Archive for Good Ideas

Circumstances vs. Choices

“We are not imprisoned by our circumstances; we are freed by our choices.” Jim Collins (pictured at the left, author of Good To Great, Built To Last, and pretty much one of the most brilliant guys ever) said this statement last week when we were at the Catalyst conference in Atlanta.  It has stuck with […]

Posted by: Julie on Monday, October 13th, 2008

Take the 10-for-10 Worship Challenge!

If you joined us for our celebration services this weekend at Community, you likely heard about our 10-for-10 Worship Challenge.  Hundreds of people at Community have committed to give 10 percent for 10 weeks as their worship to God as part of this challenge!  And those who are already giving 10 percent are giving above […]

Posted by: Julie on Monday, July 28th, 2008

OMG! Don’t miss this weekend!

I can’t give away too much yet, but you are not going to want to miss this weekend’s service!  Make sure you are at one of our Community locations this weekend for the second week in our series, “omg!”  This week is none other than “Why Give?”  I can assure you, it will change the […]

Posted by: Julie on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008

Half the price…

I’m always looking for a good deal… Good deals allow us to be wiser spenders and more generous givers.  I was having breakfast with a friend of mine, and I couldn’t believe what was before my eyes – one of the best good deals for orange juice and it’s so simple! Alright, so maybe I’m the only […]

Posted by: Julie on Monday, July 21st, 2008

Reallocate: Who gets paid first?

I’ve been thinking about this subject a lot lately – the subect of reallocation.  When a person really begins to ‘get’ generosity, then their whole life starts to look different.  Their checkbook of course looks different, but so does their Outlook calendar and so does their thoughts and their language.  Know what I mean? So […]

Posted by: Julie on Monday, June 23rd, 2008

Share It. All Boats Rise.

I had the pleasure of connecting again with a good friend of mine and esteemed colleague at Exponential last week.  I’ve gotta brag on him a little bit…. Brad Leeper is one of the senior fundraising strategists at Generis, one of the leading Christian fundraising consulting firms in the country.  I was introduced to Brad […]

Posted by: Julie on Wednesday, April 30th, 2008

Chinese Food, Collaboration, and Church Planting

What do you get when you put those three things together?  You get the picture to the left!  This is our crowd at the Exponential Conference last week in Orlando.  This year’s theme was, ‘The DNA of Reproducing Churches,’ so naturally our team had a lot to say – and a lot to learn from the […]

Posted by: Julie on Monday, April 28th, 2008

Risks and Opportunities…

Ok, I have to brag a bit on my new friend and esteemed colleague Ed Bahler.  Ed came out to Community this past Monday to lead us in a day-long vision/strategy session regarding an opportunity we are exploring in the nearby under-resourced community of East Aurora.  We gathered together a group of a few staff leaders from Community, a few […]

Posted by: Julie on Thursday, April 17th, 2008

A Learning Organization

I just read the March issue of the Harvard Business Review, and there are some terrific articles in there to check out if you are at all interested in leadership, organizational growth, strategy, authenticity, talent management, and much more.  This month’s issue is great.  This morning I read a particular article entitled, ‘Is Yours a Learning […]

Posted by: Julie on Friday, March 21st, 2008