Every Sunday we feature church signs. Here are this weeks signs. 
“God Loves all His creation, Dogs included.”
“Dogs don’t have souls. This is not open for debate.”
“Catholic dogs go to heaven. Presbyterian dogs can talk to their pastor.”
These church signs are right across from my friends work. The don’t seem to agree on their theology & they have been going back and forth for a few weeks now. They just can’t seem to agree on where their pets go after they die. Click here to see last week.
Have you ever seen two churches use their signs to have a conversation?
My friend sent these to me. These two churches are right across the street from each other.
If you have any great church signs, send them to me!
I’m leaving today for New Life Church in Little Rock, AR. Besides hosting the ARC Basic Training, NLC has many claims to fame.
1.Their worship leader Kris Allen won American Idol.
2. They were named the fastest growing church last year by Outreach Magazine.
We will be there for a week. The church planters will sit down with Rick Bezet and his team to pick their brain and talk about church.
It will be a blast.
Topics we will cover:
Six High Levels of a Life Giving Church
The WHO and the WHAT of a Launch Team
Volunteers: Dream Team Concept
Government/ By- Laws/Finance(least fun, but most important)
Missions/Outreach
Matt Keller will be talking about:
Planning your Communication
Resource Scarce to Abundant
Decision Making
Marketing (My Favorite part)
We will be sitting in on the Staff Meetings, Creative Team Meeting
Interviewing the department heads of Children’s Ministry,Student’s/College/Internship, Growth Track/ Life Groups.
Rocking with the band as they do Worship Practice
Hitting up several of the Weekend Experience and learning about Mobile Church.
And of course hanging-out with Neil Greathouse {picture above} and learning about the Creative Process & Production
There are tons of other great things we are going to cover, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise for those already going.
This is our last BT of the year. If you are interested in going to our next one in February email me (guy at arcchurches dot com) we can save you a spot.
Here are my nine pages of notes from #FIND09 Church Planters Conference… Wait that would be crazy. You didn’t come so you can have them. Instead here is a thought from each speaker I listened to:
Greg Surratt- Church planting is the R&D for the body of Christ.
Joel Hunter- Don’t Push! (This is what the doctors said to his wife while she was in labor. Pushing too early would cause her and the baby problems. Same goes for your church plant.)
Rob Ketterling- Church Planters make mistakes. There are too many to make in one lifetime so learn from others.
Hugh Halter- Find the balance between scattering and gathering.
Herbert Cooper-Structure for growth.
Gene Apple- Shifting Winds= Anxiety + Exhilaration.
Jon Furguson- Have your brother do the grunt work of your church plant. {He and Geoff Surratt}
Billy Hornsby- Why would you plant a church that wouldn’t reaching people?
Win Souls. Go make Disciples. Worship. Ministry. Fellowship.
Scott Thomas- Church signs make him throw up.
Joe Champion- Aren’t you glad that God saved the last message for a Champion! ok 1 mo BITE!
I may post bits and pieces from my notes over the next few weeks…
Any thoughts?
Billy traveled to Europe (London & Germany) to talk about ARC Churches International. While he was there he ask a few people about ARC. see the videos below
This guy is passionate.
Revolutionary new thing in Britain!
ARC- Adams inspiration…
Trouble finding time to read a few books?
Today I tried something new. I walked into Borders (local book store near Purdue University) and grabbed a lapdesk and the first 5 books that caught my attention. Then I sat in one of the large leather chairs.
The Goal: Spend 5 min on each book, for a total of 25 min reading. I wasn’t sure what the outcome would be. I didn’t have time to read the whole book or even a whole chapter. There was only enough time to get the big picture.
I had a specific strategy for understanding the main point and finding something that would add value in 5 minutes. Begin with the last sentence. (30 seconds) Next read the chapter titles. Find a chapter of whose content is most interesting to you. (30 seconds – 1 minute) Finally, read that chapter as fast as you can. Be looking for that one little nugget that you can take with you. TIMES UP! This process was more helpful than I planned.
What did I learn?
1st book
The Green Book
Not sure why I picked two books on “how to be green.” Sometimes I like to read things that are just different than my usual. Two things I walked away with were: Will Ferrel drives an electric car. He explained why and how it makes him feel (p 33). The next thing that I learned will be helpful to my speech at the BUG Conference. There are 1.6 billion homes in the world.
2nd Deep Survival
Different than I expected, but the author was very creative and painted a picture well. Sometimes too much. So many adjectives and metaphors, I didn’t know what he was actually saying.
365 Ways to live Green
Their goal is to get you to spread the word about going green. (I know this because page 365 said now that you know, go teach your friends.) I found a section that would help me as I remodel my new house. It was titled “How to make your house more green.” Now I’m thinking about buying energy efficient light bulbs and rethinking the interior decor.
After staying on schedule perfectly, there was 5 minutes left. I saved the best for last.
Field Guide to African Wildlife.
I read about each of the animals I saw in my recent trip to Africa. Skipped all the birds. They just don’t interest me. And even learned about the different types of giraffe.
My take away. I had less than an hour and I learned something. It was time well spent. Obviously, I had to read fast and do a lot of scanning. But this technique helped me understand the main point and have something to take away. I have read a whole book without accomplishing those 2 things.
This process goes fast. It was fun. I wouldn’t recommend it all the time but next time you have a few minutes to kill in a book store, give it a try.
What time saving ideas do you have?
Pastor Newbie is going to Clay Hill to start a church. The soon to be church planter, likes a few things about his current church and members, however, there seems to be just as many things he does not like. Can you figure out why he likes some things and not others?
Newbie had spent many a year in the church and preached countless times. But there were still things he liked and did not like. He liked the smell of the church but not the odor. The look but not the design. The feel but not texture…
This was very odd…
This little girl brought him a vase. He liked the glass, but not dirt. It is a beautiful plant, he thought, he liked the green but not the leaf.
He liked her feet, but not her hands.
Her teeth, but not her smile.
Then there was the town. He like the trees, but not leaves.
He like the grass, but not the sidewalks. The roofs but not the buildings.
Something is wrong with this soon to be church planter. Can you tell me why he likes some things and not others?
1. Tweet Bird
Click this to make me famous on twitter. Click the bird, login, and click update. 2 clicks will send my post out into the TwitterSphere. Please leave the @reply. I like to see my name.
2. Open comments
Your comments no longer have to wait for moderation. Say what you want…maybe peeps will actually comment now, but no pressure of course…However this is supposed to be a conversation…Whatever
3. Fixed the “Get updates to Your Inbox”
now you type your email address to get an email for new post. Retype it anytime you get tired of what I have to say.
4. New Photos page.
Still needs some work but at least it is up!
5. I have added tons of new Plugins.
If you are unfamiliar with Plugins just think of them as little surprises around the website. Chech out the “Share on Facebook” 1 at the bottom of each post
I also want to thank my Aunt Susan for helping me with my editing/grammar. I tend to miS sPelL things ever once and a while. She helps keep it readable. Thanks
