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Why I Love My Job

I love my job.  Not everyone can say that, but I can.  I mean I really love my job.  I love getting up and going to work.  And if I didn’t have an amazing family at home, I might just be tempted to make my office my home.

But again, not everyone loves their job as much as I do.  It’s tough for them to get motivated in the morning and head out the door to work.  Recently I came across a study in the book Linchpin which talked about why some people get motivated for work, and some don’t, which got me thinking about why I love working at the church so much.

Trying to find out what motivates people at work, Richard Florida did an experiment on 20,000 business professionals.  He asked these professionals to choose what motivates them the most.  From their responses he determined the top 10 factors that motivate people at work.  What is amazing is that my job has all 10 of these….

1. Challenge & Responsibility - Everyday presents new challenges.  One of the things I love most about my job is working with people, but it is also one of the more challenging aspects of working at the church as well.  I am challenged to find new ways to help people grow in their relationship with God, with others, and in their personal lives.

2. Flexibility - There are quite a few things that fall under my job description.  But for everything I am asked to do I am given quite a bit of latitude in how I go about it.  I have never been required to teach a certain curriculum in kid’s church or do things a certain way.  Flexibility allows me to do what I am asked to do, and still be authentically me.

3. A Stable Work Environment - What can I say…I work at a rockin’ church, with an awesome church family, and everyday I go to work with a great team.  Things are good, and growing.

4. Money - Money is not why I chose my career path, but it is nice to be at a church that values the staff and takes care of them.  Even more than for myself, I appreicate it for my family.

5. Professional Development - Every year I get to go to at least one conference.  The church is also good about making sure  have access to new ideas through publications, and other leadership materials.  I never feel like I am under-resourced.

6. Peer Recognition - Again, it is great to be a part of a team.  We all have each others backs and cheer each other on.  We realize that when one of us wins, we all win.   There is never competition to the point where we hope our teammates fail, so that we look good.  I want to see my team succeed, and I know they want to see me succeed as well.

7. Stimulating Colleagues and Bosses - Everyday these guys press me to be better than I already am.

8. Exciting Job Content - It doesn’t get better than seeing people coming to Christ.  Then seeing people turn their lives around.  Then seeing them stay sober, their marriage restored, their relationship with their kids renewed, accomplish things they never thought they could before.

9. Organizational Structure - Calvary has a great leadership team, awesome ministry leaders, clear direction an values, and an unalterable desire to worship God and love people.

10. Location and Community - I love where I am at on the North Shore of Boston (although it is a long way from family and home).  But more than the physical  neighbored community, what I love the most is the church community.

Are you a boss or a leader?  If so, does your team environment get people motivated…or make it hard for them to get out of bed?

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Favorite iPhone Apps

I was recently asked what some of my favorite iPhone apps are.  Here is my current list….

1. Amazon.com –  When I hear about a book (or just about anything) I want, I can add it to my wishlist right away from my phone.

2.  Amazon Kindle – I haven’t read a lot of books digitally yet, but I love having my books automatically synced between my phone, work and personal computers.

3. Bank of America – Most of my personal banking accounts are held at Bank of America, so this app allows me to do some mobile banking.

4. BBC World News – I use a few different news apps, but this is the one I frequent most often.

5.  Dropbox – Dropbox allows me to access files stored on my computer when I am away from my desk.

6. eWallet – eWallet is where I keep all my personal and work usernames and passwords.  I am one of those people that has a different password for almost everything, so occasionally I forget one and have to look it up.

7. Facebook – I am not the biggest Facebook user, but I usually check in once a day.  Quite often that is while I am waiting somewhere and only have access to my phone.

8. Mint – I use mint.com to handle my personal finances.  This  app allows me to keep up to-to-date on all my accounts.

9. Pandora – I use Pandora more on my desktop than on my phone, but it is my favorite music streaming service.

10. PhotoShop Mobile – This is a newer one for me, but for a iPhone app it has some pretty amazing photo editing abilities.

11. Twitterrific – Keeps me up to-to-date on what is going on in Twitterverse.

12. YouVersion Bible – In my opionion, hands down the best Bible software out there for the iPhone.  40 plus translations of the Bible, reading plans, and much more.

13. WordPress – This allows me to manage the blog on the road.

14. xMarks – xMarks keeps my bookmarks in sync between my work and personal computers, and my phone.

These are my favorites.  What are yours? What am I missing?

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Unstoppable Momentum

2010 has been one record breaking high after another. Calvary concluded 2009 with an average attendance of 800.   In January, I wrote a blog post entitled “Record Breaking Weekend.”  That post highlighted a weekend in January where we had 986 in church, our highest attended non-Easter Sunday service to that date.  This past Sunday we had 1,094 in church, which was our highest attended Sunday ever…including previous Easters.

Being a bit of a geek I love to crunch numbers, and I know that having 1,094 people in church is way beyond where we should be statistically in 2010.  In fact, if average growth rates and stats held true, we should’t have 1,094 people in church for several more years.  But stats are not holding true, and there is something else going on. We have a little momentum.

Dave Ramsey says, “Focused intensity over time, multiplied by God, creates unstoppable momentum.”

Focused intensity – For over 20 years Calvary has been beating the same drum.  People, people, people, people…. Loving people, reaching out to people, including people,  ministering to people….  Calvary is laser focused on bringing people farther along in their relationship with Christ.  It is what we endeavor to do, everyday.  In fact, it is written into our core values, to “Love People.”

Multiplied by God – You can work your tail off, but if God isn’t behind your efforts, they won’t end up resulting in anything.  But when God is moving, get ready for a ride. And pray for it to continue, because one thing I have learned about momentum is that you do not take it for granted.  Without question, God is multiplying our efforts at Calvary.

Creates Unstoppable Momentum – I am praying that we are only seeing the beginning of what is going to happen in this season of our church’s life.  Although we have seen hundreds of new people come to Calvary in just a few months, I know that there are hundreds of thousands who are still without Christ is our surrounding neighborhoods.  I am praying that the momentum we are experiencing now allows us to reach more people in our community in the months. and years, ahead.

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100 Children’s Ministry Volunteers

Chil

A few weeks ago I wrote that Calvary had 465 people involved in ministry.  Since that post the number has actually climbed to 473, but even more exciting is that one of those new volunteers signed up to work with kids.  With this new recruit we now have exactly 100 people volunteering in children’s ministry at Calvary.

Some help with Sunday School or KidZone, some with Rangers or Girls Ministry, and a lot help with nursery, but we have 100 people who help out at least once a month (many actually serve every single week!).

Each week we have nearly 250 different kids who come through our church doors. This is obviously more kids than I could minister to by myself, so I am so appreciative of every single person who gives their times & gifts to serving our awesome kids!

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More Than Just a Man

The set is going up, and lines are being rehearsed for this years Easter drama production.  This is the final year we will be doing More Than Just a Man, so this will be your last chance to see it.  There are six performances this Spring.  March 27th & 28th and then April 2, 3 & 4.    All the performances are at 6:30 pm, with a special matinee performance at 2:00 pm, on Saturday, April 3rd.  Don’t miss it!  Click here to see this years promo video, and be sure to forward the link on to others and invite some friends!

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Searching

I’ll admit, I freaked out a bit.  Don’t tell my wife, but I thought I lost my wedding ring yesterday!  I made it home early, and since I had some good daylight left  I thought I would do some yard work.  Rake in hand I started piling and bagging up leaves.  Just as I was about done I looked at my watch to see what time it was, and as I did I realized my wedding ring was not on my finger!

I panicked, and started looking all over.  I paced back and forth through the yard, I went back through the leaves I had just bagged up, and even recruited Jack to help me look.  I couldn’t find it anywhere.  After about 30 minutes of intense searching I gave up, and resigned that I was going to have to tell Becky I had lost my wedding ring.

When I came inside, however, to my surprise I found my ring sitting on the office desk!  Apparently I hadn’t even put it on in the morning, and managed to make it through the whole day without noticing I wasn’t wearing it (yes, I know that failing to notice I didn’t have my wedding ring on is probably not much better than actually losing it!).

It is one thing to lose a ring, but there are a lot of people looking for even more important things in life.  Maybe they are missing peace, joy, hope, security or fulfillment.  Whatever it is, they are frantically looking everywhere for it.

The problem is like me looking for my ring, they are looking in the wrong places.  What they are looking for isn’t laying on the ground, it isn’t accidentally bagged up with some leaves, it is not even outside in the yard.  What they are looking for can’t be found in shallow relationships, or in success or fame.  It can only be found in God.

They can search for 30 minutes, or 30 years, outside, but they will never find what they are looking for until they come inside and look on the office desk.

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Blog Makeover

My blog has been in need of some updating, so I gave it a facelift this week.   Hope you like the changes! The new format will allow me more flexibility in promoting upcoming events at the church and I also think it looks a whole lot sharper.

Let me know your thoughts!?

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Sharing

Today I was so proud of my son.  The weather was actually decent, so we headed to the park for this first time this year.  While we were playing in the sandpit a giant Goliath of a 5 year old girl attacked and took a shovel right out of another 2 year old girls hand.  The little girl, who had just been robbed, immediately started balling her eyes out.

Without missing a beat Jack, realizing what just happened, walked over and offered his shovel to the girl who just had hers taken away. I was blown away by his willing to share, but even more so by his realizing the desire to make the girl feel better.

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465 Volunteers

Just had the chance to enjoy a luncheon with over 250 of the people who are involved in ministry here at Calvary.  Here at CCC there are 465 people who are serving in ministry.  Some volunteer in our nursery on a rotating basis, some lead prayer meetings or home care groups, many are involved in our Easter or Christmas productions, most are involved in one of the other dozens of ministries at the church.  But 465 people serve in one way, or another.  

I am so appreciative for what each of them do.  It is great to see so many people join the team, and serve in the capacity that God has created them to. I am looking forward to what God is going to do in the life of our church this next year through the faithful service of these awesome people!

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Home Ownership

Amazingly I haven't burned it down yet.  Despite my tampering with electricity, messing with the furnace, and attempting repairs I have never done before, I haven't burned down Becky's and my new home yet.  

I am returning from a bit of a break from the blogging world.  This past month has been extremely busy, mostly because Becky and I bought our first home so my daily trip to Home Depot has replaced any type of writing.  Things are beginning to fall back into a bit of groove though, so I am hoping to be writing and reading more.

A few have been asking, so let me give a bit of an update.  We are fairly settled into the house.  Although we are still trying to figure out where everything will permanently go, there are no boxes left to unpack.  We are also starting to fix things up here, and there, so hopefully by the end of this week Jack's room will no longer be pink!  

A few have also asked what I have enjoyed the most so far about home ownership.  There are so many aspects of home ownership I enjoy, but the best is that we (Jack) can be as loud as we want and it doesn't matter as there is no one in the apartment below us to annoy by jumping, screaming or just running around.  

Some have asked what I think about all the responsibility of owning a home….my first reaction is that there is a lot!  I had to buy my first snow shovel, and use it on the day we closed on the house!  Fixing everything, opposed to calling a landlord.  And then there is that mortgage payment each month….that just hurt for the first time this week!  Ouch!