Calls, Calls & more Calls!

I hate telemarketers. I used to try and mess with them. Sometimes I would set a timer and see how long I could keep them on the line before they hung up on me. ;) I'd ask them question after question like I was really interested in their product but never buy. What a jerk I was!

I actually had a job as a telemarketer for 3.5 hours. I was selling AT&T long distance a few years back. They asked me to not come back because I didn't make one sale... well, actually I had one guy wanting to buy but he was an Iranian student without a credit card and we could only sell to those with a credit card. A funny: I'm freaking nervous (and hating myself for actually being a telemarketer!), while trying to keep up with the automatic dial system. Every time I hung up a new caller was on the line... in fact most times that person had already said hello before I was connected with them! So I'm looking at all the names quickly pop up on the screen and saying, "Hi! Is this Mr Brown, Mrs Green etc..." In the fray I looked at the next name without thinking and ask, "Is this Mr. Jehova?" The computer had dialed a Kingdom Hall. :)

Anyway, this week I had my third evening of taking part in a calling campaign to get the word out about RPCC. Our goal is to call about 30,000 people! The calling is going a little slower than anticipated because many of our volunteers are freaked out about doing this. Our calling has been overwhelmingly successful thus far and I've actually been enjoying it a lot! The cool thing is that we're not selling anything and we're actually not even asking people to go to church. It's a very 'soft' sell. We just tell people we're a new church in the area and ask if we can send them information to keep them updated on our progress. That's it! So every address we get we're sending them information.

Here are my numbers so far.

Dialed: 652
Addresses received: 53
That's 8%.
(Keep in mind that the majority of the numbers dialed were answering machines and we will call them back. We anticipate that we'll get addresses of at least 10%.)

If we call 30,000 people that's 3,000 people who will receive a few mail pieces from us and a follow up call! I'm excited to see what God is gonna do with this! We're inviting all these people to come out Oct 24 to a special Saturday evening service at the barn. If you want to be a catalyst for life change for people you don't know come and make some calls with me. I'll be doing it again tomorrow night and at least two nights next week. It's really fun because you never know how people will respond. I'd say 95% are very polite and are not put off by the call. I get a few hangups and a few "I've got my own religion... click" but I've also had great conversations with people including one guy who is a Hindu, attends a Hindu church but asked me to send him information. How cool is that???

What Kind of Worker Are You?

Do you work hard or hardly work? Do you take initiative or wait to be asked? Do you hang out paralyzed in your confusion or lack of knowledge or go ask someone smarter "What can I do now?"

Until you're willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish the mission you're not qualified to do what you love best. Why? Because God doesn't need you! Especially when you are arrogant to the point that you think certain things are beneath you.

Every able bodied person is more than qualified to set up chairs, pick up trash or move something from point A over to point B. This may not be what someone with unique gifts should be doing full time... but for a season, even an extended season, you may have to humble yourself, roll up your sleeves and break a sweat. In the process you may grow in your relationship with those working around you. But what if you're scrubbing toilets alone??? That's where the best growth with the most important relationship can take place... you and your Heavenly Father!

I don't always have the best attitude and catch myself having to REPENT! Attitude is not something that acts upon me, I'm not a helpless victim... I choose my own attitude! Tomorrow I get the privilege of doing what needs to be done a little more than normal. I typically help set up until the band arrives and we begin our sound check. Tomorrow we have a guest worship leader, who I'm looking forward to hearing, and that means I've got time to pitch in with our Road Crew more than usual. I pray for a great sleep and lot's of energy so I can work hard and honor God with everything I lift, unpack and set up.

What kind of worker are you? What kind of attitude do you have towards doing what needs to be done compared to what you love to do?

Perry has a great post about what kind of staff person you are. Read it here.

Launch Sunday Pictures

Pulling up with the trailer at 6am. (For a closer look, click on the pictures.)


Our sweet shag rugs for the kiddos to sit on. The school janitor set up our chairs. Our drape was too thin, gotta return it for heavier stuff. The guy on the left in this picture runs FOH for every crusade/festival the Billy Graham organization hosts around the world. We're blessed to have him help us get our system sounding great!

Our Kidstuf set. We used the house lights... didn't get to use our lights... that's coming soon. We had just over 100 people join us. We have intentionally not launched "big" this fall as we want our folks to fully understand and own our mission/strategy and then invest & invite their friends to one of our environments.

This week we are ending an era... our offices have been in Damon's garage since March 3rd. We have been given office space at Camarillo Community Church and we move Thursday. Damon's family has been so gracious for giving up space in their home for the last six months!

I'm looking forward to doing Kidstuf all over again on the 28th! This Sunday we take part in a commissioning service at Camarillo Community Church and then have a worship band practice on location at Rio Vista M.S. to prep for Oct 5. Good times!

I need more help on the "Road Crew"... it's a lot of fun unloading the trailer with the guys, seriously, let me know if you can help!

T-Minus 4 Days

Four days until we launch.
We're launching with our family (K-5 and parents) program called Kidstuf first.
We're launching with a Lead Pastor who isn't the 'preacher' and a preacher (we affectionately call him "TP" for teaching pastor) who isn't the Lead Pastor.
We're launching in Southern California yet partnered with a church in North Georgia.
We're launching with four full time and one part time staff in one of the most expensive corners of this country.
Our office is in a garage.
We've got permission to do church in a public Middle School in Oxnard, CA and I know in Auburn, Alabama (Bible belt!) they don't allow any churches to use schools.

We are anything but a typical church plant. I like it. God is doing a new thing in the VC (Ventura County)!

What untypical church plants do you know of? Is there even such a thing?

Church Planting - Staff Teams

3.94 miles in 22:03 minutes.

Our Lead Communicator hits the road in Atlanta, GA tomorrow to move to Camarillo, CA and finally join our team in person (we've been ichatting since May!). Our Sunday Program Director begins full time with RPCC Sept 1. Our Kidstuf director just started earlier this month. What an amazing team God has brought together. Seriously, these folks are money! We are humbled to be partnered with GHC and NP and the many local church churches and individuals. One year ago this month Damon and I felt God may want us to 'knock on the door' of this thing called 'church planting'. 12 months later we're less than a month away from launching with a great staff team and a launch team numbering in the 50s.

Don't get me wrong, this is still not going to be a walk-in-the-park. We need to raise $115,000 by December 31st. That's a lot of dough... and we have to raise even more than that the following year. What makes that number not so huge is the fact that God has brought high capacity leaders to our staff and launch team who want to see RPCC succeed and have an impact in this community. It's already worth it, I've seen growth and personally experienced growth! If you're considering planting a church I would strongly encourage you to do it with a team from day 1. Even Jesus modeled this fact... in no way did He need a team of 12 to do what he did, but He chose to do it and I believe this is something we can learn from today.

Please pray for John and his family as they travel this week.
Please pray we would do our part and work hard to raise $115,000 over the next three months.
Please pray that we would trust God to do his part with the results!

Thanks!
Do you know any churches with just one paid guy 'doing it all'? What have you seen that is good/not so good about that strategy?