Rich Kao

By Rick Warren - June 28. 2007
Here’s a list of some simple things we do that almost any church can do:

1. Mention the value, purpose and benefits of baptism regularly in sermons.
2. Videotape some of your baptisms. Prepare a music video of baptisms to show in your worship service so people who’ve never seen a baptism can witness one.
3. Have clothes ready for people who decide spontaneously to be baptized after a service.
4. Make it a party atmosphere. It’s a celebration, not a funeral. Applaud baptisms!
5. Invite small group members to witness the baptism and identify them before each baptism.
6. Prepare a beautiful leatherette-bound baptism folder to hold their certificate.
7. Have a required membership class that explains the meaning or baptism in detail.
8. Always baptize on special days when relatives may be in town – Christmas, Mother’s Day, New Year’s Eve, etc.
9. Always baptize on special days of the church. (We baptized over 400 on the day we opened our Worship Center.)
10. Allow entire families (after confirming that all are believers) to enter the pool together.
11. Hug each person after they have been baptized!
12. Interview all candidates at the water’s edge to hear their story of how Jesus changed them.
13. Build a Baptism Team of volunteers who assist with all baptisms. Have matching shirts to identify the Baptism Team and the pastors leading the service.
14. Have a professional photographer there to capture the moment and include a picture of their baptism along with their certificate of baptism.
15. Print a “Why Be Baptized?” brochure. Use scriptures and lots of testimonies.
16. Put the brochure information, baptism pictures, and even videos of baptisms on your website, so people can forward it to others.
17. Have pre-printed invitations for the baptism candidates to use in inviting lost friends and relatives to a service and to witness their baptism.
18. Make the baptism pool and surrounding area beautiful and inviting and non-threatening. (Many baptisms are perched up so high inside the church that it feels distant and disconnected. Our baptism pool is outside in our patio area so people can gather up close around it for a more intimate feeling.)
19. After the baptism service encourage people to go out afterwards for coffee or dessert to celebrate and find out what the experience meant to the person baptized and to the family and friends who watched it.
20. Publicize the baptisms with posters around your church. Elicit “one line” testimonies from people who have been baptized, take an 8×10 photo of that person, and mount their photo and quote on a 2’x3’ foam board sign. Put this on a tri-pod in a visible area after the service where people can sign-up to be baptized.
21. Have all small groups get people in their group to sign up in the group for the next baptism.
22. Identify and celebrate other special moments at the water’s edge (birthdays, anniversaries, spiritual birthdays, etc.)
23. Train your Baptism Team volunteers to greet and make everyone comfortable.
24. Provide a sound system that will allow spectators gathered to hear the testimonies.
25. Always have the baptism pool warm and chlorinated before services.
26. Have a corporate prayer of celebration at the end of each service to thank God for those baptized.
27. Sing a great chorus or hymn about the power of God to change someone’s life.
28. During warmer weather offer baptisms at the beach or lake or slow-flow river.
29. Develop a “Baptism Party in a Box” kit that includes ideas for a family party following baptism.
30. Have outdoor heaters if you baptize outdoors in the winter.
31. Set up good lighting if you baptize outside after evening services.
32. Have hand towels available as a gift with the church’s logo as a memory keeper.
33. Ask each small group in your church to take a week where each person shares their baptism experience and what it did for their Christian life.
34. Use banners and signs the week prior to baptisms to draw interest, especially beach or lake baptisms.
35. Build a baptism service into an extended spiritual growth campaign (like Saddleback’s Millennium Member Campaign). Build on momentum.
36. Constantly emphasize baptism as the next step after committing your life to Christ. Have sign-ups everywhere.
37. Give a follow-up booklet, a button, and a free gift for those who obey Christ’s command to be baptized.
38. Have a special Christian’s baptism class as a requirement for baptizing children. Insist that at least one parent attend with their child.
39. When baptizing grade school children, have the baptizing pastor hold their hands lifted high after they come out of the water, like you would with a winner in game.
40. Address Frequently Asked Questions in a brochure they can walk away with, and deal personally with every fear or hang-up about baptism.

Do these 40 things and the number of people wanting to publicly demonstrate their faith through baptism will rise dramatically.

Pastor Rick,  Saddleback Church

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I just picked this post up from Guy Kawasaki's site...it's a link about the next level in video conferencing: holographic video conferencing.  My mind is reeling...click on the youtube frame at the end of this entry to see it in action.  Besides the obvious real-time ability to conference, meet, and never get on an airplance again (as Guy says in his blog), what about real time training in covert places?  what about doing evangelistic crusades?  What about virtual holographic classrooms?  What about church services with a "holographic preacher" in multiple locations?  This is freaky.  It's amazing.  Obviously, the technology is hugely expensive and inaccessible to the regular public now, but just like the genesis of any nascent new technology (computers, desktop publishing, telephony, etc), it will only be a matter of time before we'll get a crack at utilizing these tools ourselves for the Kingdom.

See Holographic Video conferencing in action. Comments?  What do you guys think?

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I want to be a fruitful Christian.

Well-known pastor Bill Hybels once stated the most difficult discipline of a leader is leading oneself, or "self-leadership."  Then recently, in the area of discipleship, Mr. Hybels stated one of the most important ingredients to discipleship is "self-feeding." There is something about discipline that can easily get away from us.  As Jesus said, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

One of the ways I encourage myself in my walk is to regularly, almost daily visit Peter's path to spiritual maturity in 2 Peter 1:4-8  (see post in Leadership Skill category "Making Disciples the Peter Way.").  This is literally my grid for self-governance. 

I do several things to personalize and knead this passage into my life.

1st,

I've commited Peter's path to memory.  I know all eight qualities needed to become a growing, fruitful Christian, in the order that Peter states it.  This allows me to reflect on the eight qualities whenever I need to without having to refer to my bible.

2nd, I judge myself against these qualities to see how I'm doing.  Yes, I judge myself - to discern the good and the evil in me; to chastise myself or encourage myself.  Mind you, when I say I judge myself, I mean that I'm doing it as best as I can in the spirit of prayer, and in the presence of God, so it's He who is judging me, and not myself.  And when I say "chastise" myself, I'm not referring to self-effort or works, but a spurning on of myself in the light of God.

3rd, I remind myself to trust in the process.  Like King David said in Ps. 1, "like a tree planted by water that yields its fruit in it's season"...I need to be patient with the process. Because God's word has given us these words of life, I need not fear they won't work, but rather they will work spectacularly if I just rest in it. 

4th, I try to connect each of the eight words to the larger framework of the bible, to other doctrines, meta-themes, bible characters, and lessons to deepen my understanding.

This I can say...as I've given myself to this path of "discipling myself," there is like a wall of strength that grows around me.  There is deepening of Jesus' character in my life.  If I tend to the seed, it's impossible that the fruit won't come out. I can begin to sense the apostolic authority inherent in Peter's words.  To have a way to be successful as a Christian, experientially and not just positionally, fills me with gratitude and deep joy. 

It all begins with diligence. 

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Pastors have to work hard.  Thankfully, my upbringing (what was modeled to me by my parents), my work experience in the marketplace and my academic years conditioned and trained me to work hard.  I enjoy working hard, because I'm energized by it.

What do I do to be efficient and productive?  I've come to realize that my time management practices are not really time management habits, but energy management practices.  

Here's what I do and it may help you.

1st, my schedule and what I need to get done is dictated by two things:  deadlines and lists.   These are what set my boundaries.  I have a list of what needs to get done, and I know by when.  To keep these lists, I use post-it notes, my PDA, entourage, napkins, business cards, and scraps pieces of paper.  Then every 3-4 days, I aggregate them onto a central written list.  I guess I have the ability to keep track of where all the pieces of information are.  Here's why I use so many ways to keep notes (as opposed to one catch-all for everything) -- my days and activities are too varied to always carry one form of information trap.  I can't always be near my computer, I can't always have a note pad with me, I can't always use my cell phone/PDA; people give me info rather than me interviewing them for it; and it's more natural at times to get information in the flow of the moment; e.g. someone writes a new phone number on their business card.

2nd, I sort my to do list by what will energize me or de-energize me while keeping in my head the big picture of all the deadlines I need to meet.  I don't actually "sort" or "rank" my list as some time management guru's tell you to do; I actually just pick off the things on my list based on the flow of my day, my mood, and what is fun for me so it'll set me up emotionally for intensive tasks on the list. 

Here's my current to do list and how I process each item:

    > change hotel reservation for family vacation (will take some telephone time, waiting, talking, wait till kids not around so won't be interrupted)

    > book airline ticket to Chapel Hill; will be officiating a wedding; do it online, again when have 15 minutes of uninterrupted time.

    > finish preparing talking points for leadership retreat tomorrow.  Will finish it tonight when kids are in bed, but will be thinking about it through today until tonight; may jot key thoughts down on scrap pieces of paper.  Will finalize thoughts in a word document, print and staple agenda for tomorrow.  Printing and stapling is putzy, but mindless and helps me relax and wind down for the evening.

    >  get paint quote (not looking forward to this; need to call multiple places to arrange appts to see the house); do it when have 30 minute block of time and no one around.

    > set up meeting with church member to go over testimony - call tomorrow during free time

    > ministry to the Lord (this is pastor speak); looking forward to this time of ministering to God; will do it tonight before I go to bed; wife may already be asleep; this is one of my favorite times of the day - no distractions by anyone, just peace and quiet and joy before the Lord.

    > frame out sermon thoughts for next few message; do this progressively this week (more breathing room this week as don't need to preach on Sunday)

>  Emails galore!  Respond immediately to those that don't require any forethought; flag those that need longer response and circle back with reply after drafting responses in my head; I may be juggling 5-6 e-mail responses in my head at any one time.  Key is going back to my "red flags" to make sure I complete my response to everyone.  I hate it when people don't respond to my e-mails, so I make it a point to respond to people as quickly as  I can.  If I can't get back soon, I e-mail them to manage their expectations as to when they can expect a response.

"Random" tasking leads to high energy level

If I were to follow the typical time management principles, I'd probably do my sermon notes first, prepare for my leadership retreat second, minister to the Lord third, and take care of the knick-knack stuff last.  But in fact that's not what I do - it doesn't work for my mental juices to just plow through them sequentially.  I need breathing room, thinking room, space to veg out, and then time to be focused and intense, so I work through the list "randomly" based on what's fun, what will energize me and thus get me fueled for the intensive tasks.  It's all about creating the right ebb and flow within the framework of discipline and responsibility (deadlines).  This is what allows me to feel "refreshed" and energized by my work!

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