KevMcCord

NoMi Campus Pastor Email

Below is the email I sent today to the folks who participate at Oasis Church North Miami.  I write the email to encourage, to create a bridge for conversation back to me, to drive traffic to articles on the website, and to make myself accountable for putting articles on the website.  I consider this email personal communication between me and the people I am priviledged to serve and worship with.  I include my cell phone number making myself accessible to everyone regardless of whether they might abuse my time.  No one has. 

Dear NoMites, 

This week I need an Easy Button.  Everything just seems to be taking a little longer and getting a little more complicated.  To make matters worse I'll be alone since Suzie and Mason have gone to Texas without me.  The fast food industry is about to get a Kevin McCord stimulus.

No matter what else is happening, I enjoy writing you this email.  Sharing with you what God is doing at Oasis Church NoMi is a very important part of my week.  I'm very thankful to those of you who read it.  Those who take the time to respond brighten my day!

We had a great service last weekend.  There were at least 12 guests from many walks of life.  We saw three believer's follow Jesus in baptism.  There are a couple of fresh articles on the website this week.  Don't miss them!

• Oatmeal Alarm
• Doug, David, and Samantha
• Meet the Johnsons
• Chalk It Up!

Don't miss Gary Means.  He's a professional Chalk Artist who will share his gift with us as he creates from scratch a work of God-glorifying-art while we worship THIS Sunday, March 1!

I hope you realize how important you are to God.  Remind yourself and someone you know that you were fearfully and wonderfully made.  Start your day by affirming that the God of the universe sacrificed Himself in the person of His only begotten Son so that you and I could be reconciled to him.

May you recognize that the God who saved you from death and destruction is present in your life each and every moment.

In Him,

Kevin McCord
Oasis Church
North Miami Campus Pastor

Some things I learned this week.

I need to affirm who God is.  I need to affirm who I am in Christ.  I need to affirm who other believer's are in Christ.  My dad taught me that through his actions and then reminded me of it on his blog.

The silent treatment is VERY LOUD in the ears of one who sins.  A simple Facebook message weeks ago to a brother who had fallen made a big difference to him.  I didn't condone what he did or minimize it.  I just told him Jesus was still enough and that he should respond to those willing to walk him through restoration.  I learned this was effective because he told me so.

A small crisis can destroy the illusion of calm in my spirit. I'm such an immature Christian.  I learned this during a fire alarm just before eating some great oatmeal.

My family is getting on Twitter!  My mom and dad and sister and brother-in-law all joined up.  I'm finding new people to follow all the time.  I love my local church family and now I'm interacting with a growing group of Christian brother's and sisters around the world.  I'm slowly getting to know them on Twitter.

I hope you are learning a lot right now.

It's quiet. It's going to stay quiet

I'm focusing on a few other writing projects so the blog is going to be suspended for a while.  See you all on the other side of my deadlines!

I probably will update Twitter occasionally.

I'll definitely be updating my page on the www.VisitOasis.org website.  In fact, I put up 4 articles there this morning.

VisitOasis.Org Improves Significantly

Comparing last January to this January.

Moving Fast

Do you get to move fast at your work?  How hard is it to go from idea to execution?  Maybe the better question is: if you go too fast with your idea is the result an execution?

This is such a big deal to me.  I thrive when I have the trust to take calculated risks.  I enjoy getting something out there then figuring it out.  I haven't taken this liberty in a while and yesterday I did.  I added something to the church website without much thought and without any real discussion.

This is often unwise and it can definitely backfire.  However...

If you are trusted

If you are talented

If you are trained

If you are transparent

If you will take responsibility

...It sure is nice if you can step out and try something and work out the issues along the way.

TwitterFeed Links Church Website To Twitter

Oasis Church has a website www.VisitOasis.org. The website in turn has an RSS feed for all articles.  This allows people who use RSS readers to read the articles without visiting the website.

Oasis Church has a Twitter account.  This account is new, no one knows about it and there's no plan to announce or explain it.  I'm not sure if there are half-a-dozen twitter users in our church of 2,000 in weely attendance. Still, I put up a Twitter link on our website for those who are "in the know" to follow Oasis Church.

Today I linked our website RSS feed to our Twitter account through www.TwitterFeed.com.  Each time someone on the church staff publishes an article, TwitterFeed will make sure the new article is posted as a status update on the http://twitter.com/oasischurchsfl Twitter stream.

Who knows if Twitter will catch on at our church like Facebook is starting to.  I think it is going to remain a fairly niche audience.  All I know is that this only took a few minutes to setup today.   It cost nothing.  I definitely have a better way to keep up with new articles published on the church website.  I also have a way to discover some church folks using Twitter.

Guy writes like a Girl!

The verdict is in!  Pastor Guy writes like a girl.

I'm not saying it, I'm just reporting it.

Here's my source...  http://genderanalyzer.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fguymelton.typepad.com

In case you are wondering, I write like a MAN... http://genderanalyzer.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fkevmccord.typepad.com

Story Driven Catching On

Does every article on your website have a "freshness" date?

1.5 years ago Oasis Church launched a website with a "Story Driven" approach.

We decided that stories were what we would feature on our site and that those stories should focus on what was happening in people's lives as they ministered together and to one another.  This meant stories about what had happened were just as important as stories about what was going to happen.  Church sites generally focus only on the brochure content, transactions, and announcements.  We wanted to talk about things.

The approach affected many decisions we made about the site.

• We put limits on the site.  There are only 12 "landing" pages on the site beyond the home page.

• We relied heavily on text at a time when church sites were getting more and more flash-driven.

• We put a time stamp on every article to create accountability for the freshness of the content.

The site has lots of usability problems, but the over-all goals were accomplished.

In the past 2 weeks we began to approach the volume of content I felt would be necessary for the site to gain any sort of momentum.  If you click through the site you'll see what I mean.  Each page features articles that are less than 2 weeks old.  This kind of accountability was critical and it has taken us 1.5 years to develop both the intention and the habits of keeping such a site updated.

Frankly, we've only been partially successful.  There hasn't been near as much interaction as I had hoped.  People still thought of the stories as needing to have some imaginary threshold of significance to get on the site.  They missed the beauty of just talking about the things that impressed us and sharing them quickly, concisely, and consistently.

I personally maintain one page.  I try to add 3 things each week.  I send 125 people an email each week and I always link them back to my page.  My audience is fairly small, but my page gets more traffic than all but 2 other pages (excluding the home page).

Is Your Church A Pyramid?

I doubt this question keeps your pastor awake at night, but if he isn't sure about the answer, he should be up nights sweating it out.

There is a human tendency to create pyramids. Apparently we are impressed with pyramids and think the bigger the pyramid the more important the people are who are involved in the building of the pyramid. As impressive as pyramids may be, they are about death and not about life. The may point toward the heavens, but in reality they trap people on earth.

And the point...

In church life and leadership we must constantly watch for our tendency to build pyramids. God is a farmer not a pharaoh.

Read the full article...

Church Advertises Wine, Bikinis

What if I told a First Baptist Church published a magazine dedicated to the city in which it lived?

Would you believe that magazine was truly advertising supported?  That it was really of interest to people outside the church?

Would you further believe it would allow ads with pictures of toddlers in bikinis and others with sparkling white wine?  If you know some First Baptist Churches you'd be a bit shocked.

I'm reading just such a magazine from the city in which I grew up.  It is a ministry of the church my dad has partnered with in Brazil for the past 5 years.  It's amazingly well done.  It's better than the magazines the major airlines put out.  The funny little cultural quirks that show in the advertising that are just that.  Our own cultural filters don't apply.

Someone somewhere probably has pictures of me in my speedo days as a tot learning to swim.  That's just the way it is there.  While there aren't any pictures of pregnant ladies, one ad in the magazine assures a pregnant mom can get a great swimsuit.

I love the magazine and I would surely go to the church if I still lived in Sao Jose.

The articles are of political and social events of interest to the community.  There are solid interviews and a real taste of the life I would be living if I had stayed in that wonderful industrial town between Sao Paulo and Rio De Janeiro.  The magazine has a nice look that is inviting, professional and intimate for those who know the city.

By the way, this church has some of the most happening worship conferences for megachurches in Brazil.  That may be a good choice for your staff next year.