Here’s a couple of book reviews of some helpful books I’ve read in the last week: – Conversational Capital – The question this books asks is, “Why do people talk about certain products?” The authors try to break down the reasons people love telling the stories of certain companies. It was an interesting book. The section on a company’s mythology was fascinating. – Reach More, Spend Less – This little book was really helpful. I enjoyed the potential marketing plans he laid out based on the size of your budget. I think this books will be helpful for any church … Read More
A Word to Those who can’t Follow
At a recent conference I spoke at, I talked about one of the most important qualities of a Church Planter. While there are many to choose from, one of the most important qualities a church planter can have is the ability to follow. Why is this important to a new Senior Pastor? Because the best church planters and Pastors are those who followed their Pastor when served on a church staff. Church Planters who leave churches because they can’t follow anyone are asking for problems in the future. If you can’t follow anyone, few are going to follow you. The … Read More
Church Planter Tele-coaching
If you’re a church planter looking for coaching so you can launch large in your area, I’m going to be starting a church planter tele-coaching network in November/ December in conjunction with Church Leader Insights. Each session will be a 2-hour phone call where we will discuss the principles laid out in Launch: Starting a new church from Scratch. The great part of tele-coaching is there’s no plane tickets, no rental car, and no hotels expenses. Just pick up the phone and learn to launch larger and quicker than you thought possible! Here’s some of what we’ll discuss in our … Read More
The Top 100
I just got done creating a bookmark folder with the website of the 100 largest churches in America and the 100 fastest growing churches in America according to Outreach magazine. I think this is an important exercise for any Pastor because I believe these are churches we should learn from. I’m guessing that all pro golfers lear from Tiger and all basketball players learn from Koby. We should learn from those who are getting it done. Here’s a couple of observations I had: – This is the most diverse group of churches I’ve ever seen. Every church listed is an … Read More
Sunday Stuff…
– Today was incredible! – I thought we’d see a dip in attendance from last week… we didn’t! – The band did an amazing job. – The band did 4 song clips during the message to describe the 4 Greek words for love. When I was talking about “eros” love and Mark and the band played “Let’s get it on” by Marvin Gaye, the place went nuts. It was hilarious! – Our set up/ tear down crew are the most amazing group of people on planet earth. – I felt great today teaching the services. 2 services with 30 minutes … Read More
Hanging in Atlanta
I’ve had a great time during my brief Atlanta trip. I’ve been able to hang with my good friend Jason which has been a lot of fun. Jason was the best man at my wedding and I was his best man, so it’s been great to hang out. I got here Monday evening and recorded a podcast for Catalyst with Nelson Searcy on the subject of church planting. I’ll let you know when it airs. Tuesday Nelson and I taught a Launch Conference for church planters. It was great connecting with a bunch of guys who are going to be … Read More
A Couple of Book Reviews
Here’s a review of a couple of books I enjoyed reading recently: – Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven ways to be Persuasive – This was a fascinating book. I really enjoyed reading it. Some of the book is just interesting quirks about human behavior, but another 1/2 of the book is great insight about how to be persuasive. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to be a more persuasive person. What I also loved about this book is that it was 50 short (4-5 pages) chapters. All books should be written like this. – The Ultimate Sales Letter – … Read More
Church Planting Pitfalls
Last month, Nelson Searcy and I recorded a resource for Church Planters entitled, “Church Planting Pitfalls”. It’s being released this week! In this resource, we talk about the 10 most common pitfalls (plus a few bonus ones) that church planters fall into. You can order the CD version here or you can get the MP3 version here. Either way, I think this is going to be a really helpful resource for church planters and Pastors in general because we can fall into these pitfalls at any time in our ministries.
Sunday Stuff… (Monday Edition)
– Today was totally insane! – It was our first service at Barbara Goleman High School and it was amazing! – Both services went great. Tons of new equipment to figure out, but it was smooth. – First, thanks to Jesus for allowing us to serve Him in ministry. What an honor it is to preach the Gospel! – Second, thanks to all of our volunteers who got to the school at 5AM to make the services happen. – Third, our staff hasn’t slept in 2 weeks as they’ve been working hard to make this service a reality. Guys, thank … Read More
Launch Conference!
Just an FYI to those thinking of coming to the Launch Conference in Atlanta on September 30th from 9AM-4PM. The price for the conference goes up on Sunday, so register today if you want to get the get the discounted rate. The link is here. This is going to be a great conference that has already helped 1,000’s of Pastors. A church planter should get every bit of info he can before he launches. If you don’t, you’ll be kicking yourself later. BTW – I’ve gotten lots of responses for church planting tele-coaching network that we’re forming. If you’re interested, … Read More
