Welcome to the Merge

For those traditional readers of Change Addicts welcome to the MERGE!!! Change addicts is merging with the cutting edge children's program of gateway believer's fellowship to provide cutting edge leadership material as well as out of this world lesson plans! ENJOY!

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Noah & The Flood - Lesson Plan - Lavonia Outreach 10-23-08

Lesson 8 Noah & the Flood October 23

Permission Slips for Tri-City

Concepts:
Why the Flood? Sin had covered the earth
Obedience no matter what others think
Building of the Ark
Animals 2X2
God is Good – He makes a way of escape
Lots of rain
Favor of God
Rainbow

Grouping: Younger and older age groups by colors (Elyse)

Opening Activity: Friend to Friend Balloon Race (Lisa)

Timeline Review: (Marie)

Review Rules (optional) (Larry)

Grannie Annie: Noah & the Ark (Ann)
Sin a major problem-sin of Adam & Eve
God sorry He made man
Only Noah fellowshipped with God
Build an Ark
Animals and food
Length of time on boat
Rainbow

Memory Verse: Genesis 6:8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. (Ann)

Story in Action: Two Centers (Ken older group, Josh –younger)
Build and sail arks in tubs of water. (Plastic Easter Eggs, playdough, toothpicks, boats in water, Newspaper boats) (Elyse)

The Promise: Parachute represents the rainbow. (Marie)

Obedience results in the Favor of God: Group leaders pass out animal cracker to ones obedient.

Snack: (Large group) Stand Animal crackers in cake icing on graham crackers, then eat. Discuss the favor of God.

Sword training-as needed

Materials:
Balloons-Ann
Easter Eggs-Ann
Kiddie pool - Larry
Water hose -Larry
Toothpicks –Marie
Cake icing-Lisa
Graham crackers- Joshua
Animal crackers - Sherry
Handsanitizer- Marie
Playdough- Ann
Newspaper -Sherry
Parachute -Ann
Nuff ball –Ann
Vice grips – Larry
Paper towels – Sherry
Plastic knives – Lisa

Simple Question

What are you doing different today than you did yesterday? What is it that you did yesterday that didn't turn out so good, how are you changing your world so that you don't have the same problem today? How did you make yourself accountable?

Action vs Motivation

Did you know it's possible to have perfect action and still have wrong motives?

Wow, I've been hit hard by that realization this week. For several years now I've been in the process of discovering how to operate in the Adam Process. I've learned how to ask questions, how to "draw" from people, and how to coach them to another level of development. However, this week for the first time I think I've finally come face to face with the fact that often my motives have been wrong. It's the challenge of being a change addict. You become so addicted to change and seeing change in other people... that you forget about the people. The change becomes your goal, you become so focused on seeing the product change that you forget about the people along the way.

It's a hard thing to realize that you've taught people what to do, but you've never bothered to really slow down and help them discover why to do. I get in such a hurry trying to yield greater results from my team, to get further down the road, all the while sacrificing their development for the sake of their development. Yes I meant to type that twice. Because I had figured out in my mind where they needed to be and what they needed to be doing then everything I did was to manipulate them to be where I wanted them to be so that they could change. It did yield change, but the problem is I've now positioned myself to where those same people now have to have me there to change. Obviously that's not 100% true, but I have established a system that depends on me for continuous growth and development.

Basically I set myself up as God and Holy Ghost speaking into their life without even realize that that is what I was doing. I failed to teach them how to grow and change for themselves and instead created a dependency on me to interpret their thoughts, actions, and feelings. Instead of me allowing them to learn to sort through their own development, I became a "demi-god" that sorted through them for them. Yes it hurt bad to realize this, and now begins the long journey of de-positioning myself so that they can now discover how to learn on their own.

It's amazing how we go from one glory of revelation to another. How we start by a mental ascent and even a strong "understanding" of the strategies and techniques, but it takes running into the fullness of the revelation to understand that you aren't even close to having the right heart and actually using your strengths effectively.

Here's to long fun journeys!

Ken

Freezing up!

As I write this I'm in a condo house at the beach. Now normally this is supposed to be a fun experience and extremely relaxing... and so far it has been... the only problem is that our A/C is out. As I sit and type this I'm sweating profusely. It's 82 degrees in the house. Here's what is so strange though... it's because the A/C is frozen. How is it that something supposed to get me cool is making me hot by literally freezing over?

And your mind is racing... what in the world does this have to do with me?

Everything. Did you know that inside of you is everything you need to be able to dramatically cool off your world? God has put a gift inside of you to be able to pour refreshing into the world around you... here's the problem ... you're frozen up. At least many of us are. We are so focused on ourselves... the components that keep us cool that we have locked ourselves down. I have seen ministers who became so consumed with what God was doing inside of them that they refused to go "OUT"! I'm glad that you have the coldest and most refreshing revelation inside of you, I'm excited that you are a terrific machine that can cool almost anything... but let me tell you... if you don't release the air out of yourself you will freeze up! The problem is a lack of freon.

Many of us have great revelation, great wisdom, and great ideas... but it's the ability to release the revelation without freezing up. Freezing up is not just freezing up in your message delivery. It's freezing up because you don't know how to release to other people what is on the inside of you. Maybe you don't trust people, maybe you don't know how to activate them, and maybe you think you are addressing them but you aren't seeing results. Anything that exists for itself will eventually die. If you are not existing for other people to not only receive nourishment, but also to receive empowerment then you are headed toward freezing up. If you get bogged down inside yourself and you are not passing off the responsibility inside of you then you are freezing up. And before long you will exist only for yourself and will be completely locked down.


So here's the goal. GET FREE-ON. Get free of your dependency on yourself... learn to trust your team. Get free of your paranoia and arrogance that only you can do great things... Get free of your internal focus and focus on how to best deliver what's inside of you to other people... both refreshment and also empowerment. Activate your team, let go of your grip on all the power, and TRUST GOD... and other people!

Performance vs Leadership

Recently, I've been evaluating what makes a great leader. I think for years I have subtly had a perception that great leaders are people who get the job done. They are able to be QB and make the decisions that get the ball into the right person's hand at the right time to score the touchdown. But the more I work pursue leadership the more I find out the subtle problems that accompany this mindset. Without a doubt there are fundamentals that we should all be able to accomplish, but being a great QB doesn't make me a terrific leader.

Think about those leaders that you see as great... there's our problem. Most of our standard of great leadership is based off of how many people they have following them. Here is what I'm finding though... What is the level of leadership of the people following them? This is quite a challenging question, because if you can't define what leadership is to begin with it can make it quite difficult to assess the level of leadership of the person's followers.

Let's look a little closer. If we have a QB mentality the the ball always has to pass through our hands. Every play is dependent upon us and our ability. Every success becomes our success and every failure becomes our failure.

What I am struggling, straining, and striving to move towards is becoming a coach. See a coach knows all the positions. He knows the fundamentals that make people a success at every position, although he himself may never have played the position "professionally". But it's difficult to move from QB to Coach.

For those few people that have made the transition to coach, the hard part is training assistant coaches. For many of us, we make the initial move to coaching our teams, but we fail to ever build a structure that sets us up to coach coaches instead of just players. IF WE ALWAYS COACH PLAYERS WE ARE REALLY JUST QB'ING FROM THE SIDELINE!!! We must establish a structure that allows us to coach other coaches and develop them to coach players.

Of course recognizing that you need to make them coaches and actually making them coaches are two very different things. You can't just warp yourself to success, you have to move from where you are to where you're going... and that is a blog for another day!

One year and 57 days later the journey continues

So it has been a long long journey. Wow.

It's amazing how one single event in your life can turn your entire world so upside down that it changes everything about how you act, what you do, and even to some extent who you think you are. Since the last time I posted so many things have changed... but I'm excited to be back.

Change Addicts will be taking on an additional flavor to our mix. New authors will be joining us as well as some new topics. This is going to become a full fledge coaching blog for leaders from around the world. Here you will get practical training in how to be better facilitators, better communicators, and better leaders. It's certainly not that I have all the answers, but in this community there will be voices to help you refine not only your theory but your strategy as you take on every aspect of your individual journey.

You will see lesson plans for coaching children and teenagers, you will hear techniques on how to deal with specific situations and of course you'll have your usual inciting blogs by yours truly! I'm excited... I can't wait to see what kind of community we create this time. I'll introduce you to our new authors as you meet them and I look forward to meeting you as well!

So post your heart out, share your true feelings, and don't hold anything back... let's take a leap and unveil the true revolution that God has called us to!

Strategies for dealing with Noise

In ever communication environment there is noise. Think of noise as any thing that is inbetween you and the receiver of your communication that distracts, garbles, or silences your message. For example if you are reading this post in a room with a tv on or maybe itunes playing in the background, then they are creating noise to the message that I am sending you. Now not all noise is bad and some can even be used effectively as a positive incentive. It creates an environment conducive to you receiving. But alot of times noise is distracting and steals impact from the very message that we think we are so eloquently communicating.

In a conference I spoke at this last week I was able to layout some strategies for dealing with noise. I just wanted to pass on a few of these while they are on my mind.

#1. Find Niche markets.
- If you can find silent markets then suddenly it's a whole lot easier to communicate your message. We are exposed to an estimated 10,000 brand messages a day. The more you can isolate a person receiving your message then the more powerful the message. Or at least the more likely it is that the message will not be garbled and miscommunicated to the receiver.

#2. Use the surrounding noise to amplify your message.
- All messages are communicated through a medium. If you can find the "frequency" of your medium then you can actually amplify your message by properly shaping the noise around it. These messages are often the most effective ones because you literally are emersing the person in the full experience of the message. And immersion deals with other marketing obstacles (we'll be talking about these in the coming weeks).

#3. Consistent Messaging
- Try to send the same message repeatedly but through different mediums and different ways. For example, if I have you to think of a dog, I imagine that each one of you will picture a very different looking dog. Some may picture a husky, others a little small lap dog, and still others an enormous great dane. By communicating the message of a dog to you in different mediums with increased descriptions of the message then it becomes clearer and clearer each time. And with each message that I send the more consistent I can be the more likely I am to get my message clearly through the noise.

#4. Clear Identity
- Finally, it is much easier to communicate who you are than it is something that you aren't. The clearer you understand your personal "identity" the easier it is to market that identity. I truly believe that God has made each one of us totally and significaltly unique. And somewhere or somehow I am so unique that no one else can compete with me in that area. However, it is challenging to find that blend if you don't know you are. Think of starbucks... they aren't trying to beat foldgers coffee, because their identity is not wrapped up in home coffee... they are selling you an experience and a social status and that is WHO they are. In the same way, you have some way that you can create a unique niche based on your unique identity. Start to discover your identity now and you will find that marketing is easy when you know WHO and WHY you are.

These are just a few ways to overcome noise. I"m sure there are tons of other options, but these are some ways that I know work.

For more info send your comments in and keep on changing!

I'm BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN!

Navigating change. OK it isn't so much navigating as it is sticking my head between my legs and hanging on for dear life.

Boy my life has been jumping here lately. First I lose a dear friendship, only to be followed by a years worth of work bounced into about one month, as well as my personal business taking off. It has been a wild few weeks... so needless to point out the blog has had a short sabbatical... BUT I'M BAAAACKKKK!!!

Radicals ROCK! I'm tired of tired people. I want you to think of 5 things right now that you have complained about in the past 24 hours. No... don't read anymore until you have thought of them.

I said stop reading and think of what you opened your mouth and whined about.

Now, one question. What in the heck did you do about them? I am tired of people whining about being "too tired" whining about not "working too much" whining about STUPID STUFF. If you don't like where you are then there is only one person who can change that. YOU!

If you are depressed, weak, and tired in this day and age it is because you haven't been able to connect what you are doing with purpose and only you can do that. Hopefully, you have a great leader who can help, but even if you work for the crappiest leader in the world it's not their fault. Only you can change where you are!

So get up and get your butt in gear. NEVER do I feel more alive than when I am right in the middle of a Pile of work that seems to be drowning me. It's where I thrive... and really if you were in your proper "place" you would too.

We sometimes forget that we are designed to work and that our true gifts don't show up when we are on "vacation" but rather when we are in the heat of the work and the battle.

So change your attitude. It's a choice. Get your butt in gear and do something different. STOP JUST COMPLAINING AND BECOME A WORLD CHANGER.


I warned you... I'm back. And things are different now. I'm tired of seeing my "caution" lead to people doing stupid stuff because I wouldn't tell them what I really think. So this is a NEW DAY. I hope you are ready for it... cause if you are addicted to change... then you are about to get one HUGE dose of it!

Here's to the ones...

The following is from an old apple/mac commercial. I don't think I ever heard it (at least not in a marking way) when it was originally produced. But something about the season that I am in right now in my life. The season that those around me are in. It just clicked. I'm sitting here and as I post it I'm on the verge of tears and I can't even tell you why.

Maybe it's inspiration, but it feels like something deeper. Like somehow I'm on the verge of something that is bigger than anything I've ever been connected to in my short existence. Like something so overwhelming is on the edge of breaking through in me and those around me that I will be swallowed up by it. I'll shut up now and let you read it. I want to know what it does to you... if that means nothing then at least tell me nothing.

Here's to the crazy ones.

The misfits.

The rebels.

The troublemakers.

The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently.

They're not fond of rules

And they have no respect for the status quo.

You can praise them, quote them, disagree with them

disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing that you can't do is ignore them.

Because they change things.

They invent. They imagine. They heal.

They explore. They create. They inspire.

They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?

Or sit in silence and hear a song that's never been written?

Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

We make tools for these kinds of people.

While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.

Because the people who are crazy enough to think that they can

change the world, are the ones who do.

(The one-minute commercial featured black and white video footage of significant historical people of the past, including (in order) Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King, Jr., Richard Branson, John Lennon, R. Buckminster Fuller, Thomas Edison, Muhammad Ali, Ted Turner, Maria Callas, Mahatma Gandhi, Amelia Earhart, Alfred Hitchcock, Martha Graham, Jim Henson (with Kermit the Frog), Frank Lloyd Wright and Picasso. The commercial ends with a young girl opening her closed eyes, as if to see the possibilities before her.)

To watch the full commercial check it out on youtube here.

Questions

I am continually reminded of my own ignorance. My own inability to gauge people. I find that I can read people well, but I often have difficulty realizing just how they will respond when they are in that place. Over and over again I read a persons place correctly, what they are thinking and feeling, yet totally am blown away by their reactions from that place.

So this leads me to some questions. How do you have empathy?

Obviously empathy is not simply being able to read where a person is at and understand what they are going through. There must be another step that causes us to try to "put ourselves in their shoes" and understand what decisions they are going to make and the severity of those decisions.

My problem is I don't know how to do that. Because the emotion is not real to me, because I am not experiencing the same thing (no matter how hard I try) I simply cannot truly identify with the person enough to understand what decisions they will make.

Maybe one of you has some help for me. I certainly need it. Or maybe I don't? Who knows?

Maybe if I was able to be in their shoes it still wouldn't change anything... At any rate I want to know what you think.

Insecurity vs In Security

Ever feel insecure? Ever seen it lead to major problems? I know I have and I know I've caused major problems because of my own insecurity. Somewhere we have to make a mental adjustment that takes us from "insecurity" to being "in security".

Let's start by looking at the word security. In Latin it comes from the words "se" for "without" and cura for "care". So it actually roots back to a word meaning without care.

The challenge that we face is knowing what to be secure in and what not to be secure in. There are some places that I truly believe a little bit of insecurity is warranted. As a matter of fact, I am finding that there are many things in my life that I have always thought were "bad" or "good" because that is the way that I was taught, that I am now finding have neither a negative or positive connotation.

The problem is that man has created the standard that determines "bad" or "good" so that anything we experience can only be evaluated by our own standards and what we know.

For example. Here in America we consider the word "damn" to be a cuss word. However, when I was 13 I went on a mission trip to Australia. Needless to say I was rather shocked to hear a political statesman speaking to a group of First graders use the word damn repeatedly. In their culture, the word has no differnt meaning that you and I saying "shoot" or any other word.

Suddenly, my very standard of measurement has been assaulted and the "rules system" that I live by has to be altered.

So here is the issue, insecurity comes when we derive our success and our existence by our ability to interpret the rules in front of us and feel that we are secure. It is following the law for fear of its consequences instead of following it in the faith of its outcomes.

See real security comes when you are comfortable with the rule maker. (Maybe you are the rule maker). As long as you are trying to conform to everyones rule then you will never be secure. Because as we have said before... you can fool some people all the time ... and all the people some of the timel.... but you just can't please or fool everyone all of the time!

I think the greatest challenge is looking at what it is that is assaulting our "rules system". Is it the way someone reveals who they really are... does that bother you? Is it the fact that they did something that broke your system of protocal. Maybe your system is messed up!

What was the last time someone broke your rules system and made you freakin uncomfortable? When was it that you got "assaulted" only to find out in retrospect that what they did wasn't near as bad as you saw it? Maybe you are even going through it right now... who has completely ticked you off lately... do you need to evaluate if its just them confronting a rules system in your life that is based merely on perception and tradition?

Just a thought! I want to know about you! I'll be looking forward to the comments.

Fear...

I thought I knew what fear was. I think my mistake was that I made it the same thing as intimidation. I was wrong.

I thought I was past simply being afraid... like a little kid that is afraid of the dark or someone who has a deathly fear of clowns. I was wrong.

When everything you have existed for and known is suddenly turned into a burning blaze of question marks... now I have a little more taste of fear.

It has been years since I dreaded the next moment ... the next breath... the next answer. Guess the wait didn't cure it.

I can't reveal why I'm in this fear (it's none of your business), but I will tell you this. It is humbling. It will take every beam of support that isn't truly founded and crush it upon the shores of life. It stirs up every dead thing from the ocean's floor and sends it crashing and mixing into what I thought was a crystal clear pool of life.

It is so odd. I used to would have said that fear was related to the unknown... but I'm finding it is much more based in the known. My fears manifest based on what I know (or at least what I think I know).

I think fear is good and bad and neither one all at the same time. There is a part of me that says if my fears go unconfirmed and that mercy and grace are manifested that it will be the most glorious thing I've ever seen. Another part of me wrenches in pain at the thoughts that my fears might be correct. And at the same time I realize that it isn't the outcomes that make the fear but the anticipation.

Maybe that's why they say the fear of the Lord is clean and as a sweet smelling savor. The expectation of His greatness will keep us in fear and trembling. The knowing how great He is and how frail and stupid I am.

I'm not condoning living a life in fear of satan... I'm saying that if you never become afraid you don't realize how precious the things that you actually have are. The question resides in what you let bring "fear" to your life.

At this very moment as I write this a fear that I haven't experienced... probably in my entire life... overwhelmes me, and at the same time I have the greatest respect and value for what I have, that I have had in my entire life.

Fragile... Fragile.... Fragile.... Everything is sooooo fragile and so priceless.



It takes you fr

Check this out!!!

Hey gang. I had a friend from work and a fellow blogger to send me the following link yesterday. After checking it out it has to be one of the best compilations on marketing that is out there! Check it out (especially the top ten!).

http://www.toddand.com/power150/


If you have questions about how to get it set to burn feeds to you your feedreaders just send me comments I'll be glad to help!

100th post!

Wow. We are already to our 100'th post!

In honor of the big Centennial, I want everyone to tell me what your favorite post you have read! If it's a comment that is fine too. Hopefully this post will get more comments than #99. I would love for everyone to at least give me something. Let me know what spurred you, what inspired you, what changed you, and what shook you... I want to know what made you mad, what made you sad, what made you glad!

Share with us some of the change you have experienced... hopefully some of it due to this blog since you started reading! Not that we are anything special here at Change Addicts, but we do care about those real addicts out there and knowing what has changed in your life!

Once again, thanks for your continued support and I look forward to much more to come of this in the months and years to come!