In a Pit with a Lion

so Mark Batterson over at evotional.com. wrote a book called In a Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day.  He posted on his blog that anyone who will read his book and do a blog review could get a free copy, well I’m all about good books, and free stuff so I shot an email over to him and he hooked it up.  My copy came last rock and roll.  Then I saw as their promo for the seris this bookmark that they are giving out. 

 In A Pit

brilliant.  They are using this as a way to tell their friends, but they are also giving away copies of the book at church.  Way Cool. 

I started reading last night, and I got chapter one down.  Very good thus far.  I will keep you posted.   I hope to read it quick fast. 

Speaking of Word of Mouth Marketing

So I’m sitting here manning the phones at the good ole’ C&B.  And we have been getting tons of calls for a foot locker survey, what I have discerned from the confused callers thus far is that if you take the survey foot locker will send out gift cards.  What a great idea.  And the marketing is working, people are telling their friends, word is spreading.  It’s working like a charm.  The only down side of their plan is that it seems they have given the wrong number. 

Not only is this bad for footlocker because they are missing the connection with their customers.  It’s bad for the customers because I have not been the greatest Foot Locker Customer Service Representative.  They are just given themselves a bad name by using bad information.  Good times. 

Word of Mouth Outreach

Found this great post from Church Marketing Sucks.

Some of the easy and sometimes free things I liked were:

  • Identify the Connectors (see Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point) in your church and encourage them to do what is natural.
  • Encourage your church marketing evangelists to tell two friends about you, not just one.
  • Create experiences. Your services should be experiential.
  • Make it easy for people to easily spread the word about you (Create a button for their blog or web site, a card or CD they can pass along to a friend)

I thought this was a really great post.  Marcus Neto is the original author.

Risk-a-phobia

I think the reason that people are fine with things the way they are is because they are afraid of risk.  And more importantly they are afraid of failure.  I have stuggled with that fear.  I used to always want to be other people, or have their ministry or their giftings.  But God has really called me to be me.  And I know that sounds really simple but it’s true. 

If you are going to be completely authentic, and completely real you are going experience pain, rejection, failure, and whatever else you might be trying to avoid, but that doesn’t mean you are wrong.  I have been challenged lately with the path that our ministry has been taking.  To be honest we have been shrinking.  Our summer was really rough on attendance and we haven’t really bounced back. 

We took some hits with different leaders leaving, and students moving, and some students doing really stupid stuff and getting in trouble, and other students just drifting away from God.  And all this happens and is fairly natural for a ministry to experience.   And the truth is we have parrelleled some of the things that our church has been going through.  And so while I can take some comfort in the fact that we are not alone, it still hurts and it still stings the ego to see faces either disappear or become apathetic toward what we are doing. 

But I think if you are going to really try to be real to what God has called you to do, you’re going to have to take risks and experience that kind of pain.  Our Church is moving, and over the past year we have seen many people uproot from our church to go to another, some have felt God leading them and they usually tell us what’s going on but others have just left, and it seems that they were upset by our changing the status quo.  They saw the tremendous risk that we were taking and thought it was too hard or ridiculous and the left.  I don’t know if we are done with that exodus but I look at the people at Creekside now and I see people who want to own this church, and really make it succeed, so that’s encouraging. 

This post may be a little ramble happy and I’m sorry but I’m just processing some thoughts.

 My thinking was sparked by Seth Godin and his book Small Is The New Big.  In a Section titled, “Camp, Mickey Rooney, and Your Marketing Problem,” Seth says this.

“If you’re not growing now, playing it safe isn’t going to help you grow tomorrow.”

“Be fearless, but wear a life jacket.”

I don’t know how many times I have to be reminded that God did not call us to do what was easy.  God did not call us to do what was safe.  He’s called [commanded] us to trust him.  And he wants us to take the risks that he lays out in front of us.  And he doesn’t want us to be comfortable. 

I was reading in ecclesiastes, and it said,  ” . . . the fool folds his hands and brings ruin on himself.” [paraphrase]  That means, that it’s foolish to stop working on what God wants us to work on.  It’s foolish to give up.  it’s foolish to seek comfort.  God has so much more for us than we can even begin to dream of.  And We need to stop playing it safe, and we need to be fearless in Him. 

So I’m debating some stuff, some ideas, some thoughts I’m wrestling with them in my mind in my heart, I’m praying through them, and I’m wondering if it’s the right thing to do, or me just being desperate.  And I encouraged that risk is really a good thing, and how will I know if I don’t try.

Maybe God’s got more in store for all of us, but we have been just too afraid to try.  If you’re reading this, what risks are you avoiding?  Are you trying to hold on to status quo?  Are you trusting God? 

Be Fearless!

Friendship Matters

So we are doing this new series at Creekside about friendship. And, it’s a different kind of series because Don, Dan and I are all talking about friendship both week. It’s going to be fun. What I’m really praying for though is that folks would really see that their friendships are valuable and that relationships are the only thing that really carry over to eternity.

On the 22nd we are actually going to have a Friends Day. So we are praying and praying that our church would see that the church doesn’t exist for them alone, but for all the people that still have never been here.

I was preparing for my sections in this series, and I have a ton of content that I could say about friendship, but I need to refine and pray more about it. Becuase it could take me over if I let it.

Hmm I don’t know

So Google is buying YouTube.com and this might seem like a really great idea, but might it also just be a way of google eliminating the competion?  Google already has a video service.  By acquiring youtube, they could really just beef up Google Video.  But in the end does it really matter?  No.

Speaking of it doesn’t really matter, why is Brad and Angelina, filming a new movie news worthy?  Isn’t that what they do?  WHO CARES A FLYING RATS BEHIND!!! CNN COVER THE STINKING NEWS PLEASE!!!

Sorry, I just feel like we have had enought about Bangelina or Angerad or Piollie, and now it’s time to move on please.