A Stone's Throw

I intended to get around to this a whole lot earlier, like last Monday, but here’s what’s been going on lately.

• Taylor headed to 1st grade on Thursday! Wow, I am feeling quite old now! He had a great time. (He didn’t want to go this morning, but didn’t want to leave this afternoon–go figure.)
• The ol’ alma mater, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is back in the embarrassing news–again. There was a segment on the Today Show on Friday telling about the new “homemaker” degree Paige and Dorothy Patterson instituted. Fellas–need not apply. Unbelievable. And we wonder why people don’t want to come to our churches anymore. Just google “Southwestern homemaker” and look at all of the blog discussions. A really funny post on the degree program here (ladies need not apply for this one). Someone needs to get the idea that it isn’t 1955 like this picture. . .
• The cable internet is in at the church!! It is WAY faster than the poor DSL. The manager/installer of the contracting company was an awesome guy that really displayed some great customer service after the mother company dropped the ball big-time! Thanks Jason!
• We gave out journals to everyone this Sunday! I am really excited to see what can happen in our entire church family decides to get on board with God and meet with Him daily to have devotions!!
• The band was really awesome on Sunday! Great time of worship!
• KidStuf is really looking great! I’m in on anything with a “dance team”(Kris Schawo included) and a “comedic host.” September 16th is going to be AWESOME!!
• It was really great to see everyone having a great time hanging out before and after church . . . reminds me of the “old days.”
• I think I have some guests coming on Sunday!! I am really excited to see them at CFC! They are perfect people for our church–unchurched and overchurched!

I got the book Raving Fans, by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles at our garage sale at church this weekend. It is all about customer service. One of the ideas in the book is that “satisfied customers are not enough.” Basically, you don’t want people to be satisfied, but to be more than satisfied–to be “raving fans” for your organization.

It seems that true customer service is really a thing of the past. Case in point is our internet service provider(s) (both our current and future ISPs). Our internet access has been really pretty poor for quite some time, but we always got the “better check your equipment on your end” line when you call for help. Come to find out, the service we had been charged for was literally impossible for them to provide as we are too far away from the “central hub.” In getting down to the bottom of the problem, a guy in St. Louis was totally dumbfounded that they “sold” us the service. He said we need to call and get a refund on the several years of bad service. Of course I called to get the refund to no avail. Nobody ever wants to admit that there might be a problem that needs to be fixed. I have really been working on this in my own life lately, so I guess I am more sensitive to it.

So we decided we needed to make a change in services. The second company couldn’t make it until Monday “morning.” The guy shows up at about 12:30 p.m. to hook it up, but needs another guy to help him install it, so he said he would be back in the morning. Of course morning comes and goes . . . as does the afternoon. Calling the office is useless as they are scheduled to come “any time from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.” Who else could get away with that big of window of time than the cable company? Plus the irony of a “communications company” that can’t (or won’t) simply pick up the phone and call us to let us know they are stuck at another call, need to move the appointment, etc. Customer service matters! It really matters in ministry too! Because eternity hangs in the balance!

Makes me think of our website hosting company, but don’t get me started on that rant!

Just got finished with our Friday Night Family Film Festival. We watched High School Musical 2 on Disney. I think there was a whole lot of people who were watching it too. You know who you are . . . Heather! Jenny and I were talking about it on the way to get junk food at the grocery store that most parents of kids our age were watching it along with their kids. They advertised the crap out of the thing and it will run all weekend long.  Taylor really loved it. He loves sports and also the dancing and music as well. It is really fun to watch things through his filter.

We had a hodgepodge dinner complete with lots of movie junk food. We had some fettuccine alfredo (Taylor’s favorite), Rotel dip, guacamole, popcorn and Chips Ahoy cookies (again Taylor’s pick). Pretty much not healthy at all, but we all had a lot of fun together. . . cause “we’re all in this together”–couldn’t resist!