Information Easy as PIE

One of the most frustrating challenges churches face is how to assimilate so much information in a way that the congregation will remember it and become engaged. Just getting the vast amounts of information out to the church members is challenging enough. The other side of the coin is how to present it in a way that they will remember it. One church I served on staff at, came up with over 15 ways to present information to the congregants from verbal announcements to live video streams to 4 page bulletins with inserts included. It can be frustrating to assimilate information simply because most people get overloaded daily with information wherever they go. 

People typically retain only 10% of what they read. You can only put so much information in the church bulletin and then hope people even read it at best, much less retain the information they read. Stand up announcements by staff or volunteers became popular in churches and it did help streamline the process and make it more interesting. People typically retain 20% of what they hear.

One method I have seen that works very well is using the church web site for presenting information about events and calendars. But you have to be careful how you present it there also. A static web site with text only will get you the same results as the bulletin did. So, add in some graphics and video and sound and people  along with your information and you have better retention. People typically retain 50% of what they see and hear. 

Routing your members to the church web site has great potential for greater retention. First of all, that is the first place people go for information about everything. They are already used to surfing the web for information. Second, if used right, can be more stimulating and captivating with graphics, sound, links, and clicks. Thirdly, your space is unlimited unlike the printed material used that can only fit so much information.

If you are going to send people to your web site, try using the PIE method. 

• Make sure that your web information is PRECISE. A down side of web information is the time people spend on a page. It can be very short if the information is not presently right. So, be precise and to the point and get your message across quickly. 

• Make sure your web information is INFORMATIVE. Keep your web information clean and uncluttered. Only present pertinent information for that particular event or announcement that people will need to know to participate and engage. Give details that will get them all the way from interest in the event to how to sign up and get there.

• Make sure your web information is EASY to locate. After too many clicks to find the details, people will give up and go to another page or log off. Organize your web with easy to follow menus and labels. If you are verbally announcing an event in church, then use the exact same words in your web information. Example: You announce information verbally about Wednesday Night Programs but on the web you call it "First Church" University or Academy , people may not associate those two together and find it. The bottom line is make your web information easy as PIE.

Your comments! Suggestions!

Chair Competition

My Facility Manger came to me asking if we could purchase more chairs for special events. He was having to drag chairs from all around the church for big events and that is a lot of work. After considering his request, I noticed that we had chairs all over plus we had a wide variety of styles in place. I decided that if we were going to start buying more chairs, we needed to be more consistent.

Why not choose a chair that would be our classroom and special event chair and as we buy new ones, rotate off the old chairs? Of course, everyone had an opinion on which chair they wanted. So, I fixed that! 

We had our first chair competition with voting and everything. Why not have a little fun with this I thought. I purchased 3 different style chairs, added one style that we were already using, and threw in a kid chair just for fun. I set up the chairs in the office hall and labeled them for voting 1-5. I sent out a notice and instructions and away we went. It's not every day that you ASK your employees to sit around!

The reaction was fun and most everyone participated. It was the talk of the office that week for sure. The end results were posted and emailed out and thus our selection was made. This is just another way to have some fun in the office and get some work done at the same time. What are you doing in the office for fun?

Comments! Suggestions!

The Phone Call

I started my secular career when I was sixteen working for my dad in a family auto parts business. When I got my driver’s license, Dad put me to work as a delivery person. Over the course of twelve years working with my dad, I worked my way up to store manager. In 1982, we sold the business and moved from Corpus Christi to Arlington, Texas.

I started a new business there selling auto parts again but this time wholesale. Business shaped up so fast that my dad came out of retirement and began working for me. We had a great time together and business was booming. After five years, I sold the business and stayed on as a salesman for the new owner. He had a business partner that ran the business to the ground financially. After a couple of months, I left the company not wanting to be part of the way the business was being conducted.

Phone call #1
I received a phone call from a supplier I had used for many years asking if I wanted to come work for him while looking for a new full-time job. I went to work for a large wholesaler in Dallas, Texas working in their call center with eight women. They knew me from being a long-time customer, so it was fun working with them. However, all of them smoked and by the end of the day I was reeking of stale smoke.

Phone call #2
I got a call from a guy that owned a wholesale auto parts company that was once my competitor. He wanted me to join his company as outside sales since I knew most all the customers in that area and was well known. I started and did very well with this company. However, things were not what they looked like. The company was in turmoil internally with their employees and owners. I was looking for something else when I got…

Phone call #3
A friend of mine, that had a repair shop that I had sold to for many years, called me and told me about a company that had just opened and was looking for sales people. He gave me the name and I called them and within a few weeks I was employed there. It was a great company and soon became District Sales Manager for the Fort Worth area. I stayed there 5 years and loved it. It was while working there that I made the transition from secular to church work. I was called to be on staff at my first church as Business Manager. I accepted and made the jump to church work. I stayed there for many years and loved it. Strange as it may seem, I found myself out of work after a 5 years there. It’s a long story and not for this article.

Phone call #4
I received a call from a friend that heard I was unemployed and he asked me to come work for him. He owned 4 businesses and needed someone to handle the accouting for him at his corporate office. He literally had lost all his staff and when I arrived it was just me to run the place. I accepted and spent six months helping him out and trying to keep his business matters running. It was a fun adventure and I learned a lot there.

Phone call #5
I received a call from an Executive Pastor of a church in Fort Worth looking for a church Business Manager. We met one day and visited for a while and found out I had been referred to him by a friend. It was just what I was looking for and so I accepted and become the Business Manager at this church. I stayed there for 7 years and loved it so much. I grew as a business leader and made lifelong friends there. I had no real intentions of leaving there any time soon but, I got the phone call again.

Phone call #6
I received a call from a pastor at a church in Waco, Texas that was referred to me by a friend. He wanted to meet me and visit about joining his staff there. We met in Hillsboro one day and hit it off together great. I told him that as along as God opened doors for me I would continue to pursue this. It all worked out well and I made the move from Fort Worth to Waco. It was a great church and the pastor and staff were awesome. I loved it there and grew so much in my business experience and my walk with Christ. The pastor resigned abruptly after four years. I stayed on as the Executive Pastor and spent the next two years there without a senior pastor. Finally, a new pastor was brought on and after three years of dysfunctional leadership and friction in the staff, I chose to move on. Weird, no phone call this time.

We sold the house there in Waco and moved to Marble Falls, Texas where I had been hanging out waiting to see where and what I would do next. It was very awkward to not get a phone call. That has always been the norm from the very beginning, but not this time. I asked the Lord why this was happening and what was going on. Why was there no phone call? After eleven months of waiting and searching for work and almost exasperated from the long wait of nothing happening in the job area for me, I GOT THE PHONE CALL.

Phone call #7
I received a call from a friend in Fort Worth telling me about a church position that just came open. He referred me to a person to contact and I did right away. Within an hour I had a phone call from the Executive Pastor of the church looking and we visited for about an hour on the phone. He was very interested in me and I was very interested in what he was describing to me about the church. He invited me and my wife to come attend worship services the next Sunday and check out the church before we moved forward with this opportunity.

Three weeks later I was voted in for the new position and started a couple weeks later. I started at the new church exactly one year, to the day, from the day I left the previous church. All I can say at this point is the number 7 in the Bible means completeness and perfectness. Did you notice what the last phone call I received was? That’s right…number 7! God is good, all the time!

Comments? Suggestions?

De-compressing Music

A pastor once told me how he de-compressed on the way home from the office. He found a dumping spot on his route home so that when he passed it, he dumped all his stress there, mentally clearing his mind. If you want to know how to decompress from the stress of a busy day just google it. You will find 5 ways, 7 ways, 10 ways, 100 ways people have found that works for them.

Why de-compress anyway? A day filled with meetings, challenges, projects, errands, noise, and other office activities can stress you out and if left unattended to, will physically effect your health long term. Plus, who wants to be around a stressed out you? Your spouse, family, and friends certainly don't. If you just leave the office and don't do something to de-stress and de-compress your mind, it will be a train wreck waiting to happen later.

I am a music lover. I'm not a one genre person and listen to almost all genres. For de-compressing, one of the best music genre's for me is classical music. I recently took a job were I drive the freeway to and from work. Fortunately, the heavy traffic is the other direction both ways. But there is certainly enough traffic left to cause me stress. Add that to the busy day and you have to de-compress to get back to your sanity.

Before I start my treck every day, I set my phone up via Bluetooth to the sound in the vehicle. I created a Pandora station called Classical Music for studying. I adjust the sound level enough to drown out almost all road noise giving me a euphoric feeling of floating down the road. In this state of mind, I am just observing traffic with the noise and distractions removed. I am actually able to think and tune out traffic stress and the stress from the day. Driving in this state of mind ensures you arrive home with a clear mind, de-compressed and ready for a great evening. Try it with your own genre of music and get stress free.

Comments? Suggestions? What is your De-compressing music?

5 Best Practices Counting Tithes and Offerings

High accountability should be exercised in all businesses including churches and non-profits. When you have donors contributing to your business, like a church does, there must be processes in place that give evidence of transparency but most of all accountability. In churches, counting the tithes and offerings properly must be of high importance. Here are several best practices that must take place in handling money in the church. If you are not doing these, stop and change your process to handle money the proper way and not give way to fraud or misappropriations of any funds. These may seem basic but I believe there are many churches still lacking in security and accountability in this area.

• Once money is collected during a worship service, ensure that two people walk it to the office. Allowing one person to carry the cash to the office is setting them up to fail and giving an opportunity for an unsafe situation. Always have two people with the money always until secured
• Don’t think that dropping the money on the Bookkeepers desk and locking the office is secure enough. Never hide the money bags under a chair, in a desk drawer, or in a filing cabinet. The best practice is to have a drop safe securely mounted to the floor that money bags can be dropped into. Also, use this drop safe for all department deposits from the staff during the week. Only give the combination to the drop safe to key people that need to be in there. I recommend that be no more than 3 people, one being just for back up and emergencies.
• Many churches still use volunteers the next day to count and process the offerings from Sunday. Keep the number of volunteers to a minimum but enough that you can rotate them around with counting so that you don’t have the same people every week. Use a secure room that is locked while counting. Provide the volunteers with forms to record amounts with that can be verified later if need be. The Best practice is to have a member of your financial staff present and counting too.
• Now that the money is counted and verified, use the drop safe again to hold the money until a trip to the bank is arranged. The best practice would be to use an armored car service that picks up directly at your office each week. Otherwise, don’t let the same person go to the bank at the same time on the same day each week. Vary that process up using multiple staff people.
• Now that you are ready to post the deposits and donor contributions, I recommend segregation of duties. Don’t let the same person do all the counting and posting. For posting, let the Bookkeeper make the journal entries, another staff member posts the contributions, and the Business Manager does checks and balances.

Comments! Suggestions!

Back in the Saddle Again

Have you ever been bucked off a horse without warning? I was riding that day, doing what I always do, and without warning my horse bucked and jumped wildly and within a split second, threw me to the hard ground. I laid there flat on my back in the dirt with dust flying all around from the fall. The crowd went silent for a moment waiting to see what would happen next. Would I get back up? Can I even get up? I laid there for seemed like a year when in reality it was just a short few minutes in rodeo time. Here is how it happened.

I’m a horse rider in a Christian rodeo and have been riding for 23 years. I don’t own a horse, I just ride them. For four years I rode one of the best horses in the rodeo. We were a team and rode high and rode fast. The horse was sold abruptly one day out from underneath me and there I was with no horse to ride. For the next couple years, I rode a lot of different horses that were good horses but not like the one I had before. Changing horses often for a rodeo rider isn’t good. Riders must get to know that horse and ride him every day and bond together. I finally got a another horse and we started riding. It was a rough start but we were riding together. After 3 years as his rider, the unexpected happened. We were riding the rodeo that day and doing what we were both trained for, and out of nowhere that blasted horse reared its head up and bucked and threw me to the ground. Here is the rest of the story.

While lying there flat on my back in the dirt, in pain, I began reflecting on my life as a rider. Was I really a great rider? Do the people watching me ride like me? Do I want to keep riding after this fall? Would the pain ever go away? Will I ride again? Those were the questions in my mind. It felt like a year lying there but it was only a few minutes. I felt my legs move again and the pain was getting lighter. I heard the crowds that day chanting words to get me back up. You can do it! Get up son! We need you to ride again! You were born to ride!

I mustered enough strength to sit up and then finally stand . The crowds went crazy chanting my name and excited to see me get back up. It was incredible to hear them so loud and so excited. I got my balance and dusted myself off, looked all around at the crowds and waved my hat high in the air letting them know I was alright and will ride again. It was a glorious moment of exhilaration and emotion. I walked back to the horse stalls and there, waiting for me, was a new horse. It was tall and mighty looking with a beautiful hand engraved saddle waiting for me to mount. The horse appeared to be too big for a small rider like me, yet I sensed it was gentle. The horse turned its head around to me and with this look of gentleness seemed to say... get on and let’s ride son. 

As I mounted the new horse, I was handed the reigns by my riding partner. She was standing there ready to lead me out to the arena again with the crowd waiting in anticipation of seeing me ride. She had been there before I was ever bucked off the horse and right there next to me as I lay there in the dirt with dust all around me. She was praying over me to get up and ride again and show the crowds I can do it. She handed me the reigns but I pulled her up on the back of the saddle with me. The stall gate opened and together we rode around the arena waving our hats to the crowd. They were ecstatic and screaming with joy and excitement for us. 

We stopped in the middle of the arena to take the moment in and there we saw the rodeo owner sitting high up in his booth that overlooks the whole rodeo. You could tell who he was because we wore the finest leather and the finest clothes and the finest boots money would buy. His face brightly glowed with joy over the fact that I got back on that horse again and was riding for Him again. At that moment, I knew it was Him that gave me the new horse that was strong yet gentle and would never buck me off again.

At that very moment, the rodeo owner silenced the crowd. I hear with a loud voice…”ride em cowboy, you’re back in the saddle again. 

Comments?

The Five Dollar All Staff Lunch

Looking for a simple way to build the team and have some fun? Here is a time tested outing that is perfect for your team building program. It is all inclusive and easy to set up and manage. You can use this in all sorts of settings; small business, corporations, non-profits, churches, and other type businesses. I used it in a church setting with about 30 total employees and had great success with it. Here is the premise of why I chose this event. I invited all the paid employees to lunch once a month at a local restaurant for some fun and casual dining. To entice them to attend, I asked them to just pay $5 and the church would cover the rest. That way no one could complain it was too expensive for them. I asked them to order off the lunch menu and keep the cost modest. They paid in advance at the office and signed up and then we chose a location. I would send an office email the day of reminding each employee to pay up and then meet us there. Some would carpool and if a small group we took the church van. Here was the results I pleasantly discovered.
It became a "look forward to" event and many times we had upward of 25-30 in attendance. I saw employees that normally don't interact much at the office sit together and have fun. I saw employees that worked outside of the main office come and have fun. We laughed and mainly talked about life and not so much work. I feel it built our team up and gave them an outlet to build a casual relationship with other employees. The cost to the church was nothing compared to the value of the event for the whole team. Need some fun at the office? Try this event and see what happens.

Your comments? Suggestions? Did you try it?