Onward and Upward

With my two bicycle rides this weekend, I'm crossed the 1,000 mile mark for the year. This is a big goal for me each year and I'm very excited to have passed 1,000 miles in July. Lots of riding left this year.

Since it's Monday, my focus turns back to the issues at hand. Fellowship One, the move, and July's month end.

Fellowship One - Looking at rolling out check in for infant through K in September. This will require us to add two more check-in station and to add volunteers.

The move - Thinking about this is almost a daily if not hourly. Last week, we had a large dumpster brought in and each ministry did some spring cleaning. We had lots of neighborhood dumpster divers taking home stuff we didn't need or want to take with us in the move.

July's month end. July has tipically been our lowest giving month of the year. Lot's of people on vacation and off doing other family things. I'm encouraged that more and more people are mailing their giving into the church and more are enrolling in our on line giving program. It's safe and easy to use.

Swing on over to our church's web site and check out the building progress when you get time. www.sugarcreekfmc.org

Budget time?

Is it time to look at 2007's budget already? Well yes and no. As we prepare to move into our new church three or so months from now, I'm wondering how realalistic our 2006's budget will be from this point forward. It was based on being in this building for the entire year. The fact is we will spend the last quarter of the year in the new building and still owning this building. This fact has prompted some preliminary discussion from the powers that be as to what does our 2007's budget look like? This kind of question gets my accounting juices flowing. (I love this kind of stuff.) I have this information and our construction costs ananlysis throught the balance of our project ready in time for our Trustees meeing on August 8th.

In the mean time, I'm riding my bicycle this weekend in the Sweet Corn Chalenge along with 300+ other riders. The distance on this ride will put me over the 1,000 mile mark for this year.

Key meeting

Today was a strange day at work. As we move closer and closer to our move in date into the new church, I'm attending more and more meetings. Today I lead a meeting with our facilities team and three representatives from our door company. They wanted our team to tell them how to "key" the doors. My first response was we have your keyless access system why do we need keys? They smiled politely and said we needed the keys as a backup system and for the doors that didn't have the keyless system. I said great. Let's just have one key then that opens all or any door. They smiled at me again and politely suggested that wasn't a good idea. So I decided I better do what I should have done from the star, sit quietly and listen to what these three fellows had to say. Do you remember Charlie Browns teacher from any of the Peanuts cartoons? That's about all I heard for the first 15 minutes. Ok, it wasn't that bad. We worked though some questions received some good guidance and they left us with drawings and door schedules. Our facilities team is going to meet tomorrow to "Key" the doors. Wish us well.

I have returned

I'm back from vacation and ready to go!

My family and I had a wonderful time in southern West Virginia. We did lots of fun outdoor activities. The highlight for me was my picture taking and the black bear that came out to say high to us while we were ATVing. No I didn't get a picture of the black bear. Our guide had my camera and we were all to worried about keeping our distance from the bear.

Here's one of my favorite picture I took with the help of the self timer on my camera. My tripod was in the water.







Have a great week!

Do you have an Emergency Fund?

An emergency fund is the first and most important step in any financial plan. I've had my emergency fund fully funded for about three months now. (Thank you God) That emergency fund give me a great peaceful feeling knowing those funds are there if a financial emergency arrives. Why did I blog on this? Because I came across a survey from Harris Interactive . In their survey they point out.

"Almost half (45%) of American households do not have enough savings to cover 3 months of expenses."

"Nearly 1 in 10 (9%) do not have any savings at all."

"13% say they generally save none of their monthly household income in liquid accounts".

Furthermore, of the people who are saving, they arenaÂ’t necessarily saving for emergencies.
"Nearly three in ten adults who have liquid savings (29%) are saving for a vacation, the survey found. And fifteen percent are doing so to fund a special event, such as a wedding or birthday party."

So, do you have an emergency fund? I hope so. If not, start today!

Vacation Time

Ok. The family and I are headed off to WV for what I'd call Dad's vacation. Over the next few days, we'll be enjoying God's wonderful creation doing the following activities

1. White Water Rafting
2. ATVing
3. Horse Back Riding
4. Hiking
5. Swimming
6. Taking lots of pictures

This is my kind of vacation. My wife on the other hand has already made an appointment with her chiropractor when we return.

How about you? Are you going on a family vacation this year? Are you staying close to home with gas prices the way they are? (Our trip is less than 4 hours from home)

Room Numbers?

Each passing day brings the move into our new church closer and closer. We are getting more and more request for room use in the new church. The problem with this is we haven't given much thought as of yet to how to best do this. I guess we need to start assigning room number to each room. Does anyone have any good ideas on room number conventions? Do you number your rooms by section? Does every door need to have a number? I'd really appreciate your thoughts on this one as I'm going to be working on this while traveling Wednesday.

On Wednesday, I'll be touring a coffee roosters plant. To a coffee drinker like me it will be like Christmas day to a 10 year old. I'm going to Caruso's Coffee up near Cleveland Ohio. I'll keep you posted on this one.

Helping Hands

Today it was my turn to help. I had a two hour lunch with a local senior pastor today. It was time well invested. You see, as of late I've spent lots of time on the phone and visiting other church leaders trying to learn and grow from their experiences. Today it was my turn to invest in another. Over lunch, he asked some great questions and I hope I gave good answers. The church he leads is were we were a few years back and I understand some of the challenges he faces. The greatest thing about my time with this local church leader is that we were working together! Trying to help each other. That gets me jacked. I know SFMC is sometimes referred to as the "big church" and that can stir up ill feelings. It really shouldn't. We are all on the same team and the staff of SFMC is willing to share all we know because so many other have shared with us.

How about you? Do you share what you know with others? Personally? Professionally? If so, how do you share? If not, why not?

Happy 4th - I think.

Happy 4th of July to you! I hope this is a day of family and friends. That's the game plan for me. So why an I blogging today? One word "Rain". My family and I have big plans of kayaking down the Tuscarawas river. This would be the first time my two kids ever did anything like this. I've told them when I was a kid my friends and I would "tube" down the river a few times each summer. My kids look at me like I'm from another planet.

So with all this rain and no signs of letting up, I'll continue to sip my Starbucks coffee (received as a gift for my big 40th) grab a book and enjoy this quiet time while the rest of my family is still sleeping.

Next on my agenda is watching the Tour de France on OLN and wishing I'd be able to get a bike ride in tonight.

One final note, Do you know how many people signed the declaration of independence? . . . . . . . (56) Happy 4th!