And the Winner Is... November 15, 2005

Whew! What a tremendous response we had to the Show Us What You're Made Of! contest! With 72 amazing entries, we had very hard time narrowing it down. We are just so impressed with all of your creativity!

Without further ado... drum roll please... the winner is:

Sacred Journey Church in Kirkland, Washington --Sr. Pastor Eric Robbins and his incredible team!

This brand new church plant had a dream. About a year ago, their Sr. Pastor, Eric Robbins, began to feel called to start a church in the heart of Seattle. After reading the book Good to Great, he started to pray for God to provide the people to make it happen. Slowly, God brought together this staff of 20 people from all over the United States.

Needing to raise funds to start their new church, this talented team put together a package to send to potential investors. This small, decorated box included:

• A 5-minute DVD introduction to Sacred Journey with a "We have a Dream" theme
• A CD featuring slideshows of their journey coming together, their team, their city and their facilities, as well as some original music recorded by two team members
• A booklet introducing each member of the staff - the roles they fill, a very short profile, a quote representing their individual outlook, and (one of our favorite parts) "life ingredients" for each team member ranging from sushi, coffee, real estate and reality tv to compassion, joy, adventure and worship
• A magnetic compass to stick on the fridge as a reminder to pray for them
• A menu of investment options including rent sponsorship, monthly donations, one time investments or owning a project (like a copying machine or music equipment)

They promise to follow-up with their investors with quarterly DVD's, personal postcards, quarterly giving receipts, and facility tours among other things.

This entry scored big on our criteria of originality, creativity, and usefulness, as well as bonus points for a shoestring budget. What really pushed them to the top was their ability engage each of us as they told the story of their dream with the contents of this tiny box. It's an amazing presentation that leaves you wanting to be a part of it.

Way to go, Sacred Journey - we'll see you at C3! Our judges were so impressed by the quality of the entries that we decided to award prizes to two runner-up churches as well. They will receive the complete DVD set from C3 2006. We'll be sharing their entries in the next few days.

Thanks again to everyone for participating. It was truly a joy reviewing your submissions, so much so that we hope to make this a yearly tradition!

Comments

[Church web site builder]

It sounds really good... except for the magnetic fridge compass. Two small points a compass has to be mounted horiztonally not vertically so the only place you could put it would be the top of the fridge and secondly... you should never put magnets near to compasses as it means they give false readings ;-)
I'm only having a bit of fun this isn't serious criticism I think the pack sounds awesome!
Gordon (London).

[Pastor Todd McKeever]

The adventure they have set their course on sounds great. One question is, how can someone get more information on this church?

[Victoria]

Sacred Journey Church
7 Lakeshore Plaza #200
Kirkland, WA 98033
425.284.1444
info@findthejourney.com

[bernie dehler]

I hope things work out well for them! I never heard of looking for "investors" to start a church before...

...Bernie
http://fgn.typepad.com/

[Isaac]

This is a little late in the comment game...

Eric was my youth pastor here in the Midwest years ago. It's incredible and awesome to see how God is using him in such a powerful way!

Thanks for bringing back some great memories from his first job in ministry! From raising up a youth group of 400+ kids 10 years ago, he seems to have come a long way, and still growing...