Saturday, February 13, 2010 @ 1:57 pm by Josh Burcham

TED brings together some of the greatest minds in all fields of thought. Derek Sivers shared these thoughts on the creation of a movement. It was worth the share.

An excerpt from his talk: Now comes the first follower with a crucial role: he publicly shows everyone how to follow. Notice the leader embraces him as an equal, so it’s not about the leader anymore – it’s about them, plural. Notice he’s calling to his friends to join in. It takes guts to be a first follower! You stand out and brave ridicule, yourself. Being a first follower is an under-appreciated form of leadership. The first follower transforms a lone nut into a leader. If the leader is the flint, the first follower is the spark that makes the fire.

The 2nd follower is a turning point: it’s proof the first has done well. Now it’s not a lone nut, and it’s not two nuts. Three is a crowd and a crowd is news.

Read more thought from Derek Sivers.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009 @ 8:18 pm by Josh Burcham

Seriously. Could you operate at that level of creativity to produce a video like this? I was thinking through the process of coming to that outcome and I don’t think it would of ever accrued to me. Creativity moves people. And creativity could influence heart change. Churches, are you seeking after creativity at it’s high levels or are you okay with status quo. We serve the most creative being, the creator of this universe. We should act like we do.

Video created by Elevation Church.

Saturday, October 3, 2009 @ 7:47 pm by Josh Burcham

Great customer service is found in experiences that exceed our expectations. Which is probably a double edge sword for those business, since they need to continuously up themselves (but that is for another post). But none the less we can learn from the experiences we encounter as consumers.

When I fly I usually fly with Southwest, why? Because they’re cheaper than the others and usually have direct flights. The cheaper airlines normally have a sub-par service, but this last trip with Southwest proved otherwise. My return flight was scheduled for 8:00pm and the flight was delayed till 10:00. Thankfully, I was totally cool with some extra time in Colorado. Now the moments of exceed expectations: first, I received a phone call and email from Southwest letting me know that my flight had been delayed, hours before my flight left. Now this isn’t a service I signed up for, it was just normal business for Southwest. Second, free drinks on the flight to make up for the delayed flight. Didn’t partake, but it was a nice (simple) gesture.

Recently, I upgraded my phone to the 3GS. After purchasing the phone I received the below email telling my all about the phone. It was an experience for Apple to recognize my purchase and set me up for success with my new phone. I might be a little bias in this example, but a good example none the less.

(View PDF of Email)

Normally, those experiences are simply ones. Something that didn’t take a lot of work or money. How can you create those types of experiences with your guests in your churches? Probably starts with sitting down in a little creative session.

Thursday, September 17, 2009 @ 10:58 am by Josh Burcham

I’ve talked about what makes a great site and showed you what some great sites look like, but what about why people go to your site in the first place. Your site might crash and burn if you created it with the focus of signing members up for ministry and the majority of your visitors are non-members there to check out what the church had to offer. This list was created by Digital Sanctuary titled: Top 10 Website Features on Church Websites. Results come from a survey they assessed on top features/reasons visitors visited church sites:

(Rated from top reasons to bottom.)
1. Find service information (times, directions, etc).
2. Listen to/download Sermons (audio recordings).
3. Learn about the church’s Beliefs/Mission/Values
4. Connect with other members.
5. Read/download Sermons (text transcripts).
6. Join and/or interact with a home/bible study group.
7. View weekly information/calendar/news/events.
8. Find serving opportunities at the church.
9. Post prayer requests or needs.
10. Read articles or other content.

Now go out there and building some amazing sites for His kingdom. If you need some help and/or advice. Email me at hello (at) joshburcham.com

Wednesday, September 16, 2009 @ 2:36 pm by Josh Burcham

We learn lessons about life from both good and bad experience. This is a lesson that I’m still learning to practice. Don’t sweat it. Now this lesson has a story. I’ve gone back and forth on whether or not to post it and have come to this conclusion: this is my blog where I’m willing to share my heart for others, as a tool to help them grow. From time to time I share things that are Truth and in turn upset some people. It is never my intention to hurt people, but a lot of times people are hurt because of their convictions. Know this post is written out of love with no ill feelings from me. I’ll leave it at that.

You can’t control how people view you. You can’t control what they think or don’t think you are doing. When I decided to plant Ridgepoint Church, rumors started to fly. People started to talk. Saying things like, “Josh doesn’t believe in the Bible” or even better “Josh is trying to steal people from other churches.” Things that never came out of my mouth. Things that were never my intention.

I left a church that I loved. I left a church that I poured my blood, sweat and tears into. I left because God called me to leave and if I had to make that same decision again, I would do the same. Because I got out of my comfort zone and traveled into the unknown, Jesus taught me how to follow Him as a true Christ-follower. Something I wouldn’t of been able to do unless I left. It had nothing to do with the church I was at, it’s an amazing church in so many ways, but it was my comfort zone and God had to move me out of that comfort zone.

A hand full of people at a church of just under a thousand were able to destroy my reputation and burn bridges between that church and me. Now here was the part that hurt, these were people I trusted, people I looked up to and people I served along side for years. These people were friends.

Did I make all the right decision during this time of my life? No. I’ll be the first to tell you my mistakes. But we need to learn how not to sweat things we can’t control. I can’t control how people view me. I can only be how God has called me to be and continue to grow as a Christ-follower. But people will always talk and sometimes those people have a lot of influence on others. Don’t sweat it. Be true to your Creator and let life be life. And remember, Christ never promised an easy life, He showed us that it would be quite the opposite.

When we sweat over these things we can’t control, they start to reak havic on our lives. I became bitter over this experience and though I tried to hide that bitterness it showed itself.  And I had to come before Jesus and let it go. He had to show me how to not sweat it.

Stay true to Christ and the God-size dream He has placed on your life. No matter what happens keep chasing that vision. No matter what is said, keep your focus on Christ. And don’t sweat it.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009 @ 10:54 am by Josh Burcham

This post is a post in a series of post on Church Websites. Catch up on the series by reading what makes a church site great.

These are the Church Sites that I’ve stumbles upon or someone sent me to and have booked marked for future inspiration or concepts:

Grace Community Church

Eastpoint Community Church

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Tuesday, September 15, 2009 @ 3:59 pm by Josh Burcham

As I’ve typed this blog post out of my head and on the screen, it has grown leaps and bounds. It start with a simple list of church websites I like to look at to best tips in creating a church website to survey results on what people visiting your sites for. Anyways.

Let’s first define what makes a great church website: simplicity, strong brand identity, clean design, straight forward navigation, and relevant content are the major five that catch my attention when first visiting a site.
(more…)

Monday, September 14, 2009 @ 3:55 pm by Josh Burcham

Some people watch sports, keep up on celebrity gossip or talk politics. I watch churches. Their ministry and staff structure. Their leaders leadership styles. Their ministries models. I read their blogs, watch their services, visit their churches and read their pastors books. Leaders are learners and we can gain a lot of knowledge from those in the trenches.

It’s weird, the first thing I check on churches websites is their staff and ministry pages. It gives you a great overview of what they value as a church. I would visit their vision and mission pages, but most of the time the church doesn’t follow what they have written. We usually see their vision within their weekly service(s).

Check out the current list of churches I’m watching.