Wednesday, June 30, 2010 @ 10:07 pm by Josh Burcham

I know I say this a lot, but still… I impressed myself with this one. This was a project that started out with me not being able to find it feel. But after a couple of designs we found this straight lined design. Tell me what you think about it. And learn about and join the Totally Rad League at www.totallyradleague.com!

My goal is to help churches, ministries and business set the brand that they want their communities to see them. I help with just that… I help them look good. Check out my portfolio at www.joshburcham.com/portfolio and request a quote.

Sunday, June 27, 2010 @ 12:31 pm by Josh Burcham

Just found this in one of my notebooks, actually I forgot I had it. The second I saw it brought back feelings of hope, hope for people. Too many people walk through this life without hope. They live day to day without a purpose or something to strive for… a life mission. And unfortunately a lot of those people go to the grave never finding what would fill that void and give them hope.

This dollar represent a change for these people. This dollar is the first dollar given to the vision of Ridgepoint Church. It was given by a 15 year old boy that knows God wants to give hope.

I’ve known Jesus a long time and honestly I forget sometimes what Jesus has actually given me that others don’t have. I’m not talking about stuff. What I’m talking about is so much more than that. I’m talking about peace when things get tough, hope when there seems to be none, strength when I don’t think I can keep going and faith that His plan I always perfect. I know that I’m loved with a love that is unfailing. People that love me will always disappoint, their human and it is just in their nature. Jesus loves me no matter what. No matter what I’ve done or am going to do, I’m loved. I’m loved because of His character, not because what I’m actions. Thank you God for loving me even when I haven’t deserved it!

That dollar represents hope for people. Because we don’t need another church. We really don’t. But we do need Christians to live as Christ has called us to live by loving God and loving people. We do need a church that’s focus is helping people meet Jesus.

Ridgepoint Church isn’t just another church, we are a movement of believers doing anything in our power to help people meet Jesus. If that moves something inside of you, God might be calling you into this movement. To make a difference and to give people hope! If that doesn’t move something inside of you stay where you are, because you’re not ready.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010 @ 1:41 pm by Josh Burcham

Totally Rad League. Do you need any explanation after hearing that name? Of course not, because it is the league that happens to be totally rad! You want to join just because of the cool name. Not only do we have a cool name, but we play cool games as well.

from the site:
We specialize in what some call ‘playground sports’…to us, its just a good time. Our league includes Dodgeball, Bowling, Kickball, Ultimate Frisbee, Broomball, Capture the Flag, Wiffle Ball…you get the idea. Totally Rad League organizes casually competitive sports leagues year-round, but we’re so much more than that.
We proudly boast a welcoming, active community of players of all skill levels. Players come back each season, proof that our well-run leagues are not only fun to play in…they’re a place for friends, new and old. We love the games we offer, and we’ve turned that love into the kind of club we’d want to be a part of.

Check us out at www.totallyradleague.com! And join the league here.

Monday, June 21, 2010 @ 11:04 pm by Josh Burcham

Just hung up with a ministry buddy of mine out in Texas. We used to serve at the same church a couple years back and now he is leading a thriving ministry helping people meet Jesus out in Anna, TX and we’re in the process of starting a ministry to do just the same back here in Phoenix.

It’s funny, he mentioned that 30% of your relationships are relationship where that person pours into you. You know that type: where you leave the conversation with a spirit to take on the world. He is one of those relationships for me. No matter what is going on I always walk away inspired to take big leaps of faith and take those risk for the Gospel. Thanks Phil. For your friendship and your wisdom. Keeping making a difference for the kingdom and keep making those religious people mad.

Who are those people in your life? Do you have any? Are you hearing their wisdom enough?

Friday, June 18, 2010 @ 10:43 am by Josh Burcham

I was stocked when I first read the article. I didn’t know that they still performed fire squad executions in the United States. I don’t know how the Correction Officers were able to pull the trigger. Read the article in it’s entirety.

Convicted killer Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed early Friday by firing squad, the Utah Department of Corrections said.
Gardner, 49, is only the third person in 33 years to die by firing squad in the United States.
He was killed at 12:20 a.m. MST (2:20 a.m. ET), a Corrections Department spokesman said.
A hood was placed over Gardner’s head and a paper target pinned to his chest. He was heavily restrained as a five-person firing squad took aim at the target and shot him, witnesses said.

Article posted at cnn.com.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010 @ 8:55 pm by Josh Burcham

Apple started accepting iPhone 4 reservations today. Now I normally don’t post on Apple stuff for a couple of different reasons, but this phone was too perfect to not post.





Now I will have the phone on the 24th, so FaceTime me with you’re going to get it right away! Here a link to Apple.com and below is the Keynote of the announcement.

Take away one thing… attention to the details is what make your product or ministry stand out among the rest.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010 @ 12:53 pm by Josh Burcham

The count down to what you ask? I don’t know if I should tell you. If I do tell you, I might have to kill you. Maybe I’ll just show you a small piece of it…

Monday is the day… the day that the world will be forever changed.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010 @ 4:40 pm by Josh Burcham

I’ve had this post ‘on-deck’ for a couple of months now. It’s a philosophy that is found all round the business and ministry worlds, as well as at Ridgepoint. But a philosophy that isn’t always properly executed. In the ministry world we’ve seen core values for decades, but most churches stop using their core values once they are on paper. It is like they have some special power once they were written down. But the true power comes from their day to day decision use.

Mark Batterson talks about ‘Pre-Decision Makers’ in his book Primal. He talks about how pre-decision help us make the real decision when the time comes. If we take the time to decided our course of action ahead of time, read core value, when the time comes for a person representing your ministry to make a decision on a situation the decision is already made. Example, one of our core values is our communities needs are more important than our own. If we run across the need to decide wether we pay for our members to go on mission trips or for a family of four in our community to have a form of transportation. We have a pre-decision for the situation, we provide a car to the family because our community’s needs are more important than our own.

Core value case study: Zappos. If you haven’t heard of this company, check them out here. Zappos is known for their stand apart customer service.

“Our philosophy at Zappos is that we’re willing to make short-term sacrifices (including lost revenue or profits) if we believe that the long-term benefits are worth it. Protecting the company culture and sticking to core values is a long-term benefit.” - Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com

Zappos’ Core Values:

• 1. Deliver WOW Through Service
• 2. Embrace and Drive Change
• 3. Create Fun and A Little Weirdness
• 4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
• 5. Pursue Growth and Learning
• 6. Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
• 7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
• 8. Do More With Less
• 9. Be Passionate and Determined
• 10. Be Humble

Zappos’ team doesn’t need to take time out of their schedule to mull over each and every decision. They have the ability to entrust their employees with the culture because of their decisions (core values) have already been made.

Your church is the same way. You value something, every organization does. Whether you’re value the right or wrong things is up to you and how well you listen to God’s direction for your church. God gives you vision, I also believe that He gives you a certain culture as well.

By reading our core values at Ridgepoint, you should be able to have a good handle on our culture: who we are as a church and how we operate.

Ridgepoint’s Core Values:

• 1. Our community’s needs are more important than our own.
• 2. It takes risk and faith to do what we are called to do.
• 3. We must do life together.
• 4. We can’t be healthy as a church, if you’re not healthy in your home.
• 5. Being a Christ-Follower is about being not doing.
• 6. Money is never our focus, but giving gauges the heart.

Hopefully, you can see our culture as Ridgepoint: you can see that we understand that being a Christ-follower is about loving God and loving people and that we can’t truly do one without the other. We can’t do that without the support of our friends and family in community. And that the lack of faith and heart change can get in the way.

Vision defines who you are (culture), you help people understand your culture by pre-decision makers (core values) and you look to God for both.

At Ridgepoint our vision is for people to meet Jesus. We are successful when people are doing just that. We define that vision with our values and we gauge it by heart change. All of which come from Jesus.

Listen to God’s whisper for the reason you exist (vision) and how you exist (values).

Talk about your vision and values as one, seize opportunities that put feet to your values, and share vision success stories.