I was reading Willow Creek Repents (which I think is an unfair title) and was fascinated by the findings issued by a new book from Willow Creek. This lead me to watch the video by Greg Hawkins where he explains the point of the book.

At the end of the video, he concludes:

Our dream is that we fundamentally change the way we do church. That we take out a clean sheet of paper and we rethink all of our old assumptions. Replace it with new insights.

At Plaid, we agree with this statement and believe that Plaid can assist ministries in this transformation.

Existing church software enables measuring discipleship through “participation”

Essentially, existing church management software reflects and promotes the “participation” model Hawkins describes. The software is focused on recording data that according the Hawkins does not contribute to discipleship.

For example, ChMS vendors are developing the “hottest” feature and churches are spending lots of resources to implement it. Check in or integrated attendance recording. That does not seem to be the place where innovation should be occurring.

The tools we use shape our thinking. If we do not change our church software, how we do church will not change.

Plaid answers the challenge issued by Hawkins and Willow Creek

Plaid is different. It does not record attendance. It measures “attention” or engagement of leaders towards its members.

Attendance shows how the members engage the church. A metric that Hawkins now questions and an assumption that Bill Hybles in fact says was a mistake,

Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back it wasn’t helping people that much. Other things that we didn’t put that much money into and didn’t put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for.

Plaid rather measures the engagement of leaders with members. Using attention data (what contact records they interact with inside the software: edit, add, comment, send email, organize into a list, etc.), we can help individual ministry practitioners discover who they “disciple”. Essentially, this is based on the idea found known as Dunbar’s number.

At Plaid, our quest is to give ministries new ways of measuring. I am not fool enough to think Plaid is a silver bullet, but I do believe that refactoring church software is one aspect of this change.

Marc Andreessen, the man who co-created the first web browser and co-founded of Netscape, started blogging only five weeks ago. He recently summarized eleven lessons he learned about starting to blog for the first time,

Eleventh and last, the most common reaction that I got from starting my blog that I didn’t expect was, “finally he’s blogging”.

I found that to be quite humorous because of course from the perspective of bloggers who have been active for several years, it’s completely true, and yet here we are still living in a world where most people who have interesting things to say are not yet blogging and have no idea that they’re behind the trend curve.

When I started reading his blog, I thought the same thing. If anyone should have been blogging for years, it should have been Andreessen. But his observation is correct. The most interesting people in the church are not yet blogging. The ChurchReport list of the 50 most influencial Christians have few bloggers (most have podcasts but that is a distribution sermons):

• #16 Rick Warren blog and podcast (RSS)
• #19 Paula White MySpace
• #23 Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr. Blog or Crosswalk
• #44 Beth Moore’s Living Proof Ministry has a blog (RSS)
• #45 Mike Slaughter Blog
• #46 Phil Vischer Blog (RSS)
• Let me know if I missed any by adding a comment to this post…

Now, none of these blogs are any good or even worthy of getting into my RSS Reader. If you look at the list, you will see a generational bias. But basically of the none of the most influential Christians are involved in the conversation about Christianity online. Now, this may not matter today or in the next few years.

However, if you review this list in five years, I will bet that most of the most influential Christians are blogging or podcasting (more than just putting sermons online).
Take A Ways 

• The old path to being influential in the church you passed through certain gatekeepers: denominations, academics and publishers. In the future, you can be influential because you are networked and skilled at sustaining and generating conversations. You no longer need “influence” bestowed upon you via a denomination, seminary or publisher.
• The other lesson to learn is that if you currently are a person who has interesting things to say about ministry and are not blogging; if you do it well, you can gain audience very quickly.

Now its a whole other discussion as to how to gain influence in the church without losing your soul in the process (or maybe the questions whether you should seek to gain influence)…

Ask my wife, I am the king of procrastination. So take these suggestions from someone who is in the process of unlearning the bad habits that cause procrastination. I found that putting off something until the last minute was a sure-fire way to kill my ministry.

Here are some of the causes of procrastination:

• Task is too complicated - Often we just think that it is too complicated because we do not take the time (meh) to break it down into simple next actions. When I take the time to actually think through the task at hand; it ceases to be so complicated. And if I find that it is really complicated and I can not get it done in time, then I need to tell someone as soon as possible. Remember it is what it is.
• Seeking perfection - As spiritually minded servants, we often want to do things perfect. We need to get over that — ministry is full of “good enough”. If you only do things perfectly, you will get little done and so burn out.
• Indecision - Usually making no decision is a worse experience than making the wrong decision. Pray and trust God and get moving.
• Wrong priorities - In ministry, it is easy to address the squeakiest wheel to avoid conflict. But you know what’s important, you know what God values. Do those things first.
• Boredom - This is one thing that always got me. I got bored easily with the details of ministry, like keeping attendance or counting offering or organizing the craft room. But getting the details right is one key to success in ministry. If you find yourself bored, see if you can trade with someone else on your team or maybe use a new tool to do the task.
• Focused on to many things - If you are passionate about your ministry, I know that you are being asked to take on more and more responsibilities. This dilutes your focus and can lead to procrastination simply because you just do not know what to focus on first. To prevent this, decide on what your focus is and just do that.
• Being a slob - I am a slob when it comes to the physical world (my digital life is well organized). If you are a slob, then admit it and find someone on your team who can organize stuff.
• Laziness - To prevent laziness, I just need to schedule more time for myself. Often I’m lazy not because I’m really lazy, but I choose to be lazy because I’m overworked and do no have enough time to recharge.
• Being tired - I do not need a lot of sleep, but I also stay up to late. When I’m well rested I get more done.
• Breaks - Next time you take a break at work or church, be aware of how long it takes to ‘get back at it’. If you take an honest look often our breaks are much, much longer than we think.

The trick for me is to be aware when I’m practicing the bad habits of procrastination, so I can change my point of view.

I rarely have business cards when I need them. Even in this age of digital communications, the business card is still a “must have” tool for ministry. This applies not only for so-called paid staff, but to any ministry team. I am ordering some cards and here are a few online providers that provide really cheap 4-color printing:

• Printing For Less
• 123 Print
• Overnight Prints
• Vista Print
• PS Print

If you are able to use standard shipping, then these printers are really, really cheap. I am using Vista Print for the first time and getting several business cards printed for $3.99/250. Be sure that I will let you know how that goes.

One tip before you venture into online printing, make sure that you review the specifications of the formats they will accept.

Pocket Sized Communications

If you want to be totally cool, get a Moo Card. Moo allows you to create cards (as if by magic) from a Flickr account. You can get 100 mini cards for $19.99. So how would you use Moo for business cards for your ministry?

• Create a Flickr account for your ministry
• Upload and organize photo of your ministry in action
• Use Moo to select 100 photos of your ministry
• Add your contact information
• Get your cards in the mail

Put a couple in this cool business card holder by Umbra. And you have an amazing communications tool for your ministry that fits into your pocket.

I just read 20 ways to eliminate stress from your life. Here are is my list:

#1. List of all the things that stress you out. The thinking here is that if you get your stress out of your head and onto paper; you can do something about it.
#2. Too many commitments.This is a disease among people who are passionate about their ministry; they rarely say no. But if you plan to stay at the top of your game, learn how to say no and not feel bad about it.

And learn how to tell people when you are NOT going to be able to keep a commitment. I hate making those phone calls (do not send an email). It is bad enough that I’m not going to get something done, but it’s even worse when I do not set realistic expectations..

#3. Being late to events. This is a simple fix; if you are always late, teach yourself to start getting ready 30 minutes earlier than you think.
#4. Not getting tasks done. My basic rule of thumb is to figure how much time a task or project will take; then triple it.

#5. Stop lying. I know that sounds strange, but most of my stress comes from instances where I decide to lye instead of telling the truth.

Here is a list of creators of stock video for ministry:

• Flood Gate Productions
• Worship House Media
• Highway Video
• Forty One Twenty
• Igniter Media
• Faith Visuals
• Image Vine
• Sermon Spice

People in ministry meet lots and lots of people. And every single one is important. Unlike business, ministries serve everyone. Here are some tricks I uncovered to remember names,

1. Be interested.
Many of us don’t even catch the other person’s name when they’re being introduced; we’re too focused on ourselves. So the first step to remembering a name is to pay attention as you are introduced.

2. Verify it.
Unless the person has introduced himself to you, verify what he or she wishes to be called. At a conference or seminar, for example, the name tag may have been typed incorrectly or it may be a more formal or informal version of the name they like to go by. Or someone else may have introduced you who doesn’t know the person well. Asking what they prefer (e.g. “Jeff introduced you as Debbie, is that what you prefer to be called?”) will not only cement the name in your mind, but ensure you are using the name that pleases them.

3. Picture it written on their forehead.
Franklin Roosevelt continually amazed his staff by remembering the names of nearly everyone he met. His secret? He used to imagine seeing the name written across the person’s forehead. This is a particularly powerful technique if you visualize the name written in your favorite color of Magic Marker.

4. Imagine writing the name.
To take step three even further, neural linguistic programming experts suggest getting a feel for what it would be like to write the name by moving your finger in micro-muscle movements as you are seeing the name and saying it to yourself.

5. Use word association.
Try to connect a person’s name with a familiar image or famous person. For example, if a woman’s name is Jacqueline, picture her as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in a pink suit and pillbox hat. If a man’s name is Arnold, imagine him as the “Terminator” or striking a body-builder pose.

6. Use it frequently.
Try to use the name three or four times during your conversation. Use it when you first meet, when you ask a question and in your departure, (e.g., “Daniel, it was a pleasure talking to you. Maybe we’ll get a chance to chat again sometime.”)

The final step is making sure you enter that name into a database. We spend a lot of time designing Plaid to improve this process. Plaid make it easy to take a name from memory or a “visitor’s card” and get it into a shared database. Once its there, you can use Plaid to track and follow up with your team.

This sounds simple will is the foundation of a healthy, growing ministry.

This is a great post on the role of parents in a junior high school ministry by Kurt Johnston

- Parents are your ally not your enemy.
- The key to getting parents on board: Earn their trust!
- If parents are for you, who can be against you?
- Parents have stuff you need!
- Two things you can give to parents that most of them desperately need: Hope and Help
- You don’t have to be a parent to lead parents
- You probably haven’t raised a young teen yourself, and you don’t have all the answers

One of the features of Plaid is the ability to CC: parents on all communications sent to minors. This is one example of how we are designing Plaid to meet the specific needs of people who do ministry.

Seth Godin listed the different types of meetings:

• Just so everyone knows: This is a meeting in which one person or small group tells other people what’s already been decided and is about to happen. These meetings should always have a written piece to go with them, and in many cases, it should be distributed a day before the meeting. The meeting should be very short, take place in an auditorium type setting, not a circle, and have focused Q&A at the end. Even a quiz. It’s the football huddle, and the running back isn’t supposed to challenge the very premises the quarterback is using to call the play.
• What are you up to: This is a meeting in which every participant needs to present the state of their situation. It probably happens on a regular basis and each person should have a strict time limit. Like two minutes (with an egg timer). After presenting the situation, each attendee can send their summary in an email to one person, who can sum it up and send it out to everyone.
• What does everyone think? In third place, a meeting where anyone can speak up. People who don’t speak up on a regular basis should not be invited back. It’s obvious they are good at some other function in the office, so you’re wasting their time if they sit there.
• We need a decision right now. These are ad hoc meetings that have a specific agenda and should end with a decision. A final decision that doesn’t get reviewed.
• Hanging out meetings. These are meetings with no real agenda, lots of side conversations, bored people, people instant messaging and just sort of hanging out. Sometimes these are fun, but I wouldn’t know, because I haven’t been to one in three years.
• To hear myself talk meetings. You get the idea.

I dislike meetings. But the meeting I like best is the “we need a decision right now” type. I do not run many meetings anymore, but I prefer meetings in very cold rooms with no chairs where everyone read the email BEFORE coming.