Innovation = Experimentation

Bob FranquizChurch

Thomas Edison is quoted as saying, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” This is an important attitude in ministry because if we are afraid to experiment and fail, we will never be innovative and take our ministries to the places they need to go. Experimentation is part of how we learn what’s most effective in our context. For example, how do you know what are the best times to have Sunday services at your church? You have to experiment with different times and see what’s best. We have changed our service dozens of times over … Read More

Investing in Your Sunday Services

Bob FranquizChurch

Your budget is speaking. It’s telling you what you value most. If you buy many gadgets and pay your staff poorly, it’s saying, “I care more about toys more than people.” If you say you care about children’s ministry but never invest resources into constantly improving it, you’re saying, “Children don’t really matter to me or my church.” Looking at your budget will give you a good reference as to what’s most important to you. If you want to make Sunday a priority in your budget, look at three areas that must be given the appropriate resources to excel. They … Read More

Giving Sunday Your Best Attention

Bob FranquizGeneral

I spend a great deal of time talking to Pastors. I am shocked by how many pastors don’t start preparing for Sunday until large in the week. I am even more shocked by how many teams never evaluate their services and try to improve from last week. In their fantastic book, The Power of Full Engagement, Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz write, “Energy, not time, is the fundamental currency of high performance.” For instance, my times of highest energy and greatest creativity are in the early morning. So, I get an early start on my study days to maximize my … Read More

[Free Resource] The Easiest Decision in the World!

Bob FranquizGeneral

[Free Resource] The Easiest Decision in the World! I’ve got some great news to share. My book Pull:Making your Church Magnetic just went into its 2nd printing! So in light of this great news, I wanted to give you an opportunity to pick up a copy of Pull for free.  All you have to do is pay the $3.99 shipping cost.  There’s 2 things I want you to know  about this offer:  #1 – I have 150 copies of Pull. That’s it. So once they are gone, this offer is over.  (I just emailed over 25,000 pastors, so you do the math on … Read More

The #1 Quality a Leader Must Possess

Bob FranquizLeadership

Often, churches are stuck because the leader doesn’t feel the need to learn new skills, which is the height of arrogance. We must be learning new skills continually because we live in an ever-changing world. Rick Warren is famous for saying, “The day we stop growing, we’re dead in the water.” There are myriad places for us to gain new skills, but it begins with a decision to stop “doing what we’re doing” and get serious about our growth. Think about these statistics from the American Booksellers Association: 80 percent of all Americans did not read a book this year. … Read More

Getting Your Outreach Working on All 8 Cylinders

Bob FranquizChurch

Calvary Fellowship started as a home Bible study with five people. The most daunting task we had early on was figuring out how to let people know we existed.  I made the mistake early on of putting all our hopes in one method rather than using different means to communicate who we were as a church and, of course, the message of the Gospel. I see churches make this mistake all the time.  They either put eggs in the Easter basket (pun intended) thinking this Superbowl of Sunday services will attract enough new people to keep the church growing throughout … Read More

Developing an Outreach Calendar

Bob FranquizChurch

We are all influenced by the calendar.  We all eat turkey on Thanksgiving, candy on Halloween and Hershey’s kisses on Valentine’s Day.  The calendar affects all of us, so instead of fighting the calendar, why not cooperate with it?  I believe the calendar can be our greatest ally as we plan our preaching for each year.  Then again, what’s the alternative?  If you fight the calendar, I promise you will lose every time. So what how do I cooperate with the calendar and use it to my advantage?  Here are six dates that will help you plan your preaching throughout … Read More

Giving Kids the Tools to Invite Friends

Bob FranquizChurch

One of the core values of our Evangelism Ninja coaching program is to mobilize your congregation. This means giving everyone in your church the tools needed to invite friends and family to church. With Easter approaching, I thought I’d share one of the tools we created for the kids in our Children’s Ministry to invite their friends and classmates to our Easter Services.   This looks just like the birthday cards that kids give to each other throughout the year. The inside of this card has all of the information for our Easter services. It talks about what parents and kids … Read More

A Direct Mail Autopsy

Bob FranquizChurch

Most church direct mail is horrible. Sorry to be so blunt, but it’s true. In fact, a while ago I received a direct mail piece from a church at my home (which made me happy by the way. I love seeing churches in my community reaching out.), but the piece had so many problems it’s no wonder why it got terrible results. So let’s do a direct mail autopsy, shall we? What was wrong with the mailing? There were 5 causes of death in this mail piece… 1. It wasn’t in English – (even though I speak Spanish fluently, English … Read More