“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?” –Matthew 5:13

The right amount of salt enhances the flavor of food without drawing attention to itself. A dash of this simple white ingredient awakens an entrée’s dormant flavors.  I’m known to touch up my food with just the right amount of salt and spiciness.  I just dislike bland food. It’s just not the culinary experience I want my eaters to experience. It’s just the way I roll with my cooking. It’s about me, the cook and how I want people to experience my cooking.  In this verse Jesus’ question is not about the salt; it’s also about you: How are you improving the conditions around you? Are you making a difference? Are you looking for ways to help others more than you are looking for ways others can help you? Are you seeking ways to enhance the beauty around you and focus on the positive instead of the negativity so easily dished out in this world?

Salt has a distinct flavor, you know a dish has it simply by tasting it. And guess what, you also have distinctiveness about you. Out of millions of possibilities, God formed you. I still get overwhelmed that that reality. Of the billions of people who have and will ever breathe the air of this earth, you are the one God chose to live in your skin with your unique background! Even identical twins are unique each with a different set of fingerprints. Sometimes only your hug will dry a tear of someone else, only your words will keep a person from giving up. Knowing that your calling is unlike others’, consider how you will leave your  mark on the people around you.

Bland people are users—consumers who absorb the gifts, time, and resources of others. They ultimately take more of the world than they give. Self-centered people are as common as potatoes. YOU can be the one to stand out, to spice things up. But keep in mind that salt doesn’t steal the show from the food; it simply highlights the existing flavor. Likewise, you can add value to the world around you. Let your behavior cause the waitress to say, “I’m glad she sat at my table.” Strive to make your boss boast, “I’m so glad I hired this lady.” Live life in a way that enables your friends and family to say, “We’re so blessed to have her in our lives.”

Consider each day as an opportunity to enhance the flavor of the lives of those around you. You have only ONE SHOT on earth to find your flavor and release it. Are you making a difference?

That is my prayer for myself!  You have a calling from our Creator to live a salty lifestyle, using your one-of-a-kind influence and embracing opportunities to make a difference. Don’t lose your flavor!

So the other day I posted that I have a dream. A cause if you will. Will today I proclaim I am more than a dreamer. I am an extreme dreamer.

Those who know me personally have come to know that about me. Some just laugh it off but some encourage me to go forward in my dreams. That’s the type of person I am for others as well, helping people believe in the power of their dreams and not letting past failures, obstacles, family and friend negativity (believe it or not it comes first from there!) and any other thing stand in the way to attempting to achieve your dream.

So I was thrilled with this book for a number of reasons.

1. The philosophy behind the book

The book shares that human beings are designed for teamwork, and teamwork is the only way to make seemingly impossible dreams and bold visions come true. Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France seven consecutive times, not by himself, but with the backing of his coaches, mechanic, and teammates. Charles Lindbergh may have been called “the Lone Eagle” because of his 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic, but he assembled a first-rate team to make his dream possible.

So in this book, Orlando Magic co-founder and Senior Vice President Pat Williams says that teamwork is the key to making extreme dreams a reality. Named one of the 50 most influential people in the NBA (National Basketball Association) after following his dream and helping to build the Orlando Magic from the ground up, Williams gives inspiring accounts of the power of teamwork—many of them personal—in a book that leadership guru Patrick Lencioni calls “the most comprehensive and interesting collection of wisdom on teamwork I have ever read.”

2. The main message in the book

Williams points out that extreme dreams are only fulfilled when teams are led with characteristics like respect, empowerment, commitment, trust and passion. “Once you put teamwork into practice in your organization, these principles will begin transforming everything. They will transform how you view the world, including our society and its problems, and the political and environmental issues we face…you’ll begin seeing the world through a lens of extreme dreams, extreme possibilities, and the power of teamwork,” says Williams.

I have and am experiencing that in many ways. My last church, my current church, my ministry to women CEFL and my new business as a micro-franchise owner (Extreme Dream International) and what it means to build teams for all the above.

I think that is the bottomline, finding those people who are extreme dreamers as well. Who not only believe in your dream (that’s nice but at the end of the day most people ask what’s in it for them) but believe that God has the power to radically change their life RIGHT NOW and use their life to influence others by their time, talent or treasure.

Are there any more extreme dreamers out there? Holla at me will ya? What are you dreaming about lately?

Once upon a time, I believe God called me out to start a church. I never wanted to do anything like that and I never thought I would be a pastor. However, my husband and I went forth and after much prayer, guidance, advise, etc. we launched a church in South Florida. Long story short, it ended after 3 years.

The thing is it didn’t have to end. Everything pretty much was going well and to this day I miss our church. It was such a great “sanchocho” or mixture of philsophies of ministry I still don’t see anything like it and I’m a pastor again in another church plant (although it doesn’t really see itself as one) we just made three years this past Sunday (but that’s another story). We end our church plant adventure due to two things…money and leadership. Was it the right or wrong thing to do, I think it was. First let’s talk about the money part, it was a struggle to do anything we wanted to do because we just didn’t have the money. And friends, before you go and say I and my team was so “not connected to God” don’t say a word until you’ve been there. Outreach, supplies, rent, all require money. Next reason…leadership. My second son almost died on me May 2007 Mother’s Day. With all the drama of being in the hospital about two weeks with him after five resusitations, we realized we really didn’t have a great core team of people to help lead the church while we were away.  I was emotionally, physically and spiritually spent. We made the decision soon after that.

Was this difficult. Uh, yeah! Did I feel like a failure? Yes very much so for the first time in my life. (I’m an overachiever so says personality tests so this took me months to get over!) But mostly I felt that I didn’t hear God right. Think about it…I didn’t want to do anything like this ever, then I believe God is telling me to do it, I do it and then it fails. How would you feel?

Since then I am just fine. I learned not to fear failure and trust me that is liberating. You are able to go forward and risk more when you failed at least once and in my eyes NOW it really wasn’t failure (so to speak) I’ve learned how much I really love doing what I am doing. Pastoring is about empowering people to go forth and believe God for EVERYTHING in their lives. You may still think I am a failure but honestly I don’t care what you think.  Me and God are what count and I must truly say what a ride that adventure was.

I say all that to get to this point. I admire church planters. I want to help them any way I can. It takes alot to go forth and believe God for something to come from nothing. So when I read about this church at this blog and read about this woman leaving the corporate world to plant a church I prayed for her.

I am part of a three-year old church now and I truly love the people there.  I love my STN peeps. So yes I am still on a church planting team and still have the same issues that I faced when I had my own church but its much better when you have a “team” with you and people in the church who want to build something with you.

I give a high-five to all the church planters out there especially women because there are so few networks that acknowledge our role in church planting teams. But thankfully more and more are popping up.

MLK Jr. said those immortal words. He had a vision toward which he directed his life. But in reality, he was speaking of more than a vision. He had a cause. A cause is something that never dies. A vision can change, and frequently does, but a cause continues until it is fulfilled. MLK’s  cause did not stop when he died. It will continue until it is accomplished. The drive to see equality and harmony between people of all races and backgrounds, to see every person regardless of where they came from, experience all the promises of God, that is a cause bigger than King. His vision and others like it even ones we read about in the Word of God should have shown us one thing, people live for vision but die for a cause.

This makes me think of Bishop H. Curtis Douglas who is the pastor of Dabar Worship Center and he has this scripture as his foundational text for the church.  In 1 Samuel 17, the army of Israel looked on as the Philistines gathered themselves for war against them. The Israelites trembled in fear as Goliath taunted and challenged them. For 40 long days, this giant came out against them and dared them to stand toe to toe. Being weary and overwhelmed, the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.  In verse 29 David asks the  question, “Is there not a cause?” (NKJV) And he then proceeded to conquer what everyone else feared…the giant in the land.

What fear is keeping you back from God’s destiny for your life? What is the cause in your life? It is directly connected to your destiny, to what God created you to do and to be. Connect your vision and your attitudes to a cause and your passion will follow. My cause is to educate, equip and empower women and to help them achieve their dreams and connect to their cause!  I do that though my ministry of the Center for Emerging Female Leadership (www.cefl.org and www.ceflonline.com) but with any cause there is also a need for cash. Cold cash!

For some reason our Christian mindset is locked into a poverty mentality and many Christians dare not even think of success in terms of financial gain. Now I am totally not a prosperity gospel person and I am totally against pastors or Bishops or “grand po-bas” who drive three different luxury cars and everyone in their church is driving 10 year old used cars and living in rentals. But avoiding wealth is not the same thing as conforming to the world. Quite the contrary. A poverty mentality is more conformed to the world system of belief than gaining wealth with a right heart.

The poverty mentality of the world says that you must work hard all your whole life, live in poverty, struggle to get by, work for money, pay bills, buy liabilities, and retire with just enough social security to survive. That is the world you are not to conform to. God wants you to have “more than enough” He is a God of abundance.

I am standing up because I have a cause! I am taking a stand and working towards my dreams but not waiting around for money to drop on my lap. I am taking action. And this is the key point of this post (sorry!)…take another look at micro-franchise home-based businesses.  I did. My husband and I are independent business owners of an ACN micro-franchise (www.hiramrios.acnrep.com) our cause? To fulfill God’s destiny in our lives to be givers, to empower others and to live a life where our time is spent on the passion in our hearts.

Do you have a cause? Stop waiting for everything to be in place, get up, get started and ask God to put you on the right path.

Note: Get educated. Stop believing the negativity of this world to keep you in the same situation you are in. Don’t take advise from people who never have accomplished anything in life much less are in financial distress. If you are a hard worker, if you have a cause and you need the cash, consider micro-franchise ownership otherwise known as direct selling. It offers millions of people the opportunity to make money on their own time, mainly as a supplement to income. According to the Direct Selling Association (www.dsa.org), about 15.1 million people in the United States are doing it right now.

A mindset can keep you in a prison forever. It can keep you from achieving God’s best for your life and it can keep you from destiny. Unfortunately, most people don’t think about mindsets when they go about their daily lives.I have met and come in contact everyday with Christians who have lives that are just so drastically pathetic whether it be work life, marriage life, relationships, business, education, etc. We are supposed to have different lives, lives in abundance, lives of joy, etc. Yet we think so small-minded and when we run across people who have dreams…who actually believe that God wants something different for us, we think they are fools. Worse yet, we think they are unspiritual.I for one have had enough. I am all about risk and yes I am not afraid to fail. I’ve already failed at one big endeavor once. That was enough to get me to a place where I know it won’t kill me. One thing I’d like you to consider is thinking about your life as an employee.  Due to various circumstances, I don’t have a 9 to 5 job, I rather am a consultant to faith-based organizations and for the most part I love what I do. However, I wish I had money to invest in my organization the Center for Emerging Female Leadership. We are about to launch our magazine SOAR, we envision so many programs to help women in society and church become better leaders but all of it takes money. As a fundraiser, I know how hard it is to develop people’s thinking especially in the Latino community on giving. Thus, I recently joined an organization called ACN and became a micro-franchise owner in the communications industry. I am so thrilled about it and I want to develop a team of like-minded Christians who believe in the “more than enough” God that we so boldly proclaim from our pulpits and amen from our seats.I came across this article and I think it helps to reshuffle a mindset for the type of business I’m in.  All I am saying people is if you want a change in your life, you have to rethink your present mindsets and then do something about it. I did.If you are interested in joining my team of people who believe in the more than enough God and have dreams of your own I want to help you get there as I too get there. This is the extreme dream team–changing mindsets, changing lives.Email me if you want to know more.  

I am always saddened when I see churches being taken advantage of. I know the church you will read about below and if there is any way you can get involved please do.

FRIENDS OF MAR DE GALILEA“Encouraging social justice in the Hispanic community of faith”

(212) 475-8120www.amigosdemardegalilea.org NEWS 

For Immediate Release          Contact: Herson Cabreras       646-296-1646  NY State Supreme Court Judge Issues First Decision Favoring Historic Latino

The defense of Sea of Galilee is primarily based on the fact that the loan has been paid with extraordinary interest in the amount of $757.763 with interest up to $832.443. Second, CEP has never executed the loan legally.  As a lender, CEP had the responsibility to insure that all the documents to this transaction conformed to legal requirements set forth by the State of

The facts in this case highlight the dangers of doing business with companies such as CEP. They promote themselves as ministries, “sheep in wolves clothing”, to exploit the financial situation of small churches and take over their valuable properties. According to independent investigations conducted by Friends of Mar de Galilea, the church’s situation is not unique. Sea of Galilee is part of a group of congregations in Florida, Puerto Rico (such as the ministry of Teen Challenge in Puerto Rico) , Chicago, and California that have fallen victims to CEP’s schemes.  CEP’s business practices are similar in design and pattern to those of predatory lenders, many of them under investigation by state and federal agencies. The group is concerned that CEP operates outside of regulatory agencies that oversee such transactions because they claim to be a religious ministry, and as such, are not held accountable by any controlling government agency.  

Members of Friends of Mar de Galilea assert that CEP “induced” Mar de Galilea congregants to purchase bonds that they issued, claiming that it would “strengthen” the church’s position to obtain the loan. The congregants of Mar de Galilea church, mostly of humble folks of modest income means, purchased $190,000 in such bonds. To this day, no individual church member has received income from dividends.  

According to Mr. Herson Cabreras, member of Friends of Mar de Galilea, “CEP’s conduct is reprehensible and borders in obcene because they claim to be a “ministry” when in reality, they are not much different than a typical predatory sub-prime lender.” In the case of Sea of Galilee, CEP kept assessing exorbitant interest and service fees to keep them in debt perpetually so they could seize their property, located in one of the most coveted and hot real estate markets in Manhattan.” The Reverend Dr. Marcos Rivera, Senior Pastor of Primitive Christian Church and President of COMPAS (an association of ministers and churches in the Lower East Side of Manhattan) said “Definitely two things are clear: Sea of Galilee paid its’ debt even though the loan terms were irrational and possibly illegal; Secondly, they tried through many means to resolve this situation in good faith as good Christians. However, CEP decided to resort to the courts instead of proceeding in a Christian-like manner.”  

Although the loan in question was initiated prior to Rev. Anibal Espaillat’s tenure, it was through his leadership that the church concluded it must defend itself from CEP. They jointly understood that they ran the risk of losing the church building and ministry. 

“The congregation of Sea of Galilee is grateful to God and all the church friends that recognize the church’s historic and prophetic significance. Our lawyer’s efforts, combined with prayers and the well wishes of hundreds of pastors and leaders, will continue to be a beacon of faith and hope as we proceed with this case. CEP attempted to break the church financially and spiritually by taking us to court. However by this favorable decision, God has spoken, and  he is The Just Judge”, said Reverend Espaillat.  Pastor Espaillat said, “We ask the churches to keep us in your prayers as we return to court. We also ask you to pray for other churches and ministries that find themselves in similar situations, and for the Spanish Eastern District of the Assemblies of God so they would remember that God has called us to open churches, NOT to close them” concluded Espaillat.  

For those ministers and brethren that would like more information, Mar de Galilea has a website called “Friends of Mar de Galilea”. You can go to www.amigosdemardegalilea.org for more information. Here you can learn more about the history of the church and what it’s efforts are.

Happy Labor Day!

Have you heard the quote “It’s Lonely at the Top?” As leaders we have different philosophies of leading. Whether we realize it or not. Some of these mental maps will definitely make that quote true. What would some of those be? Here are some I thought of, perhaps you can add to the list:

Positional Thinking. Positional thinking will make you a lonely leader, because every time you use your title to persuade someone, you create a distance with people and end up lonely. It’s like when your moms would say “do it cause I said so!” It can certainly drive a wedge between you and the people you are trying to lead.The individual who takes the relational approach and gets to know his or her people will never be lonely.  I had written an MMM email a few months ago about being a connector not a climber, this is in line with that thinking. No one likes to be stepped on so YOU can get where you want to go and no one wants to feel like they don’t matter because only YOUR title does. So avoid positional thinking.

Realize the unhealthy downsides of success and failure. Sometimes when we view ourselves as “successful” we tend to withdraw because  we think “I don’t need those people.” This thinking separates us from others we view as less successful. Failure can also lead to withdrawal. If you think of yourself as a failure you are more prone to withdraw from others because you’re worried that they might think of you the same way you think of yourself. None of these extremes are healthy. No matter how successful God helps us to be we will always need people and if we’ve failed people are the ones that will help us dust ourselves off and keep it moving.

Understand that you are in the people business. I remember hearing a preacher and numerous pastors throughout the years say “ministry would be great if it wasn’t for the people”. Granted, people can be difficult and sometimes just downright mean or flaky but being a marketplace leader, small business owner, ministry leader all have to do with working with and alongside PEOPLE. Leaders who don’t like people never contribute to others’ growth and improvement. Soon, they begin to manipulate and strangulate people’s dreams and desires, and no leader should ever do that. If you truly don’t like people, become a vet.

Take people with you. Sistahs, here is the main thing about what we do, you need to take people with you. If you have had an awesome experience with God, share it with a sister. If you found a great business that is helping you reach your dreams, share it with a sister. If you have a great church that God has used to transform your life, share it with a sister who doesn’t have a home church or maybe doesn’t even know the Lord. Where ever it is that God has you, it was meant to be shared. Take a sister with you and when you do, you will never be lonely at the top.