Posting a quick screen grab of this year’s PZ Kids Camp promotion design concept! All fun. I use Adobe Illustrator CS4 for 3D lettering and custom vector objects. Adobe Photoshop for layout. ClubFlyers.com for printing.
2012 Brand & Identity – High Resolution JPG
Custom Die-Cut proof – front & back
One of the largest attended and most watched televised events is happening this weekend — the NFL Super Bowl! It’s game time and everyone is excited. It’s about a competition to find out who is the best of the best each year. Personally, I wish we were watching the Houston Texans against the Packers or Steeler’s but there’s always next year!!!
So here’s my question ‘What can the church learn from the superbowl?’ Besides the emphasis of excellence, atmosphere, energy and so on… the NFL has built up an incredible following and fan base around this one huge weekend — it’s goal and purpose to determine the best team of the season and put on an incredible show for all the fans.
So let me state the obvious – we ‘the Church’ are not here to compete with one another and certainly not here to put on a great show. We are the body of Christ and are called to work together to accomplish one goal to share the good news of Jesus Christ, reach people for him and equip them to reach others who do not yet know what He did for all of us. This was God’s original vision for us ‘The Church’.
Pro football players understand they are a part of something bigger than themselves. Let’s employ every method and means to give people a glimpse of the vision of the Church that Jesus talked about when He was with us on this earth — an incredible team of people who love God, love each other and love life.
I have spent the day checking out the latest websites and organizations offering resources and information for ministry outreach, growth and leadership. There are a ton of mediocre resources out there but also some excellent tools and channels. It’s just getting harder to find the good stuff.
One of the organizations I follow is LifeChurch.tv. I visited their online resource site today Open.LifeChurch.tv and clicked the right arrow a couple of times to see “Learning Sessions” or webinars with the team to learn best practices, do’s, don’ts and to catch up on the latest resources they are making available (Open to everyone interested for FREE). These guys get it and have for some time now. Not just because they are open and available to all churches but because there is a common thread in everything they do. Open shows up in how they connect creative resources, developers, pastors, teachers and leaders at all levels of ministry and market to build the best tools and resources.
Open is a choice and at some point LifeChurch.tv chose to not keep their learnings and creative resources to themselves and the best part is they make their resources available to the public for free. This is not “new” news I know, it’s been going on for a while, but it’s obvious they are committed to the vision, they are committed to helping other churches have the greatest impact possible and they are committed to constant learning.
I want to challenge you to define where your organization is today. Are you Closed or Open. In creating and sharing new ideas, learnings and resources. It’s worth it. I bet you have some extremely valuable resources and contributors with incredible experience and ideas. I challenge you to redefine your goals and vision this year to include a focused effort towards Innovation and connecting with other like-minded organizations to achieve something greater than yourself.
Are you willing to be Open?
Shake off the funk and let loose who you were made to be and what you were made to do. It’s no one else’s responsibility, it’s not their decision, it’s yours. Now don’t go spewing off suppressed grievances either in your next team meeting and certainly don’t walk out on your responsibilities and commitments (not wise). If you find yourself caught in indecision, paralysis or even hopelessness — take one step forward and get some wise counsel. Find other people headed in the right direction — talk with someone who knows something about you and can help you clarify what is going on in your heart.
You know what I am talking about — you might even know what your next step is. Or maybe you don’t and that’s ok — but get busy doing something that will get you closer to where you know you are supposed to be.
If you need someone to slap you upside the head or even give you a digital high-five or hug or something, let me know. I can probably manage it. That’s it. Let me know how it goes.
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.
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.
Just a little fun at Wordle a visual word art tool that analyzes your rss feed, blog or website.
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.
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
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.
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?
It is crank week at Grace Fellowship Church as we get ready to launch the all new Live streaming of the services! Check it out September 19 at 9:30 & 11:00am. We tested behind the scenes this weekend and the quality looks good so far. The second DSL line is scheduled to be installed this week in order to help with load balance and maximizing bandwidth. We plan on using a simple custom css/php template to run it with chat, live prayer, social media integration and more. The best thing is letting friends, family and new viewers see what Grace Fellowship is all about. It’s a great way to check out the church and see if it is worth visiting but also a great tool for getting the message out across the states and globally. Stay tuned!
Also, our temporary page and recent announcement seems to be drawing attention from many sides. Love seeing the different perspectives in the area.
It has now been a month since I have relocated to Paradise, Texas. For the first time in four weeks I have been able to spend more than three days in a row with my beautiful wife and two amazing kiddos! I thought it would be tough but tolerable to be here without them waiting for school to end and for the house to sell. It’s been tougher than I could have imagined. The good news is we are moving our essentials up this weekend!
Imagine 81 acres in the country with a stocked fishing pond, a metal barn that has been converted into a house and wide open space to roam. There is also a creek that cuts through the rock & hills lined with huge trees! Every bit of the area was created to photograph. Beautiful wild Texas flowers, tall grass perfect for horses, cattle and a spectacular sunset every night! God knows what we desire and in time He speaks.
This was a very tough transition for us relationally – we are starting over 100% in every way. For me things went quiet almost over night. Timing is never what we expect but each step has been one of faith – and believe me mountains have moved. For Myra she is leaving so many great friends and memories. But somehow it seems like God is underlining that He created us to do life together. He has a purpose for us that we do not yet fully see or even understand and that He desires our full attention.
Funny – how just two years ago I sat in my car in a shopping mall parking lot reading over with the faith of a mustard seed we could move mountains. I literally began to pray for mountains to move, for anything to move – for one particular brick on a wall to just move an inch! I trust God, I have faith that He loves us and would do anything for us – He truly does want to give us our heart’s desire – it’s just not the way we ask or expect sometimes. Honestly, I began to pray that He would give us Colby back – that losing him had caused so much pain – left wounds that we could not repair. Just as in 2 Kings – I expected for God to raise him and give him back to us. I truly believe God could do that and I wanted to see it happen. That we did not deserve to lose our son and that Colby did not deserve to go at the age of three – especially to Cancer.
For the next two years – I prayed, pushed, ran out of patience and let myself burn out. I was insistent on my timing for everything; our finances, my marriage, for leaders to lead & love, for negative or blinded people to find Jesus again – to forgive. I had faith that a mountain would move but I was more focused on my wants rather than His will. Even though I was not asking for anything out of the norm – I was unknowingly expecting it to happen now. I was fighting God. Again. I kept it up until I exhausted everything in me.
When we tell God that we are in control we are taking the first steps to totally messing up. I promise. We can move mountains without God – it’s called dynamite – it ugly and destructive. It’s impatience, selfishness and hurtful. Blasting your way through a mountain to get your way is not His plan.
When questioning His plan and thinking about heading out with our own He allowed us to go through some of the toughest yet most clarifying trials in our life. He hammered us with trials and storms and each brought a clear choice. Each one with very clear consequences. It was then I heard clearly “it’s your will or Mine”. In his grace, He allowed us to see that he was in control, that we have no clue what’s best for us. He knows exactly who we are and how He wants to use us. We had to choose. Especially since we claim to believe that Jesus died for us – and that we are to spread His story to the world, but we could not be in His will without choosing Him every-time – not just when we feel like it. Every time.
Mountains have moved. Our hearts have moved. Our vision, passion and love have moved. Stone by stone I have seen the mountain move. I am grateful to have chosen Him every step of the way.
God thank you for who you are – we truly do get to experience Paradise with you, here on this earth if we simply seek and trust you. Thank you for calling us to a place where relationships are first – with You & with others. Thank you that we are on our way to being totally who you created us to be. Thank you for using us.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and strength and love your neighbor as you love yourself. Who are your neighbors – do you love them? If questionable maybe go back and read the first part – “LOVE the LORD your GOD” – with everything you are. Do you love you? Who God created you to be? On a scale of 0 to 10 how much do you really love who you are and the life you have right now? Do you have a clear understanding what you are to do today? Are you right where you are supposed to be – or is it a place that would rank high “In Your Comfort Zone”? Have you stepped out to risk in FAITH?
What are you doing TODAY that takes a large amount of FAITH? Are you still MOVABLE? Would you step out and risk if He asked you to?
If you really want to know where God wants you – I challenge you to journal over the next 30 days – read proverbs and get on your knees each morning and thank God for what he has done in your life then ask him to reveal his plan for you. He made you – YES he has a plan for you. Seriously, just ask. Or if I have totally confused you with this random blog post – feel free to drop me a question. I know any step of FAITH is the best step you will ever take – you will never regret it. Seek Him and you will find Him and you will find you as well.
Download “Movable” art and more for FREE at http://www.creativemyk.com
Resurrection by Rob Bell http://vimeo.com/10639312 // thx @johnotjen
My sister and her family are currently in New Zealand working to connect with the local church in Queenstown and surrounding area. My brother in law is suffering from major lower back pain and sounds like the doctors are saying he has a bulging disc. Lay-mans terms, lots of pain. Last night around 8:30pm an ambulance transported him to the nearest hospital with MRI scan capabilities so they could get an updated look at how bad his back is. Blows my mind what we take for granted here in the states. Quick info-graphic showing the trek. Took 3 hours to get there.
Google Map Link with more detail >>
Praying constantly for them. They are 100% supported by donations and are currently spending the last part of their savings on the medical expenses. You can learn more about The Crick Family at their blog. Thank you for joining us in praying for them and they definitely love reading and hearing your encouragement while they are on this journey. bit.ly/crickfamily
I will be more organized on my next post – just being a bit of a concerned brother at the moment.
1. Pray for the people in Haiti.
2. Pray for our pastor of disaster relief Jerry Davis and our team as they go into Haiti and direct our relief effort.
3. Give to the relief effort to provide water filtration systems and other needed relief supplies to the people of Haiti.
Celebrating the Life of Oral Roberts: The Man Who Obeyed God
January 24, 1918 – December 15, 2009
Join us online tomorrow for the live stream of Oral Roberts Memorial Services. http://www.orm.cc I am told there will be more than 200,000 people joining in to watch the online service. Amazing.
Here are some quotes from Oral Roberts from his site.
“Expect a miracle!”
“In the midst of the turmoil, the fear, the anxiety that’s in our nation and in our world, as I was walking and meditating, I heard the voice of God. I’ve heard that voice many times; it’s familiar to me, and there’s no way that I can fail to understand it’s His voice because I’m familiar with it.”
“God is a good God, and the devil is a bad devil.”
“Something GOOD is going to happen to you today!”
“God wants you well. God wants you prosperous. God wants you a whole person.”
“God came to take off you what the devil put on you,
To take out of you what the devil put in you,
To put back on you what the devil took off you,
And to put back in you what the devil took out.”“I respect doctors, and one reason is that they have grasped this eternal truth and are against sickness and for health. Consciously or unconsciously, they have a pretty good theology of healing. Sometimes I wish we Christians had such a good theology of healing. Then we might be less inclined to argue about whether it’s God’s will to heal or not.”
Wow, great article posted front page on the Sunday, October 11 Houston Chronicle Newspaper. “Praise for Technology: Tweeting during church services receives blessings from pastors.” Really excited that Pastor Kerry jumped in and is experimenting with new technologies and connecting with the congregation. I am still amazed and how church is viewed and how this sort of thing might create controversy in the public. Check out the comments and the rest of the article here: http://www.chron.com/disp/discuss.mpl/metropolitan/6662287.html
Seems to be a bit of a controversy Tweeting in church. What do you think? Cast YOUR VOTE. Also, fun note: just got off the phone with my other half and she said this is the main article on the front page of the printed edition!! Amazing. Give a quick hello to Pastor Kerry via Twitter and maybe follow Woodlands Church if you want to track with us.
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