A New Partnership with RSI

I mentioned here a few weeks ago that I was excited about Granger's sixth stewardship campaign. At that time, I said: The best thing about stewardship campaigns is it gives us a chance to recast the vision to the entire church. We talk about why we exist...who we want to reach...why it's not all about me...an entire community that still hasn't heard the good news. It's a time to find out who is in, who wants to help, and who doesn't.

We've entered a new relationship with Doug Turner, Bill McMillan and Joel Mikell from RSI. Here are a few things that impressed us...

• They convinced us that they aren't stuck in the past. They had creative ideas. They understood our desire to make this campaign more organic and less event-heavy.
• They indicated that they will be spending 28 to 30 days on-site with us during the campaign. That is much more than we anticipated, and is a good thing since we have great chemistry with them.
• They reviewed our materials ahead of time and knew our concerns and our issues. Even though we have never worked with them before, they seemed to have insight already into our thinking.
• They pushed back on us. They didn't just take what we said at face value. We like that. That feels like a partnership rather than a relationship with a vendor. That's what we want...someone who listens but also asks questions.
• They came to the interview dressed casual. I personally like that. Casual fits well in our GCC culture.
• They were laid back in our meeting. Felt like a dialogue more than a presentation.
• They demonstrated they are in the trenches thinking of new ways to accomplish ministry. They shared practical examples of counter-intuitive thinking.

For these reasons and more, we are looking forward to working with RSI for the next several months.