Month: March 2008

  • Do you need a resume? It depends.

    resumeRecently, Seth Godin made this statement on his blog.

    I think if you’re remarkable, amazing or just plain spectacular, you probably shouldn’t have a resume at all.

    The reason is simple. If you are really, really good at what you do [remarkable] the resume is just a formality. I’ve been on plenty of job hunts both from both perspectives and I know this to be true. When I’ve been looking for a job I have always translated “We have your resume and we’ll be reviewing it soon.” to mean “You aren’t our top choice, we’ll call you when the #1 person isn’t coming.” And when I’ve been looking to fill a position I have already talked to the best candidates before I start collecting resumes. Or worse, when I’ve started looking for resumes it means that I don’t know what I’m looking for exactly.

    What is a resume, anyway? It’s a self-marketing tool. That’s all it is. You are casting a light on yourself to highlight what you are good at and hide what you aren’t good at.

    Confession time. In both my ministry and my health insurance career I have been “lucky enough” to land on head hunters phone lists. What that means is that I have occasionally gotten calls from people whose job is to talk happy employees (me) out of their jobs to try a new business or ministry. [Trust me, I’m not going anywhere! 28 years left on the mortgage.] My response has always been the same two fold answer.

    1. “Why would I leave a place I’m happy with for a place that had to hire a head hunter to get someone?”
    2. “Why should I send you a resume when you’re calling me tells me “they” want me because you’re calling me out of the blue to try to talk me into leaving this job?”

    In that instance, my resume isn’t important. When a headhunter calls you, you are already in the drivers seat for that job. That’s a scary place to be but it is the truth of the situation.
    When is your resume important?

    1. When you are looking for an entry to mid-level job.
    2. When you are trying to get a first job in a new location or field.
    3. When you aren’t sure exactly what you want.
    4. When you are forced by circumstances to cast a wide net. (laid off, fired, or living in Michigan)

    When is your resume unimportant?

    1. When you’re not looking but get a call asking for it.
    2. When you’re a “known” entity in a job field or location.
    3. When the aggressor in the job search is the employer.

    If all three of those are true, you might as well send them a napkin with your phone number as you’re skipping the pre-screening phase and going right to the big interview.

    What do you think? What are your job searching tips?

  • Mikhail Gorbachev is a closet believer

    I had a conversation with someone today about Easter being a moment when a lot of closeted believers come to church. With that in mind, I found this news story quite interesting.

    Mr Gorbachev’s surprise visit confirmed decades of rumours that, although he was forced to publicly pronounce himself an atheist, he was in fact a Christian. link

    All I can say to this is “Wow.”

  • I Have Thick Skin

    I Have Thick Skin

    So here I am. It’s 5:45 PM and I’m waiting for a battery to charge for a quick Easter video while I’m uploading an earlier video to YouTube. In other words, there isn’t anything else I need to do so I’m going to write down a few thoughts.

    I was reading through some e-mails from today and I am really encouraged by all that God is doing in my life. YMX is going great. Things at home are great. I am very excited for Kristen and what she is doing on her blog this week. Things at church are “killer.” That’s our word lately… everything is “killer.”

    Then there were a couple of annoying moments to my day. Several weeks ago I noticed on the church websites statistics that we had a large number of incoming links from a site I had never heard of. (Not going to name it!) To my surprise I discovered that there were over 40 comments about the baptism video I made a year ago. The video was made in about 30 minutes and was really intended to be funny. Well, these people didn’t get the joke. They thought that the video actually represented what we thought about baptism! (That we laughed about it.) So, I broke one of my rules and commented back. That was three weeks ago and I only had gotten one response.

    Until today. In my inbox was a glowing, polite, and engaging response from someone who disagreed with my view of baptism yet was respectful of our position. (Honestly, believer baptism is pretty darn normative in evangelical circles!) So, at his request I went back and commented again… breaking my “let a sleeping dog lie” rule. Within 15 minutes someone else took out her ugly stick and went off on my position. Gone was the nice, “Hey… why don’t you tell us a little about the differences between your position and our position on baptism.” This response basically called my position heresy!

    So, I’ll just leave that sleeping dog lie. I can’t believe I got baited into that trap.

    In other news, we’re about 99% prepared for the weekend services. I am very happy with how the Good Friday and Easter services turned out. (Been working on them about 5 weeks.) I will under promise how I feel about it… I think it will be good. Working on my under promise and over deliver!

    Today we filmed the last couple of elements and I could not be happier with how they turned out. As you would expect, we have very full plans, but I feel like everything we are doing is very relevant and anyone who comes will be pleased with what we’ve been able to put together. God is doing some amazing things here in Romeo… I can’t wait for the next 6-9 months!

    With, batteries are charged, file uploaded and I’m ready to finish my day.

  • Spring Break: The Movie

    Film CameraIn Romeo, Spring Break starts today after school. And for the first time during my tenure at Romeo I will not be leading a group of high school students to Chicago to work with Inner City Impact.

    This creates new opportunities. Several families from Light Force are headed down to Florida to escape the prolonged winter. But the rest of us are not! And so when students started asking me, “What are we going to do over Spring Break?” I really started scratching my head… this is the first Spring Break in the last 7 years I’ve not had a mission trip, so I really have no idea what to do!

    Now Filming: 10 Things I Did While My Friends Were in Florida
    Next Wednesday, I have invited any student who wants to meet me at the church at 10:00 AM. From there we are going to brainstorm 10 scenes of a short movie that we’ll shoot later in the morning. As we’ll have all day to do this, the geographical boundaries are the Metro area… so I’m guessing we’re headed to the city, a couple Metroparks, a mall or two, a Taco Bell or two, and some other random places. From there, we’ll head back and edit our movie, drop some titles and effects on it and publish it to YouTube.

    I love unleashing adolescent creativity! I am positive that they have better video ideas than I do. Of course, in order to get to the good ideas you have to get past the initial creative desire to burn stuff, blow something up, jump off things, or otherwise break the law!

  • Test Your Awareness

    I saw this on Seth’s blog, it is quite interesting.

    Seth relates it to advertising. The video relates it to driving. What are some things you’d relate it to?

  • Ed Young Messing With Joel Olsteen

    HT to Todd

  • God of this City | Door Hangers

    Door hangingToday, Bob and I went with some other folks from church to place door hangers. So, if you live in the south west area of Romeo… check your doorknob!

    It’s kind of crazy to compare this year to year’s past. In the past we’ve said “hey, invite your friends.” This year… we’ve gotten everyone out there to actually do it. By our rough count the people of Romeo have placed cards on over 2500 doorknobs in the last two weeks. Awesome!

  • Is Planned Parenthood Racist?

    There is a lot of talk about a Presidential candidate and whether or not his pastor is a racist and if that makes the candidate a racist. Accepting money and support from extreme groups is very complicated. At the core of the problem is that it seemingly associates candidates with everything that group stands for.

    Margaret SangerThis reminds me of a long-standing news story. Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, was a racist. She wasn’t just “socially racist” in the way most of America were in those days, she was a published racist. In fact, she was a proponent of eugenics. Here are some quotes from Sanger:

    “The undeniably feeble-minded should, indeed, not only be discouraged but prevented from propagating their kind.” link

    We maintain that a woman possessing an adequate knowledge of her reproductive functions is the best judge of the time and conditions under which her child should be brought into the world. We further maintain that it is her right, regardless of all other considerations, to determine whether she shall bear children or not, and how many children she shall bear if she chooses to become a mother… Only upon a free, self-determining motherhood can rest any unshakable structure of racial betterment link

    But that is in the past right? Surely, an organization as sophisticated and socially accepted as Planned Parenthood wouldn’t be racist today, would they? Consider these two pieces of evidence and discover that for yourself.

    1. 78% of Planned Parenthood clinics are in minority neighborhoods. African Americans represent about 12% of the US population but about 35% of abortions.
    2. Planned Parenthood willingly and joyfully accepts donations earmarked clearly for aborting African American fetuses. The video below is very disturbing. It demonstrates point #2 perfectly. (Please click read more to watch the video) Here’s my disclaimer on the video... it doesn’t show dead fetuses or anything like that. It is a Pro-life activist calling two clinics, one in Ohio and one in Idaho, and attempting to earmark a gift for the elimination of African Americans. However, I’m adding it because it demonstrates my point in a powerful way.

    (more…)

  • Vision, Goal, and Mission Statements

    SuccessEvery organization can measure success.

    It doesn’t matter if you’re running a non-profit, a government agency, a corporation, small business, or an educational institution… you need to have some ways to set the course and measure your progress. That is, if you would like to succeed.

    If you are willing to fail (must be a government agency or educational institution where money comes “magically” from the tax gods) goals, mission, and vision are pointless as your default measurement of success is merely “Did I keep my job another year?” While those in businesses without defined goals have default, meaningless measurement tools like “Did we make more money than last year?” From a business perspective, that’s a stupid measurement tool as you can kill next year by maximizing profits this year to reach the “make more money than last year” measurement tool. Just ask Enron. Organization driven by meaningless measurements like profits will always fail!

    So, let’s define some terms. Maybe this will help your organization. (more…)

  • CSR: Youngers Irish Tavern

    CSR GoodIt’s St. Patrick’s Day! So it’s time to cover the only “Irish” place in town. We’ve lived in Romeo nearly 5 years and this location, 120 S. Main Street, there has been at least restaurants. Younger’s is the only one good enough concept to truly make it.

    Location: Downtown Romeo. With ample parking in the rear and street parking, access is never an issue. As far as Romeo is concerned this is prime real estate.

    Description: The first time I entered Younger’s I was blown away. I really felt like I had stepped into a place on Rochester Road in downtown Rochester. The owners of Younger’s completely transformed the space. And it looks great. Inside there are two completely different environments. The high top bar area (which I prefer) and the more traditional booth and table seating. It claims to be an Irish bar. And the main bar area could pass for such if the interior were less spacious and featured local football or rugby club decor instead of the “old Ireland” photos. But a noble attempt nonetheless.

    The food itself is very good. I particularly enjoy the sweet potato fries and the bleu cheese burger. Soups are also quite good there.

    Service: Holding Younger’s back is its service. The upscale feel, decor, quality of cuisine, and price are not always matched by the service of the staff. While they are appropriately friendly they tend to lack knowledge of their products and the food comes very slow. (Plan on lunch taking 70-80 minutes) This is probably fine when one is on a date… but when I’m on lunch or going after church this is simply too long to wait for food.

    Cost: These are golf course prices. Typically, a lunch for one will cost $10-11. (burger, fries, pop, tip)
    While the quality of the food makes up for that, I am normally so rushed to leave by the time the food arrives that the cost vs. quality equation pushes me to the “don’t come” at the moment of decision. (No such problems with two competitors in the same strip.)

    Rating: Gosh, I really love the food here. And I am confident that Younger’s is going to make it. But this is a customer service report… they are “good.” I hope that they address these basics concerns to move on up towards excellence. (Speed, knowledge of product.) They can do better. And with lots of competition for food service business in Romeo at this price point, let’s hope they get it right soon.

    Sidenote: I think I’m going to start giving lower ratings for local businesses who don’t have a web page. Heck, I’m willing to barter for food!