Coffee Brand

How important is the brand of coffee? I've been working on / with coffee vendors to try and decide what brand of coffee to offer in the new church. It's coming down to choices between three suppliers.



So, how do we decide? Any thoughts? I'd like your comments.

Video is on line!

I'm very excited for our church and for me. I'm in a video produced by our church. It's the first video we have put on line and you can check it out by clicking "here". Then click on June 2006. The best thing about the video is you'll get a current update and look at were we are in the building process. We've come a long way and are about 5 months away from move in date. Here's list of some of the new building issues on my plate. Any helpers?

1. Cafe's (Who are we going to use for our coffee supplier?)
2. Cafe & Book store hours of service
3. Cafe & Book store software
4. Soda (Coke or Pepsi?)
5. Building Schedule of the new church
6. Physical move
7. Cleaning and mantanence Schedule
8. Outside Vendor selection
9. New Equipment needs
10. Stewardship and operating costs

Phoneless Phone Booth?

As we get ever so closer to moving into our new church, the detailed decision making is becoming greater and greater. One such detail was posed to me a few days ago. Are we going to have pay phones? At first I was thinking, almost everyone these days has access to a cell phone so why do we need pay phones? Today I came across an article on cnnmoney.com talking about empty phone booths. It's a cool idea. You see its a booth were people can go into to have a private conversation on their cell phone. I'm thinking this would be a great idea in our youth area. Not many teens want to tell their parents "I love you mom" when their talking on their cell phone standing around their buddies. As with most ideas, there's a cost involved. The article says between $2,500 - $3,000. That's not in the new building budget. Guess well have to leave the phone booth at the door.

Children's Check-in (Week 1) lessons learned

This past Sunday was our launch of Fellowship One's Children's Check-in. Overall, the day was a success. We did learn a few lessons and we are going to make changes for this weekend. We have rolled out the check-in system in our grade level K-4th ministry area only.

lesson #1 There was a rush of parents all at one time. Our Check-in Volunteers were true champs in handling all the people. In order to help with this issue, we've added a third check-in station.
lesson #2 We need to do a faster job in getting kids back to parents at the end of services. We have a team working on this one. The best solution may not come until we are in the new building.
lesson #3 It was way to noisy in KidsStuf to do check-in in that room. We've moved that check-in station out into the hall.
lesson #4 No matter how prepared you think you are, there is nothing like the real thing. Each week we will get better at serving families through Fellowship One.

Conclusion after week 1 of children's check-in. . . . . Very impressive!

Little Bit of this and Little Bit of that

What a great Ohio night. We don't get many like this. (mid 70's cool breeze no humidity or bugs) Thanks to my good friend Mike, I'm sitting out on my back porch with my laptop hooked to the web through my new wireless home network. Yes, it is password protected. I've scheduled a few days vacation this week and next and I've making the most of them. Here's a few of the things I've gotten to do.

1. Mulch the flower beds
2. Take the kids swimming
3. Go pick strawberry's (We had a blast!) I've eaten way to many today.
4. Walked the dog (my best friend) with my wife (my other best friend)
5. Some great alone time on my bike 50+ miles so far.
6. Coffee in the morning on the back porch watching the sun come up and the birds at the feeder.
7. Reading the book of Romans from the "Message". You've got to get a copy for yourself!
8. I'm also reading a biography on Alexander Hamilton (He's on the $10 bill) Did you know he invented our banking system? I'm into finance in case you didn't know. That's why I'm reading his biography. I wanted to find out how it all started.
9. Eating lot's of lettuce out of my garden. I've got a few flowers on my tomato plants. I've got one tomato plant that's going to produce yellow tomatoes. Can't wait to taste that.
10. Oh yea, I'm turning 40 Sunday. Maybe that's why I'm reflecting tonight.

If you read all ten, drop me a reply and say happy birthday.

Managing Expectations

Is it possible to manage others expectations of you?

Let me back-up a little before you answer this question. At our all staff meeting Tuesday, we were fortunate to have Mike Davis come speak to us. Mike is a leadership giant in may ways. Most recently he has been through a relocation of his store. He came to our staff meeting to share his experience and how this could apply to SFMC's upcoming relocation. See we are moving in Oct / Nov 5 miles down the road to a newly constructed 105,000 sq ft bldg. You can check out a picture of the new building by clicking here. So now, back to my question. Can you manage other expectations?

As we prepare to move, our Staff, Volunteers, Church Body, and those yet to come are all forming expectations in their mind of what the new building will be like to then. We as a staff have to first realize that the new building solves nothing. People coming to the current building are tolerating things that they will not tolerate when "we are in the new building." We as a staff are planning now to give everyone a wonderful experience that will make them want to come back week after week.

Here are a few things we are currently working on to manage expectations.

1. We need and will be communicating communicating communicating very soon about the move and what to expect when the doors open for the first time.
2. We will try as hard as we can to eliminate the intimidation factor of that large building
3. Our staff and volunteers will be ready for all the new people coming for the first time. We want to be as good as the new building looks.

These are my top three focuses in managing expectations. I'd greatly appreciate your comments and suggestions to this post!

Savings vrs Investing. Is there a difference?

I love Sunday's for a number of reasons. Starting with my morning coffee, the local paper and off to the back porch to enjoy the songs of the birds at my bird feeder. This sure puts me in the mood for the upcoming worship service at church. I marvel in God's greatness best with the simple things in life. Another major reason I love Sunday is currently I'm leading another Financial Pease University class. Today we were learning all about investing. (Savings accounts, Money Market Accounts, Stocks, Bonds, ect. . . ) But have you ever thought about the difference between Savings and Investing? There is a difference. The best way to describe this difference is time horizon. How soon do you need to spend your money? 0 - 4 years Savings. > 4 year investing.

So what are good investments for these two different time frames?

Savings
Savings Acct
CD's
Money Markets

Investments
Mutual Funds
ETF's
Individual Stock & bonds (not recommended in my book)
Real Estate

Never Never Never invest through life insurance. I'll go into details on this next time.

Personal Finances (Not!)

I love the world of personal finances. I guess that's why I lead 3 Financial Peace University classes each year. I also subscribe to and follow a financial newsletter for today's Christian family. That newsletter is Sound Mind Investing The lead article in June's issue is titled "How to Ruin your Financial Life." It was a great article. It's based on Ben Stein's book titled the same. Here's the 10 quickest ways to ruin your financial life according to Ben.

1. Forget about tomorrow. Tomorrow will never come. It's always today.
2. Live a high-consumption lifestyle with enormous fixed expenses that we can't afford.
3. Don't balance your checkbook. (I balance mine within hours of getting my statement.)
4. Save money only when you feel like it and if you don't feel like it then don't save.
5. As soon as you succeed in maxing out you r credit cards, get new ones!
6. When you get your credit card bill pay only the minimum each month.
7. Make a point to watch all those late night financial success infomercial.
8. Don't be satisfied to just buy and hold. Rapid trading is the key to wealth.
9. Put all your eggs in one basket. Only sissies diversify.
10. If taking charge of your financial life seems overwhelming, just put it off a few more years.

These 10 are great! I got a big kick out of all of them. I guess because in times past I may have been guilty of one or more of them. I talk with people weekly that are still doing one of these and that's not a funny thing. It's time to wake up and take control of your financial life. Last year the U.S. family had a savings rate of -.5%. How is that possible? If you can identify with any of these 10 listed above, you need a plan. Try staring with these two things first.

1. Save, Save, Save $1,000 and put it in an emergency fund.
2. STOP accumulating Debt! Cut up your credit cards and call and cancel them. (That's what the $1,000 emergency fund is for.

Film Debut

Happy June to you!

Today I get to make my film debut. Is a acting career in my future? I think not. I'm am excited about being part of a video walk through of our new church construction site today. It's been a while since we've updated our people on what's going on in the new church. I'll be part of a two person interview team that will be doing a tour of the building. We'll show this video during an upcoming weekend worship service. Hopefully we'll then put the video on our web site. There's a section on the web site dedicated to the construction project. www.sugarcreekfmc.org Check it out when you have time.