alright… i’m sure you’re sick of hearing about these things I come up with… but I am hoping that God is able to do some really cool things through various relationships that I am able to build with this company. I just thought that I would share with all my incredible friends that you need to check out the new website I uploaded yesterday!

I have worked my butt off to get it up this weekend… I had an incredible opportunity to work some great networking angles this weekend, and wanted to launch this as soon as I could! So… without further adu, I present to you… Orange Thread Media.

www.orangethreadmedia.com

I know it’s been a little while since I have talked about leadership, and its been a long time since my last post about the new “vision” i have recently caught for what leadership should be. The first thing I talked about was how important it is to realize that relationships are the most important thing in life, and if we can own up to that, we will lead better, love better and enjoy the presence of those in our lives. 

I then talked a little bit about what it means to turn our minds to focusing on teams. and how it is crucial to take time to love on your own team members and not necessarily work out every fine detail of your next event or next project. And most recently, I talked about placing ourselves in strategic positions to leverage our ability to be available, accessible and aware of the surrounding environment. 

All of this is a result of a new vision that I have for leaders. The one I want to talk about in this post is very much a part of what I think leaders would embody.  This is my vision… and I would like to share it with you.

PROVIDE SUCCESS

I know that at times it’s tough to measure success, because its night and day different  for every organization. What is consistent among every organization is that there is a way to measure success. It may be the number of people that come to an event, the amount of products sold, the number of lives saved, or the amount of impact people have on another person or client. Whatever the case may be for your own organization, you know exactly that there is success in some way or another. 

What great leaders need to do is figure out how they can put their team members in positions to be successful. One of the great leadership teachers, Andy Stanley from North Point Community Church in Atlanta, GA said once, “When you walk into a room and realize that you have the greatest amount of influence of all the people there, great leaders have to figure out how to leverage that influence to better the lives of everyone else.” 

That is exactly this same though process… How can you as a leader put your very own team members in positions of success? For my team on the Orientation Council at Belmont University, it was figuring out a way for the 8 section leaders below each of us to be successful in our own way. 

I think there is a myth in leadership. A myth that states that a good leader is “hands-off” that is not what I am talking about in providing success. What I am getting at is a leadership model that looks more like a coach or a mentor as you walk with your team members and prepare them to have a success. Help them find pitfalls before they experience them, and help them understand on a deeper level the vision and purpose of an event. 

When you can figure out how to get your team to a position of continual success, you will realize that each member of the team will begin to take more ownership in their projects. More ownership, equals greater momentum and faster growth. You also prepare and raise up more leaders by providing others with success. 

What are ways that you can provide your team with success?  

I do need to forewarn you that at times trying to find success for a team may result in failure. It’s inevitable. But, what we can do with this failure is learn from it. If this situation happens for you, and failure results before success, it is key that you as a leader helps your team understand what success looks like when they actually hit it. 

What would it look like for a world of leaders to be more focused on providing success for each member of their team rather than finding ways to be successful publicly themselves? I think we would see a leadership revolution. Its’ not about ourselves and its not about how great you can become. 

As Andy said… its all about leveraging everything we have to better the lives of the people in the room with us.

So, do you know that you have influence with many other people? 

how are you providing them with success?

if only I could learn how to do some of this stuff on a computer!!!

Aside from running (or not running apparently) this website and going to school I co-own a company that does custom screen staging and live video production. We work very closely with some very good friends such as GI, Inc and Renewed Vision. Both of these guys are worth checking out.

Anywho - I want to from time to time post some pictures of other things I am working on as a way to help stir a little more of the creativity side of  this blog!  I mean it is the first word in the domain name and the title.  So this is pictures from the “Alumni” showcase at Belmont University.

We had one 9×12 Rear Project in the middle and two 6×8 Rear Project screens turned on their side.. this gave a very intimate, yet creative video wall in order for us to have a great evening of music and fun! Check these out:

Hope you enjoy this.

When the music fades 
And all is stripped away 
And I simply come 
Longing just to bring 
Something that’s of worth 
That will bless your heart 

I’ll bring You more than a song 
For a song in itself 
Is not what You have required 
You search much deeper within 
Through the ways things appear 
You’re looking into my heart 

I’m coming back to the heart of worship 
And it’s all about You 
All about You, Jesus 
I’m sorry Lord for the thing I’ve made it 
When it’s all about You 
It’s all about You Jesus 

That is the Matt Redman Song, Heart of Worship. We sang it this sunday at my church and for the first time, the music literally ripped right through my thick skull and into my heart! The thing I feel God desires from each and every one of us whenever we come to the cross for worship. 

Someone once said to me, “to bow down is to put ourselves in a position in which our hearts are above our heads.”

What a powerful statement. I mean think about it. When you bow down with your head to the ground, your heart is actually higher than your head in a vertical sense. Sometimes we need to bow because God can only truly speak to our hearts on some issues. Our head won’t let it respond in the capacity in which is needed. Our head uses reasoning, facts, proof, and intelligence. Our heart recognizes beauty, truth, and love. 

The things our hearts yearn for, our head often times wont allow because if information were to flow in a vertical path from your brain to your body as a reaction to a thought, the head would reason too much with issues of what is truth and what is love. If we were to understand truth, if we were to recognize God’s true beauty, or to seek and react to his love then God would need to speak to the heart! 

Now, look at that song… When the music fades and all is stripped away, I long for the moment when I can bring something to my God that is something of worth. the intentionality there to bring something of value to our God. Often times our God doesn’t want something that has a specific appearance of intelligence, or a complex formula of love. God wants true beauty. God wants something that is real and alive.

Take a look at the Chorus, “I’m sorry Lord for the Thing I’ve Made it.”  WOW! What a statement. I mean does anyone think that we have created worship into a beast that is so complex and convoluted that we often times can forget that God is the center of all that we do in the act of worship?  Maybe thats another blog for another time, but the truth of the matter is this… God wants us to just respond from our hearts. 

I guess what I am getting at is this… When all is stipped away in your life. You take away the bright lights, rip down the curtains, remove the mask, clear out all the dust, and sift through all the excess crap that lays on top of you… are you bowing?

Have you positioned your heart above your head? 

Maybe… just maybe, God is trying to tell you just as he has told me this week… Hey Luke… I need to speak to your heart. I need you to understand my truth. Understand my Love. Understand my incredible Beauty! 

How are you positioning yourself in the presence of your Savior? 

Luke

P.S. The Vision Returns Shortly.

I am at a conference right now, and I just experienced something incredible. The conference is called “deeper level” and for the second time, they have meet in Houston, TX. This whole conference has been an experience, as I didnt know who my contact was, and I didn’t know where we were staying, but I know that God had something in store for this weekend! 

This morning we started a little late due to some technical issues, and we were worried that the 40 min late start time would dampen our ability to go to lunch at noon. [which is what my schedule said.] In the moment, we all freaked out a bit. Everybody was trying to control the situation… in any way we as humans know how to. In a desperate attempt to bring to life a dead room [production terms... a dead room is one without anything going on] we threw in one of Israel Houghton’s dvd’s. At the end of the song [on dvd], Israel walked on stage and just finished the song live because the spirit of the lord had made himself present. For the next two hours of nothing but worship, we sang the same song. over and over. without a sense of urgency.

The bridge… “Oh!” rang through the building for over an hour. I cannot begin to explain the impact this small word [if even a word] had on my life, as God began to show me that… regardless of what a schedule says, and aside from the fact that you don’t have any sort of order of worship… I am here. I am in control. I am life. 

in these moments of our deepest desire to control the situation… we need to step back and just say “Yes Lord” because he is actually in the moment… and most likely he had it all under control in the first place! 

then funny thing is that God had it all planned out.. and the ending of this story is incredible… our lunch time on our schedule was printed wrong, and in the conference book it said that lunch wasnt until 1:00pm. and so, in the end God actually had planned for us to worship him longer than expected. and worship his name even though we had a technical glitch! Our God is in Control! He is always here. 

HE IS NEAR!

I have been sharing lately a new vision that I have been able to experience over the last several weeks and months. This experience is from my time with the Belmont University Orientation Council, where I had the unique chance to walk through life with 3 other friends on the council, and over the course of the process, I was able to learn a whole lot about how to love on people, and how to lead others. This new idea and understanding of leadership has caused me to have a new vision for what leaders look like. 

I believe that this vision will possibly begin to change the way that we look at ourselves, as well as the way we lead other people… I would like to share that vision with you. 

STRATEGIC ACCESS

This one for some reason is probably the most straight-forward and basic principle in the world of leadership, but critical to becoming a great leader, rather than a good leader. For me, I think that I was under the impression that in order to be a good leader you had to know a lot of information about a program and be connected with all of its inter-workings. Though this is true, I began to realize this summer that this quality is only for a good leader and not a great leader. 

A great leader will take that knowledge and put themselves in a strategic location of access. What do I mean by this… Let me explain with an example. Every other morning this summer was check-in. For us, as we did this 10 times over the course of the summer, was a very painless process where students were checked-in in a very orderly fashion with flow and direction. A masterpiece by our two girls on our team [Allison and Stephanie... they're just amazing!] 

With 25 leaders in the room and around the building smiling and answering questions, we could have been off worrying about other things, such as the next program, or how to make the system even better. We could have even taken a nap… but we didn’t.  We realized very early on that if we were able to position ourselves in strategic positions of access, we would in turn maximize the room to make sure no one felt left out or confused.  

We had one morning a spot in the front of our lobby of our student center without a single White or Red polo [that means the orientation council, or a Summer staffer]. This provided for some students who walked into the room to become overwhelmed by all that was going on in the room, and allow a bit of panic to wash over their faces. I saw it in this one girl. So, I walked right up to her and said, “Hey, I’m Luke… what’s your name?” she responded through a slight smile, “Hey, I’m Abby.” This started a simple yet incredibly important conversation that allowed Abby to feel as if she was the most important person in the room.

What our group was able to do in that moment, was take a really big and chaotic room, and turn it into a very organized, personalized place of relational growth. You see… when we begin to really adopt the idea that relationships are the most important thing in the world, and merge it with our ability to be in the right place in the room, we begin to see catastrophic change in the way people interact. We saw confused, overwhelmed, stressed students and parents become very much at ease with the situation, and truly happy to be at Belmont! 

Positioning yourself in a place where people have access to you allows you to be a place of answers. Answers help relieve anxiety, and begin to create peace. Who doesn’t want an event to run peacefully? 

Here’s the takeaway: Put yourself in a place of Strategic Access. A place where people can visibly see you, as someone who has influence, and use that influence to make a difference for all the other people in the room. That is true humility. It would have been so easy to tell our leaders where to be and how to answer questions, but instead we were doing exactly what we asked our leaders to do! WE LIVED THE VISION. 

In the end… you guessed it… people were overwhelmingly praising us about how “at home” they felt in this place. How upon arriving on campus they immediately were ready for Augusts’ move in day! How they were actually at peace about their son or daughter to be living here for the next for years!  What an awesome thing to walk away with… all for sacrificing a little bit of “Leader” time and placing yourself in the trenches. 

Be Strategically Accessible. 

Luke

- Isaiah 53:2-5 (The Message)

a word of encouragement for all of us who need healing today!

I want to share what I have been able to experience over the last several weeks as I have been a part of the Orientation Council here at Belmont University. I shared last time that I have had the opportunity to grab a hold of a whole new understanding of leadership, and furthermore, a whole new vision for my life. I believe that over the last year, but more specifically the last few weeks, I have had the privilege of walking through life in an authentic community of 25 other people. This vision has started to change my life, and the way I interact with others, but most importantly, it has changed the way I believe we, as people, should lead.

I know that many people who read this are most likely in a leadership position in some way, shape, or form… but if not, I trust that we all will experience leadership somewhere, somehow. For some, it may be on a project at school…. or at work… but a lot of us will get a chance to lead in our family, in our friends and around our communities. I think this new vision will have an impact on the way you are able to lead. I want to share that vision with you.

TEAM-MINDED

Our schedule this summer was pretty tight, and I mean pretty tight. we were usually up by 5:30, in order to be in the office by 6:15-6:30 every day, and would be lucky if we were in bed before 10:30 on some nights. Between these hours, we were filled with breakouts, sessions, speaking on stages, holding the doors, saying hello to distressed parents while pointing them in the right direction, as well as cramming in a few meals.  For us, Time was always on the go. Time was precious. Time was in no way on our side, and as we learned quickly into the process… Time flew by us!

With so little time, a lot of people would say that in order to achieve excellence and fulfill the hope of creating an incredible orientation program, that we are always focused on the next event so that it is as smooth as the current event. This is where I step in to say that the new “vision” is a little bit different than the status quo. 

You see… for our team [the 4 OC members, our intern, and our advisor] we had a choice to make, every minute of the day……   Choose to invest in our team, or take care of our time.  In moments when time is not readily available to us, we always had to choose whether to invest and take time to care for them… or take the time available to make sure that everything was in order for the next event. I will share with you that our choice, 99.9% of the time was our team. I can’t say 100% because I simply can’t gaurentee that we always made that choice, but everytime the choice was given, we chose our team.

Your team is the most important people in your organization, because if you didn’t have a team, most likely you wouldn’t have an organization. Your team members are the people who actually carry out your mission and vision. They are the hands and feet normally and people in leadership roles know that the team is the people who normally do most of the work, but rarely get enough credit. 

That is exactly why in every situation, we took the opportunity to be present with our team. We knew that if we invested in our team, they would feel more connected, more involved, and more appreciated for the role that they played. I will not lie… it was a tough thing to do a lot of the time. We knew we had a very qualified and competent group of leaders with us this summer, but we still knew that the program would have more of an impact on our leaders if we chose to be present and available for our leaders, rather than their “boss.”

You see, no one want a boss really. The connotation with that word has too much negativity attached with it. A boss assigns tasks, stays a bit distant in his/her office a lot of time. A boss is focused on efficiency and not maximizing the potential of their employees. A boss is often times focused on the end task of making good reviews, or increasing the profits. What people prefer is a friend. A friend cares for you for who you are and not what you do. They do not wish for you to perform, but rather to be genuine in all interactions with others. A friend loves first, and worries about tasks second. A friend wants you to be successful wherever you are, rather than focusing on numbers and increasing revenues.  We chose friend. 

In the end, we may have missed some small details in a program that could have allowed it to run a bit smoother… flow a bit more evenly and in the end, we may have had a few more “I strongly Agree’s” in our ending survey to all parents and students. But we were incredibly pleased with our results. Our team, spent over 3 hours saying their final goodbyes. The words that were shared among all our leaders were so uplifting that after 3 or 4 hours of tears, we were exhausted of crying. Our comments and thoughts for one another were authentic. They meant something to each other, and we really didnt need one or two more “Strongly Agree’s.”

We had the highest approval ratings in the programs history. Not because we were better leaders than the other, I assure you that is not the case.  And it wasnt because our events were perfect either, because again, they were not. I really believe that it was directly related to the fact that our team had the opportunity to care and love on new students because they felt very cared and loved by from each of us. WE invest in our team. THEY invest in the students. That was our plan… and it worked. 

In the end… we understood that our team was the most important part of our organization. 

Our team mattered.

YOUR team matters.

Become Team-Minded. 

Luke

ok… so I am going to begin to put up some cool stuff along the way to “entertain” those who come here so loyally and often!  this one comes right out of North Point Community Church’s Creative Vault. Incredible Video… check it out!