I let a lot of things go. I didn’t blog about when our buddy Steven got beat down by the Border Patrol for not cooperating with them. I didn’t “kick him when he was down” and point fingers at him, but I do have to show you his latest video of him telling someone to “get the hell out of his church”. Your thoughts?
Last night I took my two oldest kids with me to see the Dallas Cowboys practice in their new stadium. They had a night practice open to the public (around 25,000 people x $10 for parking – you do the math).
It’s hard to describe the video screen that hangs over the field – it’s absolutely amazing. Just like in church (I watch the screens instead of the pastor right in front of me), I found myself watching the giant screens and not the players on the field.
I watched a special on TV about the making of the beast of a stadium. It is truly remarkable and a first of its kind. I hope you all get to experience it sometime. Below is Tony Romo up close. I could see his eyes!
Today I have a meeting with a church planter/pastor friend of mine that was recently diagnosed with cancer. Actually, there are a lot of pastors here in the Dallas area that have recently been diagnosed with cancer, including Andy McQuitty at Irving Bible Church and Jack Graham at Prestonwood. I list them so you can pray for them.
At home each night, we (my kids and I) are also praying for a family friend and wife of ARC’s president, Billy Hornsby. Why do I bring this up? Because I’m amazed at all the people I keep coming across with cancer and at the same time I stand convinced that God is sovereign, all-powerful and able to heal.
Would you join me in praying for healing of these with cancer? My friend that I’m meeting with today is named Ted. I’m sure he would appreciate your prayers, too. God can do it. Do you believe it?
If you know of someone with cancer that we can pray for, please list them in a comment. Thanks!
Yesterday my kids started back to school. This is the first time that all 3 kids are in school (now that Katie has started Kindergarten).
Today my son, Tommy, turns 7. He started 1st grade yesterday. I’m so extremely proud of him and pray that he will grow up to me a man after God’s own heart. For his birthday I got to take him to get his very first “real” baseball bat. Saturday, we went to the batting cage. Below is Tommy showing off his new bat and batting gloves.
Today I honor you – Tommy Atkinson (named after my dad) and my only son. I love you.
Today is also special because tonight I’m going with some friends to see Hillsong United Live – who are in Dallas tonight! Check out their ad over on the right of my blog and if you don’t have it – get there new worship CD.
We had Tommy’s party and birthday celebration (we went to a baseball game) last week, so I’m pumped to be spending my night worshipping with United Live. What’s your favorite United Live song?
I had a great Secret Shopper visit yesterday with a local church plant in the DFW area. I look forward to sharing my notes with their senior pastor. I was reminded of how even young church plants can quickly lose their new eyes and start to miss things that are obvious to a newcomer like me.
I came across some good words on Mike Holmes’ blog that I’d like to share with you. He mentioned that a secret shopper or mystery worshipper can do a few things:
He also shares the story of his experiment as a secret shopper, which is convicting and inspiring. He goes on to share signs you need a secret shopper or mystery worshipper:
I would add an eye for excellence and an attempt to be better at your “main thing” (Sunday) – as Nancy Beach shares in her book “An Hour on Sunday“. It’s always healthy to look at your Sunday morning experience through the eyes of a newcomer and especially the eyes of a lost person. You may get only one chance to make a positive impression on them.
Mike also cites an article in the Wall Street Journal on secret shoppers and I think it’s worth a read. As the article states: “Department stores hire mystery shoppers. Restaurant chains bring in undercover diners to rate their food and service.” Isn’t what we do on Sundays as Church leaders more important than department stores and restaurants? Seriously, isn’t it???
September is slammed full – right now I’m booking Secret Shopper visits for October and November. I’d love for you to start a conversation with me about visiting your church. I promise: it’s worth the investment. Go HERE for more information and to read endorsements of my ministry.
I blogged about the known internet campuses last week and received emails from many people that are beginning or considering starting an internet campus. I’m afraid by listing the churches that have taken the leap that it appears that I’m suggesting that all churches should move in this direction.
I want to be very clear about my personal opinion on this. I’ve shared this with friends in person, but never written publically about it. My two cents: just like there are bad Christian movies and bad Christian television, I think there are and can be bad internet campuses.
Just because you have a video camera and use uStream or LiveStream doesn’t mean you’re called to launch an internet campus. There are numerous things to consider including staff, volunteers, budget, philosophy of ministry, equipment, etc. Here’s the thing about the internet – it’s Global! Once you broadcast (good, bad or ugly), you are out there for the world to see.
Honestly, if I started a church plant and I wanted to offer an online campus experience, I would just link to LifeChurch.tv’s or Seacoast’s internet campus from my church’s homepage – UNLESS I absolutely felt called by God to start our own internet campus experience and I thought we had something special, unique and life-giving to offer the world.
Another thing to consider is timing. The best internet campuses worked long and hard on their Sunday live experience. It was years before they considered reaching out beyond their live worship times. Unfortunately, what I see lately are churches that haven’t put enough time, effort, innovation, creativity and life into their main Sunday services and now want to take on another huge undertaking like an internet campus. I’ve always been a voice for less is more and I think this applies here, too.
Please don’t take on something new until you’ve got your live services jumping with life and excellence. Again, if you need a second opinion on this and want an outside set of eyes to give you feedback on your worship service, talk to me about coming as a secret shopper. Read HERE for more info on that.
Wrapping up: if you feel God is absolutely calling you to start an internet campus then forget what I said and be obedient to God. IF you’re just getting caught up in the craze and buzz of all the chatter in Church leadership circles, please put your plans on hold and don’t consider it until you feel truly led by God and know you can do it with excellence. We don’t need anymore bad Christian examples for people to point to. Your thoughts?
I (along with many others) was shocked yesterday to watch Tiger Woods lose a major. I’ve blogged before about how Tiger amazes me and the last 3 weeks for him have been nothing short of amazing. Friends, I am simply reminded that he is a real person and isn’t Superman – like I sometimes think of him.
I’m happy for Y. E. Yang and what it means for the first Asian to win a major, but I don’t feel that Tiger played his best and I’m disappointed with the outcome. So close, yet so far. He was bound to lose sometime, right?
Below is a blog post from my friend, DJ Chuang of Leadership Network:
As the multi-site church revolution continues to grow and mushroom (cf. the Leadership Network book, Multi-Site Revolution: Being One Church in Many Locations) — over 1,500 multi-site churches in the United States (2005 stat, per MondayMorningInsight.com) — not only are churches going to multiple locations geographically into other cities and states, a few are connecting people via Internet campuses! Here’s the ones I’ve found so far [add a comment to keep this list updated]:
[ count = 33; last updated: 07/13/09 ]
Granted, a video podcast feed allows people to view a sermon message from the archives on-demand, or you could watch a worship service via streaming live video or Cable TV broadcast, e.g. Tenth Presbyterian Church‘s live webcast or Bell Shoals Baptist Church‘slive webcast or watch live service from C3 Church in Sydney, Australia(!).
But an Internet campus is more than having a live streaming video — it’s adding live interactive features like lobby chat room, message notes, communication card, raise a hand, say a prayer, and even online giving. Some have on-going ministry during the week with attenders by forming small groups or service projects. I’d imagine more features will be added as these campuses grow and technologies mature. (I’ve already participated at 2 of the above Internet campuses — once when I was homebound during a snow storm, and we had family worship at home with my wife and son online!)
These Internet campuses are reaching hundreds and thousands already! One prediction projects that 10% of Americans will rely exclusively on the Internet for their religious experience by 2010.
So, what do you think? What would it take to launch an Internet campus at your church?
[update] Other churches preparing to launch internet campuses: Liberty Church(Pensacola FL) has what it calls its internet campus using Ustream.TV, C3 Church(Clayton NC) has a live feed, and Manna Church (Fayetteville NC) planning to launch one cf. link; Gateway Church (Austin) has an internet campus pastor who will be preparing the way for their internet campus. Discovery Church (Orlando FL) has live video from its Orange Avenue campus services and has an Internet campus pastor in place. Discovery Church (Voorhees NJ) offers Discovery LIVE for live-stream video. New Hope Family Church (Sioux Falls SD) has a live-streamed video of its worship service. Church of the Redeemer (Gaithersburg MD) has live webcast of its services in English and Spanish. The River (Little Rock AR) has live webcast on Sundays 11am (Central).
I mentioned last week that I’m beginning a new project with ARC. This is something I’m pretty excited about and hopefully will lead to me meeting you and your team.
ARC now offers a very informative, encouraging and fruitful experience for your church: the Secret Shopper (mystery worshipper). Beginning August 2009, ARC will be lining up visits to churches across the country by one of the ARC’s staff – me.
Here’s the info that we’re sending ARC churches:
The Secret Shopper has produced worship services for a mega-church for the last 6 years and has served on a Worship & Arts staff for the last 15 years. The Secret Shopper also produced several large conferences including Leadership Network’s Innovation3 Conference, Catalyst OneDay and the Rebecca St. James’s SHE Conference.
This service to your church will include an eye on everything from your church’s parking lot, lobby, nursery, facilities, signage, restrooms, overall feel and a main focus on the worship experience including music, technology/media and preaching.
For a small, one-time investment of $750 (plus travel expenses) for a church of 300 or less OR $1000 (plus travel) for churches of 300 or more, your church can have a trained professional with a heart for ARC DNA churches come into your church and critique, encourage and challenge your team. Feedback will be given in a meeting after the last morning worship service.
I’m blogging about this here because this is a service that I’d like to do for any and all churches interested, not just ARC churches. For more information and to book me as a Secret Shopper for your church, email me at greg@gregatkinson.com.
Today I leave for 10 days straight. Boy will I miss my family! I fly to South Carolina this afternoon to speak at a worship conference Thursday through Saturday in Spartanburg, SC. I always enjoy this conference because it takes place 15 minutes from where I grew up and so I get to spend some time with my mom and sister. If you’re going to be at First Baptist Spartanburg, please stop by my class and say “hey”.
Then Saturday I fly from South Carolina to Birmingham, AL to join my new friends and team at ARC for a Church Planter Basic Training. From Saturday to Friday I’ll be involved with a week of intense training for church planters. I can’t wait!
Next week I’ll share with you a new project I’m doing with ARC that could involve YOU and your church. I’m pretty excited about it and hope you’ll be too.
