I tell my Outreach Ninja coaching members that every church has limited funds. Even if your budget runs into the millions, it’s not unlimited. That means, every church should be looking to steward their outreach dollars well. So how do you remain fiscally responsible while at the same time aggressively seeking to reach you community? It’s simple. Focus on reaching those who are most likely to attend your church. Right now, there are commonalities with those who attend your church. Even the most ethnically diverse churches (like the church I Pastor) have common attributes that naturally draw them together. The … Read More

I took martial arts as a kid and the first lesson I received turned out to be the foundation for everything else I learned. What was it? Really simple… Balance. You must have balance to throw a punch, block a kick or jump from danger. You couldn’t do anything else until your learned balance. As churches seeking to reach our communities, there’s a foundational truth that’s vital to reaching people and growing our churches. Few know it. That’s why most church marketing falls flat. It’s also why people say marketing or promotion doesn’t work in their area. Once you know … Read More

Everyone loves predictions. Sports.Political.Weather. And while I am neither a prophet nor Miss Cleo (10 points if you remember her), I do know something that will certainly be true for you and your church this Christmas season. So here are my 2 Christmas predictions for churches… Prediction #1: Churches who invest in outreach will continue to reach people  Outreach is never an expense; it’s always an investment. Churches who see direct mail, Facebook ads, Google adwords, placement ads or any other form of marketing as an expense will usually go cheap and reach very few people. Prediction #2: Pastors who learn new skills … Read More

I recently ran across an outline for a message out of the book of Romans that I preached in the first year of our church. I looked over the notes and thought they were still pretty good even though they were 10 years old. Here’s the odd part: I was teaching Romans again when I found them. I had taught the same area of scripture just a few weeks before, so I thought it would be fun to compare the notes. 10 years later I thought my 2011 message was more polished, but all in all, the messages were very … Read More

Our Christmas outreach services are about a month away. Most of us are writing messages for the holidays that we hope will reach people far from God. Here’s my preaching tip for your Christmas Eve services: have your whole message build up to the invitation. Make sure every word is leading your hearers to the point where you want to them to respond to the Gospel invitation you’re going to give. In fact, you may want to start writing your message by writing the invitation first. That way you know exactly what you’re building up to. But here’s the reality: if people are going to respond … Read More

– Fantastic day at Calvary! – It was a full day of ministry. – Preached the Sunday services. Baby dedication. Baptisms. Officiated a wedding. – Then I wrestled with my kid for 2 hours. That’s what wiped me out the most 🙂 – Finished preaching through Nehemiah today. – If I haven’t mentioned it recently, I love teaching expositionally! – That’s 31 books of the Bible taught. I love it! – There’s no better way to disciple a congregation. – Love seeing people make the decision to be baptized. – We let everyone know that our church committed to give … Read More

Let me just come out and say it: I’m not an evangelist. We see lots of people come to Jesus every week at Calvary, but my spiritual gift isn’t evangelism. I wish it were. But it isn’t. In fact, I’m much more comfortable talking about the nuances of Greek and Hebrew than anything else. But even though I’m not an evangelist in my gifting, I’m called to do the work of an evangelist. By the way, so you are. So how can those of us who aren’t evangelists see people come to Christ every week in our services? The answer … Read More

I ever tell you about my most humiliating preacher moment? It was December of 2000. I was a younger preacher, 3 months into planting my church. It was our first Christmas Eve service and I put in about 35 hours prepping a 30 minute holiday message. So the day came and I preached my heart out. I taught on the meaning of Christmas and when the end of the message came, I gave an invitation for people to invite Jesus into their lives. Crickets. I clarified the Gospel more. Created more urgency and then cast the net again and invited … Read More

I know it’s not even Thanksgiving yet and I’m already giving you a Christmas gift, but I need to give it to you early so it’s helpful at Christmas time. I don’t want this gift to fall in the category of the gloves a family member mailed me for Christmas one year. See, I love in Florida. You know, warm weather all the time. Winter gloves are useless in the Sunshine state. Unlike those gloves, my Christmas gift is super relevant because Christmas is one of the best times of year to reach unchurched people. Today, tomorrow, and the day … Read More

Christmas is one of the best times of year to reach people. That’s why on November 15, 16, 17 (that’s this Tuesday, Wedneday & Thursday) I’m leading a webinar called, “Double your Decisions this Christmas”.  This 35 minute webinar is going to show you 5 simple ways you can double the number of people who respond to the Gospel this Christmas in your services. It’s totally FREE and you can register here.