It took several month to say this, but RomeoKids.com has a brand new look. This was the first project that the church has ever sent out to a web designer and I think it turned out awesome. Matt Adams, that guy is great to work with. If you ever need a WordPress theme totally custom designed from head to toe… he’s your man.
I think the new look is very bright, cheery, inviting, and screams “Kids!” as soon as you load it. What do you think?
I know exactly how Chris Folmsbee feels. Chris is Chief Ministry officer at YouthFront and President of Sonlife. He’s a class act guy and is an excellent leader.
Part of being a leader is sticking your neck out. And Chris has done that. He put the nail the coffin of a great, but dying youth ministry model at Sonlife. (Sure, it gave birth to some of the great movements of evangelicalism but, as much as I loved it, was becoming a dinosaur.) Next, he closed Sonlife’s offices and joined forces with YouthFront. On top of all that he published a bold book called “A New Kind of Youth Ministry.” In all of these things he said and did things that were strategic, smart, and bold. And for a guy who sticks his neck out you have to expect that criticism would come.
Imagine the polarization of Christian leader Chris encounters! People either love what he is doing and think he is brilliant or think he is a complete failure who is ruining the good things they knew and loved.
I can imagine, as I’ve been in similar situations, how Chris gets tired of the criticism. And, more to the point, there is always a temptation to get on your high horse and blast a critic.
For a few months now someone has been emailing me a link to this review of my book: (not linking it intentionally) — Almost every week I get an email — sometimes a couple of times a week. It is wicked annoying. Read the rest of his post
Principle:
Leaders need to be careful how often they use their talents. Chris is gifted as a leader and is a great communicator. While it’s OK to be annoyed/hurt/pissed about this, he’s got to be careful not to lose his composure.
Here’s a temptation:
Ranting is addictive. When you break composure and let out that something has gotten to you, loads of people cheer you on. They see their own situations in your rant and encourage you. Furthermore, the economy of hate kicks in and your vent gets so much traffic, so many comments, and so much attention that you actually like the ego boost. So, you carefully and strategically do it again.
Was Chris wrong? No… I don’t think it was wrong to say what he said. Certainly, it is his space and he has the freedom to do as he wants. All I’m saying is that it’s a temptation to do it again. (I don’t think I’ve ever read a post like that on his blog, which is what made it so memorable)
When you are blogging, chatting in the foyer at your church, chatting with friends, or any other place in your life where people are listen to you, you need to be careful how you use the talents God has given you.
Because abused they can be powerful in destroying yourself and others.
Some of these clips are for MainStreet tomorrow while others are for “web only.” But over all I thought this was some funny stuff.
At Romeo, we dream big. We believe God is using us to reach into our community to make a difference in people’s lives. (Not that other churches are not!)
At Romeo, we have crazy faith. I think the two are kind of linked… but I digress.
This year we’ve put together a wish list of things that we can’t afford to purchase but would utilize and amplify what we do if we had them. In other words, these are things we wish we had the budget for but don’t.
If you feel so inclined I invite you to buy one of these items as a gift to our church. As with any time I ask people to give… please don’t give us anything if you aren’t:
You may look at some of these items and think… why do they need a new camera? Why do they want a slush machine? Why buy that item when I can find something like it for cheaper? If that’s you, I invite you to leave a comment or shoot me an email.
With less than a week until the big day, there’s much still to do. We have the staff Christmas party tonight, the Light Force party tomorrow night, a small group party Friday night, a killer service on Sunday, and MainStreet on Monday. (We’re actually still trying to squeeze a family party in there somewhere with Kristen’s folks.) In other words, Christmas is just kicking into high gear for me.
This year I’ve actually been into Christmas. “Into” for me means that I don’t complain about it. We’ve had our tree up for a while, we’ve gotten most of the shopping done, and Kristen has done a great job of keeping the Christmas drama away from me. (Selfishness about presents… our kids get 3 small presents from us and they think its normal and fair!)
Of course, since I’m labeled the Christmas hater… I can’t be seen enjoying it too much. Paul is a hard core Santa-hater. There was a Santa at Buffalo Wild Wings on Sunday (I thought maybe he was too drunk to drive home Saturday night, odd place for a Santa) I asked Paul if he’d be willing to have his picture taken with St. Nick. Paul told me, “I would punch him in the face and put him in the garbage!” Ah, a disciple.
Merry Christmas!
One of my side project is something we’re calling “The Invite Project.” (In other words, it doesn’t have a fancy name.) Basically, the church leadership is trying to learn how the people who attend our church feel our outreach efforts are going. Are we doing too much? Are we not doing enough? Are we trying to hard in one area and missing something obvious? Are people inviting people to church? Why do some invites work and others don’t?
I don’t think Romeo is alone in our desire to grow and reach people. Simply put, bringing new people into the kingdom of God is one of the two primary things a church should be doing. (Equip the saints, reach the lost. Both are related.) As I taught over the summer… for the people who attend the church our primary life’s mission is to reach the community we live in with the life-saving message of a relationship with Jesus. The Romeo community, our neighbors, are the mission field of our lives.
What I think makes Romeo semi-unique is that we’re trying our hardest to use innovative ways to reach people since the “old ways” a lot of us grew up on just don’t work. I’ve been around enough churches to know that “freedom to innovate” and “church staff” are usually oxymorons. (It’s easier to copy than to innovate.) What we need to know now is which of these methods work, which don’t, which need more training, which need improvements, and which should we kill. The thing about innovating new ways to do things is that there is always a failure rate. You go into an innovation mode needing to know if an experiment works or if it fails. When you are inventing a better light bulb, failure is obvious. But when you are trying to invent a system to invite people to church… you need feedback!
So, without further delay. If you currently attend Romeo… please take this survey. The target for this step is at least 75 attenders. As of this moment, 12 have taken it. (Pretty good for the first 24 hours!)
Romeo has a “rock” that people paint to celebrate football victories, birthdays, and just about anything else deemed worth an hour or so of spray painting the 9 foot rock in front of KMart.
Well, today was our turn to paint the rock. So Jimmy and I, dressed as elves of course, spent an hour or so freezing our elf butts off for comedies sake.
I’ll be editing the video tomorrow. Amazing stuff.
So, if you drive by the rock and see that it’s got red/green colors for Christmas. We were the insane people who wrote “Merry Christmas from Romeochurch.com.” Because we know you thought that the Lutheran church did that.
No matter what you think of having an armed security detail at a church, Jeanne Assam was at the right place at the right time. Praise God for her actions.
I hope others see it in this news report… but God’s hand was all over protecting New Life on Sunday. It’s a miracle that the shooter didn’t do more damage.
Here are some statements that impressed me from her statement.
“did not think for a minute to run away”
“It seemed like it was me, the gunman and God,”
“Boyd said Assam was the one who suggested the church beef up its security Sunday following the Arvada shooting, which it did. The pastor credited the security plan and the extra security for preventing further bloodshed.”
Assam said she was ending three days of fasting on Sunday when fate put her in the path of the gunman.“I was praying to God that he direct me” in what to do in life, Assam said. “God made me strong.”
Amazing stuff there. Sometimes God calls us to do things for Him that make no logical sense. I praise God this woman took action to hear God’s direction and was bold enough to act on it. I hope she is an example for Christians everywhere in that regard.
Apparently the people of Romeo have never seen grown men dressed like elves before. Until today. As Jimmy and I were stopping to take pictures and waving in their cars and generally enjoying the sight.
I have to say Jimmy looked pretty good as an elf. Let’s just say I have a lot of junk in the trunk so my tights were a little tight. I’m sure we were a sight to behold.
I’m going to hold the videos until Sunday morning. So if you want to see them, check out our debut. (There are scheduled to be two “commercials” during the service with elves.)