
You will be the same person five years from now except for the places you go, people you meet and information you read. Wow. Good reminder to be intentional with your reading! Having said that, I thought I’d let you sample a few of the “nuggets” in my own personal Google blog reader today!
From my friend Ed Bahler comes this interesting discussion of mega churches. As I am firmly entrenched in Christ Fellowship, which qualifies for but really dislikes that label of mega church, I found this interesting.
We were wrong!
We believed young people would be turned off be the boomer generation mega church. Small churches and incarnational coffee shop gatherings would provide the soul conversations and authentic relationships they longed for.
However, a recent study by Warren Bird at Leadership Network and Scott Thumma at the Hartford Institute reveals that:
66% of mega church attenders are younger than 45 versus 33% for other protestant churches.
The average age for mega church attenders is 40 versus 53 for other protestant churches.
18% of mega church attenders are under 24 versus 5% for other protestant churches.
The startling fact is mega churches appear to be magnets for the younger, well educated crowd while smaller protestant churches attract the boomer crowd and their parents.
But why?
What about those soul conversations and authentic relationships?
We know they prosper best when we are sacrificing for a common purpose together. And that shared sacrifice nurtures spiritual growth as well. Young people are drawn to purposeful relationships and spiritual growth. And mega churches are leveraging their people, financial resources, voice in the community, and leadership skills to make those activities happen.
Any church can mobilize their people and create these remarkable bonding and spiritual growth opportunities. However, it appears mega churches are learning to leverage their resources better than most.
Does that surprise you like it does me?
Ed’s blog can be found here.
Jeff Shinnabarger always makes me think. Here is one of his posts from a recent trip to Guatemala, and some stunning photography.
Her feet were ashy, beaten up, swollen, and storied. Can you imagine being 60 years old and working in no shoes. Imagine the narration her feet could give. A widow and a grandmother of 7 children. She has no home, but she does have a family. Her husband died thirty years ago in the civil way. Her face had a wrinkle for every hard time in her life. We built the house in 4 hours and she lived for 30 years without it. We communicated through 3 translations to understand her thoughts. He daughter was overjoyed with tears about her “big new house.” Meanwhile, most of our personal beds wouldn’t even fit through the door. We are called to care for the widows, now we have a glimpse of why we should. They are souls that comprehend grace more than we could ever imagine. The lives of widows are ones that care for others and none care for them. They are selfless expressions of love. We are selfish. They are hero’s. Meet our new widow friend and her feet: Candelaria.


My friend Laura Anne Mackay, in Scotland (aka Brunette Koala and @KoalainScotland) posted this curiosity-satisfying post about Starbucks in Scotland. Go here to finish reading it and see the pictures!
Those of you who follow the @koalainscotland twitter feed will probably know that every Friday morning Sarah or myself will stop into our local Starbucks to buy Cinnamon Swirls.
@irishwings and his wife were wanting to see what Starbucks in Scotland looks like, and trust me there are many here in Edinburgh – but this one is one of my favourite to visit.
I love to check in with the blog associated with Neue magazine. There was recently an interesting article on prayer. Here is the paragraph that caught my eye.
I think a wonderful application of the word gap is Generation Applying Prayer. Each generation needs to look at their own time and find out what is pleasing to God about how they are living and what needs to be changed. How does the generation and the times we live in measure up to the Word of God? Whatever deterioration of our society we see becomes our prayer assignment.
Long-time favorite and teaching pastor at Christ Fellowship, John Maxwell had these thoughts to share on a recent blog post. Read the whole article afterward…it’s worth it!
1. Expose Yourself to Good Input
Good thinkers always prime the pump of ideas. They always look for things to get the thinking process started, because what you put in always impacts what comes out.
Read books, review trade magazines, listen to CDs, and spend time with good thinkers. And when something intrigues you-whether it’s someone else’s idea or the seed of an idea that you’ve come up with yourself-keep it in front of you. Put it in writing and keep it somewhere in a favorite place to stimulate your thinking.
Michael Hyatt writes on a broad range of subjects. Recently he was hunting for a pair of shoes and ended up writing an amazing post about exceeding expectations. Here is a snippet, but — again — go read the original later!
This entire experience exceeded my expectations. I had already been spoiled by other online retailers like Amazon. But this took the customer experience to an entirely new level. The personal attention to detail was surprising and unexpected. As I have written about previously, this is one of the keys to generating wow experiences.
In today’s environment, you cannot ignore the details. Taken together, they create the customer experience. Over time, the customer may forget the specifics, but he will remember how the interaction made him feel. And that feeling will guide his future loyalties and buying decisions