Is fear an appropriate tool for motivation?

We see it in many segments of society.

Rental car companies use it to sell extras to a rental contract…..

Do you wonder what’s next after Facebook and Twitter?

Seth Priebatsch thinks he understands the answer to that question, and if he is right, it will change the “rules” of how we do life, just as Facebook and Twitter have. Watch this Ted video as Seth explains.

In my job I hear far more junk than I care to hear. The larger our church gets, the more mess we encounter among the people to whom we minister. We have designed our church to reach hurting people, so we are simply reaching our target audience, but some days it is more difficult than others to hear such sad stories.

One part of the drama of messiness that always frustrates me is how gossip begins about other people’s problems. As if dealing with the consequences of sin is not enough, many times some of the hardest repercussion is the gossip that occurs about the people involved and the situation that occurred. I have never found gossip to be helpful to the people involved or to the Kingdom of God. I have literally become a hater of gossip because I have seen it destroy so many people! Gossip hurts innocent people who are caught in the middle, it exaggerates the situation, and it keeps the one who did wrong loaded with guilt and frustration, and from experiencing the fullness of God’s grace.

With that in mind,here are 7 suggestions for how to stop the spread of gossip.

People watching is such an art. It takes discipline and practice. If you aren’t careful you might miss something good…or you could scare people away.

In one people-watching day recently I saw…

According to a recent survey, 40 percent of professionals want to quit their job. I’m curious, is that higher than you would think? I’d love to know what percentage on our staff feels that way….(hopefully not that high!)

As one who studies and writes about organizational health, these numbers frustrate me. What can be done to improve job satisfaction? I love the interview Brad Lomenick did recently with Tony Hsieh of Zappos about their corporate culture. Check it out HERE. Zappos appears to be a place people want to work and one that is remaining very profitable.

According to the Nashville Business Journal, here is a list of reasons U.S. professionals cited for wanting to quit their jobs this year, accompanied by the percentage of respondents who cited the reason:

I tweeter recently a question. What is one non-negotiable characteristic of a leader you are willing to follow?

Here are some of the responses:

Do you like summer? Are you ready for the season to change? I am always ready for change and as a runner, it has been especially hot. As an optimist by nature, however, I decided it was best to reflect on the things I like about summer.

Here are 10 reasons I love about summer:

Drew Snider is a pastor at Gospel Mission in Vancouver, B.C., Canada and a reader of my blog. Recently he asked me a question online about performing marriages for those who are living together and I thought it was worth asking here, so I asked him to guest post about it. Here’s Drew’s post:

Authors Kerry and Chris Shook are encouraging a revolution of relationship strengthening in their new book “Love at Last Sight”. The Shooks, who founded Woodland Church in 1993, and have seen it grow to a mega church of 18,000 per weekend, believe that relationships are in trouble. The key relationships in our life, such as with our spouse, children and close friends, needs to move from a “love at first sight” mentality, to a “love at last sight mentality.”

Too many people get into relationships by falling madly in love, but then allow the relationship to lose energy over time. “Love at Last Sight” challenges

One Tweet should never stand alone in determining the value of a Tweeter. With the rapid fire that most people Twitter 140 characters, the quick thoughts extended are not always a fair representation of the mind, heart and character of the person Tweeting.

There are times I have Tweeted something I wish later I hadn’t. I have mistyped or misspelled a tweet numerous times. My auto-correct has finished words for me that were inappropriate. I have had trouble communicating what I wanted to say in such a small space.

If you are going to follow me (or anyone) on Twitter. Here’s a quick reminder: