So, one of our local radio stations in Southeast Georgia puts on a free concert every year on Jekyll Island.

It was last weekend and it was also the first time I went. Wow! It was awesome…

Well, my wife got an email that Compassion International was looking for event volunteers.

They had contacted us because we sponsor a child named Kakooza Joseph who lives in Uganda.

I thought this would be a great idea, I could volunteer for an organization I love and get into the concert for free.

Since we are Dave Ramsey fans and I already spent all of my “walking around cash” for October, this would be a win-win.

So, I got up at 5 AM (yes, there is a 5 AM) to get ready for work. I was in the office by 6 AM. We have flex hours on Saturday, we just have to put in 6 hours.

Now, just so you know, I usually work from either Noon to 6 PM or 4 PM to 10 PM.

And as I am scrambling to finish some last minute stuff for Sunday Services as well as try to get ahead for the week, I realize something.

I am volunteering so that I can get into a free concert for free.

Yeah. I was nearly devastated.

I had accidentally volunteered for the right reason (i.e. there was nothing in it for me).

But, I decided to go anyways.

Since I have the chance to lead a handful of stellar volunteers on a regular basis, it was really good to be on the other side of the equation.

There is something refreshing about giving your time to a cause you care for.

Not only was it fulfilling to personally help several kids get sponsors, I also wrote down a few things about volunteering that I learned from this experience.

1. Make it easy for people to say yes to an opportunity to volunteer.
2. Provide training online (Compassion International does this and it really helped me as it was my first time helping them out)
3. Don’t schedule too many volunteers for the same position or they will feel like they wasted an afternoon.
4. Provide free refreshments.
5. Explain the expectations early on (preferably, before they are on-site).
6. Create systems which make plugging in easy.
7. Validate parking.
8. Give out a free T-shirt.
9. Give them access to special stuff or SWAG.
10. Be prepared to connect with the volunteers immediately after they arrive on-site (don’t make them wait).

I just watched a video featuring Elmo and John Saddington at TentBlogger.com about setting realistic yet challenging blog goals.

Here are my three big goals for the remainder of the year:

All of these are challenging for me because:

1) I have been slacking on reading a book a week for a year…

2) I have never publicly commited to blogging everydayand tend to drop off every now and then…

3) I have less than 7 subscribers at the writing of this post…

What are some of your blogging goals?

It sure felt like it was (even though my birthday is September 3rd).

All of this happened yesterday:

• I had an amazing conversation with Dewitt Robinson (another blogging buddy) about a project that I am going to get to help him with called “Good Everyday”.
• I won two tickets to Catalyst One Day from Anne Jackson (aka FlowerDust) via Twitter. And in case anyone is curious, I wasn’t logged into Hootsuite (which I do use) but clinched them using the #newtwitter. I heart conferences and have wanted to attend this one for almost a year.
• Stewart McPheters (our COO) purchased 2+ TB of hard drives to trick out the G5 my crew and I edit on. He also lent me his incredible comfy office chair, which is a bigger deal than you think (my last chair was less than kosher).
• My first blog post for ChurchCreate published today. I am one step closer to becoming a “tentblogger”. Seriously, I have dreamed of writing for 8bit for over 6 months! You can read it here.
• I ran into David Herndon & Lucas Ramirez (guys in our community that I really look up to) and got to chat ministry for a few minutes.
• I got some retweet love from Shawn Wood regarding the post I wrote yesterday. If you missed it, you can read it here.
• I rented out a portion of our church facility to Final Cut Productions, which meant a little extra cash for the church.
• My wife planned our date night (which is on Thursdays) and I am stoked. It is a movie marathon via RedBox DVDs. And she let me choose all three: The Karate Kid, Just Wright & Percy Jackson. She hates movies, so this is a big deal.
• A student signed up and showed up to finish tearing down stuff from youth group and setup the auditorium for Sunday just because he loves the church. I am so humbled by that! He also brought me a pair of Mountain Dews just to be nice…

What matters most to me is to finish what God started: the job the Master Jesus gave me of letting everyone I meet know all about this incredibly extravagant generosity of God.

Acts 20:24b (The Message)

[via YouVersion.com]

I wonder, do my goals, tasks, dreams, actions, finances & thoughts reflect this?