Archive for 'Uncategorized'
Question to you: When do you recruit?
Posted on22. Jul, 2010 by Kenny.
I’ve been talking to my team about a big volunteer push. More than likely we’re going to do a 2-3 week push in October which I expect will be pretty good. A few years ago we did a really big push in January which was very well received. However, when have you found to be the most effective time to recruit volunteers? I know a lot of people like to do April and May volunteer drives so they’re all screened, trained and ready for the fall. What has worked best for you?
Tell me your story. What’s the most creative or effective thing you’ve done to recruit a boatload of new volunteers? What made it so successful? I’d love to hear some new and creative ideas and strategies that we can implement as we recruit. I’ve found that strong exposure/communication as well as creativity tend to yield great success.
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Some things have to wait…
Posted on29. May, 2010 by Kenny.
I’ve got an unbelievable schedule for the next 4-5 weeks. This just released this week. Looks like I’m going to have to wait until I’m not so busy…
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#Orange10 Day 3: Perry Nobel
Posted on03. May, 2010 by Kenny.
I’ll admit it. I’m a pretty big fan of Perry Nobel. He’s fun and exciting and doing great things for the kingdom. In a lot of ways, he’s pushing new paradigms with his leadership in South Carolina. Going into this session, I knew it would be a very “quotable” session and he did not disappoint.- Family ministry has more potential than any other ministry in the church.
- A healthy family ministry must be supported by the Senior Pastor.
- Senior Pastors need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.
- Environments matter. (Parents are going to ask two questions of their kids. What did you learn? Did you have fun? If you know that this is the question that eery parent is going to ask, then create environments to know that the kids are going to answer these questions correctly. They’ll be able to tell their parents what they learned and that they had SO MUCH FUN!)
- Keep it simple.
- Conflict and tension must be addressed no matter what.
- Have the right people in the right places.
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Can someone attending #orange10 do me a favor?
Posted on23. Apr, 2010 by Kenny.
I’ve got a lot of places to be while at Orange. Unfortunately, I can’t be everywhere. Last year I did my best and I only missed one general session and one breakout session. Why? I was busy learning from others in the hallways and the Orange Leader’s Lounge.
This year I already know that I’m going to miss one breakout and one preconference workshop. The workshop I’m going to miss is Preconference 2: Thinking intern by Darren Kizer. I really wanted to be in that session, but I can’t. Is there anyone out there who’s planning to attend that workshop? I’d love to get your notes and maybe get the general rundown from you. Let me know and I’d be eternally grateful!
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Everyone does better with a coach
Posted on29. Mar, 2010 by Kenny.
This is a simple truth I’ve learned over the past year. Everyone does do better with a coach. I’ve learned this through personal experience. I’ve just entered my second year of Infuse with Jim Wideman and he’s helping me be a better version of myself. There’s little debate over what Jim’s accomplished over the 30 years of ministry to kids. His track record is nothing short of amazing. However, I’ve picked up very few tips and tricks from him that I can apply in Children’s Ministry (although he’s been a great source of wisdom there). What I’ve picked up from Jim this last year is how to be a better leader, how to better redeem the time I have each day, and I can better serve my church. I’ve grown in many ways and it’s becasue I’ve had a coach speaking into my life week after week through Infuse.
If you want to go to the next level in personal leadership, take a good look at having Jim coach you through Infuse. It’s probably best way you can spend any “personal development” funds this year. Click here to read more about what Infuse is all about.
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I NEED YOUR HELP!
Posted on27. Mar, 2010 by Kenny.
A few weeks ago a battle of epic proportions began. Okay, I’m being dramatic. March Madness for blogs about children’s ministry began. Of the 64 featured blogs, mine was one of them. In round 1, I barely won my division. I pulled into the lead on the last day. Orange Leaders, my biggest competitor is way out in the lead right now and the competition ends tomorrow. Orange Leaders is the blog of ReThink, a large organization with dozens of staff who’ve been promoting this competition hard. It’s been hard to compete as I’m not a big organization nor do I have any staff. 
So, help me win. Vote for me. Go here to see more about the competition and vote for other bloggers in other divisions. However, I placed the poll below, so if you want… just vote real quick and you’re done. Thanks so much for your help!
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State of the Gate 2.0
Posted on26. Mar, 2010 by Kenny.
Every year my church has a “State of the Gate.” It’s really a gathering one evening of the week, usually at the beginning of the year where we share great stories from the previous year, share any exciting news and then cast vision for the coming year. This year we tried something new. Since we’ve recently launched our internet campus, we broadcast the State of the Gate over the interwebs. What a cool experience!
I still don’t know how many actually participated, but a pretty large group of people logged in with their facebook and twitter accounts and interacted with each other during the broadcast and asked questions during the Q & A. It was a totally unique environment. The people who watched live had a much more engaging experience than any State of the Gate in the past. In addition, the video content will remain online for people to watch later. In a tech savvy, DVR and overwhelmingly busy culture we live in, this format for special services like this seems the way of the future.
Click here to check the live site, you can read the chat dialogue until Sunday when it will be replaced by Sunday’s chat log. Feel free to watch the videos below, they illustrate our church’s current restructure to better engage our body in serving the community.
State of the Gate 2010
State of the Gate 2010 | Intro from Gateway Church on Vimeo.
State of the Gate: Attend, Grow and Serve
State of the Gate 2010 | Attend Grow Serve from Gateway Church on Vimeo.
State of the Gate: Q & A
State of the Gate 2010 | Q&A from Gateway Church on Vimeo.
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Accountability from a skinny man works
Posted on26. Feb, 2010 by Kenny.
Okay, so I almost forgot to post this. Before I left for my road trip I asked Sam Luce to hold me accountable. I’m in the middle of my biggest loser competition with my staff and being on the road where I’m eating out for almost every meal would be tough. It’s during these occasions that I tend to over-indulge. So I asked Sam Luce to hold me to my commitment. In the end, my goal was to weigh less than I did when I began.
So, Sam was a gracious accountability partner. Maybe it was a dumb thing for me to ask him to do it, but he didn’t make a big deal out of it. Every now and again, he’d give me the evil eye when I was reaching for an extra cookie after dinner. There were a few meals that did not fare well for my plan, but I just tried to eat as much as Sam ate. I figured that if I ate what a skinny man eats, I’d probably lose some weight.
So, I’ve got some bad news and some good news. I came home late Monday night and my biggest loser weigh in was the following day. For my official weigh in I was one pound heavier than the week before. I was actually quite pleased as I expected worse. I had a bit of a cold all week and just didn’t feel up to running on the treadmill once. The good news, by Tuesday I weighed in a pound lower than the previous day and on Wednesday morning, I was another pound lower. I’m on track to have lost 4 pounds this week, taking me to a record low for this competition.
I know there are probably very few people who care, but since I brought it up before I left, I figured I’d be true to my word and share how I did.
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Browser Wars
Posted on15. Feb, 2010 by Kenny.
Yesterday I announced that Google Chrome was my app of the week, mostly becasue of the extensions capability. I’ve been using Firefox for the last several years and have been very excited to move to Chrome. However, I realized that most people generally use Internet Explorer if they have a PC. If they have a Mac, then there’s a good chance they’re using Safari. What browser you use is totally a personal choice, but I think that most of these people use these browsers simple becasue it’s what was on their computer when they got it and they’re just happy with it. The problem is that most of these people don’t know that there could possibly be a much better experience right around the corner. This blog post is simply to reveal some options you didn’t know you were missing.
So, here’s the basic rundown of the big four browsers.
Internet Explorer: Seriously, are you really using this? It’s slow and often riddled with security issues. Do yourself a favor and download any other browser. You’ll be glad you did. Internet Explorer is the oldest browser of the big four. It also has the largest market share, but that certainly isn’t an indicator of how good it is. In actuality, their market share has been decreasing to the other three big browsers simply because they’re better. IE has not been innovative in many years. It can do some of the “extra things” the other browsers can do, but mainly becasue it has adapted and copied over the years to remain relevant.
Safari: It’s a genuinely positive browsing experience. The basic, entry level Mac user tends to use Safari and be happy with it as a web browser and it really is good. It’s probably the dominant Mac browser simply becasue it comes with the Mac and new Mac owners don’t know any better. When you compare Firefox to Safari, Firefox usually wins when it comes to features and usability. Safari does include plugins which create extra functionality, but the number is limited mainly becasue of Apple’s iron grip on all Apple products which lessen development from outsiders.
Firefox: For many years now, Firefox has been the open browser that people came to when they got tired of a poor browsing experience or being told how they should browse the internet. The stigma for quite some time was that if a person really wasn’t very computer savvy, they used Safari or Internet Explorer, but once they moved beyond what was handed to them, they moved to Firefox. Firefox is very customizable from aesthetics to functionality. Thousands of developers are constantly creating new plugins to allow you do to all kinds of cool stuff. Personally, I moved to Firefox about 3 years ago and my experience has been amazing. The plugins make all the difference in the world. As a result, my browser experience is always changing and getting better.
Chrome: I don’t know that anyone saw Chrome coming when they jumped in the browser war a little over a year ago. Chrome was designed to push browsers to the next level. Changes were made to the way Chrome operates as a browser to make it faster. We all want a faster experience and Chrome has taken big steps to make that happen. Another really cool thing Chrome did was to make each tab it’s own individual process. That means when the page your surfing fails and locks up, it doesn’t lock up your entire browser. Just close out of that tab and you’ll see all your other tabs work just fine. Like anything new, the layout is a little different and it may take some getting used to, but the experience is better. Like I posted yesterday, Chrome just added extension functionality so you can customize your browsing experience. However, what Chrome did differently is to separate the extension processes from the browsing processes so your speed experience isn’t minimized as a result of extensions. Firefox users have always known that when more plugins are installed, the slower the browser ran. Not true of Chrome.
So, that’s an overview of the current browser war. Yes, it was my opinion. It’s based on my experience of using all four browsers. So what do I use? Well, since I’m a Mac, I don’t even have access to Internet Explorer anymore. I use Safari about once a week and it’s usually just as a backup. Sometimes I come to a web page that doesn’t display correctly, so I’ll open Safari just to see what it looks like there. That’s really the only reason I use Safari. Primarily though, I’m still a Firefox user; however, Chrome may have just swooped into the lead with all the extensions. Chrome for the Mac is still technically Beta and I’ve occasionally encountered it’s bugginess. Until the glitch I run in to while editing blog posts on Wordpress is fixed, I’ll probably still use Firefox primary. After that, I see a switch in the works.
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Worshiphouse Kids: a clearing house of kidmin media
Posted on06. Jan, 2010 by Kenny.
I ran into this resource a few weeks ago. Worship House Kids is a one stop shop of great media for Children’s Ministry. Worship House Media (the parent company) has been providing great video content for churches for some time, but now there’s a home for content geared for kids. As far as I can tell, Worship House isn’t a developer of content, just the aggragator of content. Several studios like Timbuktoons, Jelly Telly, Salthy Graphics Studios and others are pumping their content through the site. I’m a little bummed I didn’t jump on this earlier, they have some great content for Christmas. Maybe next year.
Check out some of the examples:
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