great confidence. The other kind of person I am thinking of, is the so called Christian, who refuses to be fruitful for the Lord Jesus Christ because they only want what they want in what they think is “their” church.

Jesus says, about the person who thinks they are living in the light, but their “light” is actually darkness, that their light is actually a deep darkness. Can you think of a better satanic trick? If the devil can get you to think with pride that you are right and everybody else is wrong…he wins your soul into hell for eternity…all the while you were thinking you were right/holy. That is a deep-deep darkness that you actually thought was light. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 11:14 that the devil disguises himself as an angel of light. There is no greater satanic trickery…than to get someone to think they are right, when they are actually hell bound. Ouch. I have encountered people like this in church settings. These people will even use a bible verse…out of context…to “prove” their point. But they are actually wrong. The Bible in several places describes Hell as a place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Can you imagine, if you lived your life thinking you were right about there being no God, but when you died and found yourself standing in the presence of Jesus Christ as a non-believer, and you ended up in hell?…there will be WEEPING. Can you imagine being a church goer most of your life, stubbornly demanding that your church be designed for exactly what you want, at the cost of new people giving their lives for Christ, thus producing no fruit, and you end up eternally separated from Jesus because you were fruitless as you pursued your personal preferences in church?….GNASHING of teeth! Gnashing of teeth is someone yelling with deep regret at what happened… “I should not have been selfish.” ….Eternally.

That is a nasty, mean spirited darkness…but they thought it was light…they thought they were right.

You know how to prevent your light from actually being darkness? Humility. I’m going to risk sounding un-humble in what I’m about to write…

If you really don’t know something…then shut-up… and listen to the person who knows.
If you are trying to be something that you simply are not…stop it!
If you are in a position of influence that you have NO business being in…quit now! (But you argue…quitting is for losers! I say, really? You’re not a loser if you quit picking your nose. You’re not a loser if you quit wetting the bed. You’re not a loser if you quit trying to be someone that you are not!)
If you are wrong…quit being stupid in your wrong-ness and admit you are wrong and watch how people will actually be inspired by your new found light.

Jesus is the light! Focus your eyes on Him. Do what He tells you! Only pursue what He wants of you and not your own wants.
Make sure your light is actually light and not darkness.

Speaking of eyes…2 Chronicles 16:9 The EYES of the LORD search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.

Speaking of eyes…do you remember the lyrics to this old hymn?

Turn your EYES upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the LIGHT of His glory and grace.

Sep 6, 2012    |      Comments Off on Innovation vs. Discovery (Part 2 of 2)

Innovation vs. Discovery (Part 2 of 2)

The Spirit of Discovery.

I am nearly breathless after trying to describe innovation in my previous lesson. I want to now take a look into the spirit of discovery. So, keeping it old school, Webster says that discovery is “The act of finding or learning something for the first time! 

My heart beats faster just after reading that definition. You’ve read the headlines; “Her research led to many important discoveries. Reporters discovered that the Governor had been unfaithful to his wife. We discovered a talented musician. A voyage of discovery. It was one of the most important discoveries in the history of _____________!” 

Discovery! Think of Lewis and Clark and their expedition of discovery. It required teamwork. It required admitting that they had no clue what they would encounter. Discovery has a knack for showing all involved that they are not in control. Discovery forces all involved to admit this phrase; “I don’t know!” Therefore, discovery creates humility. 

Here’s what excites me about the critical difference between innovation and discovery. I wrote earlier that innovation breeds arrogance; it has to exist already to breed arrogance. What’s thrilling about the act of discovery is that it creates humility. An arrogant person thrust into an environment of discovery can become humble. Humility is born in uncertainty and danger. Opening yourself or your organization to uncertainty and risk creates humility. Discovery creates humility which causes all involved to rely on each other humbly and usefully. 

Innovators command their teams to do as told. Innovation companies rely heavily on their policy manuals to police one another, and it breeds untrusting groups inside riskless environments. Please understand me; there is a need for policy. The attitude difference behind the policy is night and day different amongst innovative and discovery-type companies. It’s the difference between arrogance and humility. Discoverers have to rely on and trust each other. Which team would you prefer to work on? Don’t forget that Innovation and Discovery are both good. I like the discovery mentality and the bias you read in this article.

An example is from the book “Good to Great” written by author Jim Collins. In his book, Collins differentiates between Levels 1,2,3,4, and 5 leaders. Jim Collins talks about how level 4 and level 5 leaders can produce similar results, but a critical difference between a level 4 leader and a level 5 leader is humility or lack thereof. Level 5 leaders always lead through humility. Level 5 leaders tend to lead companies with a reputation for being discovery oriented. 

Many companies are known for being a company of discovery, and their leaders seem arrogant. Maybe a fine example would be Steve Jobs and Apple Inc. Steve Jobs carried a reputation for being arrogant. However, I think there are some nuanced differences between arrogance, confidence, and ego. Often all of those traits are shrugged off as arrogance, requiring discernment to know the subtle differences. The differences are known by how much character is evident in a person. The difference between arrogance and confidence is not discovered by measuring their ego but by their character. The ego is a good thing when the measure of character in a person is as high as the measure of ego. However, a high ego and low character are the chemistry of an arrogant person. 

How does one transform an arrogant innovator into a humble discoverer? An excellent example of creating humility through discovery would be forcing an innovative person who struggles with arrogance in the front of the boat as you White Water Raft a raging river. This control-type person and his arrogance wash away (in this case, maybe literally washes away) into humility as everybody else in the raft hears him scream like a child. HUMILITY SERVED! 

That is what I love about discovery. It is teachable. Innovation is contagious, and discovery is teachable. 

Discovery is the mentality that focuses only on causes and even invests fully in a cause regardless of the effect or the result. I said earlier that I am a pastor. So if I study the life of Jesus, I can see He was a man who even knew the result or the effect of His life. He was going to be badly beaten and murdered. Yet he stayed with the cause. By cause, I mean the foundation, the reason, the why we are pursuing a goal instead of forcing a specific result. Innovators push results, and discoverers focus on a cause and trust the results to manifest. In the people business, like ministry, the outcome/result/effect is God’s job, not mine. My job is to focus on the cause regardless of the effect or result. In the Lewis and Clark discovery expeditions, they couldn’t control any outcomes or results. Every step could have been their end. They had to live in the moment and keep discovering new things around every corner, river, crevice, predator, and tree. The results took care of themselves and were remarkable. 

Innovation focuses on the outcome and effects…the end result. 

Discovery focuses on the cause and behavior while pursuing a cause. 

Innovation measures results. 

Discovery measures faithfulness to the cause. 

One is motivated by control, and one is motivated by love for the cause. One is living for the future at the cost of the present, and one is loving the present and leaving the results in God’s hands. 

It’s scary and breeds humility to leave the results in the hands of God. I think leaving things in the hands of God is the safest risk you could ever take. In the Big Picture of life, the most important things are not at the end of the journey; what develops and shapes along the journey makes champions and usually creates an end product more remarkable than an innovator. If a climber of Mount Everest only focuses on the end result of attaining the top of the mountain, then what happens once the pinnacle is reached? (Many Everest Climbers have witnessed people who only focused on the result and forgot to focus on their next step, resulting in a fall to their death.) Also, once the climbers of Mt. Everest achieved the result of getting to the top of the mountain, those who only focused on the result struggled with depression soon after. The journey, the cause, is where fulfillment is found. Living for a cause is unending, leading to more discoveries. Achieving a final innovative result requires more critical thinking to start another innovative process that stimulates a vicious circle of arrogance.

Discovery is all about the mentality of facilitating the purpose and progress of others. Discovery is exhilarating along the way because of the thrilling unknown yet to be discovered, but it is not about you. It has to be about others. Discovery mixed with selfishness kills people. In its purest form, discovery is about team and trust, and reliance on the critical factor that everybody has each other’s interests above their own as they risk together on a path toward discovery. 

Discovery admits that the behavior never changes, but the answers and results do. So a person of discovery never has the solutions for tomorrow and only has their behavior to control.

Jesus taught that people shouldn’t worry about tomorrow for today has enough problems. (Matthew 6:34)

People with the Spirit of Discovery keep asking, “How should I treat this person right here, right now?” How should I behave as I proceed into this business meeting?” “How can I focus my attitude to deal with this next situation that will impact my company?” “In this current conflict, how can I respond to this person to show that I care about them, even if our conflict results in separation?” 

Discovery lives for the cause regardless of the effects/results. 

Discovery focuses on the cause, not the effect. It focuses on the journey, not the results. 

Innovation forces an outcome and controls and measures results over and over and over. Discovery measures behavior and leaves the outcome up to God. Discovery measures, but it measures very different things when compared to an innovator. Discovery is the best business model. 

Hopefully, you are thinking right now, “I want to be a leader of Discovery!” 

The attitude of discovery has no silo groups individually working toward some result. Discovery breaks down the walls of separation and verifies the need for each other. Innovation creates hierarchies and power pyramids that police each other. Innovative bosses control and measure according to a predetermined result they strive to achieve at all costs. Bosses and leaders are very different. Discovery creates circles full of people who honor and trust each other’s strengths for survival and discovering the result. Discovery teams are silo-less circles with a leader that does not have a Boss mentality. Oh, please don’t mistake me, the buck must stop somewhere, but the buck stops with the one who is the true leader. A true leader naturally facilitates the purpose and progress of all the others in the circle, even willing to lay down his life for them.

There is no “Boss” in the circle of discovery. Why? Because when you are out discovering and the “boss” finds himself in Quick Sand and about to die, his boss mode transforms into humility. He might just be left to die depending on how he treated his “underlings,” and it all gets covered up as a tragic accident! I don’t want to be a boss with everybody licking my boots out of fear. I want to be a leader who discovers with my team while keeping other people’s best interests ahead of mine. That’s discovery. That’s a level 5 leader. 

The spirit of discovery’s primary focus is not on the organization’s end goals but on the environment inside the organization that leads to great team discoveries. 

A discovery team maintains focus on the cause and the organization’s culture; then, the organization will grow as a result. Focus on the cause, not the result! A result that happens out of fear, control, and force is not a result that gets celebrated, except for a bonus check at the end of the year. The next generation of leaders is not motivated by bonus checks but by discovery relational teamwork.

How does a discovery-type leader grow?

A discovery-type leader rarely, if ever, looks into their field type for how to do it better; that is what innovators do. When a company of discovery quits its attitude toward discovery, it becomes innovative. A discovery company knows its competition is a company in a different field of interest, and its worst competition is itself. I love the slogan on Michael Jordan’s web page. “The only man who could stop Michael Jordan….Is Michael Jordan!” That is true of your company, church, family, and yourself. When a company of discovery finally feels like it has arrived and has the best idea, it has now transformed into a company of innovation. 

A company of discovery is full of observation towers instead of silos. It studies and learns (discovery) from its customer but is full of interaction with others outside its own company. A company of discovery never polls its own, only interacts. You can’t poll something yet to be discovered, so the company of discovery is full of trial and error. It has a culture of permissible failures followed by grace. How many times did Abe Lincoln fail? How many times did Albert Einstein fail? With unknowns around every corner, discovery keeps you and the team humble. It has a great sense of humor and often laughs at itself. It has a mentality of meshing and sharing with others. It trusts every individual in the company to utilize and expand on their expertise and strengths. Team and trust are a must in Discovery Companies. The company of discovery has an attitude of servanthood and adventure and considers others better than the self. Obviously, I have a bias towards the discovery company and carry a bit of displeasure towards companies of innovation. That’s my problem, that I will have to deal with. My simple question is, which company do you want to be a part of? Here’s what is remarkable about companies of discovery. They never end. They continue to discover and adapt and evolve into the future. Companies of innovation sooner or later celebrate how they achieved their final result; they nailed their ultimate goal! Hip-Hip Hooray, Hip-Hip Hooray. Then what? These are the companies people talk about when they think back at what used to be. They usually last one lifetime, measured by three generations. Again, not bad, not wrong; Just not where I want to leave a mark on history. 

So which of these two is the company you work in or lead? 

Innovative? Then you have good news; you can develop your spirit of discovery and be remarkable. It’s time to get your team together and go where no man has before. It’s scary! It creates humility. Are you up for it? 

Discovery? Then stand guard, for it is easy to start coasting, which can only happen on a downward slope. The instant you think you have arrived, you have transformed into innovation, but that is okay because you can decide to discover once again!

I hope you will discover who you are.

I hope you will discover what could change the world and make it better.

I hope you will discover the freedom of working humbly with a team.

I hope you will discover that the greatest joy in life is helping others achieve their dreams and desires.

When you discover that, you will be living your dream.

The journey will be unbelievable. 

I’d love to hear your thoughts and pushback. I by no means am an expert in this. I am simply thinking out loud. I like to think it all makes sense, but I’m sure there are gaps. I’m still discovering what works for me, and it’s a thrilling and humbling adventure. 

Go Discover!

Sep 5, 2012    |      Comments Off on Innovation vs. Discovery (Part 1 of 2)

Innovation vs. Discovery (Part 1 of 2)

Are you a person of INNOVATION or a person of DISCOVERY?

I have been in multiple meetings and asked questions about people’s perceptions of me and our organization. I have had many discussions in the past year of my life about perceptions. People’s perceptions are people’s reality, and people’s reality tends to be their truth. People’s first impression of you might be false, but it will be their perception of you. How people perceive you is more crucial than you might like to admit. How do people perceive you? I want to compare two popular leadership styles influencing how people perceive us: The spirit of innovation and the spirit of discovery. 

Please understand that innovation and discovery are strengths; each is important and good. I am confident that the spirit of discovery creates more success than the spirit of innovation. 

One is not born with either of these styles of leadership influence; they are a choice. Which type best describes you? 

The Spirit of Innovation

Webster says innovation is “to make changes or do something in a new way.” I define innovation: As taking something old and making it useable in a new way. Innovation is reformation; innovation is often the act of taking something that worked over there, tweaking it, and using it over here. Innovation is doing something old differently. 

On the surface level, the spirit of innovation sounds fantastic. I’m not opposed to the product that innovation creates; I’m apprehensive about what the spirit of innovation does to the innovators. 

When a group of people innovates something, they become very loyal to the innovation. Why? Because they innovated it, and it is theirs. 

When an innovator innovates, they take something old and reform it into something new. Once innovation occurs, the innovator naturally thinks their innovation is exceptional and loves it. 

When the innovating group believes they have created exceptionality, it is nearly impossible for them to innovate again. Why? Because innovation is making something work better. For an innovator to re-innovate is to admit that whatever they first innovated is now lacking. No innovator ever wants to admit that their innovation is no longer working or needs to be improved. 

Another problem with innovation is that anything innovative is not new but has a façade of new. Grocery Store shelves contain products with bright new advertising: “new and improved.” However, it is the same product with a newly designed label.

Innovators approach products and ideas with an attitude of “needs improvement.” Great leaders can see what’s not working and envision what is necessary to make it work. I’m calling into question the disposition of the innovator. An attitude of “that needs improvement” is usually preceded by an attitude of “I can do it better.” Having an “I can do it better” attitude and being humble is tough.

An innovator naturally believes they can improve a product and only achieves such by first criticizing it. Critics are rarely respected and sought out for advice because innovators breed arrogance. Innovation does not lead to arrogance; it breeds arrogance. To breed arrogance, one must have the arrogance to start with. 

The Wall Street Journal recently came up with a list of 5 common mistakes of Innovators. I will give a brief description of the errors, and if you want to read the full article, you can go to: “http://blogs.wsj.com/source/2011/05/23/five-common-mistakes-business-leaders-make-about-innovation/?mod=google_news_blog” http://blogs.wsj.com/source/2011/05/23/five-common-mistakes-business-leaders-make-about-innovation/?mod=google_news_blog 

I added a sixth to the mix of the five common errors of innovators.

1. You believe your numbers. You insist on “seeing the numbers” too soon, and you only have to base your numbers on your past statistics. Remember that innovation is not creating something new it is taking something old and making something you think is better, and numbers usually drive this reality. Driven by numbers creates a leadership mindset that RESULTS matter most. Using a biblical worldview to demonstrate my point, people of the Bible who focused on controlling their results always caused significant damage to relationships and hurt the numerical results.

2. The Success Trap. When a company gets financial success because it got very good at what it does, it focuses on what made it successful. This focus on “what got us here” causes a crowding out of other options and points of view, and it is only a matter of time before the company gets stuck in its inability to innovate itself, causing success to fatigue. Large companies are most susceptible to success fatigue, and their death is frustratingly slow and agonizing. In the book “In Search of Excellence,” by Peters and Waterman, the authors tell the fate of 43 companies recently leading the world that got caught in this trap. Today only 5 of those 43 companies even exist.

3. Believe they know the competition. The innovative company makes a substantial mistaken identity gaff when identifying the competition. Ask the innovative company’s CEO, “Who is your competition?” They will usually reply with the company that is most like them. The problem is that history proves that our most significant competitors typically come from a different angle. i.e., Shipping companies suffered from the steam engine; the internet threatened newspapers, and watch companies suffered because of mobile phone displays. In my opinion, Innovative companies get so caught up in the love of themselves that their greatest enemy is themselves.

4. Believe that because everybody has always done it this way, it is the best way of doing the next “new” thing. Innovative companies think they are on to something “new,” but they are only reforming the old, which is a significant detriment when entering uncharted territory. I have been in the leadership of a large innovative church. This church has such large numbers that for them to go to new levels means they have no organizations to innovate. They will never achieve the next level unless they eliminate their innovative spirit. For instance, when America landed on the moon. Innovation built the rocket, the space suits, space food, etc. But innovation is not what Neil Armstrong could build off of when he put his hand on the door hatch, opened the door to outer space, and took his first step onto the moon’s surface. The spirit of discovery was required for Neil Armstrong to achieve something that had never been done before. You cannot innovate to enter the uncharted successfully. When your company is leading the way, and you choose to move forward through innovation, you just signed a contract that says you are guaranteed to no longer be in the first position and possibly just inked your death certificate. Suppose an innovative company has earned first place. In that case, it must transition to a Discovery mentality to enter uncharted territory.

5. Asking the customers for their opinions. An innovative company is good at answering customers’ questions while ignoring new prospects’ desires. The organization’s current customers have already bought into the company and do not need to be asked about their loyalty. The mistakes breed when the company’s leadership team, which has innovated its methods from an old idea, is now sitting around the table making decisions based on past success. The company makes decisions based on keeping their customers happy while new and unreached people need to be “Discovered!” 

The spirit of innovation’s downfall is the team’s inability to innovate anymore because they would have to admit that their innovative idea “used” to be a good idea but is obsolete now. An innovative company never wants to acknowledge that its product no longer works. “Pride comes before the fall.” 

Innovators work hard to appear correct, regardless of the actual results. It is fascinating to me that innovators love upward results. Still, when the results prove a downward trajectory, the innovator’s arrogance cannot admit that their innovation is no longer performing. “Every bad idea used to be a good idea!” Innovation always leads to an eventual dead end.

6. Stop taking ultimate risks. Large innovative companies tend only to take calculated risks based on past success. There is a difference between discovery risk and innovative risk. 

Innovative Leaders are calculated risk-takers. The problem is that if you are the leading innovative company, which means nobody is ahead of you, you can’t calculate using your innovative spirit because there is nobody to innovate from in front of you. One can only discover from this point forward, and the risk required for an innovative company to shift into the spirit of discovery is terrifying. 

Companies in the lead usually end up not being in the lead anymore because the leader ran out of ideas to innovate. The top dog company begins to focus on how much there is to lose, settle in on their success, and “play it safe.” It’s like a Pro football game. The game is close, and the winning team has the ball at the beginning of the 4th quarter. The offensive coordinator tries to protect the lead and thus changes the game plan from ‘playing to win’ to ‘playing not to lose.’ What usually happens when that game plan is employed? It’s called an upset. 

What’s the solution? The leading company can only open themselves up to new learning experiences that make them feel uncertain and incompetent. Because there is nothing to innovate on, the leader must become like Neil Armstrong and begin to discover new! As my next post will describe, I call it the mentality of DISCOVERY.

Sep 2, 2012    |       3 comments

Can you define Christian? (Bond Servant)

From the instant Jesus left earth and returned to His gated community by ascending back to the right-hand side of the Father in heaven, there has been controversy about how to follow Jesus. The book of Acts in the Bible has multiple accounts where, even the apostles, argue amongst themselves about what to specifically do when it comes to following Jesus. We are a passionate people, and when it comes to our faith, things get very personal. Add to this natural phenomenon all the denominations and different religions throughout the world, and what we have is a mixed bag of ideas about what it means to get to heaven and what it means to follow Jesus. In fact, a majority of the New Testament is simply letters from the apostles, written to answer questions from local churches that were having problems. The Bible is a grouping of solution letters written under the guidance of the Creator, Jesus Christ Himself. This blog post is long but I hope worthwhile in painting a perfect picture of what it means to be a Christian.

I think the most important issue that we must deal with, in this blog post pertains to something that Jesus said Himself. It is recorded in John 14:6 (NLT). Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”

That is a very intense, bold, and what could be called, arrogant, statement. Could you imagine your child’s teacher sending home a letter with all his students that read like that statement. The letter sent home would be a short statement that reads like this: “To all parents of the students in my class: I wanted to simply inform you that there is a heaven and a hell, and I wanted to inform you that if you or your student wants to go to heaven, then please know that I am the way, the truth, and the life, and you or your student will not be able to enter heaven or meet the Father in heaven unless you go through me.”

Can you imagine the uproar? Can you imagine the controversy, the headlines? Yet, this is exactly what Jesus did. This statement from Jesus has caused an uproar since He said it. This statement has created controversy and anger ever since He said it. So, before we can become a follower of Jesus, we must sort it out in our own head and heart as to whether or not Jesus is who He says He is. I love the thought process that C.S. Lewis created a long time ago, in which he says that Jesus is either a liar, a lunatic, or He is Lord. It’s a fair proposal from Lewis. Someone can’t just show up on the scene, calling themselves the Way, the Truth, the Life, and not be considered one of those three. So as you read this blog post, I ask you to decide what you believe. Do you believe that Jesus is a liar? Do you believe that Jesus is a lunatic? Do you believe that Jesus is who He says He is, and thus, is Lord of Lords, King of Kings, and the only way to get to heaven?

If you chose either of the first two options about who Jesus is—a liar or a lunatic—then you can live the rest of your life however you want. I do not want to be cynical with you, if you have chosen either of these two options or both, but if you did choose liar and/or lunatic, then please eat, drink, and be merry…do whatever you want, for this life is as close to heaven as you will ever get. Enjoy it immensely. Indulge and grab life by the horns and live to the max. I would, if I were you.

However, if you chose Jesus to be who He says He is—Lord—then I want to welcome you to the path less traveled. You have chosen a narrow and challenging path that will rock your world. I am excited for you, and I hope the rest of what you are about to read will give you clarity on what it truly means to be a follower of Jesus.

The best example I use to help others fully understand what it means to be a follower of Jesus is actually an Old Testament example. The example is what is called a bond servant. I do not think someone can have a true and full understanding of what it means to be a follower of Jesus or a christian, outside an understanding of what a bond servant is.

A bond servant is an Old Testament term for what we might call a voluntary slave. I want to directly challenge the reader to remove all presuppositions from your mind as to what the American mentality of a slave is. Please understand that in the Old Testament Hebrew culture, to be a slave could be a very wonderful and voluntary form of making a living. It could be a lifestyle that someone would choose.

Now, when someone would become a slave in a Jewish culture, there were rules that God required to be followed, and they can be found in the book of Exodus in the Bible. Some of these rules may or may not make sense to us in our cultures today, and that is okay. They were still rules that God wrote, and thus, the people of that time must follow. Just for the sake of what I hope is your own curiosity, I want to include these rules below. Exodus 21:1-5 (NLT).

“These are the regulations you must present to Israel. If you buy a Hebrew slave, he may serve for no more than six years. Set him free in the seventh year, and he will owe you nothing for his freedom. If he was single when he became your slave, he shall leave single. But if he was married before he became a slave, then his wife must be freed with him. If his master gave him a wife while he was a slave and they had sons or daughters, then only the man will be free in the seventh year, but his wife and children will still belong to his master.”

So, this gives us a perspective on some rules of slavery of the Hebrew culture in the Old Testament times. But something amazing is about to happen as you read the next verse of this same Bible passage I have quoted above. The next sentence is where we get the term bond servant. Just for clarity, it is Exodus 21:5-6 (NLT):

“But the slave may declare, “I love my master, my wife, and my children. I don’t want to go free.” If he does this, his master must present him before God. Then his master must take him to the door or doorpost and publicly pierce his ear with an awl. After that, the slave will serve his master for life.”

That passage is astonishing to me. Let me put this in my own words. Remember, if someone becomes a slave, they can only serve as a slave for six years. In the Hebrew culture, every seven years, they forgave each other’s debts. Can you imagine how wonderful this system would be? I’m sure there are people who took advantage of this system, but it is still the system that God ordained. I have always wondered what this system would do to an American economy. I personally believe it would create an environment of honor and gratitude that would not allow the few bad apples to ruin it for everybody else. Call me an eternal optimist and idealist. I say all that to simply say this. I can’t wait for heaven!

So, back to point about this slave stuff. Once someone worked as a slave for six years, the Hebrew law required this slave to be set free. Now, a lot can happen in six years in the life of anyone, including the life of a slave, and even back in the day, where change came more slowly than today. So a man who became a slave, for whatever reason, in the Old Testament times, and six years later was set free, now was faced with a free choice and multiple choices at that. He could accept his freedom and move on with his life however he chose. One of those choices was to go back to his master and voluntarily become a bond servant. This was where we can begin to understand what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

This slave could go back to his master and stand at his master’s front door and commit himself to his master. He would do this by stating to his master that he enjoyed being a slave under him. He would acknowledge that his life with his master, and as a slave, was the kind of life he wanted to live for the rest of his life. Now remember, when this man went to the door to say that he wanted to remain a slave to the master for the rest of his life, he was doing it as a completely free man and in a voluntary free manner. So when this free man, previously the master’s slave, came back to the front door of the master’s home and declared that he wanted to voluntarily remain the master’s slave, there were some critical and permanent things that voluntarily happened. The master accepted this free man’s lifetime offer, if he wanted to. This lifetime offer from the requesting person was one that acknowledges that everything he owned or had in his life, now fully belonged to the master, including his own life and his own family and material things, for the rest of his life, voluntarily. This act of commitment was a lifelong, irrevocable, and voluntary commitment.

It seems to me that for this kind of thing to actually happen, the master must have been a very special person for this kind of commitment to take place. In fact, to demonstrate how permanent this is, the man making the commitment would stand in the threshold of his master’s home, and the master would take a hammer and awl and drive it through the earlobe of man, making the voluntary promise. It would be through the right ear of the man that this piercing would happen. The man who made this lifelong commitment would stand, for a brief time, nailed to the doorframe of his master’s home, to allow for people to witness, and be witnesses, to this irrevocable life long commitment.

When the awl that is piercing the man’s ear and permanently fastening him to his master’s doorframe, is removed, the master would give this man a gold hoop earring to wear, and a title would be given to this man; bond servant. How remarkable. What a commitment. The quality of person that this master must have been to result in such a lifelong permanent, life-changing commitment is remarkable. I hope you see the similarities of the story with being a follower of Jesus Christ. However, our situation with Jesus Christ is even better.

In the bond servant’s case, the man had to work off six years of his life to be free. In a Christian’s situation, we don’t have to work off anything to be free. Jesus is the one who paid the time for us. His death on the cross is the time that was paid for our crime. Jesus’s death on the cross is what removed God’s anger from us and made us free men and women. Jesus’s death took all of God’s anger away from mankind. Heaven and Hell are full of people who were free to choose and God honored their choice. Hell is full of people who were given freedom to choose how they wanted to live their lives; they simply chose to live in the qualities of hell and evil, and God simply honored their free choice and extended it into eternity. I think it breaks God’s heart that hell is full of people whom He loves. I think it’s for these people that God wishes He were a control freak, and I’d bet He wishes He would have forced them to love Him. But God is love. Love does not control or force. Love allows freedom of choice and then simply gives consequences to those choices. It is a choice to become a bond servant or not, and each choice has one consequence. Choose to be a bond servant of Jesus’s, and when we die, we will be reunited with the Father in heaven for eternity. Choose not to be a bond servant of Jesus’s, and when we die, we will be separated from the Father and go to a place called hell that, by the way, was not created for people. Jesus says in Matthew 25, that hell is a place that was created for the devil and his demons. God never intended for people to spend eternity in hell. He only honors our choice to live with Him or without Him. How hard it must be to honor the wrong choice of people who He loves. But, this is how God created the whole thing to work and then placed it all in the hands of His only Son, because of the price that His only Son paid.

Because Jesus paid such a huge price for our freedom, God the Father gave Jesus all authority in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. This fact is found in Matthew 28:18. So, after being given all authority and after paying such a high price, Jesus has earned the right to lay down some new laws and rules. If someone doesn’t like that, then they will have to take it up with Jesus when they meet Him someday. We call these new laws and new rules the New Testament. Jesus is now given the authority by the Father to declare that He is the way, the truth, and life, and no one gets to the Father except through Him. The Bible, especially the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are where we have recorded what Jesus means when He says we have to go through Him to enter heaven. To go through Him means we have to go through His approval and His requirements to join the Father in heaven for eternity. These requirements, if we do them, are what cause us to earn the free, voluntary, lifelong title called a bond servant. Please don’t forget that it’s your free choice to become a bond servant or not. Please understand that in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, where we get to the Father in heaven, we must be a bond servant. Please understand that you can’t earn this salvation. You can only earn a title. Salvation is the free gift, just waiting for you to open. The way you open this free gift is to approach Jesus Christ and commit to be His bond servant. Jesus is the one who did all the work, so that all we have to do is commit to the title. But what happens when you do admit that you want to be Jesus’s bond servant? This is where the work begins. The title is a free gift. The question is then, what does it require of me to have the title of bond servant? It requires everything from you. If a man became a bond servant in the Bible times, but then didn’t fully do what a bond servant was supposed to do, the title would be removed. The bond servant could actually be put to death, if the master chose it that way. Being a bond servant is more than a title; it is living as a bond servant everyday. Remove the title or the lifestyle, and one was no longer a bond servant.

Remember, a bond servant owns nothing. He voluntarily and freely relinquished all of his assets and his life to the master. As I think about the physical process that took place to become a bond servant, it causes me to be thankful that when I became a Christian, there was no awl being driven through my ear that day, even though body piercing is pretty popular. I see the awl being driven through the ear of a bond servant as to what baptism is to the one who is making the commitment to be a follower of Jesus.

So, are you a bond servant to Jesus Christ? It is a lifelong, free commitment to become a slave of Jesus Christ. Have you ever wondered, as you read through the New Testament, what Paul meant in some of His letters when He titled himself a slave of Jesus Christ? I think it would have done all of Christianity well if the translators would have, more correctly, translated the word bond servant of Jesus Christ instead of slave. I won’t go into detailed Greek right now, but the word is doulos, which our translators translated as slave. There are some current Bible translations today that actually kept the word bond servant. I know that one is the Holman Christian Standard Bible. There are a few others as well. I think bond servant is the better translation. Keeping the word bond servant in our Bibles would cause us to look it up and study it and define it sooner and fully understand what the term means. James, Peter, Jude, and John titled themselves the same thing in their letters in the New Testament; bond servants!

So now what? I think it is important to understand 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NLT):

Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

I do not belong to myself. You do not belong to yourself. We were bought through the death of God’s only Son. That is a huge price. Whether we have chosen to be bond servants or not, we are still owned by God. Whether you believe in God or not, you are still owned by God. I pray you will choose to become a bond servant if you have not. How does one become a bond servant today? As a reminder, a true Christian and a bond servant are the same thing. In the New Testament, there are recorded only nine situations in which an individual or a group of people chose to become bond servants of Jesus Christ. They are all accounted for in the book of Acts. Every time somebody became a bond servant of Jesus’s in the book of Acts, five things actually happened. First, they heard the news of Jesus Christ, then they believed that Jesus was Lord. They then repented from living their lives outside the will of Jesus and confessed Jesus as their Master. It is at this point that each of them was immersed in water, which is what is called baptism.

As I read through the book of Acts and see that these things always happen when someone becomes what we now know as a bond servant to Jesus, I have no authority to change any one of those five things. Hear, believe, repent, confess, and be baptized. If you have done those things by faith in Jesus Christ, you now are titled a bond servant to Jesus. A bond servant lives his/her life in a very specific way of obedience. The way of a bond servant is the way of obedience to the master. The next big question that I hope we would ask is, “Obey what?”

The answer, before I end this incredibly long blog, is simply, obey the teachings and commands of Jesus Christ. And when I say simply, I do not mean they are easy. The life of a follower of Jesus Christ is a not a path of ease, but a path of simplicity, of trust, and of focus. It is a good life that will someday become a great, eternal life. There are more than 300 specific teachings and commands of Jesus that we should obey, and they are all found in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John of the Holy Bible. Read the and obey them. Of course there is a forgiveness clause added to this when we are not perfect in obeying all 300 plus of these; and none of us are perfect.

I hope that this study has been a motivating one for you. I hope that you will continue to grow as a fully developing follower of Jesus Christ. It is a life long process that only ends when your heart beats its last and you stand before Jesus Christ, the Lord of Lord and King of Kings and are told, well done good and faithful Bond Servant!

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