Today twitter, blogs, espn, radio talk shows, and every other source of media is blowing up with hate and anger in reaction to LeBron’s choice.  The Cleveland Cavs owner has basically called LeBron an egotistical jerk (not exactly a smart move in recruiting future players) and some people in Cleveland have been seen burning jerseys of the player who was their hero just weeks before.

The emotional side of me of course wants to be upset that the best player in the game walked away from my childhood team.  However, stepping back from the situation, I have to admit that what LeBron did was a very humble and smart move.  He is taking less money to play on a team with his best friends and gives him a great shot at winning a championship.  I mean, aren’t professional athletes constantly criticized of following the money and having inflated egos to where they over estimate their own abilities?  In this case, LeBron has done exactly the opposite.  Again, he is giving up money to play where he wants to play, with whom he wants to play, and on a team that will probably win it all several times in the years to come.  Unless you are a fan of one of the other teams that wanted James, how in the world can you be upset about his decision.  Yet still, he is facing a lot of heat (no pun intended) for his choice to put winning above the dollar.

This just goes to show you will NEVER be able to please everyone.  There is no move Lebron could have made that would have made everyone, or even most everyone, happy.  The same goes for you and me.  When we try to live our lives according to common opinion, we will only set ourselves up to have more critics as well as becoming more aware that we now have more critics.

In a conversation with my wife just yesterday she made the comment, “It’s not ok for me to want that” in reference with a desire she has for her future.  Her statement came as a result of pressures she feels from others.  For most of us, if we continue our lives as current we will have to hear “concerns” from others as to why we are not doing “this” or “that.”  If we step out and make some changes, whether by our choice or pressure from others, there will be those who will question us as to who do we think that we are that we would go and do that.

There will always be opposition, many times from those we least expect and possibly even those we are closest to.  Case in point, we cannot live our lives trying to appease others.  It’s a formula for exhausting ourselves and becoming walked all over.

Be who you are.  Want what you want.  Do what you feel like doing (as long as it’s legal) and don’t apologize for it!

That being said……I see principles for learning in everything.  So I thought how I would go about appealing to “King James” if I were a NBA team owner.  In wiring it out I realized some of the same principles apply in attracting friends, customers, or church visitors.

1. Get rid of hindrances

The Cleveland Cavs have already gone about doing this by firing their coach and general manager, both of whom Lebron is rumored to have disapproved of.  The Cavs are also not resigning any other players that Lebron did not get along with.  If your church or business has some potential “hang-ups” for guests such as location, rules, confusing or mixed messages, you may want to reevaluate these and see if having them is worth losing people over.

2. Consult him on major decisions

Following up on the last point, do you really think the Cleveland Cavs fired their coach and GM without the ok of LBJ?  I don’t!  Who are you trying to appeal to?  Well have you ever thought to ask their opinion on what you do and how?

One of our plans for outreach before we church plant is to approach the people in the community we intend to plant in and ask them to fill out and return a survey about their view of church and what kind of a church they would be willing to attend.

3. Make things comfortable and familiar

In the Lebron James case, the Cavs already have the advantage in this because they are the team closest his home town.  I still believe though that they should bring in his old High School coach as a team assistant.  Lebron loves his old coach and knowing he could be close to him on the professional team would certainly be appealing.

Likewise, what could you do to bring this element to your place of business or worship?  Don’t be so caught up in the idea of having everything as “new” that you alienate people by making them confused and uncomfortable as soon as they walk in your door.

4. Put our best effort forward

If we are trying to sign the best basketball player in the country, we’re not just going to hope, wish, or even pray that he signs with us.  We are going to put forth a solid effort and make him feel valued.  We would bring in the best coach we could get.  We would sign players that would compliment Lebron’s game and let him know we are serious about winning.

If people think you are after them for money or inflated numbers, they will walk.  Are you putting your time and resources into a good presentation and a solid product or are you assuming people will come and already dreaming about the next step?

5. Appeal to his dream

If you know Lebron James (as I obviously do!) you know that his dream is to become an international icon.  Ok, so that’s public knowledge.  But what would you do with that knowledge.  Again, if I were a team owner, I would be spending money out of my pocket to rent advertising space in every major country on the planet and posting a huge image of number 23.  If I care about Lebron, then I care about his dream.  And I would take initiative in helping make his dream happen.  People will always be loyal to those who are helping them accomplish their dream.

What is it people in your family or your community want?  How are you going to help them take steps toward fulfilling that?

So….that’s my foolproof plan for signing Lebron James and reaching your community.  You’re welcome NBA general managers!

Knowing how much joy basketball gives me and that going to games is a great way to unwind, I bought a mini game plan at the beginning of the season.  I have tickets to fourteen of the biggest games of the hawks season.  One of those games was last Friday.  The Hawks were playing the Dallas Mavericks at 8pm (according to my tickets).  On Friday I got off work, picked up some dinner, met Katy, and we made the hundred mile drive to the ATL.  As we approached downtown I mentioned the noticeably low traffic for a Friday night.  We were able to park without any delay.  Even more skeptical was the lack of ticket scalpers we passed on our way to the arena.  I pulled out the tickets to recheck tip off time.  We walked into Philips Arena at 7:55pm to an unusual amount of noise and an equally unusual amount of traffic.  As we rode up the escalator I caught a glimpse of a jumbo-tron only to realize the buzzer had just sounded for halftime.  The game had been moved up to 7:00pm and nobody told me!

After finding a team attendant to file my complaint to, I huffed off to find my seat and plop down in disgust.    I felt cheated.  I felt robbed.  Everyone else around me was getting the full game experience and I was getting half a show.  I found it hard to get into things or fake excitement even when the second half started.  It was only when the game ended up going into overtime that I somehow felt better about driving all that way and missing the first 24 minutes of play.

As I sat, watching the game with little emotion, my mind drifted to all the times I have sat in church, checking my watch, feeling the service had gone too long.  Every week I see people stumble into church late, showing up as though it’s more of a good deed than an act of worship.  So many times even I have publicly noted that preachers should have more respect for other’s time and make sure that the service ends promptly one hour after it begins.  At the basketball game I felt cheated when I missed out yet sometimes in church I felt confined for having to stay till the end.

Realizing this showed me some things – that I’m glad I no longer go to boring churches.  If you are one who have said such things about church or have the attitude of duty when attending, perhaps you should find a place of worship you can get excited about.  You go to church because you want to.  Because you realize it is a great place to worship, serve, or build community.  No one moaned when the basketball game went into overtime because such was going to ruin their lunch plans.  Yet that is the attitude when church runs five minutes over at many places of worship on Sunday mornings.

I have actually told others lately that when something comes up and I have to miss a week of church, I feel as though I have really missed out.  I’m disappointed.  I get the pod cast so I’m not left out.  How do you view going to church?  What would your reaction be if next Sunday you showed up and realized they were already taking up the offering (which I think is the church equivalent to an NBA halftime).

The weekly hour long show stars and is produced by Ray Romano, who I already adored, and is the ongoing story of three men in their forties as they deal with real life issues.  The writing is impressive and smart as each of the three featured characters has a very unique and clearly conveyed personality and lifestyle, allowing almost any guy who watches the show to latch on to one of them.  One man is going through a separation and fighting to stay involved in the lives of his kids while dealing with a gambling addiction.  Another man is trying to continue in the lifestyle of a swinging bachelor while going back and forth on whether he feels contentment with his life.  The third man has an incredible, supportive wife and a great family but is consistently distracted from enjoying them because of a job he hates, the rejection he feels from his father, and stressful situations emotionally and financially.

I find myself feeling their pain and longing for a meaningful life every time I watch the show.  Routinely the scenes follow the men’s individual stories and trials while intermission clips have the three at a diner table discussing life and challenging, supporting, and picking on one another.  Though my life situation is not the same as any of these men’s, I strongly sense an attachment to some of their personality struggles and am pulled in to their problems because in a very un-media like way, they have true, believable struggles that I could see one day being struggles for myself.  Perhaps it is watching these three men go through their midlife crisis that is speaking to me, causing me to evaluate myself now so I never have to have one of my own.  Perhaps I am jealous of their bond, hoping no matter how messed up my life gets in the future I will have solid friends to sit across the table from and pour myself out to.  Maybe I have been hooked by just another show with descent scripting.  Maybe I’m just bored and this show just happened to be on.

Either way, it has moved me and whether the message it is sending is the one I’m actually receiving or not, I feel like the result has been meaningful thinking about myself.  And so, I thought I would share it with you.

My former youth pastor challenged me with this post about being willing to ask for things.

Jim Akins is a church planting expert on staff at West Ridge Church.  In this post he describes a very unique and powerful thing their church did with money.

I’m a little bit ashamed to admit I follow Dumb As A Blog but they are a great source for stupid criminal stories, funny news events, and here they list the 5 stupidest holiday gifts.

A guy I knew in college, David, is now a missionary to Brazil and wrote this great post about God’s will.

Every person in every place should read absolutely everything that Perry Noble ever writes!

The Bean Creator is a blog of some great financial advice for ministry leaders.  The writer posted this entry about following up with first time givers.

I have blogged about Gray Lamb before but this post from him where he looks back over his ministry is one of the best I have ever read!!

And finally, every ministry person should be following the blog of church advisor Tony Morgan.  This post of his is a video he found mocking how many churches do series planning.

I frantically scratched notes during both presentations and have listed below just some of the things I thought or learned from the night.

From Susan Isaacs:

“When none of the Christians in my life approved of me, I assumed God didn’t either”

We assume that everyone who disagrees with us is full of pride

What if our relationship with God depended on us being vulnerable with Him?

“Sometimes we marry God for His money”

Her story and more of these thoughts can be found in her book based on the idea that if she was married to God she would take Him to marriage counseling.

From Donald Miller:

The antagonist in story always acts like they are better than everyone else.  So when Christians act like that people assume we are the bad guy.

It doesn’t matter if the main character wins if it’s not obvious he is the good guy or makes others feel on his team and want to root for him.  This shows us that success alone is not the goal.

A story is made up of your actions; not your intentions or good ideas, but what you actually do.

It’s only a sacrifice if it’s something you don’t want to do.

There is nothing wrong with wanting nice things.  But if that is all you want or is your main goal in life, then your story stinks.

Our world teaches us to avoid conflict when it is conflict that helps us grow.

Characters only change through pain.

In Genesis 2, after Adam realizes he has a void, God puts him to work naming the animals before fixing his conflict.  Never though does Adam doubt God is there or that God loves him.  He realizes pain is just a part of life (even before the fall).

When we can’t find meaning in our lives, we numb ourselves with pleasure.

Now I have to admit that I’m one of those people that look for deeper meanings or a message behind everything (I’m the only one who will leave the theatre crying after the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall because somehow his struggle to choose between two women taught me about mankind’s struggle in deciding our pursuits and how whole-heatedly we will chase them – and also his brittle job and the lack of passion to pursue his dream and launch a new career connected with my own life and was meant as a message just for me), but still I thought Rock’s message was pretty good.  Grasping the have/say principle helped explain a lot of complex reasoning I had struggled with before.

The idea is pretty much that each person has a choice.  They can choose to be a talker, who gets to speak, gossip, blog, and call into their local newspaper forum about their opinions and criticisms of others.  They could choose to be a haver (I know it’s not a word), who is doing things in life, gaining possessions and recognition, and holds some form of office or authority in any number of fields.  The catch is that I think it’s only possible to be one of these things at a time because only certain people can get away with being talkers.  For example, it’s ok for the poor to talk about the rich, to make fun, criticize, and question how they go about both earning and spending their money.  Rich people could never get away with saying such things about the poor, name calling or stereotyping them.  The same with fat and thin.  It is perfectly tolerated for a group of overweight folks to sit in a salon or around a table at McDonald’s and label thin models as shallow and possibly unhealthy in their habits of keeping thin.  A thin, attractive media character however would get black balled for saying that everyone overweight is lazy and slow.  We can either have or talk.

This made a lot of since when I thought about people in the public eye who I used to think should do things differently.  Barack Obama and Joel Osteen are two people I quietly support and hope well for.  Both are heavily criticized – oddly enough by mostly the same crowd.  When hearing how much assuming, exaggeration, and even flat out lying was being done against figures such as these, I used to think they should get up there and run down the list of all the inaccurate information being circulated and just set everyone straight.  I now realize that doing so would only bring them into a place of receiving higher scrutiny.  These men and others who take flack for their positions, income, or popularity cannot defend themselves.  They have given up that privilege.  They have chosen to no longer debate and talk, rather, they have chosen to do.

Then I look at the critics, those that are doing the talking.  They are always those way below the level of the ones they are criticizing.  To defend themselves, those in the higher position would actually have to sink back down to the level of just being a talker.

Everybody gets a choice.  You can say or you can have.  The moment I stop to try and answer, correct, address, or even win over those who criticize me, I stop moving forward and will never attain more in my career.

September 10^th – 14^th I will be in Ohio to visit family and friends.  I have not been up there since Christmas and am excited to see everyone.  On the 12^th I will be in Cincinnati for my friend Sherri’s wedding and the rest of the time will be spent in Canton (That’s right…..the home of the Football Hall of Fame and Relient K).  I will go to church at my home church on the 13^th.  Canton Baptist Temple is a very conservative church though they are working hard to not be as traditional.  They have been able to go through a transition few other churches have been willing and able to do successfully.  They have even launched a second campus 20 miles north that meets in a movie theatre and boasts a much more casual and contemporary style.

November 21^st – Donald Miller will be in Chattanooga to give a lecture in correlation with the release of his new book.  Donald has emerged in the past few years as a voice for emerging young believers and has been able to infiltrate a Christian voice within the Democratic Party.  Every time I hear him speak I am challenged to reevaluate my motives for ministry and the model of church we have created.  You can buy tickets here after they are released.

Also, our church is currently doing the “You Asked For It”.  This popular series being done by many contemporary churches in America allows the attendees to pick the subjects they would most like to hear discussed from the stage.  I still think my pastor should let me speak the week alcohol is on topic.  I actually received the preaching award at my college graduation for a message I gave on that subject in Preaching Workshop even though I took a position opposite my professor.

So what would I do if I won that much money?  I’m glad you asked.  Here are a few ideas that come to mind…….

• Pay off my student loans and car (I’m very fortunate that those are the only debts I have).

• Give my parents the money to pay off their remaining mortgage, with the agreement that my dad quit being a local political activist and picketer.

• Tithe.  But not to a church, rather to some of these charities.

• Move into one of the condos on Riverfront Dr. overlooking the river, bridge, Coolidge Park, and downtown Chattanooga.

• Pay Lebron James to stay in Cleveland.

• Not pay much attention to all the people who all of the sudden want to become better friends.

• Buy a second home in Billings, Montana.

• Hire Jeff Richardson and Brent Coffey to move to Chattanooga with me and take over that city for Jesus.

• Travel more as a habit.  Vacation to Hawaii, Colorado, Las Vegas, San Diego, and Italy.

• Get a small dog.

• Do my stand up routine at a club and first buy everyone a couple rounds to ensure they laugh.

• Offer John Maxwell, Perry Noble, Donald Miller, Ryan Seacrest, Dan Kimball, Adam Sandler, Peter Fruler, Denzel Washington, and Matthew West $10,000 to have lunch.

• Pay Hugh Grant to never make another movie.  Ever!

• Eat at classy, privately owned restaurants.

• Get season court-side tickets for the Atlanta Hawks.

• Apply for some jobs I would really like to have but am nowhere near qualified for.

• Get a new laptop or few; this one keeps freezing up on my last nerve.