It's been a while since I've done one of these, so let's get to it...- We had good services today, I just felt terrible.  - I didn't talk to very many people just to save my voice to do both services - I struggle big time during the 2nd service to finish because of my voice - I enjoyed starting our new series in 2 Timothy called "Fuel: The Factors that Ignite Faith"- Expositional teaching is my bread and butter.  It's where I need to stay more of the time.  - I had a black velvet jacket on today that I thought was rockin' :) - A photographer from our church was taking pictures, so I should have new pics soon.  - If you're interested in seeing the promo to our Fuel series, you can check it out here.- I'm starting a new routine this week.  For the last 10 years I've had Mondays off.  Starting tomorrow we're opening the office on Mondays and taking Friday off.  We'll see how it goes.  - I'm looking forward to going to Orlando in a couple of weeks for vacation.  - I'm also looking forward to the Assimilation seminar I'll be leading at a friend's church. If you're interested in attending, you can check it out here.  - Dolphins lost... no big surprise there :)  - I read some good books this week, so I'll be posting some reviews this week.  - Peace out...

I've been light on the blogging for many reasons that I will talk about later, but one of the things I've been doing this week is reviewing 2008. Personally, 2008 was one of my best years yet.  I believe what causes next year to be better than the last is to take time to review what transpired over the last 12 months.  God has been so good to me and I don't want to be ungrateful by forgetting or not taking the time to reflect on His goodness and grace in my life. I set 22 major goals in 2008 and accomplished 16 of them. 4 of them will be met in January, so I'm pretty happy about that. My hope is that you would look at 2009 and set goals in each of the following areas:  - Spiritual - Personal- Vocational- Financial - Relational- Health- Family- RecreationalIf we aim at nothing, we'll hit it every time.  But if we're intentional about what we want, we will have a much greater chance of experiencing the kind of year we want.  Happy 2009! 

I read the executive summary of Great Employees Only and decide since the summary was so good, I should buy the book. I'm glad I did. This was a really good book and an interesting view of leadership. Dauten's premise is that employers should spend 90% of their time hiring, 10% de-hiring and 0% managing. The idea is, when you hire stars you don't have to manage them. You simply have to let them loose. I tend to agree, unless you're hiring a diamond in the rough of course. The book is 48 short chapters (which you know I love) and it has some great principles on hiring and recruiting. This is a great book for any Senior Pastor to read who wants to "get the right people on the bus".

I thoroughly enjoyed "The Reason for God" when I read it, but "The Prodigal God" was a great read. I have been thinking about doing a series on the story of The Prodigal Son and Tim Keller knocked it out of the park with an insightful look at this famous story. I read the book in one sitting because I couldn't put it down. I was reading the book and making a list of all the people I was going to buy this book for (Christmas spoiler alert :) I have read some of Kenneth Bailey's books, whose books are the standards on Luke 15. But Keller does a great job explaining this story in plain language and challenges us to love God out of a response to the Gospel rather than in order to get something from God. Great book!

First, let me say that's Im a huge fan of Guy Kawasaki's books. In fact, I have the church planters I coach read "The Art of the Start". But his latest book, "Reality Check" was amazing! It's not a small book by any means, but it's packed with insight and practical help for anyone starting or leading an organization. The section on staffing alone is worth the price of the book. Plus, the whole book is written in 3-5 page chapters (which if you know me, short chapters are my favorite thing in the world) If you're leading a church or organization, I'd highly recommend this book. I think you'll find it an invaluable source of content and perspective.

I'm going to spend the week reviewing some great books that I've read over the last couple of weeks. But I did want to mention that Nelson Searcy and I just did a podcast covering what we thought were the top 8 books of 2008. You can listen to the podcast here. It was tough to narrow it down to just 8 books, but I hope they are a benefit to you as you think about what to read in 2009.

I've spend a lot of time talking with Pastors over the last month about budgeting. Unfortunately, there isn't a ton of information out there to help guys figure out how to budget during the strange times we're living in. So here's a few thoughts I've been sharing about budgeting with the Pastors I interact with: 1. Be conservative - I'd rather be conservative now and change the budget mid-year because we have a surplus. But I don't want to paint myself into a corner by approving a budget hat is too aggressive. 2. Be Realistic - I think you can plan for growth if you have grown in past years. I would just be careful that you don't move from faith to presumption. Look at your last couple of years and use that as your template for next year. Don't fall into the "But we're going to triple in size next year, so let's triple the budget". That's a recipe for problems. 3. Don't cut the most important things - You may have to make cuts if you fell short in your budget this year, but don't cut the things that matter most: that would be things like making Sunday the best it can be, your assimilation process, and evangelism. 4. Don't Neglect Training - I'd rather cut buying a piece of equipment than cut training for me or our staff. A new printer isn't going to get your church to the next level, training will. Yet we tend to cut training first because we don't see the immediate result. Investing in training is always a great decision. 5. Take care of your staff - Church staffs work extremely hard for less than they could make in the business world. So before you neglect raises, hold off on buying that new computer and make sure your staff is taken care of. There's a lot more that I think is important, but these are the non-negotiables to me.

- Today was good despite the madness of the week. - We found out Wednesday afternoon that we wouldn't be able to meet at the school this weekend. The reason? The superintendent decided to shut don the power to the schools to cut down on their $88 million dollar deficit. As you know, cutting income streams is best way to fix a money problem :) - The staff handled it like pros. They called our old theatre and by 3PM we were on for Sunday at the Theatre. - Service was light, which is to be expected on the least attended Sunday of the year. - Mark taught a great message on "The Challenge of Obedience" as we wrapped up our "New Testament Challenge" series. - This series was fantastic for our church. I highly recommend you doing something like this in your church. - It got people reading their Bibles, we get lots of new people to join small groups, and people took major steps of faith during the series. - I'm excited to get back in the saddle this Sunday with our new series "Trees: a New Way to Look at Christmas" - Not teaching this weekend allowed me to read 4 books (reviews forthcoming) - It also allowed me to finish the first draft of the manuscript of my new book. It's the longest thing I've ever written. If you've read any of my stuff, then you know my fondness for brevity. - This one of going to be in the 200 page range. - I'll talk about the title and topics some other time. - It's organization time at the Franquiz household. We bought a bunch of storage bins and we're getting organized before we bring in an 8 foot tree and cover our house with lights. - The people at The Container Store practically know me by name :) - I still haven't watched the 24 premiere. What am I waiting for? - My Church Planter Coaching Network is starting in less than 2 weeks. I'm so excited about it! There's an awesome group of guys registered. I'm looking forward to all that God is going to do through them. - I've got an early day tomorrow so I'm out...