"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...