Tractors and Backhoes not Required!

In the mid 90's, I was on staff at a small Baptist church as their Business Manager with oversight of the campus and facilities. It was a church of about 200 people with one main building and eventually adding 6 double classroom portable buildings. We relied heavily on volunteers for a lot of activities and getting things done around the church. I met a man named L.K. Choate and discovered he was the influence for about 10 other men that loved to build and fix things. If I needed a facility project done, all I had to do was call L.K. Chote and it got done. What a blessing to have these servants at our church.

It was time for my first "All Church Work Day". You know the drill; we line up tasks and projects, ask the church to spend a day working all around the church giving it a makeover, feed them lunch and go home. I put all that together and asked the members to bring gloves, shovels, rakes, and hand tools for most of the tasks. I arrive first thing that Saturday morning for the work day, and within a few minutes people starting arriving. Only the ones arriving early were L.K. Chote and the gang...driving tractors, backhoes, cement mixers, and dump trucks to the church. It looked like a construction site!  WOW!

I asked for shovels and rakes and got tractors and backhoes: these guys were serious workers!

I'm planning my first "work" day here at First Burleson this coming spring. The word "fellowship" comes to mind for ours though. Sure we can work and repair and build and fix, but lets add some fun and fellowship to it. At First Burleson, we do L.I.F.E together and the letter F stands for Fellowship. There will be coffee and donuts, some organization, meeting people, some projects around the campus, then a lunch meal together and then stand back and see the beauty of our work.

The day will be designed for everyone including families, singles, couples, all ages, and students. Projects of all sizes and skill levels will be listed. Supplies will be on hand and let the fun begin. Come and fellowship and work along side of people you may not even know. Make some new friends. Learn a new skill. Snap some pics and enjoy the morning. Tractors and backhoes not required!

Your comments! What skills do you have?

My Pleasure!

Just hearing the title of this article you will know what business I am referring to right! Chic-Fil-A figured out that manners and smiles are key to customer service and they have incorporated that into their business model. Guess what? It works!

Customer service in a church setting is so critical that if we miss focusing on it, we will miss an opportunity with our guests. I have heard so many sad stories of people visiting a new church and never being greeted that it has ingrained in me even more that we must have that in our churches. I am so excited and thankful to be on staff at a church that makes guest service a priority in ministry. Allow me to share my excitement.

Over the past year we have recruited new volunteers, organized and structured our customer service into Guest Services Ministry or GSM. All the volunteers wear bright orange lanyards with a circle B logo name tag. Each volunteer also gets to wear a bright orange and white circle button that says "Ask Me". What a fun way to easily identify our GSM team volunteers. We intentionally place them at strategic places all over the campus.

We have a saying at First Burleson to all our guests. "Do not go through the day alone"! By placing and easily identifying our GSM team, every guest will find their way and be greeted over and over during their visit. That is so exciting and fun to see in action. Our guests are greeted from the parking lot to the pew and will get a touch from us at least 7 times during their visit.

For me personally, GSM is the most exciting and fun ministry. I love to meet and greet people and get to know them and help them at our church. I love to see their faces when after just a few minutes of meeting them, I can repeat their name while introducing them to others. Chic-Fil-A has captured their customers by using two simple words. At First Burleson, we use a similar philosophy but with four simple words..."I'm glad you're here".

Customer service is so much alive today and is making a huge impact on people in our church.

Comments? Your thoughts?

The Art of Negotiation

According to Dave Ramsey, everything is negotiable. In his FPU financial training series he says to pay cash for everything and always bargain. For the most part, I agree with him. However, have you tried going to Walmart and at the check out counter pull out cash and try to wheel and deal? I didn’t think so. I am sure Dave was not referring to retail big box stores. I do agree that money talks and have experienced it many times. My best friend is the king of negotiating and I have witnessed this multiple times. Here is his simple plan of negotiating and most the time it works great. 

• When shopping carry cash in small and large bills to use in the negotiating process 
• Never act like you are crazy for the item and just have to have it no matter what
• Walk by it several times and stop and look
• Once the clerk asks if you are interested in the item, say no and walk off
• Keep going by the item and looking at it
• Once the clerk asks again if you are interested in the item, now ask how much
• Always respond that’s too much and walk off
• The clerk now asks what you think the item is worth after the first price was given
• Reluctantly offer much lower and thus the negotiations have started
• Next pull out cash and make your offer. If they decline, then walk off.
• Stay firm with your offer and most the time the clerk will take a cash offer

Here is the art of negotiation. Don’t just accept the deal as is and let them know you really want the item. This process can be applied at home and in business. I use it all the time in business and have saved thousands of dollars over time. Let’s say you are working with a vendor offering you a service. You feel the cost is too high and you need a better deal. Use the same process above. You may not be using cold cash in the deal, but the rest applies. The vendor presents you a service at a cost and wants you to sign a contract. Start with acting like you don’t have to have his service. Look at the contract several times but walk away. Tell them you need to shop it more. The vendor adjusts the contract and pricing and you still look and walk away. You even get other quotes that are way less and have the same service. The vendor says this is his bottom deal. You respond with your other quote and ask him to match it or walk away. That’s cash to him and he takes the deal. Booyah! You just saved a lot of money from negotiating the deal. 

I try and use this art of negotiation from my best friend and Dave Ramsey’s advice about cash but it takes practice. Recently I was at a guitar show and stopped by a vendor with accessories. I spotted a nice guitar strap and asked the price. I was told $40. I walked away. The clerk stopped me and said she would take $35. I pulled out a $20-dollar bill and said I would give that. She took it! I was looking at a guitar online and the cost was $80. I offered $65 cash and he took it. You get it the message, right? Negotiate wherever you can at home and in business. The best part is after the deal knowing you made a huge savings.

 Your comments! Suggestions! Have you tried this?

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?