Archive for October, 2009

Anyone take a bigger than normal hit on attendance in October?

Posted on 28. Oct, 2009 by .

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downward_trendThis year our goal for Next Gen was to grow 20% and that is what we’ve been able to do. From August through September, we have had the highest kids attendance… EVER. However, October came and our numbers have been in the toilet. Two Sundays ago it was a very wet and rainy day which often affects our attendance, but this last Sunday was a beautiful day and numbers were low… like summer low.

I’m going to be looking at some trends from the past four years (since I’ve not been here long enough to have the history). However, I do know that the flu bug has been vicious here. H1N1 has ravaged the state of Texas and there are a couple other flu strains that have been affecting our families.… Read the rest

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The Google Wave winner(s)!

Posted on 27. Oct, 2009 by .

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woo-hoo Last week I held a little contest to give away my final Google Wave invite/nomination. Eleven or so people entered and yesterday I randomly picked one of the eleven (someone who had previously commented on this blog before).

The winner? Kendra Golden! Woo Hoo!

But that’s not all. That may have been my last invite, but I’ve got friends, co-workers and staff who have or will soon have more invites. So in addition, I sent invites to three more randomly selected people who commented on my contest post. Those people are Todd McKeever, Chris Chancey and Erin English. Yeaaaa! More winners. Who knows, maybe I’ll send out a few more when I get them.

So, thanks to those of you who participated in my little contest.… Read the rest

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Naming your ministry

Posted on 26. Oct, 2009 by .

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helloI’ve been thinking a lot about ministry names lately.

Currently the name of Gateway’s Children’s Ministry is Kid’s Quest. Kid’s Quest was well branded here, but I feel a new name and new look is just around the corner for us, maybe launching a new look near the end of 2010.

Here’s what I’ve been thinking about. It seems like 5-10 years ago, it was a lot more common to find ministries with unique names. Now it seems it’s a lot more common for the Children’s Ministry to have some iteration of the church’s name. This makes total sense to me as you’re furthering the brand of the church through your ministry.

I’ve been a part of a few churches where we’ve renamed the ministry to sync up with the church’s name such as CT Kids (Cross Timbers), Anchor Kids (Anchor Church) and GBC Kids (Graceland Baptist Church).… Read the rest

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Fellowship One iPhone/iTouch app

Posted on 26. Oct, 2009 by .

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Did you hear the news? Several months ago Fellowship Technologies announced that they would release an app for the iPhone. Yesterday I downloaded it for myself. Beautiful.

I imagine it’s just a start. Currently you can just look people up and see family, address and contact information (99% of what I need to do when trying to navigate F1 on my iPhone). It will be interesting to see if they further develop this app to view live check-in’s, manipulate ministry details, and even view submissions on weblink.

Regardless, it’s a great app. It’s free and you can download it now from the iTunes app store.

Click here to read their press release.

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Does Arena do that? I don’t think so!

JC, I couldn’t resist.… Read the rest

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-10-25

Posted on 25. Oct, 2009 by .

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I may use a Mac, but I didn’t drink the Kool Aid

Posted on 20. Oct, 2009 by .

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I don’t know what kind of Apple hate this post is going to bring down on me, but I’ve just gotta vent.

I was having a conversation with a fellow blogger yesterday (I won’t say any names as to not place a target on this person as well). I was talking about my current email situation. Last week I switched my work email over to gmail becasue I so passionately hate Entourage. Really, my biggest problem is that I just needed to be able to freakin’ sync my google calendar with my work calendar in any way. I’ve explored every option available and the best solution I had was to forward my email to gmail and use a google calendar. The positive side of things is that my wife can now see my calendar and all is well on that front.… Read the rest

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Wanna Wave Invite?

Posted on 19. Oct, 2009 by .

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Screen shot 2009-10-19 at 4.13.41 PM

When Google Wave was released, I wanted one in a serious way. Several of my friends began getting them. I knew that several of them got Wave without any invites where others did. I also knew that the people who got invites only got 8. 8 isn’t very many. So, I was incredibly grateful when my good friend Matt McKee sent me an invite last week. Since then, I’ve had a lot of fun playing around with Wave and inviting others I work with on a regular basis. I wasn’t really sending out invites to be generous, but to people I thought I’d use Wave with. Due to Wave’s slow release, it doesn’t do you any good if you don’t have people on Wave to collaborate with.… Read the rest

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Google Wave – It’s here! (kinda)

Posted on 19. Oct, 2009 by .

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A few weeks ago, Google Wave launched when Google sent out invites to 100,000 people. Those 100,000 had invites to send to others. It’s Google’s way of releasing a new service in a controlled way. Some say it’s so they can test server capacities but who knows, maybe it’s to amp up the excitement. I’ve had plenty of people asking me what Wave is.

What is Google Wave you ask? Click here and watch a video about Wave (caution, it’s a little long).

I’m not exactly sure that Wave is for everyone. Wave is a combination of email, IM and document collaboration service. However, if you’re just looking for a better IM, it’s not Wave. An I don’t really see Wave as any kind of replacement to email as this time, so you don’t want it for that.… Read the rest

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-10-18

Posted on 18. Oct, 2009 by .

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Five years in Texas

Posted on 17. Oct, 2009 by .

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texas-with-texas-flagI always hate it when I miss an important anniversary. Sara and I missed one by a few days this year. On October 12th, Sara and I moved to the great State of Texas five years ago. We consider it one of our best achievements so far. Okay, we’ve had a lot of great things happen to us, but we’re just so happy to live in Texas. Some of you reading this aren’t from Texas and you may not get it. I don’t know that I can totally explain it. I think there must be something in the air. Now there are certainly places in Texas where I totally would not want to live, but it’s a state with a rich history and a state worth being proud of.… Read the rest

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