Here’s one of the articles from this month’s CLI Newsletter.

We pack each newsletter with the best content we can find.  Here’s a great example from Christian Standard:

HOW UPGRADING YOUR CHURCH LEADS TO GROWTH

“Excellence attracts people. When two championship contenders are playing, it’s hard to get a ticket. When you decide to go to the best restaurant in town at the dinner hour, you know you’re going to have to wait. It amazes me so many church leaders still have not figured out that excellence is a people magnet. They say they want their churches to grow, but they content themselves with mediocrity” Read the full article here…

The Church Leader Insights Newsletter is designed to bring the best and latest thinking on Church Growth, Evangelism, Leadership and Church Planting directly to your inbox every month!

If you’re not already subscribed, you can click this link to sign up right now.

Welcome to week 5 of my 6-week blog series, “Igniting Growth In Your Church.” Happy Thursday to you, once again. My hope is that this series is consistently pushing you further in your study of evangelism by giving you special insight into my new book, Ignite: How To Spark Immediate Growth In Your Church.

Last week, we discovered how you can best mobilize your people for evangelism. This week, we are going to take a look at how you can use promotion effectively by targeting your “best fields.”

Today’s Topic:

Promotion: How to Pinpoint Your Best Fields

Jesus’ parable of the sower and the seed gives us great insight into the idea of promotion. (Take a minute to read the account in Mark 4:3-9.) The first principle Jesus wants to teach us through the wise farmer in his parable is this: Before you scatter your seed, Pinpoint Your Best Fields.

In order to sow effectively, you have to know what fields to scatter your seed in. You have to identify and concentrate on the most fertile soil and use seed that will take root there. Otherwise your efforts will be in vain. To identify your best fields, ask yourself these questions:

1. Who am I currently reaching?

If God is predominately bringing a certain type of person to your church, that’s a good indicator of who you are most equipped to reach.

A few years ago, the average age of Journey attenders was 27. That has increased a little now, but we’ve always had a special outreach with the late 20-somethings. So, we focused our seed-sowing on soil that would reach that group. We created invitations that would be appealing to them. We thought about how we could connect with them in their current reality.

2. Who is like me?

You are best equipped to reach people who are like you. That’s a fact of human nature. You will attract who you are.

A wise pastor-friend of mind once wrote, “If you are a pastor, you must honestly ask yourself, ‘What kind of person am I? What is my cultural background? What kind of people do I naturally relate to and what kind do I have a harder time understanding?’ You need to do a frank analysis of who you are and the type of people to whom you relate best.”

3. Who is not churched?

Your best fields are in the middle of the unchurched. If some of your promotion falls into the hands of Christians involved in other churches, so be it. But current Christians should not be your target. Instead, keep your attention focused on those who are unchurched in your community. God is working in their lives. Concentrate on pointing them toward His hope.

If you aren’t sure how to begin outreach to the unchurched, start by focusing on people who are under tension, undergoing transition, or in trouble. Time and time again, I have found that people are most open to hearing the truth of the gospel when God has them in one of these three situations.

Understanding these three Ts – tension, transition and trouble – will exponentially increase your effectiveness in the unchurched world. In fact, let me encourage you to do an exercise that will help you focus in on the types of T situations that the people around you are dealing with…

Pull the key leaders in your church together and talk through the greatest tensions and trouble they see in the lives of those they live around every day. Ask them to think about what kind of transitions they see people facing. Sketch all of these down and then begin planning outreach that will connect with those experiencing such, tension, transition and trouble. Think about planning a big day kick-off sermon around the greatest felt-need that comes up in your discussion.

One final warning note – Don’t get caught up in the seed that lands on rocky ground, gets eaten by the birds or gets scorched by the sun. God calls us to focus on the fertile soil. The enemy is always going to be working against our efforts to bring people into the knowledge of Jesus Christ. If we focus on what he is doing, we lose our clarity on what God wants to do.

For more in depth study on effectively evangelizing your community, make sure to pick up Ignite: How To Spark Immediate Growth In Your Church. You may also want to check out my popular resource, “The Evangelism System.” Just click here.

Next week, we’ll wrap up this “Igniting Growth In Your Church” series by looking at how to prepare for and follow up with the people who say “yes!” to being your guest! Don’t miss it!

- Nelson

P.S – If you missed the first four posts, don’t worry! Just click here for Week 1. Click here for Week 2. Click here for Week 3. And click here for Week 4.

Hundreds of you joined me a couple of weeks ago for my “How to Plan and Conduct a Christmas Offering” Webinars and hundreds more have downloaded the new Christmas Offering report that I released in October.

In spite of my best efforts however, there are still a few questions that I didn’t clearly address.  Today’s 2nd post is my effort to answer all of those unanswered Christmas Offering questions from the webinars and from your emails.

Here they are:

Q: If we start the offering around Thanksgiving (or just before) and run it through January, should we really call it a “Christmas Offering?”

A: The concept of this type of offering is about helping people stretch spiritually and fund Kingdom efforts at a time when they’re in the giving spirit in general.  That’s why I use the term “Christmas Offering” to describe this type of offering in my training and discussions.

However, you can feel free to call it whatever you think will best connect with your people.  If you’re planning to go into the new year, a “Christmas Offering” will not be as compelling.

At The Journey we refer to it as our “special offering” or “annual offering,” because we often end up extending it through January.

Q: Do you announce the goal amount and the progress to the church?

A: Yes! Once you determine your goal amount (remember, this should be a goal that you can meet and exceed), let people know.  We are all wired for a challenge and just knowing that goal amount may be just what it takes for someone to give more than ever to see it met – and learn some lessons about faith along the way!

As for the progress, you definitely want to keep people informed.  You don’t have to announce the exact amount raised every week, but you should make mention of how things are going on a regular basis.

Q: What happens to the funds if we miss our goal (or exceed it by a lot)?

A: This is a good question on both ends.

1) On the “missing your goal” side: If you have tried some of the ideas I shared in the webinars and still fell short of your goal, then something (or some things) simply go unfunded.

That’s why it’s so important to choose your causes wisely AND make sure that they are one-time causes.  In other words, don’t set up a staff person’s salary so that it depends on your Christmas Offering.

You also don’t want to promise anyone any certain amount (especially outside organizations) until your offering has concluded.  For example, even if you don’t reach your goal and can only give half of what you planned to a local homeless shelter, that’s still a meaningful gift to them.

2) If you exceed your goal (which I’m praying you do, by the way), then you can simply divide the extra between missions and the 2010 budget.  It can provide just the right shot in the arm to both your missions efforts AND your general operating funds for the upcoming year!

Thanks again for all the great feedback and interaction regarding the Christmas Offering report and webinars – I look forward to hearing how God uses it all to bless your churches and expand His Kingdom!

P.S. If you missed the Christmas Offering Webinar, you can listen to a replay of the audio by CLICKING HERE.

And you can also still download your “How to Plan & Conduct a Christmas Offering” Report by CLICKING HERE.

I can’t wait to get started with my series of 4 “How to Plan Your 2010 Preaching Calendar” Webinars today!

The first of the 4 is today, from 1:30 – 2:45pm EST.  Then, I’ll be leading 2 tomorrow and 1 final webinar on Thursday.

In each of these webinars, I’ll be walking you step-by-step through the 2010 Calendar, pointing out the pitfalls and possibilities that are already built in.

Last week I gave away my bestselling Planning a One Year Preaching Calendar resource for FREE (nearly 1,500 of you took me up on that offer).  That one hour resource taught you the “principles” of planning your preaching calendar.

This week – through these 75-minute webinars – I want to help you APPLY those principles to the 2010 calendar to reduce stress, increase creativity and maximize the effectiveness of your preaching in the coming year.

It’s not too late for you to sign up, just CLICK HERE for more information and to Register Now!

Today’s post is the third in a 4 part series about structuring your church for growth.  If you missed the other two, you can find them here: Part 1 (by-laws) & Part 2 (church governance).

While the first two topics (by-laws and church governance) are areas where some churches are tied by denominational mandate or tradition, today’s topic addresses an area where every church has options: the budget.

Most of us in church leadership are familiar with the old quote, “show me your checkbook and I’ll tell you what’s important to you,” but too often we fail to strategically do the same analysis with our own church budgets.

Without serious attention, your church’s  budget can become bloated and confusing, often doing a poor job of allocating your resources toward the fulfillment of the vision.

I make no secret of how much I’ve learned in the area of church finances from Steve Stroope (co-author of Money Matters in Church and Senior Pastor of LakePointe Church in Rockwall, TX) over the years.

In their book, Stroope and Aubrey Malphurs suggest – based on studying growing, spiritually healthy churches – allocating your budget something like this:

• 10% – Missions
• 20% – Programming
• 50% – Personnel (staffing)
• 20% – Facilities

This is a great starting point.

Depending on your church’s unique situation, you may need to tweak these specific numbers, but the basics are solid. And the core principle is to have a plan! These percentages will help keep you from getting overextended in one area or another.

One area where you can adjust is personnel.  If you’re a small church you may need to spend a higher percentage on staff, and less in a larger church.  In fact, at The Journey, we aim to spend only about 30% on staff salaries.

We are able to run very lean in this area (and still compensate our staff well – check out ChurchStaffing.com for a good reference on how much to pay) and free up more of our budget to be used in the other areas.

So, how does your church’s budget break down?

Are any of these 4 areas drastically out of line with the above recommendations?

What can you do for 2010 that will help your church be a better, more effective steward of the resources that God provides?

P.S. For a great resource on church finances and more about this topic, check out Improve the Financial Fitness of Your Church (with Steve Stroope).

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
– Maya Angelou, Poet

Planning your preaching calendar in advance is one of the absolute best ways I’ve found to reduce stress and increase creativity as a pastor.  And I’m determined to help you implement this practice for 2010!

Hopefully, you’ve already seen and downloaded a FREE copy of my “Planning a One Year Preaching Calendar” Resource that I’ve been giving away this week and that’s just the beginning of how I want to help.

Next week, I’m doing a series of FREE WEBINARS for teaching pastors called “How to Plan Your 2010 Preaching Calendar,” where I will literally walk you through the 2010 calendar over the course of our 75 minutes together and help you plan what you’re going to preach over the next year.

I don’t remember being more excited about any of the webinars we’ve done than I am about these!  Here’s the information:

FREE – Register Now!		Join Nelson Searcy in this 75-minute webinar without ever having to leave your office or home! Nelson will walk you, step-by-step, through the actual planning process for your 2010 preaching calendar. Once registered, you will simply need a phone and a computer with internet access to participate. This is a great opportunity to train your entire staff with this webinar.
4 Convenient Times to Choose From! Tuesday November 10, 2009 1:30PM – 2:45PM Eastern Wednesday November 11, 2009 3:00PM – 4:15PM Eastern Wednesday November 11, 2009 7:00PM – 8:15PM Eastern Thursday November 12, 2009 4:00PM – 5:15PM Eastern In each of these webinars, Nelson will walk you through: When to plan your 2010 Big Days (and when not to plan them). How to make the most of people’s natural seasonal patterns. The best times in 2010 for each of the 3 different types of sermon series (attraction, growth & balance). How to make Easter in 2010 more effective than ever at your church. Which days you can expect fewer people and how to best use those days. Plus much more! These Webinars are FREE! Space is limited – Register today Tuesday November 10, 2009 1:30PM – 2:45PM Eastern 12:30PM – 1:45PM Central 11:30AM – 12:45PM Mountain 10:30AM – 11:45AM Pacific Wednesday November 11, 2009 3:00PM – 4:15PM Eastern 2:00PM – 3:15PM Central 1:00PM – 2:15PM Mountain 12:00PM – 1:15PM Pacific Wednesday November 11, 2009 7:00PM – 8:15PM Eastern 6:00PM – 7:15PM Central 5:00PM – 6:15PM Mountain 4:00PM – 5:15PM Pacific Thursday November 12, 2009 4:00PM – 5:15PM Eastern 3:00PM – 4:15PM Central 2:00PM – 3:15PM Mountain 1:00PM – 2:15PM Pacific

Church Leader Insights exists to help you maximize your ministry and this webinar is my virtual opportunity to sit down across the table from you and walk you through this planning process.

I hope you’ll sign up for one of the 4 times we have available AND pass this information along to any other teaching pastors you know.

Welcome to week 4 of my 6-week blog series, “Igniting Growth In Your Church.” Happy Thursday to you. I trust that this weekly series is driving you deeper in your study of evangelism by giving you a sneak peak (or review!) of my new book, Ignite: How To Spark Immediate Growth In Your Church.

Last week, we discussed how pastors can use the staff, stage and structure of the church to keep the evangelism temperature hot. This week, we are going to shift our focus away from the pastor and talk about our people’s personal evangelism. How can you light a fire for personal evangelism in your regular attenders and members? Read on…

Today’s Topic:

Personal Evangelism: x = tools + training + timeliness

As we discussed last Thursday, challenging your people from the stage is essential, but it won’t get you far if you aren’t also equipping them for the challenge. So, how can you give your members and regular attenders what they need to be able to invite their friends to church? What can you do to increase the likelihood that they will step out on faith and ask that often uncomfortable question?

Personal evangelism is all about helping your people see the opportunities they have to invite their friends and then helping them to seize those opportunities. You want them to see and seize every opening God provides.

Getting your people ready for the work of evangelism is, well, work. You’ll have to invest some time and effort. But if you commit to putting certain elements in place, you can ensure a heightened level of effectiveness.

There is a proven way to grow the percentage of your people who are actually extending invitations at every opportunity. You just have to put the Personal Evangelism Formula to work for you. This formula looks like one you may remember from your algebra days. It follows the form of x = a+b+c.

If x = high levels of personal evangelism, let’s take a closer look at the other elements we need to plug in to bring those high levels into being…

a = TOOLS. People are more likely to do what you ask of them, if you give them some tools that will make things easier.

b = TRAINING. They will respond even more favorably if you provide them with a little training, so they feel confident in what they are being asked to do.

c = TIMELINESS. With tools and training, you will have your people on the right track, but there’s one more thing that will greatly increase the likelihood that they’ll start inviting people to church. Give them a reason to do it “now.” Provide a sense of urgency.

x = TOOLS + TRAINING + TIMELINESS

That’s the true formula for personal evangelism. If you give people the tools they need, train them how to use those tools, and then give them a period of time in which they need to carry out their task, you will send your evangelistic temperature soaring:

HIGH LEVELS OF PERSONAL EVANGELISM = TOOLS+TRAINING+TIMELINESS

Don’t miss any of these three elements. Too often, we train people from the stage or through small group studies, but we don’t give them any accompanying tools. We don’t put anything in their hands.

Then again, sometimes we give them good tools and training, but set no timeframe. Successfully equipping our people means ensuring that we provide them with all three variables of the Personal Evangelism Formula.

For more in depth information on how you can keep the evangelistic temperature of your church red hot, make sure to pick up your copy of Ignite: How To Spark Immediate Growth In Your Church. You may also want to check out my popular resource, “The Evangelism System.” Just click here.

Did you know that you can also use promotion to ignite your church’s evangelism? In fact, promotion can be incredibly effective and lots of fun. It also provides great “air cover” for your people as they put their new evangelism skills to work. We’ll talk more about that next Thursday!

- Nelson

P.S – If you missed the first three posts, don’t worry! Just click here for Week 1. Click here for Week 2. And click here for Week 3.

Hundreds of you joined me last week for my series of “How to Plan and Conduct a Christmas Offering” Webinars and even more have downloaded the new Christmas Offering report that I released a couple of weeks ago.

In spite of my best efforts however, there are still a few questions that I didn’t clearly address.  I’m writing this post today in an effort to answer all of those unanswered Christmas Offering questions from the webinars and from your emails.

Here they are:

Q: If we really push a Christmas Offering, won’t that negatively impact our regular budget offering?

A: No.  In most cases, if you carefully and prayerfully determine the causes you are going to raise money for, there will not be a negative impact on your regular tithes and offerings.

However, you will need to clearly and repeatedly remind your people that the Christmas Offering is above and beyond their regular giving.

Remember, that’s one of the biggest reasons for doing a Christmas Offering: to help your people grow by giving sacrificially.

Q: We just kicked off a new capital campaign – should we conduct a Christmas Offering or wait until next year?

A: With a new capital campaign, I would say it’s probably best to wait until next year.  So much energy and effort goes into launching a campaign like that, that the Christmas Offering would likely be too much.

I’ll say this though: If you’re in a capital campaign (just not at the beginning of one), you can still run a successful Christmas Offering.  Just keep that in mind when you set your goal.

Q: If two of our causes are giving to US/World Missions and Church Planting, should we present them separately or just list them in the same category?

A: That really depends on a couple of different factors.

1) Are both of these causes at the heart of your church’s culture? In other words, will your people be more prone to support the offering if you present each cause separately?  If so, then I would definitely separate them out and promote them individually.

2) How many overall causes are you promoting?  Keep in mind that 3-4 causes are enough for most churches.  Many more than that and you run the risk of people tuning out because of too much information.

Hopefully you’re getting ready to roll-out your Christmas Offering, but it’s not too late!

I’ll be back next week with another post to answer the rest of your questions…

P.S. If you missed the Christmas Offering Webinar, you can listen to a replay of the audio by CLICKING HERE.

And you can also still download your “How to Plan & Conduct a Christmas Offering” Report by CLICKING HERE.

NOW is the time to plan what you will be preaching in 2010!

To help you plan your 2010 Preaching Calendar, I would like to give you a FREE copy of Planning a One Year Preaching Calendar (one of my best-selling resources).

By planning your preaching calendar in advance, you can lower your stress, increase the creativity of your team and leverage the calendar more effectively than ever before!

To receive your Free “Planning a One Year Preaching Calendar” resource, click the link below and sign up for yours:

http://www.churchleaderinsights.com/preaching

P.S.  While you’re at it, be sure to sign up for one of the FREE “How to Plan Your 2010 Preaching Calendar” Webinars that I’m doing next week – 4 times to choose from!  You can sign up when you sign up for your resource at the above link.