Big News: New Job

Yes, you read that correct. I have a new job. What is the new job? Did I go and start my own marketing/sign/consulting/naming/branding/chocolate business? Did Google bite at my billion dollar idea? Am I still in Cincinnati? Do I need to change the title of this blog?

I know that all of these questions came to mind when you read the title of this post. OK, maybe not but I do have a new job here at Horizon. I am now overseeing Nursery-Senior High. Am I ready to take on Junior High and Senior High? I think so, but I know that I don't have all the answers. The great thing is that I have 2 incredible people who are already doing the ministry for both of these ministries.

I really am looking forward to this. I know this is going to be a challenge. I know that this is going to have great rewards in relationships and in leadership building. I ask that you pray for me. I really don't have all the answers, and that scares me. There I said it. I don't even know if I am cool enough to hang out with these students. There I said that too.

I do need your help. What should my title be? I have some in mind but I would love to hear what you think?

By the way, the name of this blog won't change. Junior High and Senior High are still kids and God still wants to take their old selves and make them new.

Would you wait 2 hours?

We have all been there. We walk up to the hostess stand at a popular restaurant and ask how long is the wait. We go to amusement parks and stand in line for a new roller coaster. We even get in line for new technology, concert tickets, and Tickle Me Elmo's. I have even seen people wait an absurd amount of time for gas that is $0.15 cheaper per gallon than the gas station across the street. My question for you today is this, "What would you be willing to wait 2 hours for?"

Here is another great question, "Would anyone wait 45 minutes to get into your ministry or church?"

Step #1 Changing Ministry Culture: Recasting Vision

What is the vision of your ministry? Stop. If you can't answer that in less than 2 seconds then you need to change your vision. If you pause, and then ho and hum, people are going to think that you are making it up on the spot. The major problem is most of you are making it up on the spot. So let me ask you this question again, "What is the vision of your ministry?"

I have written in the past about changing the culture of the children's ministry here at Horizon Community Church. The article can be found here. I was then asked to expand on the article and tell you how I accomplished the change. If you want to change the culture of your ministry then you will have to start with the vision of your ministry. Here are the 3 major keys of a vision that I believe are the most important.

1. Your vision must be Memorable. If you can't remember your vision then no one else will. If it is to long and complicated then you have lost the battle before you started. If your Senior Pastor, church, or volunteers can't bring it to mind then you need to change it. I don't care how long you worked on it and chose just the right words and made it less than 3 sentences... Which brings me to me next point.

2. Your vision must be Repeatable. Not only do I remember my vision by I can say it in under 15 seconds. Your vision is your sound bite. Your vision is what your Senior Pastor says about you in front of the whole church. It is what your volunteers say at lunch when they talk about Sunday. You should be able to fit it into a conversation that feels natural.

3. Your vision must be Measurable. Here is a great quote for you, "What gets measured, gets improved." People want to be apart of something successful. If you can measure what you are doing then you can know if you are being successful or not. You can also improve what you are doing.

So I know you are asking yourself right now. Matt, what is the vision of your ministry? What vision do you have that helped change the culture? Here it is:

Kids bringing their Parents to Church!

What is your vision? What do you see is important in a vision?

Ministry Perks

What perks do you have at your church? At Fellowship Church I had a lot of perks. I could go to the coffee shop that was at the church and order a "Matt McKee". Yes there was a drink. In fact I went back earlier this year walked into the Source Cafe and ordered one. By the way, a "Matt McKee" is a White Chocolate Mocha made with the vanilla blend instead of the mocha blend and it has an extra shot of espresso. Yes it is a little bit of heaven in a cup. Not only did a get great coffee, I got to go to all kinds of sporting events for free. We had some great people who let us have their seats for the Cowboys, Mavericks, and Rangers. I even got to go the Texas Motor Speedway for some races. These are incredible perks that never show up in a salary or a 403b matching plan.

At Horizon I also have many perks. I have been to Red's games and Bengal's games. I don't have a place to order a Matt McKee but when we build our new building I am pushing for just a place. We have one other perk that I love at Horizon. We are given 2 VIP passes for Kings Island. What does this mean? Well, with each pass we get up to 10 tickets per day and get to park in VIP parking. This is incredible for someone like myself who loves to ride roller coasters. You know, it may be a toss up. Coffee VS. Roller Coasters. I may just take Roller Coasters.

Here is a great pic of my favorite roller coaster. It's called "The Beast". It is the world's longest wooden roller coaster and it will beat you to death. It is awesome. If you are ever in Cincinnati and are man/woman enough to ride then let me know.

Enough bragging... Seriously, what perks do you get?

Google Phone Hype is ON!

You know that if I didn't work at a church I would be on mission to do anything for a little company called Google. That's right, I have a man crush on a company. When I woke up this morning I was overwhelmed by all the buzz of possibility of a Google Phone coming out within a year. Here is a link to show 64 stories about the news: http://news.google.com/?ncl=1118836327&hl=en. Or of course you could go to Techmeme.com and get even more hype. I can't wait to see the innovation, the creativity, and the ease of use. The iPhone must now be worried.

By the way, I have used T-Mobile's MDA as my phone for the last year and Google has really ramped up their mobile options for my phone over the last month. Now I can get my G-mail, Reader, Notebook, and many other services. The problem of course is the GPRS on T-Mobile is not great when connecting to the internet. So I still need to be in WiFi range for these to work good. It will be great to have all of Google's services in my hand at all times especially when it is optimized by Google.

Sorry no pictures. I believe all of the ones that are out are fakes and until a real one comes out I won't post Photoshop wannabes.

Speaking to Inner-City Kids and Object Lessons

All this week I have been speaking at a camp for Inner-City kids. I love doing this. I think it really hits where I am gifted and the energy I get from it is incredible. Each morning around 9:00 I go and lead a devotional or talk or whatever you want to call it. There is no technology whatsoever. So I am feeling totally lost. To fill most of you in, when I speak I normally have background music, sound effects, and graphics going on as well as meaningful object lessons. Think of it as an overstimulating circus speech that focuses on Jesus as Lord. Anyway, like I said no technology but I am using object lessons like crazy. Here is a break down of the main point from each day with an object lesson in which I have used to teach that main point.

Monday: Main Point: Just because you can doesn't mean you have too! (I know, it is long but so true)

Object Lesson: I do basketball tricks, i.e. balancing, spinning, and juggling. Through these different types of tricks I talk about how every action has a consequence. Some are very good consequences and others are bad but we have to make sure and make wise choices. Most of the scripture references come from Proverbs and talk about wisdom. My favorite line in this talk is, "I have the choice to punch you in the face right now, but that doesn't mean I have too."

Tuesday: Main Point: Watch your mouth!

Object Lesson: I use the illustration of a hammer and a bunch of nails. I talk about how when we say words it is like hammering a nail into a piece of wood. It has impact whether we want it to or not. We can try and take back our words like taking a nail out of the wood but we will always be reminded by the whole that is left behind. I use the book of James as my scripture for this talk.

Wednesday: Main Point: B Thankful.

Object Lesson: This is my favorite object lesson of all time. I consider it to be the perfect object lesson because you use all the senses. Are you ready? I pop popcorn in front of the kids. Now you have to use a Stir Crazy popcorn popper. If you don't know what that is go to Wal-mart. They should have one. Anyway, you talk about how you give your wants and your needs to go. The wants and needs are represented by the oil and the kernels. God is the popcorn popper. You give both over to him and let him do the rest of the work. Now here is the great part. You get to see the popcorn pop, you get to hear the popcorn pop, you get to smell the popcorn and if the group is small enough you pass out the popcorn so that they can touch it. When you do this then there are always kernels that didn't pop at the bottom. You talk about being thankful for all of the things that God has provided for you, i.e. all of the popped kernels, and don't stress, complain, and whine about the things you didn't get, i.e. the kernels that didn't pop. Psalm 100 is the main Scripture reference.

Thursday: Main Point: Jesus has impact!

Object lessons: Here are 2 for you.

#1: If you can juggle then you can talk about all of the great teachers in the past. Even talk about Mohamed and Ghandi ad how they lived and died like everyone else. Have 2 bean bags or I like to use Spaghetti balls (brand of koosh ball) represent all the other great teachers. When you say that they die like everyone else does then you drop one while juggling and make sure it doesn't bounce. Now Jesus is different because he lived, died, and came back to life. Use a lacrosse ball to represent Jesus in your juggling. When Jesus dies, you drop the lacrosse ball and it bounces back up to you and you continue to juggle. Of course Jesus is the only in history to do this and that is why he has so much impact.

#2: Get a clear container and fill it half way full of water. Also have with you a squirt bottle labeled sin that is filled with Iodine and a squirt bottle labeled Jesus that is bleach. You then talk about how God wants us to be clean and pure like the container with water in it but we all have sin in our lives. Squirt the Iodine in the water and it will look nasty. Then present the Gospel and talk about how when Jesus comes into our lives he makes us new, clean, and pure so that we can get into heaven. Squirt the bleach into the water and it will clear up all of the Iodine and make it look totally clear again. Now if you put enough bleach in the water mixture then you can continue to pour iodine into the bleached water and it will disappear to signify how Jesus has so much impact that He even takes our future sins away.

So there are the highlights from the last 4 days of teaching Inner-City kids. I hope that you can use some of them and I hope that you stretch yourself to go and speak at places that you normally don't. It is amazing when you get out of your comfort zone how much God teaches you while you teach others.

Sign Wednesday: Try to spell this

I love naming stuff. I know that many of you know this fact about me but it is very true. Well this Sign Wednesday is dedicated to the longest name known. They even put this name on a sign for us and then made a sign to tell us it is the longest name. I love that a sign has to have another sign for educational purposes. Enjoy.

This sign can be found in New Zealand. I knew I wanted to go there I just didn't know why until now.

So when you think of the name of your church or the name of your ministry area or even the name of a business or product, please, I am begging you not to make this mistake. Let it be something a little bit more memorable. You know something someone could pronounce, spell, or even use in a sentence.

By the way, the name of our Children's Ministry here at Horizon is a little bit different than most. The name is simply .

I even have an arrow that I use on all of my directional signs. It looks like this:

.

We also have a group of kids who help us lead worship in our large group time. They are called:

I love that little dude that makes up the "i". He makes me smile.

I will tell you more about how the name came about and why I chose it later. Until then...

Fantasy Football Draft TONIGHT?!?

I can't tell you how much I love Fantasy Football. I may actually love it to much. I have already bought a Fantasy Football magazine with stories like Target Drafting and how you should Handcuff your best Running Backs. I know what the Average Draft Position of the top 250 players are. I know who are considered sleepers, overrated, and who underperformed last year. Believe me when I say that I love Fantasy Football.

Well my first Fantasy Football Draft is tonight. That's right, TONIGHT. I know I know... It is about 3 weeks early but we like to have everyone get together and do a live draft at someone's house. Who is in this league? All of my family. My Dad, Wife, Father-in-law, Brother, Sister-in-law, Sister-in-law's husband, and Mother-in-law. Tell me this doesn't bring a tear to your eye. In other words on Thanksgiving and Christmas instead of trying to come up with something to talk about or just talking about each other behind each other's back, we break down our Fantasy Football teams. We talk about trades and who is stinking up the league. Of course the winner gets bragging rights for the year and the loser gets dogged.

I can't just tell you that I love this without giving you some type of tool, insight, or opinion. The best free drafting tool out there is at www.footballdiehards.com and it is called DDT. Click here to be taken to thier page and download the software. It really will help your draft and if you win the draft then you win your league, plain and simple.

If you are new to Fantasy Football let me tell you one thing this year. Don't draft the guy below:

The Blogging Church Book

2 of my friends, Brian Bailey and Terry Storch wrote a book called The Blogging Church. Buy it here. I had the priveledge of working with them for 5 years at Fellowship Church in Grapevine, TX. This book has been out for a little while now but I had not given any love to it yet so here is some love. Below is a product teaser that I found that I think describes the book very well. By the way, the reason I have really ramped up my blogging since May is because of this book. It has some great insight and interviews. Enjoy the copied product teaser.

Product Description

The Blogging Church offers church leaders a field manual for using the social phenomenon of blogs to connect people and build communities in a whole new way. Inside you will find the why, what, and how of blogging in the local church. Filled with illustrative examples and practical advice, the authors answer key questions learned on the frontlines of ministry: Is blogging a tool or a toy? What problems will blogging solve? How does it benefit ministry? How do I build a great blog? and Who am I blogging for?

The Blogging Church is a handbook that will inspire and equip you to join the conversation.

The book includes contributions from five of the most popular bloggers in the world—Robert Scoble, Dave Winer, Kathy Sierra, Guy Kawasaki, and Merlin Mann, as well as interviews with blogging pastors such as Mark Driscoll, Craig Groeschel, Tony Morgan, Perry Noble, Greg Surratt, Mark Batterson, and many more.

A very bad parent page

Many churches now have a way of paging parents in their worship services in case of emergency or in case the child is really misbehaving. I hope that you are one of these churches. It does help. Of course there are tons of different ways in which churches do this. Some give pagers to the parents that the parents put in their pockets, some have LED signs on the sides of the auditorium that you really have to look for to even notice them and others put up numbers or codes on the main screens in the lower corners. As of right now we are using the lower corners of the main screen but we move in and out every week and this is the most efficient way of doing it.

You get the point of paging parents and how the systems work. Well, my sister-in-law and her husband were at an undisclosed church very recently where they to used the main screen to put up numbers in the lower corner. Don't worry it was not my church. Now during the middle of the worship set there was a number that came up on the screen. Once again very typical and many of you have seen this, but what came next was not only shocking but very disruptive as well. I don't know if on their paging system it has a place for notes or reasons for the page but there was a word that popped up after the number. The word was...

POOP

Yes. You are reading this correctly. The word POOP came on the main screen. Needless to say but the whole crowd started to chuckle. The worship leader never saw it but he knew the spirit had changed and tried to press on. You have to love worship leaders.

If only I had a picture then it would have been perfect for a Sign Wednesday post, but to my knowledge no one has physical evidence of this occurance. I think this maybe for the best or one of our own might be looking for a new church.

So in your staff meeting this week when you are going over what went well and what needs to improve you can say, "Well at least I did not throw POOP up on the screen. I think this past week was a success."