Rich Kao

Compliments of Google, we now can do background checks in a whole new way!

A friend advertised on Craigslist for a housekeeper.

Three interesting resumes came to the top. She googled each person's name.

The first search turned up a MySpace page. There was a picture of the applicant, drinking beer from a funnel. Under hobbies, the first entry was, "binge drinking."

The second search turned up a personal blog (a good one, actually). The most recent entry said something like, "I am applying for some menial jobs that are below me, and I'm annoyed by it. I'll certainly quit the minute I sell a few paintings."

And the third? There were only six matches, and the sixth was from the local police department, indicating that the applicant had been arrested for shoplifting two years earlier.

Three for three.

Google never forgets.

Of course, you don't have to be a drunk, a thief or a bitter failure for this to backfire. Everything you do now ends up in your permanent record. The best plan is to overload Google with a long tail of good stuff and to always act as if you're on Candid Camera, because you are.

Pastor Craig Groeschel posted this over at his blog.  I AGREE wholeheartedly with this post, down to every round bullet point he makes.  Not only do I believe what he says here, but we are turbo-charging & re-configuring the small group concept here in Vancouver into IMPACT GROUPS or MICRO-CHURCH PLANTS.  In fact we are framing out a Boot Camp to train up micro-church planters or impact group leaders.   You may want to sign up for one in the future, which also includes an integrated leadership module.

From Craig:

Several of my close pastor friends have recently spoken out against the effectiveness of small groups. Although I have tremendous respect for these men and will always honor them, I disagree with their views of small groups.

I still love small groups because:

• They follow the early church model of meeting in homes.
• They are a tremendous tool for discipleship. I prefer small groups to Wednesday night large group teaching because it gives people a chance to interact. I prefer small groups to Sunday School simply because you don’t have to build the expensive extra classroom space.
• They get more people involved using their gifts of hospitality, teaching, exhortation, etc.
• They engage the body of Christ in pastoral care. Instead of the pastors being the only ones who care for believers, small groups spread the load and utilize gifted lay people.
• They build leaders.
• Done well, they become a tremendous tool of retention. People want to be needed and known. Small groups make both possible.
• They have unlimited meeting space. You can’t run out of homes, restaurants, apartments, or coffee shops in which to meet.
• They have unlimited meeting times. In today’s busy world, a once-a-week discipleship opportunity will not work for the majority of your church. Small groups offer unlimited times to meet.
• They have changed my life. My family’s small group is like our extended family. God has used them to bless us in untold ways.

Here's some helpful stats /tips for church hospitality, promotion and branding.

Big Bag Theory

Promotional bags give your brand repeated exposure and high recall. In 2004, business travelers at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport were asked to answer a 22-question survey by L.J. Market Research.*

The results showed that:

55% of participants kept their promotional products for more than a year.
75% who kept the product thought it was useful.
26% of those who didn’t want to keep the product said they would give it away.

More reasons to choose promotional bags, according to the Advertising Specialty Institute:

9: number of times respondents used promotional bags.
1,038: average number of impressions per month that promotional bags deliver.

Interesting stats!

Me:  I know these stats apply to our family; we reuse bags for our kids lunch pail; this one is our favorite from RW company; a Canadian clothier.

*Source: PPAI

This little interview with DL Hughley is why I love Mark Driscoll. He's witty, funny, honest, unflinching, all the while maintaining biblical integrity about a "hot" topic. In just five minutes, Mark wins over DL, and that's all it takes to become a fan of Mark. You can see why his congregation is 8000 strong in a city where getting eight Christians together is a feat. It's thrilling to see God raise up someone like Mark Driscoll for this generation. (Warning: some of the questions will make you blush, and you may not agree with Mark's answers, but that's not my main pt).

Ok...We're going public with our idea, right here!  This is part post, part an invitation to come and join us.

Part of our strategy in building a "flat & happy" church is to leverage technology and Web 3.0 tools to connect and build community in our church and around the city. Can't build a building? No problem, we have ways.

Whoosh! Introducing our Digital Town Hall concept where our church's internet destination is not a website but a Town Hall, where you can connect with others. Blog away. Twitter hourly. Post pictures. Upload a video. Write a review. Contribute to our Wiki.  Download resources for your impact group. Access training videos. Connect to our online seminary. Find great meetings spots. Listen to a sermon.  Even grab a digital cup of coffee. 

And here's where we need your help.  Calling all programmers, coders, techno-geeks that drink Jolt and eat Doritos for breakfast.  We love you and we need you!  There's awesome new flash and 3D technology emerging, new social media elements and tools, new connectivity arcs we've never seen before, and we'd like to incorporate and meld it into a rocking Town Hall site. 

Pay?  Zero.  This is a revolution. 

Move to Vancouver?  You don't need to...we'll do this work colloboratively across time zones and countries if we need to. 

Upside?  Bragging rights to being part of a cross-functional, grass roots, multi-time zone, cross-generational, inter-disciplinary, transnational team that builds the first ever Digital Town Hall that could be used as a pattern for other organizations, businesses, NGO's, universities and more around the world.  We might actually get rich together!

If you're interested, email me at richkao@shaw.ca.  If you know of someone that would be interested, send them this post.  If you want to post it in your local Craigs' list city, go for it.  

Let the revolution begin.  

Let it be said it started with you!