"Capitalization Rate"

I was reading an article on espn.com the other day with Bill Simmons and Malcom Gladwell and the article was pretty much a series of email exchanges between the two. (You can read the article HERE). It was very entertaining and interesting, I didn't know Gladwell was such a sports fan. As many know he is a Best-Selling Author ("The Tipping Point, "Outliers" among others). I have enjoyed hearing him speak on several occasions most recently the Catalyst Conference back in October. In the exchange of emails Gladwell mentions a phrase, "Capitalization Rate" and goes onto say, this "refers to how effeiciently any group makes use of it's talent".

I got to thinking about that phrase "Capitalization Rate". I wonder as a leader, how I am doing at creating environments and opportunities for the people around me to have a HIGH "Captitalization Rate"?

Am I creating environments for the people that serve under me to capitalize on the talents that they have and to efficiently use those talents for the glory of God and for thier own fulfillment of purpose and destiny? Am I opening doors of opportunity for my leaders and those who are not yet leading but may if the door is opened for them?

Am I a leader that "equips and releases" or do I fail to create those environments and open those doors of opportunity? This is an important question! Not just for me and the place I am as a leader and where we are as a church but for all leaders.

If there was a guage or a scale that could measure the "Capitalization Rate" of your people, what would it read? How high is that rate for you as an individual and how high is it for the leaders you are responsible for? I think this is one of those areas that you can really foster a since of "Excellence" in your people. If you can somehow help them discover gifts and abilities they didn't know they possesed and then open the door of opportunity for them to use that, then I believe we will see not only growth and excellence but a renewed since of purpose and fulfillment in that leader.

I had a Pastor that did this for me...

As a young leader who really had no clue about who I was or what type of leader I needed to be or wanted to be. My Pastor, Chad Smith, took the time to create an environment for me to be able to grow and mature and discover gifts and abilities that I didn't know I even had. I had no clue I had a sense of Creativity about me until Chad opened the door of opportunity for me to be creative. And once that door was open and that environment was created, I discovered something about myself, and I began to operate in that gifting, and because of that we were able to do some really cool stuff.

If Chad Smith had not created the environemnt and opened the door of opportunity for me to have a high "Capitalization Rate" I would not be the person I am. That shaped me...

And it is our responsibility to do that for the leaders that serve under us; to do for them what was done for us...

So where is your "Capitalization Rate" as an individual and how about your leaders? What are you doing to raise it?

I Love Christmas...

I love Christmas... I love everything about it.  I just can't help it.  I love to walk through the mall and hear songs about Jesus being played.  I love giving presents, I love getting presents.  I love putting up a tree, I love being with family, I love seeing my son Tyler's face when he opens presents, but mostly I love that God loved me so much that He would send His only Son to this world to His death, to take upon Himself my shame and my pain and to bear my burden to calvary.

This Christmas I choose to Celebrate the "Light that Emerged Onto Darkness", the light of Christ.

I celebrate not only His coming, but His death, His burial, His resurrection, and the life that I now have only because of Him.  I Celebrate Jesus.  And I am so grateful for the greatest gift that has ever been given and the greatest gift I will ever receive...

Merry Christmas!!

New Bulletins...

A couple months ago we started doing a new bulletin specifically designed for the series that we are in...  The idea came from Stevens Creek Church (check them out HERE) and Genesis Church (check them out HERE)...

This is the bulletin for our December series...

What do you think?

Outside... (it folds...)

Inside...

Baptism Video Nov 29, 2009...

Here is the video we showed before our very first baptism at Oasis Church.  An amazing family and it was a great day.  It was cool to get to celebrate how amazing our God is with these guys and with our church...

Baptism Video from Wesley Weatherford on Vimeo.

Inspired By The Faith Of A Child...

Tonight I went and visited my friend Gracie in the hospital.  She is 6 years old and a Type 1 Diabetic.  Her parents Larry & Kelly are in our Small Group and every time we have prayer she always requests that we pray for her to be healed of her diabetes.  She has an abundance of faith and it overflows out of her.  As I visited with Gracie and her parents tonight I saw her lying there in the hospital bed asleep and exhausted from a long day of needles and IV's and tests, my heart broke for her and I had to fight back my tears.  In that moment I thought, "God this is a child who loves you and believes with all that is within her that you will heal her, why haven't you done that?"  And as I prayed with her I found myself almost begging God to breathe healing into the body of this sweet little girl.

I said my goodbyes and left and as I was walking out of the hospital I was inspired by the faith of this beautiful little girl.  It inspires me how she has battled through all the things she has come through and yet she has no doubt.  SHE BELIEVES!!  Her faith is strong and unwavering in the face of struggle and fear.  She is an inspiration to me.  I find myself at times complaining about stupid, small stuff and this little girl despite of what she has faced and been through at the young age of 6 has nothing but faith in the God she loves very much.  I want to live that way.  I want to be able to look in the face of uncertainty and struggle and fear and BELIEVE like Gracie BELIEVES.

Gracie is only 6 so she probably doesn't read this blog, but if she did, I would tell her Thank You.  Thank You for inspiring me and challenging me tonight.  Thank you for your unwavering faith.  You are a HERO in my eyes.  Tonight I join my faith with Gracie's and I BELIEVE that an all knowing, all powerful, always present, and ever loving God WILL MOST DEFINITELY heal her body.  And He will get all the glory and fame for the healing of her body and for all that she accomplishes for His Kingdom.

Thank You Gracie...

I am So Grateful...

Last night when I was getting in the bed Tyler was in our bed and I moved his pillow and he said in his sleep, "Hey that's my pillow..."  It was so funny!  I got in the bed and was talking to Jessica and he said with his eyes closed, "be quiet, I sleeping..."  Again so funny...

I laid there thinking that I am so blessed to have Jessica and Tyler in my life.  They both bring so much joy to my life.  Sometimes it brings tears to my eyes to think of how God has blessed me.  I am so grateful for both of them.

Jessica is such a support and help to me.  I know I am so undeserving of her love yet she gives it so freely.  She is truly an amazing woman who is an incredible mother and a great wife and life partner.

Just feeling very grateful tonight and so very blessed.  Thank you God for all your blessings you pour out on my life but most of all for my amazing wife and my incredible son...

Nice Quote...

Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. - Warren G. Bennis

I want to dissect this real quick for you but mostly for me...

What type of Leadership has the capacity to Translate Vision Into Reality?

I think it takes a lot of different elements to take a really awesome God vision and translate that into reality.

1.) Tenacity

- being unwilling to give up on the vision no matter what the outlook is...

2.) Focus

- a vision can not become reality if it is not constantly the focus and out in front of you...

3.) Unwavering Commitment

- if you haven't truly committed then you will let yourself off the hook when it gets tough...

4.) Planning & Management

- you have to plan out and implement the small steps to accomplish the larger ones...

5.) Passion

- without passion, you risk becoming apathetic and indifferent toward the vision...

6.) Teamwork

- a great God vision cannot be accomplished by you alone...

7.) Value

- for a God vision to become reality it must add value...

8.) Giving

- resources, time, energy...

9.) Communication

- a vision must be communicated clearly and often...

10.) Dependance

- a complete and total dependance on God to do the impossible through you...

Just my thoughts... Take it or leave it!!

10 Signs of A Secure Leader...

I was reading some stuff from Perry Noble they other day and saw this and was challenged... I pray that I am a Secure Leader and that I am becoming the Leader that God wants me to be.  This is good stuff!

10 Signs of a Secure Leader:

#1 – Realizes he has nothing to prove!

#2 – Works for the applause of heaven and not for the applause of men.

#3 – Seeks God for direction instead of merely asking Him for permission.

#4 – Doesn’t pretend that he has all the answers.

#5 – Seeks to submit to the Spirit instead of constantly grieving Him.

#6 – Understands that he will go insane if his goal is for everyone to understand him.

#7 – Is willing to repent when he is wrong…and do whatever it takes to make things right.

#8 – Puts personal preferences aside when making decisions that will impact the church.

#9 – Has a sense of desperation for God…fully understanding the reality of John 15:5.

#10 – Refuses to compromise the vision…even when it may be convenient to do so!

Apologies & New Commitments...

So first let me say I am sorry for my lapse in blogging (to all 3 of my readers - one being my wife)... I have no good excuses so I want bore you with attempts, but much apologies!!

I am making a new and fresh commitment to 'The BLOG".  I will start this week with this post, and I commit to Blog at least on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays and hopefully more...  I expect all 3 of my readers to hold me accountable to that commitment.

I am hoping to incorporate a good mix of posts that range in topics from Leadership, Church Growth, Personal Stuff and Oasis News.  I hope you enjoy reading and if you do let me know, and if you don't let me know.  Thanks for reading...

Friend Day At Oasis!!

It's been a while since I have blogged... My Bad!!

I am JACKED about Friend Day at Oasis this Sunday at 11am...

It's going to be a great day... Hoping everybody is Inviting their friends...

Fantasy Football...

I know this sounds funny... But I love Fantasy Football!!!  And it's almost here... I usually play in a couple of leagues with some friends mostly from LaGrange... So I am excited about the Fantasy Football Season, as silly as that may sound!!!

IMITATION...

Been thinking about this word this week... IMITATION... What is it to truly Imitate something, and is that good or bad?  Is it something that we all do?  Is there something in us that causes each of us to Imitate someone or something?  What or Who do we Imitate?  How does that affect the rest of our life?  How does it affect the people in our life?  How does it affect our children?  Does our Imitation of something or someone trickle down to the people we have influence over?  When Paul told the church at Ephesus to "be Imitators of God" what exactly does that mean to us and how does it or should it affect us daily?  IMITATION... Looking forward to talking about this Sunday at Oasis @ 11am...

hoping for a good day...

I am about to leave the house to go and get ready for service and I find myself excited and hopeful... Excited about what I get to do today, excited about the people who will come and will be changed by the perfect love of an amazing God... Hopeful that God will use and anoint a regular old mess-up like me, hopeful that God will take His word and make it life to our people today, hopeful for a great crowd, hopeful for new people to be there today, hopeful that someone will come face to face with God and have no choice but to give their life to Him this morning...

Hoping for a good day...

The Highlight of my weekend...

I got on the floor with Tyler tonight, and he looked up at me and said..."You play with me Daddy... You play with my trains..."

As we were playing I said, "Tyler I love you, do you love me, and he said, Mommy loves me and You love me"...

My heart melted, you wonder if your children know that you love them, you know that they will never know until they have one of their own, but you wonder in your mind do they know that I love them...  It made my heart smile when he said that his mother and I loved him...

Highlight of my weekend, no matter what else happens...

"Excited about the Fall"

Man, I am really excited about the fall.  I believe we have some good things in place to really create some momentum for our church plant.  God has really been blessing us with new people, and we believe more are on the way.  We have done some radio advertising and seen some results from that, our first Billboard just went up yesterday, "it looks great" (big thank you to Greg Robertson over at Lamar), we are having "FRIEND DAY" on September 20th and are really excited about all of our folks bringing there friends, family and complete strangers that they found on the side of the road that day.  We have set a goal of 100 people in attendance and 10 salvations, I believe we can do it... Actually in all honesty I believe we can blow that out of the water if we'll apply ourselves...

We started a "Pastor's Breakfast" in the summer that we are seeing great results from, and I believe we are about to see a SURGE in volunteers, so I am really excited about that.

The Oasis Co-Ed Softball team is in the end of the year tournament Championship Series this Tuesday, it's a best 2 out of 3 series, so we are guaranteed 2nd place with a shot at first, so we are proud of our team and it's been a great chance to get to know people and build some relationships.

The summer has been great, but I am definitely excited about the fall...

If you haven't checked us out yet, you really need to...

Peace Owt...

New Church Website / New Blog

I am jacked about our new website (brought to you by creative juice graphic design) and my blog as well...

I've had trouble in the past with the blogging because of some technical difficulties and the design of the last blog, but now we are good to go...  Thanks for checking out the site and the blog...

I would love to hear some feedback on the website... Leave a comment and tell me what you think...

www.myoais.tv