Insights

I wish kids were like play-dough .I wish you could just mush them in a mold and have them turn out just the way you want … but if you are a parent you know that isn’t how it works.  In fact it doesn’t work in the way 4+5 =9 works.  The longer I parent, the more I am convinced it’s more art than science.

We had staff devotions this week and our guest speaker happens to be pregnant.  She is due in the beginning of April and already the she’s worried about “raising” her new ...

Especially these days, we're running around with more items on our to-do list than there are hours . . . shopping for the Thanksgiving meal, trying to find this year's "perfect" family Christmas card and hoping to get a jump on the gift buying.  All while during the normal day to day routine of life.

That is, until a skunk stops us dead in our tracks.

Having just placed my briefcase in the car this morning to head off for work, I quickly ran back in the house to take our little dog out before leaving.  She refused to cooperate (which ...

One of my strongest childhood recollections is "tagging along" with my dad when (primarily on behalf of his role as host for "The Biola Hour") he would do pulpit supply in local churches.  It was a terrific way to connect with my dad, driving to and from some previously unknown (to me) SoCal town, experiencing a new church setting and then hearing my dad teach.

That delight has carried over to the many years at Ambassador when, as we meet weekly, our team has been encouraged by Al's devotionals.  We've heard some pretty tremendous speakers but (shhhh!), I ...

A major impact in any fundraising communication is saying, "thank you!"

It's too often neglected in strategy and in implementation.

I recently received an example of an excellent "thank you" from an organization I support--not just financially, but as a volunteer for the past 22 years.  They have never taken me for granted--and this recent letter is proof of that.

Just a few notes!  The letter is a monthly "form" letter, obviously personalized.  It's thanking me for my monthly contribution.  For additional "wow" factor they could have acknowledged my contribution as a volunteer advocate.  But that's only ...

Three minutes. 

That's how long a group of runners managed to stay ahead of the bulls at the annual running of the bulls in Pamplona this morning.

The first day of the annual running of the bulls was a swift race through old town for hundreds of runners trying to stay a step ahead of the raging bulls.

Some days it seems that's about how little I'm ahead of my own "raging bulls" - the daily to-do list, the emails, the phone calls. 

As I listened to the news this morning about the runners-mainly men dressed in the ...

I love to golf.  That means on occasion, I'm playing with someone I've never met before.  And the conversation always eventually gets to "So tell me what you do?" and the "So how's business?" conversation. 

I've given, and received, a large number of responses.  I've concluded that business is bad-across the board.  Here's evidence of that fact in just a few of the impacted industries.

1)      The plumbing business is in the toilet

2)      The airline business has crashed

3)      The card table business has folded

4)      The aquarium business has tanked

5)      The ...