Social Networking vs Living

I love the irony of this video. There is much to be said about this video, but instead of reading my meager words, reflect upon the 30 seconds of this commercial. 

The Past is a Limitation

If you have not read Community: The Structure of Belonging by Peter Block I would highly recommend it for those who desire to innovate and create new narratives for their communities. I wanted to share this brief quote with you.

"Conversations that focus on stories about the past become a limitation to community; ones that are teaching parables and focus on the future restore community."

It is very easy to limit an organization, family, ministry, therapy, leadership, or simply the "water cooler" conversations to what life was like in the past. Often times it is difficult to shift the conversation to the future because we are trapped by fear or paralyzed that change may occur if we ask the right questions. The future is based upon the questions one is willing to ask. Peter lays out a plan on how to move the conversation from the past to the future. His premise is that we are stuck on problem solving and not creating new and engaging stories.

What conversations about the past are you having that is limiting the future?

Life is Connection

I have heard about the book and know the story, but this movie trailer makes me want to see 127 Hours. Simply put, a man cuts his arm off for survival. I liked the summary from Relevant magazine;


"Even when we feel most alone, we have a connection to others that keeps us going and drives our will to live."


Life is about connections through relationships. Relationship to God and to one another.

Read the entire article for more about Ralston and his journey.

Critique of My Blog

John Saddington is all over the web, building and branding blogs from the ground up.

His personal brand is here

Churchcrunch.com is one that I watched grow from the beginning and follow today as well. This is were I fill as if I get insider news regarding technology and how it relates to church and ministry.

Recently he started tentblogger.com and is now a professional blogger. A few weeks ago he offered his services for free and offered people a quick review of their blogs.  Here is what John has to say about this blog.


Review: Lantz Howard from John on Vimeo.

If you honestly watched it and know anything about blogs I have a little room for improvements. Check out his sites I linked to above and you can see a quick difference. No I do not plan on being a professional blogger, but I would like for my blog to be more professional and easy to use for my readers.

I hope to be making some improvements soon, but not sure if the turn around will be as quick as desired.

For example, I would like to move my blog from Blogger to Wordpress. Blogger is a great place for ease of use. On the other hand Wordpress is more dynamic and robust in what they offer. Did you know that approximately 17% of websites are being built using Wordpress platform. Moving to Wordpress would allow more flexibility in terms of publishing content on this blog.

Here are a few of my favorite blogs and you can see how flexible Wordpress is:

Michael Hyatt
Chris Brogan
Corey Allan and Simple Marriage
Trey Morgan--he switched earlier this year from Blogger to Wordpress
Check out this showcase of sites using Wordpress and Standard Theme.

There you have it, a critique of my blog and my desire to use the Wordpress platform.

Currently I am debating the low monthly hosting fees ($10 or less) that are required when using a Wordpress platform. Lee Bezotte is offering to transfer this blog by using his hosting service. If that happens I will be using the Standard Theme built by John Saddington.

So what do you think, should I move to Wordpress?

Communication and Alignment

We are all leaders in a system. You may lead at home, school, a business, little league coach, etc. The point is many people are failing the tribes they are leading due to a lack of communication. Effective communication happens within the context of a conversation. The quote below summarizes what happens when communication fails.

The following quote is from Michael Hyatt's (CEO of Thomas Nelson) blog earlier this week as he announced his partnership with SoChuch.

"I know that effective communication is critical. You can’t maintain organizational alignment without it. And if you can’t maintain alignment, you will fail in your mission. Period."

How are you doing in your communication?

Do you know your mission?

What are doing to maintain organizational alignment?

The Art of Telling Stories in Your Family -- Part 3

This brings us full circle to the end of Deuteronomy 6 and Part 1 in The Art of Telling Stories in Your Family.

At the end of Deuteronomy 6 a son asks his father, "What is the meaning...?"

You see all stories begin with a question. We must begin to ask questions of one another so we can hear each others Egyptian story.

There is a problem most have with sharing our stories due to what I call in Part 2 the commercialization of the family. The art of not only telling stories, but asking questions needs enlightenment. Questions are the catalyst that leads to connection.

We have an enormous amount of communication, but few meaningful connections of one another including our very own family members. Everyone is communicating through social networking, reading the news, watching TV, and listening to the radio to only mention a few mediums of communications.

Sensory overload within all the mass communications has led many of our relationship to lack the power of presence. Sure we all communicate, but are we slowing down enough to connect?

Our stories have value. Our stories deserve to be told to future generations.

May we come to realize the value in asking questions so the stories of how Christ freed us can transform generations to come.