I’m excited to invite you to the Annual Star Steppers Golf Classic.  This year’s event will be held on Saturday, June 16th at Silverhorn Golf Club.  It is a very affordable tournament at a price of $75/golfer that includes golf, driving range, breakfast, lunch, and a voucher for an additional green fee at your leisure.  You will also receive a 1 month membership to Silverhorn Golf club as part of the tournament fee.  All proceeds will go to support the Marshall High School Star Steppers Dance Team.

If you have any questions or are interested in registering a team or supporting the Star Steppers as a hole sponsor you can contact me at nilssmith1204@gmail.com or call 210-865-1176.  I hope to be competing against you on June 16th!

If you would like to help promote the tournament here is a downloadable graphic:

StarStepper_Golf_Classic

Over the past year many people have asked me what I would attribute the success of CBC Online to.  What they mean by this question is why has it grown so fast?

In ministry it’s often hard to define success.  We are often apologetic when it comes to reporting attendance or measuring success based on numbers.  Our Senior Pastor, Robert, Emmitt was recently interviewed in Outreach Magazine and answered the question: “What is success?” in this way:

I don’t think I have every heard a better answer to this question.  So when it comes to CBC Online, I believe that we have been extremely successful as we continue to reach, teach, and help thousands of people all over the world each week in Jesus’ name!

Going back to the original question of why CBC Online has been successful, I believe there are many factors that are involved.  Current technology is amazing, our media team is incredible, we have great music and preaching to broadcast, but there is one reason in particular that was also highlighted in this article that has been most critical to the success.  Here is what Robert said when asked what excites him right now:

Our senior leadership passionately believes in and supports CBC Online.  Without that support I cannot imagine that the success that CBC Online has experienced would be possible.  I cannot express enough how grateful I am to serve under the leadership of CBC and appreciative of the support that they have given me and the ministry that I am blessed to lead.

We are all moved by stories.

I’m currently watching the hours of Superbowl pre-game coverage and watched the story behind the owner of the Patriots.  He recently lost his wife and his team has dedicated the season to her memory.  I’m moved and can’t help but want to see the Patriots win now that I’ve heard the story behind the game.

I also watched the story of a local player from San Antonio that plays for the Giants who just lost his grandfather this week making this an emotional game on that side of the ball.  The reality is that each player on that field has a story to tell and the more we know the more depth and perspective we have as we experience the game.

The truth is that we all have a story to tell.  The Bible says in 1 Peter 3:15 NLT: “Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it.”  Our lives are the most powerful story that is told and our words don’t tell our story, but God’s.  Telling our story doesn’t just help people better understand who we are, but who God is.

We also don’t have to play in the Superbowl or be asked to share our testimony in church to tell our story.  Thanks to Social Media we all have a platform to communicate God’s story and you never know who will see it.  Have you seen Ben Breedlove’s story?  Take a moment and watch this short video.

Ben recently passed away and his story continues to touch thousands daily.   It’s overwhelming to imagine how God has used Ben’s story communicated through this video to touch the over 6 million people who have viewed it!

Your story really could also touch millions of people from all over the world or maybe even just 1.  Either way, I hope you will take advantage of the Social Media tools that are available in telling God’s story through your life.

If you love watching stories like me here is a great website to view some powerful stories: iamsecond.com

If you would like some help in telling your story here is a great web resource: 5clicks.com

I’m a big fan of the book, 48 Days to the Work You Love, I wrote about it in this post about a year ago.  I read this book about 2 years ago and ended up in my dream job 6 months later.  I believe Dan Miller’s system can work in 48 days, but found out today that it can also happen in 48 hours thanks to Social Media.

I love hearing Social Media success stories and I’m glad to be a part of this one:

A couple of days ago, my friend Jeff asked me to help his sister find a job.  I responded by quickly putting up this post on his business Facebook page and a sending out a similar message on Linkedin.

Less than 48 hours later I received this notification:

In a matter of hours after this message was posted she began receiving many leads which quickly turned into an offer.  Obviously this isn’t a fool proof method and everyone won’t find a job in 48 hours, but you never know.  I believe strongly in the power of Social Media and this is yet another story displaying what is possible through these great new tools at our fingertips.

Will You Worship? Series Promo from Community Bible Church on Vimeo.

My friend and colleague, Ray Jones, has just released his new book and DVD series Will You Worship?  It’s a 30 day journey that will take you on a journey to spiritual intimacy with Christ.  Click here to view an interview that I did with Ray for the CBC Online facebook page.

I want to invite you to join me in this journey as I will also be leading a Will You Worship Online Lifegroup on Wednesday mornings at 6am CST.  Here’s a list of links to get more information about this book, dvd, and lifegroup:

To buy the book:

CBCmusicstore.com

Amazon  Kindle

Barnes & Noble: Nook

To connect with the Lifegroup:

Facebook Group

CBClifegroupsonline.com

I’ve been a big fan of Church Marketing Sucks for several years and was extremely excited to see that they were highlighting Media Social and CBC Online in a post this week.  If you haven’t yet read the article, I hope you’ll take a minute to read it here.

I love this!

Risk. Try. Ask.

I recently wrote a post for MySanAntonio.com entitled “What the Church can learn from Google” and it made me begin to think about other people, organizations, and ideas that we can learn from as the Church.  Another one of those is Facebook.

My guess is that you are probably reading this post because you saw a link on Facebook.  The Social Media website has transformed the way we interact and helps us to stay more connected than ever before.  I have learned a lot about Facebook over the past couple of years and there is one big takeaway from the site and organization as a whole that I think we can really learn from as the Church:

Facebook is ALWAYS changing!

Have you noticed this?  Sometimes they are small changes that you hardly notice, but if you look back over the past couple of years it is almost a completely different site.  Facebook’s purpose is to help people better connect to each other and that has not changed a bit, but their methods in accomplishing this goal has changed dramatically and likely will continue to change.

Most people would advice Facebook to leave it alone.  It’s the best Social Network out there and people are comfortable with the way it is.  Every time there is a new update you begin hearing complaints and threats of people that are going to shut down there account and leave.  Do you ever wonder if it bothers people at Facebook when they hear complaints over the new features that they’ve worked so hard to develop?  I’m sure that it does, but they have a bigger picture in mind for the online community that they have built.  Their response then is to listen to feedback that is given while staying focusing on the goal at hand.

What do you think  would happen though if Facebook didn’t change?  Here’s what I think:

The site would become stale and people would leave.

Does this sound like any churches that you know?  There is often a fear of people leaving if we do make a change when the reality is that our stagnancy often causes an even greater fall out.

Facebook has not always gotten it right and neither will the Church.  I can say confidently though if we do not try new things we will become stale and people will leave.  What might have worked in the past will not always work in the future.  The mission of the Church should not change, but the methods by which we accomplish that mission should always be changing.

Take some risks, try new things, lead with boldness!

As I think back to my top 5 ministry experiences, one of those has to be hosting a worship night with the Robbie Seay Band and John Mark McMillan about 3 years ago.  It was right as JMM was becoming better known and How He Loves Us was beginning to get some radio time.  That was a night I will never forget and I have followed John Mark’s music very closely since then.

I was honored then when I was sent 5 of the tracks from his new album, “Economy”, to preview.  Honestly, it’s all I have listened to over the past two weeks and I think you will have the same experience once you download this album.  I encourage you to take a minute to watch the video below where John Mark discusses this album and then go to http://thejohnmark.com to purchase this great music.