But you know what? It makes me think about how Mary and Joseph were not “ready” that first Christmas. They too had to travel at a very inconvenient time.

And look what God brought out of all THAT. Events that changed our calendar, and the world.

So I feel at peace, knowing that God is in control and knows what he’s doing. Prayer, and also the Instant Impact exercise from The Healing Code book,  have all helped.

So whatever “state” this message finds you in, I want to wish you a most blessed holiday season … bright with the hope of full healing and a good future, which is possible BECAUSE of what happened when the Light of the world broke into the darkness 2000 years ago….

And if you’re so inclined, there’s an audio story from my book, Abundant Gifts, that you may enjoy.
Click here to get to my blog with my holiday greeting and the story.

Master Leaders: Revealing Conversations with 30 Leadership Greats by George Barna with Bill Dallas

On Thursday, December 10, I conducted a Virtual Book Tour with George Barna on his new book,  Master Leaders: Revealing Conversations with 30 Leadership Greats. I invite you to listen to the replay (if you don’t have a question, feel free to write “none” in the box).

If you’re an author or aspiring author, listen–you ARE a leader! In fact, I asked George a question that was submitted: “Does a leader have to have a published book?” (I’ll let you listen to what he said.)

I grilled George on the most-asked questions about leadership, and his answers were based not only on his own insights, but on the insights gleaned from these 30 other leadership greats.

For instance: Ken Blanchard, Tony Dungy, Newt Gingrich, Henry Cloud, John Ashcroft, Colleen Barrett, Seth Godin, San Chand, Mike Huckabee, Laurie Beth Jones, Patrick Lencioni, Ben Carson … the list goes on.

Sign up to  get a free sample of the book and listen to the replay. There is also a very special bonus only those who listen to the VBT will know about (and it’s a limited time offer).

George Barna is founder of The Barna Group, a research and resource
firm whose clients grange from The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association to
corporations such as Ford and Walk Disney, as well as The U.S. Navy and U.S. Army.

George Barna is a prolific author (more than 40 books), but the book we”ll be discussing is what he feels may be one of his best: Master Leaders: Revealing Conversations with 30 Leadership Greats. This is a “leadership conference” in which well-known leaders from all walks of life cover the gamut of leadership topics, from defining leadership, developing leaders, team building, dealing with criticism and pressure, so much more.

I sure hope you’ll take an hour or so and listen in–George gave a lot of great nuggets such as “you get what you tolerate” and “we hire for attitude, we train for skill.” Ponder those for a while. The interview, and of course the book, is full of these golden nuggets.

Get this information now, okay?

In less than 10 days, we received more than 650 questions from people who signed up for the Virtual Book Tour. (You can still ask a question, and then get to listen to the replay of that interview.)

Needless to say, we could discuss only a fraction of those questions in the 70-minute format.

So I did another interview, this time with Frank, for my book review podcast, Books ‘n’ Such. Some of the questions we discussed:

• What do you mean by “pagan”?
• Where do all the different denominations come from, and is having all these different groups a pagan practice?
• Just about every Christian church has a dominant pastor or priest or leader of some kind. Is this not what the Bible teaches?
• What is your intention in publishing this book, and what impact on local churches do you hope it will make?
• Why does it matter where our church practices come from? Can’t God work through culture and the way things have evolved, even if they are rooted more in pagan-or cultural-practices?

I invite you to tune in to hear Frank’s answers, if you have any interest in this topic.