Greg Atkinson is a consultant, friend and partner with a select group of strategic partnerships. Greg works with these partner companies (listed in alphabetical order) and encourages you to contact him at greg@gregatkinson.com for more information on how we can be a resource to your church. Click on the logos to go to the company website.

• Greg is Director of Creative Strategy and works as a consultant with BigBadCollab and churches to create innovative technologies for the Kingdom. Currently Greg is helping churches develop a tool for assimilation and discipleship with next steps for spiritual growth. If your church would like a web-based tool like this, contact Greg. We also do custom websites, logos and complete branding consulting and implementation.

• We focus on your finances. You focus on your church. We’ve created a web-based system that allows your church to outsource all aspects of day-to-day financial management. Greg is also available for financial consulting for your church or organization.

• HelpStaff.me is a church staffing company. If your church is looking for a new staff member or you’re a church leader looking for a new ministry position, contact Greg. Many organizations have hired employees to fill needs without having a master plan for their organizational goals and growth. HELPSTAFF.ME can do an overall assessment and help you set up your staffing more effiiently and effectively. Again, contact Greg for more info.

• TruthCasting creates custom iPhone apps for your church. Greg is your connection to this amazing mobile resource.

The following post is from Herbert Cooper’s blog. Herbert Cooper is Senior Pastor of People’s Church in Oklahoma City. I thought it was worth reposting. I’m working with the staffing company he mentions (HelpStaff.me) as a consultant and strategic partner. Take a look at his tips and add your own in the comment section.
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Over the past year, I have learned so much about hiring the right people. Here are some things that I have learned.

1. Take your time. Seriously, be patient. Don’t settle! It really is best to leave the position unfilled than to fill it with the wrong person.

2. Look inside your church for the person. After you’ve looked hard, look again because the right person could be sitting in your church every Sunday.

3. Ask the sharpest and most qualified people in your church to join your team. If they say no, ask them again and again. We do!

4. Bring on a firm that can help you find the right person for your team. I have used Helpstaff.me, and they have been awesome to work with. Justin and his team have helped us fill two positions. Justin has become a good friend of mine. Let him know that I told you to contact him and he may show you some extra love.

5. The best predictor of future performance is past performance.

6. If there is a sign of a lack of integrity, steer clear. You can’t teach integrity. Trust me, I’ve tried before and it didn’t work.

7. Figure out if you need a starter or a maintainer to fill the position. Most, maybe all, of the leadership positions at PC require starters.

8. Figure out if you need a leader or a manager to fill the position. PC thrives with leaders, not managers.

9. Test people. We give lots of tests to people to figure out as much about them as we can. This has been very helpful to us.

10. Have multiple people interview a person.

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If your church is searching for a new staff member, contact me and let us help! If you’re a church leader looking for a new position, same thing – contact me and I’ll take care of you. I’m here to serve the Church.

I promise (I think) this is the last one. I do have a blog prepared on a totally different subject tomorrow (leadership). The last 2 posts (Lifehouse and this one) have come from your comments. I thought your suggestions were too good to go unnoticed.

In today’s video/song, one of my favorite bands, Death Cab for Cutie, ends their live concert with Transatlanticism. Thanks to Michael for reminding me of this piece of musical genius. Notice that the electric guitar plays his first soft strum at 1:50 in. The drummer sits with his arms in his lap for the first 3 minutes! At 3 and 1/2 minutes in he starts to lighting play his cymbal and kick.

At about 4 and 1/2 minutes in, the lead singer (Benjamin Gibbard) switches from keys to guitar. At about 5 minutes in you get to experience a band truly letting a song breathe – it’s wonderful. If you’ll notice: from about 4 minutes to 6 minutes there are no vocals – just instruments building (this is what I was referring to in my post about Owl City and the future of worship music – Selah moments).

At about 7 minutes in the drummer builds to where he’s beating the fool out of the drums and then right at 7:36 he drops out – again reinforcing what I said here about players knowing when to drop out. Watch and enjoy!

My hope is that worship leaders will drink this (and the last 4 posts) in. Wrap your brain and heart around the philosophy of letting music build, breathe and taking dynamics seriously. Send my blog links to your band members. Ask them to watch the videos, take notes and use it for a launching pad of discussion that you can have at your next rehearsal.

If you’re a band member in a local church band, show this to your worship leader and other band members. If you’re a pastor or church leader, pass this on to your worship pastor. Let’s raise the bar in our worship leadership and strive for a creativity and beauty that is worthy of our Creator.

Today’s example of great musicianship is brought in part because of one of the comments made by Trae earlier in the week. I absolutely love this song and love using it in worship, but it had slipped my mind. Trae brought it back to my attention.

This will close this week out. This is Lifehouse singing/playing “Everything” live in Amsterdam. Please notice how long the song takes to build. The band doesn’t come in strong until 4 minutes in!

As Trae said, one of my friends and favorite worship leaders, Michael Bleecker of the The Village Church (where Matt Chandler is Lead Pastor) does this song the best of anyone I’ve heard lead it. I used to play this song with a band I was in every Tuesday night that led worship for 20 somethings/singles and college age. I would often request that we play this or just start playing the intro and let the band jump in with me. Enjoy!

Not sure how this translates to worship? Watch this video of a drama performed to Lifehouse’s “Everything”. I’ve blogged about this before. I can not watch this without crying every time – it’s amazing.

The first time I realized the power of withholding the drums until just the right moment was in Phil Collins’ genius song “In The Air Tonight”. That’s when I “got it”. The following is a video of him playing this live in his Farewell Tour (I have this DVD – because Phil Collins is a musical hero to me). You know you love it! Is there anything cooler than when the drums kick in?

I hope the point is getting across. Let music build. Let it grow. Let it breathe. Leave space. Know when NOT to play. The musicians and bands that I’ve featured the last few days get it – it’s time the Church got it. I know some of you get this – but unfortunately, the majority of the Church (big “C”) doesn’t.

Do you have any other great examples? And yes, I know Mercy Me opened their Live DVD concert with their arrangement of “In the Air Tonight”. I loved it. You can watch that HERE.

Yesterday I expressed my personal opinions about music, dynamics and letting a song build. I said that the quickest way to spot an amateur player is to see him playing the whole song. A real musician knows when to not play.

One of my favorite bands is Coldplay. Today I thought I’d show you Coldplay playing “Fix You” (one of my favorite songs) Live from Tokyo. In this video, notice the bass comes in at 0:51, the guitar comes in very lightly at around 1:20 and drums come in with a driving electric guitar at about 2:44 (like yesterday almost 3 minutes into the song!) . You’ll notice the drummer often has his arms crossed or his hands in his lap – again a sign of  a pro. Like yesterday, both bands also know when to drop out at the end. Enjoy!

I can’t embed it, but also check out the same song (“Fix You”) Live from Austin City Limits HERE.

Continuing with the theme of worship music (yes, I’m focusing on worship leaders for a bit), I’d like to talk about one of the most beautiful parts of music: dynamics. Dynamics are the ebb and flow/highs and lows of music.

As you know, I travel quite a bit and visit/work with a lot of churches. One of the most common problems with church praise bands (and also easiest to fix) is this issue of dynamics. Most church praise bands play too much. They play all the time (from beginning to end) – which is another way of saying they’re too busy – and they don’t let the music build. Like I said yesterday, music needs space – it needs to breathe.

If you’re  a worship pastor that leads a band and you let your musicians play 100% all the time, you’re dropping the ball (you know I like to shoot straight). I mentioned that when I visit churches I often look for a laptop on stage. But one of the first things I look for is who is not playing. The difference between an amateur musician and a professional is knowing when not to play. It’s the whole “less is more” thing that I always preach.

Maybe this is something that your church band struggles with. Maybe you have a pianist that used to be “the band” and is used to playing the full 100% of the music. Now that a guitar, bass and drums are added in, she doesn’t know that her role must decrease and she must adjust the amount of action or busyness that she plays with in order to allow the other instruments to equal to 100%. This is what I call the 100% rule. You only have 100% to divide up – any one player can’t play like the 100% is up to him/her.

Let’s get practical: Often to make a point, I will go to the extreme. I used to do this with my camera operators and video directors all the time. When working with church bands, I will often ask players to “sit out” or restrain from playing for a LONG period of time – in order to get the point across.

One of the best songs I’ve used to teach this to countless people is “My Immortal” by Evanescence. I want you to watch this video twice. The first time just enjoy it and be moved by the song. The second time, look at it more technically.

As you’ll notice, the high-hat comes in at about 2:43 and the full band kicks in (hard) at about 3:07. If you missed that, the band doesn’t come in until 3 minutes into the song. This is a song and video that you can download from iTunes and play for your church band in order to drive this point home. The song is moving and powerful because of how long the rest of the band waits to come in. The song would be ruined if the band was playing the entire time (which again, is what happens with most church bands).

Take this lesson seriously. Learn and grow from it. Go to extremes with your band if you have to. Let the music build. Your congregation will thank you.

In July of 2008 I was speaking to a group of Church leaders in Santa Cruz, California. I held my phone (this was just before I got my iPhone) up in my hand and I said, “This is the future.”

It’s been a year and a half and mobile technology is the “now”, not the future. My friend, Bobby Gruenwald, Innovation Pastor at LifeChurch.tv, constantly encourages his staff to think global and mobile – global and mobile.

I’m currently working with churches and organizations on helping them to create, dream and plan strategies around mobile technology. Your people are constantly becoming one with their phone (for good or bad) and it’s a reality that we need to be intentional about speaking their language. Again, as I’ve said before: we are digital missionaries.

As you know, I work often as a Secret Shopper/Mystery Worshiper. The first thing I check is the church’s website. The second thing I do is pull up their website on my iPhone. I have recommended several times that church’s follow the lead of Seacoast Church and get a mobile version of their website. I applaud and praise Seacoast for blazing a trail in this area. My hat’s off to my friend Shawn Wood and his team. Well done! If you have your phone handy (and I know you do) – pull up Seacoast’s website on it.

My church (and many others) send out text messages to attenders and members that opt in. My church also encourages you to text in questions and decisions that you may make as a response to the message. Many churches are utilizing text and SMS during services as an interactive piece. As I’ve blogged about before, many churches are using the free service from YouVersion Live.

I’ll be talking more in the near future about other mobile strategies and tools. In the meantime, if you and your church would like to strategize and put together a comprehensive plan that includes Web 2.0 tools, mobile technology, social media and social networking – give me a shout. My only goal is to help and equip you to speak the language of the people you’re trying to reach (digital missionaries).

I’m currently booking secret shopper visits for January, February and March. I’ve got one scheduled (at a secret location) for January 24th, but all my other Sundays are free so far. I hope you’ll budget to bring me in this new year and let me help you do what you do better.

Since the year 2000 I’ve kept my eye on Granger Community Church – after being introduced to them at the Purpose Driven Conference. I’ve respected their pastor and talented staff for their willingness to do whatever it takes to reach people and do it with a sense of excellence and innovation. I subscribe to their WiredChurches.com newsletter and hope you do, too.

I’ve never blogged about one of their newsletters before, but this one got my attention. As a secret shopper/mystery worshiper, I can’t stress how important what Mark shares is. Read on…

Excerpt from becausepeoplematter.com | by Mark Waltz

Self-disclosure #1: Pretty much any building I enter – restaurant, airport, mall, church, museum, store, your house – I’m looking for a restroom. There aren’t too many homes with signage for bathrooms, but then again, I generally know the host, so I can ask.

When a new guest comes to your church, they’re likely to look for one of three things (maybe all three):

• restroom
• children’s center
• auditorium or worship center

Self-disclosure #2: When we opened our new auditorium at Granger Community a few years ago, we were strategic and careful about where signage was placed and just what it communicated. However, I recently toured our building with my guest services coaches and we made some disappointing discoveries. Some signage is too busy with font that’s too small to read without standing still. Some signage has been added in recent months and secondary bulkhead hides it. Other signage uses our
in-house language that may not be all that helpful to our guests.

So, when hanging signage, ask:

• What are guests really looking for? Is a sign with an arrow to the recycle bin really all that helpful or necessary?
• If this sign were hanging in an airport would guests see it as they rush to catch a plane? If not, make the sign bigger (if your church is smaller, think smaller airport…but think about people reading signage as they move).
• Will people understand what “churchutopia” means? Or would it be better to simply say,
  “Kids’ Center”?

Hang a sign. And hang it effectively.

Learn more from Mark about creating WOW First Impressions and Lasting Impressions at Granger Thursday-Friday, November 12-13. Bring your team for $119/person.