KevMcCord

My Dad

This is beyond fantastic...  (that's my mom behind him which is even beyond, beyond fantastic)

54 Church & Ministry RSS Feeds

Ok, I titled my last post poorly!  I do read over 100 RSS Feeds.  The title implied I would list the RSS feeds I read at work.  So, here are 54 RSS feeds that are church and ministry related.  They are in alpha order.  Some of these have not been updated in quite some time.

:: Cre8vE [creative] chaos :: a church cio achievable ends APC IT Austin Spooner betterthanblank Billy Chia Christian Leadership Alliance Blog Church 2.0 - the blog Church Blog Church IT Discussions Church IT RoundTable Church Marketing Sucks Church Requel ChurchBeauty churchIT churchrelevance.com ChurchTechToday.com citizen of the whole Clif Guy all the time Copyright Queen Blog digital.leadnet.org Equip Them Goodmanson.com Heal Your Church WebSite IT Discuss RDF feed Lakeview Information Technology LeadingSmart Life in Arden Life: Measured by 1's & 0's LifeChurch.tv : swerve Ministry Best Practices MMI Weblog NACBA Weekly Update neue. Paul Clark - Church Administration Ragamuffin Soul Renewing Mind robbro.com rusanu.com ShelbyLife Shlog Smart Pastor Street to the Seat Stuff Christians Like Tall Skinny Kiwi techlesia The Appian Way Think Christian This End Up TonyDye tonymorganlive.com Web Evangelism Bulletin Westserve - Article

Or, for the more linear among you (multiple author feeds in bold)...

1. :: Cre8vE [creative] chaos ::

2. a church cio

3. achievable ends

4. APC IT

5. Austin Spooner

6. betterthanblank

7. Billy Chia

8. Christian Leadership Alliance Blog

9. Church 2.0 - the blog

10. Church Blog

11. Church IT Discussions

12. Church IT RoundTable

13. Church Marketing Sucks

14. Church Requel

15. ChurchBeauty

16. churchIT

17. churchrelevance.com

18. ChurchTechToday.com

19. citizen of the whole

20. Clif Guy all the time

21. Copyright Queen Blog

22. digital.leadnet.org

23. Equip Them

24. Goodmanson.com

25. Heal Your Church WebSite

26. IT Discuss RDF feed

27. Lakeview Information Technology

28. LeadingSmart

29. Life in Arden

30. Life: Measured by 1's & 0's

31. LifeChurch.tv : swerve

32. Ministry Best Practices

33. MMI Weblog

34. NACBA Weekly Update

35. neue.

36. Paul Clark - Church Administration

37. Ragamuffin Soul

38. Renewing Mind

39. robbro.com

40. rusanu.com

41. ShelbyLife

42. Shlog

43. Smart Pastor

44. Street to the Seat

45. Stuff Christians Like

46. Tall Skinny Kiwi

47. techlesia

48. The Appian Way

49. Think Christian

50. This End Up

51. TonyDye

52. tonymorganlive.com

53. Web Evangelism Bulletin

54. Westserve - Article

100 RSS feeds I Read At Work

I currently follow over 100 RSS Feeds (120 actually) most of which are from blogs.  While that sounds like a lot, this is my main source of professional news.  It only takes 15-20 minutes each day to read through 100 RSS Feeds.  That's largely because 60-70 of them only post weekly. 

Here's a very helpful article on why you should read blogs at work!

Statements Your Statements Make

Is someone logging how many contribution statements you send each quarter?

What could you learn from those numbers?

Let's say. hypothetically, that your church is in a transient metropolitan area and you send...

1. 1,400 statements in Q1 2008
2. 1,600 statements in Q2 2008
3. 1,800 statemetns in Q3 2008
4. 2,000 statements in Q4 2008
5. 1,400 statements in Q1 2009

From this I would guess that...

• Your offerings are down because the economy is down and you are turning people over.

• 10% of your church is new every quarter. 

• There's a base of 30% who don't change much so that means that the 10% new is more like 15% of those not in your solid 30% core.

• About 200 people (15%) gave one or two times in 2008 and then NEVER AGAIN.  Were they all out-of-town guests?

• About 200 people who were once regular supporters of your church left your church.  You probably didn't even notice 150 of them.  Would any of them have come back if you had noticed?  50 of those people actually told you they left or you know they left and you know why.  If you've been in ministry for less than 3 years you tried to talk a few of them out of it.  If you've been in ministry more than 10 years you weren't surprised by more than a couple and you probably just listened and told them you hope they find a great place to worship and grow.

• About 200 people gave for a few months during the year then disappeared and your leadership never really got to know them.  How many of them simply failed to connect?

• About 200 people started to give regularly and  they are just starting to get to know your team and your church.  Will they connect?

Obviously these are just estimates and educated guesses, but research has led me to see these trends and others in large and very large churches.

If you are thinking that the motivation is to preserve giving or to retain donors you just don't know me or the churches I've worked with very well.  The point isn't the money.  The point is the ministry these facts and trends impact.  My point is always the same...

We painstakingly track who gave, when, and why.  Then we go on to pretty much ignore what that data might tell us about where people are in their journey as it relates to their engagement with our church.

Elect Me A President That...

Elect me a President that promises to stop trying to solve people's problems!  Elect me a president who hates social problems so much he won't make them worse by institutionalizing ways for people to take advantage of them.

ChurchMetrics.com

This is something I think a lot of churches will be interested in!  Given that most of them simply put this data into Excel anyhow...

http://www.churchmetrics.com/

Wonder if they will publish an API?

Introducing ChurchMetrics from ChurchMetrics on Vimeo.

Hire Me, I Sound Spiritual

Ever have to hire someone to work at a church in a support capacity? 

About every 3rd person I interview seems to think that the main job qualification is sounding churchy.

I have to suppress my immediate thought-response during the interview.

Here are some of the one-liners I've heard (and my previously censored thought in parenthesis)

1. God has revealed so many things to me (have you considered being a televangelist?)
2. I am a very spiritual person. (And this is going to help you do data entry how?)
3. I've always felt called to work at a church (So, the 20 years in food service were prep work?)
4. I just want to serve the Body of Christ (great, we want this position to be filled by a volunteer!)
5. I've always wanted to be a missionary.  (it will be hard to mow our lawn from Botswana) 
6. I really need to work around Christians (Really?  Do non-christians not like you?  I probably won't either)
7. I've had so many jobs and I think God has been preparing me for working at the church (right, someone who has been a dog catcher AND a crane operator will come in handy)
8. I've had visions of angels several times... (Security! Security! Where's the panic button?) 
9. I've got a lot of love to give to people [from applicant wearing low-cut blouse].  (Sorry, we only give side-hugs in turtle-necks)
10. I'm looking forward to hanging out with the pastors (we're done here, NEXT)

Blog Disclaimer: Oasis Church is an equal opportunity employer.  The above statements, while being slightly humerous, are never the sole basis for disqualifying a potential candidate.

The Voting Age

The voting age should be raised to 10 consecutive years of paying 5% or more in income taxes.

The Drinking Age

The legal drinking age should be changed to each person's 10th anniversary of Marriage.

Facebook for Missions

Missionaries need to network.

It was ironic when a missionary friend of mine asked me to describe what Facebook was.  His son and daughter are both on there as my friends even though it has been decades since we have seen eachother in person

Missionaries depend on networks of people praying and supporting them.  There are so many ways to creatively do this with the Internet.  Facebook just happens to be one of the best.  Missionaries are finding it increasingly necessary to connect with people directly since MOST CHURCHES ARE NO LONGER INTERESTED in supporting RANDOM missionaries indefinitely.  That's the subject of another post.

Anyhow back to my story, soon after I told my missionary friend of Facebook, I got an alert.

A mutual friend of ours had read my one line "status" update on Facebook that indicated I was with this missionary for the morning.  She promptly wrote on my wall that she wanted his phone number!  I got that email on my phone and put them in touch!  They hung out before he left town.

You can't get a better, more personalized explanation of why missionaries should be on Facebook.

Now, all you Twitter people will say that it is better.  I agree (sort of), but twitter is much harder to explain and seems to take a lot more action on the part of the user to build a network.