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.