1. 1980 Cleveland Browns – Brian Sipe leads the “Kardiac Kids” to several come-from-behind wins to take the division title.
2. 1995 Cleveland Indians – The Cleveland Indians make it to the World Series for the first time in over 40 years.
3. 1978 Cincinnati Reds – Because I wasn’t able to get Indians games where we lived, I became a fan of “The Big Red Machine” and watched Pete Rose get his 3,000th hit and a 44-game hit streak.
4. 1987 Cleveland Browns – The Browns made it to the AFC Championship game two years in a row behind quarterback Bernie Kosar.
5. 1990-91 Bowling Green State University Basketball – They only made it to the first round of the NIT, but the season was highlighted by an exciting home win against a highly ranked Michigan State team. (Best game I ever attended.)

Here are the most popular articles from October in order of traffic:

1. Senior Leadership Teams: 7 Questions to Identify Who Should be on the Team
2. New FREE eBook Available Today: How to Get Unstuck
3. Top 5 Mistakes Churches Make When Raising Money
4. Introducing the First 25 Planters from the Launch Network
5. The Entire Service is One Message
6. 5 Questions on the 5 Levels of Leadership: An Interview with John Maxwell
7. Read This Before Our Next Meeting
8. 10 Questions to Increase Volunteer Engagement
9. Campus Pastor Search for Large Multi-site Church
10. Win a FREE Resource: Building a Leadership Development Culture

1. Fantasy football
2. The new album “The Awakening” by James Morrison
3. Driving my new-to-me Acura TL…after driving the minivan for six days
4. Presidential politics
5. 30 Rock episodes on Netflix

I partner with a group of organizations that help resource leaders like you. Here are the folks that are making things happen at TonyMorganLive.com in October:

igniteCRM – web-based church relationship management software created to empower ministry leaders for accelerated church growth

Church Community Builder – web-based church software that actively serves over 1,600 churches in 15 different countries from church plants to multi-site, mega-churches

dc – design and communication solutions that create raving fans, inspire people, and honor Christ

Church Art Online – the largest library of church art on the Web

Clover – provides websites for growing churches and ministries

Church Leader Insights – join Nelson Searcy for a free, 75-minute webinar where you’ll discover the eight systems of a healthy church

Injoy Stewardship Solutions – offering a free report on the “5 Mistakes that will Kill Your Church Fund Raising”

Leaders Book Summaries – summaries of the best books on leadership, management and church life to help you become a better leader

Outreach Events – specializes in dynamic, outreach-oriented events with speakers and Christian comedians that create opportunities for sharing faith

Standard Theme – the best-coded WordPress theme ever (My site is built on this theme.)

StreamingChurch.tv – provides everything you need to broadcast your services live

TheCommon.org – offers a simple way for people to get and give help to their community

I have exactly one advertising spot open. If you are interested, email me for more details. I’d love to have you join our team!

You may have seen the news recently that Joe Sangl has acquired the stewardship company Injoy Stewardship Solutions (ISS) – the company founded by Dr. John C. Maxwell.  Joe is a good friend of mine. He and I worked on the staff of NewSpring Church together with Perry Noble.  For the past five years, Joe has focused on helping equip people to become personally financially free through his I Was Broke. Now I’m Not. ministry.

I was able to catch up with Joe recently, and he had this to say about his new endeavor.

TONY: Why did you acquire ISS?

JOE: As you know, I have had literally hundreds of opportunities to speak and teach at churches all across the nation helping equip people to give and to win with their money God’s way.  I have been able to see how God is moving in His church and how He has given so many leaders such huge vision to reach their communities for Jesus.  Usually, the next step toward that dream will cost a huge amount of money.  I have personally worked with ISS when I was the Pastor of Financial Planning and Coaching at NewSpring Church. We were able to fund our huge next steps from 2007 to 2010 – in the midst of a tremendous recession.  I have seen the incredible results that can happen when the church is filled with people that are financially free.  Frankly, my heart skips a beat at the thought of helping leaders fund their God-given dreams!

TONY: In your work with churches, what do you believe is the biggest mistake that leaders make when raising money?

Joe: The number one mistake I have seen is when the initiative becomes all about the money or the project.  When this happens, the initiative can turn into a fund-raiser instead of a spiritual journey that focuses on what God wants to accomplish through the initiative and how many more people will meet Jesus as a result.

In fact, the team at ISS has written a free e-report called “The Top 5 Mistakes Churches Make When Raising Money.”  It literally takes five minutes to read it, and it could substantially impact the next major phase of ministry that a church embarks on.  That free e-report can be obtained instantaneously by filling out the form below.

__________

This is a sponsored post from Injoy Stewardship Solutions, one of my ministry partners on TonyMorganLive.com.

Here are the most popular articles from September in order of traffic:

1. Getting People from Point A to Point B: Inactive to Engaged
2. 7 Reasons Why Churches Choose to Have a Smaller Impact
3. Senior Leadership Team: 7 Roles that Can’t be Delegated
4. Getting People from Point B to Point C: Engaged to Serving
5. Hiring a Worship Pastor for Church of 5,000
6. Are you a Quitter?
7. 10 Questions to Increase Volunteer Engagement
8. Be the First to Preview My New eBook
9. God is Able
10. Outspoken: a New Book on Church Communications

I’m so honored to be working with a group of organizations that help resource leaders like you. Here are the folks that are making things happen at TonyMorganLive.com in September:

faithHighway – provides total marketing solutions to attract visitors to churches

Connected Church Conference – inspiring a generation of connected churches with speakers including Will Mancini, Jim Tomberlin and Ron Edmonson

dc – design and communication solutions that create raving fans, inspire people, and honor Christ

Church Community Builder – a web-based church management software with multi-site capabilities

Clover – provides websites for growing churches and ministries

Church Leader Insights – join Nelson Searcy for a free, 75-minute webinar where you’ll discover the eight systems of a healthy church

HCSB – the Holman Christian Standard Bible from B&H Publishing

Leaders Book Summaries – summaries of the best books on leadership, management and church life to help you become a better leader

Outreach Events – specializes in dynamic, outreach-oriented events with people like Scott Rigsby that create opportunities for sharing faith

Standard Theme – the best-coded WordPress theme ever (My site is built on this theme.)

StreamingChurch.tv – provides everything you need to broadcast your services live

TheCommon.org – offers a simple way for people to get and give help to their community

I have exactly one advertising spot open. If you are interested, email me for more details. I’d love to have you join our team!

A few months ago, I wrote about unconventional wisdom. I shared some personal examples of how Emily and I have embraced practices different from what the world tells us. My guess is there are many more stories out there that you’ve either experienced or you know someone else who has.

The world says one thing, but you’ve decided to take a completely different approach. It’s also produced completely different results…in a good way. These may be stories related to…

• Marriage
• Parenting
• Personal finances
• Careers
• Friendships
• Personal health
• Leadership development
• Spiritual journey

It doesn’t matter the topic–I’d like to hear the stories. The simple practices are even better. You may think, “This is common wisdom.” The reality is, though, there is a completely different worldview that’s competing with the wisdom you’ve embraced.

Do you have an experience to share? If so, email me with your story.

Here are the most popular articles from August:

1. Can a Church be Both Attractional and Missional?
2. 6 Trends in Staffing
3. Leadership Summit: Bill Hybels
4. Necessary Endings
5. “Willow is not anti-anybody.”
6. What can we do to support senior pastors?
7. Searching for a Student Pastor
8. Favorite Quotes from the Global Leadership Summit
9. Steve Jobs Era Ends
10. Cutting Cacti

For the three of you who are curious, I had the number one pick in tonight’s fantasy football draft. I selected Adrian Peterson. Here’s the rest of my roster…for now.

• Matt Ryan, QB Falcons
• Adrian Peterson, RB Vikings
• Knowshon Moreno, RB Broncos
• Miles Austin, WR Cowboys
• DeSean Jackson, WR Eagles
• Wes Welker, WR Patriots
• Brandon Pettigrew, TE Lions
• David Akers, K 49ers
• Browns, DST (…because they’re playing the Bengals in week 1)

Here’s my bench…

• Willis McGahee, RB Broncos
• Mike Tolbert, RB Chargers
• Ben Tate, RB Texans
• Danny Amendola, WR Rams
• Davone Bess, WR Dolphins
• A.J. Green, WR Bengals

Frankly, it doesn’t matter who I have on my roster. It’s football season!

(Go Browns!)