What are you thankful for?

As 2006 is about to end, I took some time to think of the things I'm most thankful for this year. Here's my top 10

10. Bicycling over 1,500 miles again this year
9. My two dogs (Lumpy & Gino)
8. Being on staff at NewPointe Community Church
7. Praying regularly with my two kids
6. My Small Group ( I love those guys)
5. Good Health
4. Coffee (I'm now roasting my own at home)
3. Financial Peace (No consumer debt)
2. My Wife
1. Being used by God to make a difference in peoples lives. (There is no feeling in the world that can match this.)

Please take some time this weekend to come up with your own top 10 list.

Happy New Year!

I'm still here. . .

Thanks for checking back in on my Blog. I've been silent here since Nov. 17th. It hasn't been a lack of wanting to blog.

As you know, we have moved into our new facility and until Christmas, I haven't had the time or energy to get blogging.

The move and the first three weeks in the new building have gone better than anyone here on earth could have hoped for. (Thanks God!) Each week that passes, we continue to make improvements. Progress is great. In no way did we anticipate the increase in attendance. We've gone from averaging 1,500 to averaging 2,100 a weekend.

There is an energy and excitement seen and felt by everyone in the building. I'm an so grateful to be a part of what God is doing through NewPointe Community Church. If you haven't checked out our web site, I invite you to do so. www.newpointe.org

What is a blow category?

I recently received a request to explain the "Blow Category" in my budget. This was a great question. Thanks to the one who asked!

The night before I receive my bi-weekly paycheck, I sit down with my spreadsheet and allocate 100% of my paycheck. I plan were every dollar of it will go. As we all know, no matter how well we plan, unexpected thinks come up. For example, hey dad school pictures are tomorrow I need $20 for them. This is where the "Blow Category" in my budget comes into play.

Each bi-weekly pay, I budget $50 for Blow. I have an envelope that I keep in our home safe, you do have a home safe don't you? When unexpected things pop up, I go to the blow envelope. If there's money we can "Blow" it if no money, no blowing it.

If I find that the amount of cash is growing in the blow envelope to say $80 or more, I will allocate zero dollars out of the next pay for "Blow". Every once and a while when our blow envelope his $80, my wife and I take the family out for a treat. (unplanned dinner or a movie. Something fun.)

I hope I explained it. One last thought. If you don't plan on blowing some cash and you are trying to budget, you'll drive yourself crazy. So budget in some blow money.

Next post I'll explain the "commission" category in my budget.

Silo? What's with that

Ok, I'm sure you have heard it more than once in the ministry world that we can't be silo's. We need to be doing ministry together and not by ourselves. Does this apply to our church sign?

This Silo is at the entrance to our new church. It's a land mark in the area and we wanted to us that to our advantage. So, your looking at our road sign. What do you think?

Are we creative or what?

If you want to see it up close, you can come help us move the next few weekends. The 26th is the big move. Monday the 27th is the first business day in the new office. Say a prayer for us lots to move.

Invited to another's small group

A few weeks back I was asked by a small group to come give a talk on finances. I thought great, two of my favorite things. (Small Groups and Finances)

It was great I sensed true community between the group members and a desire to know God more. The just finished studying The Treasure Principal. This book will rock your world!

A member of the group asked me to share some tips on finances and I happily accepted the invitation. First I walked them through Dave Ramseys "Baby Steps" I'm a real believer in them. Here are the first three steps:

1. $1,000 in an emergency fund
2. Pay off debt using the debt snow ball
3. Save for retirement.

I also shared how my wife and I allocate our biweekly pay. We tell every dollar where to go before we get our paychecks. We even have a "blow" category. Of course me being a tech junky and an accountant, my allocation plan is in Excel. I'd be happy to share it with you if your interested.

It was great and a privilege to have been part of that small group tonight. I think I'll give my group members a call just to touch base before our next get together.

Cool to have voted today

I left the house at 6:25 a.m. today. I'm an early bird. Headed the 1/2 a mile down the road to go vote. I was the third person there. After a quick show of my drivers licenses and my signature, I was handed a credit card looking thing and pointed in the direction of a laptop looking device.

It was way cool. I put the card in the slot and instruction on how to proceed came up in less than 5 seconds. I was off and voting. Being a self proclaimed techie, I loved it. The touch screen was great and there was no doubt as I was voting as to checking the right box.

After I went through all my selections, there was a review screen that allowed me to check my selections and make any corrections. Then I pressed the button "cast my ballot"

The credit card looking thing popped out of the machine and I return that to the poll worker. My only disappointment is I didn't get one of those "I voted today stickers" as I left.

I'm happy to see voting has finally embraced technology. I'll really be happy when we are able to vote from home via the internet. Will that ever happen? Who knows.

Speed Stacking with my Daughter

Tonight my daughter Katie and I spend some quality time together. She "helped" me work the sound board at church tonight during our Small Group Leaders event - EQUIP. I love small group. That's a story for another time.

I love the one-on-one time with my kids in the car. It's a time of great conversation and Q & A. Tonight also included a happy meal on the way home. (For Katie not me.) The only thing I enjoy at the golden arches is their coffee.

During the ride home, my daughter asked me if she could teach me speed stacking. I said sure but first you'll have to show me what that is.

Speed stacking is where you take 12 plastic cups and build pyramids with them. The more complex the pyramid the better and of course it must be done fast. I came to find out my daughter is her class champion. I soon found out why. She was flying with different combinations of stacks.

Then it was my turn. Let's just say we needed safety glasses because there were cups flying everywhere. I guess my hand eye coordination isn't what it use to be. Katie and I had great laughs. I'll have to stick to stacks of three cups for now. It will take me some time to get to the 12 cup stack. Chess anyone?

How long does it take to pay for Christmas?

Christmas is a wonderful time of the year. And as my wife reminded me this weekend, it's time to start buying gifts. As always, we put a little back each month so gift buying time isn't a stain on the family budget.

I came across a great article in my Sound Mind Investing newsletter relating to Christmas buying. It tell you how many days you have to work in a year to pay for all those great gifts. It assumes a 7 hr work day, who works 7 hours?

How many days on the job will it take.

Assuming $10 earned per hour and $1,000 spent on Christmas = 24 days

Assuming $12 earned per hour and $1,000 spent on Christmas = 20 days

So if you haven't saved for gifts yet, what can you do to minimize the damage and keep your budget on track? Here are a few gift ideas that could be worth more to the gift getter than anything you could purchase.

1. A gift of service. Make up a coupon book (running errands, house work, shopping)
2. Make a gift. Are you good at something? Photography, candle making, cook a great meal for them
3. Gift of time together. Take a relative out for coffee. When was the last time you just sat and talked with an aunt or uncle?

Non stress time together at Christmas is a true gift to friends and loved ones. It's worth much more than anything money could buy.

Big news in the church world and taxes

In August, Congress inacted the massive Pension Protection Act of 2006. The provisions of this act take effect immediately.

The biggest impact of this act and church's is this

If you have people in your church who are age 70 1/2 or older who have an IRA(s), they can make TAX-FREE distributions of up to $100,000 from a traditional IRA or Roth IRA to a tax-exempt church or charity. This provision is effective through 2007.

In a nut shell, the church wins and the donor wins but there is only a two year window so don't let 2006 go by without getting this information into the hands of your church body who reached age 70 1/2.

Unreal shopping experience

Yesterday, my wife did some cloths shopping at the mall. (mall's that's another blog for another time.) Because of how we allocate our paychecks, we tell every dollar where to go, and we had a specific amount budgeted for cloths this pay.

When my wife checked out at the register, she used the balance of what we had allocated for cloths and put that amount on our debit card and she paid for the balance in cash from her biweekly commission. (Again another blog topic at another time.) The sales clerk must have thought my wife was trying to hide the purchase from me. The clerk suggested three ways my wife could keep me from knowing what she purchased. (I'm not making his up.)

1. Put her new purchase on under her current cloths so when my wife comes in the house, I wouldn't see her purchase.
2. Put the cloths in the trunk of the car and wait for me to leave then bring the cloths in the house.
3. Dispose of the department store bag before she got home and maybe I wouldn't notice.

I find it unbelievable that one someone would suggest things like this and two that people would even think like this. Another reason why we must tell our money where to go or it will leave on its own. Thanks Dave Ramsey!

Recharge your Batteries. . .

As we coming to the end of the construction phase of our new church, situations, questions, and decisions are moving at light speed. I know this is just a season and much like fall, the next season is just around the corner.

In all of this, I exercise to stay energized. Exercise clears my mind. My sweat of choice is riding my bike. I'm less than 50 miles away from my yearly goal of 1,500 miles. I should have that in my next ride or maybe two rides. Walking my dogs is a daily activity. I'm really surprised how just walking helps keep my weight stable.

I also love listening to podcasts on my mp3 player. This is one of the greatest inventions of my lifetime. I recently purchased a FM transmitter for my mp3 player for use in my car. Now I'm legal. (I'll say no more on this.)

So what do you do to recharge your batteries? I hope whatever it is you do it on a regular basis. It will help you to focus on the big picture and not get gobbled up by the details of everyday life.

Budget Time!

Well, it's that time of year. Budgeting Season. As I'm closing the quarter, ok trying to close the quarter, I'm also looking ahead to 2007. Next year is bringing with it some unique challenges in our budget process. As we move into our new facility what impact will this have on our budgets? Truth is, it's very hard to tell.

Conventional wisdom says, our people numbers will go up and our giving will go down. This is playing a key factor in my projections for 2007. As a starting point for our budgets, I'm working off the assumption of a 30% increase in attendance and a (15%) decrease in offerings. I believe this is a "typical" trend based on my conversations with other church's and church consultants who I've spoken with on this topic.

I've looked back to our construction costs to estimate our electric and natural gas for the coming year. Since we will still own our current facility, I have to budget utility costs for this building also.

One very exciting thing for me is that our Worship & Creative Arts Ministry has already submitted to me their 2007 budget. I should give them a prize. Since I didn't budget for a prize a big thank you here on my blog is all they get.

If you are interested in seeing the budget sheets I give our various ministries to use, send me a email and I'll forward you a copy.

Have a great budgeting season!

Kudos to Church Staffing

If you have been following my blog for a while you know we are getting ever so closer to moving into our new church. (Yea God!) As such, we currently have three staff positions open and posted on our web site www.sugarcreekfmc.org

We decided to test the waters at www.churchstaffing.com and post our Service programmer position. Kudos to Churchstaffing! In one day, I received 11 resumes via email. That to me is very impressive as this position is what I would call "specialized". The really cool think is that none of these applicants would have found us without our listing.

Now if someone would apply for one of our open staff positions based on my blog, well then that would be unbelievable. (Anyone from Indiana wanting to move to Ohio?)

Online Bill Pay

As I sit here waiting for the Ohio State game to start, I thought I'd pay a few bills and as I was doing so, I wonder many people take advantage on line bill payment?

I've been baking on line for more than 8 years now and I love it. I just scheduled my credit card payment (yes, I have one credit card used for mostly business purchases. I do not carry a balance on my cc and I never use it for unplanned purchases.) I'm a big Dave Ramsey fan! I digress. Here are some reasons why I bank on line:

1. I can schedule exactly when the payment will reach the intended party.
2. No envelopes or stamps ( I love saving money).
3. My online bill pay is free through my bank.
4. They keep track of all the payments I've sent. I can pull up a years worth of payment to my gas company to see how much we spend in this category each year.
5. I love technology and this is a great way to make it work for me.

Putting on my Church Business Administrators hat, I see more and more "bank" checks each year from people in our church using bill pay services. We offered electronic giving for a few years now and that's been great as well.

Time to walk my dog then I'll be all ready for the Bucks! (Ohio State)

To POS or not to POS

We only have 7 weeks until we take over our building. Lot's to get done. I guess that's why I wake up at 2 a.m. and think I should get out of bed and get to work. Don't get me wrong. I'm energized by all that's taking place. I thank God every day that I get to be a part of what he is doing through Sugarcreek.

My latest 2 a.m. thing had me thinking about our cafe and how to intergrated the accounting for it into our church's books. (I still haven't decided the which way to go on this.) But I'm getting ahead of myself. Ok, POS - Point of Sale. This consists of a computer, scanner, cash drawer, expensive software. . . . This is the first issue at hand for our cafe. At least in my mind.

I've received some great suggestions on what POS sytems others are using in their cafes. Thanks Andy and Matt. We will get there sometime. For starters, mostly for cost reasons . . . . . ok totaly for cost reasons, we are going to start simple. We'll start out with 2 ROYAL alpha583cx Heavy Duty Cash Register I found the best price at JR.com. $179.99 Thanks Froogle.com



I think this simple solution will give me the reporting I need as it comes with software that will allow me to download the sales transactions into my notebook. Even right into Quickbooks if I choose.

Now what to serve at the cafe and what to charge? Decisions, decisions. What I do know is profits from the cafe will go to missions.

Next Hire . . .

During a break at the IT roundtable, I looked up Granger's "retail manager" Susan Chipman. She was very helpful and gave me lots to think about as we get ready to hire a food service coordinator.

We just posted this opening on our web site. In addition to coming up with great interveiw questions, I'm also looking for a POS system. Any suggesgtions on either issue?

I'm also trying to process how to best integrate the cafe's accounting into the church's accounting.

I love this kind of stuff.

I asked at the roundtable if anyone heard of bookstore manager (as we have a bookstore as well) and lots of people heard of it. That's all I'll share here. So no need to suggest this software.

Back from the IT Round Table

I'm back in the office after Granger Trip. My head is still spinning. It was very fruitful in multiple ways.

Here's a few key items / pointer that resonated with me.

1. Church's are size and larger have at least one full time IT person. (At this time, our IT Superman is has other responsibilities.
2. Most church's have laptops that can be checked out. Very few staff members have a laptop assigned to them.
3. No local adimistration of PC's. (i.e. no installing software unless the IT department installs it.)
4. No personal inkjet printers.
5. Help Desk software / Ticketing software is a must. (We are looking into that today.)
6. Most church's that were running Fellowship One has a back-up ISP.

As always with this kind of thing, the best part about the event was the networking and knowing there are other church IT departments and people who have similar needs and "opportunities".

Greetings from Wired Churches.com

Good morning.

I'm waiting for the church IT round table to start. I'm jacked. About 20 of us got together last night informally to "hang out". I learned so much that I could drive home now and still be very blessed by the networking and knowledge I gained.

We are sitting in Grangers Jungle room. This is Dave Mast our very own IT guy. We are early. What can I say. . . . . It's always better to be early than on time.

Road Trip

I'll be hitting the road Tuesday with our IT manager, Dave Mast. Dave and I are headed to Granger Community Church for a church IT round table. Way Cool!

SFMC is the smallest in weekend attendance numbers that will be present at this event. The largest church is Seacoast at 7,500.

What exactly is a roundtable? I'm glad you asked.

DEFINITION OF A ROUNDTABLE: roundtable is a peer-learning event where the participants are both teachers and learners. A roundtable is:

o Small enough to emphasize interactive learning

o Led by a facilitator and peer

o Includes participants who have an affinity with each other

o Does not include a strong agenda beyond sharing knowledge Roundtable members are selectively invited with less than 25 per group

PURPOSE OF THIS ROUNDTABLE
1. To meet other innovators· Encouragement - "I am not alone." "Here I am understood."· Confidence - "I'm not so crazy after all."· Relationship - Develop on-going friendships

2. To advance the diffusion of innovation in a given topic area· Sharing knowledge, lessons learned, and experiences· Sorting out the big picture. How does it all fit? Where are we= going?· Synergy of new ideas, new perspectives, and new dreams

3. To facilitate collaboration· Explore opportunities for teaming up to accomplish common goals· "Network" - Learn who knows what and who is doing what

I'll update you from Granger. . . . . Pray for Dave & I

Thanks

Basketball at Church? . . . . It's not what you think

Today, our weekly all staff meeting was two hours. Usually our weekly all staff is only an hour and here's the agenda.

1. We share stories of life change that happened last week. (This is what makes life great!)
2. We communicate with staff on what's going on so we can be informed and inform others.
3. We pray together and for each other.

Today was different. No we didn't play basketball. We had the defending, two years in a row, Highland Hawks basketball coach Dave Schlabach speak to us. He came to share his leadership principals with us. I was very excited to hear from him and to see if these principals would be transferable to us.

I very surprised. He really didn't talk about basketball at all. His principals were all about leading people. And man did these principals apply to me. Here were my take aways from the church.

1. Have a passion for what you do.
2. surround yourself with Energy Givers
3. Give people a roadmap where to go
4. Make your goals big
5. Never be on time, always be early
6. Sacrifice is needed for special things to happen
7. Understand your role and do it very well (not everyone is the shooter)
8. Ask for help. No one knows it all or sees it all
9. Don't assume people know their role. Help them see it
10. with a "big win" thank the smallest contributors first. Make them feel like hero's. Everyone will thank the person out front.

I know if I would diligently work on these ten things, I'd be a better leader!

What is most important to you?

I woke up this morning thinking about the same thing as when I went to bed last night. Life moving in fast forward. In my quiet time, God asked me what am I willing to say no to in order to slow down a little bit? At that moment, I didn't have an answer.

In doing some reading in success magazine, I was reading a profile on Chris Gardner. At 27, he was homeless and living on the subways of Chicago. He's now 52 and president of his own company. He said something in his article that stuck with me. "Money is the least significant aspect of success. It's more important to look in the mirror and go Yeah. A lot of folks with a whole lot of money can't do that." His quote brought me right back to God's word. Your treasure is where your heart is. I say all this to say, God's asking me to say no to a few things and to check where my heart is.

When I slowed down and thought about what God challenged me with this morning, he brought me back to it's all about relationships. That's what's most important. My relationship with him and with people.

Did you miss me?

Ok, I know it's been some time since I was last here. To be honest I was thinking about giving up the blog world for a while. I guess in a way that's just what I did.

Over the last few day's I've had more than a few people ask me where my blog has been. The last person who asked was Jeff. Jeff's our sales rep at Fellowship One. (Hi Jeff!)

In talking with Jeff today he said life feels like it is in fast forward. I totally agreed and thought to myself that's a very accurate statement about the lives of most of the people I know.

As I type this, I just finished doing some consulting work, my wife is on her way to pick our son up from football. I've put my daughter to bed for the third time tonight and our puppy is finally sleeping.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade my life with anyone if I could.

I'll be blogging again on a regular basis. We are only 10 weeks away from opening weekend in our new building. I'll keep you posted on this from my point of view. Pray for us!

Riding Wet?

If you don't know by now, I'm passionate about bicycling. My licenses plates say "LV2PDL" . . . . . love to pedal. Tonight, myself and two friends hit the road and drive two hours north to bed down in a red roof inn in anticipation for 6 a.m. Saturday morning. At that time, we will join hundreds of other cycling enthusiasts and head west along the shores of Lake Erie.

At the end of the day, hopefully around 1 or 2 pm, we will have completed the first day of a two day ride having ridden 100 miles. (75 + an optional 25 the first day) It will be time for a shower, food, and then on a bus for free admission to cedar point. I think cedar point is better than Disney. Lots of childhood memories at cedar point.

After the point, its back on the bus and off to bed. Sunday is the return bike ride back to Cleveland. When it's all said and done, I'll have 175 miles more to add to my total from this weekend ride.

Pray that the rain stays away. It's not looking good for Saturday.

Church Construction Road Trip

Today our Senior Pastor and I jumped in the car and headed about 45 minutes up the road to visit with First Christian Church of Canton Ohio. They are in a relocation project just like we are and both church's' are set to open within one week of each other. Cool! Dwith and I met Matt Chambers at their construction site for a tour. Thanks Matt!

Talking with Matt and having him walk us through his building was very cool. We've both experienced a lot of the same issues during the construction process and we are both very humbled and grateful for what God is doing!

In a couple of weeks, it will be my turn to host Matt and his Senior Pastor for a walk through our new building. I hope we will be a source of encouragement for them.

We adopted!

This weekend was very special for our family. After months and months of begging, our 10 year old daughter finally got her puppy. On Saturday, our family took a trip to the county dog pound and we adopted a 8 week old puppy. We named him "Gino".

My daughter made all the right pleas for months and months. "I'll walk it, feed it, and take care of it". I'll have to admit, she's done a great job of this until last night. She finally gave into sleep. I was the one who took Gino out 3 times last night. 11:30 pm; 2:30 pm, 5:00 am.

Today / tonight it will be my turn to give into sleep. That's ok, I'm a dog lover. It was a condition of marriage. . . . That's a story for another time.

Coke or Pepsi

By all estimates, we are 90 - 120 days from moving into our new church. That will be a wonderful day! In the mean time, lots of stuff to get done before the move. Today I had the opportunity to listen to a proposal from Coke. It was great, they made a nice presentation and brought lots of samples of their new milk drinks.

The milk drinks are still sitting on my desk unopened. I'm not to sure about dairy products that don't need to be refrigerated and have a shelf life of 6 months. The reps from Coke tell me the kids love them. I'll take their word for it.

I've got a call into the Pepsi rep and I'm waiting for their proposal. If all things were equal, who would you go with? Coke or Pepsi?

It doesn't get any better. . .

As I'm about to finish leading my fifth Financial Peace University Class, God has reviled to me that I'm doing what he has created me to do. Helping people with their financial lives.

I'm still jacked after having a conversation with a couple a few weeks ago. They completed an FPU almost two years ago. In that time they have paid off $25,000. WOW! Not only that, this couple is leading others through FPU in their home.

There's no grater joy in life than being used by God!

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!

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.

Rent or Buy?

If you are into personal finance I'm sure you have come across this question or terminology before. This time, its with a little twist. See in our new church, we are moving in in five months, we may have need for 100 round tables. We own 20. So we either purchase 80 more at $97 each for a total of close to $8,000 or we rent them for $8.50 each. We may rent as little as zero times a year or as much as 4 times a year. The other issue issue is storage. Now we have already accounted for the storage space in the new construction but if we don't have to store 80 tables we can use this space for other stuff. One think I'm learning real quick is storage space is always a premium. So even if we did have a need for 80 tables 4 time a year we could rent them for 2.6 years before we would spend the $8,000. Last thing to consider, If we don't purchase the 80 tables now, it frees up that $8,000 for other construction / furniture needs.

What would you do?

What a profitable day

It's almost time to hit the road and head back to Ohio. (300 miles to get home) The day was very profitable for myself, my wife and for what we are going to be bringing back to our church. I did meet up with my wife for lunch. Other than that time, I haven't seen her all day. She said she's learning a great deal from Granger's communications person and she's made a few key contacts from other churches.

I owe Andy a great deal of thanks as I took up most of his morning. He was very gracious to me and I appreciate that very much. We talked Fellowship One stuff, Microsoft Map Point stuff and Podcasts. He shared with me a few of his favorites and I did the same with him.

1. The Creative Leader
2. Business Greatest Strategies
3. Manager-Tools
4. Catalyst
5. HBR Idea Cast
6. Blogging Church

If you get a chance check out a few of them. I hope they are "profitable" for you as well.

Road Trip 1 down. . . Road Trip 2 in progress

Greeting all!

My road tip Wednesday was very profitable. We learned a lot and had great success networking with other Church Facility Coordinators. Bill's got lots of work, great connections and a game plan to implement! Mission accomplished.

I'm now on road trip #2. I'm blogging to you from South Bend IN. I'm in a hotel room with my wife. She's attending a Church communications seminar at Granger and I'm going to be meeting with some Granger staff. So we are mixing time away from the kids with work.

We just returned from dinner. Little did I know how close we were to Michigan. As we drove north from here about two miles and there was the sign welcome to Michigan. I forgot to roll down my window and . . . as we entered that state. Anyway, as I type I've opened up my Franklin planner and started my list of questions for tomorrow. Look out Andy, I've got lots of questions. We'll see how many I get through as I want to respect his time. Off to some TV to relax.

Road Trip

Today Bill, our new facilities Manager are off to Fort Wayne In for a Church Facilities forum sponsored by Granger Community Church. I'm very excited for a number of reasons. First off our Facilities Manager's position is newly created and Bill has been on the job for 3 weeks now. Secondly, I hope to network and gain lost of knowledge from the 12 churches that are going to represented in addition to ours. Our church SFMC with a name change coming soon, will be moving from our 46,000 sq ft. Facility five miles down the road to a newly constructed campus of 105,000 sq ft. If' your interested is some pictures your can click on the link here. I'm very excited about the move and also stressed. (Just being real) So say a pray that the trip is very fruitful!

Got Organized . . . How about you?

This past week, I attended a Franklin Covey seminar. Thanks so much to Adventure Harley Davidson for opening up this training to management team of SFMC. It was very much appreciated.

The day was full of useful information and I'm so pumped! This is exactly what I've been needing in my life. I can now trash the three ring binder and the spiral bound notebooks. Our Franklin Covey instructor Vicki was great. She even showed me how to index important information so months later I can quickly retrieve it. She also got me to right down the "big rocks" in my life as well as my roles and value. I share more on this in anther blog. If you are looking for a great way to keep your personal and professional life organized the Franklin Covey system gets my endorsement. Happy planning and Oh ya, Happy Mothers day. (I'm blogging away why my wife is napping. She deserves the rest!)

8 Things Successful People Do

I was listening to a podcast some time ago and I took notes. I had some time today and I decided to clean up my office. Just finished month end and needed a mental break. Anyway here's the notes I took.

8 Things Successful People Do

1. Focused around your goals (Alignment)
2. Be the most positive & Passionate person you know
3. Work Smart!
4. N.S.I. - Never Stop innovating
5. Use your Time Well - Ben Franklin "Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of."
6. Add outrageous Value to Others
7. Invest in other People
8. Be devoted to Excellence

30 year mortgage? 40 year mortgage (what?) 50 year (Are you kidding?)

I'm a big Dave Ramsey fan. So much so that I lead, on average 2 Financial Peace University classes per year. Dave preaches no more that a 15 year fixed rate mortgage. Any longer time period than 15 years and you can't afford the house. Recently, I've come across many articles and blogs talking about the new 50 year mortgage.

A 50 year and for that matter a 40 year mortgage is nuts. Look at this example.

A $200,000 mortgage with a 30-year fixed rate at 6.63% would cost you $1,281.28 per month.Total interest paid: $261,262

A $200,000 mortgage with a 50-year fixed rate at 6.63% would cost you $1,147.06 per month.Total interest paid: $488,236

Why didn't I show you the number at a 15-year mortgage. Because if a 30-year, 40-year, or 50-year mortgage is making financial sense to you, there's no reason to crank the numbers for 15-years.

Gas prices and the church

As a church business administrator, I like to keep my eye on the finances of the church. Hey, That's one of the reasons I'm on staff. Finances are my passion area. (That's a blog for another day.) Anyway, I've been wondering for some time now how these high gas prices are going to effect peoples lifestyle. Will high gas prices effect our church's weekly offering? Only time will tell. I hope and pray that people live on less than they make.

In reading today's newspaper, I did get a little insight on how gas prices are effectively people. According to an AP poll, the number of people who expect rising gas prices to cause financial problems jumped from 51% a year ago to 70% today. Wow! The real shocker is that the increase from last year came mostly from those earring more than $50,000 per year.

People are concentrating on gas prices only. We are very lucky in this part of the country that we had a very mild winter. This kept our heating costs in check.

If you find yourself worried about the high costs of the basics, then take some time in the next few week, have a budget planning meeting and look for areas of excess. As Dave Ramsey says, "live like know one else so later you can live like no one else"!

Mentor (Criteria)

Do you have a Mentor?

I've been thinking about this a lot as of late. Why is this important? I believe if you want to continue to grow as a person, you need someone in your life that you can be honest with and who is further down the road of life than you are.

When most people think of what a mentor is, the first think that comes to there mind is financial. I want to caution you. Do not set this as the #1 criteria when searching for a mentor. You need to look at the 5 "F's" in this order.

1. Faith
2. Family
3. Friends
4. Fitness
5. Financial

You're mentor needs to be further down the road than you are in these 5 areas. In addition to these you need to look for the person who can fill your "gaps". Or what are trying to get better at?

I know finding a mentor is not easy. That's why you need to constantly be spending time with people. Always be aware of who is around you. Keep your eyes open!

Graduation Time of year - Best Gift Idea?

My wife and I are at that stage of life where we are not being invited to many high school graduations. (Yea!) Lots of people I know and work with are not so lucky. So if you find yourself searching for that perfect graduation gift why not consider some the following from Jim Rohn. Jim is a great motivational teacher and speaker. I've learned a lot from him and he's put together a gift entitled Three Keys to Greatness is a guide for teenagers to achieve financial independence and success.

This may be the best gift a teen will ever receive.

New Hire!

Yesterday was the first day for our Facilities Coordinator. We have never had this position before on our staff. I'm very excited by the opportunities to lead in a new what as I work very closely with our FC. I hope we are off to a great start!

We are going out to Indiana in two weeks to a Facility Management Forum sponsored by Granger Community Church. We have lots to learn and we can't wait to network with all the other church's that will be at the Forum. We need to learn from those who are farther down the road than we are.

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!

Bankruptcy

Personal bankruptcies soared 30 percent to a record high last year as financially strained people rushed to file before new restrictions took effect Oct. 17. Bankruptcy petitions filed in federal courts totaled 2,039,214 in 2005, up from 1,563,145 in 2004... A new law, which brought the most comprehensive revision of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in a quarter-century, made it more difficult to erase credit card and other debts in bankruptcy.

I believe the one of our church's responsibilities is to educate people on how to manage their finances. That's why we offer Financial Peace University and Crown Financial Ministries small groups. In leading many studies of each group, I've seen wonderful life change! This makes life worth living!

Drugs. Are you kidding me. . .

I had my world rocked a little bit tonight. At the request of my 10 year old daughter, I went with her to a "program" she was having at her school tonight. It was cosponsored by all the elementary schools in the district. I was wondering what kind of program this was when the car that pulled in beside me what the police chief. Here it was a Drug interdiction program for parents and students. I really didn't know what to think at first but in the end I was glad I was there. The truly unfortunate this was there was less than 50 attendees.(parents and children) We live in a small town and I was sickened by the statistics the police chief shared with us about drugs in our area. Times sure have changed since I was her age. It doesn't seam that long ago. How do I cope with things like this? I rest in the fact the God has a plan for each of us and I pray for my kids daily. Spend time with you kids! Know them and Love them.

Alien Eyes

Do you ever stop and look at your life and the way you do things through alien eyes? Let me explain. See, I enjoy looking at how things are being done and evaluating whether there is a better more efficient way of doing things. It's important to take time and reflect. You see, the more you focus something the less able you are to see the unexpected or unanticipated happenings around you. If you take time to reflect, you can unload some of your mental baggage that keeps us from seeing things from a different perspective. (Alien Eyes)

Americans Top Priority in Life

According to The Barna Group survey just released, here are American adults top priorities in life:

1. Family
2. Faith
3. Health
4. Lifestyle
5. Vocation matters
6. Money
7. Achieving Success
8. friendship
9. Leisure Pursuits
10. Having Influence

I'd sum this up in one word. . . Legacy!

Emergency Fund

Do you have an Emergency Fund? Most financial people out there suggest 6 months of living expense in an emergency fund. For me, six months is a great goal and with a almost 13 year old and a 10 year old, we can never seam to get to six months. Don't get me wrong, we have an emergency fund but we're not at a 6 month reserve. I am please that our emergency fund is invested in Emigrant Direct's dream account. As of a few day ago, they are paying 4.5%. This is far and above anything I can get at a local bank. You see, I've never set foot in their bank. It's all done on line by linking my checking account to my Emigrant account. So were is your emergency fund in amount and location? If you are looking for home for it, check out www.emigrantdirect.com Let me know if you can find a higher rate than 4.5% with no restrictions on when you can access your money.

HR.com

I came across a web site this week that I found very useful for a number of reasons. HR.com I registered as a guest which gave me limited access to the site. I was able to participate in a webinar with my guest membership. It was on Leadership. As John Maxwell says quite often, everything rises and falls on leadership and I agree with that.

One of the most interesting items discussed during this webinar was the concept of a leadership tent (Think of an old tent not the modern ones of today). The speaker showed there were five poles that hold up the tent.

1. The center pole (the largest of the five) This represented character
2. The left front pole - Focus on results
3. The left rear pole - Personal capability
4. The right rear pole - Leading change
5. The right front pole - Interpersonal skills

I found this to be a concise and easy to remember framework for a good leadership model. I hope you will as well.

Tax Refund

It's that time of year again. I volunteer my time and knowledge and do many friends, family, and pastors tax returns at no charge. (I'll receive payment someday.) Of those getting large refunds, they thank me and of those owing tax, they wonder whey they are not getting big refunds. We all like to receive money but in this case, a tax refund is deceiving.

A big refund means we allowed the IRS to borrow money from us interest free for the entire year. Most of those getting refunds from the people group I listed above are in excess of $1,200. That should be an extra $100 a month in take home pay. Who wouldn't like an extra $100 per month?

May I suggest that if you are receiving a large refund, talk to your HR department at work and have them help you fill out a new W4 for both federal & state. Then have a written plan on how you are going to use / invest the extra monthly take home pay. I know of many places paying interest of greater than 4%. (More on that later.)

Decision Making

How does your church make decisions? Who ultimately makes the call?

This Saturday a.m. as I wait for the temperature to reach 40 so I can get on my bicycle for the first time in over a month, I picked up January's issue of the Harvard Business Review. This issue is all about decision making (Better > Faster > Smarter). The best article, in my opinion was written by Paul Rogers & Marcia Blenko called "Who has the D?. How Clear decision Roles Enhance Organizational performance". My takeaway for this article, and I hope you find it useful is what that authors call RAPID. Good decisions depend on assigning clear and specific roles in the decision making process within your management team. Here is how RAPID is broken down.

• Recommend - People resonsible for making a proposal, gathering input, and providing date to the rest of the team in a timely fashion.
• Agree - This person has the veto power over the recommendation. This should lead to a mondified proposal.
• Input - These people push back on the recommendations. Did we look at everything?
• Decide - This is the formal decision maker. He or she is ultimately accountable for the decision.
• Perform - Once the decision is made, this is the person who must implement a decision. Usually this is the same person who was the recommender.

When this process is slowed down its usually the result of one of three things.

1. Lack of clarity on who Decides
2. To may people have veto power. This can make live very hard for the recommending
3. To may people giving input is a signal that some of it may not be meaningful.

I'm going to put this process into practice at our next management team meeting. I hope it will help us move the ball down the field quicker.

First Post

Today is my fist day as a blogger. We shall see if this becomes profitable for me and you as a reader of my blog. Next week, will are having two days of discover meetings on Fellowship One. This will be my first area of posts as we go through the implementation process.