With Christmas Eve around the corner and lots of churches planning to do direct mail, I thought I'd share 5 things about effective direct mail that was NOT in the direct mail piece I received at my house yesterday: 1. It wasn't in English (even though I speak Spanish fluently, English is still my first language) 2. There were 5 dates on this postcard (it was letting me know the title of every week of the series and the date they would be taught). Instead, give me the big picture of the series, write copy that will pique my curiosity … Read More
Connecting New Believers
We have a great opportunity to reach a lot of people this Christmas who are far from God. But what will keep them from falling through the cracks is having a system to help them take their step steps. That's why on Wednesday, December 8th @ 1PM EST I'm leading a tele-seminar called "Connecting New Believers" where I'm going to lay out step by step how we go about connecting those who make decisions to follow Jesus at Calvary. We've seen over 1,000 people decide to follow Jesus in the last 18 months at Calvary and I ant to … Read More
Sunday Stuff… (Monday Edition)
– First thing: I think Sunday Stuff will be posted on Mondays. I'm too busy on Sunday afternoons to post this, so it will coming to you on Mondays. – Yesterday was a great day at Calvary! – I taught a message called "Unsung Heroes" on the judges we don't know much about. – Technically, I covered Judges 9:1-10:6; 12:8-15 – I purposely skipped over Jephthah, since we'll be covering him this Sunday – I love talking about obscure Bible characters. I find it challenging, since there's very few commentaries on them. – Funny enough, I've gotten 2 requests for … Read More
How we Budget…
It's season. What's here? Budgeting Season! That means most of the next 4-6 weeks will involve meetings, spreadsheets, and talk of the upcoming year. I thought some might be interested in our budgeting process: 1. Give everyone a Quickbooks prints out of what has been spent in their departments for 2010 to date and all of 2009. 2. Talk about the vision for the next year and where each ministry fits into that. 3. Give everyone 3 weeks to put together their 2011 budgets 4. During that time, I am working on a 2011 overall budget number with our Pastors … Read More
Sunday Stuff…
– Great day at Calvary! – I taught Judges 6:36-7:25 on Gideon. – I talked about Doing God's will versus wanting to know God's will – Got tons of positive feedback from the message – The band sounded great. Pastor Mark was out of town, but they didn't miss a beat. – We highlighted another missions organization as part of out "Missions and outreach' month – I love the fact that we're involved in so many community outreach projects that are expressing the love of God physically AND communicating the Gospel verbally as well. The 2 aren't mutually exclusive. – … Read More
Q and A: Tithe Challenge
Here's a question that I received recently: "Bob, I've tried the tithe challenge and people check off their box that they were taking the tithe challenge, but after 3 weeks the majority had dropped off. What's the problem?" Good News: This is a common problem. Bad News: This is a common problem. The churches that I have worked with one on one that experience this drop off usually experience it because their follow up system for those taking the tithe challenge isn't … well… good. I have long said this and will say it again, the key to the tithe challenge … Read More
There’s 24 Hours Left!
Just a quick reminder that our 48 hours birthday sale ends tomorrow. I'm going to give everyone 37% off a bunch of resources at the www.church-strategies.com store. Just use the code birthday and we'll take 37% off the sale resources. What resources are on sale? Check it out: - The Tithe Challenge - 21st Century Outreach Strategies - The Cash Crunch - Serving Strategies - The Portable Church Challenge - Church Planting Pitfalls - The Zero to Sixty Seminar - Laying the Foundation - Calvary Fellowship Employee Manual - Church By-laws - The Complete Membership System - The New Believer's Class - Plus all downloadable sermon series! But this sale ends on my birthday … Read More
The 48 Hour Birthday Sale!
It's my 37th birthday on Thursday and I decided to celebrate by giving everyone an opportunity to pick up some www.church-strategies.com resources for 37% off! Just use the code birthday and we'll take 37% off the sale resources. What resources are on sale? Check it out: - The Tithe Challenge - 21st Century Outreach Strategies - The Cash Crunch - Serving Strategies - The Portable Church Challenge - Church Planting Pitfalls - The Zero to Sixty Seminar - Laying the Foundation - Calvary Fellowship Employee Manual - Church By-laws - The Complete Membership System - The New Believer's Class - Plus all downloadable sermon series! But this sale ends on my birthday (which is … Read More
Some Direct Mail Tips
Here's 4 tips that will greatly help you the next time your church does a direct mail campaign: 1. Keep any direct mail that you like. It doesn't matter what it's advertising. Great direct mail is always a source of good ideas. 2. Keep the "worst of the worst" direct mail you get. A lot of church mail tends to fall in this category unfortunately. But this file of direct mail will remind you what sins you should never commit. 3. Political mail – I am seeing some amazing political direct mail this time of year. It doesn't matter the … Read More
Sunday Stuff… (Monday Edition)
– Great Sunday at Calvary! – I taught Judges 6 and we were introduced to the character of Gideon. – My topic was "How God Changes us" – I felt great about the message overall. People were really engaged. – Looking forward to teaching Judges 7-8 this Sunday! – This is the best the band has sounded since we moved to Miramar. – People are really excited about our DateNight event on October 29th. I'm looking forward to teaching with my wife Carey. Should be loads of fun! – Busy Monday. Trying to do 4 days worth of work in a … Read More
