Simply Creative

Every now and then when I see something creative I like to post it. We can find creativity and inspiration in all kinds of places.

I watched this guy on the show. I thought he was one of the most entertaining and highly creative...as well as talented. His name is Robert Muraine and he was on "So You Think You Can Dance". Trust me....you will want to watch this guy dance. This is probably the best poppin' and lockin' I've ever seen. I don't know how many times I've watched this...it's simply creative.

Summer Slump

I'm not saying it doesn't happen. I'm not even sure of the reason why. I could give you my thoughts on it. Maybe you've even gotten to the place where you are wondering what you can do. But the fact is...I'M NOT BUYING IT!!!

What I'm talking about is the idea that church growth doesn't happen in the summer. This is especially an excuse I hear in youth ministry circles. "Summer's coming and our numbers are usually low."

Maybe it's just me...WHO IN THE WORLD MADE THAT RULE!!!

And why are any of us buying it. If you really want to make it happen you will. And you won't let anything get in your way.

Can it happen? Sure it can. In 2006, we saw the youth ministry we led grow from an average of 35 to 50.

Are there any other stories of summer growth so we can start squashing this????

Building A Multi-Site Network 3

So you have decided you want to launch another campus. Another key factor other than leaders is deciding on your location.

As far as location goes you can launch your location based on one of three things.

1) An Existing Group - You have a group of people that live in a location and can increase your reach in their community by launching a site there.

2) A Leader - You may have a strong leader that may live in a community you want to expand into.

3) A Target Community - Maybe there is a community you want to expand into. This will be an area where you can reach more unchurched people.

Once a location is chosen for whichever reason, it is key to make sure that you begin putting the team of leaders in place.

Once you have chosen your location next is to choose your site. There are a variety of ways and places. You can go portable in a variety of locations or find an existing building you can renovate. Each has it's pro's and con's and different churches have seen success in every different way.

Building A Multi-Site Network 2

In a previous post I started to discuss some ideas in Building A Multi-Site Network. If you choose to take your site from one campus to two and beyond it is vital that you begin to focus on three areas...Leaders, Location, Launch Time.

Let's take some time and talk about leaders. Finding, training and sending out leaders is going to be the key to building each campus.

The Campus Pastor
Obviously this position is the most crucial to this whole venture. This leader is the person that will ensure that the DNA of the church organization is transferred to the site, they will recruit the core team, develop and deploy the team in ministry, and ensure that the work of the ministry will be carried on in the surrounding community.

The Children's Director
Due to the fact that the Sunday Morning meeting time is the prime entry point for visitors having a strong Children's Ministry is a factor of a campus success or failure. It is the Children's Director's role to replicate the environment of the initial campus.

Worship Director
This person is a primary overseer of the weekend experience along with the campus pastor. Their role is to create the authentic worship that permeates the atmosphere of the original campus.

Youth Director/Small Groups Director
This is not two positions in one. As you work through your first six months to a year you should look to expand your team in this direction.

Having a great team in place is and will be the greatest determinant of a your new sites success. Take away this team or even the quality and you will see that this campus may not succeed and reach its potential.

Church Signs

I've been driving by this church for a couple of years now and this sign has been driving me crazy.

I've even thought of stopping and asking if they realize it. Over two years... and you're telling me no one in their church has caught this.

Please...if I ever have a sign up like this...stop and let me know...don't wait over two years.

Anyone want to tell me if they also see what is wrong with this sign?

My Saturday Night Timeline

7:30 p.m. - After working 10 hours on our campus I got home to rest for awhile. All was well.

8:30 p.m. - My wife and I decide to go to pick up my car at the campus. When we went out we noticed water coming out of each side of our driveway. Not just a little drip...MASSIVE leak.

We call the city and were told they were going to try to get someone out.

11:00 p.m. - City Foreman arrives to let us know we have a leak. (Really????)

1:00 a.m. - City crew arrives to jack hammer holes in the driveway to find the leak. (I'm sure the neighbors enjoyed that.)

7:30 a.m - Day crew arrives to jack hammer and dig up our driveway entry, of course with the water shut off while everyone needs to get ready for church. (Again bet the neighbors loved that too.)

10:30 a.m. - Leaving to church with our driveway looking like this.





I was going to buy an above-ground pool for the summer. Thanks to the City of Corpus Christi I now have an in-ground pool for a drive way. It's probably going to be like this for two or three days due to the holiday.

Is there a leadership lesson in this? HMMMMM.....

Maybe...Be careful if you dig a hole for yourself....you might fall in.

Or...The systems lying beneath the surface that are uncared for are in danger of breaking.

What about you??? Can you find a lesson in this???

5 Points Update 1

Here is a video update on our Bay Area Fellowship 5 Points Campus. I posted and asked everyone to imagine and so here it is now.

We got a ways to go...but it's coming.



RSS readers may need to go to the post.

Top Ten Movies

I actually like to do some tags when they come my way. It helps give some insight into me on a personal level.

I was tagged by Chris Day who was tagged by Doug Jones to list my ten favorite movies.

First a posting of the rules which are actually quite simple:
1. list your top ten favorite films (in no particular order).
2. if you’re tagged, you’ve got to post and tag 3-5 other people.
3. give a tag back (some link love) to the one who tagged you in your post
4. give a hat tip (HT) to Dan

My Top Ten Favorite Films (in no particular order):

1. Star Wars (all of them)
2. Lord of the Rings (ALL OF THEM)
3. The Matrix Trilogy
4. Conan The Barbarian
5. Platoon
6. Gladiator
7. Braveheart
8. Hitch
9. Home Alone
10. 300

There you are...my top ten...well really there are 17 of them in there...but I think you get the picture.

So now I tag Terrace, Adam and John.

[photo credit flickr.com]

Pastor Bil At The Purpose Driven Network Summit

This week my Pastor, Bil Cornelius, has been in California speaking at the Purpose Driven Network Summit put on by Rick Warren.

Check out a backstage video where one of my blogging friends, Carlos Whitaker is interviewing him and Kerry Shook from "The Fellowship of the Woodlands."

When you get to 8:15 Pastor Bil starts talking about our Multi-Site initiative.

Working Principles For Success

I received a training email this week from Brian Tracy that had three great principles for success. I took the principles and added my two cents to them.

Do The Unexpected
Where is the written rule to only do what is required. Doing the unexpected is where you begin to add value to what you do.

Follow Up and Follow Through
This falls into executing. Create a system so that you can follow up on the things requested of you. And when you agree to do something follow through...and do it before the deadline.

Work In Harmony With Others
No one wants to work with someone they don't get along with. Create harmony in your workplace by being someone people love to work with.

If you have found this post helpful, please share it with a friend.

An Enjoyable Work Experience

Let's flip it....have you worked somewhere or for someone and it has been the absolute best experience.

What's your story? Let us hear it.

"Working For" Vent

Ever worked somewhere or for someone you wish you never had.

I have...

I would love to hear about your experience. Here's your time to vent.

Publishing Blogs

So what you may not know is that the last four posts I put out, plus this one, I wrote Tuesday night and set them to publish throughout the week with Blogger's new publishing feature.

I've thought about switching to wordpress but I'm waiting. If I make any move it will be to my own self hosted site.

For now...with my schedule this is working for my needs.

Great Pastors I Have Worked For Part 2

In part 1, I told you a little about Jim Graff who is a great pastor I have worked for. In this post let me tell you about another great pastor I have had the priviledge of working for.

Well the fact is that it is not past tense...I'm actually working for him now. His name is Bil Cornelius. Bil pastors Bay Area Fellowship in Corpus Christi, TX.

In September of 1997, Bil came to Corpus Christi with a great vision to start a church that would use modern methodology to reach people with God's timeless message of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Bay Area’s first community service was on January 18th, 1998. The service was held at a local elementary school and over 200 people attended! Over the past decade, Bay Area Fellowship has grown to over average now at this writing 5,300 people in weekend attendance between their two campuses. Bay Area is also currently launching two more campuses at this time.

In the short time being here, I have met and am now learning from a Pastor who is totally passionate about reaching the lost. I believe that if he had a water pistol he would leap into the fiery pits of hell and try to rescue those who are lost. It is this passion that has attracted me to being and launching a campus with Bay Area.

I firmly believe Bil is one of the greatest church communicators in America and it is an honor to be hear. In fact I believe that God has been leading me to this for a very long time. The timing is now and it's game on. We're gonna swing the bat until our hands bleed.

Great Pastors I Have Worked For Part 1

I've had the privilege of working for what I feel are two of the best pastors in America.

The first was Jim Graff who pastors Faith Family Church in Victoria, TX. Jim is the brother-in-law of Joel Osteen.

He has an incredible passion for reaching the lost and for the small counties of America. Several years ago I lead a research project where we called and found the largest church in every county under 150,000 in population. That was over 2,700 counties. What we found in that research was staggering. 85% of the counties in America didn't have a church that reached 1% of the county population. This led to him founding the Significant Church Network, a network aimed at helping the pastors in small counties.

Faith Family is a church of 3,500 in a county of 85,000. They have a great team of passionate people surrounded by a church that has taken on the challenge of reaching their city.

It was an honor to be on staff at Faith Family for five years. Part of me always thinks "how in the world did I make it on staff there???"

God has truly blessed me by allowing me to learn from Pastor Jim. I really believe that God refined a lot of my leadership skills and abilities while working at Faith.

Stay tuned for part 2 where I will be talking about another great pastor I have the privilege of serving under.

Under Utilized Leadership Part 4

I realized I hadn't finished up this series. You can read it all beginning with Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. I've been talking about Under Utilized Leadership traits. I really think that a lot of people don't realize how much passion plays into the success of a business or a church.

I will never take anything away from the fact that God grows a church or that it happens due to His favor. I also know that passion plays a huge part of it. Most of the churches that I have seen grow and explode have a leader that is passionate and pours their life into making it happen.

Hebbel said, “Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.”

If you really want to find your purpose in life it begins with what you are passionate about. When you are working all out for something you are passionate about and you add to that God's Spirit and anointing on it...something magical or should I say supernatural happens.

One of the greatest ways to find meaning in your life is to work at something you are completely passionate about. I challenge you today to find something you thoroughly enjoy and work at it with all you got. As a ministry leader or pastor...if you find that ministry is a chore and not a passion...get out and do that thing you are passionate about.

What is your passion level?

[photo credit flickr.com]

Throwing Some Link Love

As many of you know I'm launching a new campus for Bay Area Fellowship in an area called Five Points in Corpus Christi, TX. Yesterday, my Pastor, Bil Cornelius, said some great things about me on his blog in a post called 5 Points and Padre Island have got me fired up!

It is a great honor to be doing this. In fact it is a dream come true. Go over and check out Pastor Bil's blog and give him some link love.

Work and More Work

If you haven't noticed by now my blog post rate has been the lowest it has been in over two years. That really is not by choice. FYI - That isn't a picture of me.

Reason #1 - I work as a principal by day.

Reason #2 - I work as a campus pastor by night.

Reason #3 - I'm also a husband and dad.

With all that it seems like the past week has been filled with Work and More Work. I have either worked or been at our new campus building every day and evening from Saturday until Wednesday. I said two nights ago that I was not going to come out but I found myself out there for about two hours each night.

From Thursday to Saturday I'll be in San Antonio for training as a principal.

We have gotten a lot done on at our campus as you may have seen from the Work Day Post. There is so much more to go but it is manageable. The neat thing is that we built a whole stage by recycling something we tore down out there. So in a way our campus is partly "green".

[photo credit flickr.com]

5 Points Work Day

Ok...this weekend we had a work day. This old fat boy with hands only designed for a keyboard made it through it. Thanks to everyone who showed up. Big shout out to the guys who drove down from Brazos Fellowship in College Station.

Here are pics of what we did:

View Album

Get your own

I'm Gonna Be A MMA Preacher

I so had to share this with you. I am now praying for God to use me in this way. I've always said there are some Christians I want to lay hands on...now maybe God will use me in that area.



J/K y'all...I needed a laugh today...thanks Dave for finding this.

Maybe even Perry has a legitimate excuse "The Lord told me to punch you in the throat. I'm pretty sure I didn't miss God." (Inside joke...you have to read or listen to Perry to understand)

Imagine Bay Area Five Points

Here are our plans...at least what we see can happen. I thought it would be a great idea to put together a little before video.

Under-Utilized Leadership Part 3

To continue on from our Under-Utilized Leadership traits series let's talk about "Thinking Ahead". If you need to, you can get caught up with Part 1 and Part 2.

As I said before due to the area of town I work in and the students we are teaching it demands a high-level of awareness. What it also demands is that I have to think ahead.

Due to the type of student we were working with I always had to be thinking one step ahead. What of mine was I leaving laying around? Where were my answer keys? Was I leaving my grade book open on my computer? Who was having a problem with whom? Were they in a class together?

Those were always questions that I was posing to myself. As a pastor, ministry leader, business manager being a leader requires you thinking ahead. Do you have a plan if something were to go wrong? What if your strongest leader didn't show up, what would you do?

I know this seems more like a question post, but that is what thinking ahead requires. It requires you asking the what if questions. That is what leadership is about.

Where are you lacking in thinking ahead?

[Photo Credit Flickr.com]

Our New Building For BAF Five Points Part 2

Here are some pictures of the inside of the building...with captions of what we will be converting the room to.

View Album

New Publishing Option

For all you bloggers out there. Blogger has a new option - Scheduled Post Publishing.

If you are reading this it is because the scheduled post publishing feature now works with blogger. That means I can set the date I want the post to publish and it will happen then. I set this to post at 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday May 7th.

What that means is now I can write a series on the weekend and set it to publish throughout the week.

All great things come to those who wait. I'm sure more features will open up in the future. Maybe I won't be making the switch to wordpress just yet....

Our New Building For BAF Five Points

It's official...we now have a building. Today the lease was inked tomorrow we get the keys. Bay Area Fellowship Five Points is a go...all systems ready for lift off.

Here are some pics of our building.

View Album

Here are a little of the specs:

It's 5,000 square feet with one wall that separates two big rooms. It's pretty much ready for us to go in and use.

It has a little area we could already make into a coffee bar.

We will have to make some rooms for our children's area. When you see the picture of the inside that will be the area where we will have our children's rooms. We are not sure what we are going to do with the red building in front...future thought is close it all in for a children's area.

Stay tuned Wednesday for some more pics of the inside.

RSS readers my need to go to the post to see the post.

Random Schedule

I'm pretty much against random thoughts on blogs. Sometimes it's good to get a random peek at someone's day but I think it really is poor writing. I'm not really sure which blogging pastor started it. As of late I have not been on a consistent blogging schedule due to my work life.

*** This is one of the reason I feel you should subscribe through a blog reader. I personally use Google Reader since I have a Google account. Once you get in just click on the little orange button on my blog where it says "subscribe to this feed". You can also get it through email and get a daily update when I blog in that same place.

Here though are the many things that have led to my inconsistent blogging schedule:

• Launching Bay Area Five Points Campus - This is a dream come true for me. I have been dreaming of launching a church for many years. This coming week we sign the lease and will be starting Sunday mornings, May 11th. Are you kidding me??? God is so awesome. With the launch means we are going to be doing some crazy work to get this place in shape. Hopefully stay tuned to this blog for a little camera action of our place.
• Being A Principal -Full time job...plus learning all the in's and out's of what we do at this school. In two weeks I'll be in San Antonio for three days at a conference. I actually may get lots of blogging in that weekend.
• Volleyball - Our oldest daughter plays club volleyball. So every Monday and Wednesday we make the trek across town for practice. This weekend we will be in Austin all weekend for a tournament. (I so wanted to see the movie Ironman this weekend)
• Husband & Dad - With all that is going on I have to purpose to keep this area in focus. Don't want them to miss out. Last night I hit the wall (not literally folks) and was in bed at 9:00 pm to watch Lost and fall asleep shortly afterward. Tuesday night I came home shut off my computers and cell phones...totally disconnected from the world.
• Band Concert - Our middle daughter is in band so last night we were at a band concert.

All of this to say that my posts have been random and may continue to be random for a while. I'll try and bring some great content to you when I do post as well as keep everyone up to date on our campus launch.

Again this is why I suggest you click subscribe. (In my best Arnold impression ) "Do it!!! Do it now!!!!!!"