The 7 Essential Elements of Leaving A Great Legacy

I'll never forget when my dad gave the eulogy at his dad's funeral. My dad is a highly experienced public speaker, but it's no small thing to try to sum up the life of a great man. And as I sat in the pew of the Lutheran church where the funeral was held, I realized that that's really what a legacy is - it's the summation of your life. When it's all said an done, your legacy is what your life boils down to. 

Photo courtesy of mbell1975 at flickr.com

So how do you leave a great legacy? Is there a formula? Can you even be intentional about it, or do you just do what you can and hope for the best? And if you are able to be intentional about leaving a legacy... how would you go about it?

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Taking the guess work out of finding God's call on your life

Have you ever met those Christians who are really confident in God's calling on their life. They say things like, "I just really sense his leading in my spirit." And then you smile and nod, all the while thinking, What? How come I can never sense anything in my spirit? Is this guy full of it, or is there something I don't know?

Photo courtesy of Hamed Saber at Flickr.com

Maybe you don't feel like you have the same highly refined spiritual sniffer that some people seem to have, but that's okay because you don't need it. God has already given you everything you need to know what exactly what direction he wants you to go. 

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Fighting the nemesis of success

There are no less than 15 great reasons why I should NOT be writing this post right now. But none of them will help me become a writer that regularly and reliably helps people discover more potential in their lives.

Photo courtesy of Joe Newman at Flickr.com

And tonight, after getting home late from a wedding rehearsal, I feel exhausted. My body is tired, my mind is wiped, and there's nothing I'd like to do more than make a good excuse for not writing anything and to go play video games instead. But that won't do and here's why.

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A thought about your life and death right from the mouth of Robin Williams

I wanted to give you a pithy article about Robin Williams with some of his quotes, since he was one of my heroes, and - lets face it, that's what every other blogger is doing this week.

Photo courtesy of Bago Games at Flickr.com

So I began doing some research on his life, looking for some great quotes about living a great life, or being funny, or something like that. What I found wasn't anything about life or comedy, but about death. And what he said was this:

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4 awesome steps to navigating uncertainty and finding God's will for your life.

"Is this really the church where God wants our young family?" That's the question my wife asked me about a month before our wedding. I was working at a church plant that was about a 45 minute drive from my home, and was actually in a different city. And I was making about a third of what I needed to support my new family. But not feeling certain about how to answer my wife's question, I regurgitated something I've heard other Christian men say - Let's pray about it. 

Photo courtesy of Adam Ooi at Flickr.com

Three days later, my boss asked me to submit my resignation so they could go a different direction with the music. It wasn't the answer to prayer I was looking for. Immediately, I started looking around for church jobs. I must have submitted my resume to twenty different churches in the month before our wedding. Then our wedding day came, and I still didn't have a job. So my wife married an unemployed musician. I'm sure her family was thrilled.

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Why I Am So Honest About My Porn Addiction | I wrote this one while on Percocet

Earlier this week, I had 67 tumors cut out of my body. You can click here to learn about the surgery and my recovery, if you'd like. Now I'm at home recovering with heavy doses of Percocet and Doctor Who. And as long as I'm high as a kite, I figured I'd write about one of my favorite topics - Porn Addiction.

Sometimes people ask me (in my imagination) why I talk so openly about my addiction to and recovery from porn. And it's a fair question. I had the same question when I was a kid. One of my youth counselors at church stood up in front of our class and confessed he had struggled with porn. My friends and I were just grossed out. We thought why is he telling us all of this?

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I survived the surgery, and you won't believe how many tumors they removed from my body. [Video]

I got home from the hospital a few hours ago, and I've been sleeping off the last of the anesthesia. The surgery went really well. At least, that's what they tell me. I was in the operating room for right around 3 hours, and they removed a grand total of sixty seven tumors from all over my body. It looks like I got chewed up by a snaggle-toothed shark.

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My stupid web designer asked me a stupid question that ruined everything!

At the end of this post, I'm going to ask you to give your input on the 1 question poll, in the right sidebar. But you don't have to read this post before you take the poll. If you scroll down a bit, you can just click your answer right now. I'll be using your answer to inform my writing for the next year. So your input is valuable. Now, on with the story.

I asked Nate for a picture of himself, and he didn't send me one,
so I used this super nerd pic from David Sittig at flickr.com

When I asked Nate, my web designer, to create a new theme for my blog, I thought I was going to get just that - a new blog theme. He asked me to send him a few examples of other blogs I really like. So I sent him the links to the blogs of Carlos Whittaker, Jarrid Wilson, Michael Hyatt, and a few more guys and gals who have good looking blogs.

A few months later, we got together again to look at some preliminary mockups of the new timhswanson.com. He showed me two designs. One was okay, but the second one I absolutely loved. Then he started with the stupid questions, asking, "What do you want to do with your blog in the next 5 years?" I sort of hemmed and hawed and mumbled about some book ideas, and products that have been on my mind.

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Your church has the same problem as my blog. What a coincidence!

For the last two weeks, I put away my guitar to preach at my church. I get to do it a few times a year, and I always love it. I like coming up with a captivating intro, and then working to make a Bible story come to life for the people at my church.

Photo courtesy of Kah-Wai Lin at Flickr.com

And over the last couple of weeks, I've realized that creating a sermon is, in a lot of ways, just like writing a blog post. And a church family is, in a lot of ways, just like a community of readers for a blog. 

I could go on about the similarities between a church and a blog. But most over the last couple of weeks, I've noticed again and again how my blog has a lot of the same problems as many of the churches I've worked at. And the problem is this:

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Great God & The Strawberry Fields

It was a lazy afternoon during my families vacation in Carbondale, Illinois. My sister said, "Do you want to take the kids to go pick strawberries?"

If I'm being honest, I thought to myself that sounds like some medium-low fun. But then I also thought about how much fun it would probably be for my kids, so I agreed to go. And I'm glad I did, because as it just so happened, God was at the strawberry fields. 

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Extravagant Love In The Midst Of Unimaginable Pain

They said you have to take your kids to castle park, while you're here. It's the coolest place. And they were right. 

When they say castle, they're not talking about some 8x10 Costco playhouse made of reclaimed plastic. The park has a legitimate castle, complete with bridge, port cullus, knights, wizards, and life size dragons (if dragons were real... and the size of the one in the photo below). Even though Castle Park goes a long way towards bringing to life the fantasy of every kid, what's truly amazing is the story of how the park came to be.

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5 Surprising Ways You'll Benefit From Starting Your Own Blog

Photo courtesy of Filipe Ferreira at Flickr.com. However, it's probably not smart to set your coffee
on your computer's keyboard. Even if it looks cool.

There's this really great motivational poster that says, "Blogging: Never before have so many people with so little to say said so much to so few." When I read that, I sort of bought into the idea that blogs weren't helpful. So I ignored them.

Photo from Radiatedigital.com

Then a couple years ago I went to a huge leadership conference. I was looking at the program and beneath one of the keynote speaker's pictures was his title - Blogger. I thought wait a minute, bloggers are supposed to be losers. What gives. 

The rest of that weekend changed my outlook on blogs. I even found a couple that I like reading. After that, it was nearly a year later before I started my own blog. 

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Some Red Flags To Watch Out For With Your Church's Vision

Vision can be the factor that makes or breaks your church. Obviously, it's actually the Holy Spirit that makes or breaks your church. But He likes to work through people, and it's your church's vision that is going to motivate them to take action, or do nothing. And if your church is struggling to grow and impact your community, there's a really good chance that the issue lays with your vision.

Photo courtesy of Fedewild at Flickr.com

I recently read a Andy Stanley's book, Deep & Wide. In it, he makes a profound statement about church vision. He says that, in order for your church to be united, you need a, "God honoring, mouth watering, crystal clear vision." So therein lays the question. 

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My Infinite Mirror Lifehack

Do you remember the first time you stood in between two adjacent mirrors?

When I was a kid, the bathroom in my house had a medicine cabinet hanging by the mirror. That old medicine cabinet also had a mirror on it's door. At night before bed, I would climb up on the bathroom counter and open the medicine cabinet door as wide as I could, until there was barely any space between the bathroom mirror and the mirrored cabinet door.

Photo courtesy of Damianos Chonakis at Flickr.com

Then I'd stick my face between the mirrors and look back and forth at the infinite reflections of myself that streamed of in both directions. I loved to imagine that they went on forever. I'd imagine I could see into the past and the future all at the same time.

How cool would it be if you could do that? See your past and your future all at the same time, that is. You'd be able to learn from the accidents of your past, and avoid the pot holes of your future. Your decisions would be well informed, and you'd have easy access to wisdom beyond your years. Obviously, it wouldn't make you perfect. Only Jesus can do that. But it'd be just about the most effective way for you to discover more potential in your life and leadership.

The good news is, there is a way to do that. And it's really easy. This is where you're thinking Okay, here comes the sales pitch. {Deep Sigh} Time to go back to checking my email. But the truth is, you don't need to buy anything. You likely have everything you need already.

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[Quote] I'm rethinking my life plan after reading this one

Photo courtesy of EmanueleED at Flickr.com

"If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much." 

 - Jim Rohn

Isn't Christianity counter-intuitive? While the rest of the world is saying take what you want, we're saying more of Jesus and less of me. We're looking to die to ourselves. More of God's will and less of ours! Can I get a Hallelujah?

However, contrary to some mainstream Christian thinkers, pursuing God's will doesn't mean neglecting future planning. It's important to make plans if you're going to accomplish great things. And you are called to accomplish great things. This is where the pessimist would say How can you know what I'm called to accomplish. You don't even know me. If you think I'm wrong, I won't argue with you. If you don't think you're called to accomplish great things, you're probably right. 

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The One Person Suited To Help You Discover More Potential

You've got potential!

Most of us are pretty pleased when others tell us the above. And if you're anything like me, you'll be surprised to hear that it's not really all that great of a complement.

Less than a great complement
A few months ago, I was having breakfast with a mentor. He said, "'You've got potential' isn't that much of a complement. It really means that you're not living up to what God has put in you." 

Now, an obvious argument to that statement is that none of us have lived up to our full potential. And God has each one of us where we are for a reason. So, the statement is arguable. But it's also true that being amazing is better than simply having the ability to be amazing. So, it's our goal to discover more potential in our lives, and become that amazing person that everyone is telling us we're capable of becoming.

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One Big Take Away From The Take Part Conference

Everyone was blown away by the response we got at the Take Part Conference last Saturday. It was one of those things that completely exceeds expectations in every way. It was amazing for two reasons. First, I had so little confidence in myself, that I wasn't sure it would even work, which was sort of an arrogant way of thinking on my part. Secondly, it wasn't successful because of anything I did. It was amazing because God and a bunch of His people showed up and connected in a huge way.

I had the privilege of emceeing the day. And right at the very beginning, I got to tell everyone that our goal was for them to take home at least one great new idea they could use to take worship to the next level at their church. Then I got to spend a good portion of the day wondering around, asking people what their one thing was. Here are some of the things people told me.

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Workshop Schedule for The Take Part Worship Conference

With the Take Part Worship Conference only a week and a half away, I can hardly sleep from the excitement. I've had so many conversations with worship leaders who are bringing their teams. I just can't wait to see what God is going to do through this one day conference.

Some people have been asking about the workshop schedule, so I wanted to send it to you. If you've been thinking about attending, but have been unsure, I want to encourage you to check out the line up of workshops, and give the conference another thought. This could be the event that takes your team to the next level this year.

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Check Out The Update For The Take Part Worship Conference

The Take Part Worship Conference is only a couple weeks away. This is the year's best opportunity for your team to pick up on the best worship leading ideas out there. 

I've been talking with the speakers and they couldn't be more exited. Check out the some of the workshops and speakers below.

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Four Questions To Clarify Your Church's Vision

A church without vision is a lot like a car without a steering wheel. It can look, sound and even smell good, but you'd never invest in it.

If you want to go anywhere, you've got to have a good vision. And if you want to accomplish anything, you need one that comes directly from the imaginative mind of God. But what do you do if your vision isn't clear?

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