Archive for October, 2009

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

Posted on28. Oct, 2009 by Kenny.

12

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. We’ve even had to change our well child policy this fall (we ask kids not to come if anyone in their family has had the flu that week) since H1N1 is contagious even before you know you have it. So although we usually experience a little bit of a decline in October and November, we usually don’t see our numbers take this big of a hit.

Has anyone else had a noticeable attendance dip that was out of the ordinary (especially if you’re in Texas)? Let me know as this seems to be the best way gather information from others. Feel free to post as comments or email me privately at kenny@childrensministryonline.com.

Continue Reading

The Google Wave winner(s)!

Posted on27. Oct, 2009 by Kenny.

4

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. Even more importantly, thanks for being a part of this community!

Continue Reading

Naming your ministry

Posted on26. Oct, 2009 by Kenny.

13

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). Even when I look around, I see other leading churches that do this as well: LifeKids (Life Church), KidSpring (NewSpring), Kids on the Move (Church on the Move) and so many others (Although there are still plenty of big and influential churches that don’t follow this thought).

So, what are you thoughts on this?

Continue Reading

Fellowship One iPhone/iTouch app

Posted on26. Oct, 2009 by Kenny.

3

FellowshipTechnologies_logo_color

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.

photo

Does Arena do that? I don’t think so!

JC, I couldn’t resist. :)

Continue Reading

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-10-25

Posted on25. Oct, 2009 by Kenny.

0

Powered by Twitter Tools

Continue Reading

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

Posted on20. Oct, 2009 by Kenny.

8

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. However, there are some issues I have to work around. Man, I wish it would just work.

I guess this is what frustrates me. Google sync came out for Outlook nearly two years ago.

A few months ago, I needed to work with some videos to put on our Kids Church computer which is a Windows machine. In order to work with this video file, I had to purchase the codec for $25. On a Windows machine it wouldn’t have cost me anything.

I just read about this amazing Bible software, but currently it’s just for Windows.

Oh, and Chrome. I was so excited for Chrome to come out over a year ago. Is it out for the Mac? Nope, not yet. I’m actually using a developers build just so I can use it on my Mac.

When these things happen, it reminds me why I left Apple before. Oh yes, I did. I grew up on a mac. I had a mac all through college (I was the only one in my dorm with a mac). It was the incompatibility that drove me NUTS. I was always frustrated to go to the giant computer store and walk by isle after isle of PC software to get to my end cap of software compatible only for the Mac.

It’s different now. Apple makes a remarkable product. I really do love my MacBook Pro. I love my iPhone. However, (for those of you PC people one day dreaming of switching), it’s not all unicorns and rainbows (I don’t even know what that means). There is a price to pay. By moving to Apple, there are things you will be giving up. You’ll be joining a niche community. At times, you’ll feel limited. At other times, you’ll spend a lot more money. Although they make quality hardware and innovative products, they aren’t the perfection that Mr. Jobs would like you to believe.

Okay, so that was my Apple rant. I feel better now. :)

Continue Reading

Wanna Wave Invite?

Posted on19. Oct, 2009 by Kenny.

14

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. Even Jonathan Cliff sent me a few extra invites to that I could get more of my staff team on Wave.

So, I do have one left and I want to give it away to one of my blog readers. Through this blog I’ve done my best to share ideas, thoughts and stories. This time I want to share somethign a little more tangible (as tangible as a web-based service can be).

So, here’s how the give-away is going to work. I can’t tell you how much I value those who read and interact with this blog. I strive to have good content, but it’s comments and interaction that makes it so much better. So, I’m going to give my last Google Wave invite to someone who has previously left a comment on this blog within the last 6 months. It’s pays to interact!

But wait, there’s more. Within a week, I should have another invite, or two, or three. I’ll give away at least one more, maybe as many as three. Whether you’ve commented on this blog before or not, leave a comment on this post and I’ll select 1-3 commenters to get Wave invites. In your comment, explain why you want it.

Continue Reading

Google Wave – It’s here! (kinda)

Posted on19. Oct, 2009 by Kenny.

3

googlewavebig

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. I’ve watched videos how you can use wave to invite people to a party and everyone can help plan what everyone is going to bring, but I’m not exactly sure who all is really going to use that. Maybe if everyone coming to the party works for Google, or if they’re all geeks. :)

However, if you find yourself working with other people on special projects a lot, then Google Wave might be your new best friend. Too many times I walk out of a long meeting where a bunch of notes are later emailed to everyone. To be honest, I rarely look at these notes again. Why? They’re static. It’s just easier to pick up where we left off at the next meeting becasue collaboration happens better in person than it does in documents attached to email. Google Docs is better as it’s a collaborative document, but they’re not really a communication piece built into the document (unless everyone is looking at the document and the same time and you use Google’s IM client.

In Google Wave; however, the Wave would be the meeting notes. Participants can edit the document and post notes and replies and replies to replies all within the wave. This can be done live (kinda fun when this happens) or individually, it works well either way. Once people are familiar with the tool, I see the productivity of “in-person” collaboration continuing into a web presence.

I’m about a week away from using Wave in 3 or 4 different settings (idea exchanges with other ministry leaders, meeting prep/agendas with my staff team, Bible Study I lead with a few other guys). After I’ve had a few weeks of using Wave, I’ll review the experience.

Continue Reading

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-10-18

Posted on18. Oct, 2009 by Kenny.

0

Powered by Twitter Tools

Continue Reading

Five years in Texas

Posted on17. Oct, 2009 by Kenny.

2

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. Here are some interesting facts.

Texas is a nearly self-sufficient state. Texas is the only state with a legal right to secede from the Union. (Reference the Texas-American Annexation Treaty of 1848.) So, if that ever happened, Texas could pretty much take care of itself.

  • We refine over 85% of the gasoline in the United States.
  • Defense Industry–we have over 65% of it. The term “Don’t mess with Texas,” will take on a whole new meaning.
  • Oil – Texas can supply all the oil Texas would need for the next 300 years.
  • Natural Gas – Texas has huge reserves of natural gas.
  • Computer Industry – Texas leads the nation in producing computer chips and communications equipment -small companies like Texas Instruments, Dell Computer, EDS, Raytheon, National Semiconductor, Motorola, Intel, AMD, Atmel, Applied Materials, Ball Miconductor, Dallas Semiconductor, Nortel, Alcatel, etc, etc. The list goes on and on.
  • Medical Care – Texas has the research centers for cancer research, the best burn centers and the top trauma units in the world, as well as other large health centers. The Houston Medical Center alone employees over 65,000 people.
  • Texas has great colleges: University of Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Texas Christian, Rice, SMU, University of Dallas, University of Houston, Baylor, UNT (University of North Texas), Texas Women’s University.
  • Texas has an intelligent and energetic work force that is not restricted by unions. Here in Texas, it’s a Right to Work State and, therefore, it’s every man and woman for themselves.
  • Texas has essential control of the paper, plastics, and insurance industries, etc.
  • Military: In case of a foreign invasion, Texas has the Texas National Guard, the Texas Air National Guard, and several military bases.. Texas doesn’t have an Army, but since everybody in Texas has at least six rifles and a pile of ammo, Texas can raise an Army in 24 hours if needed. If the situation really gets bad, the Texas Rangers could be called on.
  • Texas is totally self-sufficient in beef, poultry, hogs, and several types of grain, fruit and vegetables, as well as seafood from the Gulf.
  • Three of the ten largest cities in the United States, and twenty-three of the 100 largest cities in the United States, are located in Texas. And Texas also has more land than California, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maryland, Rhode Island and Vermont combined.
  • Trade: Three of the ten largest ports in the United States are located in Texas.

Here are a few more interesting things about Texas

  • Beaumont to El Paso: 834 miles
  • Beaumont to Chicago: 1097 miles
  • El Paso is closer to California than to  Dallas
  • The Heisman Trophy was named after John William Heisman who was the first full-time coach at Rice University in Houston.
  • The first word spoken from the moon, July 20, 1969, was ‘ Houston’.
  • King Ranch in South Texas is larger than Rhode Island.
  • Dr Pepper was invented in Waco in 1885. There is no period in Dr. Pepper.
  • Texas has had six capital cities: Washington-on-the Brazos, Harrisburg, Galveston, Velasco, West Columbia and Austin.
  • The Capitol Dome in Austin is the only dome in the U.S. which is taller than the Capitol Building in Washington DC (by 7 feet).
  • The name ‘ Texas’ comes from the Hasini Indian word ‘tejas’ meaning friends.  Tejas is not Spanish for Texas.
  • The first domed stadium in the U.S. was the Astrodome in Houston
Probably most important to my family about Texas is:
  • Sara and I were married in Trophy Club, TX on July 24th, 1999
  • Titus was born in Grapevine, TX on June 11th, 2007.

Oh, and one of my favorite. Where else can you go and stay in a hotel where the waffle irons create waffles in the shape of our state.

bcoww_TWM1_LG

Well, I think that’s enough. We’re glad we’re here!

Continue Reading

Older Entries »