The Open Source Church

So for the last few weeks there has been a buzz from the NewSpring staff about some “Big News” that lead pastor Perry Noble would be sharing with the church on Easter. We’ll for those of you waiting for it, We have it.(At least we hope so) Here it is.

NewSpring will be launching a third campus across the state of South Carolina in Florence. If our sources are correct then NewSpring will be venturing beyond the upstate SC area they have grown up in.

Kudos to Perry and the crew at NewSpring for having the passion and vision to reach beyond their “comfort zone” and step out into a new area to see people reached for Christ. We wish them well and wil keep them in our prayers.

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Check out this video by the Catalysts Road Trip Guys, where they sit down with Tony and pick his mind about blogging. it’s some good stuff.

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Apparently I am now a billionaire basketball team owner. I found the ping back below in my caught spam box for comments.

In case you don’t see it here is what it says:

Blog Jocky » Blog Archive » Slow Week Blogging | blogjocky.com/slow-week-blogging | IP: 69.89.31.64

[…] Mark Cuban wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptSo it was a little bit of a slow week blogging. Sorry life can just get so busy sometimes. Any way here is what you have to look forward to in the weeks ahead. Next Week: Church Web site design- a 5 part series where we will examine and … […]

Thats right I am now Mark Cuban the owner of the Dallas mavericks. So since I am now super rich I think I’ll go buy that flat screen TV I’ve been wanting.

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So it was a little bit of a slow week blogging. Sorry life can just get so busy sometimes. Any way here is what you have to look forward to in the weeks ahead.

Next Week: Church Web site design- a 5 part series where we will examine and dissect 5 church sites and see what it is that we can learn from them, good and bad.

After that we will take a look at some of the already available open source material for churches. We may even have a guest post or two from the people behind them.

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So, Tony Morgan led a blogging breakout at last weeks Unleash conference at Newspring church in Anderson, SC. If you didn’t attend(Like Me, I wish i could have though.) you can catch Perry’s two sessions online at the Unleash site. Anyway Tony gave ten steps to better blogging in his session. Here they are:

1. Determine your primary audience
2. Post regularly
3. Keep posts short
4. Don’t sell yourself
5. Use Humor
6. Stop attacking other people or ministries
7. Remember that blogging isn’t private
8. Be a thought leader
9. Don’t listen to your critics
10. Reveal the real you

So what do you think? What else would you add to this list? View the PDF from his session, it has more on each point. Also register for next years Unleash Conference, I will.

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Over at Slashdot(Yes, we are that big of geeks) there is a post on PI day.

“Today, the 14th of March, is Pi Day 2008. Pi Day is internationally celebrated in honor of the mathematical constant “Pi,” who’s actual value will — now and forever — remain unknown. NeoSmart Technologies has a run-down on the history of Pi, Pi Day, and the significance of Pi and other such “magical numbers” to science and technology. ‘Pi isn’t just a number that you can use to calculate circle-related mathematics, it’s a symbol of something by far greater. Pi is one of many “magic” numbers that are found everywhere — if you know where to look. These magic numbers can’t be explained, they just are. And if you use them right, they make it a lot easier to do a lot of really complicated things… In a way, they’re a testimony to technology and computers (or vice-versa, depending on how you look at it).’”

I don’t know to me the “magic numbers” show a God who in his infinite wisdom was so precise that he created these “magic numbers” as a base for all of creation. I think when you look at everything all together you have to conclude a knowledgeable creator. I also see a God who is as big a geek as I am(but that is just me). Have a good Pi Day.

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I posted yesterday about 5 things that I thought were the key to Google’s innovative environment, and I wanted to continue that thought process today with a look at a different company.

Alaska Airlines recently opened a redesigned terminal in Seattle, their busiest hub, to the tune of a cool $28 million, a far cry from the $500 million it would have cost to build a completely new one. But in doing so they were able to cut check in time for their passengers down to 8 minutes or less. Let that sink in for a minute. When have you ever been in a busy airport and had to wait less then 8 minutes to finish check in? I have been in an empty airport and had to wait longer then that.

How did they accomplish this? Well it all starts for them with managing expectations.

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“People come to the airport expecting to stand in line. It’s an indictment of our industry.” - Ed White, Alaska Airlines VP
They did everything they could to change peoples expectations. They moved self check-in kiosks to the front of the lobby. They designed the check-in counters to maximize the agents time by ensuring they don’t have to move around to do things. They took a team to Disneyland to study how they move people so efficiently through their parks.

So how does this apply to churches? Think about your visitors, what expectations do they have before they ever set foot in your church. Are they good, bad, indifferent? Are they expecting to come in and be ignored? Are they expecting to come in and be offered cheap coffee and stale doughnuts? Or do they expect to come in and be greeted, be introduced to to people and leave feeling refreshed.

You see expectations can run both ways, some of them are going to expect less, while some are going to be expecting more. What are you doing to manage those expectations? How are you setting people up for a “wow” experience?

There is a story in the article I read about this of a woman coming into the lobby and stopping in her tracks as she looks around kinda confused. “It’s the new check-in thing,” another woman says, “Don’t worry it’s really fast.” That woman had a “wow” experience. She had an expectation and then was blown away by what she saw.

How are you going to create an environment in your church that causes visitors to walk in to your church and stop in their tracks to think, “WOW!”

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So I was reading the March issue of Fast Company Magazine and posted 5 things about Google’s Innovating environment over on my 11 Bravo Company Blog. I thought though that these would be things that would apply to a church as well. I mean as a Church we are not selling a product or trying to win market share in the normal sense, but in a way we are. Therefore I think that churches need to look at innovation in the same light that a business does. “What can we do to further our vision, without compromising our mission or message”, which is exactly what Google does. With that said here are the 5 things that I pulled from that article:

1. Release products fast- Then fine tune them to work. This
   builds a buzz and a fan base, and then keeps those people interested as
   you are continually improving the product instead of having long
   development periods.
2. Keep things simple- Travel policies(don’t overspend),
   Employee Assimilation(Just have them start doing their job), Company
   Policies(Use common sense)
3. Except for Hiring- This is the exception to keeping things
   simple, in fact it is what enables you to keep things simple. If you
   are making hiring a big process then you can be sure you are getting
   people who you can trust with simple policies and procedures.
4. When in doubt, Do something- If you have two paths and
   you’re not sure which is right, take the fastest path. Whats true in
   physics is true with product creation/Business. Once you get a car in
   motion it is easier to steer then if it just sitting in a parking lot.
5. Create Fearlessness- Google instills a sense fearlessness in
   it’s employees. They are not afraid to take on big tasks, they are not
   afraid to speak up with a crazy idea(in fact if they do it will
   probably become the next great product), they are not afraid if they
   don’t know how to do something(they figure it out), they are not afraid
   because the Google environment creates a sense of fearlessness when it
   comes to innovation. Even if they fail they aren’t going to lose their
   jobs for trying out a new product. They will probably just try to
   refine it and relaunch it.

So what can your church learn from Google?

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So I just finished the third of the “Simply Strategic” Series by Tony Morgan and Tim Stevens. I must say that if you are a pastor you need to go pick this series up today. It is that good. It does not follow a typical book style. It really is more of a collection of lists that pastors/church leaders should think about when it comes to leadership, growth, volunteers. accounting, scheduling, and more. I can say that it really help to enlighten me on what churches are needing to accomplish their mission. I know that for me it will offer alot of insight into how we can help churches complete these tasks with our help.

Anyway go pick these books up and start reading them, and at the very least go visit the authors blogs. they are loaded with good thoughts and advice.

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Ok so we didn’t get any of those cool web 2.o type pages up yesterday (sorry, we just got a little busy), but today we present to you our AboutUs.org wiki page. What is this? Well it is basically just a summary of what the website is and what the organization does. Why would we need this? Well for one it creates something more valuable then gold in a Search Engine owned world, linkbacks. Linkbacks help improve your sites search engine ranking. The more linkbacks you can get to your domain from reputable sources the better your ranking will be.

Anyway go on over and check it out, and if you want you can even add or edit info on it.

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