Sticky Church Conference

“The greatest challenge facing most churches today isn’t getting people through the front door-it’s keeping them from leaving through the back door,” says Larry Osborne in his book Sticky Church.

The Sticky Church conference is all about becoming the church no one wants to leave.  Suncrest is honored to be able to host the conference on March 31st.

Register today by going to www.stickychurch.com.  We are able to offer a super low rate to all Suncrest attenders.  Just email me to grab this special deal and find out more.

 

Why I love my iphone

I saved and I whined and I saved some more until I finally fulfilled a life long dream…okay  not a life long dream but maybe a year’s long dream to get an iPhone.  My friends and wife were relieved when I finally got one so they wouldn’t have to hear me talk about it anymore.

You know the familiar feeling that after you get something you have this let down because it did not live up to your expectations…I did NOT have that whatsoever.  It has exceeded every expectation.

Here’s my top 3 reasons for why I love this phone/PDA:

1.  I have tried several different gadgets to keep everything (calendar, to do list, notes, etc) in ONE place to stay organized and the iPhone is the only thing so far that has helped me accomplish this.  Chief among it all is having my calendar with me everywhere I go.

2. I love the social media connectivity…being able to stay connected on the go to twitter and facebook have been huge.

3. The interface of the iPhone is the slickest thing I have ever seen.  It is just so…well…slick.  Other PDA/phones I’ve tried were very clunky in the interface.

Honorable mentions…

…having my music with me without having to carry my phone and ipod is a plus…I know…I’m a diva…and I like to use…a…lot.

…IT ACTUALLY WORKS IN ALL ITS FEATURES.  I can’t tell you how awesome it is to have a gadget that actually does what it says it will do with a streamlined interface.

 

Twitterverse

Last year I jumped onto the Twitter bandwagon.  It was mostly due to an experience at a Group’s conference I attended with fellow staff, Mary Beth.  When we showed up to the conference it was like MB had instant friends.  She was connecting with all these people that she basically met through Twitter.  So I decided to give it a shot…

And I’ve loved it.

The biggest benefit for me has been that I’ve been able to connect with other Campus Pastors around the nation as well as stay connected to friends and ministry colleagues.  Yes, it could be a big waste of time if someone only uses it tell the world when they go to the bathroom or other meaningless information.  However, if you use it to connect with others online then it can be a powerful tool.

Mary Beth in fact just blogged about it today as well.  Read her post as well as click the link in the post for more reasons to try twitter.

AND check out these tweeps (peeps on Twitter) from Suncrest:

Mary Beth Stockdale

Greg Lee

Kevin Richardson

Jeff Sanford

Laura Moseng

Mike Moseng

Rebecca Jackson

 

Facebook is useless

“I don’t want to waste my time on Facebook” was what I heard from a friend.  I too held a similar belief at one point, that is, until I actually tried it out.  Go figure.  This statement is very similar to people who critique a movie and/or book without ever having seen it.

I would agree that Facebook is useless IF you DON’T want to

• connect with people that you haven’t seen since college;
• discuss a topic of interest with people of like minded interests;
• stay up on what your friends are doing;
• connect with people for ministry purposes.

Facebook has been a tremendous tool to connect with people.  In the last several months my wife and/or I:

• reconnected with college friends;
• have been able to connect with people at Suncrest and other friends who we ordinarily wouldn’t get to spend much time with;
• found out someone from college lives in the same town as we do;
• reconnected with a elementary school friend who converted to another religion but was now reconsidering her decision.

The thing on Facebook I am most excited about right now is the new Suncrest-East group I created.  I think this will be a great way to discuss some relevant topics, shoot out prayer requests, promote events and inform about important issues.  Right now I have a discussion thread up generating some stories on “worst Christmas gifts” for this weekend’s message.  I’m getting some great stuff.

Facebook is working on Facebook Connect which will be released soon.  This will undoubtedly be one of the most valuable tools for churches when it is released.  It will basically give you Facebook functionality on any website.  So, I would be able to add it to our website and create an “intranet” right there through our website.

In the end, Facebook is useless…if you don’t use it.  But if you jump into it, experiment a little, be willing to risk, you may find that Facebook is one of the most useful web applications out there.