Many pastor’s want to know the magic trick to Church growth.

What would you be willing to do to learn that secret?

There is no secret! But, I will share a thought with you on the topic. Let’s take a look at creation. While there is no Silver Bullet, here is what we know to be true. Anything that is healthy grows. The reason many churches have stopped growing is that they are not healthy. You can argue that point if you want but after working with thousands of churches, I have found that the ones that are healthy are the ones that grow.

Over the next 3 days I am going to do 9 webinars on Church Systems and I think it is time for a look at the 8 systems in your church. Every church has 8 systems, the question is “How is the HEALTH of your system?”

Join me in one of these webinars and learn:

• How your church could be seeing much greater Kingdom results than it is now.
• The eight systems of your church and why God designed them to fulfill the purposes of His church.
• How each system will Save You Stress Time Energy and Money (and reduce your leadership headaches).
• Which system you can upgrade now to see immediate growth (as quickly as next Sunday).
• How one system holds the key to reduced stress and increased creativity each week.
• Your clear next steps to begin upgrading your church’s systems immediately.
• And more!

Register now for one of the systems webinars that I am offering this week.

http://www.churchleaderinsights.com/systemswebinar/

The health of your church is too important and vital to waste it by looking for some “Silver Bullet”

As you begin your week, I have a suggestion for you. Don’t be average. The average pastor is going to handle this year just like he did last year and see the EXACT same results. What if you take just 20 minutes and “Check-up” on your church? It’s time to listen to the ”2012 Church Systems Church Health Check Up” Podcast, I think it would be a great way to start this week as your look towards 2012 at your church.

Click Here to Listen Now

In this “first of the year” audio training, I will walk you through how to evaluate the major systems of your church and gives you specific steps that you can take to improve those systems over the next twelve months. This practical podcast will challenge you to take an insightful look at the health of your church and map out a course toward progress.

P.S. Want to learn more about church systems?  Register today for one of my upcoming “Introduction to Church Systems “ webinars.

http://www.churchleaderinsights.com/systemswebinar/

I just recorded a special video about the systems in your church and how you can drastically increase your church’s health, growth and overall effectiveness.

Watch it here.

There’s a special free opportunity that will help you lead your church from unhealthy to healthy so you can reach more people and make more disciples.

It’s good, free, and you’ll like it.

Enjoy

Nelson

P.S. Feel free to forward this post to any Senior Pastors you may know.

Tuesday, March 15th 2:00pm – 3:00pm Eastern 1:00pm – 3:00pm Central 12:00pm – 1:00pm Mountain 11:00am – 12:00pm Pacific Thursday, March 17th 2:00pm – 3:00pm Eastern 1:00pm – 3:00pm Central 12:00pm – 1:00pm Mountain 11:00am – 12:00pm Pacific Space is Limited Register Now!

You’re invited to join me for a FREE, 75-minute webinar TOMORROW (Tuesday, March 15)  or THIS THURSDAY, March 17, from 2:00 – 3:15pm (same webinar – two different days).

You will discover the eight systems of a healthy church and how you can begin to improve each of these eight systems in your church.

Best of all, this webinar is FREE for you to experience from the comfort of your home or office (all you need is a computer with speakers or headphones and internet access – no phone line or long distance required)!

Join me for this FREE webinar where you’ll learn:

• How healthy church systems honor God
• How to distinguish system problems from people problems (and why your people may not be the problem)
• How well designed systems save you stress, time, energy and money
• The 8 systems of a church (and the vital role that each system plays)
• The relationship between good systems and good people (and how to maximize your church’s effectiveness through each)
• How far church systems can take your church (and what systems can’t do)

Limited Space Available – Reserve Your Spot Today
Click Here to Register Now for FREE!

P.S. If you can’t make it this week, click the link below to join me NEXT TUESDAY, March 22 for the same webinar (and to see other upcoming webinar dates):

www.ChurchLeaderInsights.com/systemswebinar

If you haven’t yet listened to this month’s Church Leader Insights Podcast, I highly recommend it.

In this “first of the year” audio training, I walk you through how to evaluate the major systems of your church and give you three specific steps that you can take to improve those systems over the next twelve months.

This practical podcast will challenge you to take an insightful look at the health of your church and map out a course toward progress.

Click Here to Listen Now

P.S. Want to read more about church systems?  Download my “Healthy Systems, Healthy Church” E-Book FREE ($23.95 Value) by clicking here.

P.P.S. Did you know that you can subscribe to the podcast, so that you’ll automatically get each month’s CLI Podcast?

For more info on Subscribing to the Podcast, click here.

Unless this is your very first time reading this blog, you probably know that I’m a firm believer in the power of systems for the health and growth of your church.

In fact , over the years I’ve gained something of a reputation as “the Church Systems guy.”  You can download a Free Copy of my “Healthy Systems, Healthy Church” E-Book by clicking here.

One of the biggest reasons for developing your church’s systems is because, well, life happens.

Bad weather shows up at just the wrong time, unexpected circumstances throw off your schedule and unfortunately loved ones pass away. Healthy systems allow your church to keep moving forward through even the toughest situations.

Here’s a recent email that I received from Maceo Smedley, a Tele-Coaching Participant and the Pastor of Promise Church in Houston, TX and he gave me permission to share with you.

He tells how his church’s systems and preparation allowed God to do some amazing things in spite of what could have been a devastating time, personally:

Nelson,

I wasn’t going to say anything until I heard the prayer for the Pastor whose staff member lost his wife.  Just a little over a week ago my father passed away on January 19, at the age of 58.  He had been in ICU for two week and could never bounce back from his bout with pneumonia.

He was a dedicated member of our church.  His responsibility was putting out our signs every Saturday morning.  Every time someone would join our church due to seeing those signs, I would call him and tell him what a great job he was doing for the Kingdom of God.  I prayed along with my congregation every morning that God would heal him, so they too where devastated by this loss.

Because he was a former educator whose heart went out to troubled youth, his funeral was jam packed.  It gave me joy to see the many people who wanted to come and say “thank you.”  Here is the catch to the story.  His funeral was on Saturday, January 23^rd, and we had a big day scheduled for Sunday, January 24^th.

Because of your willingness to return what you’ve learned, we had our biggest “Big Day” yet with over 150 in attendance which is more than double our average attendance.  Because of the preaching calendar, I was also able to preach one of my best sermons yet instead of trying to figure out what to say while fighting back tears after losing my dad.

We raised more money that Sunday than ever before with one donor giving a third of our Christmas Offering.  Most of all several people came to either give their lives to Christ for the first time or to rededicate their lives.  Thank you so much for unknowingly helping me and my church get through this tough time while we did our best to make the devil mad.

Thank you for your prayers,

Pastor Maceo Smedley
The Promise Church
Houston, TX

We continue to lift up you and your family Maceo – and praise God for all the great things that are going on in your church!

P.S. If you are new to Church Leader Insights or just looking for a refresher when it comes to your church’s systems, Download my “Healthy Systems, Healthy Church” E-Book for FREE ($23.95 Value) by clicking here.

The Purpose Driven Church is one of those “must have” books that every pastor should have on his bookshelf (like all of mine – ha!).

One of the paradigm-shifting concepts that Rick Warren shared with the church leadership world in this book is the “Concentric Circles” that help us visualize how people move step by step from the community into the core of our churches.

I’m often asked how the Five Concentric Circles interplay with the Eight Church Systems that I describe, so I thought I’d take a moment this morning to elaborate.

First of all, the concentric circles do NOT overlay the systems exactly.

That’s actually the way it should be – some systems impact people at a number of levels by their very nature (think of how many of the different levels to the left are affected by your Worship Planning System, for example).

There are, however, a couple of systems that connect very cleanly with the circles.  One clear connection comes with The Evangelism System, which is designed to move people from Community to Crowd.

Another such connection is The Assimilation System, which moves people from Crowd to Congregation. By strict definition, someone becomes part of your congregation when they become a member of your church – the same goal of your assimilation system!

Beyond that, though, the remaining systems overlap numerous circles.

Take the Ministry and Small Groups Systems.  Each of them move people at all levels from Crowd to Core.  The Leadership System mainly fits people in either the Congregation, Committed and Core, while Stewardship interacts with all levels except the Community.

And of course, your Strategy System helps tie it all together in a way that keeps your church growing and healthy.

At the end of the day, there is no neat, “tie it in a bow” way to describe the connection between your church’s systems and the concentric circles, but they are integrally connected.

The systems of your church – when functioning properly – keep people at all levels moving inward along the five circles (and growing closer and closer to God along the way).

If you had to declare it today, which of your church’s eight systems would you say is “strongest” and which is “weakest”?

Now… what can you do between now and next week at this time to improve that system?

P.S. To jump-start the improvement of your church’s systems, you may want to consider The Systems Seminars Package – it’s all seven of my system seminar resources at more than $200.00 off the regular price.

The Systems Seminars Package is available now on CD or as an Immediate Download.

Here’s a recent question I answered from a church planter:

Q: Nelson, thanks so much for all you do. I came across some of your resources recently and have really learned a lot from them.

Our new church has just launched and I’m wanting to start implementing the systems, where do I start?

It’s a little overwhelming and any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

A: Thanks for your kind words and congratulations on launching a new church!

As far as systems go, the first thing I would recommend is for you to download my Free Church Systems 2.0 Report (PDF). Reading that should give you a good primer on church systems and a better “big picture” of how they all work together.

After that, I encourage you to start with your Assimilation System. In many ways it’s one of the easier systems to implement and it yields results quickly (in more people getting plugged in to your church). You’ll want to implement the full Assimilation process before moving on.

Next, move on to Evangelism (my next book Ignite can help with this). The Evangelism System is all about getting people from your community to attend your church for the first time. This flow of new people is essential to the health and growth of your church.

Following Evangelism, you can then move on to the Worship Planning System. This is about how your church plans, executes, evaluates and improves the weekly worship service.

So, basically, strengthen your guest experience, outreach and worship services first. Those three should be your priority for now.

Then, as you grow beyond about 110 average adults in attendance, you can implement Small Groups.

The most important thing for you right now is to get started. By breaking it down in this order you should be able to immediately move forward step by step without allowing yourself to be overwhelmed.

I hope that makes sense.

P.S. Ready to jump start your systems implementation?  Check out my Systems Seminar Package and save more than $325.00!

In case you missed it, you have one LAST CHANCE to sign-up for my free Church Systems Teleseminar on Wednesday (the Tuesday one is already sold out at 999 people!).  Here’s the info:

Join me for a FREE 75-minute tele-seminar without ever having to leave your office or home! I will teach you all the basics of church systems and how to use them to make your church more effective than ever.

God designed all the parts of the body – both the church body and the physical body – to work together, allowing us to fulfill God’s purposes and plans on this earth. And both of those respective bodies function best through well-developed systems.

This event will fill up, so REGISTER TODAY.  Once registered, you will simply call in to participate. This is a great opportunity to train your entire staff with this free tele-seminar.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009
1:30PM – 2:45PM Eastern
12:30PM – 1:45PM Central
11:30AM – 12:45PM Mountain
10:30AM – 11:45AM Pacific

Here’s what you can expect to learn:

• How healthy church systems honor God
• How to distinguish system problems from people problems (and why your people may not be the problem)
• How well designed systems save you stress, time, energy and money
• The 8 systems of a church (and the vital role that each system plays)
• The relationship between good systems and good people (and how to maximize your church’s effectiveness through each)
• How far church systems can take your church (and what systems can’t do)

Space is limited – REGISTER TODAY!

Tele-seminar participants will need a phone with long distance to participate. Long distance charges do apply.

Click Here to Register Now!

Talk to you on the call,

Nelson

P.S. I’m doing this free seminar, in conjuction with the release of my new Church Systems 2.0 report.  You can download it for free at this link.

It’s official!  Today is the official release of my brand new Church Systems 2.0 Report!

I’ve taken the church systems basics that I laid out in the original Church Systems Report and completely revised and expanded it.

The Church Systems 2.0 Report includes diagnostic questions and recommended resources, in addition to proven, practical advice to make your church healthier and more effective than ever.

And best of all, it’s a Free PDF Download!

Simply head over to:

www.ChurchLeaderInsights.com/systems2

Fill out the form and we’ll send your FREE REPORT!

P.S. I’m also doing a FREE Church Systems 2.0 Tele-Seminar next Tuesday – for more details and to register, CLICK HERE.