betterthanblank

Transition Pete - he’s another great blogger. He really irks me though because I can’t figure out how to leave him comments, so I unintentionally let his blog stack up in my google reader, something like 22 posts. As I was going through the posts I was healthily rewarded. And now I reward you:

1. blogossary
2. 6 free videos (ok, they’re not great, but they are free)
3. CreativeMYK.com (free design stuff, .psd, .ai files, etc!)
4. ChurchCommunicationsPro.com (inadvertently from Pete’s sidebar)

What a great day for me.

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Thanks to Anthony Coppedge for turning me on to this: Midnight Oil’s Countdown Creator. I watched the video, if it works as well as shown, then this looks to be an amazing tool - I know we get sick of our countdown about every 4-5 weeks. Plus, I’d love to have our series graphics up for our countdown. Only bummer, it’s not available for mac… I think I’m gonna buy it this week and try it out - I’ll let you know how well it works (or doesn’t).

Question. Do you use a countdown?

Speaking of series graphics, I am not sure if I posted our current series or not. I created this on the fly, like the week before we started, so it’s not super creative, but it gets the job done.

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We have a 1997 Chevy Suburban that is on the fritz. What happened is that an O2 sensor went out a few months ago (and yes, the check engine light came on, but that’s another story). Anyway, as a result of the O2 sensor going out, the engine began running to rich, which caused the entire exhaust system to be damaged, including the very expensive catalytic converter. Another result of this problem is that the vehicle now does not get very good gas mileage, and when at idle, it knocks around a bit and runs a little rough. Lastly, somehow this effected one cylinder and now we have a v7 instead of a v8.

What’s very interesting is that as soon as that little $50 O2 sensor started malfunctioning, a little signal was sent to the computer telling it that something was wrong. The computer sent a little signal to this light on my dashboard which when lit up says, “Check Engine”. Know what I did? Procrastinated. I thought, ‘oh, I’ll get to that later, it can’t be that bad - the vehicle still runs’. But here we are today - nobody’s fault but mine (great Led Zep song). All because of a little neglected O2 sensor.

So you are probably already putting this together in your head but here’s what I was thinking about. As a staff in any organization, but especially in a church ministry, we all work together to accomplish the vision. And from the smallest most insignificant person, to the largest and most visible member, we all work in harmony to achieve something. When something goes awry with a less significant staff member, when they are not functioning at full capacity, when their vision strays from the organizations, when their attitudes begin to deteriorate, it begins affecting the entire organization, and can cause some serious damage if not “fixed”.

Another point is that vehicles need maintenance. Same with staff. How important is it for staff members to be constantly learning, to be constantly reminded of the vision, constantly encouraged, challenged, rewarded. And some staff are “higher maintenance” than others, right? But maintenance is still important for the health of the entire staff.

And sometimes parts fail and must be replaced (sometimes if you’re lucky you can replace them before they fail). But think about it, sometimes you just have to replace parts, sometimes they get tired and worn out, sometimes they just plain fail, sometimes they were designed to be somewhere else. As a leader, it’s your job to see what the problem is and fix it. Hopefully your “parts” aren’t wearing out and failing because of your lack of maintenance.

Lastly, sometimes we worry about stuff that is superficial (I am guilty of this). It’s easy to wash the car, clean it out, get it detailed - but neglect the very basic maintenance. Sometimes we get carried away with how ministry looks and completely forget the basics of building relationships, investing in people, holding each other accountable, teaching, training, and having fun.

So some questions I am asking myself are:

• Am I making sure that all the parts are working towards one goal?
• Am I watching for the “Check Engine” light?
• Am I consistently performing maintenance with my staff?
• Am I prepared to change out the failing parts? (and find the right fit for them?)

How’s your vehicle running lately?

Popularity: 3% [?]

We’re Doing a new series here called Why? Dealing with these questions:

• Why do we build? (we’re going hit the purpose behind our move)
• Why do we do small groups?
• Why pray?
• Why go to church?
• Why decide? (salvation)
• Why now? (serving, obedience, baptism)
• Why give? (stewardship)

Here’s the graphic I came up with:

The bulletin cover looks better I think, here’s a link to it.

I always love new series’ - a great time to get creative and recreate feels, get fresh. We’re going to use this series to answer some basic, some deep, and some moving questions. We’re also going to be praying for a really moving invitation on the “Why Decide” weekend. Then the next weekend, we are going to introduce our new “deacons” (yup we’re gettin’ all churchy), and challenge people to step up today and serve, get baptized, and hang out after church for our “Why-Fest”, which will just be a fun hang out time. We’re also working on putting giant question marks on stage, and “Ask Me Why” on our name-tags. Of course we are going to try and get some good MOTS videos.

I love feedback, so leave it if you want to!

Popularity: 15% [?]

It’s my turn again. I teach every couple months, and I enjoy it. The process of preparation for me is not so enjoyable. I feel an incredible amount of pressure to do a great job since I only do it every so often. And of course we talk about relying on God and being a vessel - I just want to be a prepared vessel, and I want to be able to stand on my own two feet and allow God to kick some bootie from there on.

So for me the process looks something like this:

• I get an idea in my head of a direction, some scripture or illustration
• I begin brainstorming, reading through the scripture & coming up with illustrations
• I search the web for others who have taught the particular scripture or subject
• Start writing/typing out an outline
• Get halfway and start banging my head against the wall
• Pray and ask God to help me finish
• Feel better
• In a frantic rush try and type as fast as my heart is speaking to my brain
• Stop, re-read and fix up things here and there
• Make sure I have some clear points & breakdowns (intro, text, teaching, application, closing)
• Retype it all out, do a bulletin insert, and a powerpoint
• Read it over, and over, and over, and over, until I (hopefully) don’t rely on my notes.

And that’s where I am right now. Tomorrow we head down to Chula Vista to hang out with some family all day, so I should be nice and relaxed for Sunday. Pray for me if you are reading this!

Here’s the text version of what I am planning on preaching if you are interested. And if you want a laugh, check out the farting preacher.

Popularity: 15% [?]

We’ve been really talking about taking things from “good to great” lately - I know it’s totally overused, but true. Here are a couple drawings that we will soon be incorporating - thought they looked cool enough to share, and they might just inspire you. (click on the pics for full size).

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Alright, many of you who read this are on staff at a church and probably have to “endure” your staff meetings. I’ll admit, I do to, sometimes. Today we got some nuggets from Outreach Magazine (Sept/Oct 2007), that I couldn’t pass up.

5 Tips for Visitor Gift Bags (Heather Johnson)

• The Right Bag: have you thought through how the bag itself communicates your church’s vibe?
• Cool Contents: “Gift bag items should be so ‘cool’ that even spiritually uncertain people won’t care that they have a church logo on them.” I loved this one: pad of paper with logo on it, you always need scratch paper. What items are in your gift bags?
• Informational Materials: include a signed letter from the pastor, mission, vision, etc. I would add a CD or DVD.
• Evangelistic Mission: (I loved this one) include a small stack of blank church business cards with maps to use as personal invitations.
• Dynamic Delivery: (this one’s obvious) “The gift bags are only as good as the delivery team”.

How Important is a Building? (Thom S. Rainer and Sam S. Rainer III)

• The church facility plays an important role in attracting the unchurched.
• The church building us not the primary motivating factor for the unchurched.
• The worship area is the unchurched’s favorite part of the church.
• The unchurched blame poor finances for unattractive buildings.

Is Assimilation Manipulation? (Outreach)

• 6% of you are relentless in your pursuit of visitors since they rarely make the first move.
• 29% of you use programs to connect visitors.
• 55% of you build relationships in order to assimilate guests. You avoid programs and believe in simply befriending guests.
• 16% of you don’t push guests, but simply believe in the ability of the Holy Spirit to bring people to your church and to the Lord.

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I had a 5 hour meeting here today…

“Some days are better than others” - Bono

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LifeChurch.tv started a new series entitled “30 Days to Live“. I love how they really create a buzz around whatever they do. This is a really interesting and moving idea - imagine if you knew you had 30 days to live, what would you do? How would spend your last 30 days? They are showing interviews with real people who are facing this exact situation, how thought provoking is that? Anne has a great article on this over at flowerdust.net, check it out.

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I appreciate all the comments on the Re-Branding post (if you haven’t seen that post, you might want to read through it first). I’m throwing this one in the mix to see what you guys think of the duo-tone version. Vince said correctly that the litmus test for any logo is how it looks in black & white. So this is part of the reverse side of the card that I designed last week (I’m too lazy to save just the logo) - you’ll see the logo in all it’s glam at the bottom. I think it actually looks better in duo-tone. What do you think?

Popularity: 11% [?]