Three Priorities For 2014: Closing Thoughts

It has been a couple of weeks now since I wrote the last entry in this series. I was avoiding this, and am not sure why. I think I was afraid that reviewing the whole thing would leave me feeling overwhelmed. But I just did that, and it didn't. There's good stuff here; stuff that deserves hard, smart work.

"For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to devote ourselves to the good deeds for which God has designed us."

That's Ephesians.

Closing thoughts? Only that I want to live in a way that invites others to come along, and then makes them glad they did.

As God grants me focus, it will be one heck of a ride.

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Three Priorities: The Complete Series
Three Priorities For 2014 - And Beyond
Three Priorities For 2014: 1 - Encouraging The Body Of Christ
Three Priorities For 2014: 2- Growing Businesses.
Three Priorities For 2014: 2.5 - Why Build Businesses?
Three Priorities For 2014: 2 - Growing Businesses - Legal Shield
Three Priorities For 2014: 2 - Growing Businesses - Homewood Capital Partners
Three Priorities For 2014: 2 - Growing Businesses - Luminaria Productions
Three Priorities For 2014: 3 - Redeveloping Race Street
Three Priorities For 2014: Closing Thoughts

Three Priorities For 2014: 1 - Encouraging The Body Of Christ

Yesterday I wrote:

Given my beliefs, abilities, interests, position and location, it seems that as of now, the best uses of Elwin Green in Homewood will be:

• Encouraging fellow members of the Body of Christ,

• Growing businesses, and

• Redeveloping Race Street

...and I promised to outline projects and processes related to those priorities. Today, I'll talk about the first one, encouraging fellow members of the Body of Christ.

But first, this point: all three priorities are place-specific. All are part of my evolving answer to the question, "What does it mean to live in a place?" (as opposed to just sleeping there at night, for instance). For me, living in Homewood means pursuing the three priorities in Homewood.

Underlying the first priority is a desire for the rest of my life: to live out my faith in unity with other believers who live within walking distance.

I feel like I'm being radical when I say that, for several reasons. First of all, Western Christianity has been so co-opted by individualism that the idea of living out one's faith in unity with other believers is culturally heretical. Second, living out my faith in unity with believers who live within walking distance means going outside the construct of congregating on Sunday morning with people who live here, there and everywhere. Third, it goes against the tendency to forego relationships with neighbors in favor of relationships with other people in our lives (co-workers, fellow students, etc.).

Radical or not, this is my plan for encouraging fellow members of the Body of Christ in Homewood, on the way to living out my faith in unity with them:

1. Declare the word of God to them by reciting Scripture, and
2. Pray with them.

More specifically...

1. Declare the word of God to them by reciting Scripture. Most believers, most of the time, experience Scripture as a hodgepodge of disconnected numbered sentences. We memorize and analyze fragments called "verses" with no sense of the whole from which they are taken. We listen to preaching that strings together fragments and numbered sentences to highlight a thesis or theme. In pursuit of these theses and themes, we entirely lose sight of the fact that with a couple of exceptions, each book of the Bible is one thing.

Then, as if fragmenting Scripture weren't bad enough, we flatten it. We forget, or never realize, that the passages we read were written by human beings, for human beings, not as purely doctrinal treatises, but as stories, poems, arguments, illustrations, proclamations, with questioning, cajoling, complaining, criticizing, complimenting...the full range of discourse and expression, of thought and feeling.

This fragmenting and flattening of Scripture, hideous enough on its own, is made even worse when we read Scripture publicly. In our desire to show reverence for the word of God, we read it in a way that fosters not only confusion, but boredom.

The reading or hearing of Scripture should never be boring.

I hope to counteract both tendencies - the tendency toward fragmentation and the tendency toward flattening - by inviting believers (first on Race Street, then in Homewood generally) to an interpretative reading of Paul's epistle to the Ephesians. I will recite Ephesians in its entirety, in a way intended to convey the excitement - indeed, the ecstasy - which I believe Paul experienced when he wrote it.

I plan to do that in April. Stay tuned for details.

2. To pray with them. After sharing Ephesians, I will invite believers in Homewood to our home on the last Friday evening of each month for a night of prayer, to last until 6 a.m., followed by breakfast.

That's it. I make no predictions concerning results. Planting and/or watering may be my business; bringing forth fruit is God's.

Viva in locum! (took me 'bout half an hour of resurrecting my junior high Latin to come up with that!)

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Three Priorities: The Complete Series
Three Priorities For 2014 - And Beyond
Three Priorities For 2014: 1 - Encouraging The Body Of Christ
Three Priorities For 2014: 2- Growing Businesses.
Three Priorities For 2014: 2.5 - Why Build Businesses?
Three Priorities For 2014: 2 - Growing Businesses - Legal Shield
Three Priorities For 2014: 2 - Growing Businesses - Homewood Capital Partners
Three Priorities For 2014: 2 - Growing Businesses - Luminaria Productions
Three Priorities For 2014: 3 - Redeveloping Race Street
Three Priorities For 2014: Closing Thoughts

ON WISDOM: An Imagined Conversation with God

An imagined conversation:

"Lord, please grant me wisdom."
"How?"
"Hunh?"
"This wisdom you're asking for. How should I get it to you?"
"Uhhh..."
"Have I not given you the ability to read?"
"Yes."
"Do you not have available in written form the law of Moses, the wisdom of Solomon, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the teachings of Peter, Paul and John?"
"Yes."
"Beyond all of that, have I not placed you within walking distance of a public library where you can read everything they have for free?"
"Yes."
"Have I not allowed you to acquire a device which you carry in your pocket, which you can use to ask essentially the entire world any question you want, 24 hours a day?"
"Yes."
"Are there not people in your life right now who are favorably disposed toward you, of whom you could inquire regarding their areas of expertise?"
"I guess."
"You guess?"
"Yes, there are."
"So, this wisdom you're asking for, what else do I need to do to deliver it to you? Inject it into your veins?"
"Can I get back to you on that?"
"Yeah. Do that."

Building a Billion-Dollar Enterprise, 22: In search of "ne plus infra"

Today (Friday, 6/7) was weird; it seemed to be all distraction.

I woke up late, cancelled a meeting. Went to lunch with Andrew Butcher (of GTECH). Had a hard time focusing this afternoon, until the repeated appearance of a particular video in my Facebook news feed led me to write this blog post about it.

The evening was actually a little scary. I think I'm paying too much attention, or the wrong kind of attention, to pageviews and visits. I'm feeling too much.

As the evening wound later, I kept thinking that I needed to do something Luminaria-related, because I want a chronicle of doing something Luminaria-related every single day (shades of "Julie and Julia"). But my motivation and focus were shot.

"Any little thing," I told myself. "What's the smallest thing you can think of to do?"

Draw a sketch of what I want Luminaria's office to look like? Do some research reading? Compose a musical motto? Email a graphic artist about ideas for new products on which we could collaborate?

Everything seemed like too much. I wanted the ne plus infra of action - the opposite of ne plus ultra, or the thing which nothing could go beyond. I wanted the thing which nothing could go below, the smallest possible action.

Finally, I thought of something that seemed like the smallest possible thing I could do. The thing that I can always do. The thing that may be the biggest thing I can do.

I prayed.

"Lord, please grant me wisdom to build the Luminaria the way You want it to be. Or take away the desire for it."

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Only after beginning this post did I remember that I had promised Greg O. last night (see the comments section) that tonight, I would explain why I am sending out links to these posts via LinkedIn.

Here's why:

1. I have more than 600 1st-degree contacts on LinkedIn. That's more direct contacts than I have on Facebook, Twitter, G+, or any of my email lists.
2. LinkedIn is more business-oriented than the other networks. Over time, I want this chronicle to provide greatest value to people who are most interested in business, as a learning tool.
3. When I am ready to begin hiring people, people who have followed the development of the business may constitute the best hiring pool.
4. When I need to partner with someone, people who have followed the development of the business may make the best potential partners.

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I want to continue reporting daily stats, even as I learn to avoid attaching emotion to then. I've learned that I need to wait a day for complete information. So here are the final numbers from Wed., June 6:

ReVisions pageviews: 55

Homewood Nation visitors: 64, average time 1:34

I am nowhere close to being in a position say whether any of those numbers are good or bad. For me, now, they simply are. And are subject to improvement.

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Today, for the first time, I thought seriously, if only briefly, about creating a nonprofit to publish a neighborhood newsletter. Or more precisely, revamping a nonprofit that I formed years ago but never used. The newsletter and "Homewood Nation" could feed each other material, and the newsletter and its nonprofit could attract funding that for-profit Luminaria could not.

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I did do something else today for Luminaria Productions, come to think of it - if "for" is the appropriate word.

I talked about it. With Andrew. Not at any great length, but enough to make me realize that I need to talk about it more, to hear myself say out loud what is in my mind and in my heart - and sometimes, even, to discover what some of what is in my mind and in my heart by saying it out loud, like "Making Homewood a hub of Pittsburgh's film industry." That goes a bit beyond wanting to make a movie or two.

Maybe I should not only do something for Luminaria every day, and write about Luminaria every day; maybe I should talk about Luminaria every day, too.