– Great day at Calvary! – We continued our “Advent” series. – I taught on the shepherds out of Luke 2:8-20 – My message was about how to have child-like faith. – It went over really well. Lots of great feedback. – I did a show of hands asking how many people spoke Spanish. 85%-90% of the hands went up. Wow! – The band did a great job doing some Christmas songs. – After leading worship last week, I was happy to be back in the pulpit 🙂 – My wife is giving birth in 10 days. Yikes! – I’m … Read More

I worked with a church a while back that was spending tons of ‘moola’ on Facebook. … and getting poor results. Yikes! They asked if I could consult with them and work some magic to make their ads more effective. After assessing their situation, I told them that for churches, less is more on Facebook Say what? I told them that people search for a church closer to the weekend, so don’t start spending money until the weekend is near. They did that and their ads started working better AND they were spending less in the process. Then I went … Read More

I had a Pastor email this last week and asked, “If you were on a shoestring budget and Christmas 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

My wife and I have been married for almost 15 years but we almost never went on a first date. How? Sit right back and I’ll tell you the tale…  Carey (my wife) and I met at a mutual friend’s house and we hit it off immediately. As I left the party, I thought, “I want to get to know that girl Carey.” There was just one problem. Total bonehead move. I didn’t ask for her number. Duh! Then I saw Carey again a week later at a concert and I asked her for her number and yada yada yada, … Read More

My wife is giving birth to our 3rd child at the end of this month. It goes without saying that we’ve been getting out home ready for the arrival of our new daughter. But imagine another scenario with me. It sounds almost unbelievable, but it’s true all too often. A couple knows a baby is coming and they do nothing to prepare for her arrival. In fact, they’re a little caught off guard by this child showing up in their home. This is the story of many churches. They have a big outreach day like Christmas where they preach the … Read More

– Awesome day at Calvary! – We kicked our new Christmas series Advent: Rediscover the moment that changed history – The idea behind the series is that we all know the Christmas story, but it becomes new when we look at it through the eyes of someone else – Today I taught on “Christmas through Simeon’s Eyes” – Really happy with how the message turned out – I have been working 2-3 weeks ahead, so I was a little nervous on Saturday to see how much modifying the message needed. – Minor changes was all it needed. – The band … Read More

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