People who have shaped me (part 2)

Ranjy Thomas. About four years ago this guy and his Australian wife walked into a membership class I was teaching at CBC. There was an instant connection and who would have known the kind of friendship that developed. Ranjy’s done a ton of things in his life and currently runs a creative animation company called Flying Rhino. Ranjy’s taught me a lot over the past four years – friendship, developing creative process, branding, communication to name a few things. He’s one of those guys who makes you feel like you’re the most important person in the room. I so admired his passion for Jesus, people and connecting the two. But perhaps most of all Ranjy taught me to dream… and how to move from simply dreaming to walking out the reality of those dreams.

Dreams often take longer to become reality than we think, but when you’ve worked hard, built ownership in a team, prayed like your life depended on it and it becomes reality nothing matches that feeling. It’s one thing to dream it’s an entirely different thing to navigate a pathway that will take you to the reality. I was reminded of a story I heard about Walt Disney… he died before he ever saw Disney World finished. While at the opening ceremony, a young executive tried to console Mrs. Disney. “It would have been wonderful if Walt could have been here to see this,” he tells Walt’s wife. She turns to the young executive, “Oh he saw it! It’s the very reason it’s here!” Ranjy has taught me to see it, before it’s a reality and how to execute – to work to see that dream become a reality. Ranjy Thomas shaped who I am.

Hot off the press!

Craig Groeschel the lead pastor of Lifechurch.tv, one of the churches I highly respect and consistently recognized as one of the most influential churches in America, is coming to the Generation Conference in July… if you plan of coming get registered soon.

People who have shaped me (part 1)

That’s a pretty tall title but I’ve been thinking a lot about it recently and realized there are some incredible people who have shaped who I am and how I lead – and not always who you think. I’ve had the incredible privilege of meeting quite a few Christian leaders/pastors – everyone from Craig Groeschel, Ed Young, Bill Hybels, Brian Houston, Louie Giglio (still hoping to meet Andy Stanley, Steve Furtick & Erwin McManus some time, but enough about that). Some of these people are on this list, some are regular people, some are business people but they’ve all had an incredible shaping influence.

First up my mom & dad… yeah I know that might sound expected but they’ve taught me some incredible lessons in life. They’re not necessarily leaders in any official capacity, they’ve not perhaps accomplished some heroic world changing feat (though battling and beating cancer is a pretty big deal). My mom and dad have remained faithful, kept plodding and never given up – even in the toughest of times. It’s the quality that Paul told Timothy to look for in committing the future of the gospel to people – look for faithful men and women. My mom & dad have taught me how to be faithful, keep pushing, never give up and work hard! It’s like Vince Lombardi once said, “the harder you work, the harder it is to give up.” It might not be sexy, but faithfulness and try your very best are two qualities that have become a part of who I am and how I lead because of two incredible people that I get to call mom and dad. My parents shaped who I am.

Highly Recommended!

Today is the release date for the much anticipated Generation Unleashed project. I got a sneak peak (or listen as the case may be). Highly recommend you go to itunes or songtouch and download today!

I hate being sick!

Been out sick the last couple of days… hate being sick and hate missing church. Heard there were a ton of guests (like 15-20) yesterday and the First Impressions team swung into action big time! Way to go team. Anyhow feeling a little better today – heading up to Canada, eh. I’m sure I’ll enjoy some dooonuts & coffee from Tim Hortons, eh. (it’s hard to type Canadian). You know as great a start as we’ve had this year I haven’t reflected that in the blogging world. There’s been big gaps of empty nothingness in the Gilpin blogosphere and to you five faithful readers I apologize. It’s time to kick some blogosphere behuckae (as Sophie would say).

It’s Tuesday & I still hurt

It’s painful living in the state that beat you’re team to go to the Superbowl… I’m recovering slowly.

Two of my favorite things…

Okay so Mr Jobs made me feel really good about my iPhone last week (not that I’ve ever felt bad)… but to realize that all my friends need to buy new phones to upgrade, my little iPhone just automatically downloads the lastest updates and gives me even more enhanced features for free – pretty much now has GPS (without the terrible battery drain of GPS), movie rentals, an increasing number of web apps and SMS to groups pretty incredible… So now what about marrying up my iPhone with my favorite place to procure coffee, Starbucks. How about ordering my drink via my iPhone and picking up at the local Starbucks drive through – either life’s getting crazy convenient or we’re getting crazy lazy. Anyhow check this out – pretty incredible idea (and images) even though it’s not reality yet (probably just a matter of time).