Making a Difference

Timing and Vision

Do you have a good sense of timing?  Do you know when it is time to "go for it" or "live to fight another day"?  In everything we do, we have to consider God's will, God's ways, but also God's timing.  You may have the right idea or dream, but in the wrong time the results will be flat if not disastrous.  Here are a few ways to know the right time.

1.  You are obsessed with the dream.  There will come a time when it is impossible for you to hold in a dream any longer. 

2.  You have a sense of preparedness.  Anxiety subsides and is replaces with a sense of you were "made for this"

3.  Credible Mentors endorse you.  The key word here is WISE counsel.  If none of the leaders in your life are willing to say "I believe in you" based on thoughtful analysis of your plan, you may be moving to quickly.

4.  People support you.  These are the people who are willing to go to work to see the dream become reality.  Your gonna need them, make sure you're listening to them.

5.  People will follow you.  When your desire to act and their desire for change meet, the time is right for new opportunities. 

-pw

Vision Night

This week at ELEVATE was our annual Vision Night.  It was an incredible night of seeing what God has in store for us in 2010.  Today I was thinking about why Vision doesn't come to pass and here are a few ideas.

1.  Lack of Personal Growth -  Many people I know never see vision come to pass because they don't grow on a personal level.  We tend to think we can "just get by" or "borrow from others".  Eventually this will catch up with you.  For me there is a gap between my current capacity and the capacity I will need to realize my dreams. The only answer is I have to grow.

2.  Lack of Believability -  In order for a dream to be doable, it has to be believable by you and by others.  Your believability is closely linked to your capacity.  What people know of your capacity and your character will determine if they are willing to believe in your dream.  Any dream worth doing, requires others to believe.

3.  Poor Timing - There is often times a gap between your desire to act and your readiness to act.  Knowing the right time is crucial to success of vision.  Unfortunately we think we can do it all, NOW!!  Have you decided what  you will work on today and what you will leave for another time?  (I'll spend a little more time on this later this week)

4.  Finishing Strong -  How many times have you watched someone start strong only to fizzle out in the end?  If you don't finish, vision will not be accomplished.  Some of the barriers you often see have to do with the areas of character.  Pride, Power, Money, Sex, Family Problems and Failure will keep you from finishing your dreams. 

I don't want to over simplify, but truthfully, each of these areas that will keep vision from becoming reality can be overcome by intentional, lifelong learning.  In all your doing, don't forget to grow. -pw

i seem to have this problem..

I don't know how it happens, but it does.  Everytime I go throug the chick-fil-a drive through I feel somehow ripped off.  I think to myself, "it won't hurt to eat just one.."  "everyone's doing it"  and before you know it this is where i find myself...staring, whishing, wondering where did it all go??
I'm beginning to believe that when you go through the drive through, you are setting yourself up to become a victim of slack packaging.  I swear I only ate a few... o wretched man that I am.  -pw 

The Hope For Haiti

As many of you know we are currently engaged in raising much needed funds for the victims of the recent earthquake in Haiti.  To date Thehopeforhaiti.org has raised over $12,000 and still counting for Convoy of Hope in Haiti.  I would like to personally thank each of you who have purchased a shirt, helped spread the word, or worked like crazy to make this a reality. (mostly the staff of ELEVATE)  I'm amazed at how a little seed can grow into such a huge idea. To date, we have had orders from literally, all across the US, Canada, Brazil, South Korea, and the UK.  My  greatest desire through all of this, is to offer what we have and allow God to use it to bless others.  We'll keep you updated on our progress and Thanks again for your overwhelming support. -pw

It's a new journal

So for those of you who are "journalers" (if that's even a word)  I had a pretty monumental thing happen this past week. I started a new journal, I mean actually, I had to restock my journal.  Let me explain, my wife bought me this sweet journal from Levengers about 5 years ago, (It's the infinity journal with refills in case you're wondering).  As i read through it, I noticed that my first entry was in January of 2005.  It was just a few weeks before a lifechanging trip that we took to Austrialia.  Man how life is different now.  When I think of all that has happend since that time, we moved to AZ, kids were born, etc.  It's pretty amazing to see where we have ended up. So now I have run out of pages, and needed a refill.  Sometimes I wondered if I would be able to fill up those pages, but nonetheless, here we are.   It makes me think what the next 5 years will hold.  One think I do know, is God has an awesome plan and it will be an adventure.  The truth is I'm committing to make sure that it doesn't take me 5 years to fill it up.  Keep in mind, wherever you are in life, there are still pages to be written, and if you run out of pages, pick up a refill.  -pw

Great Word!

I really feel like there have been some great messages shared from ELEVATE over the last few weeks.  If you'd like to hear them make sure and check our website www.ELEVATEcentral.com and sign up for the podcast to hear what God is doing.  It's a great season at ELEVATE.  More to come  -pw

Back in the saddle

Things in my life have been a bit of a blur over the past few weeks and months.  Here's the recap.

It all began with our "weeklong" at ELEVATE, We had an amazing time with our students in prescott.  Our guest speakers Jurgen Matthesius and Jesse Watson did incredible jobs.   The highlight of the week though seemed to be our pre-service prayer each night.  It was on Tuesday that we saw a student "david" healed of blindness in one of his eyes.  It was incredible.

Next I took a week to go back home to Kansas City,   Interestingly when I say Kansas City, everyone always thinks that's in Kansas..well, it's not only in Kansas but in Missouri as well.  While we were there I performed my Grandfathers funeral.  His death was unexpected, and I could really see the hand of God at work in the fact that we were even there and able to be a part of the celebration of his life.  

Finally, National Fine Arts in Orlando, Florida.  I have to say I don't remember Orlando being so humid or smelly.  It was a great time watching our students do an amazing job using their gifts for the kingdom.  So now, I'm back for a while and am gonna try to get a handle on my blogging.  Until next time -pw

Evaluation - Step 3 in the Marketing Funnel

All of us have had the experience of purchasing a product that didn't live up the claims that it made.  It's frustrating isn't it?  Hopefully this is not true of the ministry that you are leading.  When students walk into your building they have an expectation, Good or Bad they have an expectation.  Here are a few pointers as it relates to Evaluation.

1.  Focus your energy on 2 key areas of interaction:  First-Time Guests and Altar Decisions.

1.  First-time guests:  You only one, first impression.  Make it a good one.  Make sure that you create an atmosphere of excellence.  Remember excellence is a moving target, what was excellent 10 years ago is no necessarily excellent today.  A great tip is that:  excellence is in the details.  Don't just do the big stuff well, do the small stuff even better and you'll be sure to wow your first-time guests.  

2.  Altar Decisions:  The altar is the focal point of all the we do at ELEVATE.  Make sure you really connect and have a plan for those who make decisions at your altar.  It just hit me that some of you might not even utilize "the altar" on a weekly basis.  For me, there is no point in inspiration without implementation.  The altar is where we allow God to speak and direct us in changes that He wants to make in us.  Don't be afraid to create that space for God to work.  -pw

Interest - Step 2 of the Marketing Funnel

So where were we?  Sorry it's been a few, I've been in and out but I had the opportunity to speak at the Kentucky Youth Pastor Leaders Conference this past weekend.  Actually taught on Marketing Your Youth Ministry, so here we go...

Once you have plenty of exposure and students know where you find you, the next step is interest.  Basically it is creating a sense of urgency for them to attend.  This can be anything from a "BIG" night or the invite of a friend.  At ELEVATE we also use our web site to create a sense of interest in what the next step is.  Keep in mind that each of these options are great in and of themselves but you should always use them as a part of a greater process.  If you have an outreach night, make sure you connect with students that are there with something that will peak their interest and give them a reason to try again.  

We also use our "motto" as a way to create interest.  Find God, Find Friends, Find Purpose.  As you can see, anyone who is interested in these three areas will probably want to investigate further to see if what we are claiming is really true.  That brings us to the next step...Evaluation...-pw

Exposure

One of the keys to people buying-in to your student ministry or any ministry for that fact, is them knowing about it.  Exposure is the "art" of getting your brand out there to potential users.  Here are some ideas to help guide you

1.  What percentage of student in your city know about your ministry?

Honestly you may have to start within your own church.  I know we literally have hundreds of student who attend our weekend services every week who know NOTHING about ELEVATE.  They will never try it unless they know about it.

2.  Where does your "target audience" get it's information from?

Facebook, myspace, twitter, the mall, word of mouth, web-site.  Find out where they found out about you and put your information there. 

3.  What information do they know about you?

What do you want them to know about your ministry?  If you connect with them at a point of felt need it will increase the sense of urgency to try out your ministry.

4.  Do you use a synergistic approach to gaining exposure?

There really is no "one" way to get total exposure.  You need to come from several different angles.  It has been said that people need to hear about a product at least 7 different ways before it sticks with them.  Here's an example of how we  approach exposure at ELEVATE.

Step One:  Sam is sitting at home after school and instead of doing his homework like his parents have told him to,  hecomes across our myspace or facebook and out of curiosity he checks it out. 

Step Two:  While at the mall catching a movie, Sam notices the ELEVATEyouthchurch slide displayed before the movie.  With the slogan..Find Friends, Find God, Find Purpose, Sam thinks to himself, "Man I could really use some friends, especially since I'm here seeing High School Musical 3 alone for the second time." 

Step Three:  Sam remembers the Web Site that was prominently displayed across the movie slide. www.ELEVATEcentral.com  After checking out the web site and getting more info, Sam is still not sure about walking into a strange place, even though the people seem so beautiful.

Step Four:  Sam is in Freshman Algebra, which is a little weird since Sam is a Junior.  As he is sitting there he notices another student in his class with an ELEVATEyouthchurch Tshirt on.  Something about winning a cactus bowl, or some sort of trip.  Sam starts to feel like ELEVATE is stalking him.

Step Five:  Sam is sitting outside waiting for his ride home from school, when one of his friends Jesse walks up and hands Sam an invite to ELEVATE on either Wednesday @ 6:30 or Thursday @8:30 at the U of A.  Sam thinks to himself, this card is done really well.  Jesse offers him a ride and brings Sam to ELEVATE that week.

Step Six:  Sam goes to the service and is invited to a first-time guest party during the service.  Here he gives ELEVATE his information and gets signed up to follow ELEVATEyouthchurch on twitter. 

Step Seven:  Sam goes back into service, thankful for the snack, since he forgot to eat dinner.  After experiencing ELEVATE and the presence of God. Sam gets saved and joins a TRIBE that night.  Man, so many new friends.

Fast forward.....Sam is now out of bible college, married with kids and in full time ministry as a youth pastor in Mesa. 

This outcome would not be possible if there is no exposure.  -pw