I learned the hard way. People need to be reminded.

Back in my student ministry days I thought that grown adults could remember meeting dates and times. After all, they get kids to soccer practice, keep doctor appointments, show up for work, and remember birthdays. All that’s true. And maybe that’s the point: it’s ALL true. There’s a lot going on.

It’s happened to all of us. Weekend service. You’re ready. You’re on time. And someone else isn’t. You cripple through the services or services on a shoestring, hoping to not miss any critical elements or people as you attempt to provide a welcoming space for your guests. It happens. People aren’t always blowing off responsibility. Sometimes people just forget.

Here are some thoughts about serving as a full team:

• Create a schedule. Put it on paper. Make sure everyone has it.
• Make the schedule easy to remember. Build some pattern into it. Monthly. Biweekly. Find a rhythm.
• Send reminders. Make phone calls. Send postcards. Tweet. Text. Email. And you must, you must, you must – not choose the easiest and preferred communication for yourself as the leader. Learn how everyone on your team is best connected. You’ll likely call some, text others, and email the rest.
• Follow-up when someone doesn’t show. This is a simple and opportune chance to care. You may discover they’re facing difficulty, illness, or worse. Reach out. You made it past the weekend. That’s good. But, it’s not all there is to the team.
• Expect the schedule to be kept and followed. By planning it, printing it, reminding, following up you’ll communicate that people matter – the team matters. “We’re counting on you!”

Sunday’s coming! Is your team?

Excerpt from becausepeoplematter.com | by Mark Waltz, Pastor of Connections

One other suggest I would like to add is make the schedule accessible.  Post it where people can find it and even sync with it with their calendar, PDA, etc.  I highly recommend using Google Calendar for this.

Someone else asks “why do we take time to read the announcements?” and someone else wants to know “why didn’t I heard about ______?”

Some may think we are choosing favorites … and everyone thinks that “fair” is a biblical mandate! (NOT!)

How we connect to the people we want to get our message to is important to all of us, and it’s becoming harder and harder to break through all the noise and clutter in life.

Whatever you believe, we all know this; the way we communicate is changing, and it’s changing fast. This video shows how change is making it easier to reach a wider audience, but harder than ever to actually connect to it.

click here if the video does not appear above…

Within an hour or so after delivery I had just about all the apps I would need installed and talking to each other.  None of these apps cost anything and the sweetest thing is …  they add to what I was already doing with Google Apps by integrating very tightly with each other and the phone’s contacts, calendar, camera, etc.

Gmail – of course this is hooked into my Google Apps email (dean@gotwww.com).  Allows all my email (sent and received no matter where from) to be accessible everywhere … my phone, my desk, your desk, etc.  I can search “google fast” to find anything I have ever sent or received. (see 10 reasons I use google mail for more) [http://www.google.com/mobile/products/mail.html#p=blackberry]

Facebook … with a caveat.  I use Facebook to keep up with my friends and family, share photos, and we use it @MapleGrove as a communications tool with our “fans”.

I use the Facebook mobile app [http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2254487659] primarily to allow my Storm to sync with the contact information from facebook and upload photos with the ability to tag them while uploading.  Another nice feature is that when my phone rings from someone who is my friend on facebook I see their current profile photos attached to their caller ID.

I generally use the facebook mobile web page (m.facebook.com) to browse because it works better and allows more of the facebook features like “liking” someone’s status and seeing and reading “notifications”, and photos.  For some reason the app does not allow any of these things to be done from with-in the app, but the syncing doesn’t work without it.

Google sync – this app syncs my contacts with Google Apps email and Google Apps calendar with my phone’s contacts and calendar.  Add a new contact on the phone and it’s on my desk immediately.  (http://www.google.com/mobile/products/sync.html#p=blackberry).  It even alerts me of upcoming appointments with sound and vibration using BlackBerry’s native calendar.

YouVersion – my favorite bible website on my phone.  There isn’t a specific app for the storm yet, but with an easy workaround the Tour version will work for many of the features. http://blog.youversion.com/post/289/youversion-for-blackberry-storm-sorta ) I can read or search in any version and there’s a nice daily reading plan too.

Google maps – The blackberry maps are ok, but if you use Google maps on your computer you will probably like it better on your phone too.  It works well with the GPS on the storm and another interesting feature is Latitude; an option that allows you to share your current location and see the location of others selectively.  If you don’t want to do that, then don’t… but please don’t flame me about it. [http://www.google.com/mobile/products/maps.html#p=blackberry]

WeatherBug – finds my current location by GPS and automatically shows me the local information I need including live weather radar, detailed hourly forcasts and even “Always on” NWS weather alerts such as Tornado warnings even when the WeatherBug app is turned off. [http://weather.weatherbug.com/mobile/blackberrystorm.html]

YouTube – Allows me to find and play and upload YouTube videos. [http://www.google.com/mobile/products/youtube.html#p=blackberry]

Pandora - Free music (only music I love) anywhere I am …  [http://www.pandora.com/]

Let me know if you’ve found any other apps for the storm that you would like to share by commenting below.

I’m the kind of guy who needs a shot in the arm every once in a while to keep me motivated. I have a hard time with the “status quo” … I need to see things progressing, be a part of something “new”. When life around me starts to feel “normal” I get uncomfortable. I start looking for things to change.

Fresh is never fresh for long.

Sunday proved to me that things ARE changing. We got to see several of the people we have come to know as family over the last year or so make a life changing decision. A decision to publicly declare their faith. To take a risk.

I know it’s not about me, but it sure feels good to be a part of it.

Take a look;

Sunday we continue a series called “Fearless” – it’s about average people who became champions and overcame insurmountable odds. Just like these people did Sunday.

The church is growing, people are growing, I’m growing. This is why we do what we do. Stay tuned for some more big news next week.

For the past five weeks we’ve been teaching (@MapleGrove) a series called Miracles. This week we used the illustration of Jesus’ first recorded miracle in the Bible – when Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding.

You can listen to the message here. (Week 5 – Water to Wine)

So the basic point of the message is this; if you want a miracle from God you have to do what God tells you to do.

• (Jesus) mother said to the servants, “Do whatever (Jesus) tells you.” John 2: 5

• …faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. James 2:17

• Because Jesus and the servants obeyed, a miracle happened.

• …I will show you my faith by what I do. James 2:18

And of course, with all the doom and gloom about the economy right now, Pastor Gary can’t help but using the example of finances to illustrate the point. Do you want a miracle with your finances? Are you obeying God? Don’t tithe? If you want your finances to get better, tithe. Try it. The bible says “test me”.

And here’s where it get’s interesting… he’s heard about a church where they offer a money back guarantee. Sounds a little risky, doesn’t it?

Then, after thinking out loud “do I want to do that?” … he says “I have that faith” … “For the rest of the year, if you tithe, and God doesn’t bless you, I will personally give you your money back.” Not from the church, but from his own pocket!

I’ve heard of other churches that have done this, it’s not all that new, but I have yet to find one where the pastor has done it personally. Now that’s personal faith.

If you would like to give to MapleGrove Church, you can start the process here.

Many churches print a photo directory once a year with color photos of each person and a nice family photo.

There’s also church directory software tools that help churches do their own photo directory and try to keep up with the changes.  They can add new people as they get them and publish new versions, periodically.  (Kind of like the phone book pile in my closet – where we just add the new one to the top of the pile until the next bon fire.)

These might work great for churches where few new people come, but this Sunday when someone new comes to your church for the first time, how do you help them meet people? Do you hand them a directory and tell them to call people?  I don’t think so.

Then there are the privacy issues.  You have names and address and phone numbers for people, but who do they want that information given to?  Shouldn’t each person decide who they want to see their information?

And who keeps all of this information up to date?  Not just the new people being added and the people that leave being removed (if you even dare do that), but what about their contact information?  This could be a full time job.

Many large churches with large budgets attempt to use a web based system that gives each person the ability to edit their own information on the church’s website.  That sounds great, if you can get them there.  The problem is, people are busy, so this is not usually a very high priority on their “to do” list.  Even these types of directories quickly become an outdated list used primarily by leaders.

Some of these “church management” systems have attempted to add social networking pieces to their software in an attempt to get more people to use them, but that’s not working either.  If people are going to use social networking, they are going to be somewhere were their friends are – and the fact is, not all their friends are ever going to be at your church.  Jesus said to “go” and make disciples in “all” the world, not just your church friends.

We’re experimenting with solutions to some of these problems AND we’ve managed to take back a piece of the internet for good … it’s called facebook.  We’ve been working with MapleGrove to help them use the most popular social networking (just a new word for fellowship) tool (a website) as a public member directory (and more) using a free feature of facebook called “pages“.

With a facebook account, each user can decide who they want to share their personal information (contacts, photos, videos, etc.) with.  In just a few months of talking about it, most of our members (that didn’t already use the system) went and created accounts.

Our members (“fans” in facebook lingo) can post stories to our page, share photos with other members, ask and answer discussion questions and invite their friends.

Our administrators can create events, send short “status” messages to members, and moderate the page when needed.

We’ve tied our church management software into facebook as well.

I’ll be writing more about how to use this tool in the near future, but if you want to get started right away you can create a page for your organization here.

Financial mentor Dave Ramsey is currently teaching a 3-week series at LifeChurch.tv for churches across the world to use. It’s called Life. Money. Hope.

Dave did an interview about the series (you can watch it below),  here are a few bullet points;

about money…

• When the economy changes, the rules don’t.
• Have an emergency fund.
• Don’t get into debt.
• Live on a budget.
• Diversify.
• Think long term.
• Fear is not a fruit of the spirit.

about leadership…

• Surround yourself with people that share your value system.
• Get good at delegating.
• Know you can trust the people you work with.
• Invest in people (don’t just hire talent)
• Remember your history (what worked, what didn’t).
• Be in unity with others in your organization.

Yesterday this guy said something to me that got me thinking.

“That will never happen” …

We were talking about some of those “what if” kinds of things. Dreaming big.

All these church “experts” are saying “watch out” right now because of the economy, money is tight, some churches are laying people off, others are cutting programs.

But … I choose to believe.

You’re in a jet, flying low over New York City. Both engines have failed. Any idiot can see that everyone on the plane is going to die. The pilot can fly into a building and kill everyone on the plane or he can try to line up on a street and kill the unsuspecting motorists instead. These are his only two options.

Well, I’m on that jet too, and I say this pilot is going to land on the Hudson River and the plane is going to float and everyone will get out safely and then we’re all going to hop onto some big passenger ferries that will be exactly where we need them to be.

Don’t laugh. It could happen.

A history book of ancient Israel tells of a starving city surrounded by an enemy army. “Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die? If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’-the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.”

That story ends happily. Not just for the lepers, but for everyone in the city. Well, not quite everyone. There was one man who insisted that God himself couldn’t save the city. Interestingly, everyone made it safely onto the ferryboats except for that guy. He was the guy screaming hysterically ‘We’re all going to die!’ while the pilot was trying to land the plane on the Hudson.

It’s really an interesting story. You ought to read it.

People interested in finding a LifeGroup pre-registered for the short get together held immediatly after the Sunday morning service.  Everyone was seated at tables and were asked to share answers to a couple simple ‘ice breaker” questions.

A simplified version of our vision and purpose for LifeGroups was shared with everyone and then people at each table “voted” for what the best day of the week worked for each of them.  If you were not available that day you could move to another table.

After a few minutes of negotiations we had three new groups ready to meet, a host location agreed upon, and 30 new people excited to step into the small group world.

Training will be held for the hosts and facilitators later this week.

Many of these people were people who had tried to connect with another group unsuccessfully prior to this.  For what ever reason, it appears that starting new groups may be a far more productive way of getting people into the small group setting than other methods.  Once a group has started and is healthly growing, it does not seem to want to divide.  And if it’s growing it is also soon too big for new people.

What do you think?

A year ago our average Sunday attendance was just over 100.  Now, we’re averaging 170.  We’ve already had three Sundays over 200 this year.  Our biggest Sunday last year was in the first two weeks of December (are we ready?).

Every week we hear a story about someone who has found the true, loving God through MapleGrove – one person recently shared that “MapleGrove is the first church I’ve ever been to that is more about what we CAN DO than what we CAN NOT.”

Kids @ MapleGrove are now experiencing their own praise and worship every week and have nearly doubled in attendance since spring.

Student LifeGroups are meeting weekly, and our monthly Catalyst event had over 65 people its’ first month, drawing students from all over Lapeer – many of whom have never been at MapleGrove before.

We got to be a part of baptizing 11 people in August.

Adult LifeGroups were started again in September and during the FIREPROOF series almost 70 people attended.  Many people’s marriages were touched by this message.  More to come on LifeGroups soon!

People are also getting to know each other better and meet each other’s needs directly on-line through Facebook.  There are over 75 people from MapleGrove using this great tool.

We just had our first Harvest Party, and are about to have our first Winterfest.  We plan to have these become annual, highly anticipated, events for our community.

The clinic continues to expand its services, and we continue to help meet the needs of the pregnancy center and the refuge.  Several new Compassion children have been sponsored by MapleGrove members.  …  Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows. – Isiah 1:17

There is a growing buzz in Lapeer about Jesus @ MapleGrove.  This buzz creates a crowd just like it did when Jesus performed his first miracles (… they went out and spread the news about him throughout that region (Mark 5:21-43; Luke 8:40-56)), and this growing crowd creates a couple issues;

Parking – our parking lot is in overflow mode.  We are having the grass area south and west of the south lot kept clear of snow, so that those of us with vehicles that can handle it can park on the grass there.  We are encouraging people we invite to park along the east side of the lane in front of the building in special “guest only” parking.

Seating – Many new people like to have the choice to slip into the back few rows their first several times here, so are asking team members to leave those rows open for our newest guests.

Thanks to all of you that have shared your time and talents with others through your work and service @ MapleGrove.