Daniel Floyd

HOW THE MIGHTY CHURCH FALLS

Great article by Gordon MacDonald - his take on Jim Collins book How The Mighty Fall.

Download Church Leadership - How a Mighty Church Falls

MAKE THE ASK BIG (CAPITAL CAMPAIGNS LEARNINGS)

If you're not comfortable with making the BIG financial ask, it could be because you're not sold on your vision.

Going into this project I thought that one of the major hurdles I would have to cross is asking individuals and families to give. I pictured awkward, uncomfortable moments that could possibly damage relationships. However, the exact opposite is what I found.

I encountered people that were willing to give and were looking to me to give direction. I found that my role was to increase their understanding on how to give, and how to know that what they were giving was the will of God.

I also found that those with the capacity to give wanted me to challenge them by asking BIG. And why wouldn't I? If I really believe in the vision then I should also believe it's worth giving towards. Once I got this revelation, I looked forward to giving people the opportunity to invest in the vision of Lifepoint Church.

However, if you aren't sold on your vision then your apprehension will be much greater. There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars waiting to be invested in your ministry. But it will require you to make some BIG ASK. So, what's stopping you from giving those with resources the opportunity to invest in the kingdom?

BELIEVE :: NEW SERIES BEGINS THIS SUNDAY

It's starting to sound a lot like Christmas. The bells are ringing, the carolers are singing. But what does all of this really mean? Do we believe in what we are celebrating? You see, what we believe actually matters because who we are depends on what we believe. Can we believe the way a child does this time of year?

Join us as we celebrate the birth of our Savior and prepare for a shift in our thinking during this 3 Week series called: BELIEVE

YOU START BEFORE YOU START (CAPITAL CAMPAIGN LEARNINGS)

Two Sunday's ago we finished our first of, what I'm sure, will be many capital campaigns. We learned a lot and experience the power of God in so many amazing ways. So, I wanted to share some helpful learnings this week.

Lesson #1 - You start before you start! After crunching the numbers with our consultant we arrived at an initial goal of 1.5 million, which would have been a stretch for us. Especially considering we didn't have a "real project". No building we wanted to build, no property we had our eye on to buy. We simply challenged our church to give towards the vision of "reaching people far from God". To give towards placing us in the best position possible to move on whatever door God opened. To say we were fighting an uphill battle is an understatement.

But you start before you start and we saw the fruit of this big time when 100 of our leaders, two weeks before "commitment Sunday", made their commitments totaling over 1.5 million. This is the fruit of a culture of TRUST. See, long before we ever started an official capital campaign we were creating equity with our leaders. We were coming through on promises made; we were the first to call ourselves out when we blew it. We were proving ourselves trustworthy. So, when the time came to raise 1.5 million as a church with no "real project" 100 of our leaders stepped up and positioned us in a place to experience the unthinkable.

Are you building TRUST? 

Are you following through on promises made with your leaders and your volunteers? 

Are you the first to call yourself out when you blow it or do you hope it gets overlooked? 

Because you start before you start.

INCREASED REVELATION

Love this time of the year!! Time with family, breaking out the Christmas decorations, and plenty of food!!

But it also causes me to stop and realize how good God has been to me. I call it a period of increasing my REVELATION which will increase my APPRECIATION. When I step back and look, God gives me REVELATION of all the blessing I have in recieved. This increased REVELATION in turn increase my APPRECIATION for God's goodness, family, career, friends, etc...which increase my REVELATION of how good God has been to me. (you get the idea)

So may you during this season have increased REVELATION!!

Happy Thanksgiving, friends!

MINISTRY COST MONEY

I know this is not a new revelation for anyone. Obviously, it takes money to operate a growing ministry or a ministry of any sort. However, I have learned somethings about this on a whole new level. This past Sunday we announced the total amount of commitments towards our capital campaign called Accelerate. Through this process God has taught me some things that I want to share with you. So, starting next week I will spend the week sharing some thoughts on raising capital to advance the kingdom. Hope you'll check it out!

SUNDAY NIGHT RECAP

Today goes in my top 10 worship experiences at Lifepoint. We baptized and announced the total amount of commitments received from our ACCELERATE CAMPAIGN. Here are some highlight.

* Baptized 16 people - some amazing stories of life change.

* Meet a lady from Delaware who watches our services every week.

* Worship was incredible - loving seeing our faith family engage in worship more and more each week.

* Announced in the first service the ACCELERATE PROJECT total of over 2.4 million

* Announced in the second service the ACCELERATE PROJECT total of over 2.5 million - we had more people commit after the first service.

* Taught on thankfulness - Your level of REVELATION will determine your level of APPRECIATION! You can catch the video on Tuesday afternoon.

* Heard about an elementary aged girl that bagged leaves for 4 hours so that she could earn money to give to the ACCELERATE PROJECT.

* The ACCELERATE highlight video stirred so many emotions for me this morning.

* So thankful for all our volunteers - seriously, thank you for the way you serve with passion for those who are far from God!

* Little O and I spent the afternoon together - I am blessed with an amazing son!! If I can harness all his energy he will be a great leader!!

Looking forward to a week of family time!

* Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

WHAT 3 THINGS....

There is a question that has challenged me as of late. Here it is:

"What 3 things could I do, in the next six months, that would allow me to carry 

the ball farther down the field?"

These are the 3 things that if I were to invest my energies in would advance our church, elevate our staff, accelerate our vision.

What are the 3 things for you? 3 things that would advance your career, bring your family closer together, or accelerate your financial position in the next 6 months? Take some time today to answer this question yourself, create a strategy to attack them and then get busy carrying the ball farther down the field in every area of your life.

Leaders Go First

We are in the middle of a project called ACCELERATE that will position Lifepoint in the best place possible to walk through whatever door God opens for future expansion. Yesterday morning I had the privilege of sharing how our leaders had set the pace for this project. Leaders go first in order to create a passage way for others to walk through. Our leaders created a huge passage way and I couldn't have been more proud. Lifepoint remember - God gives an instruction to obey before His power is displayed!

THAT WAS GREAT!

Yes, I am alive and no I didn't take a three month vacation, although that would be fun. I have taken a break from blogging honestly because it became a burden and I didn't enjoy it. Now I'm ready to jump back in and share some of the amazing things God has been doing in my life and the life of Lifepoint.

Stay tuned....