Like many of you, I have simply been swamped with activity over the past few weeks (Thus, less blogging).  I went from a busy Christmas season straight into an intensive at Liberty University (My last one for my Master of Sacred Theology degree!)  and then got right to work planning for the launch of our new service at my church.  We’re calling it Church At The GYM. Check it out!

With all that’s going on, I am really looking forward to the Catalyst One Day conference that’s coming to my own backyard.  I think it’s going to be an incredibly challenging and inspirational opportunity.  The topic is building a healthy church culture… an important topic for us as we launch a new service.

If you’ll be in the Orlando area on February 17, you should come!

BTW, early bird registration ends January 27, 2011.  See you there!

Defensive driving is good.  Defense on the football field is also good.  But, defensiveness in our interactions with others can be dangerous.  In the same way that a picnic draws ants, defensiveness allows problems to enter into the communication process, ruining the picnic.

Defensiveness at its root is our attempt to protect ourselves from feeling badly.  It has been something we’ve used to help us cope since our childhood.  Consciously or subconsciously, we don’t want to feel like a failure, a loser, a problem, a burden, a liar, a mean person … and the list goes on.  Defensiveness is the mechanism of human nature where we say or do things that temporarily shield us from feelings or anxiety that we don’t want to experience.  The problem of course is that this only works temporarily and has unhelpful, relational side effects.

Now, we can easily spot defensiveness in others, and we know how annoying, impeding, and unproductive it can be.  But, since it’s harder to spot within ourselves, here’s a short list of markers that can alert us to defensiveness in our own lives:

• Sarcasm
• Rigidity
• Blaming
• Shaming
• Catastrophizing
• Trivializing
• Whining
• Endless explaining
• Withdrawing into silence
• Loss of humor
• All-or-nothing thinking

(A list of markers can be found in Jim Tamm’s book Radical Collaboration.)

Okay, so how do we fix our defensiveness and what’s the long term solution?

Ultimately and as unusual as it may sound, experiencing and absorbing the “bad” feelings is the only way to free ourselves permanently from the feelings that defensiveness seeks to prevent.  More specifically, though, we can suggest four actions steps to help along the way.

1. Spot Your Defensiveness – As with any personality flaw, you must admit that you do it in order to get better.  So admit it.  And then, learn your particular type of defensiveness, and identify your triggers.  That way, you know when it’s about to happen.

2. Slow Down – As with anything, we get dumb when our feelings start to get hurt.  That’s when the guard comes up and the gloves come off, and we say and do things that we later regret. So, slow down.  Take a few deep breaths, and proceed with caution, making a specific effort not to get defensive.

3. Self-talk – You talk to yourself.  Everyone does.  Maybe not out loud, but everyone does it.  The key here is to make sure you’re telling yourself good stuff.  Like Philippians 4:8 teaches, replace the bad thoughts with good ones.  This will further help you not to get defensive.  You must tell yourself the truth.

4. Step Toward the Goal – You didn’t become defensive overnight so don’t expect to be healed overnight.  But, take it one step at a time.  You can recover!  You need to!  It’s a necessity to experiencing a happier, healthier you.  And, it will facilitate more productive and Christ-honoring communication.

So get to it … start today!

Have you ever found yourself on vacation and in need of a file that’s on your home computer?  Or maybe, you’d just like to be able to access your multiple computers from multiple places.  Forget expensive services like GoToMyPC.  Instead, opt for a free alternative.  This service can really help you get more done.

For about a year now, I’ve been using a free (as in FREE) service from a company named LogMeIn.  And that’s pronouned Log…Me…In, by the way.  It’s not some new dish at the local Chinese takeout.

LogMeIn has a full suite of services, but two in particular are likely to offer the free functionality that you’ll find helpful.  Here’s a rundown on the two services.

LogMeIn Free
The first service allows you to securely connect to your PC through any web browser.  In essence, it will open up your desktop in a browser window.  What you see through the browser is what you’d see if you were sitting right in front of the PC in your home.

LogMeIn Hamachi²
The second service links your various PCs so that they appear to be in the same network group…meaning you can share files and use your remote desktop client.  They are linked as if they were all at the same site.

5 Reasons Your Should Use LogMeIn
So, let me sum up the top five reasons you should use one of the flavors of LogMeIn.

1. It’s Free – You pay nothing for personal use of these services.
2. It’s Secure – Your data is encrypted. It’s safe.
3. It’s Simple – Although LogMeIn may sound geeky, anyone can use it!
4. It’s Convenient – You will save time.  You can work on files from anywhere.  No more driving back to the house to get the files you need.
5. It’s Cross-Compatible – The browser-based version can be used on PC & Mac.

So, check it out!  This could be just the thing you’ve been waiting for.  No complicated port forwarding or other advanced router stuff.  Just a great product that’s simple to use.

Here’s a video clip that shows how easy it is to set up LogMeIn Free.

For about a year now, I’ve been using Google Voice, a phone service from our friends at Google.  Last summer, I got in on the ground floor with a special invite (remember when Gmail was invite-only?).  But now, Google has just announced that Google Voice is available to anyone!  My take: you need it…go get it.

Let me give you my top 5 reasons you should use Google Voice:

1. Pick Your Number
With Google Voice, you get to pick your own number.  You can even search for number combinations that you like.  That’s pretty slick.  Plus, you can pick any area code you want.  So, if you’re like me and got a cell phone number while in college that you’re kind of attached to, you can pick a new number that’s local to where you live now so that landline users don’t have to dial long distance to reach you.  This is the biggest benefit to me.

2. Transcribed Voicemails
Although the transcription isn’t perfect (yet), it’s very convenient to have a copy of your voicemails emailed or even texted to you.  That way, you can read them, even when you can’t call up your voicemail.  Also, Google Voice can handle the voicemail that comes in through your standard cell number.

3. Forward Calls
When a call comes in on the Google Voice number, you can have it ring any phone you want.  You can even have certain callers ring to certain phones.  At my church, this is helpful for special events.  I can give out one number as an event hotline, and then it will ring to specific team leaders so that the call isn’t missed.  This also protects the “real” numbers of our team leaders.

4. Screen or Block Calls
There’s no nice way to say it, but let’s face it, we all have certain people that we’d rather not receive calls from.  With Google Voice, just send ’em straight to voicemail or block them altogether.  You can also screen calls that are from private or unknown numbers.  This make them announce who’s calling.

5. Do Not Disturb
Going on vacation? Well, you gotta take your phone, but you probably don’t want just everyone and their brother calling you.  With Google Voice, you can send your calls directly to voicemail while you enjoy your vacation. 🙂

Bonus: It’s Free!
Free is good.  It makes this very appealing. You have nothing to loose.  Try it.  If you don’t like it, you’ve lost nothing, right?

So, that’s my top 5ish reasons to use Google Voice.  And, I didn’t even mention the other features like: conference calls, low international rates (as low as 2 cents per minute), web widgets, call recording, special voicemail greetings for special callers, ring certain calls to certain phones, and more.  Click here for Google’s feature page.  Click here and here for reviews from other bloggers.

For those who are inherently suspicious of new techie things, here are the supposed cautions to Google Voice.

So, are you persuaded yet?  Or maybe, you’ve been using it for a while.  Let me know in the comments.  In the meantime, watch this clip from Google to learn more.

If you have begun to read my blog regularly, I hope that you are beginning to see the value of blogs all over the web.  There are blogs that cover practically every topic you can think of.  Want to read a blog about sports?  Here’s one.  Want to read a blog about the iPhone? Here’s one.  There are even blogs about blogs…like this one.  Crazy, huh?  Some blogs write long posts.  Some write short ones.  And, they’re all pretty valuable in their own way.  So anyway, here’s a short list of my favorite blogs (for right now anyway):

1. Seth Godin – The guru of marketing.  His blogs are short, and they challenge you to think outside the box.
2. Tony Morgan – This guy is a church strategists.  Some of you might not understand what that is, but his blog is full of church-related insights.
3. Ed Stetzer – This guy leads the research department at LifeWay. His blog is church-related with a research and missional emphasis.
4. Church Crunch – This is a techie blog for churches.  Very helpful for a guy like me.
5. Michael Hyatt – This guy is the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers. His blog has a wide range of emphasis, but it’s pretty insightful stuff.

So, how about you?  What are your favorite blogs?

Do find yourself visiting two or three social media sites over and over again every day?  Do you end up with three windows (tabs if you’ve moved into 2010) open at the same time so that you can stay on top of your social networking?  I have a solution that will make your life much easier.  Hootsuite!  It’s a true time-saver.

Hootsuite allows you to see all of your favorite social networking sites in one place – on one page!  You can update and be updated all from one site instead of visiting and logging into several different ones.  Now for those of you who are techies, I know that you already know that Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, and Seesmic exist, and you probably already have a favorite.  But, for everyone else, let me tell you why I like Hootsuite, and encourage you to use it.

1. Hootsuite brings all of the major social networking sites into one place.
2. Hootsuite allows me to manage multiple profiles and pages.
3. Hootsuite allows me to customize the look and placement of my feeds from social networking sites.
4. Hootsuite allows me to shrink URLs easily.
5. Hootsuite runs remotely (no software to install), which means I can access the same info from any computer.
6. Hootsuite allows me to schedule tweets and status updates to be sent later.
7. Hootsuite allows me to share control of certain social media profile with other users.

Well, that pretty much sums it up.  If you want to see a comparison between Hootsuite and Tweetdeck, visit here.

Now, don’t wait any longer.  Go make your life easier (Hootsuite.com).

So, what are your thoughts?  Do you use one of these services?  Will you?  Let me know.

Are you faced with an almost insurmountable stack of email everyday?  Well, I think I’ve found a helpful system for managing email in a post by Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers.

To be honest, this is exactly what I need(ed).  Let me give you a run down of my email scenario.  Every day, I actively check six email accounts.  Some are my personal accounts.  Some belong to the church.  In the course of a day, I easily take in 50 to 100 messages or so.  At this very moment, I have three email accounts with very extremely full inboxes.  One has 108 emails, another has 354, and another has 614!!!  Why do I let these pile up!  And, all that doesn’t even mention my intricate file folders system… between the six email accounts, I have 75 folders!  So, I’m definitely putting some of these principles into practice… starting today!

Here’s a summary of what Michael Hyatt says (Click here to read his full post):

1. Empty your inbox everyday.

2. Don’t get bogged down, keep moving. 5 possible actions for every email:

• Do it now – If you can do it in 2 minutes or less.
• Defer it – Schedule a time to do it (b/c it’ll take more than 2 minutes).
• Delegate it – If it would be better for someone else to do it.
• Delete it – If it’s not important or actionable.
• File it – In one folder. If you need it, you can search for it later.

3. Use keyboard shortcuts and avoid the mouse.

4. Use email rules to filter low-priority stuff (like Bacn)

That’s just the outline skeleton of what Michael says.  Check out his post for the more meaty explanation.

Now, what are you waiting for?! Go forth and conquer your inbox!

Questions:
Did you need to hear this today?
Are you swimming in a deep inbox?
And, what other tips could you give that might be helpful?

Click comment below to give us your thoughts.

Do you want to get more out of your personal bible study time?  Have you ever wondered how it is that some Christians, pastors, or bible study leaders seem to be able to identify so much more truth in God’s word?  Well, there’s a three step process that can put you on a path to understanding and applying God’s word to your life.  This will help you to be a doer of the word and not a hearer only (James 1:22).

Here are the three steps of inductive Bible study:

1). Observation: What does it say?
This first step is a simple one.  Read the text carefully a time or two in a Bible version that you can understand.  (There are many great versions and translations available.  The one that I use personally and recommend is the NET Bible.  If you want to know why I like this one best, ask me some time.)  As you read, look for the following things:

1. Are there any commands?
2. Are there any promises?
3. Are there any repeated words or phrases?
4. Are there any results or conclusions (look for therefore or so that)?
5. What is the main idea of the passage?

2). Interpretation: What does it mean?
This can be a challenging step, and it’s the one that people sometimes fail to carry out correctly.  To perform this step, you may need to seek out a few Bible study tools (commentary, concordance, etc.).   But, don’t get too intimidated at this step.  Simply, consider the following questions:

1. Are there any terms, words, or phrases that need to be defined?
2. How does the passage fit into the broader context of the chapter & book?
3. What was the author of this book trying to say?
4. What did the audience understand the author to have been saying?

3). Application: What does it mean to me?
Now, it is time to apply the timeless truth of the passage to life.  Though all of the Bible may not be written directly to us, it is certainly written for us.   And, we must ask a few questions to learn how this passage should change our lives:

1. What attitude does this passage instruct me to have?
2. What action does this passage instruct me to take?
3. What does this passage instruct me to believe?
4. What does this passage instruct me to avoid?

At this step of application, also look for the How and the Why.  In addition to telling us what to do, believe, and avoid, the Bible also frequently tells us how and why to apply the truth of the passage.  So, look for that.

Certainly, this is not an exhaustive guide, but it should be a great start to helping you learn more from your Bible study time.  So, try taking these steps sometime this week, and let me know how it goes.  And of course, feel free to ask me any questions that arise from your personal study of the Bible.

So, it dawned on me this week that many people are just now beginning to understand what blogging is all about.  Sure, we know that a blog is an online journal of sorts, and it’s an extension of the social media frenzy.  But, many of us are just now beginning to understand the extra features that are out there.

For example, have you ever wondered what that strange, little, orange icon with waves is all about?  (It’s this icon right here ↑ )  This little icon and others like it can be found all across the web, but what is it there for?

That little icon says, “Hey! Subscribe here!  We’ll send you the blog posts from this site for free.”  It shows that an RSS Feed is available from the site.  That’s why I’ve got one in the upper right hand corner of this web page.

Okay, so now you know what it’s there for, but how does it work?

Watch this video to learn more about RSS Feeds & the little orange icon.
(And if you prefer you can subscribe by email, click subscribe to do that, too!)

Welcome to another dimension of the blogosphere!
Let me know if this little video was helpful to you.

This past Sunday at Palmetto Avenue Baptist Church, we showed two awesome videos from Johnny & Chachi (Check out their site.  These guys are hilarious.).  The Don’t Video, which you can watch below, helped provide a good intro to the next message in our Who Cares? series, “Who Care’s About Marriage?”

Enjoy the video.  I’d encourage you to watch it several times.  For one, watching it multiple times will hammer home the truth behind the video.  And second, you should watch it multiple times because undoubtedly you missed some of the funny stuff going on in the video the first time through.  Enjoy… and tell me what you think!