Posts by ajladmin
The Tyranny of Nostalgia
What is Nostalgia? Every generation tends to have a favorite music genre. Even as time passes, they stay forever connected to that one era—for my parents it was the 60s and 70s, for me it was the late 90s, for my kids it’s something more recent. This music isn’t special to us because we objectively…
Read MoreTo Create Curiosity or to Firehose them?
Have you ever poured yourself into a project and felt like someone on the other side just didn’t respond well? This is the conversation I have most often with clients. It can be easy to think when we don’t get a good response, the answer must be to try harder. That can be true…sometimes. But…
Read MoreUnraveling Ministry Hurts
Recently, I had a conversation with a pastor who was dealing with some frustration in ministry. He was struggling with his staff, the board and the direction they were headed. He felt misunderstood. Our conversation quickly seemed to go from present to past. How long he had been in ministry, all the different areas he…
Read More3 Ways to Reignite Your Organization’s Original Vision
Recently, I was consulting with an organization that wanted to change their community by: marriages restored and healthy parent-child connection. Working through connections with schools and offering free resources: marriage-parenting classes, events and mentorship. However, unforeseen challenges made them lose sight of their vision. We spent time together to get back their original excitement for…
Read MoreAudience Persona Exercise
Terry freezes, locking his eyes on a hawk yards away that sits on a tree branch. He grips the camera hanging from his neck and brings it up to his eye, aiming for the perfect shot. He needs another lens, but he sees the hawk jerk his head towards the opposite direction. The bird’s about…
Read MoreMarketing Masks & Ninja Assassins
I get a kick out of the things people dress up like for Halloween. How one personality transforms into another for a day of fun. Take my niece for example, a mild mannered, sweet little first grader who transforms into a dangerous masked ninja assassin. I can’t barely even recognize her in her Halloween costume.…
Read MoreLeadership Hurt
Over the years in ministry, I’ve heard people tell me time and time again that hurt people hurt people. In my younger days, I think I passed it off as just something that you say to get over moments of frustration. But as I reflect on it now, I realize that it’s very true. Ministries…
Read MoreMinistries Should Think Like Entrepreneurs
At Keenly, my job is to work with ministries. Big and small, local and international, building churches or educating children in Africa, I have the honor of working with such a variety of kingdom-changing groups. The past few years as I’ve been able to look behind the curtain of these different ministries, I’ve noticed a…
Read MoreRevenge Ministry
When you talk to people in ministry, it seems that everybody’s got a story about how they got into it and why this work matters. As someone who appreciates the reason why people do what they do, these conversations are especially intriguing to me. We have found a lot of interesting reasons that people move…
Read MoreHow to Delegate
My daughter has a giant pair of clippers in her hands. She looks tiny in comparison to the monstrous gardening tool. I can easily imagine it snipping off one of her little fingers. Yet, I don’t feel scared. While she may still be a child, I’ve trusted her more and more as she’s gotten older.…
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