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I’ve been neglect in introducing you to several of my blogging friends. Let me catch you up to speed on a handful of people you may want to follow.

Aaron DeWinter Is on staff in our creative arts department at Granger. Among his many talents, Aaron is one of the most gifted drummers you’ll ever find.

Dan Vukmirovich is one of my fellow pastors at Granger, and he leads in our music and drama ministries. Dan is unique on our team because he’s one of only three of the over 70 staff members that we actually hired from outside the church.

Perry Noble is the senior pastor of New Spring Community Church in Anderson, South Carolina. Perry is one of the top young leaders in the country. He leads a fast-growing, innovative church, and it’s fun to see what’s happening in Perry’s mind and heart as he faces the challenges of ministry and life. And, as you’ll read on his blog, he’s faced some unique life challenges in recent months.

Bob Nahrstadt and new blogger Matt Card are friends from Clark ProMedia. CPM is the company we work with at Granger to design the video and audio systems in our auditorium. These guys know their stuff, and they’re helping us share the good news about Jesus using phenomenal technology solutions.

Stop by these sites and tell them Tony said hey.

It’s "Fun Friday." Today is particularly fun because I’m experiencing Willow’s Leadership Summit here at Granger Community Church with many of my friends.

As I hang out with cool people, I’m reminded that I serve on a team of rock stars. They love Jesus. They love the ministry. They’re high capacity. They’re passionate about what they do. They always give their best. They stretch me to be a better leader. I love my team.

Of course, not everyone can be a rock star. In fact, I thought I’d celebrate "Fun Friday" today by giving you:

10 Signs You’re Not a Rock Star

10. There is no opening act.

9. Corey doesn’t blog about you on “celebrity Friday” or “Tunes Tuesday.”

8. Your wife and your kids are your only groupies.

7. You tried out for your bowling team in college…and made the team.

6. You’re reading my blog.

5. Your “crib” is located in Granger, IN.

4. You used to cruise chicks in a Dodge Omni.

3. You golf.

2. You get interviewed by Church Executive instead of Rolling Stone.

1. You used to be in a band called Burning Heart.

What’s up with that outfit? Why didn’t anyone say something? Praise God for hair products.

Have a fun Friday!

"Our next round [of communication strategy] is centered around our customers and the benefits we bring to their lives. In the past, our communication was all about the product. There wasn’t a real story to it. We are really trying to tell a story about how it fits into consumer lives in our newer communications. When we do our studies, most people see our product and brand as cold — and we are tying to move away from that. We want to be warm. But the most important thing is being relevant."

Gregory Lee, Global Chief Marketing Officer of Samsung as quoted in BusinessWeek Online (August 1, 2005)

Creating Passionate Users has another great post on The Physics of Passion (some of the language is a little raw…you’ve been warned). The reality of life is that this same principle carries over to churches as well. Granger is a growing church. There are obviously a lot of people that love what we do. Given the results of this past weekend, it seems the ministry is also having an incredible impact on people’s lives.

Of course, success, whether it be in the marketplace or in ministry, also seems to foster contempt. We’re not “deep” enough. We don’t offer this program or that program. We don’t invest ministry dollars here or there. We’re not Methodist enough. We don’t use the right music. Our message is married too much to the culture. It’s amazing the grief you get when your sole purpose is just to point people to Jesus.

There are certainly some people who don’t like they way we do ministry. Some are more vocal than others. It would be dishonest to say those comments don’t hurt or at times cause anger. They do. But we learned long ago that to try to make everyone happy, you have to be comfortable with this “zone of mediocrity.” It’s a place where there are few critics but it’s also a place where few people become really passionate about ministry and their relationships with Christ.

Interestingly enough, I don’t think God likes mediocrity either (see Revelation 3:15-16). I kind of like that about him. I think he prefers passionate people and churches with convictions and vision and purpose. I don’t think he’s looking for perfect. If so, I don’t think he’d like me. But I do think he’s looking for passion. And, I’m fortunate to be surrounded by that every day.

Last week I mentioned that Buzzmarketing by Mark Hughes has been one of my favorite reads of the summer. As it turns out, Mark actually responded to that post and sent me a nice note. That speaks volumes to me about the integrity of the message he’s trying share with the rest of us mere mortals.

The entire book is filled with great insights about getting the word out about your organization. Some marketplace books you read take a lot to translate into the church world. This one doesn’t take much imagination to see how the principles Mark teaches easily apply to what we’re hoping to accomplish through ministry. As I’ve mentioned previously, about 75% of the people who attend our church come for the first time at the invitation of a friend. Almost all the growth at Granger is the result of word-of-mouth (buzz) marketing.

It’s worth the price of the book, though, just to catch the nugget on "corporate brands" versus "personality brands." Here’s Mark’s sample list of companies in these two categories:

• HP (corporate) vs. Apple (personality)
• Microsoft vs. Google
• Breyers vs. Ben & Jerry’s
• Pontiac vs. VW Beetle
• uBid vs. eBay

Mark isn’t talking about branding a personality. (We certainly aren’t looking for that in churches.) Instead, he’s encouraging us to give our brands personality. Mark shares:

"What’s so special about personality? Without it, products can certainly still succeed, but they lack consumer passion–a driving goal in creating buzz, marketing, branding, and buying."

Here’s my concern. As churches experience success and growth, I think there’s a tendency to become more corporate and have less personality. They continue to ride the horse that got them to where they are, but they forget that part of their earlier success was because the ministry took risks, challenged the status quo and had personality that fueled passion. Because of that, the church generated buzz. People wanted their friends to come check out what was happening and share the same experience.

As time goes by, though, I think churches begin to fall into to patterns. They take fewer risks. They begin to follow rules. They become more top-down. They are formulaic in their approach. It may be the very same approach that brought them the success they experienced earlier, but now it’s lost its buzz-quotient. The approach may be different than other churches, but it’s the same for everyone that’s attending the church.

I’m not suggesting, obviously, that churches should change the message they are teaching. And, I’m not suggesting churches need to reinvent their mission or primary objectives. I do, however, think growing churches need to constantly consider the personality of their ministry and ask the though questions: What is the personality of our church? Are people still passionate about what we offer? If not, what do we need to do differently to recapture that passion?

Part of the answer may be picking up Mark’s book to begin to challenge the way you’re approaching others with your message.

The August issue of the Christian Management Report focuses on the volunteer revolution with a lead article by Bill Hybels. If you scan through the articles, you’ll find a couple of items that I had the chance to contribute. Here’s:

• Simple Strategies–some quick hits from Simply Strategic Volunteers,
• It Takes Real Leaders to Lead Volunteers–a PDF version of the actual magazine article, and
• The full article online.

Just so you know, the women always love it when I tell the story from the “full article” about Jacob learning how to ride his bicycle. You’ll have to read the article to see what I mean. I know what they think when they hear me tell the story. They’re thinking:

“That young pastor boy just told a wonderful story about his precious son. The story made my heart melt. In fact, that could very well be a tear forming in the corner of my eye. I wonder if I have a Kleenex in my purse? That new Ultra Soft Kleenex I bought last week is much more comforting than the box I had previously. I may have to try the moist cloth variety next time. I hear that’s even better. Besides, it comes in seven different colors of boxes to match just about any decor. I really like that young pastor boy, but I think I’d like him a lot better if he’d gain a little weight.”

OK, they’re probably not really thinking that…well…except for the weight part.

Whether you think the story is sappy or not, we still need to “take delight in honoring each other.” That’s a good thing.

Fast Company has a fascinating article in the August issue about why we hate human resources (HR) departments. I’ve neglected a conversation with Lisa Haneberg who was intrigued by the fact that we don’t do formal performance evaluations at Granger. I wonder what Lisa will say when she finds out that we don’t even have an HR department.

In fact, I’d be curious to know if we’re the largest organization you know of that doesn’t have an HR department. We have over 70 full- and part-time employees on staff. Can anyone top that? It seems like HR either gets in the way of leadership making positive changes or HR gets in the way of employees getting appropriate support? For now, our solution to the dilemma is this: Don’t have an HR department.

Here’s a look at subscriber forecasts for both XM Satellite Radio and Sirius. It’s interesting to consider the future of satellite radio. I think it’s here to stay. We’ll see, however, what sort of long-term impact podcasting has on the viability of this radio format. It’s hard to beat live anything though.

Personally, I’m one of the XM Radio subscribers that loves the service. For one thing, who would have ever thought you could listen to live golf tournament coverage on the radio? Really…you can’t top that.

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

Music: "Something’s Missing" by John Mayer; "Come Home Running" by Chris Tomlin; "Only Grace" by Matthew West

Message: "Bridge the Gap: The Way" — Mark Beeson, Senior Pastor, culminated an incredible three-week journey where we purposely and clearly communicated what Jesus did for us to bridge the gap between us and God that was created by our sin. The first week we focused on the separation caused by our sin. The second week we took a look at who Jesus is and what he did by dying on the cross for us. The third week, we gave people the invitation to commit their lives to Jesus Christ and enter into a relationship with him.

Service Highlights: At the conclusion of the message this weekend, an invitation was given to allow people to receive Jesus Christ and to follow him for the rest of their lives. We invited people to mark the moment by crossing a bridge that had been erected on the platform. It was an amazing weekend. We’re still compiling the information to determine how many people made decisions this weekend, but it appears that almost 10% of our weekend crowd accepted Christ. Incredible!

Stats: 4,661 total attendance (3,667 adults + 994 kids); 12.6% increase from the same weekend last year

Percentage of weekend attendance by service:

1. Sun 10:15 am = 29%
2. Sat 5:30 pm = 20%
3. Sun 11:45 am = 18%
4. Sat 7:30 pm = 17%
5. Sun 8:45 am = 15%

Final Notes: Next weekend we will begin talking about next steps for people to take after they’ve committed their lives to Christ. Those steps will include baptism and various other opportunities including serving, classes and groups to encourage people in their new relationships with Jesus. We have a series that will begin in two weeks called "NUME" that will focus on the new life we have in Christ.

I’m heading down to Texas in about 5 weeks to check out what’s happening at MinistryCOM Houston–a conference designed for church communications professionals. My primary reason for going is to cheer for Kem Meyer, our communications directors. She’s going to be presenting a workshop (and this one) at the conference that you don’t want to miss if you have anything to do with communications and marketing for your ministry/organization.

Kem is the real deal. With her years of marketplace and ministry experience, she has led our church through a complete overhaul of our communications strategy. We’re now more focused. The messages are clearer. Kem is one of those people on my team that is constantly stretching how I view the world and my leadership approach. She’ll certainly challenge you to consider how you can more effectively get your message heard within the church and in your community.

Don’t believe me? Here’s what someone who has attended her WiredChurches.com workshop had to say about Kem.

Hope to see you in Houston!