TonyMorganLive.com

"The reason I got this job is that I focused on R&D. Does this company have the staying power and innovation to drive the next generation of innovation? If you can’t innovate, forget it! Innovation is not just painting things black. The wrap that Motorola had was that it had lots of stuff in the labs but couldn’t get it to market. All I’ve done since I got here is focus on one word: innovation. We’re going to put innovation back in the market."

Ed Zander, CEO of Motorola as quoted in BusinessWeek Online (August 22, 2005)

I got my palm tree fix for a few months as a result of my trip to San Jose for the CCN broadcast earlier this week. One of the highlights of that quick, one-night visit was my stay at the Hotel Valencia at Santana Row. I love visiting high-end hotels. It’s even better when I get to stay in one. And, then to top it all off, someone else was paying for it. Gotta’ love that.

The hotel was incredible. Visiting all the shops and eating a dinner at Santana Row was a great experience. Of course the best part, as always, was sharing a hot tub with Tim. He’s not near as much fun as my wife, but Tim’s still a pretty good date.

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

Music: "All Things New" by Steven Curtis Chapman

Message: "Nu Strategies for Growth: God’s Gym" — Rob Wegner, Pastor of Life Development, opened this new series by highlighting the transformation we go through as new believers, but also talked about our responsibility to continue to "work out" our salvation (Phil. 2:12-13). Rob included an overview of some of the spiritual habits we can use as we train ourselves to be more like Christ while remaining uniquely ourselves as God designed us.

Service Highlights: Rob talked about the difference between training and trying. To illustrate the importance of training, one of our volunteers jumped his motorcycle onto the platform in the middle of the message. It was pretty impressive–something I certainly wouldn’t recommend trying at home. Rob used that to make the point that we need to train by arranging our lives around those activities that enable us to do what we can’t now do by direct effort.

Stats: 4,668 total attendance (3,602 adults + 1,066 kids); 9.1% increase from the same weekend last year

Percentage of weekend attendance by service:

1. Sun 10:15 am = 28%
2. Sat 5:30 pm = 22%
3. Sun 11:45 am = 17%
4. Sun 8:45 am = 17%
5. Sat 7:30 pm = 16%

Final Notes: Each week we offer some next steps out of our weekend services to encourage people to continue to process what they are experiencing in the services. We create both a Bible reading plan and a discussion guide for people to use in their daily time with God and in their group conversations. You can find samples of those resources on GCCwired.com.

Mac Lake is attending the Drive Conference at North Point Community Church. He posted some challenging thoughts from a session taught by Reggie Joiner from North Point’s staff. “What radical change do you need to make? What is keeping you from making that radical change?”

Didn’t get a chance to check out my CCN broadcast yesterday? If so, here’s the completed outline. The chapter references are for the book Simply Strategic Volunteers that was the basis for our teaching.

Granger Community Church is mentioned in an article posted today on USA Today’s site. The article is on church marketing.

"Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle. Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality. Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down. Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody."

Romans 12:9-16 (The Message)

I’m heading to San Jose, CA with Tim tomorrow morning. That’s where the live broadcast on CCN will originate on Tuesday. Tim and I will be teaching on Simply Strategic Volunteers. Here’s the outline you can use if you’ll be watching the broadcast. I’ll post the answers later this week.

I think it’s kind of endearing that my five-year daughter has learned to say "I think you should get a room" every time she sees me hugging and kissing on my wife. She’s acting like she doesn’t like it when she sees me kissing Em. In reality, though, I think she loves it. (I sure do.)

Have a fun Friday…and if you’re married, I think you should get a room. Tell your spouse that Pastor Tony said so.

"It all comes back to the product. When I worked for Salvatore Ferragamo, they had great ad campaigns all the time. But at the end of the day, they weren’t willing to make any changes on the product side. It doesn’t matter how you’re advertising or where your stores are. If you go in and there’s nothing you like, it doesn’t matter."

Tamara Rosenthal, Director of Marketing for Lacoste USA as quoted in Fast Company (August 2005)