In March, I attended a fund raising symposium with 108 people from thirty eight ministries. The intent for me to go was to learn how to be a regional fund development coach for other staff raising their budgets. My biggest take home however, was a conviction about my own fund development. Read the rest of this entry »
Monday afternoon we arrived at my parents house for a visit with my parents and grandmother after Christmas. We were planning to travel home Wednesday afternoon to prepare to host a new year’s party at our house. Tuesday, Grandma stopped eating and drinking and when she went to bed that evening my dad and I had our final conversation with her. Wednesday she spoke her final words in the morning to my kids and she passed away Friday night. While it was a surprise how quickly it went, she was on hospice and it was expected to happen sometime. It just seemed to go quickly at the end.
Death has a way of helping us take time to reflect and give careful thought to our values. As I sat at my grandmother’s bedside I thought about Read the rest of this entry »
I think every leader experiences it at some point. It feels like there is nothing left to give. We get tired. Sometimes it seems the effort we put into something is all in vain. Where do we go? What should we do? Is it unspiritual? Most importantly, how do we recover?
I got my inspiration for this in a place I wouldn’t have expected, the book of 1 Kings. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the realizations I believe we all have at some time in our life is that we have a limited amount of time. There are only 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week. It seems as though there is never enough time to accomplish what we might want to do. This seems to become more evident as I have stepped into leadership positions where my responsibilities have grown, but the amount of time I have to get them done has not increased. I want to focus one way I have learned to multiply my time. Read the rest of this entry »
The funny thing about working with college students is that while I keep getting older, they are always the same age, 18-22. There are always students graduating and students who are just getting started. Therefore, it is important to developing the next set of leaders. I want to focus on one way to that I use to develop leaders, 5 minute mentoring.
It is sometimes said that “money is the root of all evil.” Is it? I don’t think so. A few weeks ago our gas fireplace stopped working. As my wife and I researched the cost to replace it we realized we didn’t have the money to do that which led us into a three-day discussion about our finances and our spending. In the process we realized that Sandi felt horrible every time she spent money because I keep track of the finances and I was always telling her we didn’t have a lot of money this month. I was frustrated because we haven’t been able to save any money and had been spending more than we make for several months. Fortunately we Read the rest of this entry »
Recently while staying at a friends house, I was playing with my daughter and their two daughters and I witnessed an interesting dichotomy. As I lay on the floor, tired from moving out of our house, the girls started running around me. I reached out, pretending to grab one of them which began an hour long game. As you might imagine, the game was simple, try to run past Brian without getting caught. Every time they would run past, they would scream with delight. Read the rest of this entry »
The photo that sold our house
“You’re getting three offers on your house!” our realtor said over the phone. We couldn’t believe it!
Four weeks ago we decided we would list our house and if it sold we would move to Duluth. We listed the house Thursday. On Monday we had three showings and all three made an offer. Tuesday we compared offers and accepted an offer for more than our asking price!
Our realtor in Duluth said “that’s amazing – a friend of mine in Bemidji said the market is soft!” Read the rest of this entry »
I did it! I graduated from New Area Director Training. It took me two years, but I have completed the training with friends from around the nation. The training is designed to help me transition from campus work to my new role as a supervisor.
So what did I learn? Much of what we learned related to how we can better supervise our staff. I must have learned something, because my staff think I am the best area director.
At a recent staff team meeting, my staff team decided to honor my graduation by presenting me a very special award, “Best Area Director.” They even made a mortar board hat for me (see picture).
After graduation, people often ask what’s next? Hopefully more of the same. I love my job!
Coming up: interviewing staff candidates, work with new staff at leadership camp and help staff plan out new student outreach for Fall 2010.
A few years the Bemidji State InterVarsity chapter was at the lowest point of involvement in about 20 years. We had a small leadership team and my wife and I were newly married. We decided that we would both lead two small groups and at the end of that year we had about forty students involved in the four small groups. Last year we had about 120 students with eight small groups and 37 conversions. God has been moving. Read the rest of this entry »