SCOTT hamilton

"Ah... Yea... I'm Having a Pedicure That Weekend... I Don't think I can Help"

I had the opportunity to help a family move-in yesterday. It was an easy move. Most of the stuff was unloaded and stacked in a storage facility. It got me to thinking though, about all my previous experiences helping others move – the good and the bad.

If you’re asking people to help you move here are some helpful tips that will increase your chances of remaining friends and maybe get them back for a second move.

1. Have everything packed. Don’t start throwing things in a box when people show up at your door. It communicates to them that their time is not worth you being prepared.

2. If you are moving locally have most of the small stuff relocated already. There is no reason you can’t make some car loads of small boxes before people show up at your door.

3. PROVIDE LEADERSHIP! This is absolutely the most important but hardest for people to do. People show up because they are willing and expecting to do some grunt work. They are there to help but want it to get over as soon as possible –nobody likes moving – especially stuff that’s not theirs. I know you want to help do the grunt work to show that you are taking responsibility for your stuff, but it does no good for 8 people stand around waiting for instructions while you wrestle with the box springs. This just prolongs the agony for everybody. You are the only one who knows where things go. You can honor people’s time by not lifting a hand but coordinating to make the work go efficiently and quickly. It might not feel good to stand around giving instructions, but believe me, it’s the best way to appreciate the people who showed up expecting to do manual labor.

4. Don’t inappropriately take advantage of having people willing to help. Make decisions quickly. You can tweak things later. It’s not the time to move the 600lb dresser 4 inches to the right (while 6 other people are standing around waiting for instructions and thinking that they are wasting their day).

There’s my tips on moving. They come from being on the receiving end of people doing it correctly but, unfortunately, more so from people doing it wrongly.

Spiritual Excuses

Two people. Road trip. Lonely stretch of desert highway. Clunk, clunk. Chug, chug. Stall.
 

The passenger wakes up: wha . . . what’s going on?

Driver: I don’t know. The car just stalled.

Passenger: Wow that seems sudden. It wasn’t acting up during my shift.

Driver: I guess God doesn’t want us to make it home.

Passenger: What da mean . . .

Driver: Seriously, I just don’t think it was meant to be. God must not have wanted it.

Passenger: Get real

Driver: I guess it’s just not God’s will.

 

Silence . . .

 

Passenger leans over: Hey dummy, look at the gas gauge. Didn’t you fill it up when you stopped for Twinkies?

 

We look at the situation above and it seems silly to us. But too often as followers of Jesus we try to spiritualize instead of taking responsibility. It saddens me that I hear so often people use God as an excuse for a job done poorly.

 

“I was being attacked” translation “I didn’t come prepared”

“I guess it wasn’t God’s will” translation “I gave a half-hearted effort”

“Satan sure didn’t want us to succeed” translation “I’m looking for a scapegoat”

 

Are you

blaming the demon behind every bush

or

bearing responsibility?

 

Are you worthy of God’s trust

or

is he weary to trust you?

 

Does he say “Well done”

or

“Half done”?

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Field Trip Leadership

Everything I needed to know about 3^rd grade field trips I learned from the leadership guru John Maxwell.
 

“OK girls we need a team dance. Wiggle like this. Move your arms like this, and say ‘uh huh, uh huh’.” This started the Esprit de Corps for our field trip team made up of me, my youngest daughter, and three other girls from her class all 9 years old. I took a day off from the office and volunteered to be a parent sponsor for this particular adventure to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
 

We called ourselves the No-Hands team. Each of the girls was wearing a jacket with their hands tucked inside the ends of their sleeves in typical young girl fashion. My philosophy was to act goofy and the kids could relate and view me as ‘normal’, and build a sense of team. So why did I go to all this trouble?
 

I wanted my group to be successful. I knew that if they had a fun time, remained safe, and learned some stuff they would have a lasting memory of a fun field trip – success. Being the leader it rested on my shoulders to pull it off.
 

I could have taken the dictator approach, which I’ve had to do on occasion simply because I’ve been grouped with kids who have ‘parents’ in name only. I had to leverage my size, deep voice, and adult authority to focus only on keeping them safe.  Nobody had fun or learned much – we weren’t successful.
 

I’ve realized that dictating gets it done, but leading makes people successful.
 

 

That’s why I love my divine assignment. I get to see people be successful in being a part of a God-movement. I see them experience success in the movement of God in their own lives, and success in developing spiritually.  I want people to be successful, and I’m blown away that God let’s me be in on it.

 

 

I think I’m going to write a book: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Field Trip Leadership.

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*

I am a lover of photographs. Old, torn, faded pictures of people long since gone. Soft portraits. Edgy fish-eyed exposures. Photos that have been completely transformed using Photoshop.

 

I subscribe to the Podcast Photoshop TV. It streams useful tips, techniques, and advice into my photoshopping life. The Photoshop Guys present useful leads to relevant sites and sources for enriching my photoshopping experience. I look to Photoshop TV for a faithful influx into a certain aspect of my personal growth.

 

I realize that I do this with certain people too. I look to them for a faithful influx to help me grow personally – mentoring, developing, teaching, instructing, coaching. I subscribe to their Podcast and let it enrich my life. I am often caught off guard though, when someone looks to me for an influx into their lives; when they seek mentoring from me. I look at myself as someone who has a lot to learn and as someone who has made an incredible amount of mistakes. Maybe it’s this that somehow qualifies me – learning from my mistakes (albeit some more slowly than others). I have come to accept that God, in his graciousness, has placed me in certain relationships to do this. It is unsettling none the less. I am both humbled and honored when someone allows me to Podcast into their life.

 

My question for you: Are people subscribing to your life Podcast? Would you?

 

(Thanks to Tony Myles whose creative blog sparked the idea for this series.)

Motion without Progress . . .

aka: Spinning your wheels.

I just read an article by Anthony Coppedge that I think is very appropriate for my church, Northern Hills.

Motion without progress describes a church just going through the motions, stuck in tradition, spinning its wheels, doing things because, ”That’s the way we’ve always done them”.  Is Northern Hills stuck in tradition?  Those who attend would chuckle at this question and any staff would look at you like you were speaking a foreign language.  The only thing constant about Northern Hills is change.

So why draw your attention to this blog post? Because Coppedge makes another insightful point that Northern Hills has been accused of.  Change for the sake of change – racing about like an unguided rocket.  Northern Hills has gone through constant evolution through its life with some of the biggest transformations coming in the last three years.  At times it has felt a bit chaotic, out of control, and on the verge of crashing.  With that some very old friends and long time members have felt uncomfortable enough to leave and seek a church that feels better to them.  My solace is

Doin' the Robot

(Allow it to load a little and press play)

I remember when the Robot dance was popular (Yes I’m turning 40 soon). This guy takes it to a whole new level.

Don’t you find yourself crediting him with a certain amount of leadership points merely based on his excellence?  Wouldn’t he be the guy who you’d go to learn how to dance?  After this dance contest can't you imagine he would have an instant following? You would probably find other people around him that didn’t care about dancing at all, but were just drawn to excellence.  Now whether he continued to have influence with people would be based on other leadership skills.

Being competent gives you influence – dance yourself into leadership.

“Giving Up” Leadership

Sometimes the smartest thing for a good leader to do is give up leadership.

Naval captains are renowned for their fierce loyalty to their ship and crew – many ‘going down with the ship’ when disaster strikes. They view their relationship with their ship as personal – especially when they are the first to take command.

They are entrusted with incredible responsibility. A Navy captain commanding a cruiser class combat ship is entrusted with a billion dollar vessel; a 9,600 ton ship that has the power to unleash indescribable destruction, defeating hostile surface ships, submarines, and air forces simultaneously; an 80k hp 30 craft that carries upwards of 360 highly trained personnel.

They expect to command their ship and view it as total derelict of duty to do anything else. Yet all captains, including United States Navy captains, which pass through the Panama Canal, must turn over control of their ship to a canal pilot. No exceptions.

Passage through the canal is treacherous and requires extremely unique expertise. The canal's topography changes constantly with frequent torrential rainstorms and landslides. Visibility during a rainstorm can be reduced to just the width of the vessel. Nightly fog nullifies any land based navigational aids. Some massive ships have only a 2ft side clearance as they pass through the locks. While the canal pilot would fail at commanding a naval vessel for a significant amount of time, they are the best qualified to command the vessel for its 24 hour passage through the canal.

Great leaders are the ones who realize that there are some people that do aspects of their job better than they do, and to ensure the success of the organization they must temporarily give up command – in a certain area – for a ‘day’ – for a specific task – of a particular position . . .

Some good leaders, with entirely right motives, just can’t bring themselves to give up command, and ultimately limit where the organization can go.

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Doubt in Leadership

Moses raised another objection to GOD: "Master, please, I don't talk well. I've never been good with words, neither before nor after you spoke to me. I stutter and stammer."

Looking from the outside there is no doubt that Moses was God’s man – although, at times, it didn’t feel that way to Moses.

It is easier for people on the outside looking in to see that a person is God’s chosen for a particular place, circumstance, team, or environment.  Being the chosen person, sometimes it’s hard to see past our fear, self doubts, frustration, or pride.  At times it’s difficult to see past our circumstances that seem to be going against all our efforts.  At times the team may appear dysfunctional and we feel responsible.

Moses was a hot tempered, self-doubting, frustrated, prideful leader of one of the most dysfunctional teams that encountered some of the most discouraging circumstance and environments ever.

There is no doubt he was God’s chosen man.

Drop The Puck

“Drop the puck”

“Get on with it”

“Get off the fence”

“Make a decision”

I hear all too often, “I’m seeking God’s perfect will.”  Translation: “I’m scared to take a risk.”

This is the worst excuse people use to stay with the comfortable status quo.  They feel God urging them to move, but they’re paralyzed by fear.  They sadly try to spiritualize their reluctance.

Although it is proper to seek God’s will, more often than we think God’s will is for us to exercise our free will and make the best decision we know how.  We tend to box God’s will into a “directive from heaven.”  “I’m not moving until I’m told exactly what to do.”  This way we conveniently aren’t to blame for the outcome.

I imagine God saying, “I don’t care what you decide I’ll use whatever decision you make and grow you with it. I want you to learn how to make wise decisions.  Make a decision so we can get on with the teaching.  Drop the puck already!”

God took an inconceivable risk in giving us the power to choose.  He risked the entirety of creation, us, and his son in giving us prerogative of choice.  It must be of utmost important to him.

If we only move to exact dictates from God we are nothing more then remote controlled mindless robots.  I guarantee you that is not what God intended for us!

Take a risk – drop the puck.

Wasting Ourselves

Watch This....

Then Read this.