Snow Days are alot of fun. They never come at a convenient time, but once you get past the fact that what you had planned to do is not going to happen — it’s great. Â The kids play Wii too much, you cook a great meal, and your back is sore from shoveling snow. Today, we went sledding, cleaned the garage, and focused on having a great family day. Tomorrow
will mean more work (you have to catch up), but for right now, its ok just to hang out with the family.
Three Tips for a Great Meeting — Bust’m Up!
I love sporting clays. While I have never been much of a “hunter†I enjoy firearms and the atmosphere of people gathered around the back of a pickup truck discussing the events of the day. My heart skips a beat at the thought of gun smoke, recoil, flying shells, and broken pigeons. I love “bust’m up.â€
While an expert will give you a hundred adjustments to make your shot better, let a novice give you three basic techniques that you need to know to shoot well.
One is determining the speed and direction of the clay. Where is it going to be a fraction of a second from now, and moving the shotgun in that direction.
Second, keep your eyes open. There is a tendency to close your weak eye, and lead with your dominant eye. But you get much better precision when you shoot with both eyes open.
Third, follow through – this is where you a leading the target and predicting where it’s going to be when the shot gets to it. Then you pull the trigger at just the right moment.
Typically when I shoot there will be one instance when I get all three techniques perfect and the clay won’t just crack into pieces but will turn to dust – a direct hit. What a great feeling.
Having been in ministry for over fifteen years now, I have sat in on and led countless meetings. If you have ever sat in on a meeting where you felt like picking up a shotgun, then let me apply these same shooting techniques to your next meeting.
Three Tips To Make Your Next Meeting Better (Bust’m Up)
1) Determine the Speed and Direction of the Meeting: Where is this thing going? What are we trying to accomplish? Just like you move the shotgun in the right direction, the group of people you are leading need to know where you are taking them. Recognize that there are different types of meetings (planning, problem solving, announcements, brainstorming, fellowship, practices, etc.)
If one person comes to a meeting where he is expecting to give ideas and help plan something, only to realize everything has already been done and is simply told what is going to happen then this will lead to frustrations. If another person is expecting to sit around and hangout, only to be asked by the leader her ideas for the project she will be embarrassed.
So Everyone needs to know what is expected from every meeting. This is where agendas are helpful. If at all possible give one out to the group before the meeting. If this is not possible, then cover the agenda at the beginning of the meeting. It is helpful before the meeting really gets going to ask someone to take notes. People will volunteer for tasks, or items that need to be assigned may be discovered along the way.
In the non-profit world, especially in the church, people’s lives are incredibly busy. They do not want to waste their time in a meeting that seems to have no purpose.
2) Keep your eyes open. The right eye and the left eye each take a picture of whatever you look at. Each picture is from a slightly different angle of vision, or point of view. The brain takes two pictures and joins them into one. This is what is known as depth perception. It is very difficult, if not impossible to determine distance with only one eye.
So, let’s apply this to your team meeting. If you close one “eye†and only focus on your thoughts, opinions, and ideas (dominant eye), then you lose the depth that others add to the discussion. People on your team need to feel like they are making a significant impact to the project or goals as a whole. You as a leader must honestly take input and seek it out from your team. How do others on your team feel when they give their suggestions? Do they feel their opinions have worth?
3) Follow through and Pulling the Trigger. Once people know why they are there and what you are trying to accomplish, you have involved them in the process, have accomplished your goals, now it is time to close out the meeting. Are you where you predicted you would be? Did you accomplish your goals for the meeting?
This is the time when decisions are made, and individuals are given assignments, or issues are reviewed for consensus. Does everyone know what he or she is supposed to do now? How do you know they know? Review your notes and assignments and let the team know about the next meeting if that is appropriate. What’s the plan for next time?
If you get all three of these techniques right, then you will nail it and there won’t be anything but dust! Get out there and bust’m up!
Who Are You?
How Important Is A Name?
This past week was the fourth week into a preaching series on the book of Daniel that we have called, “Living with Courage in Times of Compromise,†– or just “courage,†for short. I have thoroughly enjoyed the study so far. Two Sundays ago a member of the church asked me, “Why do Daniel’s friend’s names remain Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (their Babylonian given names) while Daniel (who was also renamed to Belteshazzar) was able to keep his original name throughout the book?[1] So, let’s look at it:
First, we see Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (or Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah) only in the first and third chapters of the book and then they are not seen anymore. The obvious focus of the entire book is on God and His sovereignty and how He shows this sovereignty through individuals (like Daniel and his three friends). So, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s impact upon the book is only found in two of the twelve chapters. We don’t know why they are not mentioned more throughout the book except it seems that the desired message to be given through the book didn’t need to include them further.
Second, we see a similar occurrence in Genesis when Joseph was given an Egyptian name Zaphenath-paneah,[2] yet he maintained his Jewish given name throughout the book. In both instances we see that these men outlast the tenure of the king over them. For Daniel, he served under Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Darius and outlasted them all. Daniel faithfully served the Lord from the time he was taken into captivity as a teen, all the way through his elderly years.
Therefore, people are remembered by how they serve and what they do with their lives far more than names people try to give them. Daniel’s name means, “God is my judge†and Belteshazzar means “a false god, protect my life.†Daniel’s life was one that refused to be acknowledged by a false god protecting him, the miracles and favor of God upon him refused to let the name Beltshazzar rest upon it.
Boardwalk Elvis
My wife and I served as summer missionaries with a resort ministry in Ocean City, Maryland during the summer of 1995. I made a whopping $600 for the whole summer (but you don’t do missions for the money). I had a killer tan, was able to do some great work, learned how to build massive sand sculptures, bought my first pair of Oakleys, and met the women who would be my eventual wife (so mark it down as one of the best summers of my life).
One of the distinct personalities that I saw many times over the summer of 1995 was Boardwalk Elvis. He is a special needs man
who at some time stumbled into an Elvis Impersonators Reject Wardrobe department. He was known to sport neon green jumpsuits, and carry a 80’s battery operated radio where he would play his kazoo and sing as he walked back and forth on the OC boardwalk. He was Boarwalk Elvis, and is known by thousands. If you reference this facebook link, you will see people’s comments of how since the 60’s people have watched for him and their warmth for him as a distinct personality of the boardwalk.
Click here to read a facebook entry about Boardwalk Elvis.
So the name stuck to him, because of his behavior, his dress, and the fact that he has behaved this way for over forty years. I know this is a weird cultural reference, but we all know of those personalities that love what they do, and when you refer to them by that action of behavior, or characteristic they beam with pride. To call Boardwalk Elvis Norman just doesn’t seem right.
Back to the Question
So, why does Daniel hold on to his name even though the greatest king on the planet at his time officially gave him another name? Simply, he kept his name because of his character; His life was one of courage, faithfulness, and persistence. When the books are written about you, they will call you a name, and put you in a category based upon how you lived your entire life.
Having served here in Maryland for over a decade my family back home in Alabama has undergone the natural changes families go through. But one of the most impacting changes was that one of my grandfather’s developed dementia and eventually died. As I would travel home over the years for the traditional holidays his decline was abruptly noticed ever time.
Each year was significantly worse. He would know who I was in the morning, but by the evening he would have forgotten. The last year I saw him, he had forgotten all together who I was (his grandson who desperately wanted to spend some time with him), and he only called me “preacher.†All my identity and memories were boiled down into one word in his mind.
Preacher.
This is who I am.
What is your name?
[1] This was not an exact quote, but you get the idea.
[2] Genesis 41:45
Tommy Boswell Retirement Recognition Banquet
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Exodus 20:12 “Honor your father and mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you, “
This past Thursday I had the privilege of being the key note speaker at my father’s retirement recognition banquet. Considering all the “brass” that were limited to a few minutes in their presentations, I was honored to speak to my father’s accomplishments and importance to his community. The following is the speech as I delivered it on January 6th, 2011:
“On behalf of the family, I would like to thank you for being here tonight to honor the service and career of Tommy Boswell. Your presence here tonight, and your friendship over the years means the world to us, and we value each of you greatly. Our family recognizes that it is because of your support over the years that as a community we all were able to make Russell County a better place to live.
With Christmas having just passed, we all have very sharp memories of the sound ripping wrapping paper, shrills of children as they yell in excitement, and a joy that comes from seeing children happy, and times with family. This year as I sat around our Christmas tree and watched my children playing, I thought about what am I truly giving to my children, beyond the toys that will be discarded in a week, and decorations that will be put away until next year?
You will hear tonight from several community leaders how my father has served the community, but I would like to share some gifts I feel my dad has passed on to his family, and specifically his son.
1. The First gift from my dad is a sense of Duty
One of the earliest memories I have of my dad’s career was when he was an investigator and would take me to his office. I remember the old Sherriff’s office and the old jail, with the green shag carpet that reeked of cigarette smoke, and mildew, and the sound of window air conditioners running.
I would play with magnifying glasses, fingerprint tape, and evidence that had been to court and thrown in the trash. It was so cool to hold brass knuckles, switch blades, and butcher knives with blood still on it.
It was not a kid “friendly place†– which made it cool – but he allowed me to enter into this world with him. But more impacting to me than the knives and the brass knuckles, was a board in the sheriff’s office full of children’s pictures and in big bold words would be the words, “Kidnapped,†and “Missing,†a description of them and how they were my age.
My dad, and those like him, were looking for those children and the bad guys who took them. There were so many pictures, layer upon layer of little boy’s and little girl’s faces. But my dad and his department did find some and brought them back home.
But I did not understand the weight of what my dad did for our family, or the community until one evening, dad came home from work as he had always done, but this cool fall evening, he never smiled or really said anything. He went back to his bedroom and stayed there for a long time. Well after dark he emerged from the bedroom dressed in black army fatigues that had bright yellow Sherriff’s Department written above the pockets and the gold colored star.
He had black tactical belt with a gun, ammo clips, and handcuffs – so it was a combination of this outfit, and his attitude that I knew this was not going to be any easy night for him. That was the first night when I feared my father may not come back home. There were other nights like that one as the years went by, but it was this first night that I understood, even as a small child, that he was one of the good guys and he was seeking to fight the bad guys and that fight was dangerous. He was putting himself in harms way so that the world could be a better place.
I am not sure which is worse, to go into harm’s way and face death, or to send other men into harm’s way and live with the consequences. Both are very hard. As he progressed in his career, the challenges changed, responsibilities changed, but his desire to fight the bad guys never has.
2. Another gift that my dad has given to us is a closeness to Death and Depravity
One afternoon my father picked me up from school and was taking me home when I saw a brown paper sack in the back seat of his police car. Halfway home he stopped at the Seale Depot, to get gas and he went in to pay. He told me “whatever I do Drew, do not look in the bag.†How could I not open it, dad, come on! Well, it was a human skull, and to say the least I was a little freaked out.
It was the skull of an 85-year-old woman. Earlier that afternoon my father received a call to respond to a dead body that had been found on a remote county road. The body was nothing but bones but after some investigation it was discovered who she was and how she ended up where she did. She had wandered away and became lost and died of exposure. That’s what he had done that day before he picked me up at school.
But death and man’s depravity have always been sitting beside our family – you cannot fight the bad guys and not come face-to-face with it. Crime scene photos on the top of our mantel were a common occurrence. The tools of the trade; handguns, shotguns, the smell of gun oil, handcuffs, walkie-talkies, a black leather wallet with the imprint of a badge, among other equipment were as common place in our home as a lamp or bowl of fruit. The sound of a squawking police radio is a familiar sound from my childhood, and when I ride with my dad now, it brings back a lot of good memories.
In order to fight an enemy, you have to learn to think like the enemy. You have to live in such a way to be prepared against evil – so tools of the trade were always close by. Because of this closeness to death and depravity, many of the good guys seem hardened and cold. They have a mechanism to keep it from corrupting them – it does affect you, it has to affect you.
As a family who has a career police officer as our father, I want to say thank you for finding that balance between keeping yourself from being corrupted by the evil that you fight and not losing your heart.
3. Another gift is Compassion
Our home was also a place where people knew they could get help. People stopped by (and still do) because they knew my dad (and our home) was a place where people could get help. So, it is not unusual to have strange characters knocking on our door at all hours of the night. One evening at about 3am there was a frantic banging on our front door. It was a woman who had been badly beaten and could hardly walk. Her clothes had been either ripped off or were torn in her effort to get away.
She was bare footed and her feet were bloody from stumbling over rocks and briars and her face was bloody from her being attacked. We asked her to come in and we wiped the mud and blood from her feet, arms, and body. My mother gave her some clothes and we put medicine on her wounds.
After some discussion with her, we gathered that she had stumbled about three miles from her home and saw nothing on the road (she passed at lest 20 homes). My father asked “How did you know where I lived in the dark? She said “I didn’t, except there was this tiny yellow light.†It was our doorbell she saw from several hundred yards away and she made her way to it.
But over the years many hurting people have found their way to our home.
Many a conversation was held under our carport, and on our picnic table was a place where many a crying person was calmed and justice began. He never gets aggravated, instead there is a sense of understanding – “this is what I do.â€
My mother would get upset when her tomatoes would be taken during these conversations, but I have never seen him shirk this sense of duty and obligation the to community. I am glad that I grew up in home where people knew they could get help from our home. It brings pride to my heart that we were able to help so many people.
4. By far the most important gift a father could give his son and family is a good name.
For over twenty years the name Tommy Boswell has been synonymous with duty, integrity, loyalty, and justice. He is a friend to many, and if his name is mentioned, it is directly related to his public service to our community and to his character as a person.
Proverbs 22:1 “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.â€
His name has gotten me out of a few speeding tickets when I was younger, but now that I am older I have come to realize how rich and important living a life of integrity, duty, hard work, and compassion is to a person. A respected family name is more important than riches because it enables you to reach far beyond yourself, and to make a difference in the world.
Conclusion
One of the things a leader wants to do is to fix all the problems and to end well. But people still do stupid things, and death and man’s depravity are still there – these things will never change until the end of time. All we can do is fight against it with all our might in our own areas of influence.
My dad has decided that it is time to pass the torch of leadership. One of the things I wanted to do tonight is to say thank you for making a difference in my life, in our family’s life, and in our community’s life.
You did make a huge impact, and your legacy will live on in the people’s lives you helped, it is multiplied in the officer’s you trained and launched into service, and the bad guys you put away. Russell County is a better place to live because of you, and I am the man I am today because of you being my father.
Through Tommy Boswell’s leadership and serving along side fellow deputies, serving in various leadership positions, and having served for 37 years of police work, 21 of those as sheriff, he and his staff have investigated 400 murders and 2000 deaths, thousands or rapes, robberies, and burglaries, and there are currently over seven people on death row.
This is a career worthy of recognition. Thank you for a job well done.”
[pro-player width=’320′ height=240 type=’video’ image=’https://drewboswell.com/video/rvideo_conv.jpeg’]https://drewboswell.com/video/rvideo_conv.flv[/pro-player]
From Boy to Man by Dr. Al Mohler
In this 23 page e-book Dr. Al Mohler the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary gives 13 marks of what a boy should be before he should be considered a man.
As a father of three boys, I know that there are things that I need to be teaching them along the way. This booklet gives parents a helpful outline and it would be fairly easy to establish some long range goals based on these 13 marks. Other resources that I have read are just overwhelming in the sheer volume of material, but these are succinct, and given almost in outline form.
Too many of the males in our churches are overgrown boys in adult bodies. They lack spiritual maturity, and are ill equipped to handle adult responsibilities. Should there really be any surprise that many “men” are not willing to step into leadership roles, when we don’t prepare them when they are younger?
Mohler says in the article, “As defined in the Bible, manhood is a functional reality, demonstrated in a man’s fulfillment of responsibility and leadership.”
Click on the picture or here to read the e-book.
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