Giving People a Chance

I’ve been reading a very intriguing book called Wikinomics.  The premise of the book is that the way business and creativity is practiced on the Internet is transforming brick and mortar business as well.

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DNA

I was told by church-planter-trainers that it is important to be very intentional about setting the DNA of the new church.  Prior to that time I had never really thought about DNA and whether a church had it.  But I’ve decided they all do.  And once set, there is no changing the DNA.

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Networks

Several months ago, maybe even a year, a guy e-mailed me and asked to have coffee.  He just wanted to find out more about LifeSpring.  The visit was pleasant.
We got together for coffee a couple more times, and then he moved back east.  It was a short relationship, although it has continued via e-mail and [...]

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Second Sunday Social

Today was the date of our Second Sunday Social. LifeSpring has been scheduling these regular monthly get togethers for the past several months, and we only change the date when it interferes with the kind of social we want to schedule.

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Table Talk

At LifeSpring Church we believe that everybody should be able to participate as fully as they would like.  So we give people ample opportunity to volunteer to lead congregational prayers, read scripture, and provide the Lord’s Supper meditation, which we call the “table talk.” 
When we started doing this over a year ago, you could [...]

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New Barna Book

I just bought a new book called unChristian.  I found out about it through an electronic newsletter and was intrigued by the premise of the book.  Author David Kinnaman works for The Barna Group, an organization that provides primary research and tools for churches and parachurch organizations.
My interest in the book began because of a [...]

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Teamwork

One of the greatest sins a “leader” can commit is to work alone.  Good leadership equips, empowers, trusts, and releases.  The best way to do this is through teams, and this is a good definition of team.  “A team is a group organized to work together to accomplish a set of objectives that cannot be achieved [...]

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“Church” Jargon

Bob Kaylor, senior writer for Homiletics Magazine, has gotten me to thinking about my vocabulary, particularly in regard to people who are not currently part of a church community.  I’ve struggled with what name to use to refer to this rather large group.  Sadly, I’ve resorted to the all-too-common term, “unchurched.”
Kaylor writes that being “churched” [...]

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SermonSpice dot com

One of my favorite sermon resource sites is SermonSpice dot com.  I have been using them for a few years now, and I never cease to be amazed at the wonderful variety that I find at the site.
What’s neat is that SermonSpice is located just down the around about 60 miles in Fresno.  That really [...]

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Marketing

Marketing is a huge puzzle to me.  Classic church planting models often employ heavy use of direct mail and other forms of mass advertising.  But LifeSpring didn’t have anywhere close to the amount of money that approach would take.  Later we got a one time infusion of $4000 cash that was earmarked specifically for marketing.  We gave direct mail [...]

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