The opening session this morning featured Vince Antonucci, lead pastor of Forefront Church in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Vince is also author of I became a Christian and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt. Vince spoke on God's passion for the lost and developing that same passion in all of us. Eric Olson and the worship team from Mountain Christian Church lead worship. It was a great session. Vince will soon be leaving his current position to plant a church on the Las Vegas strip. To find out more about the plant and Vince's passion for the most broken and lost, check out TheVegasProject.Com.
There were also a number of excellent Workshops hosted throughout the day. I hosted Building Church Infrastructure:
Church leadership is consistently challenged with addressing the internal issues of staff, planning, human resources, finance, information technology, and other functions of the church. Developing the infrastructure to accomplish these functions must be a primary leadership concern.
It was very interesting. There were more than 25 people in the room to hear my "2 cents worth" on the topic.
I very practically boiled it down to these 5 steps:
Adopt the Philosophy
Agree On and Use a "Structured Approach"
Develop a Plan
Execute the Plan
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
Additionally, today was day 2 for Executive Pastor Online's booth in the exhibit area. Many have stopped by to check out the site and talk to me about the vision for the site. I think we had the best candy in the room, which didn't hurt anything!
Well, day 1 of the Eastern Christian Convention has come to a close. What a day! I must say the convention's leadership has done a great job this year!
Good music and great speaking in the main session was the highlight of the day. I started the day with the privledge of sharing our relationship with the Church Development Fund (CDF). The CDF sponsors LeaderShape 2008, a leadership teaching forum that takes place on the Friday before the start of the convention. Since the CDF was unable to be here this year, they asked that I stand in for them to speak to the group about the CDF and its ministry to churches that need land purchase and building construction financing. It only took me about 10 minutes. I hope I did a good job inspiring the group to invest in the CDF, helping them to help churches to accomplish their missions to reach the lost.
I'm very happy to report that our video team won the "Best Promotional Video" award during the Videopalooza contest. We were treated to a viewing of all the entries tonight. There were a bunch of good ones.
Here's our winning entry ...
The award is a really nice, brand new bottle of Mrs. Butter-Worth's syrup. I can't wait to let the team know they now have this awesome award.
Over the last several weeks, I’ve been occupied with preparing for this year’s Eastern Christian Convention. I’m helping out at the Exhibits Chairperson. I am also leading a workshop on Building Church Infrastructure.
If you are a church leader in the northeast, you should plan to attend. You need to act quickly, though, it’s this weekend!
With the economy being what it is, the Executive Pastors I network with have discussed cost cutting actions with each other at length. We were recently asked how publically staff cutting should be communicated.
Here's part of my response:
I can tell you that whenever we’ve faced financial issues we’ve done so very publically. Lack of funds to cover “the plan” is a congregational issue (not a staff or leadership issue). Therefore, we go to the congregation (usually via a letter from our Senior Pastor) to make them aware of issues and our plan for resolution. Although, we have never had to cut staff and have always been understaffed, it would probably be via a letter like this that we would make the congregation aware that “cutting staff” is part of our plan (as a church – everyone owning the situation together) to make expenses match expected income.
The bottom line is that as leaders in the church we must never forget that the church as a whole (staff and congregation) is responsible for meeting the financial need. When the need isn't being met and expenses have to be cut, everyone must understand and bear the burden together. We must rely on God and each other to sustain the ministry.
Kevin's Blog 
Additionally, today was day 2 for Executive Pastor Online's booth in the exhibit area. Many have stopped by to check out the site and talk to me about the vision for the site. I think we had the best candy in the room, which didn't hurt anything!