Tuesday, July 6, 2010 @ 10:11 am by Josh Burcham

That was a fun shoot. There are parts of it that we will never talk about again, but it was a blast.

Monday, July 5, 2010 @ 10:08 am by Josh Burcham

Years back (that seems weird to say, it really does seem like yesterday) when I was still in youth ministry we took a group of student to our Nation’s Capital and saw God work in some powerful ways in our lives and in the lives of those we served with. The recap video:

Saturday, April 10, 2010 @ 10:33 am by Josh Burcham

Seth Godin is a man we ministry leaders can learn from. If you don’t follow his blog, you need to. The best part…his posts are short! Right to the point leadership and marketing principles. He recently posted some thoughts on the iPad launch that Apple recently had and I couldn’t pass up sharing them as a great ministry/church lesson. Here is an excerpt:

1. Don’t try to please everyone. There are countless people who don’t want one, haven’t heard of one or actively hate it. So what? (Please don’t gloss over this one just because it’s short. In fact, it’s the biggest challenge on this list).
2. Make a product worth talking about. Sounds obvious. If it’s so obvious, then why don’t the other big companies ship stuff like this? Most of them are paralyzed going to meetings where they sand off the rough edges.
3. Make it easy for people to talk about you. Steve doesn’t have a blog. He doesn’t tweet and you can’t friend him on Facebook. That’s okay. The tribe loves to talk, and the iPad gave them something to talk about.
4. Be willing to fail. Bold bets succeed–and sometimes they don’t. Is that okay with you? Launching the iPad had to be even more frightening than launching a book…
5. Don’t worry so much about conventional wisdom. The iPad is a closed system (not like the web) because so many Apple users like closed systems.

Read the rest of his points, Secrets to the Biggest Selling Launch Ever.

Friday, April 9, 2010 @ 9:14 am by Josh Burcham

What systems do you have in place? How do you move guest to fully engaged followers of Christ? What system do you have in place to gauge the the health of your church body? With Ridgepoint gearing up it seems to be all I’ve been thinking about lately.

Two system checks I wanted to pass on to you and one recommendation:

First one we call, Fill the GAP. A system to assimilate guest into fully devoted followers of Christ. Stands for Guest, Attender, Promotor. Of course the system has steps on how we fill the gaps, but that is for another post. We consider a promotor someone that Loves God and Loves People and embodies our core values. Now my recommendation: Fusion by Nelson Searcy. Practical book for for moving people from guests into your church body.

Second, we call them the 3G’s. No, it has nothing to do with the iPhone. This system check helps us get a heart beat of our church body. Giving us an insight in to what our congregation needs. Changing our sermon series, one to one and small groups to meet those needs. Think Homeland Security Warning Level. The three G’s are Good, Great and Generous. Building on themselves to check the health of our body.

Watch for more details the next couple of days of each of these system checks. And post your systems in the comments. I would love to learn from you!

See larger image Fusion: Turning First-Time Guests into Fully-Engaged Members of Your Church (Paperback) By (author) Nelson Searcy, Jennifer Henson List Price: $14.99 USD New From: $8.24 In Stock Used from: $6.00 In Stock

Wednesday, March 17, 2010 @ 6:54 pm by Josh Burcham

Does something deep inside your heart long to break free from the status quo? Are you hungry for an authentic faith? Are you looking for a church that is focused on making a difference in their community by helping people meet Jesus?

You may have called yourself a Christian for a long time, but despite your religious activity you’re still trying to figure out who you are, the role God plays in your life, and what your life is supposed to be about. You may not call yourself a “Christian” but you have tasted moments where you have longed for your life to have a deeper meaning. You may look at our community and wonder who will step up to make a difference and begin to bring transformational heart change.

Informational Meeting, March 28th at 5:00pm
Location: 9460 W. Potter Dr., Peoria, AZ

The bottom line is that Ridgepoint Church may be the church for you – more importantly you may be what Ridgepoint Church needs – because we need people with the heart for people to meet Jesus.

www.ridgepoint.cc

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 @ 11:12 am by Josh Burcham

I write to encourage, challenge and help people move to the next level in leadership, creativity and being a Christ-follower. It is what gets my blood flowing, it’s what gets be excited. Anytime I come across information that would help in those areas I pass them onto you. Craig Groeschel wrote this post, Breaking Up the System, and it was worth you taking the time to read if you are in any type of leadership.

Even a good ministry system will eventually limit what God wants to do if the system doesn’t evolve or totally change.

(By system, I mean any program, structure, philosophy, or culture that shapes and helps produce a desired outcome.)

Once people operate within a system long enough, they often start to do ministry out of “muscle memory.” They tend to do the same things and work with the same people, but the results often start to slowly (or quickly) diminish.

Because this is what “we’ve always done,” people might think we just need to do what we did—better. In reality, God might want you to de-construct some ministry philosophy or system so you can hear His new direction.

For example, years ago we were doing everything you could think of at LifeChurch.tv. God directed us into a season of focusing on only five things. This philosophy served us well for about four years. It allowed us to focus on our core ministries without being distracted by lots of less-than-our-best efforts.

After a few years, it became obvious this season was coming to a close. What used to seem freeing started to become limiting. After prayer, we intentionally broke the established system to learn something new.

Read the rest of the post and more great post by Craig and Bobby here.

With that quote, as with everything I write, action is required. It doesn’t make much sense if we just soak in and never squeeze out the sponge, because life isn’t about you. You would be a waste a great human being if you just soaked in knowledge and Christ expects us to go out and do.

Sunday, October 18, 2009 @ 6:36 pm by Josh Burcham

Author and church planter, Vince Antonucci is launching a new church on the strip in Las Vegas. God used Vince’s book, I Became a Christian and all I Got was a Lousy T-Shirt, in big ways in my journey in loving God and love People, as a Christ-follower should. If Jesus walked on this earth today, He would be in Vegas, not because of all the “sin” there, but because the people need Jesus’ love, His hope and His salvation.

500 people, $100, days from Brightbulb on Vimeo.

Straight from Vince’s mouth, or more like his finger tips:

We have an unbelievable opportunity to get an amazing space as the permanent, 24/7 facility that can be home to our church services, seminars, food co-op and all we’re doing for the church we’re starting here in Vegas. So if we can get this space it would change everything for us, in an awesome way. The problem is that there are expenses to get into the building, and so we need to raise $50,000 – and the way we’ve chosen to do that is $100 at a time. To make this happen, we need 500 people who will give $100. Would you please be one of those people? To learn more, and to give, go to www.verveventure.org. Also, 500 is A LOT of people, so would you please let your friends know about this, put it on your blog, Facebook it, Twitter the web site, send smoke signals, whatever you can to help us get the word out. Thank you SO MUCH for considering this – you have no idea how much it means!

So they’re going to do it $100 at a time. They’re looking for 500 people who would give $100 each. Would you consider being one of those people? Join me in giving $100 bucks. To learn more, and to give, go to www.verveventure.org.

Saturday, October 10, 2009 @ 2:24 pm by Josh Burcham

You can’t deny the fact that God is moving in some powerful ways over at Elevation Church in North Carolina. Well, I guess there are some out there that could. Pastor Steven posted this insightful post on Vision and resources. Church leader you should read it:

Yellow is to sun as ____ is to moon
Guns n Roses is to best band ever as Tiger Woods is to ____
God is to Satan as dogs are to ____ (the answer, clearly, is cats)

Here’s a ministry simile for all of you who are currently facing a resource challenge.

Resources are to the vision of a ministry what wake is to a boat in the water.

Wake follows the movement of a vessel in direct proportion to the velocity.  And it always trails behind the motor.

Resource follows the movement of a vision in direct proportion to the velocity of the vision.  And it always follows behind the vision.  Behind the risk.  Behind the initiative.

Don’t wait for the wake to magically appear.  Produce it by moving forward.
Stop waiting for resources to fall out of the sky.  Go forward as hard as you can as fast as you can with all that you’ve got.

Read full post and more here.