Life. Liberty. And the pursuit of God.

This year I went out and purchased some old school C9 Color Bulbs for the house. Last year I decided that white bulbs were too boring. I thought the colored big bulbs most represent Christmas to me SO now I have some of my own! (Sorry for the blurry picture, I had to use a slow exposure since it was dark outside)

• Advent Began this morning and I am lovin’ it. I have to admit that this year’s advent candles look much better than they did last year, and they are still contemporary. I’ll try to get a picture next week.
• We had a combined adult/child service this morning. For the Sunday after Thanksgiving, our attendance was strong. I liked hearing the start of Christmas music this morning and the band sounded great. I talked about worship this morning and am excited about preaching the rest of the series.
• We announced our Christmas Eve service at Bergfeld Park this Sunday and will begin to advertise for it over the next several weeks. I am really looking forward to that service.
• Over the next several weeks, Dayspring’s staff and I will be planning for 2009. It will be great to have the next year’s planning on calendar and will help us focus in on the important instead of getting caught up in the insignificant.

The Conspiracy begins Sunday…

My sermon this week was classified as:

DASEIN IN RUSSIA/ Artist: DASEIN/ Album: DASEIN IN RUSSIA/ Genre: Unclassifiable

Hey, at least this time it’s unclassifiable.  I guess that’s Russian for “in a class by itself.”

Today we held a Commitment Day at Dayspring during the final week of the series “How to BE rich.” We not only committed our gifts for 2009, but many people made a commitment to follow Christ at Dayspring. We had 13 adults and 10 kids become part of the church today. That is reason to rejoice!

I preached for the first time in three weeks. I felt good to be back communicating, but since the service was packed with service elements (joining, commitments, etc…), I didn’t get to say everything I wanted and I felt rushed.

Our worship leader, Aaron, had no voice today so our keyboardist, Leslie, stepped up and did a great job leading us.

Our small group semester is over, so I have no group to lead tonight. I am looking forward to the time off before the next semester begins. Now I am going to go eat a bowl of ice cream and take a nap.

We were playing war (one battle at a time). I thought it was a great coincidence at first. After the fourth tie, however, I just think my daughter didn’t shuffle the cards well. That looks like a guilty grin!

Yesterday I received a letter that reminded me why I am in ministry and why Dayspring began. There is nothing better than a changed life and a heart of gratitude! God is glorious and my prayer is that Dayspring stays faithful to sharing the light of Christ with those who need it most.

My desk is gone. I am now the proud owner of a pub table that I got for $100 from “Linens and Things” which is going out of business. This gives me the chance to try out my “I work better standing up theory” without a big investment. Well, here goes day 1…

I thought I could drag this out over a week, but I have to finish this thing before I get too bored with it:

RECAP -

• Advertising works, but if you do it – then do it BIG.
  • Focus your advertising on a determined period of time. If this means you save part of your budget and do no advertising for a couple of years in order to do it right then so be it. Choose to be seen everywhere and in every media outlet for a short time rather than “here and there” over long periods of time.
  • Advertising builds credibility for invitations. The advertising itself will not draw many people, but it does give personal invitations extra weight.  
• Be known for something.
  • The public knows Dayspring for holding outdoor services and meeting in a theater. Whatever your niche is, use it. Don’t be different for the sake of difference, but take your uniqueness and make it famous (This is kind of like Seth Godin’s Purple Cow).
  • Focus the church around its unique strengths. Reach people for Christ given the culture and abilities that God has gifted to the congregation. Get rid of all programming and events that take away from the strengths and energy of the congregation. Maybe we should call this zero sum programming?

 Finale –  

• Create and hold events that are natural for people to invite others.
  • Sunday morning is not a natural time to invite others. Sorry, it just isn’t. Events hosted away from the church that use neutral ground will draw many more visitors.
  • Resource your people so that they can more easily invite the public to the event – use invite cards, advertising, have them volunteer to have their car chalked, etc…  
• Visitors are the Churches number one prospects.
  • Yes, I know the parable of the lost sheep and coin, but we are not Jesus. The church often misses the flock of sheep in their yard and the coins in their pocket because they are too obvious.
  • The church should focus more time and resources on the sheep and coins who walk into the church every Sunday but never come back. The church needs to evaluate how it follows up with them, how much time is spent reaching out to them and how we invest our financial resources on keeping them or bringing them back.  
• Have system for retaining and incorporating new guests.
  • Dayspring uses small groups and service teams (for the love of God, don’t use committees to incorporate people).
  • How many new members would your church have if it retained 25% of your guests?