Just finished a webinar with 62 church leaders from across the United States and Canada.  All I can say is WOW!  How cool to be able to train so many through technology! Some of the churches had 8 people around the computer – talk about exponential impact.

No word on when the next one will be but we are in the process of scheduling Fusion, Worship Leader and Activate Webinars soon.  If you have a suggested topic, just let me know.

Also, since this technology is such an effective way to train people, I’m considering my first Tele-Coaching Senior Pastors Network for August – click here.  Let me know if you are interested.

Thanks to everyone who was at the event today.  I’ll be answering your questions on the blog in the near future.

Nelson

For me, one of the great challenges of Church Leadership is the tension of not getting everything done that I would like to get done every day.  With several billion people on the planet who still need to be reached, I may not get to check everything off my “to-do” list before the day is over.  Let’s face it, if we are committed to reaching and disciplining people, things are going to get a little messy.

The great king/philosopher Solomon said it like this:

“Without oxen a stable stays clean, but you need a strong ox for a large harvest.”
- Proverbs 14:4

We all have to resist the temptation to make the church a place with the primary purpose of “keeping the stables clean” instead of our God-given purpose of reaping a harvest.   We may feel a little more in control if we focus on “keeping our stables clean” but our church will never reach it’s full redemptive potential.

The great car racer/philosopher Mario Andretti said it like this

“If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough.”

I’m not saying we should take this to an extreme.  Mario Andretti took pit stops in every race and even the cattle were to observe The Sabbath.  But I am saying that a ministry that is moving forward will be (and maybe should be) messy (at least a little).

So let’s take seriously our God-given responsibility to plan and prepare and let’s also not be a afraid of the mess from time to time.

Nelson

P.S. For more on the Sabbath check out check out my resource “Leadership Skills For A Growing Church.”  And yes, that’s a picture of my messy desk above!

In less than 24 hours the next Fusion Webinar will begin.    I’m very excited to one again teach the principles of how to retain first time guests and move them through a clear process from newcomer to fully committed member.

We can handle 999 people on the phone/internet webinar so there’s still room for you!  Why don’t you take a moment and register right now – the event is tomorrow, May 14 from Noon – 2:00pm EDT.  All you need is a computer and phone to join in.  Register by Clicking Here.

I look forward to being online and on the phone with everyone tomorrow.

BTW, still wonder what in the world is a ‘fusion webinar’? Check out this post.

Yesterday I read an article by someone disagrees with some of my ideas about church planting (launching large, building the church from the outside in, etc.).  He wrote a great article and made some great points that offered alternatives to my views.

I actually wrote him and congratulated him on his analysis while clarifying some of my own positions.  We exchanged several emails that were respectful and, I believe, God honoring. It was healthy and productive.

It reminded me that there is a difference between ‘debate‘ and ‘denigrate.’ I love it when Church Leaders debate.  I’m sickened when we denigrate.

Maybe this is on my mind because I’m doing a teaching series right now on the power of words (Tongue Pierced) or maybe God is trying to remind me to use my words to build up rather than tear down.  Either way, I want to remove any hint of denigration from my life.

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight,
O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.” – Psalm 19:14

Next week we are launching my new Time Management Resource (get a sneak preview here) – I’m fanatical about time management.  In fact, I’m set-up so that Google sends me any new posts or links on Time Management.  Here’s one I couldn’t resist sharing.  From Martial Arts Expert (and one of my childhood hero’s) Bruce Lee:

“It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.”

“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.”

You can read the full article here.

I love Monday’s – if things go right on Monday I’m sitting pretty for the rest of the week.  Here’s a few things on my calendar that I’m looking forward too and that I thought might benefit you:

Monday – Today is the last today to get the free Evangelism Seminar (57.00 Value) that Roy is offering.  Click Here.

Tuesday, Part 1 – I’m doing a video shoot for Sunday (I’m going to be away in two weeks but wanted to push our Summer Growth Groups that day).  I loving going ‘on location’ in NYC to do a promo video.

Tuesday, Part 2 – We have a summer planning meeting to figure out how we can impact over 500,000 people this summer with Servant Evangelism.  Here’s a resource I did a while back on Maximizing Summer and how you can grow during the summer (it’s true – don’t buy the old myth that you have to remain stagnant until the fall).

Wednesday – From Noon to 2:00pm EDT I’m doing a Fusion Webinar.  I’m very excited about this.  Last time we had over 200 people on the call/live internet feed.  Why don’t you join me?

Thursday – Taking the day off and Kelley and I are heading to Atlantic City with Alexander’s college fund!  OK, we are going to Atlantic City and Alexander is going with us and the gas prices will probably eat into his college fund but we are going to meet friend and be recharged (at least that’s as much as I’ll admit in a public forum).

Friday – The first meeting of my next NYC Coaching Network.  18 great pastors from around the country will be flying in.  We had record applications this time and it was so hard to select.  I’m thinking about starting a tele-coaching network late summer/early fall.  Here’s a preview.

Saturday – my last day in the office before I head to Saddleback Church to speak at Rick’s Stealth Purpose Driven Conference.  Let me know if you are going to be there.

I love doing what I do!!  I can’t wait for a great week and I hope you have one too.

Nelson

P.S. I almost forgot – the new edition of The Church Leader Insights Newsletter comes out on Tuesday too.  It should arrive in your inbox between 10 and 11am.  If you are not yet a subscriber, you can sign-up on the right side of this page —->.  I put the newsletter together last week and there’s a ton of great stuff on evangelism, leadership and church growth plus my two latest book recommendations.

In about an hour I will deliver the 10am message at The Journey-Manhattan.  The message is “The Art of Confrontation” and it’s part 2 in our Tongue Pierced series.

I tried something new this past week in preparing for this message.  I came in early on Tuesday morning and the message was sorta burning in my head (you’ve been there, right?) so I went out into our conference area set-up my handy dandy portable recorder and delivered the sermon without a script – just let it flow out of my head.  Afterwards, I had some of our staff listen to it and give me feedback.  Surprisingly, they (almost) all liked it.

Encouraged by their feedback, I found a company online who would transcribe the MP3 in about 48 hours and send it back to me as a Word doc.  I got it back on Thursday, we ran thru it again and I spent a couple of hours tweaking the message.  It felt really good to have the message completed by Thursday night.

I wonder if it today’s message will be better than my last one?  I hope so . . . that’s one of my goals as a communicator: to be better this week than I was last week.

Off to deliver the message. . .

Loving Sundays,

Nelson

One of the reasons I started this blog is because we needed a great place to give away free stuff.  Well, yesterday Roy took this to a whole new level by giving away our #2 bestselling resource – The Evangelism Seminar!

Why?  Because tomorrow is Pentecost Sunday.  Here’s what Roy said (and keep reading, I’ll tell you how to get your copy):

In honor of Pentecost Sunday , we are giving away “The Evangelism Seminar” between now and Monday. We’ve never done anything like this before!  This is a $57.00 seminar that we are giving away for FREE!

WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?
Because we want to thank you for being a Church Leader Insights customer and we’d like to do anything in our power to see “Pentecost” happen in as many churches in as many places as often as possible.

One of our values at Church Leader Insights is generosity so I love what Roy is doing.  Here’s how to get your copy of The Evangelism Seminar:

Just CLICK HERE and add “The Evangelism Seminar (Fully Downloadable Version)” to your cart. Enter the coupon code “pentecost” when you check out and you will be able to download the entire seminar for FREE! (Notes: No quotes in the code; code expires at 11:59pm EDT on 5/12/08)

And Roy makes one more request: “Would you forward this post to 3 friends so they will be able to take advantage of this free gift of ‘The Evangelism Seminar?‘”

So Happy Pentecost Sunday (or is it Merry Pentecost)!

Nelson

P.S. If you are reading this post and the 5/12/08 deadline has passed, don’t worry.  Keep reading the blog, we’ll be giving away tons of other free stuff in the coming weeks and months.  Or, if you are a church planter, you can get tons of free stuff anytime by clicking here.

Most of you are probably familiar with the book Made To Stick, by Heath brothers Chip and Dan. I recently took a fresh look at one of the concepts that the brothers dive into in their “Simple” section…

How many of us struggle with having to fit all the things we want to say into the little bit of time we have on Sunday mornings? You know how it is – You want to communicate truths that are really going to impact people, but sometimes the clock paralyzes you and makes your message less effective than it could be. So how can you get important ideas to stick in such limited time? By making your core message simple, compact and meaningful.

As the Heath brothers say, “Compact ideas help people learn and remember a core message…. To make a profound idea compact, you’ve got to pack a lot of meaning into a little bit of messaging.” Okay… but most of us church leaders love to pontificate. So where’s the sweet spot? How do we actually go about that goal of packing a lot of meaning into a little bit of messaging? Here are three quick ideas:

-    Tap into existing schemas. In other words, call on something that your audience already understands in order to help them grasp the new information you are giving them. Example – You may not know what a pomelo is, but as soon as I describe that it is basically an oversized grapefruit, you will. Why? Because you understand a grapefruit.

-    Avoid the “Curse Of Knowledge.” Don’t get caught up in explaining any one thing so fully that you minimize its effectiveness. You don’t have to tell your people everything in one sitting. Find the balance between giving them an exegesis and making sure they understand how to apply core truth to their lives.

-    Use good metaphors. A good metaphor can help people wrap their head around difficult to understand information. Think about the common metaphor of the brain as a computer. Since most of us have an understanding of how a computer works, the metaphor gives us some essential insight into our own brains.

The bottom line is to keep your message simple, without watering it down. Find your core and then figure out how to express it in the form of a compact, meaningful idea. When you do, your message will stick!

I hope your sermon goes great this weekend!

Nelson Searcy

P.S. Looking for examples of this concept, just check out the Book of Proverbs for some examples of powerful, compact ideas.

I recently got this question from a friend in New Hampshire who attended the recent Launch Conference that Kerrick and I did here in the city:

“How do you handle people from other churches who want to join your church?”

This is a great question that we all should wrestle with.  There are three types of church growth:

Conversion Growth – when new believers join your church by evangelism

Biological Growth – when children of members are evangelized

Transfer Growth – when a person from another church joins your church

Transfer Growth is the most tricky because there is no clear path for assimilation and because there are two kinds of transfer growth:

Transfer “IN” growth – when a church member from another city or state moves to your city and wants to join your church.

Transfer “ACROSS” growth – when a church member from another church in your city wants to join your church.

I’m not a big fan of Transfer “ACROSS” growth but it does happen.  So what should you do when it does?

For the answer to this question, I’m going to quote our Executive Pastor Kerrick Thomas (my co-author on several books and CLI resources).  Here’s what he had to say:

“As far as handling people from other churches – honestly all we do is to not do them any special favors.  We don’t discourage them from coming in any way.  However, just because someone has served in a leadership role in one church doesn’t mean they automatically get to do so here.  We have a leadership ladder at The Journey. And if you want to serve in leadership in the church – you start by serving others in entry level positions and earning your way.  We have seen church plants put people from other churches in positions of leadership right away because they know how to do things and have been Christians for a while – but unless that person has bought into the vision of the church (and worked through baggage) then it usually ends with discontent and them spreading that discontent to others who were otherwise happy.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself – thanks Kerrick and thanks for the question from New Hampshire!  If you have a question, send it over – just use the “Ask Nelson” button on the right.

Nelson Searcy

P.S. If you haven’t yet joined the thousands of people who have read my NEW Report on Organic Church Growth entitled “Healthy Systems, Healthy Church,” check it out here.

P.S.S. Kerrick is beginning a new Tele-Coaching network exclusively for Executive Pastors in June.  Click Here to download an application or for more information.

Photo Courtesty of Flikr