Big Churches

According to a Wall Street Journal article published today based on research from Hartford institute of Religion Research, there are 740 churches in the US with weekly attendance > 2,000 people. Here's the breakdown by state.

California 178
Texas 157
Florida 85
Georgia 73
Illinois 46
Ohio 44 (Soon to be 45 when we relocate in Oct/ Nov of this year!)
Michigan 43
N Carolina 39
Indiana 31

Why are these churches so successful? Thoughts?

1st Check-in was a Success

This past weekend was a mile stone for our church and our Fellowship One journey. We went live with Check-in for the first time. We had a first impressions training event that was open to our team and to other churchs. All of our Fellowship One training, planning and practice paid off. Check-in was very smooth and fun. The two wireless check-in stations that greeted attendees as the entered created quite a positive buzz. This is leading to very positive talk throughout the church on how cool our new system is. (Great Buy-in!) We hope to go live in our Grade Level weekend activities within two weeks. I'll keep you posted.

Big thanks to K, Tracy, and Leigh Ann for a very smooth roll out of our Check-in system!

Get your next years tax refun now!!!

Got your attention? Good.

As of last week, the IRS had processed 75 million 2005 tax returns. And a whopping 90% of them called for refunds. The average refund or as i call it an interest free loan to the government is: $2,314

Here's an idea. You can get next year's refund in installments starting next payday. All you have to do is file a new W-4 form, Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate, with your employer and adjust the number of allowances you are claiming. You can claim an allowance for yourself, your spouse and your dependents, for example. Each allowance basically makes $3,300 of your annual income off-limits for withholding. Claiming extra "allowances" on your W-4 will automatically push down withholding, which in turn will push up your take-home pay. You'll enjoy instant gratification from a do-it-yourself pay raise.
Good idea! I agree! :-)

If you want to read more, check out this artical from Kiplinger

Google your Phone #

Did you know you when you type your phone number into google search it pulls up your name? Intersting thing is if your street address and name comes up, click on "map" to get detailed driving directions to your front door. As convenient as this may appear, the safety issues are unnerving. You really should remove this information from Google. To do so, simply click "phonebook results for your phone number. This will take you to a detail page and on this page click on the link that says "If you would like to have your PhoneBook listing removed, you can do so using our PhoneBook Removal Form"

Millionaire Facts

Who wants to be a millionaire? Lot's of people dream about this goal. I must admit, its appealing to me as well. Most people don't know how to get there. If you think the lottery is your only ticket to millionaire status or Deal or no Deal, your wrong! The key is to avoid debt and patiently invest over the long term. A little invested consistently goes a long way over time.

A recent survey reported by CNN found the number of millionaires (households with a net worth of over $1 million) in the United States hit an all-time high 8.9 million people last year.
How did these people do it?

More than half said their wealth is the result of long-term wealth accumulation.
Over 60 percent of their dollars ($1.4 million out of the average net worth of $2.2 million) are in investment assets.

Almost 70 percent of those millionaires own mutual funds.

The survey also found that the median age of this group is 58 years old. These people didn't have to work until age 90. They had a plan and just started investing early and often enough. After a while, compound interest made the money grow even faster.

Approximately 90 percent of the millionaires in America are first-generation millionaires; they didn't inherit their wealth, they built it. It is very possible to become rich. Get on a written plan, live on less than you make and invest, invest, invest.

The typical American family with a $40,000 annual salary has an $850 house payment, two car payments totaling $530, a student loan payment of $165, $185 in credit card payments and $120 for miscellaneous payments. All those payments total $1,850.
That money, invested at 12 percent, would grow to $1 million in 15 years. After 20 years, it becomes $2 million. Cool!

Get started today!

401(k)'s are they worth it?

In a single word, Yes. For a number of reasons and it's Biblical. Proverbs says "A wise man saves for the future but a foolish man spends whatever he gets."

First of all you have to have a plan for your retirement. Most employers today offer retirement plans to their workers. Any amount you put into your employer's qualified retirement plan goes in before taxes are taken out of your pay. This means more earring power. And guess what? All your earnings grow tax deferred.

In addition to tax free and tax deferment is many employers match at least a portion of your 401(k) contribution. If yours does, take full advantage of this. Its FREE MONEY!

I invest the in my employer sponsored retirement plan and I take full advantage of their matching contribution. My additional retirement dollars are invested in a ROTH IRA. More about that another time.

To find out more about 401(k)'s check out this web site www.401khelpcenter.com

Teens Test on Money - Test Score = F

According to a recent survey, teenagers don’t know much when it comes to money. High school seniors were given a test on basic economics and finance. The average test score was a mere 52.4%. (Ouch!)

Here are some of the results from the survey:
“Only 14.2 percent correctly said that stocks likely would offer the higher growth over 18 years of saving for a child's education.

44.8 percent thought a U.S. savings bond (a very conservative investment) would offer the highest growth.”

“Just 22.7 percent knew that income tax may be charged on the interest earned from a savings account at a bank if a person's income is high enough.”


Should schools require finance courses to graduate? I think so. Many students will never use 1/2 of what they are tought in school but 100% of them need to understand finances! I’m curious what you think about the issue. Please share your thoughts.

Fellowship One (day 2)

No don't worry, I'm not going to blog every day from this point forward regarding our experience with Fellowship One. I do want to share that after two full days of use of the ASP, I'm very excited. The system has brought a whole new level of accountability to our staff. The reporting is truly remarkable. I'll admit the matching of contributions the first time is taking a long time. We anticipate it going much much faster next time as checking accounts will already be match with donors.

A great big thanks to Mark Lindsley from Fellowship One. He has been great to work with and he's extremely knowledgeable.

I know there will be growing pains to work through. There is with anything new. As we continue to grow and get ready to relocate, I know Fellowship One is the church management system that's right for us!

We're Live! (Fellowship One)

Today's the day. All the planning and training are being put to use as I type this. We started entering contributions at 8:30 a.m. this morning. I love the check scanner already. I must admit it will take some getting use to as we have had to change some processes. That's not a bad think it's just different. I need to remind myself that to repeat over and over again why we have made the switch to F1. It will allow us to care for people better than we ever had before!

I'm off to help our admin staff enter information from our worship welcome cards into F1. Pray for me!