{"id":710,"date":"2009-01-11T20:30:13","date_gmt":"2009-01-12T01:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/192.185.166.32\/~davidfoster\/?p=710"},"modified":"2009-10-16T20:32:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-17T01:32:00","slug":"today-the-gathering-january-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/today-the-gathering-january-11\/","title":{"rendered":"Today @ The Gathering – January 11"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"4DumbestThingsIcon_Large\"Today at The Gathering<\/a> we talked about the second dumbest thing we do during down times.\u00a0 It\u2019s called downsizing.\u00a0\u00a0 We hear a lot about it as corporate America tries to adjust itself to the new realities of the wall-less, wireless, worn-out world.<\/p>\n

The first thing we talked about were the three living landscapes<\/span> that we all occupy during our lives:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The organizations that we work for and live in. <\/span> Most everyone works in an organization.\u00a0 How big does it have to be? More than one.\u00a0 If you have two people you have to have some form of organization.\u00a0 Organizations are not bad, but oftentimes unattended and over time they calcify and lose their vitality.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The families we live in<\/span>: ever-changing, adding, subtracting; sometimes joyful, other times dreadful.\u00a0 These families have a life cycle just like the organizations.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We also do life in what I call tribes.<\/span> These are groups of people we associate with because we share a common passion; an idea.\u00a0 The Gathering is a tribe; a tribe of people who come together and want to help connect people to God and each other for the purpose of changing the world.\u00a0 The Gathering is a unique place.\u00a0 It\u2019s for people who don\u2019t feel comfortable in traditional, religious environments.\u00a0 They want something fun, exciting, and practical; a place where people are accepted for who they are and loved through their pain; where judgment is replaced with acceptance, where condemnation is replaced with compassion.\u00a0 We find our tribes, and we stick with them.<\/p>\n

The interesting thing is as we advance<\/span> through these three environments or landscapes, some predictable things happen.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We accumulate stuff.<\/span><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We attach value to those things;<\/span> emotional value that stays long after they\u2019ve outlived their usefulness.\u00a0 It\u2019s like a suit that you bought and love, but you\u2019ve out grown and you can\u2019t wear it, but you don\u2019t want to throw it away because it has sentimental value.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We avoid the brutal truth<\/span>.\u00a0 The accumulation of stuff and the emotional attachment to that stuff over time results in bloating.\u00a0 We just have too much stuff to carry around. And the decision we face is, do I change or continue on the same course I\u2019m on, which eventually leads to death?<\/p>\n

We talked about the two options: The option to downsize, which basically has four characteristics.<\/span><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We conduct an irrational cost-cutting crusade regardless of effectiveness and productivity.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We turn inward and attack people\u2019s motives; why they don\u2019t work hard and why they\u2019re not as successful as they once were.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We sever trusted connections in order to conserve cash on hand, realizing that the greatest cash we have on hand is the trusted relationships we\u2019ve developed.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We ride the organization, business, church, or family down, siphoning all the resources that we can and jump ship just before it crashes.\u00a0 And we blame the economy, the government, anyone but us.<\/p>\n

The Bible offers a different option to downsizing.\u00a0 It\u2019s called right-sizing. <\/span> We dealt with the Old Testament story of Gideon and how he started out with 52,000 men and God pared it down to only 300; three hundred men who he knew he could trust in battle.\u00a0 So in the effort to right-size, you can ask yourself four questions.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What are we doing here?<\/span> Oftentimes we show up in activities that have long since lost their mission.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Who are we doing it for?<\/span> Often we do it for other people who are doing the same thing we do.\u00a0 We\u2019re trying to impress other widget-makers rather than the people for whom the widgets are made.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Who do we need to be great?<\/span> The word great<\/em> here is used on purpose.\u00a0 You can take average people and with great leadership they can do good work.\u00a0 But average people, no matter how great the leadership will never do great work.\u00a0 So you need to ask yourself, \u201cWho are the people we can go into battle with?\u201d\u00a0 As God told Gideon, \u201cYou have too many people.\u00a0 You don\u2019t need 52,000 people; you need 300.\u201d<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Why does it matter?<\/span> God told Gideon that if he went into the battle with a huge army and they won, they\u2019d take the credit.\u00a0 So the question is, why does what we do matter?\u00a0 Why does what you do matter.\u00a0 You have to answer that question, because if you don\u2019t, there is no place to hide in the brave, new, wall-less, wireless world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today at The Gathering we talked about the second dumbest thing we do during down times.\u00a0 It\u2019s called downsizing.\u00a0\u00a0 We hear a lot about it as corporate America tries to adjust itself to the new realities of the wall-less, wireless, worn-out world. The first thing we talked about were the three living landscapes that we … Continue reading “Today @ The Gathering – January 11”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"series":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=710"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}