Thursday, March 18, 2010

Discipleship... a.k.a. - Doing Life


Had a great time last night with our Home Group! We've been going through Rick Warren's study on the Purpose Driven Life and last night was on the topic of Discipleship. Rick has a great way of breaking it down and showing the simplicity of God's growth plan for us.


Many times we complicate this thing called Discipleship. Often, in the name of Christian Discipleship, we lay a heavy burden on someone who has just accepted Jesus, like all of a sudden, there is a Humungous list of "do's and don'ts" they need to follow! O, we start innocently enough and often a new believer in their zeal will anxiously follow anything they are told when told forcefully enough! This type of "Discipleship" is really just a form of abuse... It's not a formula, a list of rules, or a systematic theology... most of the guys who tried to live that way missed Jesus all together... O yah, and they nailed Him to a cross!


To really be a disciple of Jesus starts with a relationship with Him. There was not a lot of complication for the men who followed Jesus on this earth some 2000 years ago. They were probably one of the most messed up group of guys on the planet in their day! My kind of guys... : ) They simply walked and talked with Jesus every day. They did what He asked them to do. They listened to Him. They often argued with Him (and no lightning bolts!) and did life and ministry with Him. They saw the amazing and supernatural done by Him. They experienced the grief of seeing Him die. They received the Holy Spirit as a result of His resurrection power. They were witnesses of Him and saw His church multiply like wildfire. They became bold spokesmen of His church. They gave their lives to the service of His church. Many gave their lives for Him.


I am always amazed at people's life stories like the ones that were shared last night in our Home Group! God is so at work in lives all around us. Stories of near-death, healing from past hurts, and reaching out to offer help to those in need... This is Discipleship, emulating what Jesus did and wants to do through us everyday. Doing life with Jesus. Doing life with His church; our brothers and sisters.


That's true Discipleship!

Monday, March 15, 2010

Songwriting


Just wrote a new song last night. It was a combination of a "long time coming" and and "quick inspiration"...


Been tooling around with the melody for several months now, and last night, the lyrics flowed out of my time of just playing and singing to God. God inhabits our praise!


Here are the lyrics, will record soon in Garage Band and post on this site.


You Are The One
Copyright 2010 Leo Gallant

You are the One who knows it all
You are the One who hears us call
And You always rescue when we lose our way again
You are my God and King

You are the One who sees my need
You are the One who sees me
And You are the One who wipes every tear from my eye
You are my God and King

Chorus:
And I give my life to You
I give my heart to You
I give my all to You, my King
All of my life to You
All of my heart to You
All that I am to You, my King

Friday, March 5, 2010

A Better Way to Do Business


Just got back from the NCTIES conference held in Raleigh NC. Our company had the privilege of being one of the major sponsors and as such helped to bring the amazing Ron Clark to speak at Thursday's Keynote Luncheon. Wow, what an inspiration for educators today. You may have seen Matthew Perry's portrayal of Ron in "The Ron Clark Story" and Ron definitely resonated big time with the 1200 teachers in the room! He brings a passion to the classroom that is infectious! Ron not only leads a great school in Atlanta, he brings a new twist to teaching to thousands of teachers who visit each year. Ron still teaches 4 or 5 classes a day, amazing dedication! Take the time to watch the video, and have a tissue handy. : )

I always meet a lot of great and dedicated teachers at these conferences and NCTIES is no exception. Teachers appreciate a little time away to recharge their batteries with a little "grown-up" interaction!

Many times at these conferences, businesses/exhibitors hold a dinner or cocktail reception and ONLY invite IT directors and other key decision makers and then proceed to grill that prospect or customer with BUSINESS. In reality, these folks would rather attend an event where all their staff are welcome. We planned with the help of some of our vendor partners an all-night event where everyone could come and hang-out and play a couple of RockBand games on our big screens. Needless to say, it was so much fun, that we had close to 200 people show up and they would not leave! Finally at 10:30, we had to shut down the last Promethean board with Rock Band!

People love to do business with people who accept and welcome; with people who are passionate and fun! Yes, you'd better have a great product and service, but the differentiator is people. By the way, in the midst of the fun, there were great conversations about business, but we let it start from the customer rather than force it. Big difference!

Thanks all!