Announcement: Skype Talks

s[Admin note: This is not a normal article. This is merely an announcement to the readers here.] I expect and hope the UBF conversations here will continue (I know they will as long as Ben is publishing :).  Although I will continue to comment from time to time on such articles, I for one won’t be publishing any further articles about UBF here on this blog. I may publish articles about other topics, but for now I would like to announce something new: Skype talks.

As I shared here previously, I attended the 2013 Global Leadership Summit. I made an offer to share these videos with any UBF chapter or person who wanted to invite me to view and discuss them afterward. That offer still stands. Now I’d like to expand this offer using Skype. So here is my announcement and expanded offer.

Skype Me

So starting tomorrow, Sunday 9/22/2013, my Skype is an open mic. Please see the steps below to chat with me on Skype about anything you want. I am willing to share the GLS videos for you or a group of people to see. And I’ll gladly talk about anything you want to talk about. The first video is 29 minutes.

I received the first video from the 2013 WCA GLS. It is a bonus video that didn’t happen at the GLS. The video shows Patrick Lencioni interviewd by a lead pastor from St. Catherines Canada, Jeff Lockyear. Jeff is the head pastor at Southridge Community Church. In this interview, Jeff asks pointed questions to Patrick about how to apply some of Patrick’s leadership teachings in the church realm. The interview is based around Patrick’s book, The Advantage. Here is an excerpt from a review on Amazon:

“While too many leaders are still limiting their search for advantage to conventional and largely exhausted areas like marketing, strategy, and technology, Lencioni demonstrates that there is an untapped gold mine sitting right beneath them. Instead of trying to become smarter, he asserts that leaders and organizations need to shift their focus to becoming healthier, allowing them to tap into the more-than-sufficient intelligence and expertise they already have. The author of numerous best-selling business fables including The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and Death by Meeting, Lencioni here draws upon his twenty years of writing, field research, and executive consulting to some of the world’s leading organizations. He combines real-world stories and anecdotes with practical, actionable advice to create a work that is at once a great read and an invaluable, hands-on tool. The result is, without a doubt, Lencioni’s most comprehensive, significant, and essential work to date.”

How to Skype

1. Download and install the Skype client for your phone, PC, Mac or just about any device. Call or email me if you have technical questions about doing this. (My tech support is free :)

2. Search for my Skype ID or send me yours and I’ll call you. Just search in Skype contacts for “briankarcher” and you will find me (don’t type the quotes, just briankarcher). This is completely free for you, no matter how long we talk.

3. That’s it. There is no cost to you. I am paying the yearly subscription, so I can host a group chat, a group video call or a group screenshare.

My Promises

Although I may not always follow policies and I may not be able to carry out what I plan to do, I will always keep a promise I make. Whether you agree with me (many don’t) or not, you should know by now that I won’t knowingly break a promise I make. I will make every effort to keep my promises. You may not like my approaches or actions the last two years, but at least you should be able to see that I will do what I say.

a. I will not share any content of what we discuss. Your conversations with me on Skype will be private and confidential. I will never post any conversation in any form on this blog nor on my blog nor on any public social media, including Facebook.

b. I will not reveal your identity. Even if someone asks me who is talking on Skype with me, I will not tell. You are free to share as much or as little of your identity with me, but rest assured I won’t share who you are or where you are from with anyone.

c. I will not bring up UBF unless you do. If you want to talk about UBF related topics, fine. You know my stance already. But I will never bring up the subject of UBF. I will not pick the topics or video. You will choose the topics and the video(s). Right now of course there is only one video choice until the rest arrive in late October :) If you want me to share with a group of people, let me know your guidelines in advance, and I will honor those guidelines. If I disagree with your guidelines, then I’ll tell you and either modify them or not do the presentation. I will not bash UBF on these calls and will never initiate a comparison of the teachings from the videos with UBF teachings.  I would only do so if you bring up the subject of UBF. If you don’t talk about UBF, I won’t either.

An Example Video

Here is a sample of the kind of thing you’ll hear in these videos. This is a clip from Andy Stanley’s introduction of Bill Hybles as he was about to speak at the 15th anniversary celebration of North Point Community Church on September 20,2010.

14 comments

  1. Joe Schafer

    Brian, thank you for this generous offer. I hope that some of us can make use of it soon.

  2. Mark Mederich

    figuring out skype:)

  3. You’ve successfully captured my interest :)

  4. Brian, What is the one lecture that you now presently have (before the others arrive)? Is it the one by Hybels?

    • Ben,

      There are 14 videos in total as far as I know. 13 were presented at the GLS. I do not have any of those 13 yet, they are “in the mail” and are supposed to arrive the last week of October.

      I have a bonus video, which is an interiew of Patrick Lencioni by the lead pastor from a church in St. Catherines Canada, Jeff Lockyear. Jeff is the head pastor at Southridge Community Church.

      They discuss Patrick’s book and apply some leadership principles to church leadership and organizational health of churches. It is 29 minutes and rather insightful.

  5. My hope is to create another safe place for discussion to happen, taking advantage of the latest feature of Skype, which now allows screen sharing for groups at a reasonable price (and very reasonable for group participants since it is free to watch :)

    I know there are people in UBF who have a homosexual orientation, who have suffered the pains of divorce, who have adopted atheism to cope, who struggle with severe depression for not measuring up, and who are simply exhausted from keeping face and pretending to be strong. There is no safe place for the marginalized and so-called misfit people in UBF to discuss their feelings and thoughts safely.

    My Skype talks have already taken place. Now I’ve decided to make my Skype available to anyone. I’m here to listen and share my own stories as prompted. I won’t throw bible bombs. I won’t quote the UBF heritage as the answer. I won’t bash or blame UBF. I won’t try to persuade anyone to leave or to stay or make any decision. I won’t attempt to get you to accept Jesus or believe what I believe.

    I’m a human being willing to share my journey with whomever would want to join me.

    • Mark Mederich

      thank you:
      ‘I know there are people in UBF who have a homosexual orientation, who have suffered the pains of divorce, who have adopted atheism to cope, who struggle with severe depression for not measuring up, and who are simply exhausted from keeping face and pretending to be strong. There is no safe place for the marginalized and so-called misfit people in UBF to discuss their feelings and thoughts safely.’
      the biggest travesty of religion is when it doesn’t allow people to fellowship in God & trust God to guide individuals into His truth (not one person/group’s interpretation of what they think is true/proclaim as true, but can’t verify);
      aren’t we all misfit in some way of some thing at some times?
      those who don’t know it (the in-group) are the true misfits living in mental fantasy world..

    • “aren’t we all misfit in some way”?

      Yes exactly Mark! That’s why I said “so-called misfits”. I believe there is no “noble dream” that can generate “good people” for the “benefit of society”. Jesus spoke of the kingdom but not of noble dreams.

      Those who seek such things, as I myself have done, find out who the misfit really is… it’s me, myself and I who is the true misfit.

      By the way, who had the noblest dream in history? Hitler has to be in the top 3 noblest dreams of purity and goodness for humanity. If you don’t believe me, look back at how that all started. The plans for grand architecture, great cities, purified societies and blessed happiness for all the world that Hitler dreamed up. He even persuaded many in the church to support him and buy into his gospel.

    • Mark Mederich

      ‘who struggle with severe depression for not measuring up’: us believers ought to be ashamed/repent of expecting others to measure up when we ourselves can’t:)
      in truth those who come out of such depression are strong like ‘Rocky
      Balboa’; but those who thought they themselves measured up, are weak like a like a fluttering leaf..

    • Mark Mederich

      groupthink: starts out with exciting shared goal, evolves into violence, & ends in shame/horror..

    • Mark Mederich

      hitler got everyone to work together but for wrong goal & without them knowing what he was doing..

  6. Hitler’s dream for purity, honor, obedience, and glory are shown well in this video. He spoke with passion, ambition and persuaded thousands of good, moral, highly educated, religious people to follow him. Germany was one of the the most highly educated, if not the most educated, countries in the world at the time. I believe the horrid ending of Hitler’s dream was largely due to many wanting to preserve and protect the dream.

    • Mark Mederich

      deflocking (should i say defrocking:) the put-down of sheep (followers/little ones) by shepherds (medium ones) to honor ldrs (big ones): sheer poppycock
      religion must repent of debasing ideology (remember the Pharisees) for sake of false elevation of self (which really only harms self when baloon bursts..)

      “Smart” sheep
      Due to their strong flocking instinct and failure to act independently of one another, sheep have been universally branded “stupid.” But sheep are not stupid. Their only protection from predators is to band together and follow the sheep in front of them. If a predator is threatening the flock, this is not the time to act independently.

      At the same time, there is a growing body of evidence that sheep may actually possess some smarts!

      Sheep foil cattle guard
      Hungry sheep on the Yorkshire Moors (Great Britain) taught themselves to roll 8 feet (3 meters) across hoof-proof metal cattle grids to raid villagers’ valley gardens. According to a witness, “They lie down on their side or sometimes their back and just roll over and over the grids until they are clear. I’ve seen them doing it. It is quite clever, but they are a big nuisance to the villagers.” [Source: BBC News, July 2004]

  7. On a more positive note and less scary topic… The movie “Amazing Grace” is astounding.

    Check it out here: Amazing Grace the Movie

    “Behind the hymn you love is a story you will never forget. In 1797, William Wilberforce, the great crusader for the British abolition of slavery, is taking a vacation for his health even while he is sicker at heart for his frustrated cause. However, meeting the charming Barbara Spooner, Wilberforce finds a soulmate to share the story of his struggle. With few allies such as his mentor, John Newton, a slave ship captain turned repentant priest who penned the great hymn, “Amazing Grace,” Prime William Pitt, and Olaudah Equiano, the erudite former slave turned author, Wilberforce fruitlessly fights both public indifference and moneyed opposition determined to keep their exploitation safe. Nevertheless, Wilberforce finds the inspiration in newfound love to rejuvenate the fight with new ideas that would lead to a great victory for social justice.”