This was a quickie. Like I told some new designer friends: an istockphoto graphic and some typography and we’re done; here it is:

This is our typical graphics package: Bulletin cover & sermon notes (printed in house), generic background graphic for screens, keynote background, and web header. We need to start adding CD/DVD labels & case covers as well.

A little note on the bulletin cover – if we outsourced our printing, I would definitely have had full black coverage on the front and maybe even a galaxy, star system theme along with the graphic. Since we print in-house, I was trying to save on ink.

That’s all folks.

Chapter 2: The Science of Connection

In recent years, neuroscientists have discovered that positive human contact has a physiological effect on people… (pg. 9)

Other research establishes that connection improves mental and physical health… (pg. 10-11)

Layman’s terms: connection makes us feel good. Connection provides a sense of well-being, it minimizes stress, and it makes us more trusting.

We have deeply felt needs to be respected, to be recognized for our talents, to belong, to have autonomy or control over our work, to experience personal growth, and to do work that we feel has meaning and to do it in a way that we feel is ethical.

People want and need to be valued.

When people are shown respect in the workplace and their real talents and contributions are genuinely recognized, they become fired up. They put their hearts into their work.

People who over control us send the message that we are incompetent and that we are not trusted or respected.

Connection is enhanced when we experience personal growth… When we are in the right role and therefore more productive, people notice and affirm us. This also increases our sense of connection to the group. Finally we are motivated when we know our work is meaningful.

We need to remind people constantly how important what we are doing as an organization is. Celebrations, weekly updates of victories, stories, and opportunities to share “wins” should be the DNA of our meetings. We should hear what is happening in other departments, a win for them is a win for all of us.

So what? The findings of neuroscientists, psychiatrists, sociologists, and medical researchers support that a higher degree of connection improves our mental and physical performance. We ignore it at our peril.

This past week our School had the last faculty meeting of the year. Our new Superintendent and I were discussing the agenda of the meeting, and as we did we decided that we would spend the entire meeting just giving teachers kudos and giving them time to encourage one another. We had about ten teachers on the agenda to brag on. What happened was amazing. For the hour and a half that we met there was clapping, laughing, crying, and so much sharing that we had to actually stop people and move on.

I think this just goes to prove that people want and need to be valued – to hear that they are appreciated, making a difference, and growing in their roles.

I think the bottom line is this: Understand that there is a science to connection; an if then equation. If people feel connected, then they put their heart into their work and from that blossoms positivity, trust, innovation, etc.

Next: The Connection Culture (what does this look like?)

Designed by Alex McLean for Rancho Community Church

Today’s message from @scotttreadway was powerful for us. We talked about it afterwords, how we really need to think through some of the points – just let it sink in. Blogging is one way for me to do that, so here’s my (somewhat scattered) notes:

Children are a Sacred Gift from God

• They are of unspeakable value (the Earthly ministry of Christ: he loved children, Psalm 139)

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

¹⁶ your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!

• They are given without cost to us (although children cost money, we payed nothing for them)
• Their lives will have eternal consequences (not sure if I got this one right on the notes – point being the way they are raised will impact them them forever)
• They will radically shape our lives (and we theirs)
• They require a tremendous amount of effort (parenting is a job)
• They come with a ton of help (God’s Word, his community – the church)
• We have to give them back (they don’t belong to us)

Don’t Break the Gift

• Divorce breaks children
• Abuse breaks children
• Harsh words break children
• Ignoring them breaks children

Do this

• Pray for your children

Idea for a prayer for your children (pray for them by name)
Lord, these children belong to you…
You love them more thank I do…
You know them more intimately than I do…
You gave them more than I can ever give them…
You’ve ordained me to pastor these children…
I need your help…

• Spend time with them (lot’s of time)
• Set a good example
• Teach them (Prov. 22:6)

⁶ Train a child in the way he should go,
and when he is old he will not turn from it.

Pour your life into pastoring your children…

We are pastors, we are shepherds, they are our flock…

So, that was the message this Mother’s Day morning @ranchocommunity. Pretty heavy stuff. I know personally, I struggle with being a good parent. Ugh, I can’t even say it right – I, we want to be pastors to our kids, their shepherds. We want to raise them to know how valuable they are, so they make wise choices with their lives. We want to teach them about the love and grace of our loving father, who daily gives us mercy.

We know we’ve got a lot to learn, at the very least we are getting some good tools to use. I’ll close this post with this verse that we want to use to direct our family:

⁸ He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:8

Photo courtesy of Kenny Grill

In attempt to get back into blogging, I’m just gonna tell you all about a cool new addition to Rancho Community Church. It’s our “Coffee Shoppe”.

We opened it up two weeks ago and it was a HUGE hit. Apparently we’ve been planning on a coffee shop for years, it just never got traction until now. But we’ve got it open now and it’s amazing what is happening: People are connecting. There’s just something about having food or drink and a place to sit, an area to hang out that attracts people.

Photo courtesy of Kenny Grill

One of the strangest things that we noticed when we first came to Rancho Community was that the place seemed to “empty out” when the worship services ended. People just disappeared. At first, Jen and I thought maybe it was a fluke, or maybe we were weird, but after talking with people and staff members, we realized that this was really an issue. There was really nothing “to do” after church – nowhere to go or hang out. So people naturally filed out, picked up their kids and drove away.

Photo courtesy of Kenny Grill

This brings me to the point: I believe that people need a “place” to congregate, to connect. And I also believe that “if you build it, they will come”. Creating space designed for people to connect is crucial. I mean, it’s not as important as say, preaching the Gospel, or baptism – but it is an important piece of the puzzle when building a church and making connections, at least in our culture. We have this desire to connect, but we also have this thing about space and comfort levels – especially in Southern California where we don’t even talk to our neighbors. But…

When we create space for casual connections, such as a coffee shop, people are naturally drawn to it. Connections happen, which turn into conversations, which are the building blocks of relationships.

I’m excited to see that Rancho Community is embracing this idea, and I’m excited to see this little idea grow and be an anchor for connections at our church.

On a more technical level, here’s some of strategy behind the launch:

• I used this amazing graphic as inspiration
• I also used the “Coffee with a Cause” (great concept!) from that graphic. It was a last minute idea to help keep the “Global Impact / Missions” project in front of our congregation throughout the year.
• We basically cut our outdoor “Info Center” in half using printed backdrops with the logo, color, and photos of our Peru missionaries.
• The Coffee Shoppe proceeds go to support the work in Peru (church planting, missionary training, micro-businesses).
• The shop serves Seattle’s Best Coffee (a Starbucks product), along with muffins & donuts.
• Right now it’s open before and after all Sunday morning worship services (8, 9:10, and 10:45am) – with plans to open during many other services & events throughout the week and on the weekend.
• Follow the Coffee Shoppe on Twitter @coffee_shoppe for updates and coupons
• Join the Fan Page on Facebook

Special thanks to @Kenny_Grill of Kenny Grill Photography for some awesome photos (there’s more on Facebook).

From Twitter:

Stuff I didn’t send to Twitter:

That’s all for now.

Photo courtesy of OopsyDaisy Photography

I used to average at least one post per day, and a lot of my writing was work related. That was when I was a full time “pastor” at a medium size church. I wrote a lot about design, marketing, worship, tech, leadership and my family. Most was just what I was learning or experiencing at the time (which was a lot). Lately I haven’t been blogging at all, and I’m still not sure why. But one thing that has been on my mind as I’ve been considering revving up the blog again is “what do I write about?”.

Family – that’s easy. I know I need to do that – it’s how I kept so many friends and family connected to what we were up to. Gotta get that going again.

Work – hmmmm. That’s an interesting one. I’m learning so much. And I’m using what I’ve learned over the past years now. It’s a strange place to be. As I’m sitting here trying to figure out what to write, I’m thinking… “I just have to start”. So here goes:

I wrote full time “pastor” – that’s what I was, in title for the past five years. I’ve been at Rancho Community Church & Schools for one year now and my title is “Director of Admissions and Family Relations”. I’m a school administrator on the ministry staff of a large church – a little odd, but it works.

And the interesting thing?

I consider what I’m doing now more pastoral than anything I’ve ever done. I get the opportunity to pray with more people than I ever have. I get to encourage & challenge the staff and our families. I get to share vision and put forward initiatives to attract more people to Christ through our school and church. I have to call people into accountability and seek wisdom to solve issues. All while working with and serving some of the most amazing people I have ever worked with.

So I’m going to try and fire this blog up again and share more of what’s going on and ask for insights from this community. See ya again real soon.

“The book of Acts gives us a well organized history of the proliferation of the first “Christian” church from its inception in Jerusalem to the expansion outward, especially through Paul’s journeys as it stretches to Rome. The church began with many signs and wonders, including: the coming of the Holy Spirit in the form of “tongues of fire” above the heads of the disciples, speaking in tongues (many languages), exponential growth, and healings, to name a few. The church also operated in a very communal way, with members eating together, living together, and sharing all their possessions. The early church also dealt with governess, segregation, “law” versus “grace”, heresy, betrayal, and persecution.

One of the typical responses by churches forming today is to look at the church in the book of Acts as normative; even taking snapshots of the church at different points of its development and calling that behavior normative. If we do believe that the book of Acts gives is a guide-map for building a local church, than we really have to look for some general patterns of behavior that we can apply today.

Some of the issues that the early church of Acts dealt with leave us some great patterns that we can bring into the modern church. For example, when the church in Jerusalem began teaching that Gentile Christians must practice the tradition of circumcision, Paul immediately challenged that train of thought. He went directly to James in Jerusalem and argued that this teaching went against teachings of Jesus Christ, and would only lead to an outward religion. We can see this argument throughout the New Testament, and we almost always see that the traditions and outward expressions of religion can lead to pride and legalism. So as we build our churches today we would want to be very careful about traditions and expressions that are imposed on people, leading them away from grace and a relationship based religion.

Another area that the early church showed patterns of normal behavior is in the idea of church planting. As the church grew and expanded, new churches were started in neighboring cities; churches with their own leadership and practices. This was against the model of a central church or synagogue, or holy place of worship. Today we can see that church planting is one of the most successful ways to evangelize. Not only do church plants attract mostly un-churched people, they also create places for people to serve, for ministers to develop, and for new and innovative ideas to be implemented. Church plants are also highly dependent on the faith and tenacity of the members, and require a high level of commitment, just as Paul had as he went and planted churches throughout the Roman Empire.

Those are just a couple examples of some ways we can apply some of the patterns and principles of Acts to today’s churches. I think the most important thing we can to do is to really study what the primary messages are from the stories of the emerging and growing church in Acts. There are many practices that may sound good or look exciting, but have no basis in today’s church culture.”

—————————————

So there you have it – hopefully I don’t get slammed too hard from my instructors.

I had the opportunity to interview Nate Schlomann, one of the pastors, check it out:

1. What process have you gone through up to this point – what have you learned?

One thing that was huge for us is that this isn’t really our first launch, not totally. We gained a lot of experience and perspective starting a church in a college town not too far from here. It’s not completely comparable because there we literally had a $0 budget (not that we’ve got a huge one here), but the experience was still invaluable. It’s hard to imagine going into this completely green. By doing something like that you learn a lot about people and how to lead, a lot of times by making mistakes or at least by noticing things you could have done better.

2. What are some specific & innovative things you are doing to attract/gather/launch?

I don’t know that we’re particularly innovative so much as we’re innovative to our culture. Like, when you live in the blogosphere and see what everyone is doing all over the place, it takes an awful lot to seem innovative. But I do think we’re doing a lot of things really well that people around here haven’t seen before. Not that it’s all about that, but there are a lot of things people need to see that we’ll be doing. We’re preaching the hard parts of God’s Word unapologetically, but at the same time very sensitively to the lost, hurt, and discouraged. That’s a combination that is innovative around here. We’ve definitely got an atmosphere like no one else – music loud, lights low. People just aren’t doing that around here. Innovative for church plants around here, and it’s sad that it is, is we’re aggressively trying to get the word out that we’re here. We passed out 8,000 door hangars last week. We’re doing our best to use facebook and email invites too.

3. What does your launch team look like?

Our launch team is amazing. In a lot of ways it’s really not fair to other launch teams, the talent God has brought together here. We’ve got people to fill a variety of different and complimentary roles. Most new churches have to struggle through some major deficiencies until they are able to bring folks onboard to fill those slots. Not that we’re perfect by any means or that we don’t need help (we do!), but we’re really fortunate for how many different talents God has put together. And I think, making that all the better, we have a very unified team. Most of us were pretty good friends with at least one other person in the team before we started. We didn’t just get thrown together out of seminary or bible school, in other words. The level of commitment in our team, top to bottom, is unusually high.

Thanks Nate!

I’m a huge fan of church plants, I was part of a church plant for 5 years, and have helped my friends and colleages every time a new church is launched in our community. It’s been shown that the most effective thing we can do to reach people with the Gospel is to plant churches. Church plants thrive because the must! There’s not a lot of half hearted leadership in church plants because their existence depends on their commitment to reach unchurched or dechurched people with God’s love, grace, mercy, and truth.

Please keep these guys in your prayers over this weekend as they seek to reach their community for Christ and continue to build his kingdom here on Earth.

Stay tuned for Part 2 with James…

I don’t have a lot of time to blog lately, and tonight is no exception. But I did want to take a minute and share why I am a big Chick-fil-A fan.

I’ve always loved Chick-fil-A, ever since they came to Temecula & Murrieta; before that I had no idea what it was or even how to pronounce it. I loved the food, the service, the fun stuff they did, and just the over all experience. They always seemed to show up at conferences & church events with free food – I knew something was up. Then a couple months ago, I saw Dan Cathy share at the Saddleback Worship Conference about “Creating Raving Fans”, and I was mezmorized – I blogged about it.

After that short exposure to the Chick-fil-A model, I wondered if it would be possible to get him to come to Rancho Community to share with us and encourage our staff – it was shot in the dark. So I sent out an email and in my inbox was a response from our local Chick-fil-A saying that Dan’s son, Andrew was in Southern California and we could possibly get him to come. I was stoked to say the least. I responded and before I knew it we had Andrew booked to share with our entire staff, along with complimentary Chick-fil-A from our local Temecula store, run by Elizabeth Fritz – SCORE!

Needless to say, Andrew Cathy came and shared his heart with us and totally blew us away – I was so grateful. The staff from the Temecula store was amazing, as was the lunch! I recieved a copy of Truett Cathy’s “Eat More Chickin…”, which I am currently reading, and was just energized to continue in my role – to do the best and really go the extra mile for people.

Today (Labor Day), we decided to do something fun with the kids, and the first thing to come to my mind was, Chick-fil-A. Little did we know that today was “wear your team jersey and get a free Chick-fil-A sandwich”. We missed the mem0 and when we got there, the line was out the door, but we were committed. As usual we had an amazing experience, great food & great service. We saw about 3 other people we knew from the community, which is so cool. And the older man that roams the restaurant gave Miles and Macy 2 free Kids Meal tickets. This place knows how to “Create Raving Fans”.

So I just want to send out some props to Chick-fil-A, Andrew, Dan, Elizabeth, Mary-Joe, and the whole Temecula team. Thank you so much, you’ve got a family of fans for life!