Off and Flying

Well we have taken off and are headed to the Dominican Republic with 11 other people. We have a men's basketball team that will play against the Dominicans at least 7 times. At half time of the game we will have the opportunity to share Jesus with them. Please pray that God will use us to make a big impact in this great country. We left this afternoon at 12:05pm, flew to Dallas, flew to Puerto Rico. And that is where we are now, delayed in Puerto Rico until 12:35am. We will now be arriving in the DR at about 1:30am. Then we will try and get a little sleep (and yes I mean a little) we need to be up by 4:45am to start heading to Barahona which is a 4 1/2 hour drive. Please pray for strength, energy, and clarity of mind. Everyone is totally excited, and anxious to get there. I'm nervous and anxious at the same time. It's been two plus years since Kendra and I have been there. Well I will update more later, I need to find out where everyone went (I think BW3's). Adios!!

Sunday Release

Well well well, where do I start? Man what a week. It was very busy, but great. God is so awesome, He always meets me where I'm at and this past week I really needed to hear some things. So here is a quick recap of my week:

1. Put the construction hat on this week to help a friend's mother fix her floor (still working on it).
2. Was invited to The Leadership Summit for Thursday and Friday.
3. Gary Haugen, Craig Groeschel, and Bill Hybels were great. Their insight on leadership and the church was much needed.
4. Thanks to Steve Long for the invite, you're the best!
5. Worked a french fry trailer for a friend, Go Franks Fries.
6. On Saturday we cooked about 2000 lbs of fries! Wow!
7. Had our second preview service, it was awesome, God was really working, we had seven people link into LifePoint to be a part of what is taking place.
   
8. Man does that make me excited!!
9. Oh yeah and to top it off we had three people who gave their life to Christ! :o)
10. God has a sense of humor. Last preview it was like a hundred degrees, we prayed for cooler weather, and He provided a nice and cool seventy four degrees. I'm not a weather man, but I think it was around there :).
11. Thanks to everyone who set up and tore down, you guys are great!
12. Special thanks to Shan for going the extra mile to get us up and running for Sunday, we appreciate all your efforts.
13. Jessica way to get The Point Cafe up and running. The coffee was much needed.
14. Had lunch at Panera, but didn't have coffee (that had to be a first).
15. Looking forward to our mission trip to the Dominican Republic. (we leave Saturday August 16th please pray)
16. LifePoint rocks and is on a roll.

Great Blog!

This is a great blog written by Perry Noble. The title says Four Types Of Staff Members but I believe this could apply to anyone who serves. In ministry I have ran into all four of these people. At LifePoint it would be great to have all #1's at least in attitude! Give me some feed back to let me know what you think.

Four Types Of Staff Members

from Perry Noble dot com by perry

One of the things I will be trying to spend some time on in our upcoming meetings with our coaching network is the issue of staffing. (WOW…it begins a week from tomorrow!) In fact, a lot of the leadership questions I get have to do with staffing…so, let me lay out five type’s of staff members, some good, some not so good…

#1 - The “Love To Do” Staff Member

This is the person you want around you! They have a positive attitude and are so pleasant to be around. This is the person who pulls up in the parking lot and actually thanks God before getting out of their car for the privilege of working there instead of thinking the church is blessed because they work there.

AND…they love their job! In fact, if they weren’t doing what they did on staff they would do it as a volunteer! They love the church and it’s vision and are willing to do everything they can!

#2 - The “Can Do” Staff Member

The one thing that has to be addressed on a staff is competency level. Because, while you may have someone who loves what they do…they just might not be able to do it. (And…in my opinion, the church should hold a higher standard here than the business community; after all, there is a lot more at stake.)

Can the person doing the job do the job? OR…has their skill set and ability been maxed out? It’s a tough call…but one that must be made in order to protect the church and the staff member.

AND…let me say that the first option should always be to move the staff member to another job…because if they are a “Love To Do” staff member then they will thrive!

#3 - The “Should Do” Staff Member

This is the person on staff that gets to the office 3 minutes late and leaves 5 minutes early. They are gone a really long time for lunch…but no one ever really knows why. They spend a lot of time on their facebook pages (that are completely not ministry related) and often talk to their friends and waste time.

Sure, they get their job done–barely…but their hearts are not into it. They do what they “should do,” nothing more, nothing less!

AND they have to go! You can’t afford this kind of dead weight in your church! God’s kingdom is WAY too important to keep these kind of people around. They are not doing what they are doing because of passion but rather a paycheck. NOT GOOD!

#4 - The “Won’t Do” Staff Member

This is the staff member, when asked to do something, responds with, “that’s not my job.”

I know this is strong…but it has been made clear here at NewSpring Church from day one that EVERYTHING is our job…and if a staff member ever uses that they are asked to clean out their office!

If you ever have a staff member that isn’t willing to do whatever it takes for the good of the church–they aren’t bought into the vision. If a staff member ever becomes more departmental (this is MY AREA) than organizational (this is MY CHURCH) then they are dangerously close to establishing ministry silo’s that need to be destroyed!

One of the things I LOVE about our staff at NewSpring Church is…nothing is beneath anyone. Everyone is willing to do what it takes to get the job done…whether that means helping set out chairs, picking up trash in the parking lot on the way in…or even straightening up the restroom when noticing it is dirty!

When a staff is willing to do whatever…that attitude spreads to the volunteers…which will IMPACT a church in a huge way!

Sunday Release

• Comeback Event at Riverside Park.
• Sunny high of about 84.
• Had a blast cooking food on a raging fire!
• Still like propane over charcoal.
• There was a lot of people!
• Was able to meet and get to know great people!
• KidsLife t-shirts are awesome! Great job Stacey!
• The games for the kids were great! Way to go Jerry,Stacey,Shan, & Jen!
• Everyone did a great job of providing food, beverages, and conversation!
• Josh and Eric need new rules for cornhole:)
• But we still won!
• Thanks to Nick and Dorothy for rescuing me with not one but two dews!!
• Tons of food.
• Burnt hamburgers, will never buy Flanders brand again.
• Did I say it was an awesome day!!
• I love our team:)
• I love the people who are going to be on our team:)
• LifePoint IS going to Impact this community!
• I love people!
• Building momentum for August 10th.
• Next preview service August 10th.
• As Shan would say "WooHoo":)