The Pursuit of Happyness

Last night Katie and I went to go see the new Will Smith (and Jaden Christopher Syre Smith) movie, "The Pursuit of Happyness" and it was absolutely unbelievable! It has definitely made my list of top 5 movies of the year! It is an impossibly inspiring story of a dad (Will Smith) who goes to unbelievably great lengths to make a life for his son. Jaden (who's character, in real life and the movie of being Will's son added depth and obvious believability to the role) is the encapsulation of "happyness." This movie moved me so deeply that I was in tears at the end. While parts were somewhat predictable, it grabbed a hold of my gut and wouldn't let go. It gave me such a strong sense of perspective of how blessed I am, not only with my beautiful loving wife, and my family, but even the material possessions that I take for granted. This movie made me rethink my priorities.

I think that this movie paints the best picture of the false promises of the world, "Get rich quick" schemes and the ideal that having it all will make you happy, and that there are times when "happyness" must be gained through the struggle and the toil it takes to make something out of whatever situation it is that you find yourself in. In our youth minsitry we are taking a break for the holidays, as Katie and I go back to our families in California (we are so stoked!) but after we get back we are jumping into a new series called "Baggage Check." The main thrust in this series is that we all have junk in our lives and we need to be honest about it with each other so that God can heal us. But an equally important idea that I hope will be communicated in that series will be that sometimes we want the reward without the work, and yet the scriptures are clear that God uses the diffucult times in our lives to make us stronger. As Christians, many of us, myself included sometimes, want to grow, but dont want to go throught the painful circumstances that we know are required for us to do so. This is the premise of this film. This idea is what makes it so extraordinary. The story of overcoming all obsticles in the pursuit of what will make us all most happy: not money, position or power, that not really what will satisfy. In "The Pursuit of Happyness" what satisfies, what is worth struggling and work and sacrificing for are the ingredients of true "Happyness":
Love... Hope... Purpose... Dreams...

You Won't Believe This...

I saw this on my buddy Josh Treece's blog. I guess it just goes to show that a little creativity can go a long way to overcome obstacles. Its its just really freaking awesome! Rock On!!

Tree Lighting and Ice Skating!

Well even though its only 50 degrees in Iowa, it is still December, and so that means CHRISTMAS!!! We got our first tree and Katie and I helped decorate it and light it up! (Mostly Katie did, thats why it looks so good, but I was a good encourager.) Then on Tuesday we went ice skating at the new outdoor ice rink, right on the river in downtown Des Moines. It was fantastic. So much fun being outdoors with scarves on and skating on ice, outside! That was a first for both of us. Here are some pictures so you can feel like you were there too...

GO BOLTS!

I dont know if you saw it, but LT is now the new record holder for the most touchdowns in a single season! I also would like to point out that as soon as we leave Southern California, the Chargers win the DIVISION! As cool as it is, I just wish we could be there. Oh well, it still was a great game on Sunday, and we are praying for a SuperBowl appearance/victory. So if you love Jesus, you should want the Chargers to win too...

My Mouth is Watering...

I just saw this on YouTube... I am seriously so excited for the new season of 24! I was telling my friend Mike Motia about the tragedy that I hope I do not have to experience. Our cable television provider is called Mediacom, and they apparently are having a dispute with FOX, and are planning on canceling FOX programming soon. So far will still have Fox, but if it gets canceled before January, I will be very pissed... Anyway, thought this would be fun for you to see as well. (Caution its very long, so don't ruin it for yourself Motia... I know how you are!)

It Seems Like even Yahoo is Fallible...

Tony Morgan wrote a great review on the leadership struggles that the New York Times discovered that Yahoo has dealt with in the past year. Thought it might be interesting. I know I want to figure out how to master these areas with my team. Interesting reading:

Leadership Lessons from Yahoo

The New York Times reported today on an organizational restructuring at Yahoo. This follows on the heels of lots of criticism about the company's current operations including an internal memo from Brad Garlinghouse, a Yahoo senior vice president, that was published by the Wall Street Journal a couple of weeks ago. (Thank Sam at Decker Marketing for the lead.) The memo is enlightening because it gives us a rare glimpse into one of the fastest growing companies. Garlinghouse revealed some startling insights from which every leader in a fast growing organization should learn.

Here are some of the current challenges at Yahoo that Garlinghouse identified:

• Lack of Focus -- "We lack a focused, cohesive vision for our company. We want to do everything and be everything -- to everyone. We've known this for years, talk about it incessantly, but do nothing to fundamentally address it...I've heard our strategy described as spreading peanut butter across the myriad opportunities that continue to evolve in the online world. The result: a thin layer of investment spread across everything we do and thus we focus on nothing in particular."
• Misalignment with Vision -- "We are separated into silos that far too frequently don't talk to each other. And when we do talk, it isn't to collaborate on a clearly focused strategy, but rather to argue and fight about ownership, strategies and tactics."
• Relying on Outside Hires -- "Our inclination and proclivity to repeatedly hire leaders from outside the company results in disparate visions of what winning looks like."
• No Defined Ownership -- "There are so many people in charge (or believe that they are in charge) that it's not clear if anyone is in charge. This forces decisions to be pushed up -- rather than down."
• Indecisiveness -- "Without a clear and focused vision, and without complete clarity of ownership, we lack a macro perspective to guide our decisions and visibility into who should make those decisions. We are repeatedly stymied by challenging and hairy decisions. We are held hostage by our analysis paralysis."
• Poor Accountability for Performance -- "Far too many employees are 'phoning' it in, lacking the passion and commitment to be a part of the solution. We sit idly by while -- at all levels -- employees are enabled to 'hang around'... Weak performers that have been around for years are rewarded. And many of our top performers aren't adequately recognized for their efforts."

Here's what Garlinghouse suggested has happened because of these challenges: "As a result, the employees that we really need to stay (leaders, risk-takers, innovators, passionate) become discouraged and leave. Unfortunately many who opt to stay are not the ones who will lead us through the dramatic change that is needed."

What's astonishing when you read this is that Yahoo is one of the leading Internet companies in the world. The company is only 12 years old. If these types of challenges can rock a company like Yahoo, it makes me wonder how many other organizations on a fast-growth track are facing similar issues. And, can some of these lessons benefit our ministry organizations?

I believe they can. In fact, I'm pretty sure Tim and I have written at least one Simply Strategic chapter on each of the challenges listed above. I wonder if anyone can name at least one book title and chapter number for each of the six challenges Yahoo is facing. If so, you may have an employment opportunity at Yahoo.

Baptism Fun...

Last night we had the privilege of baptizing 10 students at our First Wednesday Service. It was a Student Ministry night, with the student ministry band leading worship (I got to bang on the drums) and will a majority of the baptisms being students. I think it was a good thing for the church to see that Student Ministries is changing lives, and not just playing XBOX. Lol. Anyways I was looking for baptism stuff and I found this clip. Thought it would be good for a laugh. Thank goodness ours didn't go like this....


Give it up for cannonballs into baptismals...

Book Challange...

I just read this on Mark O's blog...

The rules are:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next four sentences on your blog, along with these instructions.
5. Don’t you dare dig for that “cool” or “intellectual” book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest!

So here is goes:

The book is: "The Tipping Point" by Malcom Gladwell
"But Sesame Street just somehow never took that idea (his Stickiness Factor...check it out) and ran with it. They knew that kids did this some of the time, but they never tried to build a show around that idea. Nickelodeon did some pilot shows before Blue's Clues where kids would be explicitly asked to participate, and lo and behold, there was a lot of evidence that they would. So, putting these ideas together, that kids are interested in being intellectually active while they watch TV, and given the opportunity they'll be behaviorally active, that created the philosophy for Blue's Clues."

I don't know if that makes any sense, but "The Tipping Point" is a great book. I higly recommend it!

Kurt