This story begins in late 2004. There were some great things were happening in my life at this time… …The Red Sox finally won the World Series after 86 long years …The Patriots won another Superbowl … I had lost 70 pounds and gotten to the lowest weight I had been since High School But there were some other things going on that were keeping me up at night. …things at my 3 year old church plant weren’t going so well …My mother-in-law had gone to be with the Lord unexpectedly …After 8 years of marriage, my wife and I … Read More
4.5 Big Ideas to Help you Reach Families on Mother’s Day
I’ve been telling people forever that Mother’s Day can a huge day for your church if you promote it correctly. Mother’s Day has historically been our 2nd highest attended Sunday of the year (2nd only to Easter). I hear from Pastors all the time who are asking what they can do to make Mother’s Day big. So I complied 4.5 simple things we do that you can easily implement at your church to make Mother’s Day a very effective outreach day. #1 – Invite everyone who came on Easter to Mother’s Day We write a letter to everyone who attended on Easter … Read More
The Monday after Easter
I’m sitting in the office today totally wiped out after 4 Easter services, baptisms, egg hunts, and a bunch of other activities that made this weekend the best Easter celebrations we’re ever experienced as a church. So I thought I would write out some “quick hits” or thoughts that I’m thinking as I reflect on this weekend. Long time readers of my blog will remember my old “Sunday Night Thoughts” where I’d reflect on the past weekend. OK, here we go… – First, I am grateful to God for the opportunity to serve. Who would have thought that a kid … Read More
3 Musts for your Easter Services
Easter is this Sunday and it’s the Superbowl for churches. It is literally the busiest Sunday of the year. I get asked a lot of questions by the Pastor I coach. But one of the questions really stood out. He asked, “What are the musts for Easter Sunday?” It’s a great question and I wanted to share my answer with you. #1 – You must preach the Gospel on Easter Sunday – This is a non-negotiable. You should be preaching the Gospel every week and giving people an opportunity to respond. However, on Easter, you much because you have so … Read More
My Pastor, My Mentor, My Friend…
This has been one of the hardest weeks of my life. I found out that my pastor, my mentor, my friend Bob Coy fell into sexual sin and disqualified himself from ministry. I have been a mess since Saturday. Before I share what I believe to be missing in the conversation about Bob’s fall, indulge me to share a little background… I started attending Calvary Chapel as a young Christian of only 3 weeks. It was a Wednesday night Bible study and I still remember the subject of the message (he was preaching out of Acts 18). Calvary Chapel is … Read More
Fixing Your Follow Up Funnel
I learned a ton about plumbing a couple of years ago. A leaky pipe burst and left me without a kitchen for the better part of a month. I learned that when you have a leaky pipe, you have to pump twice the water through the pipe to get 1/2 the amount H2O when you open your faucet. Here’s how this relates to church leadership and outreach… Your church can spend lots of money on outreach and fill your seats on one big day. However, if you don’t have a good follow up system and newcomers and new believers, they … Read More
Filling your Church on Easter… the Cheap Way
I had a Pastor email this last week and asked, “If you were on a shoestring budget and Easter was 2 weeks away, how would you get the word out about your church?” I responded with one word. Facebook. I love Facebook ads. Why? Because it’s the cheapest way to drive traffic to your website and let people know about your services. Think about it. Facebook lets you… 1. Pick who your want to market to 2. Set a maximum budget 3. Constantly tweak and change your ads 4. Create different ads for different people at no extra cost And … Read More
If you’re doing Direct Mail this Easter…
Lots of churches are seeking to reach out to as many people are possible and invite them to Easter. What many churches do is buy the names of every person in certain zip codes and “let ‘er rip”. I don’t think this is the best approach. In fact, here’s what we have been doing for some time now and would recommend to other church leaders: #1 – Be Specific by Buying lists You can call companies that have lists for everything you could possibly imagine. This way, you can be specific in the people you want to reach. In … Read More