Dr Paul Allen

Our Twitter and Facebook habits make praying harder than ever. But before we look at the stats, let’s take a moment to appreciate the magic of conscious life, the capacity to focus on one thing, like this article and this unfolding sentence, following it along until it ends with a little dot. No doubt, as a reader, you’re fighting the chronic digital urge to skim. We  give  our attention because we have attention to give. With our attention we can  attend to  one thing and  avert from  another thing. The power to  fixate  is part of God ’s miracle in creation. Without attention, faith would be impossible. God not only created us to live and breathe and walk, like his other creatures; he wants us also to believe in him and to trust his word, to listen. The full scope of our affectional life becomes precious when we see it as our capacity to  attend . Mind-setting is the basis of our devotion to Christ , and it gives rise to eve...

The human soul (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” ( Matthew 16:26 ) In these materialistic days, many people have become abnormally occupied with investments and returns, capital gains and losses, balance sheets and cash flows. This is nothing new, of course. The prevalence of covetousness is so universal, in one form or another, that God had to place a prohibition on it in the Ten Commandments . The Lord Jesus made a heart-searching comparison one day, when He posed a surprising question relative to divine bookkeeping. Not even the riches of all the world could purchase one human soul , yet men often seem willing to sacrifice their souls in pursuit of riches. Is such an exchange really a sound investment? Merely to ask the question is to answer it. Earning wealth is good, if it is acquired honorably and by the will of God, but coveting wealth and ho...

Performance and Efficiency Evaluation and ... efficiency of an experimental Outboard Marine Corporation (OMC) rotary combustion engine (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Author: Tony Morgan. One of the most frequently asked questions I receive is this: “Do you have any sample performance evaluation forms you can send me?” To be honest, I  do  have samples, but I never send them. Why don’t I send them? Well let me ask you. Have you ever seen a traditional performance evaluation system that actually improves performance? Probably not. To my knowledge, no such form exists. You don’t need a sample form. Instead, you need to lead well. There’s a perpetuating myth in leadership circles that every good leader does annual performance reviews. That’s not true. You can be a great leader without going through the agony of filling out your annual HR evaluation forms. From my previous conversations, it seems performance evaluations are started because leaders know there are one or t...

Apostle Silas (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Regardless of position, leaders rarely find themselves satisfied by status quo. Except for the few who lead at the very top of an organization, the problems many see are outside of their control. Discouraged by their inability to make every necessary improvement, many church leaders choose to withdraw from the change process entirely. This “all or nothing” thinking places them in maintenance mode. Recently, a business professor introduced me to three simple questions asked by managers seeking improvements to their production processes. Applied by church leaders, they can be very revealing about the things we choose to focus on… What can I directly control? What can I influence? What is out of my control or influence? Unfortunately, the things outside of our control or influence often absorb the majority of our focus. We recognize that we cannot affect them yet continue to develop unvoiced solutions in our minds. Rather than d...

Image via Wikipedia With the passing of 2011, many of us wave goodbye to a season marked by persistent questions about public institutions and a general belief that, surely, things can only get better.   But what challenges can we expect to face as a society in 2012? Here are my predictive picks for the 12 biggest social shifts we might expect to see in 2012.  Hyper-Tech & Refuseniks : We will see a growing role for professional ethicists in corporate and government strategic planning, as new developments in medicine, bio-tech , genetics and other sectors stretch traditional ethics paradigms to the limit. Well organised groups of 'technology refuseniks' will emerge, calling for slowing of change in technological research and development...  De-Gadgetisation & the Neo-Frugals : 2012 will see a drive to recalibrate our reliance on digital communications . New psychological terms will be introduced to describe fresh symptoms of psychological or social disorder deriv...

We all know it.  It’s a fact we all live with.  The food that we see on all of the fast food advertisements   never  look like what’s lurking inside that cardboard box . The following images present them side-by-side, thus showing the contrast between advertising and reality.  There’s a fine-line between putting your best foot forward, and bearing false witness. Related articles The truth about advertising junk food to children: It works (medicalxpress.com) You Wasting Money on Marketing & Advertising too? [Norman Feiner] (ecademy.com) Lexus breaks advertising rules (autonetinsurance.co.uk) Do me a favor please... (desigheeandcoffee.wordpress.com) Is McDonald's Coffee Success Strong Enough to Last? (foodservicewarehouse.com) Largest Advertising Budgets (creditloan.com) AVL Inc. Expands Its Holdings to Include FrogBox Franchise (prweb.com) The Truth About Twitter Advertising (businessinsider.com) Deceptive Advertising 2 (Result) ...

Clarity Evangelist: What would you say is the single biggest challenge in hiring a key staff person? William: Getting chemistry right. I’m sure most of your readers have heard the big three factors in hiring, the “three c’s”: Character, Competency, and Chemistry. Those certainly hold true as the top three checkboxes to mark off when looking at a candidate. Most of our clients in executive search are really smart churches . So the candidates we bring in are usually top drawer in character and competency.   But chemistry ends up being the deal-maker or deal-breaker. Justin: Chemistry almost always ends up being the variable that has to be watched the closest. It’s the cause of more bad hires, and the reason for more good hires, than anything I see. Clarity Evangelist: What can churches do to get the chemistry piece right? William: As Socrates said, “ Know thyself .” Good hiring begins with a thorough understanding of the church culture. We end up spending a large portion of ...

We sing, “the name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run into it and they are saved.” The updated NIV has changed it from “strong tower” to “ fortified tower.”  It is one thing to change people’s “favourite verse,” but to change a song’s text. Umm! “The name of the Lord is a fortified tower” doesn’t quite flow? The LXX is, “out of majesty the name of Lord is strength.” Tower” is from the Hebrew   MGDL . The real question is, “What’s a strong tower”? A tower that possess the quality of strength? What does that mean? A tower that is built with a strong door? Strong straps? The NLT has “strong fortress. So we understand why the TNIV shifted to “fortified tower.” We can easily see a tower, perhaps up on a hill, that has thick walls and an enforced door. A tower that provides safety for its inhabitants. Which is of course the point of proverb. God is a fortified tower to which his children run, knowing that he will keep them safe.

Image via Wikipedia WHY DO LEADERS EXIST?  This is perhaps one of the most simple yet profound questions we can ask about leadership. But until we answer this foundational question, leadership tips and techniques won’t make much sense. My answer to the question is this:  LEADERS EXIST TO CREATE A SHIFT IN REALITY . SHIFT THE DRIFT  Without leaders, things drift along. Every stream has a current. Throw a twig or a piece of paper into the water, and it will drift with the flow. This is natural. It is simply the way things work. Organizations and churches are similar to streams. They too have a flow. That flow is the organization’s culture. When people enter into that culture, they usually move along with the current. It is called “the drift.” Do you want to know what the drift is in your organization? Ask, “What are people saying about [fill in the blank]?” For example, I used to have a colleague that no one respected. You could often hear his peers and subordinates say th...