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Yes, a former mob boss has good advice for church leadership. Michael Franzese turned his life around and has penned the leadership lessons he learned in his new book, I’ll Make You An Offer You Can’t Refuse.

Having lived two different leadership styles, Michael compares the leadership styles of the worldly Machiavelli and the godly King Solomon. However, I particularly appreciate two bits of advice Michael gives early in the book.

There is no magic formula that will guarantee your success.

This life principle is important in any field, but in the pursuit of effective ministry, it is extremely important. There is no perfect church model. There are no 3 steps to megachurch perfection. God has given us each a unique calling. And unique callings require unique formulas to achieve success.

First, nail down the basics.

I am a firm believer of not pursuing the next steps until you have the basics covered. In ministry, first you need sound theology. First, you need the Great Commission. First, you need love. Paul sums up this concept beautifully in 1 Corinthians 13 when he talks about how his ministry efforts would be worthless without love.

Of course, I’ll Make You An Offer You Can’t Refuse has many more leadership nuggets than these, but you will need to read the book for the rest.

I am moving to Oklahoma City to regularly volunteer at LifeChurch.tv’s central offices. Specifically, I will be working with LifeKIDS and the Digerati team (the creators of YouVersion, OPEN, ChurchMetrics, and VideoTeaching.com).

My wife and I are very excited about the move. I will still spend much of my time blogging and working on AcreScout.com. LifeChurch.tv is simply a great opportunity for me to weekly invest some hours into exciting projects.

In case you wonder what happened to Bombay Creative, we still do client work, but we have cut back to pursue several internal ventures.

Tony Morgan is a popular church blogger with years of experience from serving at Granger Community Church (Granger, IN) and NewSpring Church (Anderson, SC). The downside of blogging, however, is much of what is written rarely gets read after 36 hours of being published.

Tony writes good content and has brought his best work out of the digital archives and into a new book called Killing Cockroaches. It covers strategy, leadership, marketing, design, team building, worship planning, and more.

If you like Tony’s blog, do yourself a favor and get Killing Cockroaches.

Here is the review of the best links of 2009’s 14th week.

Goofing off boosts productivity
Employees who use the Internet during work hours for personal reasons are 9% more productive than those who don’t.

72% prefer gaming to wives/girlfriends
1 in 3 British men would prefer to play video games than sleep with their partner, with 72% claiming they’d shun their missus for the night to play a new release.

Britons seek de-baptism
More than 100,000 Britons have recently downloaded “certificates of de-baptism” from the Internet to renounce their Christian faith.

Steven Furtick on Guitar Hero Ministry Mentality
If my generation isn’t careful, we may fall into a Guitar Hero mentality toward ministry: Everybody wants to be a rock star, but no one wants to learn the chords.

Tropicana’s Sales Plunge 20% Post-Rebranding
After its package redesign, sales of the Tropicana Pure Premium line plummeted 20% between Jan. 1 and Feb. 22, costing the brand tens of millions of dollars.

Poverty Goes Straight to the Brain
A long-term study of cognitive development in lower- and middle-class students found strong links between childhood poverty, physiological stress and adult memory.

Exercise Makes Smarter Kids
Physical activity may increase students’ cognitive control – or ability to pay attention – and also result in better performance on academic achievement tests.

Long-term goals help us resist unhealthy urges
If we are feeling fresh, it’s easy to focus on our goals and exert self-control. But when we’ve already tested the limits of our self-control, it’s harder to keep going. This is when focusing on the big picture helps us to keep our eyes on the goal and push ourselves harder. In contrast, focusing on the immediate situation only emphasizes how we’ve already maximized the extent of our willpower and hinders self-control.

Action Video Games Improve Vision
Video games with lots of action, such as the shoot-’em-up variety, can improve your vision. Players became up to 58 percent better at perceiving fine contrast differences in the tests.

25 Free WordPress Themes
One man’s picks of the best 25 free Wordpress templates that are really nice and unique.

40 More Free WordPress Themes
Get 40 high-quality and free WordPress themes.

THE REVIEW OF 2008
- Sacha Baron Cohen’s Church Prank
- Special Needs Ministry for Autistic Children

THE REVIEW OF 2007
- Willie George on 6 Ministry Traps
- Video Game Time!
- Marketing to Generation Baby Boomers

THE REVIEW OF 2006
- LifeChurch.tv Offers Free Resources
- Unknowingly Training Up Ministers

Here is the review of the best links of 2009’s 13th week.

8.5 Hours a Day Spent on Screens
Adults are exposed to screens (i.e., TVs, cellphones, even G.P.S. devices) for about 8.5 hours on any given day, according to a study released by the Council for Research Excellence

5 Best Ways to Reach People with Information About Your Church
(1) Family. (2) Friend or Neighbor. (3) Informative Newspaper Ad. (4) Outdoor Sign. (5) Magazine/Newspaper Ad.

More Americans Look to Comedians for News
24% of respondents to a Rasmussen Reports poll agreed that TV shows like The Colbert Report and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart are “taking the place of traditional news outlets.” Fewer than half (45%) disagreed, while the rest were unsure.

Traditional parenting leads to well-adjusted children
Traditional parenting methods that focus on breastfeeding, discipline and high expectations are most likely to produce well-adjusted and able children.

Beauty Over Brains
Nearly 25% of women would rather win America’s Next Top Model than the Nobel Peace Prize, according to a study of 2,000 18- to 34-year-old women commissioned by Oxygen Media.

Black Girls Are 50 Percent More Likely To Be Bulimic Than White Girls
About 2.6 percent of black girls were clinically bulimic, compared to 1.7 percent of white girls.

Teenagers with Social Skills Make More Money as an Adult
According to a University of Illinois professor who studies the sociology of education, high school sophomores who were rated by their teachers as having good social skills and work habits, and who participated in extracurricular activities in high school, made more money and completed higher levels of education 10 years later than their classmates who had similar standardized test scores but were less socially adroit and participated in fewer extracurricular activities.

THE REVIEW OF 2008
- Unconventional Easter Church Services :: Glow Sticks, Hip-Hop, and Egg Drops
- Tulsa Easter Church Services :: LifeChurch.tv and Church on the Move

THE REVIEW OF 2007
- Church Plants :: Why Some Survive
- Blaine Bartel Reveals Two Truths He Learned From Creating Big Events for Oneighty
- What Teens Want

Here is the review of the best links of 2009’s 12th week.

U.S. Christians are Dwindling
The percentage of Christians in America, which declined in the 1990s from 86.2 percent to 76.7 percent, has now edged down to 76 percent. Ninety percent of the decline comes from the non-Catholic segment of the Christian population, largely from the mainline denominations, including Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians/Anglicans, and the United Church of Christ. Baptists have increased their numbers by two million since 2001, but continue to decline as a proportion of the population. (via)

Most Mainline Protestants Say Society Should Accept Homosexuality
Among mainline Protestants overall, 56% say homosexuality should be accepted, compared with only about one-in-four evangelical Protestants and four-in-ten members of historically black Protestant churches.

Brain ability declines after age 27
Brain ability peaks at age 22 and mental powers begin to dwindle at age 27, Virginia University researchers found.

More Babies Born in 2007 Than Any Other Year in U.S. History
The 4,317,119 births in 2007 topped a record first set in 1957 at the height of the baby boom. Births to unwed mothers reached an all-time high of about 40%.

Happiness is contagious
Knowing someone who is happy makes you 15.3% more likely to be happy yourself. A happy friend of a friend increases your odds of happiness by 9.8%, and even your neighbor’s sister’s friend can give you a 5.6% boost.

10 Reasons Why Homeless People Choose To Be Homeless
The tenth reason: “A large percentage of homeless shelters have a religious affiliation. Not all but many of those that do have one impose a requirement to attend religious services in order for a person to be granted access to their food and shelter facilities. This can, of course, be offensive to some and particularly those who belong to an ethnic minority, which tend to be over-represented amongst the homeless population.”

More Senior Citizens are Using the Internet
Internet usage among people ages 70 to 74 increased by 19 percentage points from 2005 to 2008. For people 75 and older, the increase was 10 percentage points.

What About Asexuals?
A survey carried out in 1994 found that 1.05 per cent of respondents had “never felt sexually attracted to anyone at all”.

Women talk three times as much as men
The average woman says 20,000 words in a day. The average man says 7,000 words in a day.

THE REVIEW OF 2008
- Americans’ Most Important Relationship

THE REVIEW OF 2007
- 3 Keys to Avoiding Failure with Good Communication
- Understand Your Community with Claritas’s Segmentation Research
- Mount Paran Church of God’s New Children’s Ministry Sanctuary
- Ed Young Jr. on Great Leadership in the Church
- Attendance at Church is Scarce for a Third of America
- 10 Tips for Great Preaching

Here is the review of the best links of 2009’s 11th week.

John C. Maxwell is Blogging
Check it out for great leadership insights.

Most Mosaics Have No Biblical Worldview
Less than 0.5% of adults in the Mosaic generation (those aged 18 to 23) have a biblical worldview, compared to about 1 out of every 9 older adults.

Mainline Protestant Denominations Are More Liberal Than Conservative
48% of clergy from the seven largest mainline denominations say they are liberal while 34% identify as conservative. Also, 56% of mainline clergy identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, compared to 34% of those who affiliate with the Republican Party. These denominations are the United Methodist Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, American Baptist Churches USA, Presbyterian Church USA, Episcopal Church, United Church of Christ, and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

1 in 50 U.S. Kids Are Homeless
The National Center on Family Homelessness estimates that 1 in every 50 American children was homeless between 2005 and 2006. That totals roughly 1.5 million kids.

Children As Young As Preschoolers Tend To Follow Majority Opinion
Children as young as age three and four are able to recognize and trust a consensus. In addition, young children are good at remembering who was and was not a part of the majority group.

College Freshman Drink More Than Study
Students who said they had at least one drink in the past 14 days spent an average 10.2 hours a week drinking, and averaged about 8.4 hours a week studying. Nearly 70% of respondents said they drank. Of those, 49.4% spent more time drinking than studying.

Young Women May Be Drinking Heavily To Get Attention Of Opposite Sex, But Men Not Impressed
Research suggests women believe men find excessive drinking sexually attractive and appealing, but it appears this is a giant misperception. Although traditionally, men drink more than women, research has shown that women have steadily been drinking more and more over the last several decades.

1 in 5 UK Adults Think It Can Be Acceptable For a Man to Hit a Woman for Wearing Sexy Clothing in Public
16% think it can be acceptable for a man to hit a woman for nagging or constantly moaning at him. (via)

Target Specific People by Advertising on Facebook
Target people based on keywords, location, age, gender, education, workplaces, relationship status, sexual preference, and spoken languages.

Immigration Explorer
Select a foreign-born group to see how they settled across the United States.

Innovation3 Gathering Notes
Get a one-page synopsis of each session from January’s Innovation3.

KeepDesigning.com
Free vector art for graphic designers.

Song Manager
Make worship planning easier by organizing your songs, building set lists, and printing lead sheets with Song Manager.

ImNotBuyingIt.com Video

THE REVIEW OF 2008
- 5 Types of Church Participants
- 1 in 4 Teen Girls Has an STD

THE REVIEW OF 2007
- America’s Biblical Illiteracy
- 2 Responsibilities for Ministering in an Age of Information Wealth
- 6 Parts of Your Church Building that Affect Your Worship Service
- 10 Factors for Higher Attendance in Church Plants
- Mark Batterson’s 4 Preaching Tips
- Gary Haugen on Christians’ Responsibility Against Injustice

Here is the review of the best links of 2009’s 10th week.

Kids (and adults) Prefer Veggies With Cool Names
In a new study, 186 four-year-olds were given regular carrots and, on other lunch days, they were given the same vegetables renamed X-ray Vision Carrots. On the latter days, they ate nearly twice as many. Whether it be ‘power peas’ or ‘dinosaur broccoli trees,’ giving a food a fun name makes kids think it will be more fun to eat. Similar results have been found with adults. A restaurant study showed that when the Seafood Filet was changed to Succulent Italian Seafood Filet, sales increased 28% and taste rating increased by 12%.

Brain Differences Found Between Believers In God And Non-believers
Believing in God can help block anxiety and minimize stress, according to new University of Toronto research that shows distinct brain differences between believers and non-believers. They’re much less anxious and feel less stressed when they have made an error.

Rick Warren on Politics
“Politics is always downstream from culture. If you want to influence culture, you have to change hearts. And, you can’t change a heart with a law.”

Food Stamps Skyrocket
A record 31.8 million Americans received food stamps at the latest count, an increase of 700,000 people in one month with the United States in recession. Also, here’s a map of the geography of the U.S. recession.

Worried Workers
Workers are spending an average of 2.8 hours each day worrying about job security.

People Overpromise and Underdeliver
Researchers discovered that people were consistently overly optimistic when asked to predict their own future behavior. And another study discovers that power can cause people to think they have more personal control over outcomes than they, in fact, do.

1 in 31 U.S. Adults are in Jail, on Probation, or on Parole (Full Report PDF)
The total correctional population is 7,328,200. (Prison = 1,512,576 // Jail = 780,581 // Probation = 4,293,163 // Parole = 824,365)

How the Weak Economy Has Affected Americans During the Last Year
70% cut back on entertainment. 40% put off major purchases. 40% cut grocery spending. 39% pared down vacation plans. 16% went without medical or prescription drug care. 9% chose to not purse their educational plans.

Teenagers do listen to their parents when it comes to smoking
Teenagers are more positive today towards their parents’ attempts to discourage them from smoking, regardless of whether or not they smoked, than in the past. The most effective actions parents could take include dissuading their children from smoking, not smoking themselves and not allowing their children to smoke at home. Younger children were more positive about these approaches than older children.

Media Images of Alcohol Can Drive You to Drink
Young men who watched the movie American Pie with accompanying commercials for alcohol were more apt to grab a beer or glass of wine from the refrigerator, compared to those who watched a movie without the drinking prompts. Also, U.S. teens that have items with alcoholic beverage brands printed on them seem to be more prone to end up being binge drinkers.

Five Things to Do Before You Advertise Your Church
(1) Put more effort and thought into your communication planning. (2) Define what you want to accomplish with your promotional efforts. (3) Advertise who you really are, not who you are not. (4) Fix what is broken in your church. (5) Do your homework before you launch any kind of advertising outreach.

Watch Sessions from The Idea Camp
Get free video excerpts from The Idea Camp conference, a free hybrid conference for idea makers.

OneBody Church Social Network Software
Get a free open source download.

THE REVIEW OF 2008
- The Intersection
- 7 Innovative Church Buildings in America
- The Sticker Lamp

THE REVIEW OF 2007
- Craig Groeschel’s 3 Questions for Church Evaluation
- Republicans vs. Democrats :: Religious Differences
- Bobby Gruenewald’s 5 Tips for Studying Lists
- Church Marketing with a Twist :: LifeChurch.tv’s New Billboards