jayhardwick.com

What a Game!

This is a first: posting from my Treo while riding in the car. No, I am not driving! I just witnessed one of the best college football games I have seen in a long time. The Gamecocks played their hearts out against the #2 Auburn Tigers, but came up just short, 24-17. Two things I loved about the game: 1. The effort of our players and fans. Willy B was rockin' tonight and the players made some big time plays. Syvelle Newton had the game of his life. 2. The Ball Coach and the team are not satisfied with ''almost wins.'' Spurrier's comments after the game only further solidified the fact that South Carolina WILL WIN at least one SEC Championship under him. Spurrier is a winner and he is teaching our program, not just our current players, how to win. A few years ago, a close loss was as good as a win. No more. My hope is that this loss will propel the Gamecocks to finish the season strong. They know they can compete - now it's time to win some biggies.

Subscription Special

Scott Hodge, one of my blogging friends in Chicago, posted a step-by-step process for subscribing to a blog through Bloglines. It came just in time as many of you have been emailing me asking how to subscribe. Being the "cool web stuff"-illiterate guy, I'm going to copy Scott's stuff over here. Hope it works!

If you don't already follow jayhardwick.com through some sort of RSS reader, you need to!

The best place to start is Bloglines (link is in the top right corner) which is a free blog reading tool that allows you to subscribe to your favorite blogs and view new posts without having to actually go to the blogs themselves. You can set it up to only show newly updated blogs. Saves a lot of time running around to a gazillion blogs.

Here's what you need to do:

1. Go to Bloglines and set up a free user account.
2. Once it is set up, go to "My Feeds" and click on "Add."
3. In the box that asks for the Blog or feed URL, type in: "http://feeds.feedburner.com/jayhardwickcom" and click subscribe.
4. Add in any other blogs that you regularly read and you're done! If you're looking for some new blogs to track, check out the list on the right side of my blog.

Happy subscribing!

12/6 or 24/7?

Weird title for this post, but a lot of really strong coffee is in me right now, so weird things roll around in my head.

I just read on Fast Company's blog that McDonald's is considering offering their breakfast menu all day. The driving reason is...surprise...Starbucks. McDonald's makes their money selling breakfast and they've spent time and money to upgrade their offerings, and most importantly, their coffee. A friend of mine swears by it, so I tried it one morning and...surprise...it wasn't bad, but it wasn't Starbucks either.

While McDonald's discovery that breakfast is where they have an edge and focusing their resources on making it better is good, offering it all day may actually be a bad thing. Here's what Jim Gilmore says on the FC blog:

Maybe the move to all-the-time breakfast will prove to be some help to McDonald's. Who's to know? I do know this, however: the move to a 24/7 world has a homogenizing effect on the perception of value by consumers. In retail, the very processes by which companies grow their businesses -- establishing more and more outlets with more and more hours open -- are the very same processes that kill brand, as Sameness creeps in.

To be available all the time destroys any sense of being exceptional, turning one's offerings into mere utilities. I truly believe that not being available at every single moment may actually endear oneself to customers. Such accounts, for example, in the real appeal of Chick-fil-A being closed on Sundays. It's authentic in its walking away from eeking out every last nickel from the enterprise.

Sounds like a narrow the focus argument to me! Could it be that by not being "open" 24/7 or seemingly every night of the week that the perceived value and authenticity of a church increases?

Laugh & Debate

Today was one of the most intense and fun days we've had in the office in a while. For most of the morning and an hour or so this afternoon, our team worked through creative ideas for branding our baptism event on October 29. Two things happened that made the meeting a success.

1. We laughed...a lot. Sarcasm is one of our staff "strengths"...all it takes is for one person to say the wrong, err...right, thing and we're off. Today, Caroline supplied the opening fodder and the rest was history. I laughed so hard at times that my face hurt. That's a good thing.

2. We debated...healthily. One of our team values drawn from Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions of a Team is healthy debate. Simply stated, when you gather a team of people around a table, no matter how connected the team is, different opinions will exist. A healthy team environment is one when differing opinions are openly expressed and debated without personal attacks and without losing trust. In the end, personal feelings are put aside and the decision made is for the team, not the individual. That happened today, as it has before, and it made me proud. I LOVE our team!

family-noise.com

If you're looking for clarity and strategy for your family or just want some family ministry leaders to connect with, www.family-noise.com is live. Subscribe, bookmark it, and pass it on to others!

Week of All Weeks

Wow...this is a BIG week at CC! My eyes shot wide open at 12:48 this morning. The same thing happened the week before we launched. It was an excited, "Oh my goodness," kind of awakening.

This Sunday, we start a second Sunday morning worship environment. The times are 9:00 and 11:00. We're making the jump so our volunteers, many of which have never been in our worship environment, can attend worship AND serve AND...this is big...invite their friends and sit with them. It's a risk, but God has clearly led us to do it and it has all the makings of creating more momentum heading into the fall.

Catalyst people...check the website for details on family environments.

Sunday night, we're hosting our very first GroupLink where adults will connect and form community groups. Jake and his team have done an incredible job getting things together and people are really responding. We believe life change happens within the context of predictable relationships and it looks like over 50% of our average adult attendance will begin experiencing that next week! I can't wait for the stories to start coming in...and they will!

Finally, if you are a Catalyst attender, you need to invite people to come with you this Sunday. I have no doubts it will be one of our best services and that we will see God do some cool stuff in people's lives. Our band has something cool worked up (don't be late) to start the service, the worship set is incredible, and I will be speaking. We're praying for God to use all of it to help people take the next step in their spiritual journeys. We'll also host our second Starting Point orientation, our small groups for seekers, returners, and starters.

I can't wait until Sunday! It will be one of those landmark days that 5 years from now we will look back on and thank God for all He did!

Fun

Tiger's look says it all.  Once again, the Americans are getting smashed by the Europeans in the Ryder Cup.  All indications are that the US will lose for 5th time in the last 6 Ryder Cups.

If you follow golf, then you know that the top 3 players in the world (Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk) are Americans.  You may also know that the highest ranked European is Sergio Garcia at number 8 in the world.  Every Ryder Cup, the US is favored because of the star power, yet recent history says the smart pick is the European team.

How do the best players in the world succeed individually, yet fail miserably as a team.  Watch and you'll see.  Forget the scores.  Forget the rankings.  Forget the weather conditions.  Just watch and ask yourself, "Which team is having the most fun?"  The answer is obvious.  And it was obvious yesterday when play began.  The Europeans are having a blast while the Americans look like they're getting a root canal.

All kinds of applications for those of us who lead and are a part of teams.  I am convinced that having all-stars is not enough - leaders have to create a fun, creative, relational environment to get the most out of their teams.  It's okay to laugh and enjoy each other and the journey you're on together!

Thanks to the European team for the example.  Maybe one day the US team will catch on.

FamilyNoise

Easily the most positive feedback we receive is about the impact of our family ministry environments. Casey Ross, our Family Ministry Director, and his team have branded the ministry to focus on partnering with parents. Anyone who leads successful churches knows how important family ministry is - parents will put up with a worship environment if their kids love their environments. It's a double bonus if you help parents succeed in shaping their kids. I'm pumped about the environments and resources our team has created and how God is already using them to encourage families.

To further partner with parents, our family ministry team is launching a blog just for parents called FamilyNoise: Clarity and Strategy for Your Family. I am excited to see how God uses this blog to connect with more families in the Upstate and to help leaders in other family ministries think through their strategies for partnering with parents.

I'll post again when the blog goes live.

Outsider-Focused Insiders

There's a little church in Anderson that has a little bit of momentum...actually they have a ton of momentum! The story of NewSpring Church is an amazing one indeed. I mean, how does a self-proclaimed redneck, Clemson fan pastor start a church in Anderson, SC that 6 years into its existence reaches 6000 people per weekend?! Perry writes about why in his post today:

I said it Sunday–but I will say it again…one of THE main reasons our church is growing is because the people inside haven’t forgotten what it was like to be outside. The people who have received God’s grace are still aware of those who need God’s grace. The people inside are NOT content with playing Christian games…but rather are bothered by the fact that there are people right here in this community that, if they died today, would spend eternity in hell…and that fact does not allow us to rest at night.

Any church that is serious about reaching people who do not go to church has to have outsider-focused insiders like Perry is talking about. It is so easy to turn inside and start worrying about things that do not help create environments for insiders to invite their outsider friends.

How do you keep the vision in front of you? Stay in relationship with outsiders! You don't have to pray for opportunities or relationships with outsiders - chances are, you work next to someone, work for someone, live next door to someone, play golf with someone, etc. who is unchurched. Get to know them. Be their friend. Become a trusted friend of theirs. When you do, everything changes.

Suddenly, you can't sleep at night. You pray differently. When you invite them to attend a worship environment with you and they come, you view everything differently. The color of the carpet doesn't matter anymore. What matters is that your friend connects with God in a relevant way.

Like Perry, I am convinced that one of the biggest reasons why churches are not growing is because insiders are not focused on outsiders and consequently, are not in relationship with outsiders. Every Sunday, more Catalyst insiders are inviting their outsider friends. It's so cool to read the emails and hear the stories of what it was like to have a friend with them on a Sunday. The day we run out of those stories is the day we need to close up and do something else.

Bottom line: In whom are you investing?

If This Is True...

...and I think it is...then a lot of people are in trouble. The NY Times ran a story last week that included the following heart-wrenching (literally) information:

Your morning Starbucks latte may never seem as sweet again.

If you thought you were being nutritionally virtuous by stopping at Starbucks instead of McDonald’s, the Center for Science in the Public Interest says, “Wrong!’’

A venti — or 20-ounce — Caffè Mocha with whipped cream has 490 calories, equivalent to a Quarter Pounder with cheese. And a 24-ounce Java Chip Frappuccino with whipped cream has 650 calories, not to mention almost an entire day’s allowance of saturated fat.

According to the center, a nutritional advocacy group, the Frappuccino is equivalent in calories to a McDonald’s coffee plus 11 of their creamers and 29 packets of sugar.

My Starbucks addiction began a few years ago with a grande hazelnut latte. Later, I traded in hazelnut for vanilla. Then I saw Tom Hanks on Letterman. He had blown up like a balloon and blamed his daily grande vanilla latte for the blow up. Yikes! Now, for me, it's a Venti Bold Coffee of the Week with room for a couple of splashes of skim milk and two packets of Splenda.

Next time you sip that Mocha, ask yourself, "Do I want fries with this?"