Tory Farina

How do you set up?

I feel like I have been in one of those twilight zone movies... Where you are taken from your current situation and given a glimpse of yourself a few years down the road. We spent the weekend with about 10 other church planting pastors at Next Level Church.  The pastor couples that were their all came from similar size and aged churches. We all hit it off like we were long lost friends. I felt like a soldier meeting another soldier who understood the battles I faced and we could look at one another nod and know we were known.

The peeps in attendance where...
Fusion Church- pastors Nathan and Lisa Camp- Orlando, FL.
Go Church- pastors Barry and Christina Rice- Orlando, FL.
Family Life Church- Pastors Dan and Stephanie Stauffer- Succasunna, NJ.
Destiny Church- Pastors Terry and Tracy Jimmerson- Las Vegas, NV.
Networks Church- Pastors Andrew and Karen Fortner- Lee's Summit, MO
The Well- Pastors Todd and Gena Lugli- Solvang, CA
DC Metro Church- Pastors David and Taryn Stine- Washington, DC.

We spent the weekend going through Next levels way. We were able to ask any question and look in every crack and crevasse. Here are my observations...

• Churches are like people... no one is perfect but all are unique and are gifted in spectacular ways.
• Next level does church really well.
• They have a very organized system.
• the way they do set up challenges me. They are all about the lazy man paradigm. how would a lazy man do it? He wouldn't lift more then he should, he would do it in as few steps as possible, he would do as few trips as possible. Sounds like a winning way for volunteers.
• I posted an album of pictures from our visit. they may not al make sense but for our team it will.
• Matt Keller is the man... He thinks about things so different that it challenges you to reprocess things. I love it. He shared a thing about how to get over the comparison virus... WOW! life changing!
• We at High Point are kicking everything we do up a whole nutha level! we are going to push hard this fall... lots, LOTS, LOTS to do! but by our 3rd anniversary in January we will be a better church!
• My biggest take away is that being with these guys gave me permission to break out of the way I and the church have been going and take things up a notch.
• We had a sweet prayer time at the end and God spoke a word through Matt over me that I feel was right on. I am living it out to the fullest.
• High Points best days are ahead of us!
• The way they do their music... WOW... Josh their creative pastor is so like Courtney... I am totally connecting them because they run in a totally similar vain.
• E and I saw a model of ministry that fits how we work in Matt and his wife Sara. She is the CFO he is the CEO... I like it... You will see E and I become more specialized and complementary to one another's gifting.

All in all this was a fenom trip. Short... tiring... but good.

I posted some pictures of their set up. Pastors... If you have pictures from your set up process you think are good... post a link in the comments and Ill check it out. If it is good Ill leave the comment up.

Church Resources tool kit...

Jason Bedell (Forefront’s Creative Arts Pastor) has hijacked Vince Antonucci’s blog this week. Today he posted a really impressive list of church resources. Check this out!

Forefront Series Stuff
Forefront Series Graphics: http://tinyurl.com/4ofghg
Forefront Series Videos: http://tinyurl.com/43d44w

Church Resource Websites
CreativeMYK http://www.creativemyk.com/
Open Resources http://www.openresources.org/
The Vine http://vineresources.com/
Muddy River Media http://www.muddyrivermedia.org/
Fourty One Twenty http://www.fortyonetwenty.com
Igniter Media http://www.ignitermedia.com
Eleven 72 http://www.eleven72.com
Lifechurch Resources http://open.lifechurch.tv
Newspring Resources http://www.newspringonline.com/
Granger Resources http://www.wiredchurches.com

Photo Websites
Flickr http://www.flickr.com
Stock Photo http://www.istockphoto.com/
Stock Photo Xchange http://www.sxc.hu
Corbis Photos http://www.corbis.com
Shutterstock http://www.shutterstock.com

Presentation Software
Pro Presenter http://www.propresenter.com
ProWorship (formerly iWorship) http://www.renovatiosw.com/
Media Shout http://www.mediashout.com
Easy Worship http://www.easyworship.com
Power Point http://office.microsoft.com/powerpoint
Keynote http://www.apple.com/iwork/keynote

Blogs I Read for Creativity, Pop Culture, Media, Church Trends
MTV News http://www.mtv.com/news/
Spray Graphics http://spraygraphics.com/
Web Urbanist http://weburbanist.com/
Delicious Daily Photos http://picurls.com/
Ragamuffin Soul http://www.ragamuffinsoul.com
Collide Blog http://www.collidemagazine.com/blog
Relevant Blog http://relevantmagazine.com/releblog/
Rolling Stone http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily
Churchy Media http://churchymedia.tumblr.com
Terry Storch http://www.terrystorch.com
Church Marketing Sucks http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com
Church 2.0 http://church20.blogspot.com
Church Video Ideas http://churchvideoideas.com

Free Video Hosting Websites
Ustream http://www.ustream.com
YouTube http://www.youtube.com
Vimeo http://www.vimeo.com
Viddler http://www.viddler.com
MySpaceTV http://vids.myspace.com
Jumpcut http://www.jumpcut.com
Vidilife http://vidilife.com

Photo Editing Software
Photoshop http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/index.html
Gimp (free for Mac, free work around install for windows) http://www.gimp.org/
Live Quartz (free for Mac) http://www.rhapsoft.com/

Video Editing
Handbrake (free mac dvd ripping software) http://handbrake.fr/
Adobe Premiere Pro http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/
Final Cut Pro http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/finalcutpro/
Final Cut Express http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/
Ulead Media Studio http://www.ulead.com/msp/runme.htm
Tooble (free Youtube capture for PC/Mac) http://tooble.tv/index.php?page=download
Replay AV 8 (youtube capture for PC) http://www.applian.com/replay-av/index.php
iMovie (comes with Mac OS) http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/
Windows Movie Maker (comes with Windows) http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/moviemaker2.mspx

Countdown Creators for Pre-Service
Countdown Maker (Mac) http://trimonix.com/countdown-maker
Countdown Creator (PC) http://www.thecountdowncreator.com/

I forgot one great thought...

I forgot to share with you something that was told to me about starting something from nothing. I was told that Entrepreneurs live in a delusional world...

• They think there project will be easier than it really will be
• They think that it will be faster growing than it initially is
• They think that it will cost less than it actually does

The interesting thing about this is that the fact that it is harder, more costly and with less results initially drives you to work harder and to push the envelope of innovation. It is like a train that is slow to get going but once it is going it charges forward. It was true for me. And so have the results been. We raised more money prelaunch than I originally expected and we now have a healthy vibrant church. But in the early days it felt like it was just E and I selling a dream that would never be. It is and we are so Proud of what God has done.

And your local FORECAST is...

Forecast...

Every night I hear a three not tune that tells me to pay attention and listen because i am about to find out what to expect outside tomorrow. It is great my favorite weather person gives me all the things i need to know about in a few minute time span. I then am able to tune out and get back to what I was doing before.

I sat at lunch today with a new team member Chad. He is a highly skilled sound technician and was a strong support to a youth ministry for a number of years in town. He is a youth major in college and has aspirations to be vitally involved in the work of the church. He said something to me today that made e think...

"I would love to know what is coming up next so that I can be prepared and think ahead. I am always thinking of great ideas about what you are talking about and cool things we could do as a church to reinforce the message while your talking."

So I says to myself... "Self, if Chad is asking this questions who else in the church is wanting to know whats coming up in order to partner with the future vision." I then heard three notes in my head that sounded very similar to the weather persons three notes.

Forecast! DUH! I have told you things are coming but I can forcast better what is on the horizan and give you more details...

check back more often and I will let you know what is coming up next!

Either memory overtakes imagination or Imagination over takes memory

Either memory overtakes imagination or Imagination over takes memory!

Think about that for a moment... It is why churches after 30 years of one leader are dying. It is why businesses lose market share. It is the essence of age. I think that if you're imagination is overtaking your memory then you are young no matter how old you are. I think if your imagination is overtaking memory you will be a success and you will live by faith and take risks and live LARGE.

God may I be captivated by your imagination and never live in the memorials of my past.

Lets imagine a better future where we are holding on for dear life wondering what is at the end of the rapids we are on. I love that quote!

Standards

This has been on my mind lately. Everyone should know what a Win is and what a Loss is. In business we have goals based on last year and foot traffic. In agriculture it is easy because we have a good sized crop or you don’t. In the ministry I find two camps to this. One group doesn’t want to nail down specific measurable goals and standards and the other does. I don’t know why you wouldn’t. Last year we had x many in Connection Groups; x much in the offering; x many individual givers, x many children… and so on. We then have to make an assumption based on Christ commission to GO! And expect and evaluate growth. If no growth is present than we ask why? And if it is Growth is not present for a season… How do we change it?

I planted

High Point

with an awesome Team and a co-Pastor who I love dearly. We set goals and standards. We made radical changes often in order to meet those Standards. We also reevaluated those standards and goals based on reality and adjusted them. Some things we did not hit. I wish we had but other areas, we more than hit. The result is that we worked our tails off pushing for a Win.

And we are winning. Our LY is up 30% in attendance… Giving is up as well. Connection groups have doubled.

High Point

is pushing forward. So as we think towards fall what is next for us? How many will come to know Christ? How many kids will fill our theatres? I don’t know but I am beginning to set out some goals and standards that I want us to meet. There are some areas of Growth we need to see happen In order to see success in our Eyes. I think back to the Parable of the talents. I want to be one of the two who doubled what God has given me. So I pray that he will honor and speak to us as we plan for his Kingdom to be expanded.

The Myth

Hey I had an idea not long ago… I was wanting to hold on to it in case we got ambitious but thought this might be fun to share.

What about doing church at the Myth night club http://www.mythnightclub.com ?

I think it could be awesome they have private VIP rooms I was thinking could work for kids… and the sound… WOW! Lights anyone? Built in! all you need is chairs.

There is no one using it on Sunday mornings and people city wide know where it is.  (Church at the Myth)

Just a thought...