Sabbath Rest and Neural Ganglia

Worship and Church need to be about Sabbath rest and wholeness. Church and worship are all about the seventh day of creation. They are rest from the work of life. We need to find ways to enter into the stillness God has called us into—out of the chaos of our worldly lives. The sacredness of Church and worship sets them apart as “Sabbath experiences.” Where is the rest in Church today? We cannot envelop wholeness without it.

Sabbath rest is also about telling tales. We reach into the ken of stories that emerge from our history as a people of God and we share them in a space rich in silence and stillness. The space provided by the silence and stillness enables us to hear how the tales interact with our own lives. We connect in a richer fashion when our tales our told out of rest, rather than constant movement. By removing these standard and routine practices from “Church”, “Sabbath”, and “religious” experiences, we have begun to dismantle structures in the neural ganglia of mankind. We are pruning out developmental culture and its place in our lives. This is dangerous.

Replicating our workplace environments in our Churches has proved empty. We really do not want to have executive meetings on Sunday, we just have forgotten that we are being called into something different. Making Churches into businesses has failed in the long run and we all feel that. Relegating growth to an “org chart” has left us hollow.

Eventually we are left with asking, “What happened to Jesus in all of this? Where has God gone in all of this?” Perhaps we have substituted our prayer practices with the distractions that keep us from stillness. As easy as it is to do this in our private lives, it is just as easy to do this in our corporate lives. We can eradicate healthy habits quite nicely in democratic cultures. I am afraid Church has become democratic—in ways that it has clearly not ruminated over long enough.

From Chapter 2 of Cairn-Space

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Talkable is Readable

In the past I have not reviewed business books at this blog, but, because the author is a brother in Christ, and because his passion for branding has so much to offer churches and ministries as well as businesses, I find it a valuable read for anyone searching to align the core of their heart and passion with a fervor about getting the word out (is this not truly what evangelism is all about)!

Talkable is Readable

"Talkable" is a book on branding written by the progressive young founder and CEO of Abiah - an innovative brand development firm - Guy Richards.  The book not only reveals Richard's  broad sensibilities and deep reaching intuitions on matters of driving businesses and ministries into the future on the momentum of clearly aligned business structures and products, it does it in a down to earth and readable way.

Guy gives over information that only a strategist and guru would offer, but he does it in a humble and non-threatening landscape of pragmatic and actionable wording.  He is the "pundit of the pragmatic".  His self effacing humor does not set up any barriers to your building confidence in the task at hand.  These laconic words bolster hope that people can brand and brand well on little or no money down.

Most people will never learn these simple truths about positioning yourself in the market based on the things you do that are talkable because most of the people that disseminate this info hide behind cryptic towers of profuse diversions - using language that would render branding as a science or a dead language.  That is not Guy's approach.  He makes it clear that anyone can get down and do the work if they will get down and do the work.

What he offers are 60 potent life lessons from the master.  60 times you get to sit at his feet and hear the words he has to offer.  He'll reframe things that you already know with just enough newness and freshness so as to draw you in and stimulate your innovator within.

It becomes pretty clear that Guy is all about helping people find out what it is they are passionate about.  Without this part of the oracle's message, there can be no push into success.  He challenges us to begin to learn about what it is we do best and then make sure that we let people know that that is what sets us apart from all the other widget makers.  If you don't know what it is that you do best then you need to take the time to review that.

So begins your dance with your brand promise.  If you don't have that then you don't have a brand.  You are just widget maker number six thousand.  So get started.

There is info that you will want to add to your strategic planning analyses and to your over site narratives.  There is material you will want to carry to deeper levels so you can orient and educate your staff.  There are whole lists of actionable stuff  in each chapter that you will want to jot down to help deepen and strengthen your constituents - adding value.  So be sure to bring a legal pad to the reading.

Guy sort of reminds me of Tim Sanders (Love is a Killer App).  He makes it clear that he is a Jesus lover and it informs all his work.  This means that he is not only upholding a commitment to an ethical stance because he is hooked up to God, it means that he is learning to let love be the measure of how he does what he does. He has not burst out into saying "love-cats", like Sanders, but you get the sense that Guy is clearly revealing a glimpse into his own brand which is all about sharing the love.  He is inviting us in to create a community.  Community is a brand of brands.

I buzzed through the book pretty quickly - it is a quick read - and I would encourage you to do the same, making notes where you would like to make some particular adjustments in the way you are positioned in the market and how you do business.  Then, I would go back through it with a more reflective and far reaching rumination.  Take your time and make more detailed notes that involve specific interactions your heart and mind have with the material.  It would be a great series of opening readings at staff and board meetings that could enable alignment throughout an agency.

Guy goes a step further and helps hook you up with Abiah's proprietary brand testing methodology BrandReturn.  It is another way that he is sharing the love.

Anyone who wants to learn about the components of what Jim Collins (Good to Great) calls the hedgehog principle will find a readable roadmap in Richards book.  Your business needs this book.   Don't drop off the charts becaus you settled for the chaos of the ordinary - excel, innovate, and develop a core that people just can't stop talking about - for all of the best reasons!

Check out his link http://www.abiah.com/