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Saturday, May 31, 2008

"I Don't Deal with Customers -- I'm in Management"

This week I called Adcom Universal, a company that creates maps of a particular community, sells advertising in the map and then supposedly provides the maps for free to advertisers and community organizations. I called them because I had made the mistake of placing an ad with them in a map that they marketed to me as "used by the real estate offices in town with all of their customers." The price was right and I'm always interested in communicating our presence as a church to those new to town.

I wouldn't have made the mistake if I had simply done my homework and visited their website. On it, you can clearly see the kind of maps they produce. While I don't want to malign their product, it is clear that it is not what I would have wanted to advertise in. Further, it turns out that the map was not commissioned by any real estate offices in town and is not necessarily used heavily by any of them. I of course found this out AFTER the fact.

I very wisely placed the ad and then a few weeks later they sent me several complimentary copies. When the maps showed up, I was floored. The publication was one color (which they hadn't communicated to me and I supplied a full color ad -- which looked pretty bad converted to one color) and the ad was unsatisfactory on a number of other counts. Add this to the general quality of the publication, and I was pretty disappointed.

So I called them. When the nice lady answered the phone, I told her that I was disappointed in the maps, was an advertiser, and wanted to speak to someone in management about it. I did this because I was going to ask for my money back and I wanted someone with some authority in the power structure of the company to hear the disappointment level of one of their clients. I also did this because typically the customer service person that answers the phone does not have the authority to give refunds and has to get approval by someone in management in order to do so.

At first I was told that there was no one in management I could speak to. Then when I persisted, I was placed on hold for around 5-6 minutes before reaching someone in management. I began to explain my frustration and disappointment with their publication and with the treatment of my ad. After getting through most of my story, the person on the line said, "So why did you ask to speak with me?"

Dumbfounded, I replied, "You're in management, right?"

To which she responded in the affirmative. I then queried, "So what do you does management do in your company?"

She responded, "We manage customer service." She then put me back on hold and transfered me back to customer service. You can imagine the rest -- I re-explained my complaint, was put back on hold while customer service checked to see what they could do....you know the drill.

I was reminded of how easy it is to get compartmentalized. We all do it. We create whole structures based on compartmentalization and division. In so many ways it is what has made the engine of our economy possible. The division of labor has made us able to conceive, engineer and build the most incredible things by breaking it down into chunks.

But this division of labor also cripples us when it comes to dealing with simple things if we perceive that they do not fall into our department. Some of that is managements fault if they don't give authority to their employees/customer service people. Some of that is the individuals fault when it comes to passing the buck on difficult issues.

I'm reminded of what so many great leadership minds say over and over again -- they look for solution people.

I want to be a solution person. Remind me of that, the next time I try to transfer you back to customer service.

Friday, May 30, 2008

Bridges Out of Poverty Conference

Here's a quick pic of the conference I am attending today about
poverty. I don't see any other pastors here today which is too bad
since this issue is MAJOR for our community.

Kings County has the lowest per capita income in the state of
California.

22% of children are living below the poverty line.

1 in 3 people are food insecure in this county. They're not sure where
their next meal us coming from.

This is critical and we must get in tune as a church to be able to
effectively minister here.

Grading Has Begun!

Grading began this week on the undeveloped half our church property.
This was possible because of a generous donation. The Future Hope
project is on its way!

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Mogulus Embed 

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

One Prayer

Our church is joining with over 750 others across several nations (and representing around 500,000 people) and focusing on the topic of One Prayer during the month of June. We'll be praying, God make us One, God make us Dangerous, God make us Disciples and God make us Dramatic (or passionate -- Pastor Jeff can't decide which).

We're excited to be joining with many other churches and demonstrating that we are One as a Body. For a teaser, check this out.

Live Streaming Sunday Services

I've been testing out Mogulus' free streaming service and am about ready to go live with it to stream our Sunday morning services. A number of people over the years have suggested that this would be a good thing to offer for those that couldn't make it on Sunday morning because they were sick or traveling. We haven't wanted to invest money in this area because up until recently the technology was not accessible for our budget. But it's hard to beat free.

So, if you're interested, check out our Mogulus channel here. During the week we have placeholders that just run repeatedly, and then we go live on Sunday morning. I plan to archive the services when possible and make them available for future viewing.

Mogulus » Channel » kcf
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Tuesday, May 20, 2008

It's Not About You

If anything is a counter cultural statement, this is it. Everything in our culture tells us it is about us! Think about it:

- Have it your way.
- Give yourself a break.
- Be true to yourself.
- You deserve it.
- and on and on...

I think that this phrase could be a main point in virtually every sermon that we preach. Interestingly, the tension in the Gospel we preach is that Jesus died for us and if we were the only one He would have come to save us! So we teach that it is about us. But then as soon as we get that revelation, we must immediately recognize that it wasn't about us. It's about His love and grace extended to us.

This morning I'm listening to a live (actually as I'm posting this, I'm watching it time delayed) webcast of Rick Warren's pastors conference that started today. His opening keynote is on personal renewal and he's talking directly to pastors and how to maintain your love for God -- what he calls your personal renewal. One of his points is — surprise — it's not about you! It is powerful, powerful stuff.

Saddleback Church: Online Services
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Thursday, May 1, 2008

WOW Jam Hanford Report

Well, we finally hosted our first Wow Jam in Hanford. At least ten churches joined together to host the event at Coe Park here in Hanford, CA. Many had been waiting for this for a number of years. I remember my dad wanting to bring Wow Jam in to town back in 2001-2002. So it has been a long time coming, but it was well worth the wait. To see so many churches come together was an awesome thing.

Wow Jam is a free event where people are given a free meal, haircuts, face painting, prizes, fix kids' bikes and on and on. Everything is free and it is done just to show people that God loves them. The organization brings in a semi with a portable stage and puts on a kind of rally of sorts that ends with the message of the gospel and a salvation call.

Just wanted to share the stats we tracked last night at WOW Jam. Again, all this stuff was given out for free.

Estimated Attendance: 4000 + (at the peak)
Face Painting: 166
Bike Repair: 78
Family Portraits: 215
Kid’s Corner Pictures: 90
Nails / Manicures: 58
Book Nook (books read to kids): 58
Cups of Water Given Out: 1445
Haircuts: 108
Raffle Tickets Give Out: 3401
Hot Meals Given Out: 1784 (with a lot more drinks given away, 3000+)
Career Counseling: 50+
Makeovers: 29
Sno Cones: 616
Plants Given Away: 136
Over 700 bags of groceries given out.
More than 300 volunteers from 11 churches served.

Decisions Made: 446 (recommitments & first time salvation decisions)

We ran out of salvation cards and salvation packs and I'm guessing we gave out 600+ bibles.
Pretty neat stuff!

Here's a few pics.

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