Friends, forgive me. You know I’ve been blogging every day for over 5 years. You may not have put it together, but the church where I moved to and went on staff with is based in Jopiln, MO. Yes – the Joplin that you’ve been watching on TV and hearing about from the devastating F5 tornado that hit on Sunday, May 22nd and changed our life forever.

I’ve been working 16 hour days and have been living in Joplin (though my campus is 10 miles away in Carthage) since the storm happened. I’ve dealt with death, destruction, devastation and also seen some amazing God things and have some awesome stories. Here’s me with Franklin Graham when he came by to check on things at our church (our main campus sits at the busiest intersection in Joplin, MO).

Our church has been partnering with Samaritan’s Purse (a wonderful ministry headed up by Franklin Graham). Here is a video I did for them:

For now, please read my wife’s blog post HERE that will catch you up on everything. Again, forgive me for my absence from blogging. I’ve been swamped.

The following is a video from our friends at Max Lucoado’s church in San Antonio. They came and interviewed some of our church members and staff. This video shows what it’s like here. More soon.

Joplin, Missouri – May 2011 from Oak Hills Church on Vimeo.

This past weekend I was visiting a church in Missouri and I got to see the simple church model up close. Their mission is simply to Worship, Grow and Serve. It was a beautiful thing to behold. What is your church’s mission? Have you read Simple Church? How are you living it out?

Almost Isn’t Good Enough shares Wayne Elseyʼs story from a teenage boy on the verge of committing suicide to the founder of one of the fastest growing charities in the world. Along the way, Almost Isnʼt Good Enough takes a look into what has made Soles4Souls grow to where it is today.

Almost Isnʼt Good Enough will speak purpose into your life, much like the purpose Wayne discovered when he founded Soles4Souls. 100% of the proceeds will go directly towards furthering Soles4Souls mission.  For every book sold, 10 pairs of shoes will be given to people in need!

Wayneʼs hope is that this book will provide 200,000 shoes to kids around the world in 2011! Soles4Souls is asking you to join in using the book to change the world.

Buy Two, Give One, Tell Five

• When you BUY TWO, 20 pairs of shoes will be distributed to people in need wherever you designate.

• When you GIVE ONE, a message of hope and purpose will be given to someone you care about.

• When you TELL FIVE, you will help Soles4Souls hit our goal of giving away 200,000 pairs of shoes to people in need all over the world.

TELL FIVE by sharing this post on your Facebook or Twitter. Use the hashtag #200kShoes. Sign up and share email updates from the book. When you do, youʼll be providing shoes to an entire village.

The following is an excerpt from Chapter 6 of Almost Isn’t Good Enough:

I chose to leave my corporate career and make Soles4Souls my life’s work. Just because I made that decision doesn’t mean that is the only option you have available. Maybe you’re in your twenties, thirties, fifties, or whatever age and wondering what you can do. You might be discouraged that you can’t leave your job and start a nonprofit organization to solve a looming social problem. Maybe your feet are backed into a corner with your career and family obligations and think there is no way you can get a do-over in life.

If you’re in your twenties, let me encourage you to learn as much as you can about yourself. Surround yourself with people who are better than you at just about anything. Listen, watch, observe, and practice. Change jobs more frequently if you need. Not everyone wakes up one day and recognizes what he or she will do with the rest of their life. With the pace at which technology is changing the world, chances are whatever you are doing today won’t exist by the end of your career. Even better are the chances of you stumbling into a career that didn’t exist when you graduated from college. Use this time to discover who you are, your unique talents,and how you can leverage those skills to help others and yourself.

If you’re in your thirties, keep a balance between work and family. Don’t be consumed with building your career that you leave your family behind. Your family will be there when your job fails you and when the company you have been so loyal to decides they no longer need your services. There is no amount of money that will buy you security you can find in the loving arms of the ones you love and who love you.

If you’re in your fifties or older, it’s not too late. You may be entering a transitional period in your life that is very similar to those who are in their twenties. Perhaps you are on the brink of retirement. Your identity is wrapped up in your work, your airline rewards account, and your membership to the corporate gym. Retirement does not mark the end of your life but an opportunity to invest in other areas.

To purchase your copy of the book click HERE.

Here’s a sneak peek into Almost Isn’t Good Enough:

This video link was sent to me by a friend and reader of this blog. He knew I should see it. I watched it and wept. My heart goes out to this dear man of God. I listened to and appreciate his story, but don’t agree with his lifestyle. Take a look and listen to this man’s story.

Randy McCain’s Story from Neal Campbell on Vimeo.

I reached out to Randy and emailed him twice – asking him to start a conversation with me and invited him to be interviewed on this blog. As of now, I haven’t heard back from him. As I’ve said many times before on this blog, I love homosexuals and have a special place in my heart for them. Where the tension comes in is over whether or not gay Christians should live a life of celibacy like my friend, Justin Lee of The Gay Christian Network. There are “Side B” Christians that are homosexual, but don’t date and live a life of celibacy.

Recently, I was asked to review a new book by Zondervan and found that not only Justin feels this way, but many others. The book I was asked to review is called Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality and is part theology, part memoir. Wesley Hill writes as a gay celibate Christian – someone who believes in the Bible’s prohibition against homosexual practice, but struggles with same-sex attraction.

If you are a part of church ministry  you likely know someone who struggles with same-sex attraction. This book will help you understand their feelings of loneliness and isolation better, and also provides encouragement for them by “waiting” on the Lord.

I’m curious, IF you took the time to watch the entire video above and hear Randy’s story, what are your thoughts? Do you think his moving story of love and romance trumps what Scripture teaches? Is Scripture out of date, out of touch, wrong, misinterpreted? Do you celebrate Randy’s story and his ministry as a senior pastor of a church or do you grieve and wish he would live a life of purity and faithfulness to his tremendous calling in Christ? You know where I stand. Where do you stand?

I haven’t forgotten to blog. I’m chewing on a blog post that I don’t know whether or not I should post. I’ll be back with something tomorrow. Are you enjoying the Church Leadership 101 series?

Last week, I noticed Will Mancini blog about some of the things we’ve been discussing on my blog the past week. I’ve got 2 new articles on what guests look for that I’m anxious for you to read, but they’ll appear first in Outreach magazine. In the meantime, I thought it would be helpful for you to read Will’s thoughts.

This goes back to why a church would want to hire a secret shopper. Will shares 7 checkpoints. I look for close to 100 different things when I do a secret shopper visit (resulting in a 16 page report). If you’re interested in bringing me in for a secret shopper visit, go HERE for more information. Read what Will had to say:

When a first time guest drives onto your campus, they will decide within 11 minutes whether or not they are coming back.

Yes, the decision is made before your guests experience  worship and the content of the sermon- the two elements that demand most, if not all, of our time and attention in preparation.

What would it look like if you extended the same level of intention to the 11 minutes prior to walking in the sanctuary or worship center? Maybe the better question is “What would it feel like for your guests?”

It’s hard to overstate the wow factor a church body creates by serve generously through a system of hospitality. For the last 10 years I have observed and analyzed over 200 churches while conducting a “secret worshipper” experience.  It is a service at Auxano we call the “Guest Perspective Evaluation.” One of my greatest thrills in ministry is tasting the variety of size, location, and spiritual heritage of these churches. But the most important observation is that any church can take small steps to make a dramatic difference in welcoming guests.

This post is the first time I have shared any of our tools or learnings. And the first place to start is to imagine seven checkpoints for your guest. Think of the checkpoints as “gates” or even “hurdles” that any first time guest must navigate to get from their comfy family room to your worship service. With every gate comes a simple question: Has the church removed the inherent difficulty of navigating the gate for the first time?

More specifically I look for every opportunity to make each gate  simple, easy and obvious to navigate. Any particular difficulties created by your location or facility should be viewed as hospitality opportunities. By providing a great solution to an obvious barrier, you enhance the wow-factor of the hospitality.

THE SEVEN CHECKPOINTS

#1 Before Departure: Are directions and service times immediately accessible to guests  from your church website, phone recording and yellow pages?

#2 Travel to Location: Do guests know where to turn into your church location?

#3 Parking Lot: Do guests know where to park?

#4 Building Entrance: Do guests know which door to enter?

#5 Children’s Ministry: Do guests know where to take their kids?

#6 Welcome Center: Do guest know where to go for more information?

#7 Worship: Do guests know which door to enter?

*** Do you have these 7 checkpoints covered at your church?

I thought this was a great article/blog post by Michael R. Macias on that I came across on the Small Business Tech blog. This is what I try to get across to clients that I work with: social media marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. Just like I said in my older blog post “Diving into Social Media” – you have to be in it for the long haul. Read what Michael had to say to business leaders:

Far too often in the business world the term return on investment (ROI) is used to justify actions or strategies. Though the term certainly has a place in the small business sector, it doesn’t fit everywhere. And there is one place it should never be used-social media. Imagine if all of us treated our “real” friends based on the concept of “ROI” like we do with our “virtual” ones. Chances are it would look a little something like this: “Today I hung out with Billy, but got nothing in return, so I won’t be doing that again, even if we’ve been friends for 20 years.” We’d all end up without any friends if we lived our lives that way. Well, the same rule should apply to any social media efforts your small business engages in. Using Facebook shouldn’t be about tracking ROI, or measuring the benefits of your friends.

Granted, there are metrics or insights, available to show you how effective your messages are, but that shouldn’t define your efforts. Social media is about more than just sales conversions or coupon deliveries…it’s really about relationships. Today’s consumers want to feel connected to a brand, and have a personal relationship with it. It’s about engaging people, inspiring them, motivating them, and encouraging them to appreciate your brand. When you decide to dive into social media, think about treating it exactly as you would a new friend. As you get to know them, and they get to know you, you start to like each other more, and the next thing you know, you are introducing each other to new people. I believe in the business world we refer to that as word of mouth marketing. So before you try to rate your “virtual” friends, or create a system to track their value, stop and think, “Would I do this to Billy?”

This was a guest post and thank you Michael for taking the time to write this great post. You can find out more about Michael and his business at his website www.insidethecube.com . An impressive website and it is worth taking the time visit. Also you can follow Michael and his business on twitter http://twitter.com/CreativeQube.

Today I leave for my good old hometown of Dallas, TX. I’ll be hanging out at the ECHO Conference for the next few days. If you’re going to be there, please find me and say “hello”. I’m looking forward to being back in a city that I love and getting to see several friends from around the country that are coming to the conference.

Friday, I’ll be leaving Dallas and flying to Salt Lake City, Utah to hang out for six days with my friend, Charles Hill (founder of The Sticks Conference). Charles is planting a church near Salt Lake City, Utah (which happens to be the most un-churched city in the US) and I’ll get to attend his second preview service this Sunday. I can’t wait to share with you all what God shows me from my time with Charles.

As you know, I have a big heart for church planters and church plants in general. I love all church planters, regardless of where they plant, but I’m very passionate about hard to reach and unchurched areas like the Northeast, Pacific Northwest and where I’m going to be in Utah.

I’m also praying through some big decisions these days and would appreciate your prayers, as I believe God is leading me to start a church planting movement. I’ll be blogging more about the vision of this movement in the near future, but for now – please just pray for me. I feel God is up to something and stirring something inside of me and I feel my time with Charles in Utah is going to mess me up (for good)!

Can you believe it’s almost August?

The following is a blog post announcing the new book OUTSPOKEN – a book on church communications (which I’m honored to be  a part of). Read what Tim Schraeder said in his announcement on his blog:

Less than a month ago an idea was born.

I bought a domain, sent a few emails, and the rest has been a crazy journey that only God could have orchestrated.

While there are a number of great books and resources available for church communications directors, they often offer a very narrow or limited view of what can be an intricate subject. Church communications is now a wide umbrella that encompasses a broad range of disciplines including print, media, branding, design, web, social media, online communities, and much more.

The need is great but solid resources are few and far between.

Two years ago I was approached by an editor to write a book about my experience doing church communications, and I began the process of putting together a manuscript. While things seemed to be coasting, the economy began to take a slump downward and the idea was quickly shelved.

Well, about a month ago a fire was rekindled under me to make a book happen [credit to Scott Belsky’s Making Ideas Happen and Seth Godin’s Linchpin]…only this one would be different.

I felt there was need for a more holistic resource that would pull from the collected wisdom of many to create an indispensible resource for church communications leaders to help them clearly and effectively communicate the Gospel. Rather than one sole voice, I wanted to help create a conversation.

I’m thrilled to be the first to let you know the idea has become a reality and it’s happening… in partnership with the Center for Church Communication, I will be releasing OUTSPOKEN: Conversations on Church Communications.

Well, it’s not just me doing the writing… it’s me and over 50 friends including:

Kem Meyer – Granger Community Church
Dawn Nicole Baldwin – AspireOne
Greg Atkinson – gregatkinson.com
Michael Buckingham – Holy Cow! Creative
Shawn Wood – Seacoast Church
Scott Hodge – The Orchard
Ben Arment – Story, Whiteboard Sessions, Dream Year
Leonard Sweet – best-selling author, professor at Drew University
Phil Cooke – author of Branding Faith
Tony Morgan – TonyMorganLive.com
Jon Acuff – Stuff Christians Like
Will Mancini – auxano, author of Church Unique
Tony Steward – LifeChurch.tv
Charles Lee – Ideation
Cynthia Ware – Center for Church Communication
Blaine Hogan – Willow Creek Community Church
Daniel Decker – Higher Level Group
John Dyer- donteatthefruit.com
Rhett Smith – RhettSmith.com
Scott McClellan – COLLIDE Magazine
Katie Strandlund – CautiousCreative.com
Jason Widney – Park Community Church
Matt Knisely – Lawton First Assembly
Nathan Davis – Destiny Christian Center
Phil Bowdle- West Ridge Church
Jesse Phillips – CATALYST
Kent Shaffer- ChurchRelevance.com, YouVersion.com
Katie Moon – Fellowship Church
Kevin Hendricks – Center for Church Communication
Corbyn Tyson – monvee, Heartland Community Church
Curtis Simmons – Fellowship Technologies
Eric Murrell – Long Hollow Baptist Church, MediaSalt.com
Cleve Persinger – The Chapel, MediaSalt.com
Matthew Paul Turner – JesusNeedsNewPR.com

I’m just getting started!

John Saddington – North Point Ministries
Jay Argaèt – Hillsong Church
Maurilio Amorim – The A Group
Danielle Hartland - Grace Church
Jim Gray – Mission Igniter
Lori Bailey – LifeChurch.tv
Vin Thomas – VINTOM.com
Justin Wise – BeDeviant.com
Sam DuRegger – theomusings.com
Blair Farley – Mariners Church
Jeremy Scheller – The Sanctuary Covenant Church
Jan Lynn – TheViewfromHer.com
Steve Fogg – Crossway Church
Clint! Runge – Archrival
Jennifer Schuchmann – WordstoThinkAbout.com
Kerry Bural – The Resonate Group
Jeremy Sexton – National Community Church
Michael Forsberg – Jarbyco
Bobby Chandler - Sugar Creek Baptist Church
Vince Marotte – Gateway Church
Denny Weinman – Sugar Creek Baptist Church
Josh Burns – Park Community Church
Dawn Bryant – bloom
KC Walsh – Willow Creek Community Church
Rich Kirkpatrick – Sunridge Community Church
Cameron Smith – Christ’s Church of the Valley
Gerry True – Oak Hills Church
Josh Cody - Center for Church Communication

Added July 21:
Dave Blanchard – IDEO
Josh Blankenship – NewSpring Church
Bianca Juarez – InTheNameofLove.com
DJ Chuang – Worship Leader Magazine
Drew Goodmanson – MonDev/Ekklesia360
Paul Steinbrueck – OurChurch.com

…and more to be confirmed!*

OUTSPOKEN will be a collection of short essays by each contributor focusing on various areas that encompass church communications. It will offer practical ideas and insights from some of the people who are shaping and changing the way churches communicate. Some faces are familiar, some are new, but they all represent a unique mix of churches and backgrounds that will inspire and challenge you to change the way you do communications.

OUTSPOKEN will be self-published and available for purchase online as a downloadable PDF. Print copies will be available for purchase through Amazon. We’ll also be working to make it available in Kindle and iBook format.

Release date is to be determined, but we’re aiming for early winter.

Proceeds from the sale of OUTSPOKEN will go to support the Center for Church Communication, the parent organization of ChurchMarketingSucks.com and the Church Marketing Lab. CFCC exists to help the church matter and is a resource for church communicators. Churches have the greatest story ever told, but struggle to tell it well. They want to help churches tell it better.

Follow the OUTSPOKEN journey on twitter @OUTSPOKENbook or “Like” it on Facebook to stay up-to-date! Watch for more updates, the website launch and more!

The following is a blog post from my friend, Terrace Crawford. If you can give anything (this week) to help him get to Philly – that would be awesome. Read his words:

Our team has been preparing for this experience for months on end now and we’ve been raising funds to help our team get there; however, we are falling short. I am personally trying to raise $1,000 dollars this week to help us meet our goal. Would you consider helping me? Any donation would be appreciated.