Updating my Life

During the past year I have been doing LifePlans and Strategic Plans through Planspective.  (www.planspective.com)

While I will still continue to do LifePlans and Strategic Plans, I am excited to join the Kardia Consulting team!  After Tim Avery, President of Kardia, and I worked together in Adventure Christian Church’s Generosity Campaign (helping increase ministry funding with a capital campaign to follow), it quckly became apparent that we shared the same heart for the church and increased generosity.  So, in early May, I officially became a part of the Kardia Consulting team - www.kardiaconsult.com .

Kardia offers a full slate of generosity/stewardship coaching and strategy options.  Given the downturn in ministry giving, many churches are jumping on the ^MFG – Increased Ministry Fund Giving.  Capital Campaigns are in place with several Christian Churches, including Christ’s Church of the Valley San Dimas (Jeff Vines) and LifeBridge (Rick Rusaw).  Kardia offers an amazing tool; the Financial Capacity and Trend Assessment that helps leaders gain accurate understanding into the real-time giving environment.  Now, we can offer LifePlans and Strategic Plans as well.

The thing that most excites me is a brand new coaching strategy called - Six Best Ministry Practices; Designed for small, medium and large sized churches that I get to help design and implement.  My personal life calling is to help 1000 churches make significant impacts in their communities while their pastors experience joy in serving.

Six Best Ministry Practices is a subscription service plus an hour of coaching per month, building in the implementation and accountability.  It will be affordable for churches from 75 and up.  Final details are shaping up be and we plan to introduce the program at the North American Christian Convention in July.

If you are going to be at the NACC this year, I’d really like to visit with you and I know Tim would love to meet you.  You can stop by our booth - #407 - or call me on my cell (707) 718-3730. I’ll buy the coffee. 

 We will be offering a free Financial Capacity and Trends Analysis (FCTA) plus a 30 minute free consultation to everyone who signs up at our booth.  This is not a stripped down version, but it is a complete snapshot of your giving trends for the past four years.   The FCTA is integral to effective planning and decision-making.  Churches that are not in a campaign derive incredible value from the FCTA, finding it to be the necessary field-guide that reveals the must-have strategies that lead to increased giving.

Kardia is Greek for “heart.” Our heart beats for the local church and because it does, we want to do ALL we can to help increase your leadership effectiveness in the areas of generosity and stewardship.  Please stop by booth #407 to sign up for your complimentary gift.

(If you are not going to be at the North American, you can email me and I will see that you get your free FCTA.)

Why Grandparents Should Connect with Grandchildren

Recently I heard Bill Bennett say that Raisa Gorbachev's doctoral dissertation on communal farming in the Soviet Union proposed that the only way the State could get their philosophies inculcated and thus breakdown a family farming culture into a state-owned culture, was to remove the influence of grandparents from the lives of the grandchildren and thus remove the transmission of values to future generations.

It made me realize how important it is for grandparents to intentionally have input into the lives of their children and grandchildren.

Our family lives 4 generations in one house-- intentionally.   Sometimes people look at us like we are weird, or at least counter-cultural, so, for the foreseeable future, we are going to try to blog weekly about living multi-generationally.  We know it's not for everyone, but we are learning some things that may be helpful to some.

The transmission of family values and godly values takes place both intentionally and also serendipitously.  The dinner table is one of those places where values are transmitted.  Intentionally we try to ask, "What was the best part of your day?"  Serendipitously the great-grandchildren learn about a God who is real and very dear when my father-in-law prays for the meal.

This didn't happen overnight,  it began almost 40 years ago when my wife, Jan, and I made a decision to stay, if God allowed, within 2 hours driving distance of both sets of grandparents because they were godly and good.  We wanted that influence in their lives.  For 38 years they have blessed our children's lives, and now our children have made the decision to stay close by.  A value was transmitted and now goes on.