Sunday The 1st Through My Window

Here is a look through my window at Bay Area 5 Points for Sunday 2-1-09:

• Controversial topic today: Porn. Wasn't sure how turnout would be with this message. Mixed response to it.
• Today, our Production Director, Tom Grant, ran two Ultimate HZ's (fogger/hazer). Since we really only get to try it out on Sunday's with a full production it can be trial and error. During 10 a.m. we recognized that with two it fogged up quickly...we adjusted settings and 11:30 looked great.
• Lighting was awesome today. My compliment is that we now are beginning to look like a mini-BAF on our stage.
• We are going to make a tweak on our prayer partner time next week. I'll fill you in on if it works.
• Even with a controversial message four people prayed to begin a relationship with Christ in our 10 a.m. experience. That's why we do it.
• Every single week, we don't miss a beat...first time guests and first time commitments.
• Numbers were down a hair...not sure why but it was totally even between the two.
• I feel like we are getting predictable each week...we need to shake it up a bit.
• Tonight we had our first Super Bowl party. Great thing about being a smaller campus is that it is easy to invite everyone out to something like this...and the screen is awesome to watch it on.
• We had about 75 kids, teens and adults out tonight. Juno Garcia, our Student Director, played flag football with the teens. We also had a little Rockband on the big screen before the game.
• I had a great time connecting with many people that have been coming out. I love doing these community building events.
• We amped up the half-time show of the game with Bruce Springteen with our own lighting show...Tom's getting the hang of this.
• Four people this morning committed...and I haven't see the 11:30 cards yet. Praise God.
  
• All around I would give us an A-...there is still more I would like to see out of our team and things are coming around.
  

Innovation3 Day One

I've let the thoughts simmer all night on Innovation3. With a conference like this so much is thrown at you so fast. I'm going to change up my format here a little. I'm going to leave some of my thoughts and also some thoughts from other attendees.

Here are some thoughts from Day One:

• Loved the format of the main session. Each speaker had 20 minutes and when their clock ended they were done.
• So much information happened so fast. I was twittering as much as possible as fast as possible. Sometimes I would get half way through typing and a new thought would come out.
• It was pretty much been a twitter-fest. The awesome thing is that I felt I knew so many people. You walk in and already have people who you have talked to or follow what you write.
• Mad because I forgot my camera...I never forget it. Thankfully DJ Chuang loaned me one...you're da man DJ.
• Two videos I already have up from #I3 are here and here.
  
• First main session really made me think. I love the thought of failing forward.
• Most overheard comment in lobby, "I follow you on twitter."
• Two favorite speakers of the day were John Jenkins and Stacy Spencer.
• Funny - Stacy Spencer saying they were the hoochie momma church.
• Great to meet Troy Gramling of Flamingo...been following them for a long time.
• Hung with my new buddy Josh Chapman for most of the day.
• Loved that they streamed it live even though we came. Still glad I was there but my wife got to watch a whole lot.
  
• This day really taught me that we should push forward...not fearing but embracing failure.
• Innovation is awesome but no matter what it still should all be about the Kingdom.
• This world has and is constantly changing and the church is not keeping up.
• It starts with us as leaders.
• My nagging thought was that many pastors may be going back home to a bunch of people who really don't want change.
  

Here are some thoughts from others that attended:

1. brettaljets I felt as though I was drinking from a firehose @ #I3. The caliber of speakers & relevance unlike anything I've experienced.
2. dawnnicole #i3 Day 1 = Fast-paced/energizing, filled w/great conversatns & teaching. Bummed I never met @lindastanley
3. cameyg Spirit was alive & visual just as much where I was at than if I had been sitting beside you... or across the room! #i3
4. Rick_Smith that u are just as good looking in person as you are in your twitter picture! #i3

Twitter Response: Leadership Tip

Read the twitter comments of my friends on Twitter who share with you one leadership tip/principal they would want you to know? Here were their responses

1. @Rick_Smith We are to led by example. Christ did this. We don't just tell people things, we model people things..(so to speak):
2. @LeadershipNow Think of leadership IN, not leadership OF. It's not position.
3. @maczter Never underestimate the value of these two little words: "Thank you."
4. @BJHewitt Where ever God calls you to serve, serve one another with a joyful heart even If it looks and feels uncomfortable.
5. @CPKIII To lead is to serve. To show you will do whatever to get the job done. Lead from the bowl of water kneeling at dirty feet
6. @Yochanan Lead by example and fiercely fight for your people.
7. @tonymccollum Move with the movers.
8. @CyndiAKADisneyq you can't lead where you are not willing to go yourself. Not to mention the fact t/you have to allow others to use their gifts
9. @VoteMikeJones "Innovation is being positive and solution oriented" got that from @randycoleman
10. @jimalexander leadership is serving those you lead while managing expectations-yours, your team's, your peers, and those who lead you.
11. @robbiespeaks Learn to recognize Momentum & how to ride it & make it stretch. If you don't know how to make ole' "MO" your friend you lose!
12. @comeandsee Knowing your peoples strengths and weaknesses, and how to use them correctly
13. @joshchapman you are most valuable to the team when you are working yourself out of a job
14. @Dougrea "If I have to do it for you - I don't need you"
15. @foecuspastor Balance is integral in leadership! Keep all things balanced (time, money, theology, family, personal time!) Learned from my Sr.
16. @jonferguson One word: Apprenticeships.
17. @garethgilpin "Leaders get what they inspect, not what they expect."
18. @BertDecker The effectiveness of a leader's communications determines the effectiveness of his organization.
19. @johncatkinson Never hire a smart elic campus pastor (Jason Curlee) that has three times your twitter followers and reminds you daily.
20. @johncatkinson You can teach a good leader almost anything, except character, that they better already have.
21. @nanpalmero practice what you preach and think before reacting.
22. @jasonarredondo u better be smoking what ur sellin
23. @louicanchola Know your VISION, speak your VISION, teach your VISION, live your VISION. Vision, vision, vision!
24. @garylamb You can never teach or cast vision to much
25. @ministrymonkey Always give people a second chance! Don't let their past determine their future! Love them as you serve them!
26. @NickHempsey don't be afraid to pass the torch or else you'll get burned out
27. @billshazzar a few more words than @jonferguson, but he's employing the principle: always leave them wanting more.

Innovation3 First Night

I'm going to be posting thoughts, notes and hopefully everything else from The Innovation3 Gathering.

First Night Thoughts:

• Pastor John, Dave Cothem and I made the trip up from Dallas today. We watched the temp drop all the way up from Corpus.
• We picked up Cathy Harwick in Belton and ate some good bar-b-que.
• This being the first night we had a blast with some of the staff from Bent Tree Bible Church where the conference is being held. The church was simply first class. I'm so depressed that I forgot my camera to catalog all of this.
  
• We got the back stage tour from Greg Atkinson who took us into the video control room where we met some very cool twitter-ers.
• Got to meet Camron Ware the genius behind www.visualworshiper.com who has some simply stunning stage designs using images with projectors. Check out the picture galleries on his blog.
• After the tour we went over to a Mexican restraraunt called Mena's and ate and hung out with some conference attendees and the guys from Bent Tree. If you ever eat there I would highly recommend the Chipotle Brisket Taco's.
  
• We had a lot of fun and spontaneously dubbed ourselves the "BackTweet Boys" for the first unofficial Tweet Up at the conference. Check out the pic.
• I'm Blue Steel the drummer of the band by the way.
• Looking forward to the first official Tweet Up with DJ Chuang tomorrow.
• Have to say though that I'm missing the wife and kiddo's.

Stay Tuned

I'll be blogging here and twittering from the Innovation3 Conference this week. Tuesday and Wednesday.

Silent Blogging

What I've been up to over the past few days that has kept me so silent on here:

• Meetings - Production Night, Children's Night, Shopping, well shopping is not really a meeting but just about every night this week we've been out doing something for the campus.
• First Impressions - We mailed out to two zip codes, well over 10,000 mailers this past week, so we have been working really hard to put some finishing touches to our lobby and lighting. We put out pictures, furniture, new sink/mirror in bathroom, rugs, and then reworking our lighting. It added a spark today.

That not only covered my evenings but most of Friday and Saturday. Cool Thing???? I love it! Just since December we have added so many touches to our campus. And we are also building some great relationships with some new people out there.

My Blog Content Sux

So....what question or topic do you most want to hear?????

Yeah, I said it sux...right now that is how I feel...I hate to tell you that because you already agree but just didn't want to say it. You have already been close to unsubscribing but your holding on. Waiting.

The time is now for me to kick it up. To start bringing the content.

Curious...What do you want to know? Are there any ministry questions? How we do stuff on our campus? Multi-Site? Youth Ministry? Leadership?

In our next Tokbox we are doing a q & a session, so why not do it here.

And sorry, I'm not going to get into some deep theological what does this scripture mean...for those that still follow you know that's not me.

I would like some ideas since I do write this partly for you.

So I ask one more time....what question or topic do you most want to hear?????

Multi-Site Church TokBox - Buy In

John Atkinson, our Bay Area Fellowship Multi-Site Pastor, and I will be hosting a Multi-Site Ministry Tokbox for churches and campus pastors on Wednesday, January 21st. Time will be 12 p.m Central time. That's 10am Pacific, 11am Mountain, and 1pm Eastern. Changing up the time a little so that eastern time zone is not always stuck doing it at lunch.

Our topic of discussion will be creating buy-in and commitment on the campus.

At or around that time go to >>>>> TokBox Live <<<<<< When participating please use headphones to minimize echo/feedback. And when not talking try and stay on mute.

Crazy Enough

Am I crazy enough to believe that:

• we'll have over 100 people at our prayer meeting Wednesday, Jan. 21st @ 6:30. That is more than half our Sunday attendance.
• we'll double in size over this next series. Am I that crazy? Buckle Up 5 Points
• marriages and relationships will be restored during this series.
• lives will be changed during this series.

Yeah...I'm crazy enough.

Church Leadership Podcasts

Are you the leader of a church or a leader in a church? Today I want to point you in the direction of some great resources. It is called Podcasting. If you don't know what a podcast is check out the wikipedia podcast entry.

To listen to these you need to download itunes which is a free program. Once downloaded and you are subscribed to them, itunes will gather them whenever a new one is posted.

Andy Stanley's Leadership Podcast - A relatively new podcast from Andy Stanley where he shares some of the best leadership topics designed to grow you.

Potential Podcast - Hosted by the guys and gals at Flamingo Road Church...this weekly podcast is a mixture of fun and content. Leading you through what Flamingo is learning this podcast is power packed with content.

Catalyst Podcast - Delivering some of the best interviews of church leaders, the catalyst podcast is sure to stretch your leadership as well as inspire you.

Church Leader Insights - Nelson Searcy brings some great content to pastors/church planters on many of the lessons learned in leading a church.