Do you feel like you have control?

Do you feel like you lose control easily?

Do you feel like you need to control the power and influence in your relationships?

This week we discussed how Jesus was the most powerful person on the earth, and how He chose to leverage His power to intentional value to other people in the room.

How do you leverage your power?
Humilty or control?

We’ve created elements groups at two more social networking sites: Twitter, where you can subscribe to our SMS updates, and by popular demand, Facebook, the friend network site almost as popular as MySpace. ;)

If you want to know what’s happening at the elements gathering each week, you can subscribe to our Twitter feed by texting “follow elementspcc” to 40404. If you prefer not to use your phone, you can just visit the Twitter link above and follow the RSS feed. Very soon we will be starting an email listserv for those who don’t want to join the MySpace or Facebook groups and who don’t want to follow the Twitter feed. In any case, it will be easy to stay connected to the elements community.

Also coming soon: digital welcome cards, so you don’t have to touch paper and pencil to let us know you’ve joined us for a gathering.

So many generic profile faces to choose from: “*Quiz* No image, No photo!”

It happens to me on a regular basis…

I am going along listening intently to my lovely wife as she pours out her heart about how she feels, and how stressful her day was with the kids and it happens…

“It” is when I catch myself zoning out or day dreaming about something more technical and concrete. It’s not that i don’t love my wife, it’s just that i prefer to talk about something less… emotional. i think “just tell me what to do about it.”
It doesn’t just happen with my wife. It happens all the time, and when i return to the conversation i plan a tactful way of appearing as if i have been listening the whole time. which usually includes a nod of the head, or a spoken “yeah”. I figure, combine these two and surely no one can tell i have no idea what they just said.
i mentally stop to ask myself…
what have i missed?
what if it was important?
what if they can tell i have lost interest?

Am i alone in my plight to actually listen to someone without planning my next response, texting under the table, or just plain tuning out? I hope not. The truth is that sometimes in the midst of conversation we realize our heart is not in it. Is the problem with our ears? Did i miss my meds this morning?
In his weekend message notes, Roger Blumenthal lays out 5 tips to paying attention to what people are really saying by using a technique he calls “listening with your heart”…

1. Listen beyond the words and hear their feelings.

2. Ask yourself: what is this person feeling, why are they saying the things the way they are?

3. Listen to Learn…not to fix!

4. Allow their feelings to touch you instead of forcing your feelings on them.

5. Don’t keep score.

Maybe you have some experiences or tips to add to that…
how do you deal with this in your life?

The elements team is in Atlanta this week, diving head first into the leadership conference for young church leaders – Catalyst. Today we spent time in worship with Steve Fee and other Northpoint Community Church worship leaders. We heard speakers Andy Stanley, Patrick Lencioni, Shane Claiborne, Francis Chan, Sunday Adelaja, and Rick Warren. We also got to hear an “emerging” conversation between Chris Seay, David Kinnaman, Gabe Lyons, and Tri Robinson, as they discussed the new book “UnChristian.”

I took some serious notes during the conversation and from the rest of the speakers. The first half of today, though, had entirely too many theatrics, advertisement bombardment, product placement, and a general entertainment industry flavor. The second half, starting with the emerging conversation, is where things got deep. Update: on the second day, we heard speakers Erwin McManus, Craig Groeschel, Dave Ramsey, John Maxwell and more from Andy Stanley.

Quotes of the day:

• “Suck it up!!” – Francis Chan
• “We are known for what we are against.” – Chris Seay
• “Too often, ‘right answers’ produce wrong character.” – Gabe Lyons

Quotes of the day (2):

• “Christians are known for not being capable of discerning between what is real and fake.” – Erwin McManus
• “The way I was doing the work of God was destroying the work of God in me.” – Craig Groeschel
• “If you blame yourself for the decline [in your church] then some day you will take credit for the increase.” - Craig Groeschel

Thought-provoking question of the day:
If Peter (the Apostle) started a church in your town today, would people go to his church or yours?

My doctrinal question of the day (you can discuss it on our MySpace group):
Were we created to be loved by God, or to love God?

Bryan took pictures using his cell phone because that is all we remembered to bring. D’oh!

See the rest of the Catalyst 2007 Flickr pool