On Friday, June 25th from 9AM-Noon I'm leading a seminar entitled, "The Pillars of a Healthy Church". I'm totally excited about teaching this because there's so much talk about growing a church, but little talk about being a healthy church. And the only churches that keep growing the long haul are healthy churches. There's a lot more to knowing the health of your church than Sunday's attendance and offering. That's what we're going to spend our time talking about. What can you expect to learn in this 3 hour seminar?– Learn to evaluate your church’s health– How to create … Read More
The Loneliest Person in the World
Do you know who the loneliest person in the world is? If you're a Senior Pastor, it's you! Yes I know you have friends and I know you have a team that you love, but truth be told, being the leader is always the loneliest place to be. That's why we have to be in learning environments with other leaders who are going through EXACTLY the same things we are and learn from each other. That's one of the reasons I invest time into coaching Senior Pastors, because I know that we need to learn from each other, rejoice with … Read More
Q and A: How Can I Make the Most of the Summer?
Instead of getting bummed out about the Summer, use the summer as an opportunity to do 3 things: 1. Grow – Yes I said grow. You can grow in the summer. There are still guests coming to your church every week over the summer. Keep the quality high over the summer and you'll reap the rewards in the Fall. Plan some Mini-Easters in the Summer and you'll see lots of interest in events that take place over the summer as people invite friends. 2. Plan – Summer is the time to plan out the Fall and begin to think about … Read More
Q and A: Becoming an Evangelistic Church
This question is about creating a culture of evangelism in your church. We did not have an evangelistic culture in our church when we started. In fact, after 18 months we didn't see one person come to know Jesus. That was a wake up call for us. Then we started taking steps and eventually the culture of our church changed. Here's 5 steps we took that changed our culture: Step 1 – Confront Reality (don't sugar coat it. Admit that things are bad and start from there.) Step 2 – Start teaching on evangelism (We did a 4 part series on sharing your … Read More
Q and A: New Believer Follow Up
I get questions about new believer follow up regularly, but today I want to highlight one thing that you must do if you're going to have a successful follow up system for new believers: Get their information. This is a non-negotiable. If you don't collect information, you can't do any follow up. Also, the chances of that person who just made a decision to follow Jesus falling through the cracks is more likely. There are several ways to collect information and several strategies that I talk about in the New Believer resource for collecting their information and using it to … Read More
Sunday Stuff…
– Amazing day at Calvary! A great start to a new week. – We finished our 10 Words series. I taught on the last commandment – coveting. – I had plenty of illustrations to use in this message 🙂 – I loved teaching through the 10 commandments. You should do it sometime. – Joel did a great job leading worship – We had both of our campus Pastors on vacation and things went as smooth as can be – Looking forward to teaching through the book of Ephesians starting next week. – If I haven't said it lately, I believe … Read More
Coaching Opportunity
I have a new Senior Pastors tele-coaching network starting on August 26th. I thought I'd lay out some of the specifics: – I only coach 12 Pastors at a time – We give over $500 in www.church-strategies.com resources to those who participate – You get 8 two-hour coaching sessions (one per month) – Plus, you get a bonus one on one coaching session for FREE. Here's what a few coaching alumni had to say: "Joining Bob’s coaching network last year was the best decision I have made as a church planting pastor. The practical insight I have gained as well as … Read More
On the Horizon
Several things on the horizon this summer that I'm looking forward to… – I just finishing up a new book. The tentative title is "A Thousand Dirty Buckets:Finding Fulfillment on the Most Unlikely Place". It's a book about servanthood. It's going to be a book in the same vein as my books "Watermark" and "Start Here". My goal is to get God's people out of their seats and serving faithfully. It should be out by early Fall. – We're starting a new series at Calvary on the book of Ephesians on Father's Day. It's called, "ReThink: Change your Thinking. Change … Read More
Outreach Lesson: You have to Test
I was talking with one of our staff members who oversees our Facebook advertising and he was telling me about an ad we use that does very well. What I found amazing was that he told me that when he changed the image the clicks DOUBLED! That's why I say in direct mail and in Facebook ads, testing is our friend. We test the same ad with different images. We test the same ad with a different headline. We test the same image with different copy. Our goal is to get the combination so the ad performs the best … Read More
Avoiding the Summer Giving Slump
The summer financial slump is very common. The reason it's very common is because most churches simply accept that it happens. Instead of just "waiting out" the summer financial slump, why not be proactive and combat it with strategies that will ensure the health and stability of your church during this season? Here's 3 keys to avoiding the summer financial slump: #1 – Inspire new giving in your church by teaching on stewardship and giving a tithe challenge to the congregation. #2 - Help people automate their giving so even when they miss church over the summer due to … Read More
