Our Brand.

Is it just me? - Am I old -fashioned? - or do other people find this distracting during church?

Batter Be Good.

First, let me say that we trust our staff to make good decisions, and I'm not bringing this up because of any forthcoming scandals. Like most churches - we do have some very basic principles to help maintain the moral integrity of our staff.

We don't take it the extreme like BoJo - but we do think it's good to have some standards in place. So we have created these new signs to put around the administrative areas as reminders. So just remember what I said "If any of you even flirt with temptation, I may come after you with a baseball bat, and you can do the same with me." Kidding. :)

They're Back! Bigger Than Ever!

Three days ago I said that "Church-Wide Campaigns" (CWC) were dead. I was wrong. Your jobs are safe. According to this list I found on the web - campaigns are as BIG AS EVER! Infact everyone is doing them or at least selling them!

Here's a short sampling:
- 50 Day Spiritual Adventures
- 30 Days of Praise
- Put Your Faith in Action
- The God Questions
- Porn Sunday
- Contagious Christian
- Narnia
- Just Walk Across The Room
- Life Together
- Why
- Sunday Solutions
- Willowcreek Resources
- Made to Count
- Rocky Balboa
- Creative Pastors
- Compassion International Sunday
- Granger Sermon Series
- Your Child - Focus on the Family
- Life Church Sermon Series
- Family Life
- Passage
- Project Constant Hope - ABS
- Zondervan church-wide campaigns
- Generous Giving
- God Is Closer Than You Thin - Ortberg
- lose it for life
- Thrive!
- United 93 (huh?)
- The Polar Express
- Understanding Your Teenage
- Maximizing Your Impact
- eWomen
- The Nativity Movie
- Facing The Giants
- Mothers of Preschoolers
- Walk Thru The Bible
- Gary Smalley
- Crown Financial
- AngelTree
- 30 Hour Famine
- Persecuted Church Sunday
- Good Sense
- The Essential 100
- City Reachers
- FCA Community
- Habitat
- Evan Almighty/Ark Almighty

Wow!!! If a local church particpated in half of those it would take them until 2012 to complete. No wonder we get so much junk mail here. Unless you got a best-selling book or a hit movie it's a minefield out there. I don't even know what to define as a campaign anymore.

That's only a partial list? What about VBS, Crusades, Walkathons and holidays?

Our Unlikely Evangelist Wins Gold.

The days of "phonebooth squeeze" outreach events are long gone. These days - Saddleback Church member - Kyle Loza takes outreach to the extreme. Literally! Congratulations go out to Kyle - as he won gold at the X-Games. Let me tell you - we have a whole prayer team dedicated just to this dare "angel." Kyle's organization Riders4Christ does events to share the Good News while getting a little closer to heaven. Unlike the rest of the country, our own Orange County Register isn't afraid to share that kind of news. Amen.

Kyle keep up the good works - and I'm glad you have eternal security doing what you are doing!

Shook Up

Kerry Shook was a guest speaker at a WillowCreek service several years ago. He learned from area shelters that shoes and underwear were the two biggest needs of homeless people. After preaching a sermon about the poor, Shook challenged attendees to leave their shoes on the platform if they felt led to do so. By the time the weekend services were finished, the church had collected more than 4,000 pairs of shoes.

So here's the idea - we can pull this off. Only I think instead of shoes we will have a sunday where we ask our congregation to give away their car. Wow! That would be amazing. If people "felt led" they could come up and drop their car keys on the stage. We would learn something about hardship that our brothers and sisters face around the world. 95% of people in the world can't afford a card - and most of us have 2 or more.

Just picture people streaming out onto Portola walking home! Those people would never forget that day for the rest of their lives. That's purpose, that's Hope for the world!