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OK, I’ll continue to fight the good fight for encouraging people to learn how to use RSS to subscribe to my blog and others, but I know RSS isn’t for everyone. (John agrees over on Brand Autopsy.) So, if you’re not ready to make the jump to RSS, but would still like to automatically receive updates from my blog, I’ve added a new email subscription using FeedBlitz. See the right sidebar.

p.s. — Thanks, FeedBurner, for making this happen.

Interesting move. The multi-site ministry of Life Church, with seven existing locations in Oklahoma and the Phoenix area, is launching its eighth location in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.

This week’s cool church is actually in sunny Southern California. Located in Irvine, Mariners Church has been around for about 40 years, but they’re taking a huge step this month. They’re moving into their new 3,300-seat worship center. You can read more about the project on their Imagine 2 site.

The new worship center follows upgrades to their existing youth center and a brand new children’s center which were completed earlier. All of that expansion is making room for the growing 10,000-person congregration under the leadership of Senior Pastor Kenton Beshore.

This weekend if I wasn’t enjoying the fun series on parenting at Granger, I’d fly to So Cal to check out the conclusion of the "Relevance of Jesus" series and the new worship center at Mariners Church. That makes them my "Cool Church of the Week."

"Most companies over-diversify and very few companies are too focused. Look at Starbucks: They’re basically doing the same thing as when they were founded in 1985, but they’re doing it on a much grander and more important scale. Businesses that are simple that way, that have a straightforward model and relentlessly focus on the execution, can be very large and very successful because they don’t have to invent whole new products and go through the technology transitions. It’s one model — improve it, improve it, improve it, get it bigger, improve it, get it bigger, improve it, over and over and over again. That’s very exciting because you can make a very big cultural consumer impact."

Reed Hastings, founder and CEO of Netflix as quoted in an interview for FastCompany.com (October 2005).

I picked up Seth Godin and "The Group of 33’s" new book, The Big Moo, and devoured it on my flight to and from Calgary a couple of weeks ago. It’s packed with quick stories that will help you discover the joy of "remarkable."

If you’re hunting for the big moo, innovation that completely changes the game, this is your book. It’s filled with fun insights from people like Tom Peters, Malcolm Gladwell and Guy Kawasaki…only you don’t know who is writing what…well, in most cases–Tom Peters always seems to give himself away. Here are a few of my favorite nuggets from the book:

• "…growth means change, change means risk, and risk could mean death. Nobody wants to screw up and ruin a good thing, so the organization just sits there, motionless."
• "…once you’re a commodity, you lose. In the short run, listening to the buyers and becoming boring can be profitable. In the long run, though, doesn’t it make sense to ignore your customers and stay remarkable instead?"
• "Every organization that gets into trouble falters because it waited too long to do the stuff that should have been done a long time ago."
• "If you develop a reputation as the person who is always pushing the envelope, challenging the organization to go to the next level, and using your influence to get good stuff done, you’ve got the world’s best job security… And if you surround yourself with a team that depends on you to lead them to the next big thing, you all benefit."
• "If you want to do anything new in the marketplace, you’ve got to get as serious, rigorous, and creative about renewing yourself as any other aspect of your business."
• "The enemy of new ideas is the familiar. So go someplace new."
• "Companies that are good at being edgy will always find a way to thrive."
• "…the secret to success lies not in strategy, but in galvanizing a team to implement the strategy."

By the way, there’s a big church that’s mentioned in one of the chapters. They’re doing some pretty remarkable stuff. Aren’t you curious to know what church it is? Guess you’ll have to read the book.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005 at 11:13 a.m. on Corey’s blog. Could it be? If it is, it’s the date and time of the first known blogosphere sighting of Mark Beeson. Check out the comments on Corey’s very honest post about the "microscope." It sounds like Mark. It’s a topic that Mark has mentioned often ("You never take your staff hat off.") And, the big giveaway: he signed his name.

Read Mark’s insightful words. Be challenged. Be encouraged. And live well.

Here’s the "box score" for this past weekend at Granger Community Church.

Music: "Our House" by Madness; "If These Walls Could Speak" by Amy Grant

Message: "The Challenge of Keeping your Marriage Alive" — Rob Wegner, Pastor of Life Development, talked about God’s vision for marriage being oneness or connectedness–a unity of mind, body, soul and spirit. The problem, he suggested, is that the natural state of any relationship is toward entropy which leads to disconnectedness in marriage. Three disconnects that he highlighted were: 1. an unhealthy pace of life; 2. covered up complaints; and 3. forgetting to have fun. And, Rob must have thought it was important because he kept bringing up Proverbs 5:18-19 throughout the message–either that or he really likes deer.

Service Highlights: As a child of the 80s, I’d have to say you can’t get much better than this service. It was 80s week at Granger and we used clips from the Cosby show to illustrate the importance of a healthy marriage. Of course, the highlight for me in this service was the great 80s music including a rendition of Mr. Roboto which was used as the service prelude. You know it’s going to be a good service when it starts with Mr. Roboto.

Stats: 5,860 total attendance (4,451 adults + 1,409 kids); 31.6% increase from the same weekend last year

Percentage of weekend attendance by service:

1. Sun 10:15 am = 31%
2. Sun 11:45 am = 21%
3. Sat 5:30 pm = 18%
4. Sat 7:30 pm = 16%
5. Sun 8:45 am = 14%

Final Notes: In case you’re not picking up on it, we’re experiencing quite a bit of momentum this fall at Granger. For the second time in the last six weeks, we broke an attendance record. This past weekend’s attendance gave us the largest non-Easter crowd we’ve ever had at Granger. In addition to that, it’s just plain fun to watch people between services showing their friends/guests around the building and explaining what happens around Granger Community Church. There are lots of new people showing up this fall. I love that!

…Judy Gregory, our newest blogger from Granger Community Church. Since Kem let the cat out of the bag in an earlier comment, it must be safe to share the news. Among her many attributes, Judy is a woman who is pursuing Jesus passionately and serving Christ faithfully by leading our middle school ministry at Granger. Last count I heard, Judy has like over 400 middle schoolers showing up every Wednesday night. (It’s kind of hard to believe 400 middle schoolers even exist in Granger, Indiana.) She’s built a great team. She’s reaching kids for Jesus. And, now, she’s sharing her story with us. I love that!

It’s good to have you on board, Judy!

The question is this: How do you convince over 250 church leaders to come to Granger, Indiana for one day in November to learn about how they can reach more people for Jesus in their communities? I know. It’s crazy. It shouldn’t be possible. But, that’s what we have happening this Friday.

WiredChurches.com is offering four–count ‘em–four separate one-day workshops this week, and we’re expecting folks that have registered from throughout the country. They’re coming to hear Mark Waltz talk about "First Impressions." They’re coming to learn from Butch Whitmire and our arts teams. They’re going to experience a day immersed in our children’s ministry. Or, they’re going to hang out with Judy and Corey and figure out what it takes to help students take their next steps toward Christ. Good stuff.

And, in case you’re not able to make the trek to Indiana this Friday, we’re doing it all again next year. Hope you can join us.

Get the inside scoop on the use of media at Granger Community Church in this article by Jeff Petersen, Granger’s Director of Programming and Media, in the October 2005 issue of Church Executive magazine.