Cost analysis: a tank of gas or a traffic ticket

I pity those who've been stuck behind me on the roads lately. With gas prices topping $3.50+ per gallon, I've made a conscious effort to see how much gas I can conserve per tank. I've been laying off the accelerator and coasting at every opportunity, sometimes even shifting into neutral to reduce drag. So far it's worked. Last week I increased my gas mileage by over 2 miles per gallon. But this exercise spawned a cost analysis exercise recently.

While traversing Kissel Hill by the Lititz Library every day, I've figured out you can coast well into town if you let the vehicle go. But with a posted 25mph speed limit, letting the car go gets it up to 45mph. That made me question whether the cost of gas has increased to the point that accepting the traffic ticket would be more cost effective then a tank of gas.

Penn State defeats Ohio State enroute to National Championship!

It may not be football, but a win over Ohio State and a National Championship are worth noting, especially since Volleyball doesn't get the national or Pastor's Email Update coverage it deserves.
http://gopsusports.cstv.com/sports/m-volley/recaps/050308aaa.html

Guarding internet connections - part 2

This is a follow-up to a post from last August. Since we implemented internet access at Grace Church, we've employed a content filter. For over a year we've been using St. Bernard's iPrism content filter. It serves us well. I'll say it forever, like a home security system, it's meant to deter and protect, but it's not a perfect system. Since the iPrism only protects computers accessing the internet at Grace Church, we had to find a different filter solution for our mobile machines that connect through the internet at other locations.

We use Covenant Eyes on our laptop machines so that when those users are on the road, or the local coffee shop their internet use is protected. It too has served us well. In addition to filtering content, Covenant Eyes sends a weekly usage report to an accountability partner. We have it setup that the reports go to the staff members supervisor. This setup has been serving us well too. That covers the Grace Church machines, but what about home use?

For home use I came across two free web-based filters, ScrubIT and OpenDNS a few months back in a post by Tony Dye. I've been using ScubIT myself. It was simple to install, in fact, they have an automated setup that didn't require me to do anything technical other than run it. Once it's up and running, any machine that connects through our home router is under the umbrella protection of ScrubIT.

I've been pleased with the service, in fact, I had sorta forgotten it was active until I was searching for a picture from the movie Men in Black last night. I was blocked from one of the sites that had the pic I was looking for. The URL of the site looked tame enough, but I'll trust the filter to have a valid reason for keeping me out. I made do without the graphic.

If you don't have a filter, seriously consider one of the two free options. They're easy to install and don't cost you a thing. Protect yourself and anyone else accessing the internet on your machine(s).

Automotive therapy

At last year's Leadership Summit, Colin Powell shared his love and hobby of working on his vehicles. In fact, he tinkered with his Volvo at various times during Gulf War - Part 1 as a stress reliever.

Since entering car ownership, I've enjoyed changing the oil, adjusting the gaps on the spark plugs and other routine maintenance tasks on my vehicles. But by no means am I good at it. I get oil everywhere and the likelihood of reassembling the engine properly is slim (hmmm, why do I have three screws leftover?). With the ill fated blue van predestined for the recycling yard and the yards requirement that all fluids be removed from the vehicle, I've had the joy of disassembling a vehicle without concern for putting it back together.

What liberation! I've had a blast ripping into the engine with the fervor of opening a gift to get to the various fluid reservoirs. Hoses, wires and screws are flying everywhere. It's been so much fun, I've actually ripped out more than necessary. I've always enjoyed opening up machines to see how they work. There's the old CD/cassette stereo that I cracked open; only the radio works now. I can rarely put them back together right, so I don't indulge this aspect of my personality often. I am trying to restrain my desire to open the entire motor and pull out one of the pistons. Granted, I have little knowledge as to what I'm doing. I pulled out one hose only to be doused with antifreeze, so I quickly reattached that one until I can drain the radiator. I've been wondering which hose is the fuel line.

It's been good therapy for me this week.

I also want to thank the Mr. Smith's and Mr. Jones' of the world for protecting me from the scum of the universe.

Good to Great and the Social Sectors notes

Here are my notes from Collins' follow-up monograph specific to the social sectors...

All indicators are flawed, whether qualitative, or quantitative. p7

What matters is that you rigorously assemble evidence-quantitative or qualitative-to track your progress. p7

...not finding the perfect indicator, but settling upon a consistent and intelligent method of assessing your output results, and then tracking your trajectory with vigor. p8

Performance is defined by results and efficiency in delivering on the social mission. p8

...you always have power, if you just know where to find it. There is the power of inclusion, and the power of language, and the power of shared interests, and the power of coalition. Power is all around you to draw upon, but it is rarely visible. p10

The whole point of Level 5 is to make sure the right decisions happen--no matter how difficult or painful--for the long-term greatness of the institution and the achievement of its mission, independent of consensus or popularity p11

In the social sectors, when big incentives (or compensation at all, in the case of volunteers) are simply not possible , the First Who principle becomes even more important. p15

Good to Great quotes

During the course of my Master's work, I had the opportunity to read Jim Collins' Built to Last. I enjoyed it, but when I heard about his second book, Good to Great, I assumed it was merely a sequel. Were it not for Daryl Leisey, my assumption would never have been tested. At his prompting I read it and see a lot of ways it can position Grace for future greatness. Here are a few quotes that caught my eye.

You get the best people, you build them into the best managers in the industry, and you accept the fact that some of them will be recruited to become CEOs of other companies. p43

If you have the right executives on the bus, they will do everything within their power to build a great company; not because what they will "get" for it, but because they simply cannot imagine settling for anything less. p50

The purpose of a compensation system should not be to get the right behaviors from the wrong people, but to get the right people on the bus in the first place, and to keep them there. p50

The only way to deliver to the people who are achieving is to not burden them with the people who are not achieving. p53

When in doubt, don't hire - keep looking
When you know you need to make a people change, act
Put your best people on your biggest opportunities, not your biggest problems
p54-60

Lead with questions, not answers
What's on your mind?
Can you tell me about that?
Can you help me understand?
What should we be worried about?
p75



Engage in dialogue and debate, not coercion
Conduct autopsies, without blame
Build red-flag mechanisms

What can we potentially do better than any other company, and, equally important, what can we not do better than any other company? And if we can't be the best at it, then why are we doing it at all?
p97

Not a goal to be the best, a strategy to be the best, an intention to be the best or a plan to be the best. It is an understanding of what you can be best at. The distinction is absolutely critical.
p98

A hedgehog requires a severe standard of excellence. p100

consensus decisions are often at odds with intelligent decisions p116

Most companies build their bureacratic rules to manage the small percentage of wrong people on the bus, which in turn drives away the right people on the bus, which then increases the percentage of wrong people on the bus, which increases the need for more bureacracy to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline, which then further drives the right people away, ad so forth... Avoicd bureacracy and hierarchy and instead create a culture of discipline. p121

1. Build the culture around the idea of freedom and responsibility, within a framework
2. Fill that culture with self-disciplined people who are willing to go to extreme lengths to fulfill their responsibilities. They will rinse their cottage cheese.
3. Don't confuse a culture of discipline with a tyrannical disciplinarian.
4. Adhere with great consistency to the Hegehod Concept, exercising an almost religious focus on the intersection of the three circles. Equally important, create a stop doing list and systematically unplug anything extraneous.
p 124

They hired self-disciplined people who didn't need to be managed, and then managed the system, not the people. p125

...budgeting is a discipline to decide which arenas should be fully funded and which should not be funded at all. p140

Mediocrity results first and foremost from management failure, not technological failure.
p156

thoughtless reliance on technology is a liability... p159

...when grasped as an easy solution, without deep understanding of how it links to a clear and coherent concept - technology simply accelerates your own self-created demise. p159

...they talked in terms of what they were trying to create and how they were trying to improve relative to an absolute standard of excellence. p160

Enduring great companies preserve their core values and purpose while their business strategies and operating practices endlessly adapt to changing world. This is the magical combination of "preserve the core and stimulate progress". p195






NEXT TIME: I look at the monograph Collins wrote specifically for non-profits specifically applying G-to-G principles in the non-profit/social sector

Trolling blogs for information

I formally counted it up recently, I'm tracking 149 RSS feeds. The majority of those are blog sites, but ESPN and the New York Times headlines are also included. Some of the sites I track are feeds of a friend or family member's online photo albums. There's a group of them that are technology related, gossip about Apple and what their latest secret project will be, reviews of new technology products etc. I also follow several Pastors and others who serve in churches across the country. Understand, that with RSS, I'm selective of what I actually read and what I skip. But it is true, I troll 149 blogs on a regular basis.



Interesting discovery about my Administering Grace blog, excluding those who visit the main page on a regular basis, the most visited individual post on my site is Literal or Allegorical - The Book of Job generated by people who are Google searching Job Allegory Literal. I would've never expected that. Maybe I need to expand on the literal interpretation of Job further.

NEXT TIME: Good to Great Quotes

Make sure your seat is in the upright position

Without the customary safety instruction card, the steward(ess) demonstrating the proper operation of a seat belt buckle or the pilot announcing that all electrical devices be turned off... I didn't know quite what to do at the outset of today's flight (That's an exaggeration, but it sets up the rest of the post).



Jay and I had our mobile phones with us and with no reminder from pilot, we left them on during the entire flight (maybe that's why we ended up in Harrisburg... just kidding). At an altitude of 1,400 feet, circling over Grace Church, Jay's phone rang.



It was the daycare, a toilet was clogged or something like that.



And with that, Jay jumped, parachuted onto the soccer field and got right to unplugging the commode. Barring any other emergency meetings tomorrow that steal the show, I'll share about Camp Conquest.

An anxious-generating surprise

Dear Staff Members:

I am needing to call an emergency staff meeting for this Monday, March 10, beginning @ 9am around the conference table in the church office. Something has come UP that could greatly affect our upcoming 4 events (Women’s Event, Egg Hunt, Good Friday Worship, and Easter). It is important that I am able to share these details with you all at the same time.

The administrative staff from the school/daycare have not been invited to this meeting nor has any church staff member who does not work in the office as it only directly affects the church staff who work in the office on a day to day basis. As a result, this meeting is mandatory for those receiving this e-mail. If you do not normally work on Monday mornings, you do not need to come in for this meeting unless you want to. The only exception to this is Megan…if you could be there it would be greatly helpful for both receptionists to be at this meeting. I have already asked Rick Bernhardt to have the school cover the phones and doors during this time so that both Charlene and Megan can attend the meeting.

I know all of you are busy right now but I need you to set this time aside. I’m not sure how long this meeting will take so please keep the better part of that morning clear just in case. We will keep the office window closed that morning until after our meeting is done. Please do not ask me what the meeting is about in advance as that would put me in an awkward position. I honestly can’t make any announcement before Monday morning as I will not know all of the circumstances until just prior to our 9am meeting.

Thank you!
Scott


That's the message we all received last Wednesday morning. The varied reactions/responses of staff members reveals that for those who've been on staff at Grace for a decade or more, there are still tender spots from past wounds. Emergency meetings usually don't involve good news or happy surprises. I know I lost a lot of sleep over the past week as I fought to keep my mind from speculating about what could be wrong. I attempted not to conduct a full FBI analysis-parsing of each verb, font usage, let alone reading between the lines - having to write similar notices at various times, I know I don't appreciate it when a message gets dissected - but it turns out there were clues embedded in the message.

As the caravan headed south on Rt 501 this morning, the speculation mounted. "I think we're going to the airport where there will be a helicopter that will be used to drop the Easter Eggs from the sky for Saturday's Egg Hunt." I could corroborate that there were two helicopters at the airport this morning that I hadn't seen before.

I learned quickly that bosses prefer as few surprises as possible and that I don't like them either. Due to confidentiality matters, surprises are inevitable and you learn to deal with them. Turns out all of my internal turmoil was completely unnecessary. The "UP" in the original message as indeed intended as a clue. 'Course, I figured it had to be a good news emergency meeting with the tease that went out in Pastor Scott's email update on Monday morning. I guess, though it was just a 10-15 minute flight around Lititz, I'll be suffering jet lag this week from all the sleep I lost in anxious anticipation. The loss of sleep was worth the exhilaration of being in the air on a work day with my co-workers.

How cool a boss do we have that he arranged for each of us to fly over Lititz for the purpose of seeing a birds-eye view of the people we are trying to reach?

He'd actually attempted to give us a celebratory day off after Easter as well; but he hadn't realized that we get a Easter holiday anyway, rendering the day off idea moot. I hated sharing that news with him because I knew he was attempting to show appreciation to all of us.

No doubt about it, Grace is a fascinating place to work and God has assembled a unique team that takes each of our ministries and responsibilities seriously, but at the same time, we know how to have fun. I don't know many places that are given a morning off to go for an airplane ride on a Monday morning.

A Future in Flying?

I wonder if flying is in my future? There was the JAARS flight last summer which I chronicled in an earlier post and just last week I had a fascinating conversation with an American Airlines pilot who was at the school for Career Day. And today we were surprised with a short flight around Lititz. Each conversation, each flight keeps feeding this yearning I have to fly. Here's what the church looked like from around 1,400 feet...

Jodi, Charlene and Jay were in the plane during our flight. Jodi was in the co-pilot seat, Jay and I were next to each other facing the rear of the aircraft and Charlene was at the back facing us (she was the easiest to capture on camera).

Pastoral Impersonations

At a conference I attended several years ago, Ed Young, Jr. did great impersonations of Joel Osteen and Bishop Jakes. He pulled the Osteen impersonation out again at the C3 Conference a few weeks ago. It's always good to start the week on a light note!

Hacking BibleGateway.com

I've always liked a good practical joke. The challenge with practical jokes is knowing where the line of demarcation is that indicates when the joke has gone too far. I do not condone hacking into someone else's website and this crossed the line because of it's global ramifications, but there was a funny side to it.

http://mondaymorninginsight.com/index.php/site/comments/hacker_attacks_biblegatewaycom_switches_kjv_and_amplified_bible/

Car search

We tried a Ford Crown Victoria for a weekend, a V8, rear-wheel drive beast of a car that made me feel like my Opa (he loved driving his 1967 Chrysler Imperial). Each time I looked over at Beth in the passenger seat, I'd bust out in laughter at the picture of the two of us in this boat of a vehicle. Though the kick of putting the accelerator to the floor and sensation of being thrust back into the seat was a thrill ride, I didn't want the liability of rear-wheel drive in poor weather. After looking at some Buick's and an Impala, on a whim I thought I'd look at a used Cadillac, naive as to whether it was even remotely in our price range.

We tried a 2004 Cadillac Deville for a day, never anticipating how much I'd enjoy it. My brother and I derogatorily referred to Cadillacs in our younger years as Fladilcats, but recent friends have touted their benefits and started to win me over; the test drive sealed the deal. Though less than a foot shorter than the Crown Vic, the Deville drove like a much smaller car. I was infatuated by the luxury and blinded by the emotions not only of driving such a car, but of looking at it parked in the parking lot. In the end, I pried the keys out of my grip and returned it to the dealer. It was one of the hardest things I've had to do in recent memory. Returning to the blue van was never such a let down and that thing felt like such a huge pile of sheet metal.

It's rare that I allow myself such indulgences and frankly, the Deville experience freaked me out. It was clearly beyond our needs, exceeded our price range, though it was a good deal for a used one. The feelings it generated in me were deceptive. For once I felt like I was driving a car with status, not just a four wheel transportation device. As a speaker I heard this week affirmed, our vehicles are not status symbols, there just cars to help us get from here to there. I had lost that mentality.

We ended up with a base model 2004 Impala. It runs and hopefully will take us 174,000 miles like the van did though I'd love to take a pickup 1,000,000 miles.

NEXT TIME: Putting Super-Size Sunday in context

It's out in the recycling

We owe Dan and Lynn Libby one gargantuan thank you...

The night before leaving for Dallas, I picked my Dad up with the blue van and took him to the facility he'd be staying at while I was away. The battery had drained on the vehicle, an unidentifiable electrical problem that had plagued it for the past four years, requiring a jump to get it started after the weekend, so for fear that I couldn't get it to start again, I left it running the entire hour or so that I got Dad settled. With Dad I settled, I pulled out of the parking lot to discover the van had leaked a nice sized puddle of dirty oil. She was bleeding, severe internal bleeding.

We'd anticipated that this day was drawing near and had been courting a replacement, so we weren't caught off guard. But it was clear that there wasn't much life left in the once beautiful machine that was now a blue bomb. And so, after 234,xxx miles, the blue van has made its last official voyage.

We laughed unabashedly in the face of the auto dealers who questioned whether we'd be trading in our current vehicle, with us insisting that our vehicle had absolutely no worth. It's final trip will be to the recycling yard to be turned into scrap.

It has completed it's service to us, having taken us about 100,000 miles ourselves, in addition to the 100,000 the Libby's traveled in it. Dan and Lynn sold it to us for $1 some 11 years ago. We owe them a gargantuan Thank You!

Adjusting to jet lag or the end of daylight saving time

Daylight saving time begins this Sunday at 2am - don't forget to set your clocks forward otherwise when you'd planned to attend the first service, you'll arrive just in time for Pastor Scott's last message point or two.


I dread this week. While there are lots of American's who've never travelled far enough to experience jet lag, in reality, most American's already have in the form of daylight saving time. For once, I'm going to employ the gameplan I worked up several years ago.


Beginning Tuesday morning, I'll be awakening 15 minutes earlier than my usual wake up time. For security reasons, I can't post the exact time here. Wednesday morning, I'll awak another 15 minutes earlier than I did on Tuesday. Same thing Thursday and Friday, so that by Saturday, I'll be awakening an hour earlier than normal and will have shifted to daylight saving time gradually as opposed to cold turkey.


Hey, some guys can obsess about showers others can obsess about numbers.

BTW, if you haven't checked it out yet, head over to blog.lgbc.org to read and/or post your testimony of how God has been faithful through times of pain and heartache in your life.


NEXT TIME: What happened to the blue van?

How God has been working among the Elders

There have been occasions when the hours after an Elder meeting were some of the most discouraging and frustrating hours of my week. But I'm ecstatic to say that for the past several years I've experienced the complete opposite with last night being the latest episode.


I come away from Elder meetings today inspired and motivated by the men who serve with us. Our partnership is tighter than I've seen in my decade of serving with them. Last night, I sought their feedback on a decision I have to make and to a man, each of them challenged me to take courage and boldness in following God's leading. Tim and me reflected on the moment after the meeting concluded and reminded ourselves of the number of times we've heard of or seen firsthand Elder boards that were reluctant in leadership and wishy-washy about what God was calling the church to do.


I appreciate each of them for their humility, their understanding as to what God has them to do and their passion to follow that calling each step of the way. Their recognition that their sinners saved by Grace, just like the next person and their complete reliance on Our Savior.


Like many other aspects of our ministry, our staff/Elder partnership is not the norm. I consider it a real privilege to have the kind of relationship we have with one another and feel truly blessed by it; I don't take it for granted.


So as I drove home from last night's meeting, my heart was filled with joy as I contemplated all that God is doing and my mind was excitedly filled with ideas of all the things I need to be working on next in pursuit of serving the Lord.



COMING UP NEXT: Adjusting to daylight saving time one day at a time

C3 Notes

If you want to catch the highlights of most of the speakers from last week's conference, Tony Morgan was one of several who blogged throughout the sessions. In case you're interested...



Ed Young, Jr's session 1



Ed Young, Jr's session 2



Mac Richard - something was up with this session as it started 45 minutes late, but we never heard what went down. My behind the scenes logistics curiosity would love to know.



Perry Noble



Brian Huston



Tommy Barnett



Bishop T.D. Jakes



For me, the most powerful lesson came out of one of Bishop Jake's messages. Using the account of the Last Supper, he applied it to each of our lives... how like the bread, God took us, blessed us, broke us and gave us. The light bulb went on (you could literally hear people connect the dots across the room like a wave) as Bishop walked us through the stories of Jesus, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and several other Biblical characters we all know so well and illuminated how in each instance, God took them, blessed them, broke them and gave them - with specific emphasis on how God wasn't able to fully utilize each character until they'd become completely broken.

Deployments

With close to three hours to burn once we arrived at DFW for our return flight to Harrisburg, I found myself at one of my favorite places with a lot of time on my hands. Since I was but a few years old, I've enjoyed watching airplanes. In fact, I have a memory of going to the Princeton Airport one afternoon when I was two or three. So spent the three hours I had at DFW walking the concourses and riding the SkyLink. All in all, I walked from gate B6 to B33 and then from B6 to gate D12 and rode the SkyLink close to three times around the entire DFW terminal. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

In addition to helping a couple of foreigners figure out the slightly confusing SkyLink system, I also watched a US Army unit head out for deployment. I'd never seen a unit head out on a commercial flight, so the sight of the concourse crowded with about 100 personnel in desert fatigues was impressive.

If I have my data right, two individuals connected with Grace deploy today: Larry and Barnaby. Regardless of your stance on the political side of things, be praying for all of our military personnel as they serve our country.

Visions of air travel and worship juxtaposed

Hoards and hoards of people travelling thousands of thousands of miles a day.
Craft travelling at hundreds of miles an hour.
Lines and lines of travellers waiting to board airplanes and before that, waiting half dressed and barefoot to go through security check points.

As we experienced all the joys of domestic travel last week, I turned to Scott saying, "This is exactly what the Wright brothers envisioned during their 30-second glide on the beach." And yet, there are church movements today that are equally foreign when compared to that first church in Acts.

Growing up I attended churches that employed a traditional style of worship. Of course, spending several years in another culture, I was exposed to other styles and means of worship which broadened my perspective and appreciation for the universal church. And as new songs have been used in worship, I've come to appreciate the new styles that have come with them. But, the multi-sensory, experiential worship style makes me feel very old. I'm just not comfortable with it yet.

If the Wright's had known that their innovation would eventually restrict everyone to carrying only three ounces of liquids they may have scrapped their endeavors all together.

The thing is, in His omniscience, God knew His church would be where it is today and He knows where it will be tomorrow and He knew where it was over 2,000 years ago. And for some reason, God decided that where things were 2,000 years ago was the right timing for sending His Savior. Recollecting my Bible readings, I can't think of a reason why the years of silence between Malachi and Matthew had to be 400 years as opposed to 2,000 years of silence. Though it won't matter in eternity, I wonder why He chose to rebuke the religious peoples of that time period as opposed to sending His Son today or sending Him for the yet to be fulfilled second time.

Theme song and another lesson

I realize this evening that two items of note had gotten lost in, as Scott has proclaimed, my Elephant brain. Though chronologically out of order, I couldn't resist leaving these undocumented...

I was the last of our group through the enjoyable encounter every air traveler today experiences with the wonderful people at the Transportation Security Agency. And after frantically retying my shoes, shoving the laptop back in it's case, putting my baggy of liquids and gels back into my luggage, I was able to catch up with the rest of my group. The facial expression on Matt's face, a combination of embarassment and discust, conveyed that my rush was unnecessary. See, two of the nine in our group are fans of Walker Texas Ranger re-runs and all week at various times, they'll break into singing the theme song from the show. The disdain of the rest of us and their fervor where diametrically amplified when we learned that Walker himself attended one of the ministries we've crossed paths with while on this trip. So "when you're in Texas look behind you..."

Secondly, as an addendum to my last post, another lesson I picked up this week, is having the paint in the facility touched up weekly. One of the ministries we visited employees two full time staff who's sole responsibility is to go around the facility each week touching up the paint on the walls. Hadn't thought of that before.