Pastors, Proud Parents, Paladins and Palmetto Bugs
Here are some highlights and thoughts from recent days…
- My fantasy football team scored a victory last weekend. Who’s laughing now about selecting Tony Romo to be my quarterback?
- I had lunches with Cliff Marshall, the pastor of Freedom Fellowship in Greer, SC, and Greg Oraham, the pastor of Foothills Community Church in Seneca, SC this week. I really enjoy hearing what God is doing in other ministries…especially when it involves a free lunch.
- Abby scored a couple of goals in her first soccer game. Jacob was voted student council representative from his class. Kayla just wrote a stellar report on Italy and was a starter for her recent volleyball game. I’m pretty proud of my kids.
- Since we are in a very important season of ministry at NewSpring, we’ve all decided we won’t be traveling for vacations and conferences through early October. It’s all hands on deck.
- Oh, in case you’re wondering, I just did the math yesterday. We have 72 full-time and part-time staff members at NewSpring. And, we’re averaging 7,300 people in attendance for the year. That means our attendance to staff ratio is about 100:1. How does that compare to your church?
- Can someone from Furman tell me what a Paladin is? And, more importantly, does knowing your school mascot is a Paladin inspire you to greatness?
- One slight disadvantage to living in the South is the Palmetto Bug. Don’t let the term fool you. It’s a cockroach. And, they’re very big in the South. I’m pretty sure we could put a saddle on one and let Brooke ride it around the house. You should see the process Emily and I go through to determine who gets to kill the cockroaches. I keep telling her she can take the cockroaches, and, as a trade off, I’ll take care of every pesky rhinoceros that gets into our home.
Our church compares favorably, we have 1 full-time staff member with an average attendance of just over 100 on a Sunday morning. The rest of our staff is COMPLETELY volunteer. God’s moving up here in New England. “preacher’s graveyard” my foot!
As a proud Paladin Alumni i will be happy to inform you on the matter. A Paladin is a Christian night— originating from the ‘praetorians’ of Ancient Rome— if you can visualize Russell Crowe in Gladiator— He actually calls aloud to a praetorian who was assigned to assassinate him by the Emperor….
*Go ‘Dins
Tony,
Gotta say I am a former NY-er and the Palmetto bugs drive me nuts. They scare my little ones but we have never tried to ride them. Sorry to say my soccer team lost horribly yesterday because my team scored goals for the other team. Im the coach so that is not good thing.
hmmm … is a paladin a christian night or a christian knight, o proud alumni? jk
Actually, a paladin (although once known as a high ranking official in ancient Rome) came to be known as a high ranking official in the catholic church. Is Furman a catholic school? Hmmm.
I suppose your ratio is about like ours … we run about 1000-1200 in our weekend services (another 400-500 in the evening service, but it is different so we have mostly “returning” people, and another 300-400 in our midweek service, but mostly returns in that one, too). We have six full time pastors, two full time office managers – one is business and one is projects/facilities, four full time support members (administrative,etc.), one part-time “handyman” and two part-time interns (ministry assistants – slaves). SO … 12 fulltimers, and 3 part-timers. I think that means our ratio is approximately 1:100 or so.
Congrats on the goals to your daughter! Soccer season is a killer (at least it is in Arizona, so more power to you, o great Soccer Dad and Mom).
Here in Arizona our small cockroaches are “german” and our big ones are “sewer roaches.” The HUGE ones are ninja turtles!
Still working on our website … but stole some “wording” from several sources including NewSpring! Thanks – and hopefully nothing was copyrighted that I stole.
Tony,
I’m glad to see that I am not the only one in the state of South Carolina that can see Palmetto Bugs for what they really are…DIRTY NASTY COCKROACHES!!!
That’s what living in the North does to ya, it opens your eyes to see things for what they are :)
Moved back home to Iowa about a year ago from the Orlando area…we HATED Palmettos as well…one of the ONLY nice things about trading IA for FL! :-)
My college mascot was a “Vega”…Paladin is better…shooting star vs. Roman Knight…I’ll take the knight!
Staffing…100 average on Sunday…1 staff…
Thanks for sharing your heart…you’re a consistent encouragement to me. BTW…got to your blog through the Strategic Guy “stuff”…
Sam
I’m not stuck on numbers nor am I convinced by them but as you started I’ll finish.
We have ana verage Sunday attendance of 120+ but have 4 full time staff and at least as many again part time staff and a whole bunch of volunteers. So on that basis we have a ratio of 40:1 – OK, so I cheat a little as our Church, whilst cuurrently small, runs a Christian book importing business that unfairly skews our staff numbers I guess.
hahaha— oversight… thanks for the catch— we can compare SAT scores later— and anyone can wikipedia the thing— that’s too easy—thanks for the witty reparte—
Ok, so a Paladin is a Christian Knight…I think I know why Furman chose to be the Paladins over the Christian Knights. If they were the Christian Knights imagine what the acronym for their school would be….Furman University Christian Knights…It makes sense to me.
Wait… are you saying this post has nothing to do with World of Warcraft???
:)
AS far as staffing vs attednace goes we average 400 on the weekends. We have 5 full-time staff, 1 part-time and 3 volunteer staff.
I almost spit out my drink when the image of saddling up a “Palmetto Bug” came to mind. Almost as funny as daddle.com
I’m so happy about Tony Romo too! I was a laughing stock on draft night, but….
We’re a little staff heavy, 70 full and part-time with around 4500 each week, but 5 of our staff are church plant residents and they will be planting new churches in 12-18 months…4 were planted this year.
When I think of the Paladins I can’t help but think of the TV show Paladin and his “business card” which read “Have Gun, Will Travel.”
If you think the Palmetto Bugs are bad in Anderson, just take a jaunt through Clinton… awful.
Anyway, its great to have you in SC.
LJ Nelson
I grew up in Texas and had a roach actually steal my car and date…I haven’t seen either since
Tony, I was wondering if the 100:1 staff ratio includes interns and custodians. I’m try to see how ours compares. Thanks for the great blog!
I’m in Pennsylvania, and I attend a church here in Hanover. We have three Sunday services, with nearly 1,000 people in attendence. By far, the largest is our contemporary service; we have a new (last year new) addition for that and it will seat around 900 people. Average attendence is around 700. We have 7 full-time staff, 1 part time, and 1 office volunteer. Not to mention those of us who volunteer elswhere–Nursery, Special Needs, Childrens Ministry, us sound techs and Web Guys..but as for staff, it’s about an 85:1 ratio, more or less.
On Palmetto bugs…I grew up in Indiana, but have a much older brother in Charleston. I first encountered the wily Palmetto bug as a child. We wrestled, I lost.
Seriously though..my ex-wife would literally FREAK when she saw a Cockroach and go on a cleaning binge. She saw one of those Palmetto Bugs at my brothers house and actually maintained her demeanor. I was amazed.
I’ll still take Peyton over Tony Romo..