Here to Lead

Five things you need to know.

1.  Kicking off a new series called Make Your Mark this weekend.  Saturday at 6pm and Sunday at 10 and 11:30am.

2.  Baptism at the River this Sunday from 4-6pm at Riverside Park.  Bring food.  Carpool or take a shuttle from the House of Rock.

3.  One big service on August 15 at Cartersville High School as we celebrate our 4 year anniversary as a church.  10am.  Drop kids off at the House of Rock between 9:15 and 9:45.

4.  Group leader training August 17, 24 and 31 for all children, student and adult small group leaders or those interested in becoming group leaders.

5.  Leadership summit on August 22.  Ordaining several pastors, recognizing new members, celebrating communion and special guest J.R. Lee

A couple of days ago, I wrote something on twitter that went something like this.  “I’m over begging people to serve.  The church is important.  Jump in or get out the way.”  A few people asked what made me angry, so I thought I would clarify.  I’m not angry at all…just fired up about our mission and what is ahead.

When we were on staff advance (our entire staff spends a few days together in the summer planning the upcoming year), we talked through the volunteer leaders in each ministry.  We talked about what new people needed to get involved.  It was sad when we identified an amazing leader, gifted to serve, but we knew they wouldn’t get involved because they won’t commit to the church.  Keep in mind that it has nothing to do with them helping us, but everything to do with them making a difference for Christ.  I am fired up about the future of Oak Leaf Church.

I sometimes here statements like, “Jill would be amazing at this, but she’s really committed at the gym and doesn’t have time.”  Or maybe, “John is perfect, but he works so much and then he’s got dirt bikes.”  Please understand that I am not minimizing work or hobbies, but I am saying that we need to move the church ahead of our hobbies.  I’m saying that these things are sad excuses for a life not lived to advance the Gospel.  Church should not be the thing that we “fit in.” Church is not a side-project or a weekend time-filler; it’s God’s plan for spreading the Gospel.  If you’re a Christian, you have a duty and a privilege to get involved.  I’m not going to cajole you into volunteering, or coddle you when you get there.  I’m not the chief babysitter or hand-holder.  We are an army with a mission, and we’ve got a job to do that’s more important than mowing the grass or getting the kids to football camp.

I promise you that 500 years from now it’s not going to matter what kind of motorcycle you had or how much you could bench press or whether you grew beans in your garden.  It’s not going to mattter how much freebird you played on your guitar down at the local pub or how cool your new shoes are.  You don’t have to serve.  Just please leave the lame “too busy” excuses away.  Be honest and tell me that the other stuff is more important.

Today on the blog, I’m giving away one instant download of Docs and Forms 2.0.  This zip file contains about 75 different documents, created and used at Oak Leaf Church.  There are spreadsheets and forms in their original file formats, things like budgets, bylaws, employee evaluations, strategies, event planning, wedding policies, purchase orders, first time guest letters and a whole bunch of charts.

At the end of the day, I’m going to choose one commenter and send them an instant download link.  To enter to win, simply facebook or tweet something about Docs and Forms.  Use your own words, but please include this link: http://www.heretolead.com/?page_id=615 and the twitter name @heretolead.

After you tweet or facebook something, leave a comment on this post, making sure you include a link so I can verify.  I’ll randomly choose a comment and notify you.

Pretty simple.

Let’s say our church is going to plan a big event.  Something like a summer camp, an Egg Drop, or The Man Games.  We start with an idea, move through the decision making process, then work through the event planning sheet.  The result is an Event at a Glance document.  This one or two page document contains all the basic information about the event – information that is sent to everyone on staff and also to volunteers associated with the event.

Here’s the event at a glance for Action Week (our version of VBS) and here’s the one I put together for Nuts and Bolts.

By the way, the decision making process and the event planning sheet are included in Docs and Forms 2.0. Tomorrow, I’m going to give away a set of Docs and Forms, so be sure to check back.

If I were starting over, here’s the top ten things I would buy first.

1. Non-profit bulk mail permit.  Stop by your local post office and become friends with the person who does bulk mail.  If you’re sending out more than 200 pieces of mail, then a bulk mail permit will save you a bunch of money.  It also makes direct mail cheaper when you’re ready for that.  I would also recommend getting a box at the UPS Store or someplace similar since there will always be someone there to sign for shipments.  Never use your home address as your church address.
2. Pop up banner stands (like these) These are probably the most versatile things we’ve used in the last three years and we’ve gotten our money’s worth out of them.  We can change out the banners for about $30 because we have a great printer.  Look for for them on clearance and buy more than you think you need.
3. Docs and Forms. Yea, it’s a little self-serving, but I honestly can’t think of a better purchase early on.  I would have paid $1,000 for everything that’s included. Budgets, systems, strategies, service planning documents, hiring checklists, evaluation forms, and more.
4. Serve the Community Trailer.  We’re doing this right now, but I wish we had done it sooner.  Get a trailer and fill it with a grill, a bounce house, a video game cart, helium balloons, etc.  Let your people check it out like a library book and show up all over town.  A few people can invite a bunch of people to church with a tool like this.
5. Sound and Lights.  I would recommend finding an expert friend or consultant to tell you what you need…not a company who sells equipment as a business.  I would also look for used equipment, perhaps from a band who isn’t traveling anymore or a church who has moved into a new facility.  Lastly, be careful not to buy this stuff too soon, since your meeting location will dictate your needs.  Save your money and be ready to pull the trigger when the right package becomes available.
6. Fellowship One or The City.  I would highly, highly, highly recommend that you choose a database provider and start using it before you have long lists of people.  The two I’ve recommended here are great, but there are others as well.
7. A Uhaul truck is better than a bunch of small trailers.  You can find great deals on used ones, especially if you shop around and can be patient.  We bought a 26′ foot truck for less than $5,000.
8. Cases from Portable Church.  We bought ours second-hand from a church that had moved into a new facility.  Portable Church can outfit your entire operation, but in my opinion, their cases are the best.  In our portable locations, we used one for each kids environment and another couple for the lobby.  As is the case with most stuff, spend a little more money on stuff that will last.
9. Adobe Creative Suite.  If you’re halfway experienced with computers, you should invest in this software package.  Even if you outsource, somebody on your team will want to change and tweak files and designs.  There are Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator tutorials on the web, and with a little practice, you can become half-way decent. You’ll save a lot of money because you won’t have to hire a designer for everything.  And you wont annoy your graphic design friends with a constant stream of favors.  Search for educational and non-profit pricing.
10. Action Method, Evernote Premium, Wufoo, and Constant Contact or Mail Chimp.  These web tools will help your communication and organization.  They are very cost effective, and like a database program, you should start using them when you are small.  I also recommend dropbox.

There are a lot of other things I could add to this list, and feel free to add your suggestions.  In the end, stuff doesn’t make you successful.  You can have slick signs and a smooth workflow, but if you’re missing the Spirit of God, then you’ll fall way short.  Never let what you have or don’t have interfere with what God wants to do.

Our staff just returned from a three day planning and strategy retreat – an event we do every summer called Staff Advance.  We laid out our focus for the coming school year and every ministry made a presentation to the rest of the team.  We walked through the calendar as well.  Here’s five things that are coming this year.

1.  The Man Games is going to be a huge event for men.  We’re planning for 500 men – competing in ten manly events like wing eating, bench pressing, cage fighting (yes, really), darts, and more.  The grand prize event comes with a $1000 cash prize.  The date is October 24 and registration will begin about a month before that.  The Man Games joins The Egg Drop and Action Week as our three giant events designed to invite the community to church.

2.  Christmas Eve Eve will return on December 23.  This community Christmas service is packed with music and fun, and there will be a Christmas message as well.  We’ve got a great location for this event.

3.  We are focusing on groups – in kids, student and adult areas.  Groups are going to function like little churches, led by leaders who act like little pastors.  This is a huge initiative – one that will help our church grow and be more healthy.  If you’re interested in being trained as a leader, let me know.  We have training coming up on Tuesday nights in August.

4.  Our student ministry has planned some great events:  The Longest Day this fall, a trip over Christmas break, a spring break mission trip, a spring weekend event with another local church and a summer camp.  All of these events will support Fuel, the weekly student service that will happen on Wednesday nights at the House of Rock.  More of this will be unveiled to parents on September 12, at an OPEN HOUSE.

5.  Family ministry is organizing around small groups.  Parents and children will meet their small group leader at an OPEN HOUSE on September 12.  At that event, you’ll also hear about the plans and events for the coming year.  I’m really excited about what our family ministry team is planning.

What if…

Instead of organizing large-scale, expensive mission trips, every small group prayed, planned and went on their own mission trip together?

our next campus was in the heart of Atlanta? Or even another city?

leaders in our church viewed themselves as “little pastors,” spiritually shepherding the people under their care?

we had a chilled-out, more acoustic, more hymn-driven worship service?

we took Nuts and Bolts on the road and took ten people to help out a group of churches in another city?

Christians actually read the Bible and did what it said?

we all sacrificially gave to support the ministry of the church and starting new churches?

we had fifty campuses or churches in the fifty largest cities in the United States?

every year, three or four families from Oak Leaf Church, moved to a major city to start a new church?

three or four people from our church showed up at every community event to serve and invite?

Five years ago, I put together a prospectus for Oak Leaf Church (PDF of original document) – a document that described the kind of church we were starting – a sort of spiritual business plan.  This document helped answer the questions of people praying about jumping in or churches thinking about financially supporting us.  A few things have changed, but our core mission has remained the same.

With new staff, new people, and new volunteers, we thought it was a good thing to create a similar document to just let everyone know who we are, what we’re doing, how we do it and where we’re going. The result was a four-page document called “Oak Leaf Church at a Glance.”  It’s a quick overview of our whole church.

If you’re interested, you can download a PDF of Oak Leaf Church at a Glance.

A few months ago, I taught about the importance of church and the value of church membership. If you missed that sermon, you can watch it right here. In that message, I talked about the way we would do membership in our church, built on the belief that the local church is more important than may of us may realize.

In Matthew 16, Jesus told Peter that He would build His church. Jesus didn’t say he would build a non-profit organization, or a worship band, or a publishing company, or a social ministry…He set out to build the church. And in the book of Acts, we watch that happen. Jesus so closely identified with the church that when Saul was persecuting Christians, Jesus said said he was persecuting Him. The book of Ephesians describes Jesus as the head of the church as us as the members of the body.

In the Old Testament, God’s glory was displayed through the Tabernacle and later the temple. In the New Testament, it was displayed through the person and work of Jesus Christ. The book of Ephesians tells us that God’s glory is now on display in the local church!

In other words, church is important. Church participation is important. The church living and being on mission is important. And church membership is important.

I know that church membership can be confusing, but at it’s core, it’s about identifying with God’s people and being a visible part of God’s mission. That’s why membership is important at Oak Leaf Church.

If you have previously attended a partnership event but haven’t gone through the new membership process, I want to invite you to do that. You can start the entire process online. There are a series of videos and a few things to read, as well as a membership application. After you fill that out, one of our pastors will get in tough with you. The final step is a covenant, which formalizes what already should be happening.

If you’ve got any questions, leave me a comment or get it touch with Jody. We are excited and honored to be on mission for God in Cartersville and Canton, and we believe that God has a unique and divine purpose for our church.

I wanted to introduce you to three tools that have changed the way I work.  I highly recommend that you check them out.

1.  Action Method.  This is a little more than a task-management system – it’s a way to keep meetings action oriented and projects moving forward.  The thing I love about Action Method (and the reason I switched from Things and got Tracy to switch from lists on paper) is that it’s collaborative.  I can delegate a task to my assistant or a staff member (and vice versa).  I can see that they have accepted it and am notified when it’s completed.  We can share notes and discussions and files related to the project as well.  In addition to a very nice website, they have an AIR application and a fantastic iPhone app and all action steps are automatically synced.  There are also paper products, including the Action Journal, which is a Moleskin plus a task manager.  Finally, you should know that they offer a great non-profit discount.

2.  Dropbox. Dropbox is basically a hard drive on the web, a cloud where you can store files.  A 2GB account is absolutely free, and if you use this link, both you and I will get a little extra space for free.  I can easily share my sermons, shared church documents and official graphics with everyone on staff – it’s like an easy to use/free network.   I moved every one of my documents to Dropbox, which means they are synced with my computer, any computer, my iPhone and my iPad at all times.  You can drop pictures in an image folder to create an instant gallery (like this), and drop files in the public folder and send out a download link – that works much better than trying to attach large files.

3.  Evernote.  This is a free tool that I use to capture ideas and take notes.  With a keyboard shortcut, I drop in articles and blog posts, sermon notes, images, and pictures.  I’ve got a notebook for design ideas, one for meeting recaps, and one for sermon ideas, and it’s completely searchable.  One of the coolest things about Evernote is that the search feature recognizes text inside of images.  This means I can take a picture of a brainstorming session and Evernote will find a word from the whiteboard image.   Again, there’s a web app, an application, and an iPhone/iPad app that keeps notes and ideas synced all of the time.