Daryl Strickland

I took this picture at a local bookstore today and I am not sure what commentary it deserves but I thought that the placement of books on this sales table was very strategic. How cool would it be if someone who is attracted to the bunny noticed the tag line of the book beside it and picked it up?

Don’t know much about this group but I am digging their album (I know that I am probably late to the party on these guys, but I’m here). There is a little bit of everything on the album.

I really like this one:

I am sooooooo embarrassed to say that I just read this book but I am so glad that I read it. If you were brought up in the church, have strong opinions of what church should look like, think Christians are all Republicans or you are breathing, then this is a must read.

This book so challenges me in areas that I need to be challenged, especially in rituals of the church and unconditional loved that is not so unconditional. Whether you agree with everything in the book or not, you will have to wrestle some ideas to the ground and you will have a stronger foundation when you are done with it.

I can’t do this book justice on a review but here is the one thing for me. People have been turned off by churches, crusades, rules, prejudice, conditional love (you have to look, act, fit a certain mold to be accepted) and religious systems, these have nothing to do with the message of Jesus. We have to be sensitive to what has turned people off, even to the point of apologizing for the misrepresentation of Jesus and let people know the real deal and how much God loves them.

I can’t believe that I went to the midnight showing of Spiderman 3 last night. I feel like I have been hit by a tank and I ate a dirty shoe.

I thought the movie was alright. It was somewhat entertaining and the plot was like any other action flick (good vs. evil). Always good to hangout with friends.

I was totally blown away at how many peeps showed up at midnight to watch this deal (I think our local theater sold out four theaters online and then opened more up).

It is great living in Wilmington, there is always something going on. Bet you didn’t know it but Wilmington is a big movie hub (I have heard third behind LA and New York but I can’t confirm this).

Anyway, with all these movies going on, I have gotten a chance to have a few cameos. I appear here and here in a new movie called “Short Bus”.

I would like to thank my Producer Jeff for getting me this gig. I can’t wait for my next gig.

Just listened to an audio book on the way back from South Carolina called the Generosity Factor by Ken Blanchard and Truett Cathy and it was off the hook. I love redeeming drive time when I drive alone so I usually listen to books or leadership talks. I had this trip all planned out, it was two John Maxwell books (Winning Attitude and 360 Leader). I have been looking forward to these books for a while. Long story short, ipod dead, computer dead so I was forced to more primitive means of listening. I had some cd’s (yes they still make those) in my truck and the Generosity Factor was the winner (on a side note, I put the cd in when I pulled out of the driveway in SC. I changed to disc 2 in Lumberton and when I pulled into my driveway the book ended. Weird).

I love Ken Blanchard books, they are usually parables and they keep my attention. This one was told in story form and was good. Here were some of the highlights for me.

1. The Generosity Factor is a formula of some sorts and here is the formula:
   1. He owns it all (God)
   2. Everyday is a new opportunity - look for new ways to impact others lives through your generosity
   3. Action is required - it is one thing to think about something but it another thing to actually do it
   4. Remember your blessings - not just the material ones, but health, family, life lessons
   5. Thank Him (God) - This is a reminder that we are not at the center of our universe and we are not all that self sufficient.
2. This book had a fresh perspective on Success vs. Significance and on using your time, talent and treasures generously.

Just read a book called The Starfish And The Spider. This was a business book that contrasted companies that have centralized leadership (spiders) and decentralized leadership (starfish). Spiders have eight legs coming out of a central body and a tiny head and if you chop the head off of the spider it dies. Starfish on the other hand do not have heads and all major organs are replicated throughout it’s arms.

The book talks about the benifits of being an organization that is decentralize (ie. has a very flat structure and everyone has ownership) as well as the weaknesses and how to do a combo of the two.

Personally I probably lean more toward the centralized structure but this book definitely made me think of the benefits of decentralizing different aspects of the church. Here are a few of the things I highlighted:

1. When no one is in charge, you’d think there would be disorder, even chaos. But in many arena’s, a lack of traditional leadership is giving rise to powerful groups that are turning the industry and society upside down.
2. (History Lesson) - The Spanish easily defeated the Aztec’s and the Incas (which had a centralize leadership structure) after they killed their leaders, but when they faced the Apaches, they were defeated (Apaches had a decentralize structure and were harder to defeat).
3. An open system (decentralized) doesn’t have centralized intelligence; the intelligence is spread throughout the system
4. Open systems can easily mutate.
5. Decentralized organizations can grow quickly and take over an industry overnight.
6. As industries become decentralized, overall revenues decrease.
7. Some examples of decentralize organizations are:
   • Skype, Craigslist, Wikipedia (these are interesting to read about)
8. Quote - “put people into an open system and they’ll automatically want to contribute”.
9. When you give people freedom, you get chaos, but you also get incredible creativity. Because everyone tries to contribute, you get a variety of expressions.
10. Instead of rules there are norms. Members of these groups enforce the norms with one another.
11. Another characteristic is that these groups have what are called catalyst. Catalyst gets things going then cedes control to the members. In letting go of the leadership role the catalyst transfers ownership and responsibility to the group.
12. Once people gain a right to property, they quickly seek out a centralized system to protect their interests. The moment you introduce property rights into the equation, everything changes: the starfish quickly becomes a spider.
13. Starfish systems are wonderful incubators for creative, destructive, innovative or crazy ideas.
14. Managing a decentralized network requires someone who is a cheerleader, architect and awestruck observer.

Before I post anything else, I feel like I need to confess something. I don’t enjoy reading, not even a little bit (somebody pick Jeff up off the floor). I get easily distracted, I am thinking about twenty things that I need to be doing, I have to reread half of what I have already read to learn anything. BUT (big but), I absolutely am absorbed with learning. I love to learn about new things, new inventions, new strategies of how to do things, leadership principles, all that.

This may sound lazy but I do dig audio books, I have read way more books this way than the conventional way and probably my favorite method of learning is the see and do. The way God wired me is that if I see it I can do it, or make it, or tell someone how to.

Because I dislike reading but I love to learn I had to find a solution to my delima and here they are:

1. I force myself to read important stuff (Bible, Leadership Books, etc.)
2. I get audio books when they are available (this section is growing in itunes)
3. I subscibe to this thing called Executive Book Summaries. They read the best books and summarize them in 8 pages and they also do an audio version of the summary (utopia)
4. I read blogs of people who are pace setters

So if you see me posting on a bunch of books in a short period of time, chances are that I either listened to the audio or did the summary thing or they were really, really good.

I have to admit that when I first heard about this movie I was a little skeptical. I am skeptical about anything that comes out of the church. It is sad but true that most of our (the church) stuff just doesn’t match the quality of the secular community and most of our stuff is just down right cheesy.

My family and the Kapusta gang all went to see this movie last week and I enjoyed the whole movie. The acting was not that good but it was good enough and story was strong. If you plan on seeing the movie, don’t read this next part.

The movie starts out centering around a coach that is not getting it done. His team is not winning, his car is piece of junk, his house is falling apart and he can’t get his wife pregnant. He comes to a point where he is so broken that he cries out to God. From this point on he puts everything in God’s hands (the team, the pregnancy, all the broken stuff and I forgot to say that the boosters are trying to have him ousted) and comes up with a new phylosopy on football and life. Basically it was do your best and leave the results up to God. He told the football team that winning was not the goal anymore but honoring God was.

I will not spoil the whole movie for you but things start to change in a big way.

The movie is a good film to show to all those who love football and have no take on God (especially high school kids). I enjoyed it personally because it reinforced somethings that God is teaching me right now. I think even Christians (especially Christians) get off track and our goals get skewed and we have to refocus often. It is so easy to look at what the world calls success (in our families, our jobs, our finances, our everything) and shoot for those things, when actually God’s definition of success is extremely different.

If you like feel good stories, go for it

Just read this cool business book titled QBQ (question behind the question). The just of the book is personal accountability. The book is an excellent read for anyone, especially if you think people around you don’t pull their weight or you tend to be pessimistic. The author points out that we tend to think of all the incorrect questions or IQ’s when we look at situations. Most of the time we have a victims mentality and our questions center around why someone else dropped the ball or how we don’t have what we need to do our job. Everything can be blamed on someone or something other than ourselves or our decisions.

The author encourages you to change your questions from negative questions that don’t solve problems to positive questions that solve problems. Instead of saying things like, “why are we always under-staffed”, the question would be, “How can I help make the best out of this situation”? The difference is the focus in the second question is on you, the only person you have control over and instead of being a victim you are part of a solution.

Anyway, I can’t do the book justice but it is very positive and a quick read. It gives you a life-giving outlook on circumstances, which we all can use.