In my profession I get to speak to a lot of different people, people with problems, people who feel like they have it all together, people with jobs, people without jobs, people with kids, people without kids, people with money, people without money, people with strong marriages, people with broken marriages, secure leaders, insecure leaders, the list can go on and on.

The thing that has blown me away in each of these conversations is this: the more that people try to control their lives, the more out of control it becomes. They are looking for solutions but in all the wrong places. The answer is not in someones blog post or a book. It’s not at a conference or in a mentor. Don’t get me wrong all of these things can confirm the solution but they are not it.

We complicate life tremendously when we look for solutions through these avenues. Do you want to know if you should take that job or marry that person? Are you considering bankruptcy or divorce? Are you wondering if you should replace that team leader? Well the truth is this, LIFE IS SIMPLE and decision making is too, ASK THE HOLY SPIRIT!!! It doesn’t matter what the book, blog, conference, sermon or your friend says if it is not what God is wanting you to do. The truth is, God’s decision and direction is the only one that matters. Does God usually confirm these decisions and directions through books, blogs, conferences and friends? I believe He does, if you’re running with a crowd that is chasing after Him, but at the end of the day, it’s God’s Spirit that you need to be listening to. It’s the X Factor.

This thought is not original with me. I first heard it from my good friend Larry Brey but it’s not even original with Larry, it comes from God’s Word.

The Perception Principle is this: How you perceive someone is how you receive them.

This principle is huge. Take for instance Jesus in own hometown in Mark Chapter 6. The Son of God comes home and instead of them receiving him as who he was they received him as a common man (just a carpenter) and because of their perception of him, they missed out on a receiving what he had for them.

The awesome thing about principles is that they are usually universal. I believe that the Perception Principle is HUGE in our lives. If we perceive our spouses as nags guess how we receive them? If we perceive teenagers as worrisome trouble makers guess how we receive them. If you perceive your team as lazy or incompetent guess how you receive them?

And how you receive people is how you speak to them. If you perceive negative aspects, that’s all you speak to. However if you choose to perceive people based off of their potential and based off of God’s Word, then you speak to them in that light, you encourage, you coach, you believe the best!

Choose to perceive others through God’s eyes and not your own and see what happens!! I believe in you!!

I saw a sign once that said, “We can’t spell s_cess without u”, truth is they couldn’t spell sucCess even with u.

The funny thing about success is that when the goal gets distant, we tend to redefine it. When the vision gets cold or we don’t remind the team of what the goal is then there is a battle for what we define as success.

I will use church as an example. If our team isn’t reminded of what success is then they may look at attendance or tithes and offerings or response to the message as a goal and when those things are up, then we have succeeded and when they are down we have failed. But to be completely honest with you, if you  a christian then SUCCESS is defined as Obedience. Did you do what God wanted you to this week? Did you say what He wanted you to? Did you prepare like He wanted? Did your attitude and actions bring Him honor? THEN NOTHING ELSE MATTERS.

If I am obedient, then it’s doesn’t matter how many people did or did not come, how well or not the message was received, whether or not I had to work my team alone… None of that matters if Obedience is the goal.

If you are feeling discouraged or distracted, then refocus in on the goal, be obedient to the Spirit of God and celebrate the fact that you are tracking with the creator of the universe.

The Dream Team at Lifepoint serves their tails off week in and week out and yesterday they got a blessing. We had 10 fresh, fired up volunteers that joined our setup team and 10 more that joined the tear down team.

Did it make a difference? You bet it did and the difference wasn’t an added difference, it was an exponential one.

These 10 people allowed our setup team to finish 45 minutes ahead of schedule and our tear down team to accomplish a 50 minute task in 30. Not only did they allow the team to be more efficient, their presence added life, energy and comradery to the team.

The awesome thing about these 20 people was that they were from another church. Life Community Church shut their doors yesterday and went out into the community to serve. How awesome is that? Lifepoint wasn’t the only place that their church was, but their presence was felt here.

So two very cool things happened yesterday. I saw how united the CHURCH is in our city and I saw how important it is for our teams to always continue to recruit, train and equip new team members. Teamwork makes the dream work and strong teams go farther, faster and stay in the game longer.

I have been fortunate enough in my life to be a part of some great teams, great organizations and great churches. Each of these groups had some things in common. They all had great chemistry, clear mission statements and winning attitudes. They also had people that were freakishly passionate about the mission and were sticklers for details.

I believe that those last two ingredients go hand in hand with each other. I believe that when you are passionate about the goal, the project, the person then you leave no stone unturned, no i undotted, no phone call unmade. There is just this sense of responsibility and this weight when you own the mission.

So when I see people or projects that are lacking in details, I wonder if they are passionate about what they do.

Are you late to meetings, unprepared, is your work sloppy or mediocre? Are you always looking for or making excuses? Do you forget to communicate key information? These all could be signs that you either don’t understand the mission or you are on the wrong bus. Don’t panic just either get on board and get excited or get on another bus that you can get excited about.

If you are old enough to drive a car you know what I am talking about. That spot that you can’t see in either mirror and when everything appears to be clear and you go to change lanes you hear a loud horn, two cars do this crazy swerve thing and then you wave at each other. That’s a blind-spot.

I was thinking about this in a leadership light yesterday. We all have blind-spots in our lives areas that we can’t see or understand. One of those blind-spots was made very evident to me. A huge blind-spot is created by our area of strength. Whatever it is that you are good at, you can’t understand or see why everyone isn’t good at that same thing.

For me, (and I say this as humbly as I can) it’s common sense. I am baffled when people can make a seemingly simple decision. Something that is so black and white yet they struggle to come to a logical conclusion. For my boss, it’s vision. He can’t understand why people can’t see farther down the road or why they can’t get up and share a picture that will inspire people to move. For each of us it will be different but it is there.

I have to be honest, this has been a frustration of mine for a long time and I am in the wrong. If we were all the same that would be useless. Imagine trying to put a puzzle together that all the pieces looked and were shaped just alike, it wouldn’t work. Same thing in life and leadership, a team is a group of people that fit together because they complete each other not compete with each other. We don’t need more people that have our gifting, we need to use our gifting to complete the team.

So, next time that you get frustrated with someone who doesn’t appear to have what you think they should, check and make sure that they aren’t in your blind-spot before you write them off. If they are, then you are there to complete them.

I love confirmation numbers! I feel powerful when I have one and I feel lost when I don’t. How could anybody operate with0ut them?

In ministry I have found this to be true as well, I need a confirmation number. Life is to short and linking people with Jesus is so important that I can’t afford to go down paths that God is not leading me down so there are a few confirmations that I look for.

• First is adversity or resistance. I learned this early on.. we are in a war and war is messy. If the direction you are heading in is comfortable and doesn’t meet obstacles then you may what to make sure your heading in the right direction. I went to a church for 6 years that led no one to Christ and everything was easy. Each week the services went off like the week before, no resistance, no change. Then I switched over to a church that was very active in the community and many lives were being changed and guess what… it was messy. The power would go out during the services, projectors would break, key people would get sick, the list goes on. What was the difference??? The difference was that satan could care less about the dead church reaching no one and is working his tale off to distract the one that is reach people.

The same is true in your lives. If you are on the right path, you have an enemy that is working against you, your marriage, your finances but the Bible says that He that is in me is greater than he that is in the world (that means that Jesus rocks!). So press on, we win! You should get excited when things are a little rocky because you are on the right path, that is your confirmation number.

• The next thing that I look for is that what I am doing lines up with scripture. If it doesn’t I am in big trouble. I can’t say that it feels right so it must be right, that’s stupid. There is a peace that comes with doing the right thing but it never comes at the expense of God’s word. God will never lead you to do something that doesn’t line up with his word. NEVER.

There is a few other indicators that I look at but these are the main two that print the confirmation number of my life. Once I have my confirmation number I am confident and I roll with it!

God showed up big time in my life on July 29th 2001. Philip Strickland came into this world in dramatic fasion. He didn’t want to wait until his October 14th due date. He didn’t want to be born in Raleigh like his brother and sister. It was Duke Hospital for him and it was an wild.

I remember it like it was yesterday and it was like a scene off of ER but I also remember how close I felt to God. I almost lost my wife Kelli and Philip but the God who is rich in mercy spared them both. Each day after his birth the docotors at Duke told us he had a different health issue but I felt like God said this kid is fine and each problem came and went.  No heart problems, no stomach problems, no cystic fibrosis, no 3 months in the hospital. In just 3 weeks, we carried our 2 1/2 pound miracle home and he has been like a flash of lightning since then.

I thank God for His mercy and for this kid.

Happy Birthday Philip!

I have just started running (mainly because my Wii Fit tells me that I am obese) and I have already learned a few things that I find helpful.

The first lesson that I have learned is that when I get fatigued and want to give up, I have to fix my eyes on something that I can see. Finishing the whole run is still the goal but when I can’t see the finish line I have to focus on a more short term goal. This helps me get through the battle going on in my head. If I tell myself that you can get to that next point then I have a goal that I fell like is achievable and when I get there I pick another target.

I feel like we have a lot of people at Lifepoint in that spot as well. There is a battle going on in their mind and they can’t see the finishline. The fatigue has them at a point that they just want to give up. Don’t do it! Fix your eyes on the next mile marker that God has infront of you and the run towards it with all you have. He will give you another one when you get there.

Thanks to Lee McDerment and Hart Wilkie, I got on a Chuck Norris kick today. Here are some of my favorite Chuck Norris facts:

• When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.
• Chuck Norris doesn’t read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.
• There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of creatures Chuck Norris has allowed to live.
• Outer space exists because it’s afraid to be on the same planet with Chuck Norris.
• Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.

• Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are trademarked names for his left and right legs.

• Chuck Norris is the reason why Waldo is hiding.
• Chuck Norris counted to infinity – twice.
• There is no chin behind Chuck Norris’ beard. There is only another fist.
• When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he isn’t lifting himself up, he’s pushing the Earth down.
• Chuck Norris is so fast, he can run around the world and punch himself in the back of the head.
• Chuck Norris’ hand is the only hand that can beat a Royal Flush.
• Chuck Norris can lead a horse to water AND make it drink.
• Chuck Norris doesn’t wear a watch, HE decides what time it is.
• Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door.
• Chuck Norris does not get frostbite. Chuck Norris bites frost