You are here: Home / Archives for The Barry Blog

Really……..A Christmas Tree Controversy?

December 12, 2011 By 2 Comments
Christmas Tree

Like most people now a days, I am on Facebook a lot. Lately, I have been seeing post after post after post about the Christmas Tree, which has kind of baffled me. Most of these posts are in regards to changing the name of a Christmas Tree to a Holiday Tree, and the posts typically have A LOT OF ALL CAPS WRITING in them demanding that a Christmas Tree be called.........well, a Christmas Tree. They usually go on to say something about CHRISTmas or something along those lines as well. I say, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Faith, Opinion, The Barry Blog Tagged With: , , ,

The Table

November 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment
table

Do you attend Granger Community Church? Have you taken your seat at The Table yet? Don't know what The Table is? The Table is a new way for the people that attend Granger Community Church (GCC) to connect and grow.  GCC is a big place, The Table gives you away to make it smaller by connecting with one another either one by one or in groups. It's pretty cool and if you attend GCC, you really need to check it out! The thing that immediately grabbed me, was the prayer wall. As I scrolled … [Read more...]

Filed Under: The Barry Blog Tagged With: ,

Discovering Similarities and Beautifying Differences, Ted Bryant

September 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment
AND

We have all wondered how to serve both our "typical" kids AND those on the fringes.  Discovering Similarities and Beautifying Differences, by Ted Bryant, talked about this during the Elective #8 breakout session today. He talked about how GCC partners with families to train up children to trust, love and serve God. It is important when welcoming new children to the kids ministry, that we make both the parents and children welcome to the ministry. Be excited that they are there, praise the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: AND Conference, Faith, The Barry Blog Tagged With: , , ,

Utilizing Volunteers to Fill Traditional Staff Roles

September 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment
2011-09-23_10-06-27_3

As much as the church wants to, the church knows that it can't have a staff member for every role. So what does it look like to empower and engage volunteers in high capacity roles? Don Reynolds, Kim Volheim, Shari Wolfgang and Tammy Michael broach the topic of  "Utilizing Volunteers to Fill Traditional Staff Roles" Granger Community Church has learned that certain roles, such as front desk reception, can be filled by volunteers that can do just as good of a job, if not better, than a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: AND Conference, Faith, Leadership, The Barry Blog Tagged With: , ,

How To Do The Weekend with No Budget, Moderated by Don Reynolds

September 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment
2011-09-23_09-04-02_847

It is easy to look at someone else, another church or another business and say "Wow! Look how much more they have than I have. If only I had that much, then I could......." In doing so, we lose focus on what we have actually been blessed with. Lose focus on what OUR task at hand is. Lose our positive attitude with questions of what if. Instead, what if we shifted our focus and attitude toward the "What we do have" instead of the "what we don't have" ? What if we purely concentrated on … [Read more...]

Filed Under: AND Conference, Faith, Leadership, The Barry Blog Tagged With: , ,

Stewardship Campaign, Moderated by Tim Stevens and Kem Meyer

September 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment
2011-09-22_16-13-17_922

GCC is currently on a Stewardship Campaign, and the first thing that GCC did was to NOT use the word campaign. Instead, GCC chose to use the word Project. A campaign seemed to have more to do with politics and gave off a negative image. GCC went outside the church for help with language to use. The communication of the Vision was of most importance to the New Normal Project. GCC spent an entire year ahead of time working on the Vision for The New Normal Project. Engaging the congregation, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: AND Conference, Faith, Leadership, The Barry Blog Tagged With: , , ,

Leading Worship Moderated by Trace Rorie

September 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment
2011-09-22_15-04-30_343

After sitting on the Q&A Panel for the Social Media breakout session, I sat in on the Leading Worship session that had a Q&A panel of Trace Rorie, Dan Vukmirovich and Don Reynolds. Starting off, the panel started talking about scheduling and team cohesiveness and vision casting for the people playing in the band.  At first, a set schedule was a bit of a problem and people would call off at the last minute, but after a couple of months they caught on to the schedule and they really have … [Read more...]

Filed Under: AND Conference, Faith, Leadership, The Barry Blog Tagged With: , , , ,

Healthy Staffing Moderated by Tim Stevens

September 22, 2011 By 2 Comments
092211095118

For the 1st Elective of the AND Conference today, I sat in on the Healthy Staffing elective that was moderated by Tim Stevens. Tim started off talking about the hiring process and how he does look at resumes, skills and experience...however hiring the right person is really beyond that. Hiring involves the right Chemistry, the right Heart, the right Passion, the right Integrity and Character. This includes looking at Facebook and Twitter to get a good feel for the person. When it comes to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: AND Conference, Faith, Leadership, The Barry Blog Tagged With: , , , ,

The AND Conference

September 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment
and

Next Thursday AND Friday, I have been asked to be one of the bloggers for the AND Conference which is taking place at Granger Community Church (GCC). The AND Conference is a place for Church AND Ministry leaders to get a fresh approach, shift a thought process AND get recharged for their Church, Ministry, Family, Business or all of the above. It is a pretty cool event that GCC puts a lot of time AND energy into each year. During the Conference, they have guest speakers AND what they call … [Read more...]

Filed Under: The Barry Blog Tagged With: , , ,

Baptism- My Story

August 24, 2011 By 2 Comments
water

Although I went to church off and on for a couple of years after my Grandfather died when I was 9 years old, I never really started going to church until Easter of 2004 when I was 34 years of age. That was when I started attending Granger Community Church (GCC) with my wife Kimberly who had been attending for a few years. I started to attend because of this odd feeling I had been having that there was something much more to life than what I had been doing, and because I got conned into it but … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Faith, Me, Opinion, The Barry Blog
« Older Posts