LeadingSmart

A Naked Pastor is Coming to Innovate

One of our guest speakers will be showing up next week as a Naked Pastor. It makes me really glad we've invited him to share about the innovative things they are doing as a church. Here's the deal straight from their website:

The lead pastor, Troy Gramling at Flamingo Road Church is getting naked! No...not that kind of naked, a new kind of naked. A nakedness that isn’t embarrassing; a nakedness that God would say is cool.

Troy will be on a 24-hour webcam for five weeks in four locations: house, car, hotel, and office. Every day, all day, we will see his life in a fishbowl - the good, the bad, the great, the ugly.

Why? Well, first, let us tell you why not--it is not too exalt him. Rather, to realize with him, that we are all fish in a bowl. The more transparent (naked) we get, the more God can do amazing things through us. We weren’t created to be people in hiding, concealment, or shame, we were created to be real, naked and unashamed.

This is cool...because the 24/7 webcam will be going during his trip to Granger at the Innovate conference. Another good reason to sign up (or just show up) for Innovate next week!

A Ruth's Chris Experience

Until last week, I had never eaten at a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. Partly because of proximity. Partly because I couldn't pronounce it. Partly because I'm very happy paying $3.42 for a meal at Taco Bell and don't have much need for a $50 steak.

But when I received an invitation for a free VIP meal at the grand opening of Ruth's Chris Steakhouse...I couldn't resist. Why am I a VIP? Not sure, but it could have something to do with the relationship we've nurtured with the developer who built the restaurant about 10' from our property line. We've worked together to connect our parking lots, add a sidewalk from the church to the restaurant, and share in the cost of landscaping the property line.

I took my gorgeous wife for a lovely evening. Here are some things that impressed me about our experience...

• We waited near the bar for our table along with 60 or 80 other people. I wondered how they would find us when our table was ready. No buzzer. No announcement of names. Somehow they remembered what we looked like and came straight to us when our table was ready. It made me wonder what notes they wrote about us? I'm guessing something like, "Handsome bald man with smokin' hot blonde."
• There were two people serving us all evening.
• Everyone one who spoke to us called us by name. Even the guy filling the water glasses.
• When we got up to use the restroom, upon returning our napkins were re-folded.
• I sat all evening facing the live lobster tank. At one point I could swear I heard some soft, high-pitched yelps, "Help me! Help me!"
• The tables started with white napkins, but at the table next to us they were traded for black napkins as soon as the guests were seated. We heard the guest ask about that, and she was told that it was to color coordinate with their clothes.
• They had TV screens above the urinals in the men's restroom, and a TV in the mirror in the women's restroom.
• The ribeye that I ordered, medium rare, was definitely some of the best I've ever had. Did it taste so good because of the experience, or was it really that good?

Our meal would have cost us $105 + tip -- and that was for a very basic meal with soft drinks. It's not something I'll do every month, but it would make a nice treat perhaps once a year.

Beyond the meal, the experience made me wonder what we can do in the church that hasn't been thought of yet that would "wow" our guests and help drive home  how much they matter to God.

Perhaps we give them a bulletin that is color coordinated with the clothes they wore that day :). Now that would be memorable!

Laser-Focused Missions

Rob Wegner and his team are doing some pretty innovative things with missions. One thing we do is target our resources. Without feeling guilty, we don't send money all over the world. That means we say "no" to alot of good causes and great people. Instead, we focus solely on area of one country -- Tamil Nadu in southern India.

And the results are astounding! Just got another report about Granger's ministry in India.

Since 2004...

• We have trained 107,238 Indian believers. 79,429 completed the core classes.
• 69,065 have made a decision to follow Christ.
• 34,541 have been baptized.
• 64 new churches have been planted.

Remember, this is in a country where it is offiically against the law to convert from Hinduism. And, your family will probably disown you if you do.

Update on Tithing

A few weeks ago I wrote here about our first-time-ever challenge to have everyone in the church tithe on one weekend. Our giving went up 123% that one weekend, more than 600 new families participated, and it helped us recover from a budget deficit.

I mentioned at that time that we wouldn't know if the weekend challenge was a "success" until we saw whether a number of people began to change their habits on tithe ongoing. I said that I was praying for a 25% increase in weekly offerings.

It's a little early to compare apples to apples since the weekends since have been during the traditionally-lower-attended summer months, but so far we are up 11.1% in weekly giving on average. If we just consider summer weekends comparing the six weekends prior to the challenge with the four weekends since, we are up 17.8% per week. And comparing to the same four weekends last year, we are up 25.7%.

I'm very happy with these numbers. I think they will only improve as people begin to return to church this fall.

Remember, it's not about money. It's about people's hearts. One of the only tangible pictures that Jesus left us to figure out the condition of someone's heart is to look at where they invest their money.

The Final Day for Early Birds

Pursuing the Passion

I've been tracking the guys doing the Pursue the Passion tour for awhile. These are some college grads who hop in a huge RV and travel the country interviewing peole who are passionate about their work.I love their outlook on life and desire to learn. They have this belief that people can find work that they can love! You might say, "Naive young college grads!" I say, "Way to go...keep up the pursuit of learning...what an awesome journey!"

They are swinging through South Bend next weekend. They will be experiencing Notre Dame's first home game, then attending Granger Community Church on Sunday and interviewing me following the service.

Enzyte Anyone?

Another video was submitted that was parodied off an infamous commercial. Yep, this guy definitely gets a free registration for Innovate 2007.

By the way, this was done by Pastor Dave Anderson from Decatur, Alabama. Last year they had 100 people attending their church and brought 15 of them to the conference. That's right, 15% of their church came to the conference!

It's not too late for you to submit your own commercial and win a free registration. More information here.

TV Interview Tonight

For all you local yocals, you might want to tune into WSBT tonight at 5:30pm. I was interviewed for a story on the local CBS affiliate. They are doing a story on how churches are using technology, and had questions about our MyOfficeSecrets.com campaign and the series that is going along with it.

UPDATE 8/24/07:

• Read the story here.
• Watch video of the story here.

Idle Time

One of my staff members had way too much time on her hands and sent me this. (Note to self: Give her more stuff to do)...

This Bird Will Soon Be Dead

The early bird dies on Monday. After that, the cost goes up for Innovate 2007.

I got some good news this week. We are exceeding all of our expectations and records for registrations for Innovate 2007. I couldn't be more jazzed!

Some interesting facts...

• We already have people signed up from 23 different states including places a long way from Granger like California, Arizona, Mississippi, New Jersey, Florida, New Mexico and North Carolina.
• The biggest group so far is coming from Snellville UMC in Georgia.
• There are also large groups from Stafford Crossing Community in Virginia, Relevant Church in Florida, Liquid Church in New Jersey and Charter Oak UMC in Pennsylvania.
• It's very possible this will be the first year ever we'll have over 1,000 leaders in attendance!

It's not too late to get in on the fun. The Early Bird rate expires this Monday, August 27th. So if you are a penny pincher like me, register in the next few days to save some cash.