Our Christmas outreach services are about a month away. Most of us are writing messages for the holidays that we hope will reach people far from God. Here’s my preaching tip for your Christmas Eve services: have your whole message build up to the invitation. Make sure every word is leading your hearers to the point where you want to them to respond to the Gospel invitation you’re going to give. In fact, you may want to start writing your message by writing the invitation first. That way you know exactly what you’re building up to. But here’s the reality: if people are going to respond … Read More

– Fantastic day at Calvary! – It was a full day of ministry. – Preached the Sunday services. Baby dedication. Baptisms. Officiated a wedding. – Then I wrestled with my kid for 2 hours. That’s what wiped me out the most 🙂 – Finished preaching through Nehemiah today. – If I haven’t mentioned it recently, I love teaching expositionally! – That’s 31 books of the Bible taught. I love it! – There’s no better way to disciple a congregation. – Love seeing people make the decision to be baptized. – We let everyone know that our church committed to give … Read More

Let me just come out and say it: I’m not an evangelist. We see lots of people come to Jesus every week at Calvary, but my spiritual gift isn’t evangelism. I wish it were. But it isn’t. In fact, I’m much more comfortable talking about the nuances of Greek and Hebrew than anything else. But even though I’m not an evangelist in my gifting, I’m called to do the work of an evangelist. By the way, so you are. So how can those of us who aren’t evangelists see people come to Christ every week in our services? The answer … Read More

I ever tell you about my most humiliating preacher moment? It was December of 2000. I was a younger preacher, 3 months into planting my church. It was our first Christmas Eve service and I put in about 35 hours prepping a 30 minute holiday message. So the day came and I preached my heart out. I taught on the meaning of Christmas and when the end of the message came, I gave an invitation for people to invite Jesus into their lives. Crickets. I clarified the Gospel more. Created more urgency and then cast the net again and invited … Read More

I know it’s not even Thanksgiving yet and I’m already giving you a Christmas gift, but I need to give it to you early so it’s helpful at Christmas time. I don’t want this gift to fall in the category of the gloves a family member mailed me for Christmas one year. See, I love in Florida. You know, warm weather all the time. Winter gloves are useless in the Sunshine state. Unlike those gloves, my Christmas gift is super relevant because Christmas is one of the best times of year to reach unchurched people. Today, tomorrow, and the day … Read More

Christmas is one of the best times of year to reach people. That’s why on November 15, 16, 17 (that’s this Tuesday, Wedneday & Thursday) I’m leading a webinar called, “Double your Decisions this Christmas”.  This 35 minute webinar is going to show you 5 simple ways you can double the number of people who respond to the Gospel this Christmas in your services. It’s totally FREE and you can register here.

– Good day at Calvary – I didn’t teach. Nice to have the day off from preaching. – Got to talk to a lot of people at church that I haven’t talked to in a while. – Also, got to meet a bunch of new people to Calvary. Love hearing their stories of life change! – Pastor John taught Nehemiah 9-10 – I’m finishing Nehemiah next week. – Finishing Nehemiah will book number 32 that we’ve taught through. One of my life goals is to teach through the entire Bible. Close to 1/2 way there (cue up the Bon Jovi … Read More

Christmas is one of the best times of year to reach people. That’s why on November 15, 16, 17 (that’s this upcoming Tuesday, Wedneday & Thursday) I’m leading a webinar called, “Double your Decisions this Christmas”.  This 35 minute webinar is going to show you 5 simple ways you can double the number of people who respond to the Gospel this Christmas in your services. It’s totally FREE and you can register here.

I’m a certified sermon junkie. I’m not only a preacher, I love great preaching as well. Can’t.get.enough.of.it. I love all kinds of preaching: topical, textual, expository. It’s all good. Her’s why I’ve been thinking about preaching more than usual lately: Christmas is around the corner and we both know that Christmas is one of the easiest times of the year to reach people with the Gospel. As I’ve listened to hundreds of holiday sermons over the years, 1 thing separates the good ones from the great ones. One thing that will either sink your message or cause it to be … Read More

We’re coming up on one of the most important evangelistic opportunities of the year: Christmas Eve. Some are saying Christmas Eve is even bigger than Easter in terms of attendance in their area. I know this: Christmas is a great time to reach people. It’s the only time Christian music is playing in the mall and the unchurched are singing along! But every year I hear about Pastors who missed this golden opportunity to reach people. Why? They didn’t plan far enough ahead. They weren’t ready for the people who made decisions. And the moment was gone. I don’t want that to happen to you. That’s why I’m leading 3 … Read More