Mike Walker Creative

President Elect Barack Obama is planning on introducing an economic stimulus plan this week. I, along with the rest of the country, am very anxious and excited to see what he brings to the table.

Keep in mind, this is the guy who raised an unprecedented amount of campaign capital. Not only did his campaign set records, it eclipsed anything people have imagined. Here’s the really crazy thing…he did it during the middle of an economic recession. They had the right tools with the right strategy.

In a time where churches are seeing on average of 15-25% reduction in giving it’s time to start looking at a new way of doing things.

Monday morning I met with Yuri Star of Church Media Group about a new product they have called Ministry Give. Ministry Give uses the same technology that the Obama campaign used to raise record amounts of capital…..AND…it’s not expensive at all. It allows your donors to give online, at a kiosk, or via their cel phone. It’s a very cutting edge solution for fund raising.

Check out Ministry Give and put together a strategy that will help your organization. If you have questions please feel free to drop me an email.

I was taking a break from budget crunching this morning and headed to Pei Wei for some chicken pad thai.

I love listening to ESPN radio for a break in the day and my favorite show is The Michael Irvin show. Today’s hot topic was the election. Michael had some great thoughts on the election that really got me thinking.

In covering both the Republican and Democratic conventions I made the point that I will not turn my blog in to a political soap box and I maintain that today as well.

Whether or not I agree or disagree with Obama’s politics I feel very honored to live in a time that history is being made. On August 28, 1963 Dr Martin Luther King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. In 45 years we have come a long way…still far to go, but the fact we are on the verge of seeing an african american elected in to the highest office in the country is evidence of Dr Kings dream coming to fruition. It’s a privilege to be living in such a time.

All politics aside….congratulations to Barack Obama and good luck as we in America definitely need some strong leadership to face the challenges ahead. Whether you voted for Obama or McCain it’s time for America to figure out how to push through the challenges that lie ahead together as opposed continuing constant opposition.

Again, all policy stuff aside, we are watching history and should feel privileged to be a part of it. In closing I think Dr Kings close of his speech said it best:

“when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

Congratulations and thank you for dreaming Dr King

Unfortunately I wasn’t home last night so I missed both McCains acceptance speech as well as the NFL kickoff game (which sounds like it was kind of dull).

I caught up on the Republican National Convention last night thanks to Larry King. After viewing the footage and hearing portions of the speech I think The Republican party is in trouble on this election.

1 - I noticed the arena was not completely full….arena…not stadium. Obama had a completely full stadium in Denver for his acceptance speech while the Republican convention was in a much smaller arena and was not full.

2 - When Obama came out the other night it took him nearly 10 minutes to quiet the crowd so he could give his speech. The crowd last night was far from rowdy…and in fact had mixed boos within it.

3 - Whoever did the set design and video content for the set at the convention should be fired. We live in a media and technology age folks. Used properly it can really enhance your presentation and image, done poorly (like last night) can really hurt you. The LED screen behind John was set in blue at times which made Senator McCain look even older. When there was a red background behind him it looked much better on camera. It looked like the set designer and content folks gave SOME consideration to those in the room last night, but hardly any consideration to the people watching on tv (which was the largest audience).

4 - After watching the 2 conventions it sure seems as though the Obama movement appears to have a lot more traction and popularity. An oversized crowd worked up as loud as a football game compared to a much smaller less full arena sure paints different pictures.

5 - In watching Larry King I was actually very impressed that the Obama supporters that they had on last night didn’t spend time blasting McCain. They were actually complimentary while able to share differing view points. It was almost as if they felt the Republican convention went as well as they wanted it to. Obamas camp seems very poised and very confident.
I am sure the democratic convention wasn’t exactly tipping their hand as to what they were going to reveal, but they left the Republicans looking small, desperate, and in search of help (and no I am not going to talk on here about who I think should be the next president or why).