Who is the Customer?

I recently took four of my five kids out for ice cream to a place where they could break the summer heat with a shake or a sundae. It was a little bit of a splurge but I was feeling generous and wanted to 'give good gifts' to my children. This is my stretch of Matthew 7:11

I parked the car and the kids raced to the door and headed in. The staff seemed pleased to see four children ages 8, 10, 12 and 14 which made me happy. Sometimes people aren't happy to see us arrive. They made eye contact with me and confirmed that there were five of us on this visit and where would I like to sit. I shared my preference and the waitress led us to our table area. I let her know we were there for ice cream and she cheerfully handed out menus with ice cream asking if I wanted any of the younger children to have a children's menu. I assured her that we did not need a children's menu when it came to ice cream and asked if she would supply us all with a glass of water. She soon came back and asked me if we were ready to order and together we ordered some of our favorites. As she left to place to place our order a couple of things caught my attention.

This waitress knew that I was her customer. She was kind to the children but communicated with me.

She asked my preferences and I felt like she understood that these were my kids and I might have certain ideas for them.

She asked for our orders but had eye contact with me as I made adjustments to a couple of the kids enthusiastic choices.

Later she gave me the bill and thanked me for our visit. This waitress knew that I was her primary customer. I had chosen to bring my children but she did not cater to the kids apart from me. She did not invite them to a special 'kids area' where they could get different ice cream. She knew who was paying the bill and leaving the tip and the kids didn't have any money. I think she understood family dynamics and that I was the father and wanted to continue being a father even in her restaurant. In my opinion, she correctly answered the question of  "Who is the Customer?". 

I will be thinking of this waitress when I go to church on Sunday. I wonder if the staff there understand who the customer is? Maybe I can treat them to some ice cream and we can talk.  

Vacation Time Builds Memories

This summer I have already spoken to several men who were either too busy to take a vacation and/or did not have the money to take a vacation. These are solid guys living in challenging times.

How about you? Do you have a plan to do take a vacation this summer? It is only July 11th so it is not to late to still plan and execute a meaningful time away for you and those you love.

Webster defines vacate as 'to give up the incumbency or occupancy of'. A vacation is usually connected to vacating time at work. Most companies provide employees a minimum of two weeks vacation after a year of work so most men have some vacation available to them this summer.

I like to encourage men to not only vacate their work but also to vacate their home and if they have a family to take their family with them. A short summer vacation can build memories that last a long time. Building memories is a primary job of husbands and fathers. God has given us the shepherding role and planning a memorable vacation would seem to fit under that umbrella.

Three nights and four days at a fun location will be a memory builder this summer. Thank the Lord for the Internet where we can research and plan something affordable and memorable in a matter of a couple of hours. Let's graciously encourage one another to make sure we get this done in 2011 and not let the summer slip by without a vacation.

Missional Community

Who do you really want to invest your time to be with?

My experience is that the person who comes to mind is a person that you share a common mission with. This is missional community. It can be one person or 100 people.

Iron Sharpens Iron is a missional community of leaders and is not an organization. We choose to formally align our own organizations because we are regional ministries equipping local churches to reach men for Christ and disciple these men to follow Jesus for a lifetime. That is our common mission. We are in different cities all over the nation from the Hartford to Tucson and from Seattle to Miami - but we are in community because of this compelling mission.

We are a missional community.
How about you? Are you in a missional community?

Doing Together What We Cannot Do Alone

Courageous the Movie has five national ministry partners who are creatively working to promote the movie launch of September 30th and all that will follow into the Fall. Iron Sharpens Iron is honored to be one of these ministry partners and our network of ministries is helping to host screenings of the movie all over the nation this summer.

The Courageous Marketing Team hosted a conference call yesterday and invited all five partners to come together and begin to interact on what can we do together that we cannot do alone. Leaders from Focus on the Family, FamilyLife, All Pro Dad and The national Center for Fathering joined myself and some of the Courageous Team for a spirited hour of fellowship and sharing our hearts and hopes about what God could do through this movie and after the September 30th launch.

Each ministry is diligently working to give the movie visibility in it's own sphere of influence but yesterday for the first time we began to really consider what could happen if we intentionally locked arms and worked together on a follow through plan that would serve men, families and churches after the conference.

I believe that this movie will have a tremendous opening weekend Sept. 30-Oct 2 and that the unmerited favor of God is all over this resource. That said, the resource will come and go if we as partners do not lock arms and move from being a fellowship to becoming a force. I will be sharing more about this could look like as we move through the summer.