Two recent Chapter Friday’s contained quite a few nuggets to remember (or catch-up on if you missed it)–one offered guidance for running a business or managing people in a way that allows them to flourish and the other offered lessons for finding and giving joy in life.  Two different looks at how we can be a “faithful presence” and create environments and cultures of “shalom” wherever we work and live.

On January 22, our guest speaker, Mark Curtis (Mark’s talk is available under Resources–click HERE), a founder and the CEO of Splash Car Washes, shared about how God used Splash to turn Mark back toward Him and now uses Splash to “love” its employees.  Mark describes how God carried him through a series of mistakes and difficulties and then gave him the purpose, tools and process to build Splash into a business that gives its employees the purpose, tools and process needed to flourish. This is an inspirational and aspirational story for any business owner, leader or manager.

On January 8, our guest speaker Rev. Greg Doll (Greg’s talk is available under Resources–click HERE) Greg Doll shared seven key life lessons he learned from his father. These weren’t lessons drilled in through lectures–they were lessons absorbed by watching. They are lessons that Greg has been able to draw upon for his own life and lessons that have informed his mentoring, coaching and counseling of student-athletes, people going through life transitions and those Greg calls the “successful but miserable”–people who have tremendous worldly success but are empty inside.

In friendship
Paul Michalski

Three recent Chapter Friday’s contained quite a few nuggets to remember (or catch-up on if you missed it)–two were about relationships (particularly those with our wife and children) and one was about how we can prepare the next generation.  Three different looks at how we can leave a strong legacy.

On November 20, our guest speaker, Jeff Westlund (Jeff’s talk is available under Resources–click HERE), Jeff shared with great transparency the difficult road to freedom God brought him down in order for Jeff to realize, and break free from, the chains that had bound him to the wrong priorities.  Jeff explains how, through his humility, God’s redeeming grace and the forgiveness shown by his family, Jeff is now free to embrace fully his Lord, his wife and his children.

On December 4, our guest speaker Brock Morgan (Brock’s talk is available under Resources–click HERE) gave a call to arms to the “mighty men” of NCS to awaken to their identity as men of God, to embrace that they are living in the overlap between heaven and earth, and to join God in lifting the heads of the next generation.  Brock sees the hope of the next generation in us and  challenges the “mighty men” of NCS to live out their faith so that the next generation can see what God is doing to restore the world to His original design.  Brock also shares miraculous examples of the power of prayer and miraculous stories about how the Holy Spirit changed the hearts of the young people he served at Trinity Church in Greenwich.

On December 18, our guest speaker George Faller (George’s talk is already available under Resources–click HERE) shared how we went from a blue collar neighborhood in Queens to the NYPD and NYFD and, following 9/11, then to becoming one of the country’s leading experts in Emotionally Focused Therapy.  George helps us understand the dynamics of relational connection and disconnection (particularly in marriage) and explains some tools to maintain connection and repair disconnection.

In friendship
Paul Michalski