This weekend marked a big milestone in the history for Northview Church.  Who's Northview Church you ask?  Well, that's the new name of Northview Christian Life in Carmel, Indiana.  Not only did the name change, Northview had its first services in our new auditorium.  This has been a multi-year project that has been fun to watch as it unfolded.   Being in the new auditorium was simply amazing this weekend.  The worship was incredible and the buzz in air with excitement was felt by everyone.

Northview doubled it's seating capacity from 1000 seats to 2000 seats with the new auditorium.  With 2000 seats, I have to admit it still felt extremely intimate with the way it was designed.   The stage is off the charts cool and the seats sort of wrap around it in a semi-circle. 

So why does a church need to spend money on a new auditorium?  It's been a big question many have asked.   I like the way our Lead Pastor Steve Poe put it (paraphased):

"The new auditorium is just a tool.  It's a way to reach more of our friends and neighbors around Hamilton County.  With the old auditorium full and no empty seats, it's hard to get passionate to invite friends to church.  Actually, this new auditorium is just a toolbox.  We, the people, are the tools.  We're the ones to do the work and reach out and invite our friends and neighbors to come and visit."

The Bottom Line: 

At Northview, it's never been about a building.  It's always been about people.  Reaching people and loving people and helping them connect with God.  There are some awesome things happening at Northview and I'm excited to be a part of it.  In Indy and want to visit?  Drop me a line.

PS: 

I took some photos from my iPhone, but they simply were quite pitiful, so I couldn't post them.  I stole these pics off of my friend Ryon's facebook page.  I knew he'd have some good ones!  He's an awesome photographer.  You can catch up with Ryon over on his blog at: http://hawaiianhoosier.blogspot.com 

I was at an arcade with my son Camden recently and he wanted to play Whack-A-Mole.  He pumped in the token and started whacking.  At first, he was in the rhythm.  He was smacking those moles with pretty good precision.  For a split second, he got off balance. From that point on his rhythm was off he wasn't hitting the moles as he did in the beginning.

My point?  The thing I realized while observing this is that many times in life we can be in rhythm and doing quite well.  Then something happens to throw us off.  If we try to keep going without resetting our mind or actions, we will be out of balance.  Our rhythm will be off.

The next time you start to feel off-balance, stop, reset and then proceed. 

What do you think?  Post a comment or share a story below.

I had a great think day yesterday.  It was really good to get out of my normal routine and spend some time planning and thinking.  Like I said yesterday, my goal is to do this once a month.  My main focus is to spend some time thinking about bigger picture ideas and directions for my life and business.

Here are 7.5 ideas to help jumpstart your own Pray Day, Think Day, Dream Day:

1. Carry a notepad with you where ever you go.  As you move about the day, ideas will come to you and you'll need a place to jot them down.

2. Change environments.  Make sure you don't spend all of your time at one place. 

3. Don't be isolated all day.  Go out for lunch and talk to people.   I chose to eat alone (which I really enjoy), but I did chat with my server and host at the restaurant.  Just getting some social interaction helps clear your mind from the focus of the morning.

4. Ideas come at random times.  Break up your idea sessions by thinking about lots of different topics.  When I'm thinking about one topic an idea/concept for a completely separate topic becomes clear in my mind.   Write it down then.

5. Don't go entirely web-based.  Use paper and a pen.  Nothing beats a good old notepad and pen for brainstorming.

6. Watch a video on TED.com.   There are a lot of creative speakers and awesome ideas to be found on TED.com.   The point is to free your mind to dream about other ideas and concepts which will lead to focus on the topics you're pondering.    Here's a link to a video I watched yesterday by Seth Godin on Tribes:  http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/seth_godin_on_the_tribes_we_lead.html

7. Read a non-industry or unrelated book.  I was doing some business planning most of the day yesterday, so I chose to spend some time periods reading my Bible.  It allowed my mind to rest on the business ideas and gave me fresh perspectives when I returned.

7.5 Be prepared for a bit a catch-up the following day.  You might feel behind, but the time you take to get away is so much more valuable than the time it will take to play a bit of catch-up.

So, there you have it.  Now GO.  Schedule a day in your calendar to escape and do your own think day.  Let me know how it turns out for you!

[image by chris gin]

Today's a good day for me. I'm forcing myself to take a day away from my office to think and pray. I say "forcing" because the daily grind of projects, tasks and software development can literally suck my time and cause me to forget about the important things. Sure, managing projects and tasks is extemely important. My business is a service business and I love our clients. But if I let myself get bogged down in the "call of the urgent", I'll never give myself the time to think and plan and work on strategy.

I know I'll be more productive in the day-to-day details when I take the time to get away and do big-picture thinking. Some call it a "dream day". Some call it "strategic planning". Some call it a "think day". A friend of mine called it a "pray day". It's all of this for me.

One of my goals for 2010 is to take one day a month purely to get out of my daily routine and retreat to think and pray.

[image by eric brian ouano]

Do you get weighed down at times with stress and struggles?  I do.  Many times I look at the things I need to do or problems I'm in the middle of and I begin to get overwhelmed.  I was recently reading in Isaiah and the answer was simple: 

Isaiah 45:22 -- "Look to Me and be saved" 

Too simplistic?  I don't think so.  I can look back on my life and see times of when I was stressed out and I simply took the time to look up and seek God and my stress lessened.   Every time.  Does the issue/reason causing the stress go away?  Of course not.  However, my viewpoint has been changed and I'm able to think clearer on what my next actions should be.

Get yourself up and look to God.  He is waiting for you.   Put your hope in Him and get the peace that He is able to give.  That's a great way to live an intentional life.

[image by n0nick]

Can you relate to this idea?  Share a comment on how you seek God in the midst of your stresses and how it helps.

I love to journal. I need to be more consistent doing it. My journaling started about 12 years ago. I've been on and off over time. There have been periods where I was very active in my journaling and then there are times when it's been very quiet with long periods of nothing written.

My journal is a stream of my life. I've been thinking about my life stream and I see it consisting of 4 things:

1. This Blog
2. My Twitter Stream
3. My Facebook page
4. My offline paper journal

The one I like the best? My offline paper journal.  I don't think anything can replace a good old notebook and pen.  I seem to be able to think so much clearer when I'm sitting on a couch or oversized comfy chair with a pen in hand.

One issue I struggle with (because I'm an organization freak about notes) is constantly carrying around my "work" notepad/binder and my personal journal notepad.   The thing I'm thinking about doing now is combining them into one.  After all, my business/work, my personal life, my spiritual life is so intertwined that I'm starting to think I should carry just one journal and it will contain the entire stream of my life.  When it fills, I get a new one.

The type of journal I decided upon is this:

This is the most basic of composition notebooks on the market.  It fits perfectly into a thin leather binder I use to carry business cards, marketing materials people hand me at meetings, etc.

Here's my plan: I have a couple different colored highlighters.  Any personal thoughts I have I'll run down the margins with a blue highlighter.  Any work notes/thoughts/etc I'll run down the margins with a green highlighter.  It's about that simple.  

Currently, I carry around a thick personal leather bound journal that I love, but it's heavy and bulky.  I think this streamlined approach will work and it will be interesting to be able to see the thoughts I'm having about work strategy and personal strategy and how they overlap, etc.  I'll keep you posted.

What are your favorite ways to capture your life stream?  Do you journal? If you're on Twitter, post your twitter link in the comments, I'd love to follow you and connect. If you blog, post a link to your blog.

So, I blew it last night.  Messed up, screwed the pooch, whatever you want to call it.  I blew it in the patience department in getting my boys to bed.   To make myself feel a little better, can anyone relate to difficult bed times with young kids?  It can be the hardest part of the day for me!   Don't get me wrong, I love putting my boys to bed, reading stories, snuggling with them, etc.  But, when the requests for snacks start and trips to the bathroom and the constant up and down...I start to lose it.  Most nights are fine and they go right to sleep, but there are some nights like last night where I just get pushed to the limit.

Holli was out on a girl's night with some friends.   I think the boys can sense it when it's just me putting them to bed.  I think they start hearing voices telling them "Dad's alone...you can take him...you can break him down..."

Each day I rise and think "today just let me be faithful".  Faithful to God, to my wife, to my kids, to my friends, to my clients, to my partner and employees.  At the end of the day if I can look back and say I didn't blow it, that's a great day.  I definitely failed at keeping my patience last night.

There's one truth that I think God revealed to me last night:

It's in the little things, day by day, where character is built.

We must prove that we can be faithful in the little things before God will ever trust us with bigger things.

Sorry Camden and Caleb.  Bring it on next time Mommy is out!

[image by ianders]

Can you relate to my night last night?  Share a story or post a comment about how you handle the little things in life that test you.

I enjoy rap music.  There's something about it that connects with me.  I came across this YouTube video by Lecrae doing a rap for Haiti relief.

Watch it on YouTube here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rerU_NYwD8

Buy the single on iTunes here: http://bit.ly/a1sxJg

Buy the video on iTunes here: http://bit.ly/bjymoY

All money goes to Haiti relief.

I'm loving this song right now.  The message is awesome.   There are some great shots from Cambodia in this video.

Aren't we supposed to meet the needs of the needy?  I think yes.

Watch it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ajIFfSaEzE 

Camden, my 6 year old, lost a tooth the other day.  As he prepared his tooth for the coming of the tooth fairy that night, he got a sparkle in his eye.  What could he be thinking?  He proceeded to ask me how much money I thought the tooth fairy would bring.  I don't know I said, maybe a buck?   He follows up with "Can I ask for more?"

Haggling with the tooth fairy....hmmm, I like it.

Sure, I tell him, you can always ask for more.  You may not get it, but why not try.

So, Camden is in Kindergarten.  He's learning to read and write.  One thing he's learning is phonetical spelling.  Basically, he's learning to write words based on how they sound phonetically.  Camden decided to write the tooth fairy a note.  Here it is in his own writing and spelling:

"der tooth fare. i wud lik 200. if you dont have 200 just giv me 100."

Wow, $200 bucks.  But, he'll go as low as $100.  That's a far cry from the $1 I told him to expect.   Good for you Camden, reach high!  So, what's a parent to do?  In one regard, I want to promote his thinking and desire to not settle for less.  But, in another regard, I'm cheap and $100-$200 is a ridiculous amount for a tooth!

Camden ended up getting $5 and a note back from the tooth fairy explaining that the tooth fairy couldn't pay $200, but continue to not settle in life!  You can turn any time into a good teaching time.

How about you?  Have your kids ever asked for something crazy from the tooth fairy?