Elevation Church

Do you know about Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC? If you don't you should. They are lead by a 27 almost 28 year old Senior Pastor who has an incredible blog. His name is Steven Furtick. He really gets it. He is bold but humble, insightful and an idiot all at the same time. Why should you know about them? In the last 2 years they have gone from 250 in weekend attendance to over 2000 in weekend attendance. How have they done it? Read his blog post today. Do numbers only matter? No but people's lives who are changed do matter the most and the more the better. So hop over and check out how God is blessing a church in North Carolina. I know you are going to hear a lot more about them in the future.

Sign Wednesday: Hand Written Signs

Here are 2 signs for your Sign Wednesday. They go hand in hand.

Now be honest... How many of you have hand written signs in your ministry spaces? Get ready...

SHAME ON YOU! You are sending the wrong message. You are saying that you didn't think ahead, you don't care about excellence, and your product (ministry) is not worth enough to print off a sign. If you couldn't tell, I am not a big fan of hand written signs.

By the way, the first sign on the left was in a $2,000,000 house that was apart of something called the "Home-a-roma" Basically a showcase of new homes that are incredible to look at and even better if you could come close to affording them. I think they could have afforded a nice printed sign instead.

The sign on the right was in a little boutique close to our house. I am glad that they were having a sale and even better that it was 50% off but that doesn't mean that your advertising of it has to be cheap.

So here is my goal with this Sign Wednesday. Please take down any and all hand written signs and replace them with a printed sign. Even if it is on the same white copy paper it will be better than what you have now. If you wanted to get crazy then you could splurge and think about the color, shape, and font of the sign and really show people that your ministry is much more than an after thought.

Chocolate, Wonderful Chocolate

I am on a chocolate kick right now. I can't get enough. Why you ask? Because while Jessica and I were away on our retreat without the kids we went to a chocolate factory/shop. Out in the middle of Corn Field, Indiana otherwise known as Union City, Indiana is a little place called Ghyslain Chocolatier. Ghyslain's is a very modest little chocolate place that you would pass by and never know it, but has some of the best chocolate in the world. I am not kidding. The one thing they do that is remarkable is that they hand paint a variety of chocolates. Here are some pictures of their hand painted chocolates:

They also do chocolate sculptures that are incredible. I took some pictures with my phone, MDA, so the quality is not great but you will get the idea and yes it really is chocolate.

So if you are ever in Union City, Indiana stop by and pay $5 to tour their factory. The tour itself is not great but the chocolate is well worth it. If you are anything like me, you will also walk away with some creative ideas for your environment, the colors in your ministry space, and the idea of a personal experience within your ministry space.

Comment Love

The number one thing that I love about this blog is that the people who read it not only read but respond. Thank you so much for your thoughts, encouragement, and even your disagreements. All are welcome and all are wanted. I am glad that we all don't think alike. I am glad that we are at different styles of churches with different missions and targets. I really do respect you and your ministry. I might think you are a few short of a full deck sometimes but I am sure that you think that about me at least every 5 posts. So, keep the comments coming. That is why I love doing this little thing.

Innkeepers Ministry

I have great news for all you who work at a church full time. Jessica and I just got back from a little place in Brookville, OH run by Bob & Jan Hartenstein. The place is called the Chesed Inn and it is just like a Bed and Breakfast but so much better. Why is it better? Because it is free to all who are in full time ministry. That's right it's free. It's not even open to the public. Bob and Jan's goal is let people in ministry feel like kings and queens. Not only do they let you stay there for free but you eat for free as well. So what could be better than an incredible place to stay with free food run by Christians who pray for you and love on you the whole time your there? Nothing. Oh yeah, they have 3 ponds that are stocked with fish, a swimming pool, full size outdoor basketball court, and hiking trails on their land not to mention a great video library with kickin' surround sound. So the next time that you are thinking that you and your wife/husband really need to get away then you need to call Bob and Jan. Go to their website for more info it is www.innkeeperministries.org. You can do like we did and stay for just 2 nights or you can stay as long as you would like. I'm serious. They would prefer you stay at least 7 days. Now you don't have an excuse to get away for a little while and relax.

Sign Wednesday: Church Sign

Why do churches even have signs like this anymore? Does it help attendance? Does it really get any type of message across to the unchurched? I think I am officially starting a campaign to get rid of all church signs like this. We are not gas stations, our prices, I mean our message does not change. If you really want to tell the world that Jesus loves them than try to get the people in your church to do that and not the sign on the outside. If you really want to tell people that you have VBS next week, make a new sign and post it in a new place each year. Just make sure that it is a nice printed sign that shows and says that your VBS is quality enough to stop the norm and send your child. Let me tell you how I really feel... THESE SIGNS DON'T WORK. PLEASE STOP USING THEM.

I can't take credit for finding this sign. Justin Tapp sent this to me. Thanks Justin.

Permission

Right now I am looking toward the fall. I am looking at what needs to change, be tweaked, and get rid of all together. I am evaluating my current curriculum and looking to try new things. The one big thing that I think most people need when they go through this process is permission. So today I give you permission to do what you are gifted to do. I give you permission to change what needs to be changed. I give you permission to make your responsibilities line up with your priorities.

Now that you have permission what is stopping you? Don't tell me your Senior Pastor... Don't tell me your congregation... Don't tell me your lack of resources... Don't tell me your lack of volunteers...

If it is fear of not being perfect and inadequacy that you can't do it alone then you are in the right place. Pray to God and I bet he too will give you permission to do make your responsibilities line up with your priorities.

By the way, here is a permission slip if you need one.

Smash Update #2

We now have 171 kids on campus and the week has flown by. So far I have used the following main points to teach each day:

Monday: God says You Matter

Tuesday: God is Everlasting

Wednesday: God is Powerful

Thursday: God is Love

Today I am giving a gospel message so please pray for me while I do that. Here are some pictures from the week so far. Enjoy. (Bonus: I know I forgot Sign Wednesday this week so look below for our opening sign to camp and let me know what you think)

Thanks for you prayers. I will continue my regular blogging next week.

Smash Camp Update #1

Smash Camp is going on right now. What is Smash? It is our VBS alternative where we have a Science Camp, Soccer camp and a Preschool Camp. We have 152 kids at our rented facility (i.e. school) having a blast. We have a live youth band and incredible volunteers. The first day jitters are now out and everyone is having a blast. Sorry this is so short but I have to get back to work. I just wanted to update everyone on a successful VBS alternative. More to come.

My Church, Google, and Zoho (no you don't eat it)

I am slowly but surely switching all of the staff over to Google. I have set everyone up with an iGoogle homepage that includes a Google Calendar, local news, to do list, and anything else that they may want. Why is this important? Why is this important? Google's Calendar makes Outlook's calendar obsolete. You can access it from anywhere. You can share calendars and label calendars much easier. As a manager I can have all of my people's calendars and view them whenever I want. My family can have a calendar and I can overlay it with my work calendar and see when I am overloaded and Jessica can see it too. Basically what I am trying to say is that if you are still using Outlook as your calendar please stop. It is not worth it. You can also sync your Gmail with any e-mail account you have and have it on your iGoogle page.

Also, did you know that you don't need to buy Microsoft Office for anyone in your church anymore? Not only does Google have Docs (replaces Word), and Worksheets (replaces Excel) there is another company that is doing it better than Google and it is still free. The name of the company is Zoho and they can be found at www.zoho.com. What is the only problem with their software so far? It is an internet based piece of software so you have to be connected to the internet. They are working on making them work offline but that is not a function yet. So go sign up for Zoho and use all of their tools. Don't worry, even the people who are tech dumb will be able to figure this stuff out.

Added bonus: Here is a a little glimpse at my iGoogle Hompage. It is not all of it. I have to keep some secrets so that you keep coming back and reading my blog. Enjoy.

What's in a title/name?

I heard the title "Next Generation Pastor" for the first time 2 days ago. I was intrigued and confused all at the same time. As you know, I love marketing. I love everything about it and one major part of it is having the right name. I even name products and companies on a referral basis but that is not the point. The point is this... Even if you have the best name in the world, if you don't have anything else the name is meaningless. You know the old saying, "Just because you say that you are the leader doesn't mean anyone is following you." Now don't get me wrong. I think I really like the title "Next Gen. Pastor", but what does it really mean? Did someone really not like the names we have like Youth Pastor, Student Pastor, Children's Pastor, or any other label that we put on ourselves? Before you go and give yourself a new catchy title or name, make sure that you are doing the job first. It is kind of like a nickname. Most of the time you didn't pick your nickname but I am sure you earn it.

Sign Wednesday: Hillary Clinton

We all make mistakes, right? I mean, I can understand misspelling tomorrow once or maybe twice but how many times can you count the word "tommorrow" on the sign behind her? By the way, I do hope that she is the president of "tommorrow" but not anytime soon. This is something that makes me go "hmm"!

Sharing from my Google Reader

By the way, if you are not using Google Reader to read your blogs you should. Sign up now.

I found a very helpful tool in the reader today. It is a tool called trends. It is in the upper left hand part of your reader. Why is this useful? It tells you how many post you have read, starred, and shared. Over the last 30 days I have read 2,333 post from people like you. I have starred 9 of those post meaning that I liked it so much I will go back and read it again and I have shared 3 which means I think you should be reading them as well. Which brings me to a new feature on my blog. You can now look at my shared items anytime you want or put them in your reader. Instead of doing a link blog or giving you links to every story that I think you should be reading you can just go to my shared Google Reader. The address is http://www.google.com/reader/shared/09166892701365653265 . All I can say about this is that I have become way to much of a reader over the last 6 months.

If you have a shared Google Reader let me know. I want to see what is out there that I may be missing.

Book Review: The Dip by Seth Godin

The dip, a little book that teaches you when to quit (and when to stick) is a must read for everyone. I don't care if you are the CEO of a company or a household you need to read this book. It is only 75 pages and it even has very clever illustrations, just right for us Children's Pastors but I digress. The point of this book is very simple: If you are not the best in the world and there is no way that you are going to be then you should quit as soon as possible. Seth Godin is one of my favorite people in the world and I haven't met him face to face. His writing makes him feel very approachable and down to earth but at the same time seem so much smarter than you. So go buy the book and quit whatever is getting in your way at being the best in the world.

Horizon Student Pastor Leaving

First let me say that I think this is a great thing for Pete Sutton and we are going to miss him. I am glad that I had the chance to work with Pete for 2 years. He is our current Youth Pastor at Horizon and has done a great job over the past 5 years. Over the last year he has lost his father and his wife has lost hers as well. Which leaves both of their moms in the Chicago area and them in Cincinnati. Pete has also felt the calling to leave Student Ministry and go into a new direction of ministry. Today our church announced that Pete will be leaving us in the near future. Where is he going? What is he going to do? I don't know yet and he doesn't know yet and our church is supporting him through this transition. Horizon is a great church for doing this and Pete is a brave person to follow this calling. So here is where you can help a great guy out. If you live in the Chicago area and you need an incredible Associate, Teaching, Family, Small Groups, or just a leader please see Pete's website. It is www.petesutton.net. I know you will be impressed and will be calling him very soon. Here is his picture. Don't hold that against him.

Cluster Flies

I wrote recently about having 2 days off a week and how I think every Pastor should have this luxury. I look forward to my days off so much and this week my family had very little planned on those 2 days. This is very rare. Normally we are booked like crazy but this was suppose to be a very relaxing weekend. When I came home Thursday night Jessica told me that she had killed 34 flies in our basement and then told me to go down stairs and look around. I saw around 50 flies attached to our back door inside our house. That's right, inside and not outside. So the hunter in me came out. I started swatting, banging, and dancing on as many as I could find. They were everywhere and I couldn't find the source. I eventually killed all of the ones on the glass doors and decided that we needed to go get some fly spray. So we left the house and got a fly trap and some fly spray. I got the can that said no poison spray. I do have an infant. When we came back we had about 20 flying around and I killed those but still couldn't find the source.

Note, this is not near our kitchen and they are not coming from the laundry room.

I finally think I have killed them all and went to bed on Thursday. I woke up Friday and went down stairs and we had another 30 flying around. I got out the spray and went to town. I didn't have time to kill them all because I was headed to a Bible Study. After Bible study I called as many pest control companies that I could find to see if any of them could come out and solve my problem. Believe me when I say it was a problem. In fact we thought it was getting bad enough that we took our boys to my parents' house. I talked to 2 companies that couldn't come out but told me that they were coming in through my chimney and I need to start a fire. It was 90 degrees yesterday, our power went out, and I was starting a fire. I got some strange looks from the neighbors when they saw me go out for fire wood multiple times. The fire seemed to just make them mad. I kept calling and did get a hold of one company that could come out around 3:30 in the afternoon. I thought that wouldn't be too bad and then we could move on with our lives without having to vacuum up flies every hour. The guy shows up and says that what I have in my house are cluster flies. He also goes on to say that it is too late in the season to see these flies, he has never seen them come through the chimney, and they are not normally in houses but are found in barns. The whopper to all of this is that he left saying that he couldn't help me because I had a fire going and the stuff that he would spray would catch my house on fire among other reasons but that was my favorite excuse he gave me for not doing anything. The good news was he didn't charge me anything and told me where to go to get something that could solve my problem. He told me to go to Tractor Supply.

So I went and spent 45 minutes trying to find something that solve my problem and came across an employee who knew what cluster flies were. He also knew the exact product that I needed. It wasn't on the shelf in the store but could on be found "in the back". He brings out a can that stands 18 inches tall and with great big words on it that says "Fly Bomb". I go home, change clothes, and prepare the house to be bombed. I then successfully bomb my house and leave. We spent the night last night with my parents. We woke up this morning and let the house air out. We get home this afternoon and start cleaning up the mess. In total I have killed and vacuumed over 250 cluster flies.

The great news is this: It is now around 5:00pm eastern time and I don't have anymore flies in my house.

The bad news is this: I need a day off.