Marc’s Musings

I’m in the process of writing out my “100 dreams and goals for 2008.” (I use my own MagnetGoals program.)

This year, I started with a fresh piece of paper and my “life” and “5-year” goals. In 45 minutes at Starbucks, I’d jotted down about 50 things I want to do in 2008. Some of them are off-the-wall dreams. But it’s still half the list.

This morning, I’m going to go over my 2007 list of 100 things, see how I did and see what I can add to my 2008 list.

In the past, I’d started with the prior year list. It helped fill up my sheet but it didn’t exactly get me off to an “anything’s possible” beginning. It was more of a,”Sheesh, I accomplished a lot but there’s still a lot that didn’t get done” sort of beginning. More of a “downer” feeling.

So if you get the chance, I highly recommend going to a comfortable place with a clean pad of paper and letting your dreams go wild. It’s somewhat embarrassing. I often find myself thinking things like, “Gosh, I hope people don’t find this list or read over my shoulder! They’ll think I’m really stuck on myself.” Even “Would God be that good to me?”

But it’s really invigorating.

[For what it's worth, when I find myself asking if God would be that good, I know that thought or idea is almost assuredly from Him. It's just my concept of Him that's too small. Afterall, He gave His own Son for me. What would He hold back?]

Seth Godin has a great post on brands and caricatures.

He points out that to have an effective caricature you need to have “exceptional features” you can accentuate. These become your brand.

He goes on to say:

As Nixon discovered, when the caricature becomes negative, it’s almost impossible to escape (glad I’m not Bob Nardelli or a shareholder at Topps hamburgers). Worse than avoiding the negative, though, is the tendency for most organizations to resist creating a brand that can be caricatured. It doesn’t feel safe or responsible or prudent. Coloring inside the lines and pleasing most of your customers most of the time almost guarantees you’ll be bland.

It’s a lot cheaper and faster and more effective to have a big nose.

What about your church? Could it be caricatured? And could you handle it if it were?

I think the Vineyard Church of Waterville could be caricatured. Check out this 5 minute VCW 3rd Birthday video and see if you agree.

Last Sunday, we had an brave soul give the sermon at the Vineyard Church of Waterville. I make it a point to not be in the pulpit every Sunday. It’s healthier for the group if others are being raised up.

Before Janice spoke, I gave everyone a primer on how to be a good listener. I even helped them loosen up their smiling muscles and the muscles that help the head move up and down in agreement. You can hear the warm up routine on the VCW podcast.

Today, I read a post by Seth Godin that reminds me of my warm up exercise. Go and read his post Always On (everybody markets). He points out that we’re always sending a message. “And more often than not, you get what you put in.”

Half this bounce is 90% mental. –Tigger

So true to life, isn’t it?

Heard a sad thing on MPBN today. Apparently experts are “hoping” for 30% of us in Maine to get out and vote.

30%.

And the rainy day will likely make actual turnout even lower.

We have really important issues like

• whether or not to allow gambling to expand in Maine and
• whether or not to invest in our future and
• whether or not to lengthen terms in the legislature.

Any one of these will have far reaching implications that will affect life in our fair state for years to come.

And less than 30% of those of us eligible to vote will make these decisions.

Way more than 30% kvetch about life in Maine and what should be done. But 7 out of 10 are apparently just whiners; not even willing to put a couple marks on a piece of paper. People are dying in other countries just to get this simple right. And we blow it off as a hassle.

Sheesh.

I sure hope those 30% vote the right way. Heck, I’d be glad to have people on any side of these issues vote if it’d bring our percentage up over 75% or just 50%.

It’s not often that I comment on politics, but an editorial in today’s Morning Sentinel, NOV. 6 REFERENDUM QUESTION 5 Term-limits law hasn’t had desired effects on Legislature is right on.

In 1996, Maine voted to limit terms of politicians. There were a few life-long politicians that seemed to run the Legislature. Term limits were an attempt to remedy that.

Instead, John Martin still has incredible influence, and we don’t have any proof that the limits have promoted democracy. Indeed, they seem to encourage near-sighted, 2-year “fixes” to systemic state and economic challenges. It’s like having a near-sighted driver with esotropia weaving all over I-95 at 70 miles per hour. The driver is getting somewhere, but at untold harm and danger to everyone else on the road.

Term limits seemed like a good idea at the time. I supported them. But 11 years later, it’s clear it’s not working.

As Sen. Collins has learned in Congress, leadership takes time and we desperately need leadership in the Legislature.

Let’s vote to extend the limits on Nov 6.

I’ve wanted to write a “take charge of your life” blog post for a while now.

But to my great joy, Chris Brogan has done it even better than I would’ve.

Read his post: Take Responsibility and Fire THEY

Here’s a terrific article from the AP: “Driven People May Avoid Alzheimer’s.”

Here’s a bit of the article:

Astoundingly, the brains of some of the dutiful people in the study were examined after their deaths and were found to have lesions that would meet accepted criteria for Alzheimer’s — even though these people had shown no signs of dementia.

“This adds to our knowledge that lifestyle, personality, how we think, feel and behave are very importantly tied up with risk for this terrible illness,” Wilson said. “It may suggest new ideas for trying to delay the onset of this illness.”

If you”d like to lead a more purposeful life, or avoid dementia!, the free MagnetGoals program may be an important part of your balanced diet.

Get the free e-course or pdf at: http://fundraisingcoach.com/magnetgoals.htm

(To buy a swanky printed copy, go to Lulu.com.)

I’m in Bar Harbor learning about recruitment and retention with the rest of the Inland Hospital leadership. Definitely a nice location.

And hard work. Yeah…that’s it. Lot’s of hard work.

Later tonight, we’ll be cruising on this:

I just heard a terrific presentation by Rob Hatch about the TouchPoints Initiative he’s getting to roll out across the state.

One of the speakers on a video said that the Western model is a deficit model:

• What’s wrong? and
• how can we fix it?

The Touchpoints approach is strengths based approach to helping parents:

• what is the the family doing correctly?
• what are they doing well?

During his talk, I had an epiphany. Really. I finally realized why people are so weirded out by the grace and mercy and joy and fun we experience at the Vineyard Church of Waterville.

Most everything in Western life is based on a deficit model: medicine, pyschiatry, education, counseling. Even church. Especially church?

Think about it. When do you tend to go to the doctor? When you’re sick. When do you tend to go to the counselor? When you’re “broken” and want something fixed. What do you focus on in school? What answers you got wrong.

In church, we protestants have made the deficit model an art form. You’re life is a mess whether you know it or not. It’s that way because of sin. Come to church to fix that problem.

That’s good to a point. But a steady dose of that 52-weeks a year?

You start realizing what a schmoe you really are. You don’t evangelize enough. Pray enough. Fast enough. Go to enough conferences and small groups and healing times and clasess.

No wonder people aren’t flocking to Jesus. If that’s what we’re projecting, would you be attracted?

Today, I realized what we’re doing at VCW is a strengths based approach. Yes, life sucks at times. It’s hard, even when you’re “in the middle of God’s will.” Yep, we’re not living a holy and sinless life.

So let’s move on.

At VCW, we tend to ask questions like:

• Where are you seeing God move in your life?
• What do you just love doing?
• What gives you joy?
• How have you been aware of the Holy Spirit’s involvement in your life?

At one kinship a few months ago, one person was talking about how she knew God was inviting her to pray for healing for a family member. But she totally balked. What if God really did heal? What would she do? So she chickened out.

Another group member launched into deficit-based answers: Yep, that’s how it is. You let fear in and fear ruled you. God doesn’t give us a spirit of fear.

You get the idea. Can you feel the oppression? This guy meant well. And he was simply responding as he’d been trained after decades of church going.

I jumped in and interrupted him. I was actually kind of rude in shutting him down. “Stop. No, really, stop. We’re not going there. We’re here to celebrate, to celebrate our growing awareness of God’s involvement in our life.”

Then I turned to the original speaker and said, “Did you hear how you started? ‘I sensed God’s invitation…’ THAT’S HUGE! You heard God! And you recognized it was Him! Bet you weren’t doing that a few years ago!! That’s something to celebrate!”

Yes, we want to grow in obedience to His invitations. But I seriously doubt we’ll grow in obedience if we keep focusing on disobedience.

Strengths based. It’s a much more fulfilling take on life in the Kingdom. It’s the kind of church I’d want to go to!