18
2012
Saturday Rewind: What Happened To The Flowers?
An article by 
Ah, Valentine’s Day: A time of love, hallmark making a killer profit, and the dude at 1-800-Flowers customer service call center offering to tell your wife that you really did have flowers ordered, and UPS killed them. Yup, the one day of the year that flowers need to be on time, and nothing. If nothing else, it makes for a funny story to remember next year… hope your Valentine’s day went smoother.
So, while you were celebrating the week of love, roses, chocolates, and hallmark’s stock going through the roof here is what was happening at Church Thought and the #3at3:
- The Power of Clarity in Your Church’s Vision. An incredible vision to do amazing things to expand God’s Kingdom is useless without clarity. The importance of developing a clearly defined vision, and how to make it happen.
- Church Planting: Before You Start (part two). Knowing how to answer your “why” (why are you doing what you are doing), and putting in the time required to plan out the work you are going to be engaging in is huge! The discipline alone is well worth the effort.
- Leadership Reading List: The Three Commitments of Leadership. Three things that every organizational culture needs to thrive… and keep from burning your teams out. The Three Commitments of Leadership is a great book to help leaders think through what they need to be building into their organizational culture, and how to do it. Put simply, if you are burning people out or frustrating your team… you need to read this.
- Church Planting: The People You Will Meet (part one). Continuing on in my adventures in church planting, a quick run through of the people I met from outside our church while we were getting up and running… Have you met any of these people? Are you one of these people (I hope it isn’t Amway guy… don’t be that guy)?
- Finance Friday: Saying Thank You. A simple, handwritten, thank you note is a powerful tool… it reinforces behaviors, shows appreciation, and models generosity and thankfulness for those who receive them. Whether it is for a member of your congregation that has led well through the years, needs encouragement, or for a first time tither… a simple thank you can be more powerful than a sermon.
Best of the #3at3:
- Taking Vision Public in 2012: Six Steps to Vision-Soaked Church Communication, from Will Mancini. This is the introduction to a phenomenal series on developing a clear, compelling vision for your church.
- The Evangelical Industrial Complex & the Rise of Celebrity Pastors, from Skye Jethani. This really needs to be read by every pastor, or anyone considering going into ministry.
- You Are One Shrewd Investor, from Brad Leeper. What does YOUR year end giving letter say? What does it say about your church, and how you view what you are doing? A great example of a church who is doing this well.
About the Author: Matt Steen
Over the last fifteen years I have been a Church Planter, Youth Pastor, Executive Pastor, and now I serve as a Church Concierge with churchsimple.net. I love Jesus, my wife, the Redskins and Capitals and am currently living on Long Island striving to properly pronounce the word G'island.
