Your Reach & Influence

July 7, 2011 //
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Just discovered Klout a new online tool that measures your level of influence & reach in social media. (Thanks Jeana Lawrence) The Klout Score is the measurement of your overall online influence. The scores range from 1 to 100 with higher scores representing a wider and stronger sphere of influence. Klout uses over 35 variables on Facebook and Twitter to measure True Reach, Amplification Probability, and Network Score.

Currently in use for Twitter and Facebook. Currently the tool measures in three main areas: True Reach, Amplification Probability & Network Influence. So, currently I have 1,995 followers on Twitter and Klout measures about 773 people are truly within my reach. Crazy cool to have data on how effective our social media is. Find out where you are visit Klout.

Influential Leaders on Twitter / Org Website

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Categories just cool stuff, technology twist

The Relationship Zone

June 29, 2011 //
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There are so many things I have learned during my fourteen years of marriage and maybe I can take some time to list here, but one of the first things I learned during a very trying time was how we live in Relationship Zones.

I remember thinking yep, right now we are between conflict and disengaged and moving further out. This chart opened my eyes and a friend took some time to explain how relationships are like bank accounts, you are either making deposits or withdrawals – and eventually you will reap the rewards of a surplus or feel the pain of an overdrawn & negative account.

Right now I can honestly say we are right in the middle of the Intimacy zone, it’s not always been this way but we have both worked towards the goal of doing whatever it took to keep our marriage alive. The main thing we did was to make time for each other. We started focusing on each others positives. We  also committed to getting back to church regularly and focused on our priorities – God, each other, kids then everything else. Sounds easy but as you know, it’s not. But it’s worth it. It’s worth not being like our parents: living disengaged, disconnected and disinterested or worse. The tough part about trying to live in intimacy is you have to work through conflict, if you simply sweep it under the rug you will drift. Guaranteed.

So where are you? Are you willing do the work it takes for real intimacy? Or will you just drift.  

Recommended Books
Five Love Languages
His Needs Her Needs
Love & Respect

Download Chart:
Download Relationship Zone PDF

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Categories getting here, The Lundstroms

Love/Hate The Process

June 28, 2011 //
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Today marks a first. I registered online at Apple.com for the genius bar repair appointment. Seriously. The funny thing is I use to be one of “those people” who protested this process. I still kind of wish I could just walk on in and say “help please”, drop off my broken device and go run some other errands until I received a text or email that everything was all better.

So what processes do you wish you could ditch or are you at the point of adding new ones? If the end game is providing a better service then… fine, I’ll think about conforming.

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Categories getting here, just cool stuff

Bay Area Fellowship Multisite Campuses

May 21, 2011 //
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Had a great couple of days in Corpus Christi, Texas hanging out with the Bay Area Fellowship Multisite Campus team and wanted to post some of the photos. We toured five out of their eight campuses and all were uniquely setup while offering a consistent BAF experience. Thanks again to John Atkinson, Brandon Cunningham and Joey Davila for being excellent hosts. These guys took a day and a half out of their schedules to give us an excellent multisite experience! Amazing. Check it out via Flickr below.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gfcinnovation/

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Categories Church, Design, Multisite

Stairway to Heaven

May 2, 2011 //
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Join us online or on your mobile for a LIVE stream of “Stairway to Heaven” and see the Grace Fellowship team rock Led’s Zeppelin’s original. Also, for everyone waiting for the LIVE video for iPhone & iPad. It’s finally here! To watch with us visit http://live.gfcfamily.com at 12noon cst today (May 2, 2011) from iPhone, iPad. Oh and bring a friend, this is going to be incredible.

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Categories just cool stuff, technology twist

Stairway to Heaven – LIVE Tomorrow!

May 1, 2011 //
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Pumped about our new series, “So You’re Dead… Now What?” What will happen to you the second after you die? Tomorrow’s message is going to be pretty cool, it’s titled “Stairway to Heaven” — Join us tomorrow and judge for yourself if the band lives up to Led Zepplin’s original! See you there http://live.gfcfamily.com 9:30am & 11:00am cst.

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Categories Church, just cool stuff

Design Snapshot

April 29, 2011 //
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What’s on your desktop? Post Link.


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Categories Church, Church Marketing, Design, just cool stuff

New Mobile App Launch

April 24, 2011 //
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Just released a brand new GFC App today to the Android Market. It’s in beta of course so if you find any bugs or weird happenings – leave feedback here on the blog. Also, happy to say that AppMakr.com is meeting our need for mobile content pretty well. It’s great to have a Free option to create and publish mobile apps to test the water and see where and how it would be wise to invest further. I am pretty happy with the solutions for both iPhone and Android. The Android functionality is limited to RSS feeds mostly but allows users to access our streaming media, flickr, blog posts and some social media.

By the way, publishing an Android App is about 1000 times simpler than the iPhone app. Excellent work Google for keeping things simple.

So what’s the cost so far, about 40 hours of my time, $99 Apple Developer Registration fee & $0 zero for Android. Working on publishing the Microsoft Windows version at the moment, invested another $99 App Hub registration fee but should be good to go after another several rounds of inefficient communication with Microsoft =) (Sorry, but if you only knew.)
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Categories Church, Church Marketing, getting here, technology twist

Design Snapshot

March 29, 2011 //
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School Yearbook Cover, Easter Concept, Student Summer Camp

What’s on your desktop? Post a Link

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Categories Church, Church Marketing, just cool stuff

Ideas That Take Flight

March 2, 2011 //
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Today, we had a staff survivor challenge… with paper airplanes. To win the challenge you would have to build an airplane out of one – 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper and have the longest flight without touching the wall, launch platform or other stationary object — the stopwatch will start once the plane leaves your hand and stops once plane hits the floor. Very happy to report that I brought home the gold with the longest inflight with 3.6 seconds. I chose The Dart concept just in case you were wondering.

Reminded me when I was a kid — paper airplanes, pencil wars and drawing battle vehicles to compete the next day in class. What a blast. Kind of like a 1980′s kids version of the X-Prize. Funny how even at a young age I geeked over prototyping and sketching ideas. It’s really the first step to bringing an idea to reality. Get it on paper or build it out of anything. One of my favorite books talks about this, Ten Faces of Innovation by Tom Kelley, from the CEO of IDEO.

Some of the drawings I can remember were a mountain-based Airplane Landing Track or my favorite Vehicle Cameraflage, a high-tech invisibility cloak – which I would like to claim publicly was stolen for Die Another Day, 2002 James Bond movie.

It’s time to invent cool stuff. So here’s the deal — I’m challenging myself to sketch ideas again for the next 30 days and I will definitely post some of the concepts here for fun. Even better. I am giving myself one year to actually make one of those ideas a reality. Let the fun begin.

What was one of your favorite things to do as a kid? Are you still doing it? Post Reply.


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Categories getting here, just cool stuff, technology twist, The Lundstroms

Fuel for Fire

February 18, 2011 //
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If you or someone you know is struggling to drum up business, probably the last thing they need is a new logo, website or a costly marketing effort. I have seen too many small businesses and even larger organizations invest a good chunk of change into their image only to end up at the same place they started — struggling.

Spending any amount of time or money for your appearance will do nothing if your product or service is not offering value. It’s like wanting to tap into the trading and marketing industry so you spend $1,200 on a suit and another $600 on a briefcase and stand on Wall Street and hope you bump into a trading executive that will give you a foot in the door. Doesn’t make sense, does it? Sure, you may look professional but more than likely you are going to just look like your someone standing around in an expensive suit doing nothing.

This is fresh on my mind because I recently developed an identity package and website for a home builder that is having trouble finding new business. Never-mind the residential housing market is in the toilet and most people already know a homebuilder they like and trust. They have been in the area for more than 25 years and have no significant stream of business, no referrals. Absolutely no word of mouth. Odd right? Something isn’t adding up. Either they are not offering a product that people want or their processes are just too complex or painful to hold interest. Want to know how to kill your business? Be complicated, be painful and don’t worry about finding that one thing that people are interested in.

Save your money for fueling momentum instead of trying to create a spark.  You will know when your product or service is solid — you won’t be asking for help to drum up business, you will be asking for help in improving it or fueling it. Also, with the money that you saved, buy the book Rework by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson. It will probably save you thousands.

Know anyone who had to learn this lesson the hard way or is about to? Feedback



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Categories getting here, just cool stuff, Uncategorized

A Revealing Question

February 7, 2011 //
1

Ok, so you’re standing side-stage just behind the curtain at the most attended leadership conference in 2011. You are speaking to the most driven, innovative and talented leaders on the planet. What will you tell them? How will you let them into your world, inspire and challenge them?

For me I love to hear people’s heart, their struggle, their journey.  I love to hear insights on new ventures and the challenges they have encountered along the way. But the truth is all those things just give credibility and set the stage.

I attended an Innovation Technology round table with the LifeChurch.tv team a year or so ago and also spent some time with Bobby Gruenwald and Terry Storch and left that day with this one question “What are you doing today? Not what did you do last month or last year, but what are you doing today?” That question was stuck on replay for hours and even days. I remember so clearly reading this very same idea in Dell’s mission and vision model — “Keep the celebration short so you can get back to Innovating.” more or less. Not sure how they measure up today but it’s still a very clear idea.

Our team decided to answer this question and started developing a prototype of church online and live streaming for our church. Three months later we were live streaming and answering questions live from stage to anyone all over the U.S. who was attending online as well as in-person (via Twitter using ParaTweet). That next month we were the front page story in the Houston Chronicle “Praise for Technology“. It was wild to say the least. How many conferences and talks will you attend before you actually decide to start making an impact?

Revealing Questions

  • What are you doing today that is making an impact?
  • What are your strengths & are you using them?
  • Do you have people in your life that challenge you to be your best?

Ok, so if the first question is not tough enough, you may find the second question a bit tougher. What are your strengths? Do you know them or are you guessing? This past year I took Strengths Finder 2.0 and the final report nailed me down as Learner, Strategic & Achiever among others. Very revealing and accurate. If you have not taken it and have not taken your team through it I highly recommend it.

But before you even do that. Take some time and inventory what you and your team have done in the past 3-6 months. Are you innovating or maintaining. Don’t get stagnant. Don’t be afraid to reveal what is truly happening in your role, team and organization.

What revealing questions have impacted you? Post here, I would love to check them out.

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Categories Church, Church Marketing, getting here, just cool stuff, Missional Church

What do you communicate?

January 27, 2011 //
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Just a little fun at Wordle a visual word art tool that analyzes your rss feed, blog or website.

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Categories getting here, just cool stuff

Raising The Bar

January 24, 2011 //
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Thinking about Tony Morgan & Tim Stevens and the impact and influence both of these guys have on the church and where it is going. Got to meet Tony today at Grace Fellowship. He is here for a couple of days to review and give us feedback. Love what he is doing and how God is using him. He is obviously capturing the attention of leaders around the nation. Looking forward to our staff meeting tomorrow and what he has to say about this weekend and his perception of GFCFamily.

Just browsed Tim’s tweets and blog and then a GCC series promo and it felt like I read over and over what has been on my heart for some time. This is going to look obvious but “What if the church looked more like Jesus?” What if we were an army for His purpose and got off the Christianese buffet and actually started to love and care for the people who need it most? So, what would the church look like if it decided to look more like Jesus? If you have been following @TimAStevens Twitter or blog feed lately or have checked out the GCCWired website you will see they are moving closer to purpose and challenge that Jesus left for his followers. This has been on my mind more and more lately. “Churches are starting to feel like cruise ships instead of battleships.” This statement has stuck with me since Tierce Green said it just a few years ago.

Tim and GCC leadership spent some time writing a vision statement for the next five years of the church. Now this sounds like the church that Jesus told his disciples to go and lead.

“The differences at Granger Community Church in the next five years will be greater than the changes of the past twenty-five combined. GCC is not just an institution or location; we are a movement of people who understand that we are Jesus’ plan to transform and heal communities. We accept the challenge and we are raising the bar.“

God has called them to raise the bar to do something with the thousands of people who have gathered together in Jesus name. They are fired up — really really cool to read.

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Categories Church, Church Marketing, getting here, just cool stuff, Missional Church

No Pets Culture at The Office

January 21, 2011 //
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Our staff is going through Cracking Your Churches Culture Code by Samuel Chand this month and BJ had us commit to a NO PETS policy on our staff.

No Problems
There are no more problems in our organization. Only challenges or opportunities. Problems are negativity and the solution is usually to get rid of them. Instead take some time to learn from whatever is going on and improve. Offer solutions and ideas instead of marinating on the issue. I talked with our Innovation Team about this constantly, that we are problem-solvers, we provide solutions — and we were not going to settle on complaints and issues unless someone wanted to figure out how to address it, creatively and constructively.

No Excuses
Excuses happen when things are not going so well. It’s a defense mechanism. How many organizations do you know that give an excuse for how and why they do what they do? Take Responsibility. Address the hard truth about performance and effectiveness. If one approach is not working then try a different approach. I read once how Michael Dell empowers his employees to take risks and if the venture fails or not working out as expected the leader had to know when to pull the plug. That’s it. We are all going to mess up, our ideas do not always work — we’re human. Just don’t expect to clean a mess up by pouring more stuff on top of it or even worse make excuses for why it is not effective.

No “They”
I hear this at least once a week. They said… Usually they is one person who decides that they are representing a whole group of people. How many times are we guilty of building a case and adding a few extra people? Stop giving power to they. If you have something to say, say it directly to the person who can do something about it. Matthew 18:15 says something about that.

No Secrets
We recently listened to The Speed of Trust by Stephen Covey. Every team and organization must operate in a culture of trust. Without it your cost will go up and speed will go down. Trust is simply “Character + Competence”. To have trust you must be able to communicate directly with one another. To kill trust, do just the opposite: don’t communicate directly others, just complain or gossip to everyone else — or keep “secrets”. Secrets are the not-so-silent trust killer. If you are going to solve problems or opportunities together you have to be willing to communicate openly and honestly.

Sorry, PET lovers. There not allowed here anymore.

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Categories Church, getting here, just cool stuff

Simply Influential in 2010

December 31, 2010 //
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When designing, developing, drafting a marketing plan or trying to problem solve in general I like to boil things down to the basics and use what is necessary and/or effective. Here is a quick list of the organizations and sites that I have peeked at most this year. Some are simple and some complex. Each of these sites have a different purpose and focus but all do a good job of carving out their own path.

BTW, All of these organizations have something in common — their culture, brand and purpose is clear and well executed. Online and Off.

Ready to rock out a new solution for my church. It’s clean and simple for sure but it needs to integrate better with what’s happening online. We should integrate a GFC blog stream video & text, add a layer over Facebook (API) and even look for a more integrated media toolset to feed the rapidly growing demand for mobile devices. Also, while we are under the hood, ramp up analytics and CRM functionality to improve our connection/communication.

What sites inspired or influenced you this year? Or which did you use the most? Post a link/comment

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Categories Church, Church Marketing, just cool stuff

Simple Tool for Building iPhone Apps

December 13, 2010 //
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Build it today, test on your iPhone today. (Release to app store 10 Days)

So I have wanted to build an iPhone app for about a year now and received several cost estimates from excellent companies SubSplash, MobileRoadie and a few others. We will most likely move ahead and invest a bit in the next year for mobile media but before we totally took the plunge I wanted to test just how popular and useful an iPhone mobile app would be.

If you have been looking for a simple way to build and fairly simple way to publish an iPhone app and really don’t want to invest thousands just yet, I would recommend AppMakr. You can design and build straight forward apps pretty quick and if you know some HTML and CSS you can push the functionality a bit.

Building is the easy part actually, it’s connecting and publishing to the Apple iTunes App Store that’s a bit complex, at least at first. I’ll outline that process in a future post. If you don’t want to figure the second part out AppMakr will publish for you at $1,000.00 (each release).

Give it a try, I think you’ll dig it. Here is the direct link to the Grace Fellowship Church app. Released today. Looking forward to checking out the stats. Have fun.

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Categories Church, Church Marketing, just cool stuff, technology twist

Translating Creative

November 2, 2010 //
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Great meeting today prepping for 2010 Christmas at Grace Fellowship Church. Stan Durham our Pastor of Creative Innovation shared his initial script for Christmas with Myra and me. I am blown away by the creativity and how his mind works. It is rare that I am caught off guard by people and I have to say this time I truly was. I have always known that Stan was a creative person, I have seen his part in creating many services, skits, dramas, songs and messages. I have often referred to him as being “out there” x 10. He really is. For some reason this was different. He locked himself away for several days in a row to create a Christmas piece and wanted to walk-through it with Myra and me today so we could get a feel for art direction, parts, roles, etc. Lots of fun. Even at 2:00pm in the afternoon right when the lunch lull hits.

I am blown away how we are all truly made different, with unique talents, minds, ways of doing things and communication style. Dig it. Looking forward to see this in full detail. Good work Stan. Glad you stay true to who you were made to be.

What do you see when other people let you into their world? Do you really listen? Are you judging or are you patient or open enough to hear their story?

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Categories just cool stuff

He would be ten today. 10/19/10

October 20, 2010 //
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Myra posted this picture on her Facebook page today in memory of our son Colby. He would be ten years old today. We had three amazing years with him, his smile, his laugh, his hugs. It seems just like yesterday that he was right here with us. Myra always does a good job of honoring him and remembering him — it is honestly a bit too painful for me. I think I am the more emotional one of us. She posted his picture this morning and his smile and bright eyes took me back to that day on the lake. It was warm and early in the evening. We decided to hop in the boat and take it for a spin as we usually did. Blake was 6, Colby was 3 and Chloe was almost 2. We had so much fun with our three little kiddos. He was so full of life and love.

I love to see how the light hit his face, how it hit his bright orange and blue swim jacket. He loved to swim, he loved to jump into the water into my arms. He would jump out of the boat and from the side of the pool over and over and over… until my arms were so sore and worn out that I could not lift them up in the air any longer.

Colby I miss you bud. I look forward to seeing you again. I love you. Dad.

Categories getting here, The Lundstroms
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