One cold day in January 2007, I was looking for a Rob Bell podcast. I typed in Mars Hill Christians Gone Wild – the study through 1 Corinthians popped up and my life was forever altered. At that time, I was a young man with my feet touching the edge of a starting line belonging to a life of ministry. To be frank, I never heard anyone preach and say some of the things you said. Honestly, I was partially... Read more

I have been meaning to write to you for quite some time. I have a confession to make and it is something I haven’t talked about for fear of what others would think. When your husband was elected as President of the United States and your family moved into the White House, it was a monumental moment in black history and American history. It was a moment I should have celebrated with you and so many others, but did not.... Read more

My dear, we are here again and not unlike times before. This is hard for me to say. But still, I must tell you how I feel. You have lost sight of the promises we made to each other. You are doing things you said you never would. And worse than that, you pretend like you don’t. There are some things going on with you, and I know change is hard, but I believe that it is the hard things... Read more

Over the past few weeks we have looked into the issue of emotional health and how it is weaved into the Gospel message. We continue today in Part 3 of our series called “The Hurt Locker” as we discuss how to detect and disarm emotional IEDs in our lives. The term IED (Improvised Explosive Devices) was new to me. These devices gained prominence and notoriety as the war in Iraq was waged. So much so that an Academy Award winning... Read more

I’ve always prided myself as someone who is truly authentic—someone who kept it 100. If that phrase goes over your head, it’s okay. Let me break it down really quickly. It just means to be 100%. So in all interactions, my response and thoughts would always communicate where I stand in relation to the discussion at hand. While I am usually very authentic with all people, the one person I have a problem being authentic with is myself. Three years ago, I remember going to meet with a therapist for the first... Read more

I remember around the age of ten my family lived in Knoxville, TN. I was sitting in a very strange waiting room with what seemed like the whole city. It probably felt that way because I was in very unfamiliar territory. I had been in the waiting rooms of doctors or dentists, but now I was in a place that I didn’t even know why I was there. All I know, is that my mother who was always my faithful... Read more

In the 1960s, MIT professor Douglas McGregor developed two competing theories on human motivation and management. Theory X focuses in on the importance of strict supervision, external rewards and penalties. While Theory Y emphasizes job satisfaction and encourages workers to approach tasks without direct supervision. The two models are founded on general assumptions of how workers are motivated. Theory X managers suppose that the average employee has little to no ambition, evades work or responsibilities and is individual goal oriented.... Read more

“Information is power, particularly when the competition ignores the opportunity to do the same.” – Mark Cuban One of the greatest testimonies we can have in our place of work, is to add value to it. I have mentioned many keys to being irreplaceable at your job throughout this series, but there is one that deserves to be expanded on. Companies, big and small, are all fighting for a competitive advantage because a good one is priceless. “The beginning of... Read more

An objective is defined in the business world as: the goal intended to be attained (and which is believed to be attainable). The end user is defined as: The person or group who will use the product produced by the project. Most jobs have objectives, some more clear than others, that employees should strive to accomplish usually for the result experienced by the end user. I will return to this concept after asking you this question: when it comes to... Read more

Many of us, at one time or another, have had a job where we have to physically clock in and out. If you have not had this experience, you can probably gather from the description that “clocking in” is when an employee physically arrives to work and starts on company time. The point is that once clocked-in whatever the employee was doing prior to arriving, now takes a backseat to whatever is required for the day’s work. Once the work... Read more