Last month, Reuters reported on a 3-year-old in London who was deft enough to buy a pink convertible on the Internet.

Jack Neal briefly became the proud owner of a pink convertible car after he managed to buy it for 9,000 pounds on the Internet despite being only three years old.

Jack’s mother told the BBC she had left her password for the eBay auction site in her computer and her son used the “buy it now” option to complete the purchase.

The moral of the story is children are capable of almost anything. Childproof your church for the “Jack Neal” in your children’s ministry. This does not mean take out all the fun. Childproofing your church means identifying all the potential safetey and financial (e.g., expensive equipment in precarious places) risks and implementing solutions to prevent problems. It keeps kids happy, safe, and having fun.

Special thanks to MarketingProfs:DailyFix for highlighting the story.

If you are interested in learning more about church media, communications, leadership, and worship ministry, check out Creative Synergy Podcast hosted by Anthony Coppedge and Greg Atkinson. You can subscribe through iTunes.

On the next episode, they will be tackling the tough issue of copyright laws. It should be well worth the listen.

Pastors.com is offering free sermons by Rick Warren. They will periodically be updating it with new sermons.

Enjoy!

Representing the church is just as much a part of a pastor’s responsibility as the pulpit is. Most pastors realize this and try their best to positively represent their church in the community. Sadly, one type of pastor who doesn’t is a Scrooge Pastor.

A Scrooge Pastor is the type of pastor who goes to a restaurant, gets great service, but still leaves a lousy tip. This gives his church, other pastors, and Christianity a bad name. What waiter or waitress wants anything to do with a church whose pastor just ripped them off? Why should they be interested in a Jesus whose followers are cheapskates?

Lousy tips burn bridges of opportunity to reach people with the gospel.

Fortunately, most pastors are good tippers. And if you aren’t, change it or never go out in public. To help you in your quest to positively represent Christ through good tips, Get Rich Slowly has an excellent list of guidelines for tipping. A few good ones include:

• Barista - No tip required, though many suggest throwing coins into the tip jar.
• Delivery Person (including pizza) - 10%, $2 minimum
• Waiter - 15% for adequate service, 20% for exceptional service. For poor service, leave 10% or less. It’s okay to leave nothing for exceptionally poor service, but only if you’re sure it’s the waiter’s fault.
  Church Relevance’s Opinion: I prefer 15% for poor service and 20%+ for adequate and beyond. Remember, you are representing your church.
• Hotel Housekeeper - $2 to $5 per night, paid daily or as a lump sum at checkout. (Most sites suggest you tip daily.)
• Cab Driver - 10%, $2-$5 minimum
• If you use a coupon or gift certificate, calculate your tip based on the total before discount.
• If you take up a restaurant table for a long time, tip extra.
• Tip discreetly.
• When in doubt, tip.

For the youth pastors: If the youth group takes an outing to a restaurant, either educate them on the importance of tipping or plan on covering the tip yourself. Waiters and waitresses dread waiting on youth groups, but you can change their perspective.

The bottom line is - Don’t be a scrooge.

In case, you missed this year’s Innovative Church Conference by Granger Community Church (Granger, IN), you can now watch some of the sessions online - and for FREE!

Free Sessions include:

• “What’s buzz? What’s worthy? What’s buzz-worthy?” by Tim Stevens
• “We’re Not Alone” by Mark Batterson & Perry Noble
• “Are We Up to the Challenge” by Mark Beeson

Enjoy!

Last month, Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion released selected findings from the Baylor Religion Survey (1,721 respondents) in a 74 page report titled American Piety in the 21st Century: New Insights to the Depths and Complexity of Religion in the U.S. Baylor claims:

It is the most extensive and sensitive study of religion ever conducted, linking up with the pioneering surveys conducted by Rodney Stark and Charles Y. Glock in the 1960s. The field work was completed by the Gallup Organization. It plumbs all facets of American religion and spirituality in depth − nearly 400 items cover such matters as religious beliefs and practices, including religious consumerism, as well as nonstandard beliefs (astrology, “Bigfoot,” alien visitors, etc.) and practices (meditation, New Age therapies, etc).

Highlights from the report include:

• 85-90% of Americans routinely respond “yes” when asked “Do you, personally, believe in God?”
• 82% of Americans are Christians (Catholics or Protestants).
• 71.5% pray at least once a week.
• 49.2% attend church at least once a month.
• 10.8% are not affiliated with a congregation, denomination, or other religious group.
  — 62.9% of this group believes in God or some higher power.
  — 31.6% of this group prays at least occasionally.
  — 90% (roughly) of this group report never attending religious services.
  — 11.6% of this group has no doubt in the existence of God.
  — 11% of this group believes Jesus is the son of God.
  — 10.1% of this group prays daily or more. [More]

Ministry like anything in life has its share of problems. Sometimes, however, a problem can really be two problems. Seth Godin identifies them as:

1. The first problem is the problem.
2. The second problem is your inability to admit the problem, talk about the problem and ask for help in solving the problem.

Have you ever experienced this two-for-one situation? It is just one of three ways that churches handle problems. These three types of churches are:

1. The Oblivious Church. This church can not even admit their problems because they lack the knowledge and discernment to realize that there is a problem in the first place. At the very least, an unrecognized problem will waste resources and/or weaken the church’s effectiveness. At the very worst, it will cripple a church to the point of closing its doors.
2. The Two-for-One Church. This church encounters the two-for-one situation of problems that Seth Godin identifies (listed above). Typically, this is a pride issue. Churches can be proud of tradition, proud of accomplishments (e.g., church size, past innovations, excellence, etc.), and even proud of some of the silliest things imaginable. As Proverbs 16:18 (NLT) says, “Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall.” Meaning that such pride and refusal to admit problems can lead to the same devastation that the oblivious church faces unless the church learns to humbly admit its problem and find help.
3. The Humble Problem Solving Church. This church has problems just like any other church but identifies them and finds the best solution through prayer and learning from other proven churches and organizations. They understand the principle of Proverbs 11:2 (NLT): “Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.” Because they seek wisdom, they find solutions to their problems and continue to become a more efficient and effective church.

It is important to realize that no church is a perfect #3. We have all been guilty of being oblivious to problems or not wanting to admit them or seek help. The truth is this is a daily process. Each day your church will face new problems. With every new problem, you must decide which type of church you will be. It’s not too difficult. Just stay humble and keep seeking godly wisdom.

Watch this demonstration by MIT that revolutionizes sketching and realize that the technology of tomorrow will revolutionize the ways people do things - including church.

With the connectivity of the Internet and massive availability of information, expect technological advances to become more frequent and impressive. Although MIT’s sketching experiment has no obvious benefits for the church, it is an example of how the unimaginable will be possible in the future. Keep current and look for ways to harness such breakthroughs to spread the gospel.

Special thanks to Chroma for highlighting MIT’s genius.