Dan Adams

Tim Keller at Google's Headquarters

My friend Brett Maragni posted on his blog this video of Tim Keller speaking at Google's headquarters in 2008.  This is a video that Christians and non-Christians alike need to watch/listen to.  Wow.

RiverTown Baptism Video

Here's a video from RiverTown's Baptism a couple of weeks ago.  Life change is always a great thing, and baptism is the ultimate celebration of the life change that the Gospel makes possible.  This was a really special baptism as I was fortunate enough to be able to baptize my son.  "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come!"  - 2 Corinthians 5:17

Last Sunday's Baptism

Last Sunday we baptized 8 folks at RiverTown. Baptism is a beautiful celebration of an incredibly important reality.  On one level, it symbolizes the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  On another level, it symbolizes the new life a believer has through faith in Jesus Christ.  Baptism a great reminder of the difference Christ has made and can make in our lives. 

MBA Thoughts

As many of you know, I am working on my MBA from Liberty University.  While online, this MBA degree is no joke.  At times, the work is absolutely kicking my tail.  I am getting the degree to improve as a leader and manager.  I have benefited immensely from the study and work.  Unfortunately, seminary does not prepare pastors well enough to lead churches. Seminary helps prepare pastors for preaching, teaching, studying or counseling. However, many of the necessary business and leadership principles a pastor needs to have are simply not imparted through seminary.  That is why I am getting my MBA, to help me become more well-rounded and better equipped to be the best leader for RiverTown I can possibly be. Click here to see an outline of the courses I am taking.

You can also download and check out one of my latest papers.  It was a paper on Pakistan for International Business. You can download the paper by clicking this link: Download Adams_Pakistan

Taking a Break

Hey guys. Just as I got started with the blogging, life happened. All Stars will be happening the next month and a half for my boys . . . yes both boys. I am the head coach for Noah's 8u All Star Team, and an assistant coach for Nate's 10u All Star Team. A friend of mine calls this madness, "PFT" (Pay For Torture) . . . and he maybe right. However, we are entering a very busy season . .. so I am taking a break from blogging. However, I will be back after this insane six weeks is up.  See you then!

"Essential Leadership" | HBR

I was reading recently an excellent article from Harvard Business Review, entitled "The Essence of Leadership" by Jonathan Byrnes. This is a great article, and I wanted to share it with you.

Here are the highlights from the first part of the article:

What are the essential qualities of an effective leader? Can these be recognized in young people? Can they be developed?

Great leadership seems easy to recognize, and you usually can tell when someone is lacking in leadership qualities. But how do you define it? This is a critical question both for selecting and developing your subordinates, and for developing your own leadership capabilities.

Here's a definition of leadership that has stuck with me: Leaders are "people who leave their footprints in their areas of passion."

Not surprisingly, I heard this definition in a presentation given by the admissions officer and a colleague of hers. And, in fact, this admissions officer was showing leadership by inviting me and others in to talk about admissions profiles: She was taking an already excellent process, and rather than being complacent with it, she was making it even better. She was leaving her footprints in her area of passion.

Some companies have a culture of relentless, almost compulsive, improvement. No matter how good the company is, it should be doing better. It reminds me of a Smithsonian exhibit on American ingenuity, "If We're So Good, Why Aren't We Better?"

By contrast, other companies are smugly stuck in the past. I remember one vice president telling me that his company was doing everything right because "if there were a better way, we would have found it, and we'd be doing it."

The lesson: When you have the lead, step on the gas. After all, that's how you got there.  

To read more, click here.

RiverTown Recap | 05.10.09

Mother's Day is always a fun Sunday. Today was in keeping with that. Here in Jacksonville, the TPC was wrapping up and many of our members and attenders were at the golf tournament.  We also had a bunch of folks out of town for Mom's Day. However, Sunday was still a great time of worship with solid teaching and really good music. God worked in people's lives in exciting ways. 

National Day of Prayer

Today is the 58^th annual observance of the National Day of Prayer.  As a church, we are called to pray for our church, community and world.  As a citizens of our country, we are called to pray for our nation. As we all know, prayer is incredibly important . . . so much so that is utterly essential. Let’s allow this National Day of Prayer to remind us of the importance of prayer in our own lives and in our church. Here are some thoughts about prayer.

Pray!

 “1 I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— 2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” - 1 Timothy 2:3-4 niv

6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:6-7 niv

“Pray continually” – 1 Thessalonians 5:17 niv

How to Pray

The Lord’s Prayer | Matthew 6:9-15

9 "This, then, is how you should pray: 
" 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 
11 Give us today our daily bread. 
 12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 
 13 And lead us not into temptation, 
but deliver us from the evil one.' 14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Prayer for Our Nation | Beth Moore, Honorary Chairman for the National Day of Prayer

Father in Heaven,

We lift our eyes toward Your Throne, where You reign in righteousness. Your Word assures us that when Your people cry out in sincerity and humility, You will never turn a deaf ear to us. We call upon You now, seeking Your forgiveness and favor. Look over this fevered landscape and heal us, Lord. Drop knees to the floor and raise eyes to the sky, for we know where our help comes from. Unite these States again in devotion to You, and blur every dividing line. Do not give us over to our sins. Give us, instead, over to passionate prayer that moves Your heart. “May Your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in You.” In the Name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.

Prayer for Our Nation | Catholic Doors

Almighty God, bless our nation and make it true to the ideas of freedom and justice and brotherhood for all who make it great. Guard us from war . . . from compromise, fear, confusion. Be close to our president and our statesmen; give them vision and courage, as they ponder decisions affecting peace and the future of the world. Make me more deeply aware of my heritage; realizing not only my rights but also my duties and responsibilities as a citizen. Make this great land and all its people know clearly Your will, that they may fulfill the destiny ordained for us in the salvation of the nations, and the restoring of all things in Christ, Amen.

Prayer Thoughts

Some people pray just to pray and some people pray to know God. - Andrew Murray

There is a mighty lot of difference between saying prayers and praying. - John G. Lake

I have so much to do that I spend several hours in prayer before I am able to do it. - John Wesley

I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had absolutely no other place to go. - Abraham Lincoln

Always respond to every impulse to pray. I would make an absolute law of this – always obey such an impulse. - Martyn Lloyd-Jones

One can believe intellectually in the efficacy of prayer and never do any praying.  -Catherine Marshall

Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire? - Corrie Ten Boom

Pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge for Satan -- John Bunyan

Of all the duties enjoined by Christianity none is more essential and yet more neglected than prayer. - François Fénelon

Pray, and let God worry. - Martin Luther

This is our Lord's will... that our prayer and our trust be, alike, large. - Julian of Norwich

God's answers are wiser than our prayers. - Unknown

The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men…Men of prayer.God shapes the world by prayer.  The more praying there is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil.... - E. M. Bounds

Prayer does not fit us for the greater work, prayer is the greater work. - Oswald Chambers


  - E. M. Bounds

It is possible to move men, through God, by prayer alone.
 - Hudson Taylor
 

There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin in united prayer.
 - D.A.T. Pierson


Worship and intercession must go together, the one is impossible without the other.  Intercession means that we rouse ourselves up to get the mind of Christ about the one for whom we pray.
 - Oswald Chambers
 

The great people of the earth today are the people who pray, (not) those who talk about prayer...but I mean those who take time and pray.
 - S. D. Gordon


Work, work, from morning until late at night.  In fact, I have so much to do that I shall have to spend the first three hours in prayer. - Martin Luther


To get nations back on their feet, we must first get down on our knees.
 - Billy Graham

Prayer is the exercise of drawing on the grace of God.
 - Oswald Chambers


Lincoln on Leadership (4)

Chapter 13: Master the Art of Public Speaking "Extemporaneous speaking should be practiced and cultivated. It is the lawyer's avenue to the public. However able and faithful he may be in other respects, people are slow to bring him business if he cannot make a speech." - From Lincoln's notes for a law lecture intended to advise younger lawyers how best to succeed (July 1, 1850)

Lincoln Principles

Be your organization's best stump-speaker, with droll ways and dry jokes.

Extemporaneous speaking is your avenue to the public.

Use a variety of body language when you speak.

Prepare yourself thoroughly for your public speaking engagements.

Never consider anything your write to be finished until published or, if a speech, until you deliver it.

Remember that there will be times when you should simply not speak. Say to your listeners: "kindly let me be silent."

Try not to make mistakes when you speak publicly. Everything you say is intently heard. If you make a mistake it doesn't merely affect you but the organization as well.

You should often couple written documents with verbal discussions, thereby catching the idea with two senses rather than just one. Both you and your subordinates will remember it better, even if you do not understand it better.

Chapter 14: Influence People Through Conversation and Storytelling

"They say I tell a great many stories. I reckon I do; but I have learned from long experience that plain people, take them as they run, are more easily influenced through the medium of a broad and humorous illustration than in any other way…" - Lincoln explaining to a friend why he often related stories in the course of normal conversation.

Lincoln Principles

When you meet with an individual, try not to part with any unpleasant impression on either side.

Speak in simple and familiar strains with people, without any pretension of superiority. Leave people with the feeling that they've known you all their lives.

Don't forget that humor is a major component of your ability to persuade people.

A good laugh is good for both the mental and physical digestion.

Remember that people are more easily influenced through the medium of a broad and humorous illustration than in any other way.

You will often avoid a long and useless discussion by others or a laborious explanation on your own part by a short story that illustrates your point of view.

The sharpness of a refusal or the edge of a rebuke may be blunted by an appropriate story, so as to save wounded feelings and yet serve the purpose.

Loyalty is more often won through private conversation than in any other way.

Chapter 15: Preach a Vision and Continually Reaffirm It

"All honor to Jefferson - who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence, had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce…an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times." - Part of a Lincoln's praise for Thomas Jefferson, one of his early heroes, to a Boston group that requested he speak there on Jefferson's birthday. (April 6, 1859)

Lincoln Principles

Provide a clear, concise statement of the direction of your organization, and justify the actions you take.

Everywhere you go, at every conceivable opportunity, reaffirm, reassert, and remind everyone of the basic principles upon which your organization was founded.

Effective visions can't be forced on the masses. Rather, you must set them in motion by means of persuasion.

Harness your vision through implementation of your own personal roving leadership style.

When you preach your vision, don't shoot too high. Aim lower and the common people will understand you. They are the ones you want to reach - at least they are the ones you ought to reach.

When effecting renewal, call on the past, relate it to the present, and then use them both to provide a link to the future.

You must realize that the process of renewal releases the critical human talent and energy necessary to insure success.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

 

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Click here to learn a little bit more about this holiday. Cinco de Mayo (Spanish for "fifth of May") is a regional holiday in Mexico, primarily celebrated in the state of Puebla, with some limited recognition in other parts of Mexico. The holiday commemorates the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.  A common misconception in the United States is that Cinco de Mayo is Mexico's Independence Day, which actually is September 16 the most important national patriotic holiday in Mexico. It is appreciated in America mostly for eating some really great food.