What is customer service?  For some it is allowing the company to “prove” that the product works…

What is Customer Service?  This is the foundational issue that must be addressed by CEO’s and Marketing Executives, as well as those on the front lines answering customers.

As the Network Architect of one of the largest Not-For-Profit hosting organizations, one that serves a niche industry, the Christian Church, we like many other providers, require support from time to time from the Vendors we have chosen to partner with.   I once heard it said that a business man is only as wise as the partner he chooses… Today I feel like King Solomon – a man many believe is the wisest person who ever lived.

After having dealings with many of the Top Tier companies like Cisco, 3Com, Vyatta, The Planet, CIHost and others – I have to tell you about an experience I had just this past weekend.    WebEmpoweredChurch & VineHosting provide a free content management system based on the Typo3 Enterprise CMS to a large amount of churches – many of which host with us.   From time to time – a restoration of a clients account is needed.   For a few years we have depended upon the Backup system from R1Soft called CDP (Continuous Data Protection) to perform the snapshots in time.    We take a snapshot of every clients account every 4 hours…  Restorations normally take just a few minutes… however this past weekend things went completely sideways.

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any will find my other writings – in such Magazines like Net Results, or on blogs like ChurchMedic – and will hear me say “Dependent is something intelligent people must become.”  Simply put – we cannot do all things- be all things…  and after taking over 40 hours to figure out why something did not work – I finally took my own advice – and opened a ticket with R1soft.

In 1972 Bill Withers had the hit song “Lean On Me” – and this is exactly the level of support I have come to expect from R1Soft.   Although the offices are technically closed – I opened the ticket at 13:37 Hrs – and received a response at 13:58 hrs on Sunday afternoon.

The Server we are using runs on the OpenSource project called “ProxMox VE” and OpenVZ – and R1Soft investigated the issue completely.   They found the issue and in just a few minutes created a resolution.   What our network staff found as a challenge – they met with a solution.  Furthermore they investigated our environment to ensure we were able to provide the timely restorations our clients were used to…   They went well above the call of duty.  R1Soft provides what we have found to be the Best Bare Metal Recovery – and MySQL Backup & Recovery for our InnoDB & MyISAM Databases !

Dependent, Competent, Understanding, Fast and Pro-Active:    These are the benchmarks of Great Customer Service -  to date I have only found three companies out of all the others we deal with that even come close to these benchmarks -   R1Soft, cPanel and one of our Bandwidth providers – Country Connections.   This brings up another problem for us to solve however internally -  How can our customer service emulate these great companies?

What if – you tried – just for one week to say something affirming to every person you came into contact with…

What if the Church did the same thing?  Imagine the impact we could have on our community – and the Kingdom?

“Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing,” I Thessalonians 5:11).

Paul wrote this – because he understood – The Creator created us with the need for Validation.   – Don’t do the Miss America Validations of course… make them sincere -    Imagine if the church took time to notice the good around us – and to affirm the good …

that is the church I dream about.

With the church loosing folks on a daily basis and many others closing their doors – is the church ready to rise to the challenge?   What is the church doing today to bring the Good News – the Gospel of Salvation through Grace to the world we are living in?

While Jesus Christ is the same Yesterday, Today and Forever – simply put the world and her people are not – and… if the church is going to reach these people … our approach cannot do the same old same old …

Dr. Bill Tenny-Brittian this past week, during a phone session with the leadership of the Web Empowered Church team, made mention that the average church in the United States is in the low 50′s for attendance.   In my travels and discussions I find it hard to believe that the church is missing the boat so poorly when it comes to reaching out to the folks in their communities – these people are spiritually open to finding the truth.

Today after church I spent time outside of a Bob Evans restaurant in Washington Court House Ohio asking a few simple questions of the people entering and leaving…

Which church would you turn to for answers to Spiritual Questions?

The answers – even in this small community I fear would be shocking to most church leaders:

isn’t that what the internet is for?

church – i have not been there for a long long time … why go – its all bullpucky anyhow

i wear jeans and they don’t like jeans there … so not for me

Clearly there is something about the church that the world simply just does not want or like …

Clearly there is something about the Gospel the church is “selling” that the world simply just does not buy…

Perhaps we the church should simply just embrace LOVE – and offer LOVE to those who are hurting… LOVE is a FREE Gift – not something bought or sold after all…

So the message does not change … but perhaps the way we deliver it should. . .

Suburbs Are a Changin… With roughly 1/2 of the United States population living in the suburbs – the suburbs are changing… Lines between communities are becoming less and less clear.   Most suburban communities have an aging population.   The need for amenities to service the “Boomer Generation” are going to become much more prevalent.    It is believed the Senior Citizen generation is going to increase 36% between 2000 and 2019.  The move for mixed-age neighborhoods is happening – and with the current economical state of the programs to assist the elderly is in question – The church needs to prepare not only to assist with this aging generation – but also the people who are taking care of the generation.  The senior population is expected to expand as much as 70% in some places like the South East as well as the Western Moutain region.   Boomers will not want the old style of ministry… is your church prepared?

Colors are a Blendin… I believe the 2010 census vs the 2020 census will show a dramatic shift in the U.S. population.   While today the diversity is not as culturally blended as many would lead you to believe by 2020 the pre-school and grade school population will see this crossover.   Churches need to prepare to have programs that speak to the needs of a culturally diverse community – including new and different types of ministry to children and their parents.  These younger generations – and their parents, like all cultures, want to share their lives (both spiritually and communally) with people of like interests, life stages, languages, etc…  Let’s face it folks – as homogeneity changes so will the needs of the community, as people are blended the needs to speak and be culturally relevant is going to become more difficult for the church – specifically in ethnic terms.   People will still gravitate towards those that are like them…  Is your church preparing to be a blended mix?   Red and Yellow Black and White – They are Precious in His site… Jesus loves the little children of the …community.

Numbers are a droppin… A great friend of mine holds the patent on a fantastic technology that allows you to control a computer from another location from your own… Sadly – this technology has not changed the fact that people still will travel for business.   Most churches watch attendance numbers and believe if more guests are attending – then attendance will likely go up.   (While this is true… so is the inverse)   If a church looses members than the number in attendance will remain the same… OR WILL IT?    As the business world changes, so do the attendance behaviors of the church goer.   This past year I traveled quite a bit – the membership in the local church did not change (well until recently due to a move…) but my attendance had.

There are a number of churches such as Granger Community and Church of the Resurrection that are boldly moving forward with development and build out of online communities.  The churches that embrace the ability to be in communion and fellowship online are perhaps the only ones that have an understanding of the attendance metric.   People are looking to remain active in the church however due to work and other issues – the ability to attend the church building is changing drastically.

Why does a church look at attendance as such an important number?   Because faithfulness to the local church is one of the key components one can use to measure Christian discipleship.  Is your church preparing to begin doing more than a pod-cast?   Is your church preparing an online community where interaction (a technical term for fellowship) can take place?

Gettin it Done or Strategically Doin IT…

Churches generally fall into three categories:  Churches that use technology to get things done & Churches with a Missional Technology Strategy and those that don’t use technology at all.   We will focus on the first two here however:

• Churches that use technology to get things done do not use the tools to actually disciple folks – but rather to assist them in that process.
• Churches that have a Technology strategy build teams that empower them to do ministry online.   They utilize the Internet and other technologies to help introduce others to a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ.

Does your church view Technology as a missional strategy?    Does it see technology as a way to empower people and the ministries in the church to reach others… and perhaps even build new ministries based on technology to perform this task? or   Does your church consider the IT Staff as pastors or just a necessary expense?  If your church does not move towards using technology to help introduce others to a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ your doing more than just missing the boat…

If your stuck and wish to learn more – visit www.CITRT.org and ask the folks @ the Church IT Round Table …

If so, be sure that your church super bowl party is legal. The NFL, in recent years, has become very protective of its copyright over all things super bowl. Fortunately, The Church Law Group has put together 3 rules for church super bowl parties (video).

3 Rules for 2010 Church Super Bowl Parties

1. The game must be shown on equipment that the church regularly uses over the course of ministry. So if the church already owns a big screen and sound equipment, then the game can be shown using this equipment.
2. Church can not charge admission for the party. The NFL has stated, however, that church may take up a donation to defray the cost of the event if they desire.
3. To avoid any copyright infringements, churches may want to call their event a “Big Game Party” rather than a “Super Bowl Party.”

Enjoy the Super Bowl Big Game!

1. Talk about Jesus ALL OF THE TIME!:   People need to know who you worship.  After all Jesus is not just the “reason for the season” but He is the Reason the Church exists!  If all you do is talk about Jesus than people have no alternative than to simply do one thing if they interact with you and that is interact with the  One who sent you.   If Jesus is the Main focus of your life – than simply put… He will become the main focus of every conversation.
2. Constantly USE THE WORD OF GOD: People are hungry for truth, not for politics, not for headlines, not for your opinion… but the TRUTH!  Christ says I am the Way the Truth and the Life…  and In the Beginning was the Word and the Word Was God…  If we are going to be serious about bringing others to a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ – than we need to begin with Scripture .
3. Irrelevant is Irreverent: Far to often I have been part of a service where I watched people turn off, even some yes go to sleep,  Why?  Because the Word was presented in a way that was irrelevant to their lives.   What good is doing a sermon series on “Making Life last a lifetime”  to a group of senior citizens who are widowed… ?   The Bible must be taught in a way that is relevant to folks lives – in a way that they can understand… otherwise it is nothing more than spewing content from a soapbox… and let’s face it  Having your mouth washed out was never fun.
4. Be Awesome in All you do: Is there room for error – of course.  But keep in mind people are less forgiving than what you take them for.  If you are doing things in the name of Christ – than you should be giving it all you got… it should be nothing less than Excellent!     This is different than perfection.  Far to often in the church we expect the leg to do the arms job, and the ear to do the eyes job…  We are all parts of the body and each have a specific job that God has prepared us to do.   Prepare to do Excellence and Be Awesome in all you do.
5. Planning is everything – Plans are nothing: Far to often folks will look at a plan and say – ah I know that… and not prepare.   The end result feels like something that is Winged.   If you look into the Old and New Testament it does not take you long to see that the path God leads us all on is carefully planned – and without that plan, or if we fall from it we are left in the wilderness.    If you plan to reach people for Christ – You Must Prepare.
6. Make a Commitment – and Ask for one!: So many churches and leaders tend to fail.   When someone is being trained for sales they must first make a commitment to learn and know what they are offering!   It is no different with your relationship with Christ Jesus.     Once that is done – the salesman learns it is not enough just to give the pitch… but at some point the sale must be closed !   A commitment asked for.   I think the most effective way to reach people for Christ is when the church body is ministering to each others and everyone around them…  Make a commitment with all involved – and ask for one – anything else is just a 1 man show.
7. Be Seeker Friendly:  If your offering something that is not friendly – why should someone come?    There is a big difference between being part of the world and being in the world.   Why does it have to be that people must first be saved before they come to church?    If your church is serious about reaching people for Christ – than becoming seeker friendly is more than just a desire.  Ginghamsburg UMC has an excellent program designed around children…  They have an excellent program designed around preteens- and then teens called the Avenue.   It is a come as you are approach – but full of Relationships and the end result is Kingdom Work is being done – People are coming to a saving Knowledge of the Grace of Christ Jesus.  The Warehouse is another ministry in Washington Court House Ohio, geared around kids on the fringe – and Lives are being changed.   Becoming Seeker Friendly I think is one of the ways to find not only our churches pews more than empty – but Hearts and Souls filled

What is it that causes you to fall in love with Christ?   How can you share that with others?

Strategy Icons Designed by Auxano Creative

Will Mancini – the Clarity Evangelist posted this recently on his blog…

#1 Programs don’t attract people; people attract people (Aubrey Malphurs)

#2 Think steps not programs; strategy makes the next step simple, easy and obvious. (Andy Stanley)

#3 Strategy is a missional map, therefore communicate it visually (Church Unique)

#4 As a whole, cluttered and complex churches are not alive. (Thom Ranier)

#5 Growing people grow people; consuming people consume programs. (Church Unique)

#6 Strategy as assimilation should not be confused with spiritual formation; one is about getting individuals into the body of Christ, the other is about getting the life of Christ into the individual.

#7 Strategy connects programs and events vertically with the mission and horizontally with one another. (adapted from Bill Donahue)

#8 The fewer specials you have the more you sell. (An executive chef  said this in an Auxano Vision Pathway, talking about church strategy.)

#9 Churches need strategy because mission and values alone are not enough to remove competing pictures of the church’s future. (Church Unique)

#10 The two biggest reasons people don’t get more involved are 1) they don’t know how and 2) nobody invited them. (Auxano survey work)

I recently found Will Mancini via of all tools – Twitter – as he began following me

As I begin helping to formulate a redemptive ministry here in Ohio – I cannot help but wonder about God’s awesome timing.   Will is right on the money here.

What is not mentioned above is that relationships are so important to the 10 principles!   Relationships build accountability and responsibility – without relationships it is impossible to Disciple

BUT as long as those people do it on our terms … worship the way we think it should be done… etc.

Kind of reminds me of the guy who markets his business in that same fashion…

hmmm -perhaps we can learn something from this…