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  Even these types of directories quickly become an outdated list used primarily by leaders.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.

I keep hearing people talk about kids and their video games like it’s some kind of plague.  But in my opinion, the games kids (and many adults too) are playing are much more than simple distractions.  They are much more social than you would think.

And a new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project proves it.  Game playing is a social activity.  Only 11% of teens that play video games play them alone.

Video games are just a different type of game than you grew up playing.  Their forts are no longer made of cardboard boxes (Second Life) and are now connected to other players over distances you would have never taken you kids on a play date for.  And some of today’s video games have the ability to teach valuable skills; communications, graphics arts, economics, business administration, etc.

Sure, some games may be too graphic or violent, and you should make sure your kids are playing age appropriate games, but that’s no different than it was when you were a kid either.  Don’t you think a game of house ever went too far in your neighborhood?

[Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked]

He lifted up the name of Jesus without expecting those who do not yet trust him to pretend to do the same thing.

Watch it below…

Thank you, Joel.

We’ll have LifeGroups meeting in homes and special events through the series in support of marriages.

My wife and I got to see the movie in advance a couple weeks ago.  I have to say, it was very well done and should inspire more churches to reach higher.

Here’s a simple way I have found to do it;

Click the link on the right menu next to the message – “Print all”

When the window opens click [cancel] if you get a printer dialog box.

On the browser’s menu, click on [file], [save as] or [save page as]

You can change the file type, usually HTML will work fine.

You can also print the email to a pdf file which you can save to your hard drive. If you don’t have Acrobat you can download PDF995 – a free PDF authoring software compatible with Adobe Acrobat Readers.

More Gmail tips coming soon.