6 Tips to Get Visitors to Return

6 Tips to Get Visitors to Return

By Brandon Kelley Visitor assimilation is one of those things that if you’re not intentional and don’t have a system, it won’t happen. But if you want to see your church grow, then getting visitors to return is vital. Imagine if just half the visitors who attended a church service ended up coming back again and again, eventually becoming members. Your church would grow!
The great thing about being intentional about visitor assimilation is that they are already there. They have already encountered the culture of your church and have a taste of what it’s like to hear you preach a sermon. Their encounter could be good, bad or OK, but if you get this piece right, it could make all the difference.

6 Parts to Successful Visitor Assimilation

1. Information Card

In order to do successful visitor assimilation, you’ll need to get their contact information. You need an information card or connection card or whatever you want to call it. For us, our connection card is on every chair and is encouraged to be filled out by everyone as it’s our way for people to get signed up for events, submit prayer requests and more.
If you want to follow up with visitors, you need to get their contact information.

2. Gift and Info Bag

Go all out with this! It will be the incentive for them to fill out their information card and turn it in. Blow them away with the value they receive from this bag.
We decided to include a $5 Panera Gift Card, a customized coffee mug with our colors and logo, an information folder explaining who we are and a business card.
Below is what the inside of our information folder looks like (just to give you some ideas):

3. Dedicated Visitor Table

When you do the next step (#4) you’ll need a place to tell them to go after service. This is that place. You’ll want to recruit a team of people to be at this table on a rotation so that you have coverage every week. Their job is to make sure that visitors fill out at least their name and email, engage with them as much as they are open to, and answer any questions they may have.
We call this our “Get Connected Table.” Whatever you decide to call it, be sure to get appropriate signage so that visitors know where to go without question.

4. Start With Them in Mind

From signage to cleanliness, keep the visitor in mind. Then, once your service starts, start with them in mind. Take some time at the beginning of the service to acknowledge their presence. Welcome them, invite them to fill out the information card and encourage them to take it to the table (#3) where they’ll receive a free gift bag.

5. Email Follow Up

Email may be a somewhat old technology, but it’s still extremely effective. We use MailChimp for this part. To do this, you’ll need to pay, at a minimum, $10 a month, but it’s completely worth it.
Every Monday, you’ll want to take the new information cards and plug in the information to your email list that is set up for email automation.
I’ll create a tutorial on how to set up email automation for visitor assimilation on Monday. Be sure to subscribe so you won’t miss it!
Over the course of a month we send out five different emails to visitors. I took the emails that Bobby Williams shared with the UnSeminary audience when he was featured on the UnSeminary Podcast and then modified them to meet our needs.
Check out the podcast episode here and get the emails here.
Be sure to check back on Monday for the email automation tutorial video.

6. Visitor Video

In the first email that is sent to visitors they are invited to watch a short welcome video from our lead pastor, Kenny White (have you read his post on finding your preaching voice?).
Watch the visitor video.
Don’t overthink this video. Simply talk with the viewer (a visitor) as if they were right in front of you. Tell them you were glad they were there and invite them to come back.

What About You?

Would you add anything to this list? If so, what would it be? I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment below or on social media (Facebook Group | Facebook Page | Twitter)!

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Brandon Kelley is the co-founder of Rookie Preacher. He serves as the Outreach & Communications Pastor at a fast growing church plant in Williamsburg, Ohio, called The Crossing. Among the many things he does at The Crossing, serving on the teaching team is one of them. He also writes at BrandonKelley.org. You can follow him @BrandonKelley_. Watch his sermons here.

How to Get Back Up When Ministry Knocks You Down

How to Get Back Up When Ministry Knocks You Down

By Charles Stone If you’re a pastor, a missionary or serve in a church, you can’t avoid discouragement, disappointment and hurt from ministry. The Bible even uses the not-so-complimentary metaphor “sheep” to describe those we serve. And sheep get dirty and smelly and often kick and bite. Sometimes those sheep in the church do the same to their shepherds. So when you  get kicked, forgotten, disrespected, ignored, mistreated, gossiped about or misunderstood, how do you move forward?
The story recorded in 1 Samuel 30 gives great insight. David had just begun his career to fight the bad guys. Early on he faced a huge defeat. While he and his army were in battle far from home, the bad guys, the Amalekites, attacked the city where his family and the families of his army lived. They burned the city and kidnapped their wives and children. When David’s men discovered this, they considered removing him from his position, not by a vote of a board or a congregation, but with big rocks to the head by stoning.
The Scriptures then record one of the most beautiful verses every written. The old King James Version captures it well.
David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.  (1 Sam. 30.6)
It worked because his guys didn’t stone him but marshaled their energy and once again pursued the bad guys under his leadership.
As I’ve faced discouragement in ministry, these simple choices have helped me encourage myself in the Lord.
• Acknowledge your pain and emotion to the Lord but don’t wallow in it. Neuroscientists have discovered that when we name our emotions, it turns down the volume in our brain’s emotional centers.
• Journal your thoughts. Writing them down helps me stop the tendency to incessantly mull over the hurtful situation. Writing therapy been scientifically proven to help us process pain.
• Read God’s Word, especially those verses that speak of hope and victory. Every time you read the Bible, you are actually re-configuring the circuits in your brain and reinforcing biblical values and truth.
• Do something pro-active. Take action to move forward. In David’s case he took specific action to resolve the problem. He rallied his troops to chase down the Amalekites.
• Stop condemning yourself and remind yourself that you are a child of God, loved by Him with great intrinsic value regardless of whether  your church is growing or whether people treat you with respect.
• Pray for those who have hurt you. I’m amazed how God defuses looming bitterness in my heart when I pray for the sheep that bite me.
How have you dealt with your ministry pain?

Dr. Charles Stone is the founder of StoneWell Ministries, a pastor coaching and church consulting ministry. He is the author of three books, inlcuding his latest: People Pleasing Pastors: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Approval Motivated Leadership (IVP).
Learn more » Browse all articles by Charles Stone

8 Reasons the Church Is the Greatest Force on Earth

By Rick Warren

The church will last for eternity.

The church is the most magnificent concept ever created. It has survived persistent abuse, horrifying persecution and widespread neglect. Yet despite its faults (due to our sinfulness), it is still God’s chosen instrument of blessing and has been for 2,000 years.
The church will last for eternity, and because it is God’s instrument for ministry here on Earth, it is truly the greatest force on the face of the Earth. That’s why I believe tackling the world’s biggest problems—the giants of spiritual lostness, egocentric leadership, poverty, disease and ignorance—can only be done through the church.
The church has eight distinct advantages over the efforts of business and government:

1. The church provides for the largest participation.

Most people have no idea how many Christians there are in the world: More than 2 billion people claim to be followers of Jesus Christ. That’s one third of the world’s population! The church has about a billion more people than the entire nation of China.
For example, close to 100 million people in the United States went to church this past weekend. That’s more people than will attend sporting events in the United States throughout this year. The church is the largest force for good in the world. Nothing else even comes close.

2. The church provides for the widest distribution.

The church is everywhere in the world. There are villages that have little else, but they do have a church. You could visit millions of villages around the world that don’t have a school, a clinic, a hospital, a fire department or a post office. They don’t have any businesses. But they do have a church. The church is more widely spread—more widely distributed—than any business franchise in the world.
Consider this: The Red Cross noted that 90 percent of the meals they served to victims of Hurricane Katrina were actually cooked by Southern Baptist churches. Many churches were able to jump into action faster than the government agencies or the Red Cross. Why? The church is literally everywhere, and Christians who could provide help to the Gulf Coast communicated with Christians in need of help so relief could be sent immediately.

3. The church provides the longest continuation.

The church has been around for 2,000 years. We’re not a fly-by-night operation. The church has a track record that spans centuries: Malicious leaders have tried to destroy it, hostile groups have persecuted it and skeptics have scoffed at it. Nevertheless, God’s church is bigger now than ever before in history.
Why? Because it’s the church that Jesus established, and it is indestructible. The Bible calls the church an unshakable kingdom. In Matthew 16:18, Jesus says, “I will build my church and all the powers of hell will not conquer it” (NLT). All the powers of hell—in other words, no hurricane, no earthquake, no tsunami, no famine, no pandemic, no army will ever conquer the church established by Jesus Christ.

4. The church provides the fastest expansion.

Did you know that every day 60,000 new people come to believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior? By the end of today, thousands of new churches will be started throughout the world, and that will happen tomorrow and the next day and the next.
In one country that is closed to traditional Christian missions, more than 60,000 house churches have been started in one province by the work of lay people, no different from the people who fill your church sanctuary every weekend.
Why is fast expansion important? If you’ve got a problem that’s growing at a rapid rate, then you need a solution that will grow even more rapidly. For instance, HIV/AIDS is growing at an incredibly fast rate in the world. Yet thank God the church is outgrowing the disease, so more and more believers can help minister to those with HIV/AIDS.
If we’re going to tackle global giants like poverty, disease or illiteracy, then we must be part of something that’s growing faster than the problem. The church is doing just that!

5. The church provides the highest motivation.

Why do any of us do what we do in ministry? It’s not to make money, not to make a name for ourselves and not for duty to our nation. We do it out of love. Jesus stated it as the Great Commandment: Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. We wouldn’t do the hard work required to tackle these global giants for money, for fame or for anything else. It just wouldn’t be worth it; we’d quit before the end.
We’re motivated to keep at the hard work of ministry because we love God, and our love for God compels us to love other people. It is love that never gives up; it is love that keeps moving forward despite the appearance of impossible odds; and it is love that outlasts any problem.

6. The church provides the strongest authorization.

God authorized the church to take on global giants, such as spiritual lostness, egocentric leadership, poverty, disease and ignorance. With God’s authorization, the outcome is guaranteed to be successful.
When you know that God has authorized you to do something, you don’t worry about failure because God doesn’t sponsor flops. If God says we’re going to do it, it’s going to happen. It is inevitable. In fact, the Bible teaches that God will give us his power to complete the task. This is God’s way—ordinary people empowered by his Spirit.

7. The church provides the simplest administration.

The church is organized in such a way that we can network faster and with less bureaucracy than most governmental agencies or even well-meaning charities. For instance, the organizational structure at Saddleback, which is based on the New Testament model, holds that every member is a minister. Each person in our church family is encouraged to use his or her own SHAPE (Spiritual gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality, Experiences) to do what God has called him or her to do. There is no bureaucracy or hierarchy. There isn’t a single committee, and the process doesn’t require a long list of approvals.
The old wineskin of command and control won’t work well in the 21st century. The organization of the future is the “network.” And there’s no better worldwide network than the church, where every member is a minister and empowered to do what God wants done.
Consider it this way—tens of millions of Christians in millions of small groups that are part of churches around the world can take on the global giants with no other authority than that given from Jesus Christ. In other words, we have God’s permission and we have God’s command to do it. There is no need to seek permission from anyone else.

8. The church provides for God’s conclusion.

Since we believe the Bible is God’s Word, we already know the end of history. Jesus said in Matthew 24:14, “The good news about God’s Kingdom will be preached in all the world to every nation, and then the end will come” (NCV). It is inevitable and unavoidable.
When you consider these eight advantages, think about the exponential explosion of ministry when millions upon millions of small groups in millions upon millions of churches organize in such a way that each person can do their part in attacking the five global giants.
What do you think could happen if God’s people prayed against these global giants, prepared for action against these giants and then moved through faith to tackle these giants?
We may look at these problems and think, “These are too big! How could we possibly solve them?”
But with God, nothing is impossible—and if we all work together as his church, we’ll see these giants falls just as Goliath fell when faced with David’s obedience to God.
Pastor, it is a great privilege and an awesome responsibility to lead a local church. God wouldn’t have placed you where you are if he didn’t believe you could handle the task before you. You play a vital role in tackling these global giants. It is my privilege to co-labor with you.

The Difference Between Being Offended and Being Persecuted

By Russell Moore

“The most important thing the church can do to protect religious liberty and freedom of conscience is to hold to the gospel itself.”

There are two key mistakes American Christians tend to make when thinking about the intersection of religion and culture. The first is to have an attitude of a “majority” culture, a mindset that incorrectly conflates a civic morality with Christianity and seeks to build coalitions to “turn America back” to Christ. But there is another mistake too, and that is to have a fearful, hand-wringing siege mentality. While it’s true that religious liberty is genuinely imperiled, perhaps more than at any time since the revolutionary era, we will not be able to articulate our commitments in this arena if we don’t know how to differentiate between state persecution and cultural marginalization, between public oppression and personal offense.
Several years ago, I was flipping through magazines on an airplane when I came across a couple of pages that spiked my blood pressure. A beer advertisement was tagged with the headline, “Silent Nights Are Overrated.” A few minutes later, in a second publication, there was an advertisement for an outdoor grill which read: “Who Says It’s Better to Give Than to Receive?” My first reaction was a personal, if not tribal, offense. “Would they advertise in Saudi Arabia during Ramadan with the line ‘Fasting Is Overrated,’” I fumed, “or by asking in India, ‘Who Says Everything Is One With the Universe?” I was missing the point.
The truth is, these companies were trying to sell products, not offend constituencies. Taking shots at any group’s religious beliefs isn’t good economics. I’m willing to bet whoever dreamed up these ad campaigns didn’t “get” at all that they might be making fun of Jesus Christ. Madison Avenue probably didn’t trace through that the song “Silent Night” is about the holy awe of the dawning Incarnation in Bethlehem. To them, it probably seemed like just another Christmas song, part of the background music of the culture during this season. Saying it’s “overrated” probably didn’t feel any more “insensitive” to these copy-writers than making a joke about decking the halls or reindeer games. The writers probably never thought about that the statement “It is better to give than to receive” is a quotation from Jesus via the Apostle Paul (Acts 20:35). It probably just seemed to them like a Benjamin Franklin-type aphorism, along the lines of when someone says “scarlet letter” without recognizing Hawthorne or “to be or not to be” while not knowing the difference between Hamlet and Huckleberry Finn.

We ought not fume about such things, as though we are a protected class of victims. We ought to see that our culture is less and less connected with the roots of basic knowledge about Christianity. Many, especially, in the culture-making wing of American life, see Christmas the same way they see Hanukkah. They know about Menorahs and dreidels, but not about the Maccabean fight. That ought not to make us outraged but to prompt us to see how our neighbors see us—sometimes more in terms of our trivialities than in terms of the depths of meaning of Incarnation, blood atonement and the kingdom of Christ. This means we need to spend more time engaging our neighbors with the sort of news that shocks angels and redirects stargazers and knocks sheep-herders to the ground. That will seem strange, and that’s all the better, because it is strange. An Incarnation safe enough to sell beer and barbecue grills is a gospel too safe to make blessings flow, far as the curse is found. Not everything that offends us should offend us, and not everything that offends us is persecution.
But there is genuine persecution, in every era, and we ought to work for congregational cultures that recognize this. In one sense, many of our congregations are already on the way at this point, those churches with a culture of strong missions advocacy. These congregations may spend time praying for different people groups around the world, and may even visibly signify their concern for the nations with flags of various countries positioned throughout the church. Part of our missions focus should be concern about religious persecution and violence, and not just of Christians. After all, how can we love the world with the gospel if we are apathetic to, for example, global anti-Semitism or the burning of houses of worship of religious minorities? We should pray for human rights and religious freedom for everyone, everywhere, not just for those who believe our gospel.
That said, our congregational cultures also should cultivate a special focus on those within the Body of Christ who are hounded and beaten and imprisoned and jailed around the world, just as the Scriptures call us to do (Heb. 10:33-34). This is not a matter, really, of the “strong” standing up for our “weak” brothers and sisters around the world. In one sense, of course, it is. We have relative freedom, and we can pressure the State Department to act, we can send relief to communities in peril, and we can use technology to alert the global community to what is happening to religious minorities persecuted around the world. But our remembering of those persecuted is not only so that we can advocate for our brothers and sisters but also so that we can learn from them how to live as Christians.
When we encounter those persecuted Christians around the world, we see a glimpse of what Jesus has called us to do. We see the sort of faith that isn’t a means to an end. We see the sort of faith that joins the global Body of Christ across time and space, in the confession of a different sort of reign. We see a gospel that isn’t American affluence, with heaven at the end.
When we pray for those in prison for their faith, we remember that the gospel came to us in letters written from jail. When we plead for those whose churches are burned in Egypt, we remember that our hope isn’t in building religious empires but in a New Jerusalem we’ve never seen. When we weep for those who are (sometimes literally) crucified in the Middle East we are reminded that our Lord isn’t a life coach or a guru but a crucified Messiah. That can remind us of the gospel we signed up for in the first place, and free us from our fat, affluent, almost-gospels, which could never save in the first place. And we can be reminded that the persecuted Christians for whom we pray and advocate very well may be those who will send missionaries to carry the gospel to a future post-Christian Europe or North America.
The most important thing the church can do to protect religious liberty and freedom of conscience is to hold to the gospel itself. Many Christians in the history of the church have gone to jail, from the Book of Acts to right now. We ought to work diligently to keep Christians, and others, out of jail for religious convictions. But there are worse things than going to jail. After all, one can maintain freedom by simply accommodating to the spirit of the age. The prophet Daniel’s cohorts, those who prayed to the king’s statue, never saw the inside of a lion’s cave. Pontius Pilate lived to a relatively ripe old age, untroubled by the sort of state harassment that did away with the apostles. Judas Iscariot was never arrested for anything, collaborating as he did with the state to carry out their dark mission. Those who fell away from the early church escaped the Colosseum with their lives. All it cost them was a pinch of incense, a momentary mumbling of “Caesar is Lord,” and their souls. God forbid.
We should protect our legacy of a free church in a free state. We ought to pray and work for a “quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty” (1 Tim. 2:2). But that is not the ultimate sign of our success. It is better for our future generations to be willing to go to jail, for the right reasons, than to exchange the gospel of the kingdom for a mess of Esau’s pottage. Sometimes jails filled with hymn-singing, letter-writing, gospel-preaching Christians can do extraordinary things.  

How to Name Your Church Ministries

By Eric Geiger

When you consider naming your ministries or programs, think like a guest or like someone who is interested in getting connected at a deeper level.

At some point, most church leaders are going to sit in a room and discuss what to name a ministry or a program in their churches. For many churches, the naming process is haphazard and unintentional, and the resulting hot mess of names only confirms the lack of coherent strategy in the church. To help you approach the naming process with greater purpose, here are a few thoughts.

1. Determine your approach.

Organizational theorists draw a distinction between a “house of brands” and a “branded house.” A house of brands doesn’t lead with an overarching brand, but stewards a plethora of brands. For example, Procter and Gamble (house of brands) manages brands from Pampers to Pantene to Pepto-Bismol. On the other side of the spectrum, Virgin (branded house) leads with an overarching brand of unconventionality and offers a plethora of Virgin lifestyle and travel products/services.
A church example from the multiple campus approach is LifeChurch and Northpoint ministries. LifeChurch is clearly a branded house — they lead with the overarching brand in communicating their campuses. Northpoint leads with names more connected to local communities: Buckhead, Gwinnett, etc.
So first determine where you fall on the branded (ministry) house — house of (ministry) brands spectrum.
Each approach has strengths. A branded house leverages all impressions and interactions in the same direction. A house of brands allows you to steward ministries with different philosophies and purposes for different groups of people. When I served as an executive pastor in a local church, I personally leaned strongly toward the branded house approach. I found wisdom in leveraging everything in the same direction and struggled with the confusing nature of a plethora of ministry names.
Now, as Vice President at LifeWay, I am very appreciative for the house of brands approach. The division I lead offers churches multiple “brands.” For example, in the realm of ongoing Bible studies, we have different Bible study lines built on unique values and approaches. The Gospel Project is very different from Explore the Bible and Bible Studies for Life. The Gospel Project is designed around a “theological” starting point, Explore the Bible around a “text” starting point, and Bible Studies for Life around a “life” starting point.
While each brand is rooted in Scripture and focused on Christ, the different brands are designed to meet different group needs and desires.
So what am I recommending for a local church?
For a local church, I would only recommend a house of brands approach if: (a) you have a very simple ministry philosophy that abhors clutter and duplication as too many names will pull people in too many directions, or (b) you are launching a ministry that’s very different from your current ministry offerings and the ministry would benefit from the distinction — such as a separate not-for-profit, a community counseling center, etc.

2. Think like a newbie.

When you consider naming your ministries or programs, think like a guest or like someone who is interested in getting connected at a deeper level. Sit in your worship service, read the email, peruse the bulletin from that perspective. What do all the names mean?
For some churches, all the communication is massively confusing. Imagine a new person reading or hearing things like: “Check out Iron2Iron on Tuesday night, Wednesday morning our Motionz group will be meeting, and on Thursday evening our RAKGoS will meet (Radically Awesome Killer Group of Singles).” While the illustration may seem extreme, it’s painfully accurate in some places.
As you whiteboard and brainstorm, think like the person who has yet to come to your church. Be sure your motivations are for those who haven’t yet been impacted by your faith community. Bonhoeffer was right — “The church is the church only when it exists for others.”

3. Consider names that are self-describing.

As you’re thinking like a newbie for the names of your programs or subministries, consider a name that doesn’t need a lot of explanation, a name that describes the ministry. For example, as you’re naming your children’s ministry — does the name clearly signal to parents that the ministry is for their children? While the name of the church with “Kids” attached to the end [Lifepoint Kids, Grace Kids, etc.] may not seem creative and original, it’s clear and obvious for parents.
These three points aren’t infallible nor are they meant to be exhaustive, but I do hope they encourage you and help you to think strategically as you name ministries and programs in your church. 

5 Paradigm Shifts for Small Group Ministry

By Andrew Mason

“I pray that one or more of these five paradigms spawn fresh waves of thought, ideas and energy for you.”

While the phrase “paradigm shift” may be used and heard a lot today, the actual occurrence of one is still a rare sight. A paradigm shift can be defined as a dramatic change by members of a group or community in the cognitive framework of basic assumptions, ways of thinking, underlying suspicions and methodology. I believe a true paradigm shift in small group ministry can release a desperately needed disciple-making revolution in our churches.
For many years, small groups were seen merely as an assimilation tool. In other words, if you get new church attenders plugged in to a small group, they won’t be able to sneak out the “back door.” While this was (and is) a real benefit of small groups, it was an isolated motivator that typically didn’t generate enough sustainable momentum for churches to eventually see the “back door” shrink or close.
Since then, small groups have been rediscovered as an oasis for community, transparency and best friends. In others words, you need a small group to form close-knit, Christian relationships in your life that allow you to be vulnerable and cared for. While this was (and is) a real benefit of small groups, it created two unforeseeable reactions:
A. Scared them away for good. People who weren’t already in a group became reinforced in their lack of participation because they didn’t want any more relationships in their life. The thought of having to create new, deep bonds with strangers was an overwhelming one.
OR
B. Unrealistic Expectations. People got out of their comfort zones to visit a group, loaded with high expectations. When they arrived and looked around, they had trouble seeing their future “bestie” across the room and left disappointed, never to return again.
I have personally navigated my way through these paradigms of small groups. In many churches, small groups need a paradigm shift to unlock the potential God has hidden in them.
In this article, I want to share with you 5 Paradigm Shifts in Small Group Ministry that I have experienced as a groups pastor that have been absolute game-changers for me…
1. Promote spiritual growth more than you promote small groups. When your church is communicating to your people about upcoming opportunities to join a small group, talk more about what aspect of spiritual growth the group will be focusing on instead of the nuts and bolts of group life.
Can people meet new people at a small group? Yes.
Can people develop flourishing friendships over time at a small group? Sure, it’s possible…
BUT DON”T TALK ABOUT THAT! Talk about the study the group(s) is going to go through. Talk about how you believe people will grow as a result of going through the group curriculum. Elevate the value of participation in group life for personal development to the same levels that you also do for the weekend services, daily devotions, serving, giving etc.
Why? For one, it’s the truth…and for two, it will give your people a healthy focus at the beginning while everyone gets comfortable and gets to know each other. When it comes to small groups, most American Christians tend to get excited about content before being hooked by community.
2. Your vision MUST be to see every single individual in the church connected into a small group. Don’t move onto to the next point because you think that you’re already doing this. A lot of churches have this as their goal, but they’ve set the deadline five to six years down the road. I’m not talking about hitting this goal in five to six years, I’m talking about hitting it in the next five to six months.
If you seriously plan with this goal in mind, it will radically alter your prayers and approach. You will begin asking questions you never asked before…
How many people are connected in groups right now?
How many groups would we need to connect every single person in our church?
How many new people will we need to find to spearhead all of the new groups?
What tweaks do we need to make to our ministry model to make it possible to hit our goal?
Remember: Your present ministry structure creates the perfect conditions for the current outcomes you have. If you’re looking for a dramatic difference in results, you’ll need a dramatically different design.
3. The lead pastor MUST be the small group champion. Sorry for the buzz-kill, associate pastors, but it’s true. Sorry for the new plate to spin, lead pastors, but it’s true. You can always have a volunteer or staff pastor lead the charge behind-the-scenes, but if you want your entire church to mobilize into groups, they gotta hear it and feel it from their leader. This is the practical advice I give to lead pastors:
In the first week of a new groups launch find one small group to visit one time. At the next weekend service, take the first one to two minutes of your message talking about your experience.
4. Your groups can’t be hardcore without the core. If small groups and discipleship are going to break out in your church like gangbusters, the leadership core of the church must be all-in. In fact, without the core, things will just be hard.
Remember, it’s not the worship leader’s job to worship for the church. It’s also not the small group pastor’s job to do small groups for the church either. Jesus commanded all of us to “make disciples” (Matt. 28:19-20). When the church sees buy-in from the influencers regarding the church’s discipleship philosophy, it will remove any confusion about what the priorities should be in their own life.
If you’re the point person for group life at your church, please don’t use #3 and #4 as the catalyst to tear your clothes and proclaim a holy rebuke. Use these insights as fuel for prayer and as conversation starters with key leaders who know your heart.
5. The end-game of small group discipleship is to send out disciple-makers. The end-game cannot simply be to get people connected to each other. Remember, we want to see people grow in our groups. Think about growth in your small group ministry in the following stages…
-> Seeing every single person connected in a group
—> Seeing people in groups grow from consuming to contributing
—–> Seeing disciple-makers raised up within groups and sent out to start new groups
This mindset can take time to cultivate but it’s an important one to maintain for kingdom discipleship. Not everyone in small groups will eventually lead their own group one day, but there should be a few people in each group that are in the process of being sent out to fulfill the mission of disciple-making. This dynamic not only facilitates future growth, it raises the sense of significance for each group and provokes other group members to have a higher vision for their own spiritual formation as well.
I pray that one or more of these five paradigms spawn fresh waves of thought, ideas and energy for you. Which one(s) stand out to you the most?

Are You a Pastor Stuck on Hurry?

By Charles Stone

“Hurry is an enemy of learning.”

Two experiences several years ago caused me one day to pause not only my body, but my mind as well. So often as a pastor I get stuck on ‘hurry’ mode which makes me miss moments in life God intended that I pay attention to. Here are those two sobering experiences and what I learned.
This first occurred at a local diner as I ate breakfast with a friend. The booth I choose gave me a view of the exterior entrance to the diner. Out of my peripheral vision, I noticed a middle-aged man walk up to the glass door. Nothing unusual until he reached for the door handle. He missed it, by about a foot. For about 15 seconds he kept fumbling with his right hand to find the handle. I thought that a bit odd at first. He finally opened the door. The view from where I sat also allowed me to see the inside entrance. As he walked in, the waitress spoke to him. Then she gently held his arm and directed him to a table. He was almost blind.
In an instant I felt both compassion toward this man and gratefulness for my vision. I could have missed that moment had I been in a mental rush. Hurry is an enemy of learning.
When I arrived at the office an hour later, the second experience forced me again to push my mental pause button.
The older daughter of one of the admin staff at the church took care of a young boy confined to a wheelchair. His body is broken, he can’t speak, he drools, but his mind remains intact. She had left him alone in his wheelchair for a few moments while she went into the office conference room. I stood at the end of the hall and noticed him alone. I walked up to him, patted him on shoulder and said something like, “You’re a bit wet. That rain is a mess out there, isn’t it?” As drool dripped off his lips, he responded was a loud grunt, the best his body would allow him to articulate.
As I reflected on these two experiences, I was reminded of a concept that author Phil Yancey described in one of his books as ‘time between time,’ a concept also called statio (read more about statio here). He explained that he tries to discipline himself to mentally pause between each day’s activity to reflect over what he just experienced and to prepare his heart for what comes next.
My encounter with a blind man and a boy with a broken body reminded me of those moments in time, statio, the ‘time between time,’ that are often pregnant with meaning, if I don’t rush through them.
Leaders are always looking ahead for the next hill to climb. But sometimes we must pause and make ourselves fully present in the moment so we don’t miss God’s subtle but important lessons.
How have you learned to keep hurry from robbing you of those special moments? 

Why Are So Many Christians Bored With the Bible?

By Marshall Segal

Provided by

“Unfortunately, many Christians love the idea of the Bible, but not really the Bible itself.”

Unfortunately, many Christians love the idea of the Bible, but not really the Bible itself. We love having a Bible close by, even within reach, but don’t make time to open it on an average day. We talk about Bible reading like we talk about cutting calories or cleaning our house. We’re grateful for the results, but we don’t wake up dying to do it again. It sounds like a fine thing to do, until we have to choose what we won’t do in order to make time for it.
If that’s you, you probably also know a Christian who loves reading their Bible. They can’t get enough of it. As far as you know, they would just as likely go a whole day without food as without the Bible. Their happy discipline convicts and, if you’re honest, sometimes even annoys you. Who is it in your life who is most likely to pray like this?
“I enjoy reading the Bible more than the wealthy enjoy all their houses, cars, technology and vacations. God, your word will be my first priority and focus each day. I will read and read the Bible, until I cannot forget it. Give me more grace, O God, and enable me to obey what I’ve read. Help me see more today than I’ve already seen before, even in these same pages. I only wish I had more time to read more of my Bible.”
Does that sound like you? Or more likely someone you know? Do you feel at home in a love like that? Or have you delegated that kind of personality and affection to other “more spiritual” people?

God, Open Our Eyes and Hearts

The prayer above is a paraphrase of a prayer in Psalm 119:14–20:
In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word. Deal bountifully with your servant, that I may live and keep your word. Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. I am a sojourner on the earth; hide not your commandments from me! My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times.
Reading a prayer like that usually levels me. The psalmist’s passionate love for God’s word can make me uncomfortable. The love seems so real, so right, so beautiful—and so foreign, at least some days. Why do I wake up worried about what’s on Twitter, instead of wanting to open the Bible? Why am I more excited to read the best new book on whatever, rather than the only book with the very words of God? Why am I still likely to find my identity and worth in what I have or what I’ve done, instead of what God says about me? Why am I bored reading the Bible while the psalmist is having the time of his life?
He says, “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes” (Psalm 119:71). The author praises God for pain, because he believes the pain helped him understand God and his word better. Have you ever been able to draw a line like that, between your suffering and your Bible reading? He goes on, “The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces” (Psalm 119:72). What if you had to pay five dollars every time you read your Bible? What would your Bible budget be this month?

Why Are We Bored?

A lot of us want to relegate love like this to others. Some people love the Bible, and some people love people. Or, some people like to read, and some people like to serve. But the Bible, like the gospel, can’t be relegated only to a few. Bible reading isn’t a spiritual gift like Bible teaching, or biblical counseling, or speaking in tongues. Bible reading and loving is a gift (and calling) for all believers.
Psalm 119 does not model extraordinary Christianity. It’s showing us how people truly in love with God receive actual words from God. They realize the awesome gift they’ve received in this book. When they open their Bibles, or hear the Bible read or preached, they can feel as though God himself were walking down from heaven to speak to them.
I admit I have a hard time remembering and feeling that some mornings. Why are so many Christians bored with the Bible? Because we’ve forgotten what the Bible is.
John Piper reminds us, again, narrating his personal Bible reading with wonder,
Think of it. Marvel at this. Stand in awe of this. The God who keeps watch over the nations, like some people keep watch over cattle or stock markets or construction sites—this God still speaks in the 21st century….By this voice, he speaks with absolute truth and personal force. By this voice, he reveals his all-surpassing beauty. By this voice, he reveals the deepest secrets of our hearts. No voice anywhere anytime can reach as deep or lift as high or carry as far as the voice of God that we hear in the Bible.
Absolute truth. Personal power and relevance. All-surpassing beauty. All-knowing love and wisdom. All from the mind and mouth of God. All in the pages of a book we can hold in one hand.

How to Make the Sermon Stick Past Sunday

How to Make the Sermon Stick Past Sunday

By Clarence Stowers, Jr.

Leading a church in Chicago, Ill., is tough.

It’s even tougher during our brutal winters. So what does a pastor to do when the temperature dips below zero, and the wind chill factor dips to double digits? Cancel service? Oh no! We’re the City of Broad Shoulders, and we don’t dare cancel services due to inclement weather.
Imagine making your sermons stick past Sunday? Imagine a proven strategy to get members and guests engaging with your messages long after Sunday. Are you interested? If so, read on.
My generation experienced the election of the first African-American President, the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks, Desert Storm, Iraq War, historic government bailouts, the passing of healthcare reform and the greatest economic downturn since The Great Depression. However, in my opinion, the greatest shifts are happening now!

Our World Is Connected

Companies like Facebook, Google and Apple have one root intention: to make it simpler for people to communicate and collaborate. Of all the tools and websites created to connect people, Facebook seems to be the most popular starting place for many.
Worldwide, there are over 1.65 billion monthly active Facebook users—which is a 15 percent increase year over year. We all have at our fingertips the tools to find, friend and engage with people. Imagine how churches can use this platform to expand the Kingdom of God!
Honestly, I do not understand why most pastors and church leaders do not leverage technology for the Glory of God. Pastors, church leaders and faithful church attendees who see social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat and LinkedIn as evil are missing a great opportunity to reach people far from God.

Early Christians Used Technology

Galilee, Bethlehem and the rest of Palestine were part of a Roman world whose technological underpinnings had reached a level by Jesus’ day that was not to be surpassed until the 19th century.
Those roads that the Apostle Paul and his associates traveled to spread the faith were unprecedented marvels of engineering. Without the ingeniously constructed roads that led from the streets where Jesus had walked to the cities of Syria and Greece, Christianity might have remained another obscure Judean sect like those that fill the pages in accounts by Jewish historian Josephus.
The roads were technological marvels—the ORIGINAL information super-highway!

What’s the Point?

If Jesus, His Disciples or the Apostle Paul were here today, they’d all use Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites to reach people for God! Considering this social trend, how will the church respond and leverage social media to help sermons stick and expand the Kingdom of God?
Here’s the good news: You already have most of the tools to use social media to make your sermon stick while pointing people to Jesus. Here’s how you do it:
1. Pull out your smartphone, download the Facebook app and create an account.
2. Place your phone on a tripod.
3. Make sure you have a strong wifi signal (or a generous data plan).
4. Open the Facebook app and start broadcasting live.
It’s just that simple, and within seconds, you see your members, their friends and people around the world engaging virtually. Beautiful!

How We Make the Message Stick at Mars Hill

At Mars Hill, “we become all things to all people that we may win some to Christ.” Therefore, we decided a long time ago to use technology as another tool to help people find their way back to God.
With Facebook’s newest feature Facebook Live, you can start a Live broadcast that automatically posts to the News Feed, watch comments overlaid in real-time on their stream and then make the recording permanently available for viewing. I’m using Facebook Live to review the previous Sunday message and live stream a video devotional. I’m calling it Rewind.

It’s Time to #Rewind

#REWIND is a live stream (Facebook Live and Periscope) designed for us to look back to Sunday’s message and allow God’s Spirit to prompt us in areas that need to change in our lives (before we shelve the thoughts in the archives of our mind).
There are three sections to it:
1. Recall: a quick blurb about the big idea of the previous Sunday message along with links to the audio/video/transcription of the message (in case you missed it or want to go back to it),
2. Reflect: some key questions to digest as a group, family or individual, and
3. Respond: action steps that might be helpful to pursue a healthy change in our daily lives.
Facebook Live is a great tool to keep your members engaged with your sermon beyond Sunday. You can watch #Rewind every Monday at 7 PM CST by CLICKING HERE. If you’d like to receive notifications, please consider subscribing.

How to Spot an Immature Teacher and What To Do About It

How to Spot an Immature Teacher” is the fifth in a series of five articles on recognizing immaturity in fivefold ministry and what to do about it. If you have no idea what fivefold ministry is, check out Alan Hirsch’s brief descriptions here, or JR Woodward’s video introduction here.
If you’ve ever planted a missional church, you know it isn’t exactly a walk in the park. You’ve got a vision for cultivating a certain kind of community, but because it doesn’t quite exist yet, you can’t point to anything concrete for people to experience.
Because of this, one of the major temptations in church planting is to try to “make things happen.” We grow impatient with the pace of the kingdom and begin to take shortcuts in development to get something off the ground.
One of the ways we do this is by releasing leaders into authority and responsibility too quickly. It feels like such a relief to find a competent, gifted, and willing person that it’s easy to overlook character issues and immaturity that may be present.
Putting people into positions of leadership before their character can bear it is a recipe for disaster, so we need a way to evaluate not just giftedness and competency, but also character and maturity.

We need a way to evaluate not just giftedness and competency, but character and maturity @bensternke

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This is the fifth article in a series on recognizing immaturity through the lens of fivefold gifting (sometimes called APEST – Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Shepherds, Teachers).
So far we’ve talked about immature apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors. Now we turn to the teachers.
How can we recognize an unhealthy teacher? And what should we do about it if we spot one in our church?

You Might Be a Teacher If…

Before we talk about immature teachers, let’s talk about teachers in general. How are they Christ’s gift to the church?
Since many communicators and leaders in churches are called “teachers,” it’s worth clarifying what we mean… We’re using “teacher” as it’s used in Ephesians 4, as one of five gifts that Christ gives to his church for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry.
Teachers are people who are motivated to help people learn and grow. JR Woodward calls them Light Givers, people whose primary concern is “that the community inhabits the sacred text [of the Bible]. They create a learning environment where people immerse themselves in the scriptures in order to be formed by them.”
You need some of these people in your church! Here are some signs of teachers in general:

• They are drawn to the Scriptures and are often intensely hungry to read, study, and memorize Scripture.
• They desire to help other people understand the truths of God’s Word.
• They are often concerned with logic, order, process, and development.
• They have a gift for outlining comprehensive curricula and systems.
• They lean toward proven systems to “get the job done” vs. novel solutions.
• They often ask tough questions that can lead to greater clarity for everyone.
• They help “operationalize” the dreams and visions of apostles and prophets.
• They like to see established track records of success before doing something different. “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it,” is a typical mantra.
• They look for ways to explain, enlighten, and apply Scripture.
• They often make excellent coaches and mentors.

Signs of an Immature Teacher

But teachers need to grow from immaturity to maturity, just like all of us. Their greatest strength is also their greatest weakness.
Here are some signs of an immature teacher:

• In their hunt for clarity, they can offend people with their bluntness. Immature teachers lack empathy.
• They can get so enamored with order that they’re unwilling to endure any kind of ambiguity (which you have a lot of in church planting!).
• They can get so enamored with stability that they’re unwilling to take risks or try something new.
• In their desire to know the truth and make truth known, they may end up “cerebral” Christians, elevating head knowledge above practice.
• More than any other type, teachers are prone to become Pharisees: content that they know and do the “right” things, setting up certain knowledge and behavior requirements as litmus tests for being a “serious” Christian.
• In their desire to teach and train people, they have a tendency to keep people “in the nest” too long, fearing they aren’t “ready” until they take just one more class.
• When in senior leadership roles, they can become “sermon machines,” leaving day-t0-day discipleship and leadership to others and assuming the “main” thing the church needs is teaching.
• Like pastors, they like to be needed. While pastors like to be needed for the care and help they provide people, teachers like to be needed for their wisdom and insight.
• They can become “devil’s advocates” with their questions about new ideas, creating a wet blanket affect on leadership teams.

Does any of this remind you of anyone? Maybe you’ve got an immature teacher in your church plant. Maybe you notice these characteristics in yourself. Read on for what to do with the immature teacher in your life (even if it’s you!).

What To Do with an Immature Teacher

It’s important to have teachers present in a church planting situation, because when people become new Christians through evangelism, you’ll need people who are excited to develop learning environments for those new Christians to grow in the basics of the faith.
So if you notice an immature teacher in your midst, one of the temptations will be to simply use them as a “content developer” that helps people assimilate into your community. The immature teacher will love this because people now “need” their knowledge… but it sets up a “mutual using society” that doesn’t reflect God’s kingdom of love.

Is your church plant setting up “mutual using societies” that don’t reflect God’s Kingdom?

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Also – especially if you’re an apostle – you might experience teachers as people who are always asking pesky questions about HOW you’re going to pull things off! Because of this, it can be tempting to reject an immature teacher as a pessimist.
But teachers are a tremendous gift to a church plant, and our job is just to “keep moving”; to bring the church to unity and maturity, “attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13).
So don’t use immature teachers, and please also don’t reject them. Instead, disciple them so they become mature!

Don’t use immature teachers, and please also don’t reject them. Instead, disciple them! @bensternke

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How To Disciple an Immature Teacher

So how do we disciple an immature teacher? First of all, we disciple them like we disciple everyone else: we love them by offering them an abundance of grace and truth so they can grow into the character and competency of Jesus.
But discipleship looks different for a teacher than it does for a prophet, evangelist, pastor, or apostle; the grace and truth they need take on a certain shape.
So what do grace and truth look like for teachers?

Grace for a Teacher

Here are a few notes on bringing grace to a teacher:

• Take their bluntness in stride. They don’t mean to be rude – remember they’re probably just seeking clarity.
• Listen to their how questions. They aren’t trying to shoot down ideas, they’re just interested in how things will actually get done.
• Listen to their frustrations about the lack of organization in your church and empower them to do something about it.
• Give them opportunities to teach others in appropriate ways.
• Understand that their “evangelism” will often take place among nominal Christians rather than obvious “pagans.” Empower them to do this; tell them it’s important work.
• Listen to them to learn from them, and tell them when you learned something from them. This is a way of honoring the gift they are to you and the church.
• Empower them to develop systems to implement vision, then give them the time and space they need (alone) to work on this stuff!

Truth for a Teacher

Here are a few notes on bringing truth to an immature teacher:

• Teachers need to embrace empathy for others, but it’s hard for them because they oftentimes think of it as “weak.” Help them realize how powerful it is and encourage them to truly empathize with others.
• Encourage them to trust that the Holy Spirit can “fill in the gaps” in people’s knowledge, and that he’ll often do so as they’re on mission. Help them see places in Scripture where Jesus sent people out with almost no theological knowledge whatsoever!
• Encourage them to have an apprentice at all times, someone that is learning to teach like they teach, so they can pass along what they know how to do.
• Remind them that their job is to equip the body of Christ to live out truth, not just understand it.
• Draw their attention to their tendency to make people dependent on them. Challenge them to “work themselves out of a job” by teaching people toward competence not just clarity.
• Teachers can get so convinced by their own theological framework that they create a little enclave within the church for people who “really get it.” They sometimes need to be challenged to hold less rigidly to watertight theological systems. This is really hard for them, though, because they tend to associate their ideas about God with God himself. Letting go of those ideas feels like “heresy” (they may say this when you challenge them about this!).

Challenge teachers to “work themselves out of a job”; teach people toward competence @bensternke

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A mature teacher is a wonderful gift for a church plant to have. They can create catechetical frameworks and classes that deepen people’s understanding and practice of faith.
But they don’t just fall into your lap magically. Church planters often have to disciple their team into maturity before they can lean on their team to disciple others into maturity.

Questions for Discussion

How about you? Have you had experiences with immature teachers? What have you learned about discipling teachers? If you are a teacher, what has been most helpful in your growth?

How Evangelism Clouds the Great Commission

How Evangelism Clouds the Great Commission (and What to Do About It)

By Frank Powell The Great Commission. A phrase we have adopted to describe the mission Jesus left for his followers. It sounds like an awesome mission (and it is), but I have struggled for years to understand the meaning of discipleship. Unfortunately, the church often serves to muddle the situation. Let’s be clear: We have a mission on this earth, and our mission is to make disciples. You and I will be held accountable for how we carried out our mission. This is not something to be taken lightly.
And I believe most Christians believe Jesus intends for us to take the mission seriously, but we have no clue what it means or what it looks like practically. It either seems too confusing or too daunting. Believe me, I am with you. For many, trying to get a firm grasp on discipleship is about as easy as trying to make your tongue touch your nose (if you want to waste a few minutes of your life, give it a try).
So, I want to make a few points about discipleship that might serve to clear the water a bit. Let’s do it.

1.) Understand discipleship is the ultimate mission…not evangelism.

We need to start here…as followers of Jesus, we must break down the stigma that says if the person we are mentoring or teaching does not get baptized, we have failed. Making disciples includes those who know Jesus and those who do not. It can take place in entirely Christians contexts (like Christian schools), and it can occur in entirely non-Christian contexts. Young Christians need more mature Christians to model and teach for them new and greater truths about God. Those who do not know Jesus need people to model for them the redeeming power of Jesus. Both are important. There is not one way to make disciples. It looks different for each person because each person is unique. Our ultimate goal is not to ensure we baptize people or even get them to a certain spiritual maturity, the goal is to show them Jesus. David Platt said it this way:
Our goal is not to manipulate decisions…our goal is to make disciples.

Let’s not forget this truth: WE do not straighten up lives. We do not transform people. God handles that. Our goal is to be present in whatever situation God places us. This means we don’t focus on the outcomes as much as we focus on being present. Your job might be to plant the seed. Your job might be to simply speak a kind word or begin the process of turning somebody toward God. Your role might be to evangelize (preach the gospel), but your role might also be to feed the homeless, rescue the orphan or care for the widow. One is not more important than the other.
Primarily, we are ministers of reconciliation. We are redeemers. We have been called by God to step into brokenness and restore it by the power of the Spirit working through us.
When we begin to look at people only as souls that need to be saved from eternal damnation instead of broken people that need holistic redemption, we will start to objectify people and view them as projects.
This is the danger of seeing evangelism as the ultimate mission. It creates a dangerous mentality where we have no real concern with restoring lives. When people do not “get down” with the five steps, we kick them to the curb. When people do “get down” with the five steps, we add another mark on the tally board. Even before we get them out of the water, we have moved on to our next “project.” Either way, this is objectification.
Discipleship is walking with people. Being present in brokenness. Speaking life with our conversations. Constantly trying to model Jesus with our actions. Refusing to go away because our homosexual neighbor refuses to take the trajectory we have mapped out for him or her. Refusing to write off our co-worker because he or she turned down our invitation for a Bible study. This is discipleship. This is our mission.
Do we always baptize? No, but when we do, we party like it’s 1999 (for the glory of God, of course), and we continue to walk with our new brother or sister in Christ. We have a responsibility, but the responsibility is not to evangelize and baptize the world. Evangelism and baptism will flow from fulfilling the ultimate mission: making disciples. The responsibility we have is to be Jesus and show the character and nature of God to every person we encounter.
But this presents a problem for many people. I can feel the tension the previous few paragraphs have created as you read. Tension is good. Let’s keep going. The next point builds on the first.

2.) Be intentional.

Remember we now live in a culture where people are not walking into our doors every Sunday asking us if we will tell them about Jesus. Before the rise of the Millennials, discipleship predominantly played itself out inside the church building. People were coming to the church building because they were broken and looking for something. If you invited somebody to come to worship on Sunday, the response was favorable. Programs and activities were geared toward bringing people to the building because Christianity stood at the center of the culture.
In 2014, the game has changed. Christianity is on the periphery of culture now. Yes, there are exceptions, but generally speaking, people are not beating down the doors of our building and they are not overly receptive to attending a worship service with us. But there is something that has not changed…people are still broken and looking for something.
As long as we are living in this world, there will be people who are broken and looking for something to fill the void.
So, how do we step into the brokenness of people’s lives in 2014? One word: intentionality. From the moment we open our eyes in the morning, we put on the lenses of Jesus, and we move through our day with the lenses on. There is NEVER a moment where we put down our guard. Every conversation, every relationship, every encounter, every email, every text message and every social media post is an opportunity for us to show God to other people. Without intentionality, our jobs, marriages, relationships, etc. terminate on themselves. We view our job as a means to make money. We use our time at the ball field as an opportunity to watch our children or spouse. When we allow our days to terminate on themselves, making disciples is impossible.
Which brings us to point 3.

3.) Weave gospel threads.

This idea was first brought to my attention by David Platt when I went to Secret Church a few months ago. He made a statement that resonated with me and has forced me to re-think how discipleship works itself out in my daily life: Many Christians say they believe in God but speak about their jobs, marriages, successes, failures etc. like an atheist.
Here is what he meant. If God is actually present and active in our lives every day, why are we not talking about Him? Why are we not attributing our successes to Him? Why are we not mentioning God in our conversations? Is it not true that everything we are and every situation we find ourselves in is solely a result of God working in and through us? We need to make God’s name and character known to a world that is looking for something. Why would our co-workers, school mates, etc. be drawn to God if we never mention Him in our conversations?
This is what I believe making disciples looks like in 2014. We weave gospel threads into every situation and every conversation. We find opportunities to give God glory for what is happening in our lives. We talk about the sustaining presence and power of God during difficult times. We don’t leave other people to guess who is at the center of our lives.
When we go eat at restaurants, we pray for our waiters/waitresses. When we go to coffee shops, we look for opportunities to mention Jesus in conversation. At our place of work, we mention the name of Jesus as often as possible. Not because we are trying to give off some “holier than thou” persona, but because we acknowledge God is our source of strength, our reason for existence, our creator, our sustainer, our provider, our source of comfort during hard times and the reason for our joy, peace, hope. We can’t help but speak about Him!
The more gospel threads we weave in our lives, the more opportunities we will have to share Jesus directly with other people. The more opportunities we will have to directly step into the brokenness of the world and be the restorers God has saved us to be.  People are still looking for something, and when they see that we have that “something,” they will eventually come asking.
________________________
I love you all. To God be the glory forever. Amen!

Wanna learn how to stop loving stuff and start loving people?

What a bea-utiful weekend we just had here in the Pacific Northwest. Wow. And Team K kicked off a new/old tradition: Gourmet Burger Night. A delicious family competition of sorts... I’ll tell you more about that with pictures later...
But for now, a question: Has chasing the “American Dream” of bigger, faster, louder, MORE! become your passion while your faith and Christian life is sort of added in the margins? It can happen very subtly. 
In my new blog/video post I’ll tell you a true story that broke my heart, but helped me gain perspective.
How to Stop Loving “Stuff” and Start Loving People
Where Are The Treasures of Your Heart?

Being blessed with material wealth; things like a nice home and decorations, cars, clothing and mountains of electronics, is great. I’ve been given all of these things in my life and I’m grateful. But at times, some of these “good things” became “the things” that I began to worship or protect, in a sense, forgetting what was truly important. [click to continue]
You’re the best!
–Caesar

4 Steps to Create a Church Communication Strategy

In ministry, as in life, it can be tough to plan ahead. With all the concerns of day-to-day operations, it’s difficult to stop and look at the bigger picture. But in order for a church to communicate effectively, a strategic communications plan is essential. A communication plan enables you to save time and gain ground on initiatives, rather than jumping from project to project and hustling to stay ahead.
Here is a list of tips for creating a communications plan for your church:  
Define Communication Priorities –
Using your church’s vision and mission as a basis, identify the main messages you want to communicate throughout the year. Don’t make your final list too long. Select three to five key messages. Make them narrow and focused. This is what you want to consistently communicate about your church.
Identify Target Audiences –
Once you clearly define what you want to communicate, the next step is identifying who you want to say it to. Spend time researching demographics, interviewing audiences and conducting surveys. Figure out the social environments your audience interacts in and how they prefer to communicate with organizations.
Capture Communication Goals –
You know what you want to say and who you want to say it to. Now determine how you want to go about transferring your message to your audience. Devise projects and initiatives to execute throughout the year. Don’t be afraid to be creative and ambitious with your goals (while still making them attainable).
Create Plan Collectively –
Don’t go it alone when creating your communications plan. It should be a collective effort. Bring in key members of your church from different teams or departments. Include local experts and audience members. The more input you receive, the more weight your plan will hold moving forward.
Effective communications are based on strategy. As Basil S. Walsh once noted: “If you don’t know where you’re going, how can you expect to get there?”
Need help developing a communications strategy? JOANNA LA FLEUR will be speaking on how to create a communications strategy at Simply Communicate Conference on July 28, 2016. She will teach you how to manage competing and huge requests from every ministry area all wanting the same resources, stage time, social media, videos, etc.

5 Tools for Developing Spiritually Mature Disciples

By Pastor Rick Warren

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Spiritual maturity is not automatic. It must be intentionally cultivated. This is your role and your responsibility as a leader in your church. Every church should want its people to be as much like Christ as possible. We want them to be spiritually deep.
When you go fishing, do you want quality or quantity? I want both! It’s entirely possible to lead a church to grow multi-dimensionally, both deeper and wider.
Just as it takes certain tools to cultivate a garden so that it will grow, there are certain practical tools that you need to cultivate spiritual growth in the lives of your members. It’s not automatic. It doesn’t just happen. You have to help them grow.
There are five primary tools that Saddleback Church has been using for over three decades to cultivate spiritual growth. Really, if you want to know the secret behind Saddleback Church, it’s these five things. These are five very practical tools that we have used to develop the maturity level of people in our church.

1. Commitment cards

The commitment cards that we place in the back of every seat and that we use online with our live stream help our people respond to what we’re teaching in the weekend message. We use commitment cards all the time. We’ll even design special cards for Mother’s Day, Easter, Christmas, and other key days during the year.
This is one of the most overlooked tools that pastors have at their disposal – just giving people an opportunity to respond. A lot of people get right up to that point but never cross the line. We need to teach people what to do and then ask them to do it. You must ask people for their commitment or you’re not going to get it.

2. Classes based on the purposes

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We have four core classes at Saddleback (101, 201, 301, and 401) – each of them focuses on one of the purposes of the church: membership, maturity, ministry, and missions. Through these four-hour classes, we try to help participants live out these purposes in their everyday lives. These classes are the building blocks of Saddleback. They have consistently produced mature believers who walk the walk, talk the talk, live the life, and sacrificially give.
Most Christians know far more than they’re putting into practice. If you have application-focused classes centered on the purposes, that’ll change. Your people will start to learn how to actually live out the biblical purposes in their lives. I cannot overemphasize the importance of setting up a regular class system like this. Once the system is set up, you just improve it every year. People say, “What are you going to do next year?” Same thing that we did last year. We’ll just do it better.
You can find the classes that we use on Pastors.com.

3. Covenants

Covenants are the most important part of our classes. We have a membership covenant, a maturity covenant, a ministry covenant, and a missions covenant. We have our members sign the covenants at the end of each of our classes. Why?

• We become whatever we are committed to.
• Every church is defined by what it’s committed to.
• People want to be committed to something that gives them significance.
• If your church doesn’t ask for your people’s commitment, other people will.
• The greater the commitment you ask for, the greater response you’ll get.

4. Small groups

Your church members can’t grow spiritually on their own. We all need other people to help us grow. At Saddleback, we use small groups, built around the same core New Testament purposes that our church is, to help our members develop the kind of relationships they need to grow. In these groups they can practice all of the “one anothers” of Scripture (pray for one another, love one another, etc.). It’s a central part of our church’s spiritual growth plan. And by making sure that these groups center on the biblical purposes, we help our members worship more fully, build meaningful relationships, develop the character of Christ, discover their SHAPE for ministry (spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality, and experiences), and share their faith with lost friends.

5. Campaigns

We also use spiritual growth campaigns to boost the growth of our people. A spiritual growth campaign is an intensive, extended, all-church emphasis involving every age group that focuses on some particular aspect of spiritual growth. Campaigns like 50 Days of Faith, 40 Days of Purpose, and 40 Days of Community have paid eternal dividends in the spiritual growth of our church.
In the last 35 years at Saddleback, nothing – I mean nothing – has produced spiritual growth in our people deeper and faster than campaigns. Through 40 Days of Purpose alone (in just 40 days):

• 671 new believers came to Christ and were baptized
• 1,200 new members took Class 101 and joined the church (in a 40-day period)
• Worship attendance increased by 2,000
• 1,600 new small groups were started
• 2,200 more people started serving in ministry
• 3,700 people committed to a world missions project

It was truly a transformative experience for our church. All of our campaigns have been like this.
Each of these five tools has been instrumental to the spiritual depth of Saddleback Church. They’re all fully transferable as well. Any church can use them. I encourage you to give them a try.