The two year-old grandson of Linda Ronsick, our Data Quality Administrator, died on Wednesday from an accidental drowning in a pool just a mile from the church. Linda’s daughter, the little guy’s mom, was distracted with putting sunscreen on another of her children when Benjamin fell in. Despite there being approximately 40 people in the pool area at the time, no one noticed until it was too late. The only blessing in this is that his organs have been donated to help several other children in desperate need. The memorial service is tomorrow morning here at Resurrection.

Please stop and pray for Linda, her husband Gene, their daughter Laura, her husband Matt, and Benjamin’s two brothers Luke (4) and Caleb (10 months). They have a difficult road ahead.

A few weeks ago when “Ten Things Your IT Department Won’t Tell You” was published in the Wall Street Journal and made a big stink in the IT community, Ian e-mailed the author. Imagine his surprise when one of his comments was quoted in a follow-up story last week (see #4 in the article) by the same author. Way to go Ian!

Sure enough, our short list of ChMS candidates is getting longer before it gets shorter. We’re adding ACS. And then there were five.

Tony Dye and Chris McGuffin spent an hour on the phone with me today going over detailed plans for the RoundTable. I know our event in October will benefit from the insights they gained from planning and hosting the RoundTable back in April. Thanks Tony and Chris!

If you haven’t signed up to come to Kansas City in October, do it now. It’s going to be awesome!

The time has finally arrived for us to begin our Next Generation Church Management System project (“NextGen” for short). We’re blessed to have Travis Morgan joining our team half-time this week to serve as project manager. Travis is already on staff at Resurrection as the Director of Operations for Resurrection West. He has brought in a person to cover half his duties at Resurrection West so he can work with us half-time for the next 9 months, or so. He joined the Resurrection West staff a year ago from Cerner, a major player in the hospital software market based here in Kansas City. At Cerner he managed projects to implement their health care information system in hospitals, so he brings a wealth of experience with the issues he will face on this project.

We have our NextGen project kick-off meeting next week and will start with requirements gathering from all ministry departments. Our short list is (in no particular order):

Shelby Arena
Proclaim CRM
Fellowship One
Blackbaud

Our plan is to make the system selection by early November with implementation in the first quarter of 2008. Game on!

One of the first issues we are facing is the whole question of Software-as-a-Service vs. traditional buy-software-and-run-it-in-house. As I’m thinking about that, this article caught my eye.

Personal highlights from today …

President Jimmy Carter:

Carter was an entrepreneur from as early as 5 years old. Didn’t know that. This was more about Carter’s life than a lesson in leadership, but he has earned our respect for his humility and his genuine life of Christian discipleship. I’m inspired. 😉

Favorite quotes:

• It’s not an anomaly that the Bible says we’re all equal in God’s sight. We actually are equal.
• War doesn’t beget peace. War begets war. (Not sure if that’s right, but I respect his viewpoint.)

Bill Hybels – The power of inspiration:

• Performance difference between motivated and unmotivated employees – 40%
• Get inspired and inspiring people around you.
• Do you know what events you need attend to get inspired?
• Your workspace can add to your motivation. What do you have in your office?
• Identify and reduce every demotivating dynamic in the organization.
• Celebrate every sign of progress.

Personal highlights from today …

Colin Powell:

• Promote a clash of ideas – a noisy system.
• Only people get things done.
• Any subordinate can come in at any time with any issue, scheduled or not.
• Optimism is a force multiplier. Things will always look better in the morning.
• War is a failure of diplomacy and a failure of politics.
• Even the greatest of all strategies must occasionally take into account the presence of an enemy.
• Prepare to be lonely.
• The church shouldn’t be hijacked by politics.
• All of us have a debt of service that we may never be able to repay.

John Ortberg:

• When was the last time you and your team paused for an extended period of prayer (and maybe even fasting)?
• My shadow mission is my authentic mission hijacked by ego.

Richard Curtis:

• I’ll ruthlessly do the thing that I do to try to rectify this general injustice (HIV/AIDS).

Ian posted pictures here this morning. Give a shout out if your church is also hosting the Summit and have pictures or stories to share.

My personal favorite quotes from today …

Bill Hybels: “Are you an owner or hired hand?” (referring to John 10:11-15)

Carly Fiorina: “There is a gift in everything that happens to you.”

Marcus Buckingham: “A strength is indicated when you do something that makes you feel strong, and you are the greatest authority on what makes you feel strong (not just something you’re good at).”

Will vendors be allowed to come to the Fall 2007 RoundTable?

Yes! Vendors are our partners in ministry. They supply most of the technology we use for ministry. We hope to honor them and show our appreciation for their service. Accordingly, we encourage them to attend, participate fully in all the social times, participate fully in the large group sessions, and observe the roundtable sessions. By “observe,” we mean that vendors will not have a seat at table and will not be permitted to speak, but will be able to attend, listen, and learn. We are doing this because we don’t want the RoundTable to become a captive audience for a sales pitch or a forum for vendor debate.

Unlike the Spring 2007 RoundTable, we will not have vendor presentations. Instead, vendors are especially encouraged to participate fully in the Topic Bazaar, planned for 2.5 hours on the last day of the event. Vendors can host discussions, informally demo their products (using laptops and WiFi – no projectors or display tables), and join in discussions hosted by others. We don’t intend for this to morph into a mini trade show, just an opportunity to delve more deeply into topics that have come up during the roundtable sessions.

We’re expecting 50-80 church IT people and 10-20 vendors to attend. The only cost to vendors is the normal registration fee of $34 per person.

Vendors that would like to sponsor a meal or support the event in any other way should e-mail me: clif.guy at cor dot org. Vendors shouldn’t feel obligated on this at all. It’s just a way to help if they’re so inclined. All sponsorship will be anonymous because we don’t want them to feel any pressure of one-upping each other (like that could happen?!).

And yes, a vendor is a vendor for the purposes of determining who can talk at the roundtable sessions. If you are a consultant or have any kind of product or service to sell to churches, then you’re a vendor. 🙂