June 2010 – 300 words a day

Sometimes you talk for an audience.

Nancy and I talk quite a bit. We walk and talk. We text. We tweet. We email. Sometimes, when we are out for supper, we probably look like the couples who never talk. We eat. We listen. We look sideways at the people who are talking loudly at adjacent tables. We feel no need to […]

by Jon Swanson

A simple offer.

Chris wrote about simple packaging of ideas yesterday. He was encouraging people who are selling to be clear, taking the time to phrases offers in ways that the customer can understand. Let simple be the mantra. Make your contracts brief, small, simple. Make your projects short, finite, and clear. Make your deliverables obvious, simple, and […]

by Jon Swanson

Lazarus is going to die.

“This sickness will not end in death.” That’s what Jesus said when he heard that his friend Lazarus was sick. It’s a pretty odd statement, given that the only thing that he had been told was, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” There is no word in the story about how sick Lazarus was. […]

by Jon Swanson

Making change

(I’m following up on yesterday’s post about planning how to grow.) If you want to have less self-centered pride in five years than you do now, here’s one thing to say: If I am sitting in a meeting, and I feel a need to speak up, then I will count to five and say, “Am […]

by Jon Swanson

Five years

“What do you want to be true of you as a leader in five years? What do you want your wife to say about you as a church leader? What do you want your kids to say about you as a church leader?” That’s what I asked five guys the other night. They are studying […]