The Shoreline Insider

For those that didn’t make it to the Leadership Pipeline on Tuesday, and for those that did, here is a recap:

• The purpose of Leadership Pipeline is to help you become a better follower which in turn makes you a better leader.
• Hunter led us in worship. We did 2 songs; “Blessed be Your Name”, which seems to be pretty popular right now, and Matt Redman’s “You Must Increase.” I thought worship was very refreshing, worshiping with mature believers is always a good time.
• Melissa Franco won the Volunteer Connection Award of a $20 Starbucks card for her commitment to mirror Shoreline’s values through volunteering. She runs the camera or spotlight every Sunday and volunteers in the office almost every day.
• Wins - A lot of people shared some wins they have experienced this past month. One of the wins was from our new youth intern, Joe Lucero. He met quite a few young people that were visiting church for the first time this last Sunday.
  • This prompted an observation from me. I make it a point to observe in the lobby. I have noticed lately, new people trying to navigate the crowded lobby and seeing groups of our own people talking amongst themselves, oblivious to these new people. I encouraged everybody to be on the look out for this and to take ownership of your church by warmly welcoming these new guests. To take a step further though and show them how to get around our church. That is what the Volunteer Handbook is about. If you have not yet got one, get one on Sunday from the Shoreline Real Info. I also read a blog about this from Church Marketing Sucks. You can read it here.
    
• Get Life Day - Lori updated us on Get Life Day. There were 68 cards turned in on Get Life Day. So far, all the Life Groups have been very well received and attended.
• Rushing the Field - There were 44 cards turned in last Sunday for volunteering. They were followed up on this week by a team of callers. If you are a leader of an area of ministry, you will be getting the info this week on who signed up for your area. Most of them, unless there were circumstances that prevented it, were scheduled to train on September 30th. You should follow up on these this week and confirm their training. PLEASE, DO NOT FAIL TO DO THIS. It is most frustrating to hear that people need help and then when we find them volunteers, I find out they were not followed up on. This puts a bad taste in the potential volunteer’s mouth. Plus, these are not cold calls. These people have already been signed up to work in you area.
• Finances & S2 - We needed $70,000 to start a new service and campus at the Palms. During the time of the campaign, some of the terms changed and we only raised $32,000.
  • In the meantime, the opportunity opened for us to start a 10:30 service at the Rave on 2 conditions:
    1. Break down time had to be shortened.
    2. We had to double our rent.
  • We spent $13,000 on equipment to make that happen.
  • We put 3 month’s of rent away so as to not increase our budget until growth could happen as a result of 2 services. That left us with about a $12,000 margin.
  • The giving during the summer and all the way up until now has continued to drop with one 6 week period being below operating budget 5 out of the 6 weeks by $1000 per week and 1 week being $2000 below budget. To top it off, this last week, even though attendance was normal, our offerings came in $4000 below budget.
  • Needless to say, this has ate into our margin. The thing I don’t like about being the Lead Pastor is the tough decisions I have to make. This week, we had to lay off 3 employees, 1 was full time and 2 were part time.
  • I think the giving is a reflection of what is happening economically in our area. Please, pray for our community, our church and the individuals who call Shoreline their church home.
•  All this forces us to be innovative as a church. Craig Groschel says “Passion + Lack of Resources = Exponential Innovation. Here is what I shared about being innovative:
  • Innovation: the process of making improvements by doing something new.
  • We have everything that we need to reach the people that God wants us to reach.
  • If we don’t have something that everyone else has, it drives us to innovate.
  • 4 qualities of innovative leaders:

  1. Innovative Leaders Heal the sick - Not just those who are physically sick but those who are outside the church.
     • In order to reach those around us that no one else is reaching, we will have to do things that no one else is doing.
     • Question: When was the last time you had a non-believer in your home?
     • Question: Who is God calling us to reach that no one else is reaching?

     2. Innovative Leaders Break Some Rules - Innovative leaders care more about reaching people than obeying man’s rules.

     • Question: What new thing are we doing today that will become traditional tomorrow?
     • Question: What is God calling us to try that hasn’t been done before?

          3. Innovative Leaders Offend Pharisees - Jesus healed a woman who had been crippled for years - but he did it on the Sabbath and that offended the Pharisees.

•  Things that are the closest to the heart of God are the things that offend Pharisees.
• Things that are accepted in the church today, were despised yesterday.
• Question: What new thing is God calling us to do that will be hated today and embraced tomorrow?

4. Innovative Leaders Redefine Success - In the movie “The Guardian”, the old veteran life saver is asked what his number is. He answers 22. The young rookie is amazed because he thought it was over 200. The veteran answers back, “22 is how many I lost.” The way we define success isn’t necessarily how God defines success. We can’t be impressed with ourselves, there are many more people that need to be “saved.”

Well, that’s it. Don’t forget that tomorrow is the baptism. I love serving with you.

C-ya,

Pastor Eric