Issue No. 286 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features the latest book from the Truefaced team—this one from John Lynch (who could earn a decent living doing stand-up). I just bought 35 copies of On My Worst Day. Plus, this reminder: check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.
A Cavalcade of Comedy and Confession
Picture another impressionable youngster, 11-year-old John Lynch. After a winning ballgame in 1964, young Johnny blurts out a conversation to his creator (big-surprise-to-John, no surprise-to-God)—but then goes silent for almost two decades. Fortunately, God is not silenced—and we read his voice across the years and the pages. (It’s a stroke-of-brilliance book format.)
Page-after-page, we follow the hilarious, gut-busting stories of adolescence, girls, his blue 1960 ragtop VW Bug ($225), graduate school, triumphs and failures. Lots of failures.
This is the earthy stuff of Lynch’s latest and best narrative, On My Worst Day.
Hilarious. Original. Poignant. Pure. Kleenex®-sad, yet hopeful and grace-oozing. LOL funny, but life-changing. And expensive! (I just bought 35 copies of this page-turner for friends.)
But get this—God’s voice is warm, inviting and frequently very, very funny! Sub-titled “Cheesecake, Evil, Sandy Koufax and Jesus,” Lynch’s cavalcade of comedy and confession is impossible to categorize. It’s like this… (well, no)…but he writes like this author (uh…maybe not)…it’s more like… (ah, heck…just read it—you’ll thank me).
Part of the Truefaced gang of three (Lynch, Bill Thrall and Bruce McNicol), he’s devoting his life to seeing tens of thousands of high-trust authentic communities multiplied around the world. Why Truefaced? William Shakespeare wrote,
"God hath given you one face,
and you make yourselves another.”
If you know Truefaced, you’ve likely invested a small fortune in gifting their books and resources to your team members, board members, donors, colleagues, families, pastors and friends.
If you’re new to the TrueFaced mission of “building and restoring trust in leaders and those who follow them,” check out these gems:
• The Cure: What If God Isn’t Who You Think He Is and Neither Are You
• Bo’s Café: A Novel
I stand with those who believe that God still speaks today (Henry Blackaby, Sarah Young and millions of others). Lynch skillfully shares his powerful story from the dark trenches and then—Wham!—God’s voice emerges in stunning dialogue with grace and comfort. The enormity of God's grace buckled me over—and it will do the same for you. Promise.
No faith? Lynch talks your language. Disappointed with God? Lynch gets it. Hungry for something deeper, the real deal, no phony-baloney stuff? John’s transparent story delivers hope. Gobs of hope.
To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for: On My Worst Day: Cheesecake, Evil, Sandy Koufax and Jesus, by John Lynch.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1) God shares an affirmation (along with a chuckle) with Lynch: “You will never be able to quickly tell a wrench from a pair of pliers. You will never successfully work on anything electrical your entire life. But this I have given you to do… (and God blesses John with specifics). How has your Father affirmed you recently? How do you hear his voice?
2) On My Worst Day includes dozens of “Awakening” one-liners like this one: “In an environment of law, every motive is suspect. In an environment of grace, good motive is presumed.” What environment are you creating at work, home and church?
Parents Weekend With LL Cool J - Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit
One of the big ideas from Mastering the Management Buckets (Chapter 2, The Customer Bucket) is to research how your customer is changing. Here’s a resource I urge my clients to look at every year, The Beloit College Mindset List for the entering class of 2017. (See my book review on the Mindset List.)
The Mindset List was created at Beloit College in 1998 by Ron Nief and Tom McBride for the class of 2002, born in 1980. Now in its 15th year, it continues to reflect the world view of entering first year students.
This year’s entering students in the class of 2017 were born in 1995—and for this class, Dean Martin, Mickey Mantle, and Jerry Garcia have always been dead. Here are the first six of the 60 insights on this fall’s list:
1. Eminem and LL Cool J could show up at parents’ weekend.
2. They are the sharing generation, having shown tendencies to share everything, including possessions, no matter how personal.
3. GM means food that is Genetically Modified.
4. As they started to crawl, so did the news across the bottom of the television screen.
5. “Dude” has never had a negative tone.
6. As their parents held them as infants, they may have wondered whether it was the baby or Windows 95 that had them more excited.
For more resources, visit the Customer Bucket webpage, with 11 book recommendations including: Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. (Read my review.)
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