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If you can get a list of addresses, you can easily dump those into a Google map. Once in the map you can quickly identify relative proximity, share the map with others, and even drop the map into your website; with all those choices, every time the address list is updated in any way, the map will automatically show the change. I personally use this to map our customers and share this with all of our staff. Watch my video to find out how you can do the same.
Map your people in Google from Fellowship Technologies on Vimeo.
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Check out our "Ideas" site and sort by praise points, or just click here: http://tinyurl.com/ksvmgl; notice that the 2nd most requested idea is Calendaring/Resource management. I believe that two entirely separate ideas have been bundled together here:
- Posting a calendar of church events on your website
- Resource management - availability and the process to request limited resources (rooms, microphones, services)
Check out the video below as a way to achieve the 1st.
Add a calendar to your website from Fellowship Technologies on Vimeo.
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Have you ever wondered what the alphanumeric code means to the right of the report name? Did you know that is has significant meaning?
When a report is created, it is given a five or six character alphanumeric code. Each character of the code has an important meaning. The first character is always a letter and it represents the report category. There are four different report categories:
- Administration – Duplicates, Portal Users, Contact Efficiency
- Giving – Contributions, Pledges, Receipts, Top Contributors
- Ministry – Attendance, Participant Assignments, Staff Assignments, Jobs, WebLink Forms
- People – Member Status, Contact Items, Attributes, Notes
The numbers that follow the report category help us to group similar reports together. Under each report category, there are multiple report groups. The report groups span over a range of numbers. For example report group A1030 – A1049 contain Administration reports specific to Individuals In Groups. At 1050, the next report group starts, which is Portal Users. By organizing the reports into groups, it allows all of the reports with similar subjects to be together and hopefully easier to search. If you find a report you like such as G1052 you can type in G105 in the search box and look at reports that are similar in design or function. Another example would be report M1400: Assignment Roster. If you like what this report is providing but need something a little difference you could just type in M140 or even M14. The fifth character of the code (if there is one) is always a letter. It can be E, P, or L. The letter at the end character represents the output type of the report. If the code does not have a letter at the end, then the default output type is PDF. The idea behind the report code is that at a glance the user can look at the code and tell the report category, report group, and output of the report. Since not everyone can remember all of the report categories or report groups, the user can run report A9005-FT Report Code Quick Reference Guide from the Report Library. This report breaks down all of the report groups into the number ranges, so the user can quickly see the report group and category for a certain report code.
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I have been blessed with four beautiful kids, a beautiful spouse that loves the Lord, and a job that allows me to work using gifts from God such as a love of people and travel to help build the Kingdom. In March God called me to beautiful Miami to work with University Baptist Church (UBC) and help them get Fellowship One up and running. (the sacrifices I make for God ;)) This church is why I do what I do. They are firing on all cylinders and continually looking for ways to improve their ability to effectively reach more people and to love the people of Miami. I had a great time staying with Pastor Dave and his wonderful wife who are the most gracious hosts anyone could hope to stay with. But three days was enough time away from my family so I headed to Miami International Airport and a three hour flight back to Texas.
As I was boarding the plane I could feel my phone vibrating  in my pocket and the soft sound of Led Zeppelin crying out “I can’t quit you babe” so I knew my wife was calling. I found my seat and called her back to hear “I can’t talk we are running to the emergency room!” click. Not exactly what I wanted to hear and not enough information to fully process what was going on so I called back after about 30 seconds. “MATT I CAN’T TALK I AM RUNNING A RED LIGHT AND POPPY IS BLEEDING FROM HER HEAD…” click. Now the panic began setting in and I thought with horror: Is my beautiful 4 year old daughter Poppy dying? How bad is the head wound? Was she shot, stabbed, run over, cut, bitten by a neighborhood dog, kicked by the horse behind the house? Again, not enough information to do anything but get very worried. I tried calling back 3 more times but no one would answer the phone. At this time the pilot tells us there is bad weather in Dallas so we have to get off the plane for a 2 hour delay. More panic… more stress… more anger!
I walk around with the Joy of the Lord in my heart almost every day. I find the positive in almost every bad situation. But this was more than I could handle. I tried to think of something I could do to help. I tried to find a different flight, I thought maybe I could catch a flight on a different airline; maybe I could “borrow” a plane for a few hours and return it in the morning. Then I realized there was nothing I could do. I prayed “God show me the Joy in this.” Even if I were on the flight I wouldn’t be home for hours, what are you teaching me? Should I not be traveling? Should I change jobs? Where are You in this?” Then God answered me very clearly “I am with Poppy, I am with Beckie, you could be dead now and I will continue to provide for the needs of your family. Rely on Me because I have given you your daily bread and provided care for your family even in this situation.”
Peace came to me and I knew how God had provided, he had already blessed me with a wonderful small group from The Village Church and parents that are always available. I called Brian Vinson twice before I sent him a text that said “Dude I need you” and my phone rang. “What do you need?” was how Brian greeted me, and like an angel from heaven his wife rushed to the hospital and picked up my other 3 kids, fed them pizza, took them home, and brought me peace of mind in one fail swoop of her angelic wings. My parents were in a movie on their 42nd wedding anniversary when I called. They left and rushed to the hospital to give support to Beckie. God is good always and the Joy of the Lord is my strength even when I am weak.
Matthew McMaster Delivery Manager Bound for Eternity, Walking in Joy
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 Did you know that Mary Smith was in the hospital? I found out because her best friend is my
cousin's wife. My cousin also told me
that his wife's sister works with Brad Johnson who is married to Barbara
Johnson who is my small group leader.
Small world isn't it? If you
could see the connections between each person you speak with on a regular basis
(or you are just good at knowing these things) you would be amazed how inter
connected we are. Isn't that why we want
notes in Fellowship One? Doesn't that
play into how we can become more effective at reaching out to first time
guests?
The contact management system in Fellowship One is very
flexible and adept at gathering information that is collected by multiple
ministries at various stages in the assimilation process. Wouldn't you like to know that Mary Smith was
in the hospital before calling her to ask her to volunteer? It doesn't happen by magic. It takes time and effort from each ministry to
document connections made on a regular basis.
I bet you're saying: "But you
don't know my staff, I can't get some of them to use email, much less log into Fellowship
One and get them to input notes." Fear not, saith Fellowship One. We have a plan, even for you.
The Delivery team has spent months putting together the
suite of documents that can be downloaded from this blog or found on the Best
Practice tab located at the Experience site.
Below, are some examples of different approaches to using Fellowship
One's Contact Management System. Clicking on the name will begin the download sequence.
This is where you want to get started. This document was created to help you transition from paper contact cards into a fully functioning electronic contact management system.
Once the congregants have turned in the cards and after the form was setup in Fellowship One this document walks you through best practice approaches to Data Entry.
This document was written to guide you into the next phase of contact management. Actually working the contacts. There are several approaches listed below that were created as separate documents because each contact method is unique.
Contacts 3.2 - Work Using Paper
- Does Aunt Bee work on your staff?
- Does the Care Pastor care less about computers?
- Is the Seniors Pastor convinced that his computer came from
Hell and not Dell?
- Are you using volunteers such as deacons to work contacts?
Then Contacts - Work Using Paper might be
the document for you.
Contacts 3.3 - Work by Triage & Transfer
- Does it take a team to get the work done?
- Does the contact routing have more variables than any
computer can comprehend?
- Do you use Mary the Super Receptionist to figure out who
should call whom?
- Admit it! You're a control freak, right?
Then Contacts - Work by Triage & Transfer
might be the document for you.
Contacts 3.4 - Work by Multi Close
- Do you send 200 emails a week?
- Do you know what a mail merge is?
- Are you all about hunting with a shotgun?
- Do you shop at Sam's Club or Costco?
Then Contacts - Work by Multi Close might
be the document for you.
Contacts 3.5 - Work Using Group Manager
- Do you use volunteers or teams of volunteers to follow up
with contacts?
- Do you want to have small group leaders contact prospects?
- Do you not know what I am talking about?
Then Contacts - Work Using Group Manager
might be the document for you.
Contacts 3.1 - Work Using the Portal
- Do you have people on staff?
- Do you have more than one user setup in Fellowship One?
- Have you ever wanted to actually start using the Contact
Management system?
Then Contacts - Work Using the Portal is
definitely the document for you. I put this one last on purpose because this is the one you probably already knew.
If you are not using the Contact Management system in
Fellowship One now is the time for change. Be the change. And know that you are missing out on a great piece of technology developed
specifically for how you do church. It's time to start downloading and implementing
some of these amazing processes that will help you really connect to the people
you should know by now.
Brought to you by,
Matthew, Mark², (No Luke), Joseph, Chris, Will & Jeff
Delivery Manager's (and close personal friends, of a friend,
of a friend, of a friend, of a friend, of yours)
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To keep from leaving your church in a lurch, please don't create a single point of failure on your staff. This is where creating, fertilizing, and growing a healthy Fellowship One Champion team can be a life saver for many churches. Attached to the picture below you will find a document that details the teams that should be present at your church and how they interact with Fellowship One.
Now if you are thinking "We only have 3 people on staff! How can I build a team across ministries? There is only one person who runs ministries and that is me!" God blessed you with ministry leaders that are not on staff. Tap into your volunteer base, find the right people and lead your new Fellowship One Champion Team made up entirely of Volunteers. They will appreciate the extra abilities Fellowship One gives them and you will keep from shooting yourself in the foot by being the single point of failure. Some day Jesus will come and welcome you home. Are you raising up leaders or making yourself so critical to the success of the church that they can't survive without you.
Matthew McMaster
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Last year I was attending a big church in Grapevine
Texas. One thing you never want to do
when attending this church is lose your receipt. They take your children's safety very
seriously and they don’t mind making you wait to get that point across. The good news is that once you move past the
initial shock that they are not going to just “trust me” and that they don’t
care that I am a member and a volunteer and a very special person in general…
is that you feel very secure with leaving your kids in their care. Of course this usually takes about an hour or
so to get from your head to your heart.
It helps that you were able to make it to your favorite restaurant before
the lunch rush after all.
The take away from this blog is that churches of every size
need security for their children. Unless
you don’t expect any first time visitors then you need to know this stuff. It is important to understand that this is a standard
process and it needs to apply to everyone from the Sr. Pastor to the first time
guest. If you don’t consistently enforce
this policy, your volunteers will be put in the untenable position of having to
determine who is allowed to bypass the security measures the church has in
place to protect children. This protects
your volunteers by placing them under the authority of the Children’s Ministry.
When a person shows up to pick up a child the process is
very clear. If you have the receipt and
you know the child’s name you get to pick them up. The
process is not:
- You dropped them off and I recognize you so it
is OK this time
- You are on staff so it is OK this time
- You are the Sr. Pastor so it is OK this time
- You look nice and you know the child’s name so
it is OK this time
- The child is screaming Mommy… Mommy… so it is OK
this time
- You are my next door neighbor and I know these
are your kids so it is OK this time
- You are my husband and our kids are driving me
crazy so I don’t care if you lost the receipt take these kids NOW (this one is
OK for the safety of the kids and the Dad)
So now you have an adult standing at your door demanding
that you give them their child back. All
volunteers should be trained to say “I am not authorized to release children to
parents without a receipt. I can find my
supervisor/director/pastor and they will be able to help you out. I do
recognize you and I am sure this is your child but we have security processes
in place to protect your children and I am sure you understand the importance
we place on child safety.”
If your church has radios then a call should be made for the
supervisor to come to the door and guide the parent through the next part of
the process. If you have a clearly identified
information desk, they can be sent there.
Once at the information desk or nearest assisted check in
station here are the steps to follow: - Ask the parent for a picture ID (insert comment about how good
their picture looks and try not to sound sarcastic)
- Log into Fellowship One and verify that the name
on the ID is an authorized person to pick up those children. This can be done on the household screen. See
Figure 1
- If the parents are still in the same household
and there is a custody issue, please unselect both parents. That way whoever
has the receipt brought the child. See Figure 1
- If they are not authorized, call the authorized
parents and take all necessary measures to verify that the child can be
released to this person
- Threatening to keep the kids and put them to
work at the church folding bulletins never works so don’t bother
- If the parent has no picture ID available, log
into Fellowship One and search for them by name
- If the name of the person matches up with one of
the parents authorized to pick up the child
- Ask the parent for their children’s name
- Ask the parent the last activity they attended
- Ask the parent the child’s DOB
- Ask the parent to verify their address, email
address, phone number, cell phone number, etc
- If it is the husband ask him for his wife’s DOB
and their anniversary date. I do this
just to get them in trouble
- If the name of the person does not match up to
the name of the parent authorized to pick up the child use the system to call
the other parent’s cell phone. Use all
means necessary to verify that this person is authorized to pick up the child.
Once the authorization process has been completed have the
parent fill out a first time visitor card or similar form. Write the parents DL number on the form and
have an authorized person at the church sign the form. It is best to have a specific form for this
process that is very similar to the first time family card. It should have space on the card to write
down all of the children’s names that have been checked in that day. The parent then uses the signed card as their
authorization form to pick up all of their children.
As the teachers verify the names of the children written on
the card against the nametags on the children they will initial the names of
the children to verify that they checked the data. Teachers should be trained to pick up the
form if all of the children listed on the form have been picked up. This documentation is critical in case there
is some sort of litigation that arises from the church giving the child to an
unauthorized person. For your viewing convenience I have written all of this up and had it formalized by the proper authorities. You can download a less funny and more serious version by clicking the picture of the light bulbs below. Hopefully the lit bulb represents you at this point. 
Matthew McMaster Delivery Manager and Bulb Tester
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As a father of two, I still remember the first time that I dropped off my children in a Children’s Ministry when I was searching for a church home and a relationship with God. I didn’t have a clue of how secure my children were in those back rooms. During the worship service I was unsettled. My mind was in those back rooms worrying about my kiddos. Of course, I knew that they’re in a church, but I just needed a little reassurance.
As a Delivery Manager, I get to see some great best practices at the churches I work with. At one of my recent churches, the Children’s Pastor came up with a very cool idea. She made a First Time Family Card that served several purposes.
First, the card would explain the purpose of the security tag and how it’s used. It explains both main purposes of the security receipt:
1) The security code is compared to the security code on the child’s nametag during the pickup process.
2) The security code can also be used to page the parents in case they are needed for the care of their child during the service.
Second, the card is yellow so it’s easily identifiable by escorts or greeters when mom or dad returns to the Children’s Ministry to pick up their children. An escort can greet or seek out the family to reconnect or answer any questions that the parents might have.
Lastly, the yellow card is an obvious reminder to classroom teachers that during pick up that this is a new family. The classroom teacher can then take some extra effort to let the family know how their child did during the service. They can then thank them for coming and send them off warmly and let them know that we’d hope to see them back soon!
Not only will classroom teachers and greeters know that this is a new family, but others would see this yellow card as well. Everyone from ushers, the welcome center, bookstore and pastors can give an extra warm greeting to new families.
A great suggestion from my fellow Delivery Managers is to provide a map of the building on the back of the card. This will help the parents locate the Children’s Ministry and their children after the service.
I think this card does a great job of providing a sense of comfort to the parents and will provide a way to identify the new families to the greeters and classroom teachers.
Mark Lindsley
Delivery Manager
P.S. Click here to download the original document so that you can edit it and use it at your church.
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Hello... Hello... Is this thing on?
One benefit to Fellowship Technologies that you may or may
not know is that Big
Brother is watching. No, this isn't
the fictional character in George
Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. But
rather our nerdy database team tucked away in a dark corner in a nondescript
building at 5605 N MacArthur Blvd, Irving TX. They
are always monitoring, checking, and rechecking the health of the Fellowship
One database. Each person on this team
has multiple computer monitors with strange graphs and numbers constantly
changing and refreshing.
Besides the obvious
stuff like making sure the server is running, they are also analyzing how you
are asking for data and making sure that we are returning it in the most efficient
way. Through this monitoring it has
recently come to my attention that no one is listening to me when I am on the
road implementing Fellowship One. If you
were you would not be doing this:
I bet the light bulb just turned on and now you are ready to
repent. No? Ok let me explain what you
are looking at. This graph is from
Sunday June 22, there were 52K (Check-in version 2.5) searches for the day.
This data only represents a portion of the overall Check-in traffic, there were
205K total Check-in 2.5 methods called. The problem with the numbers is the
first bar which represents name searches.
There were over 20,000 name searches performed when trying to check
people in. That number is way too
high. Why? Because name searches are more
prone to mistakes. "Hi Welcome to Super
Duper Mega Church can I get your last name? Masolaouski? Is that with one Z or
two?" Versus "Hi Welcome to Super Duper
Mega Church can I get the last 4 digits of your phone number? 1919. Welcome back Mr. Maslouski, will you be
checking in Maggie, Marcie, Mark, and Zagloob?"
Now to be fair some of you are doing terrific. This next graph represents one church that is
doing it almost right. The first bar
represents bar code searches which is fantastic. That is the best, most efficient way to check
in. Way to go Super Duper Mega Church!
You know who you are. But before you get
too slap happy look at that next bar which represents name searches. When
someone forgets their bar code you are using name as a backup search
option. The third pancake (I can't even
call it a bar) represents phone number searches. Those two should be reversed.
The last issue that I want to speak openly about is the
churches that are using our assisted check in option as self check in.
The next graph represents name searches that we pulled out
of the system. I am guessing that a
highly trained check-in volunteer did not type this into the system.
We have changed some of the names to protect the "innocent"
and we definitely removed the vulgar search items that we found. I am still blushing from some of the search
requests. This isn't a dating service
people!
Assisted Check-In was designed to be "Assisted", meaning
that a volunteer checks in the family into their classrooms. We have a great
new self check-in application that protects the data integrity of the church
and allows for self-sufficient members or regular attendees to check themselves
in. I have heard the argument before
"our members are smart enough to figure out your very well designed Assisted
Check-In solution, and our teenagers would never do anything inappropriate." The
above searches prove otherwise.
If you haven't yet NOW IS THE TIME TO
REPENT. Take the training classes
again. Listen to the soft soothing voice
of Bill Wheaton lull you into submissive understanding. Download THIS DOCUMENT which will give your check-in
volunteer the approved party line on how to properly check in people that don't
have their bar codes Happy Passes.
Stay with the flock...
Matthew McMaster
Delivery Manager (and mind control expert)
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In this blog entry I will be sharing something the delivery
team has been working on. (When we are
not doing the Delivery side of our job) We have been documenting processes and putting
them into a usable form. The document needed to be flexible because Fellowship
One is very flexible and constantly improving how churches work with
individuals. We landed on Swim Lane documents.
Since the Olympics are on
right now, and I think Michael
Phelps is winning something in the water as I write this, you should know
what a swim lane is. For our purposes we
are attempting to show how a task, such as working a contact from beginning to
end, flows from one person to another across those swim lanes. The first document was penned by Will
Steed. He has been a Delivery Manager at
Fellowship Technologies for a while now and comes from a consulting
background. The documents referred to below have been updated in the 5 Degrees of Contacts blog post.
The top of the document is the Swim Lane. This represents
how the contact flows from the Congregation to the Data Entry Team and on to
the Staff. If you are the entire staff
at your church, just switch your hat around and pretend you are the data entry
team for a short period of time.
The bottom portion of the document should give you best
practice tips for each of the blocks in the Swim Lane. This is not meant to be a training document
or to walk you through how something is done step by step in Fellowship
One. We have a Bill Wheaton for that
task. You can find him and the rest of
the Education Department on the Education
tab. Where Bill stops we try and pick up
with the "which is the best way to do this task".
Towards the end of Will's Process the Card Swim Lane it
leaves off with "Working the Contact Begins".
This can take on different work flows based on what type of contact you
are processing. In the example below I
describe how contacts can work when fully utilizing the Small Groups Manager in
Fellowship One. I tried to make it
generic but I was thinking of using the Small Group Manager for Care ministries
when I wrote the document. You can get
more information on why you might want to use the Small Group Manager to
coordinate care ministry activities HERE.
You are the first to be exposed to our new Swim Lane
documents so I would really appreciate some constructive feedback. Nothing like "Will Steed is a silly name", or
"I don't
like blue font colors". Don't
forget my ego is easily bruised or bolstered so feel free to say "Matt, you're
the best". For those who are eager to
get their hands on these documents, know that we have a dozen swim lane
documents created already, but we want to get your feedback on format before we
hand them out.
Matthew McMaster
Delivery Manager and Document Producer
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Recently I was working with CrossWinds church in Dublin CA and came across a situation I had
seen in the past but did not have a great
solution to meet their needs. Recent
advances in F1's ability to send contacts to small group leaders has provided a
solution that now easily meets a care
ministry needs.
The Issue:
CrossWinds Church
has care teams that are regionally based
around the Dublin City area and provide services
to people in need. They bring meals to families that need them, they visit people in the hospital, and they provide services such as lawn mowing to single parents.
Each team is comprised of a leader
and an area coordinator. The leader is responsible for the group and
recruiting new volunteers into their ministry.
The area coordinator is
responsible for coordinating efforts of the team members to provide
services and report the information back to the church staff.
Prior to Fellowship One this was being done through a network of Excel spreadsheets, email
notices, and phone calls which were all painstakingly tracked by the staff to
keep an idea of what was going on across all of the teams. The
pastor responsible for care groups also tracked volunteer activity (who was
providing the meals or visitation) to keep a list of top volunteers for the
purpose of thanking them and promoting
the ministry.
The F1 Solution:
The first need was to track
who was involved in the teams. Since
the church was regionally tracking the teams I proposed that the Activity Groups be the regions of the area
that the groups were divided into. This would allow for expansion of the teams
or possible sub division of some of the larger teams which could include up to
80 people. The Team Leader then could be
assigned at the Activity Group level and the area coordinators could be
assigned over smaller groups.
The second need was to be able to take requests for ministry from multiple sources such as web, phone, and
information cards. They would all be
input into the contact management system in Fellowship One as contact
items. Each type of request would be
tracked as a separate contact item.
(hospital visitation, meals ministry, service requests, etc) This would
allow the church to run reports and determine the greatest need of the community at any given point and also perform
trend analysis. (I.E. how many meals did
the church provide in 2007 compared to 2008?)
After contacts were entered into F1 from the various sources
they all routed to an administrative assistant that would validate the request and determine the best team to handle the issue based on area and type of
service the team provided. The
contact would then be transferred to the small group which triggers an email alert to the Area Coordinator. (See
training video in eUniversity for how this occurs)
The Area Coordinator then assigns the task to one or
multiple Care Team members who then provide services/meals/visitations to the
requesting party. Notes are entered on the contact through the Group Manager by the Area Coordinator for each
instance of service. The Area
Coordinator also posts "attendance" for the team members who are providing the
services. This allows the Church
staff to track their top volunteers
for the purposes previously mentioned.
Through the process the Area Coordinator is setting the proper disposition for the contact item which allows
for tracking "success" vs "failures" which are difficult to
determine without contact dispositions.
The church staff runs regular reports tracking open, in
progress, and closed contacts. They
track open and in progress contacts to verify
that the area coordinators are properly
documenting and following up with service requests. They also track closed contacts for the same
purpose as well as to see if any staff
follow up is needed.
This same scenario can easily be replicated at your
church. Levels of security for this type
of ministry can also be adjusted to allow all team members to update the contact
items. Training of staff and volunteers is important to the
success of this ministry. Matthew McMaster Passionate for People Because Christ Is
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Attendance carries the stigma from your school days where everyone had to be in class and everyday attendance was taken.
Census means that on some interval of your choosing you stop and count how many people are actually involved in this activity. Like the US census taken every ten years you can choose any interval you want and ask "how many people are in small groups?"
To do this you need to setup your activity schedule to reflect when you want your census taken and not which days of the week your small groups meet. Consider a census on a quarterly basis; you would create an activity schedule that occurs on March 31, June 30, September 30 and December 31. The idea is you communicate with your small group leaders to post attendance 4 times in the year. the small group leader can still use the manager tool weekly for email, contacts and membership purposes within the group but you as a church only want a quarterly census to track if the groups as a whole are growing or not.
You can adjust the census dates to any duration or interval. Maybe monthly or bi-monthly is more in line with how often you want your census. You can even build the schedule on an as needed basis. Suppose you launch a new small groups’ series in September and you want a census in December you can add that date to your activity schedule for the leaders to post attendance to. Then you can add another date the following spring to see how the groups are doing again.
At this point you may be thinking how do I know when my groups are meeting if my activity schedule is set up for census taking and the not weekly meetings? If you need to know what day a group meets or even what time of day you can use Room Location Properties to track this information. By defining properties and choices and then making the associations between them and your small groups you know who meets when, where and even why (special interests).
If you are not taking attendance today with your small groups consider taking a census instead.
Jeremy Jackson
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I know where Seat 21F is and the value of “exit row seating”
I know how useless airlines upgrade points can be
I have 2 sets of toiletries, one for at home, one for my
suitcase
My toothpaste is less than 3 ounces and is carried in a one quart
clear plastic bag
I don’t wear sandals to the airport
I’ve been to Buffalo Wild Wings in 14 different cities
I use up all of my words every day before I go home
I pray with my clients and my co-workers pray with me
I can’t believe they pay me to do this
I’m a “preferred” renter with EVERYONE
I’m a WebEx Ninja
I became a Skype fanatic before many people heard of VOIP
I am glad I will spend eternity with my clients
My CEO asks me how everything is going – and knows my
clients by name
I know Fellowship One better than the people that wrote it;
and make it do things they never intended
I can multi-task 10 projects at once and track everything to
the nearest tenth of the hour
My wife doesn’t understand why I don’t like to eat out on
the weekends
I pay for Internet access in hotel rooms in Manhattan, NY
and get it for free in Manhattan, KS
Why do I always see Tom Park selling cars, no matter what
city I go to?
I know when it starts to sprinkle outside that DFW airport
shuts down
My office is where I can boot up my laptop
I know where the power outlets are at the airport
I always wear a long sleeve shirt on an airplane, even in
July
I’ve had flight attendants recognize me
I know what should be on a guest registration card; and what
shouldn’t
I’ll never ask for a spare razor from the Best Western in
Ocala, Florida again
I love local commercials
McDonalds doesn’t have the same menu everywhere you go
I know what PDX, LAX, PHX, AUS, SFO, IAD, and DFW stand for
and I have my favorites
I can book a trip faster than most people can put their
shoes on
My drink of choice is coffee from the churches break room
I live for takeout food and a big TV in my hotel room
Checking baggage is for vacationers
If I arrive for a flight just as boarding is starting, I’m
right on time
I am on staff at dozens of churches
My passion is my ministry
I wonder why the Dev team doesn’t copy and paste more to
speed things up I AM DELIVERY
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-
 After all the cheering and applause died down following the
DC08 conference (mostly in my head) I had to stop and look back at a very
successful event and wonder why it (and more importantly I) was so
successful. God played a big role in
this year’s conference no doubt. We sure
did pray a lot. We prayed for Tara
Coulson whose tireless efforts made the complicated things simple. She reviewed every presentation and training
guide for typos and validated the material.
Personally I can’t imagine doing this but she did it with a smile on her
face (maybe it was a grimace at times) and a bounce in her step. I personally think she personifies Colossians 3:23
Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men.
We prayed for each other because… well… that is just what we
do and who we are. We prayed for the
safe travel of our guests, the DC08 Conference attendees. I found this particular aspect of prayer very
fruitful. I prayed when I first received
my list of attendees, then I sent them an email letting them know I was personally
praying for each of them and also to ask if there was anything I could do for
them and asked when specifically would they be on the road so I could pray
again at that time. Once they replied I
set reminders in Outlook to pray for them at the specific time they left their
homes. 
Another reason we were so successful was because we had a
Tammy. I think everyone needs a
Tammy. I think they are on sale right
now at Home Depot for $499 but I am not sure about that. Tammy set time lines,
Tammy sent email reminders, Tammy called you on the phone, Tammy griped at you
when you didn’t have your presentation done, Tammy was mean when she needed to
be, Tammy was a sweet heart when everything was going well, Tammy made the DC08
successful. Everyone is fallen and has a
sin nature. When looking at the demographics of the people who read this blog I
am sure you would agree with that statement.
Not that you are more sinful just more aware. Sloth seems to be a big sin that has been
pushed aside for more glamorous sins like Lust and Greed. Tammy is also a part time Sloth Slayer.
As a member of the Delivery Team I think we also had
something working in our favor. You may
not know this but churches are very busy around Christmas and Easter. At this point you are probably saying to
yourselves “finally some useful information!”
Stay with me now… Christmas and Easter fall before the DC08
Conference. Since they are busy during
that time period they definitely do not want me around telling them all of the
things I want them to improve upon or completely change. So I have time on my hands to write blogs and
presentations. My manager Jeff has come
to realize that this Christmas cycle seems to happen every year so this year he
made it perfectly clear that presentations should be written during this annual
“Christmas Event”. So as others were
hastily writing/rewriting/preparing/panicking at 3AM prior to the conference I
was sleeping like a baby. My work was
done, my presentation was set, and I was ready. 
Lastly, and this is just a personal note that I am throwing
in for Steve at Christ the King who recently was reviewing my presentation that
I sent him and wondering where all the presentation notes were, I never add my
notes to my presentation slides. Sloth
might play a role and it is something that I should do after the fact or maybe
as a separate handout but having them in my presentation has always caused me
problems. I want to know my material
backwards and forwards before the event.
If I am relying at all on notes I have a problem. No one wants to see me read my
presentation. I need passion to sell the
concepts I am presenting and notes are a stumbling block for me (Red Bull helps too but next year I am sticking to one instead of the 2 I had on the first day). I prefer to think of the presentation slides as
guidepost along the journey of discovery.
I hope that you all enjoyed the DC08 Conference
as much as I did. Don’t forget you can
find most of the presentations HERE. Also I would like to close with an apology
for those that attended the Creative
Uses of Check-In session. Steve and
I ended up doing way more of a standup comedy routine than I intended. If you missed the point (not 100% sure we had
a point) of the presentation it was that you should be more creative with how
you use check-in. If you were offended
by some of Steve’s comments you can email him at sDrechsler@fellowshiptech.com. Or if you have a sense of humor you can email
him and tell him how funny and informative he was. Matthew McMaster Delivery Manager (Part Time Public Speaker)
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