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Ignite - A sneak peek at my next book
I’m excited to announce that my next book - Ignite: How to Spark Immediate Growth in Your Church - is now available for pre-order at Amazon. I wanted to take a moment this morning to share a little sneak peek into what it’s all about.Here’s the write-up:
Ignite is the ultimate how-to book for church leaders who want to reach more people for Jesus Christ. Pastor and founder of Church Leader Insights, Nelson Searcy, will provide practical, inventive guidelines for bringing first-time guests through the doors.
This book sets forth a step-by-step, biblically grounded, proven plan for creating immediate church growth by utilizing a “Big Day” to mobilize the church for evangelism. This user-friendly guide will show church leaders what they need to do to reach the unchurched in their communities and break through the debilitating growth barriers that are holding them back.
Through the inspiration of testimonies and stories, combined with the down-to-earth, applicable teaching that Searcy readers have come to expect and appreciate, Ignite will give church leaders the tools they desperately need to reach and keep modern-minded, unchurched people to create and sustain growth momentum.
You can order your copy of Ignite: How to Spark Immediate Growth in Your Church by clicking here.
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Summer’s Coming!
When I first started The Journey, a long time Pastor in NYC said, “Take the summer off, you can’t grow in the summer.”I followed that advice our first year and our church almost went under.
The next year, I determined to “plant as many seeds” as possible during the summer months.
And guess what?
We grew during the summer and even more that fall.
I’m going to say more about this in an email blast to our entire network family next week.
But since you’re a friend and “CLI Insider” I wanted to give you advance notice.
I have a new report called “How to Maximize Summer” that contains my lessons about growing through the summer.
Snag it now, before the rush at:
http://www.churchleaderinsights.com/summer/
No-cost. No strings.
I think you’ll find it helpful.
Your friend,
NelsonP.S. Feel free to forward this link to your friends (or put on your blog or Twitter). Here’s the link to my free “How to Maximize Summer” report:
http://www.churchleaderinsights.com/summer/P.P.S. Here’s another “insider” advance notice - applications for my new Tele-coaching network are now available. Best to apply now. Learn more at:
http://www.churchleaderinsights.com/coaching/telecoaching.php -
FREE E-Book: “How to Maximize Easter”
I just released a brand new e-book called “How To Maximize Easter.” It’s breaking all of our records for report downloads (nearly 1000 people in two days!). If you haven’t grabbed your copy yet, get it now (Easter Sunday is only a few weeks away) - it’s FREE:FREE “How To Maximize Easter” E-Book
If you’ve already downloaded the report (and assuming you found it helpful) will you send this link to a friend or let the pastors in your network or on your blog know about it? I want it to help as many people as possible.
The CLI team and I are committed to doing everything we can to help you and your church reach more people than ever this Easter. That’s why we’re giving away this free e-book AND why we’re offering 5 different “Maximizing Easter” Tele-Seminars (we just added the 5th because so many of you have already signed up).
Please join us me in praying that this Easter will bring glory to God in a powerful way in all of our churches’ Easter services and that He will work in and through us to impact more unchurched people than we even thought possible!
Thanks,
Nelson
P.S. There was so much more that I wanted to share about leveraging Easter to maximize your church’s Kingdom impact this Easter, but I couldn’t get it all into the e-book. To get even more info (and more than $100 of FREE Bonus Resources) sign up for one of our “Maximizing Easter” Tele-Seminars! Here’s the link to register:
https://nelsonsearcy.infusionsoft.com/cart/store.jsp?view=1&i=51&navicat=51
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Easter’s On Its Way
It’s hard to believe but Easter is only six weeks away, coming up on Sunday, April 12th.
Easter Sunday has more potential to make a massive Kingdom impact through your church than any other single day of the year and I would like to help you make this Easter bigger than ever at your church.
Over the last 7 years I’ve coached hundreds of pastors (and held my fair share of Easter services here at The
Journey) to prepare for Easter and I’ve learned that there are about a dozen simple, but not necessarily obvious, ways we can maximize our impact on Easter.I wrote down a few of these in a brand new “How to Maximize Easter” e-book that I’m going to give you and everyone else in the CLI family next week but there’s a lot more I would like to teach you.
As I prepared the e-book I realized there was a ton of other things I’d like to share but didn’t have the space to include in the e-book. So I talked with the CLI team and we decided to do something we’ve never done before…to really go all out to help you and your church.
I would like to invite you to join me for a very special… (drumroll, please):
“How to Maximize Easter” tele-seminarWhat is a tele-seminar? It’s simply me training you via telephone instead of at a live event.
I’m doing this tele-seminar four different times over a one week period at various times throughout the day so that regardless of your time zone or work schedule you can join me.
As you may recall from my Evangelism Seminar, it’s been proven that people are most likely to come to church when they are:
1. Under tension
2. In transition
3. In troubleWith the current state of uncertainty in the US, I believe more people than ever are open and ready to attend your Easter services. What if you could break all previous attendance records this Easter? I’d like to help you do just that with my 90 minute tele-seminar.
Once you register for the tele-seminar that best fits your schedule, I’ll train you (and all your staff and volunteers if you gather them around the speaker phone) on “How to Maximize Easter” this year.
Here’s a taste of what I will cram into our power-packed, nuts and bolts 90 minutes together:
- How to promote Easter for maximum effectiveness
- How to mobilize all your members to invite their friends on Easter
- What to preach on at Easter (and what not to preach on…its not what you think)
- The biggest mistakes most people make in planning Easter
- How to get people to come back the month after Easter
- How to lead your staff and key volunteers to spiritually prepare for Easter
- How to do a church wide spiritual survey on Easter.
- How to get a 100% connection card completion on Easter.
- Easter and your volunteers (you may be hurting your attendance by having too many volunteers, yep, too many)
- Choosing the times of your Easter service (the wrong times can keep the unchurched away).
- How you can leverage Easter to grow your church in the fall.You can join me for this brand new training opportunity by clicking here:
https://nelsonsearcy.infusionsoft.com/cart/store.jsp?view=1&i=51
If you’re interested, I encourage you to go ahead and register now. Due to telephone constraints we only have room for 99 people on each call (we have 100 phone lines but I have to save one for me!).
Remember, your registration is per church - so as long as you only call in from one phone, you can have your entire staff or volunteer leaders around the speaker phone.
This tele-seminar (like all CLI events and resources) has a 100% no hassle guarantee - if after listening to the entire call you believe I didn’t give you your money’s worthy, just let us know and we’ll immediately refund your investment. There’s really nothing to lose.
Register now at:
https://nelsonsearcy.infusionsoft.com/cart/store.jsp?view=1&i=51P.S. I almost forgot to tell you - the investment for each church is only $39.95 BUT when you complete the tele-seminar training we are going to GIVE YOU over $120 in free resources including an entire sermon series by itself goes for $69.95. In other words, you’ll get FOUR TIMES your investment back in free resources.
P.P.S. Will you be in prayer for all the Easter services that will be conducted this year? Pray for your church and mine here in New York City. Pray that this Easter is one that brings the most glory to God and impacts the most number of unchurched people ever! It’s an exciting time to be in ministry.
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7 Days of Servolution
We are big fans of servant evangelism here at The Journey. In fact, we’re trying to make a huge impact on the people of metro New York in 2009 through S.E. We recently signed up to be a part of something that has the potential to make a big difference in your church, your community, and in the lives of a lot of individual people and their families. It is called 7 Days of Servolution.
We’re going to make 50,000 Servant Evangelism touches during this week. I think it’s a great idea and I hope you will take a look, here’s more information from the folks at Healing Place Church:
“Servolution” is simply a revolution through serving. When we serve others who are in need, who look different than us, who may be hurting or poor, we have the opportunity to start a revolution of hope in their lives.
April 3-9, 2009 Healing Place Church will be partnering with great churches to ignite a Servolution in communities everywhere. We are calling it 7 Days of Servolution - the seven days leading up to Easter weekend. You can take all seven days to serve your community like never before, or simply pick a time during the 7 days and set out to serve people in your community in some way - an afternoon water outreach or a car prep or visiting widows or a neighborhood clean-up, or any other of a million ways you can serve. There’s no charge to participate, so what you do, how you do it and the cost involved is entirely up to you. No servolution is insignificant and there is no limitation to the potential of what can be accomplished.
You are invited to join the movement. It’s a revolution of serving others…a servolution. The troops are followers of Christ, the companies of soldiers are churches, and the weapons are towels for service. Once you have experienced the intoxication from serving someone who is less fortunate than you with every bit of energy, time and resource you possess, you will be hooked. You’ll be a servolution junkie ready to plunge in to the movement for your entire life.
Through our lives, through our families, and through our churches God is about to touch the lives of others in ways we never dreamed possible.
Visit www.servolution.org/7days to register your church, ministry or group (it’s free). You will be given access to printed materials like posters and fliers, web graphics, promotions plans and we’ll also be posting several video teachings with practical tips and ideas for you to use as you plan. All of this is completely free.
We are so excited to see how God is going to move during 7 Days of Servolution to strengthen His Church and show His love to the world. When the Church comes together to serve, we are much more useful in God’s purpose than we could ever be on our own.
For more information about 7 Days of Servolution, contact us at 7days@servolution.org, or at 225-753-2273 ext. 223 or visit www.servolution.org/7days.
P.S. - If you’re new to Servant Evangelism, or are just looking for some help in getting started, download a copy of Reaching Your Community Through Servant Evangelism.
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One in a Million
Looking for a mission trip for your church this summer? I want to invite you to bring a team to New York City this summer for a Servant Evangelism Mission Trip!
The Journey has launched our ONE IN A MILLION project to touch the lives of ONE MILLION New Yorkers through Servant Evangelism in 2009 and I want you to be a part of it!
God has blessed our church tremendously through Servant Evangelism since 2002. We’ve made hundreds of thousands of touches during that time, leading to literally hundreds of people coming to our church and taking the step to follow Jesus and be baptized, all through Servant Evangelism.
What does it look like?
We simply serve New Yorkers with an act of kindness, like handing out free granola bars, along with an invite card to The Journey.
What would it look like to do one million servant evangelism touches in one year?
How many people could come to Christ in New York City?The results will be incredible and this trip is sure to create a great deal of momentum in your church as well!
We can’t do it alone and we want you to help reach people for Jesus in New York City!
We’re looking for teams who will come to NYC and serve with The Journey Church for one week (Saturday – Friday). We have secured affordable accommodations throughout the months of June and July for incoming mission teams at the David Dean House in Brooklyn, NY. However, space is limited and weeks are already starting to book up, so I would like to confirm your group as soon as possible!
Are you wondering about the investment?
When your team comes to NYC, each person will receive six nights of quality accommodations at the David Dean House, breakfast each day, linens and all of your ministry supplies for the entire week. The total investment is just $500 per person!
We believe that your team members will find this cost to be well worth the investment and I guarantee that your team will have a blast while making an incredible impact on the people of NYC!
What’s the next step?
If you want to bring a team to NYC this summer, contact Mark Rouse at mark@journeymetro.com or give him a call at 212-730-8300 x 211. He can provide you with more details about your trip and answer any questions that you may have.
We look forward to hearing from you soon and serving with you this summer!
PS – If you contact Mark about this Servant Evangelism Mission Trip, he’ll give you a FREE copy of my Servant Evangelism resource!!
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Are You Reaching Non-Christians This Christmas? (Part 4)
This week, we’ve been thinking about how you can work with the natural surge that God has built into the Christmas season to influence those who don’t yet know Jesus.
We started by making sure we are outwardly-focused this season. Then, we talked about how to increase the number of guests at our Christmas services. Yesterday, we learned how to make sure that those guests feel welcomed and want to come back again and again. If you’ve missed any of these posts, you can check them out below.Today, we are going to wrap up this mini-series by exploring the importance of follow up. When your Christmas service is over and the pre-New Year lull hits, how will you follow up with the first-timers God gives you this season?
The way you follow up, or follow through, on the guests who come to your church will impact whether or not those guests choose to return. With your follow up, pay attention to the three Fs. Make sure it is Fast, Friendly and Functional:
FAST - Don’t underestimate the power of a quick follow up. Today, people are used to a whole new level of immediacy, thanks to technology. I suggest getting an email in your guest’s inbox within 36 hours of her visit.
FRIENDLY - Your follow up needs to reach out in a warm, personal way. Make your guests feel valued as individuals, rather than sending them something that resembles a mass form mailing. At The Journey, we send a handwritten note from me (or that week’s teaching pastor), along with a small, relevant, free gift within 96 hours of a guest’s visit. Handwritten notes seem to find their way to the top of everyone’s mail pile!
FUNCTIONAL - Follow up with your guests in a way that meets them where they are. Be simple and straightforward. Use the opportunity that follow up gives you to extend a clear invitation for them to come back to your church. I mentioned the free gift… you might include a $4 gas card and say something in the note like, “We’d love to see you again. This trip is on us!” Be creative!
This Christmas, God will bring millions of unbelievers into our churches. We can either let the opportunity to influence them with his truth pass us by, or we can make some decisions now that will help us reach them effectively.
Let me challenge you to make this the year you focus on non-Christians at Christmas. Enjoy the celebration of our Lord’s birth but while you do, make sure you do your part to introduce him to those in your community who don’t yet truly understand the significance of the season.
- Nelson
P.S. - For more on creating a follow up system that will keep your guests coming back, check out Fusion: Turning First-Time Guests Into Fully-Engaged Members Of Your Church.
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Are You Reaching Non-Christians This Christmas? (Part 3)
Yesterday, we learned how you can have more first-time guests than usual at your Christmas service. But what do you do with your guests once they arrive? How can you make them feel comfortable? Is there anything you can do now to make sure they’ll want to keep coming back to your church in the new year?
Turning first-time guests into fully-engaged members of your church is what assimilation is all about. In my book, Fusion, I detail a plan for creating a system that will help you keep the newcomers who come through your doors. If you haven’t had a chance to study that system, let me encourage you to do so. In the meantime, here are a few things you can do to make sure your first-time guests have a great experience this Christmas:
1. Spiff your church up - make it look as good as it can look.
2. Have signs in place to point people where they need to go. (For example, have signs pointing the way to the children’s area, the restrooms, and the main sanctuary.)
3. Make sure each guest is properly greeted, directed, treated and seated. Let’s look at this one in a little more detail…First impressions are very important to your first-time guest. One of the best ways to make sure he feels welcomed and gets a good first impression of your church is by creating a strong pre-service – one where he is:
Greeted - Welcomed with a friendly smile by someone at the front door
Directed – Simply and politely shown where he needs to go (preferably by a sign and a volunteer)
Treated – Happily surprised with comfort food/drink (Offering hot coffee and donuts in your service will speak volumes to the new people who show up.)
Seated – Led to a comfortable, appropriate seat by a volunteer
The first-time guests you’ll have this Christmas will be making gut-level judgment calls about your church from the minute they hit the parking lot. What they see, before your service even begins, will determine whether or not they’ll ever come back. Take some time today to think about what you can do to make your first-time guests feel welcomed this Christmas season. Put some time into polishing up your method of Greeting, Directing, Treating and Seating.
If you put some intentional focus on your assimilation efforts as you prepare for your Christmas services, you will see many more of those first-time guests become second-time guests, then regular attenders and ultimately, fully-engaged members in 2009!
- Nelson
P.S. - If you’d like to learn more about how to keep the first-time guests God brings you, check out Fusion or take a look at these tools and resources. Have a great Thursday!
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Are You Reaching Non-Christians This Christmas? (Part 2)
Welcome to Part 2 of the “Are You Reaching Non-Christians This Christmas?” mini-series. Yesterday, we talked about the importance of making sure your church is outwardly-focused, especially during the Christmas season. If you missed that post, you can check it out below.
Now that you realize how important it is to focus your attention on non-believers this season, let’s jump into the best ways to do just that. We all know that God will bring more first-time guests than usual to your church this month, simply because it is Christmas. People who rarely darken the door of a church will often show up for a holiday service. You already have some natural momentum working in your favor. So what can you do to maximize that momentum?
You can work with the Spirit in prompting people to your Christmas service – through evangelism! Evangelism is critical throughout the year, but at Christmas it takes on particular significance.Servant evangelism is one of the easiest and most effective forms of evangelism - and one that you can get your members and regular attenders involved in. It’s a simple way to serve the people in your community as you invite them to church.
Around The Journey, we are big fans of Servant Evangelism. Throughout the year, we mobilize our people to stand on street corners and hand out granola bars, packs of gum or bottles of water along with an invitation to church. In fact, 30% of the first-time guests who show up at our services say that they discovered The Journey through a Servant Evangelism touch.
At Christmas, you can take advantage of the power of Servant Evangelism to invite the people in your community to your Christmas service. Here is a brief overview of the steps you need to take to initiate an SE outreach before Christmas:
• Have some postcards printed that advertise your Christmas service. Make sure you include your church’s location, meeting times and some information on the message you’ll be preaching.
• Buy several dozen (or several hundred!) boxes of candy canes.
• Pick a date, time and place for the SE project. Choose a busy downtown area or maybe a location near a popular shopping mall.
• When your volunteers arrive, hand each person a couple of boxes of candy canes and a stack of postcard invitations. Coach them to hand a candy cane and an invitation to each passerby as they say, “Would you like a free candy cane?” or even just “Merry Christmas!” Then, spread your people out over the area and let the evangelism begin!
Not only will this Servant Evangelism project bring non-Christians to your Christmas service, it will also stir your members’ passion for the unchurched. Engaging your people in evangelism at Christmas-time reminds them what the season is all about.
Check back tomorrow for some tips on how to make your first-time guests feel comfortable when they arrive for your Christmas service!
- Nelson
P.S. For more information, tools and resources on Servant Evangelism, click here.
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Are You Reaching Non-Christians This Christmas? (Part 1)
Is your church doing a Christmas play? Hosting a church-wide party? Inviting all of the couples to a Christmas reception? Holding a Christmas Eve service? I hope you are doing at least one or two of these things. Christmas is a time for celebration! But as you go about your usual holiday festivities, let me challenge you to think about where your focus is this Christmas…
Are you simply focused on celebrating the season with your members and regular attenders? Or are you making the most of the opportunity Christmas gives you to reach those who are not yet Christians?
For the rest of this week, I will be giving you some ideas on how to reach out to your community this Christmas season, how to treat the guests who visit your church for the first time and how to follow up with them after the fact to make sure they keep coming back in 2009.
For now, let me challenge you to think about this question… How can I ensure that my church stays outwardly-focused this Christmas season?
You’ve probably heard me discuss the importance of making sure that your church is and remains an outwardly-focused church. In case you aren’t familiar with the concept, an outwardly-focused church is one that makes an intentional effort to keep its energy and focus on the people who need Jesus outside its doors. The outwardly-focused church realizes that it is all-too easy to become consumed with the concerns of its members and regular attenders to the exclusion of reaching new people, so it protects itself from allowing that to happen.
People are more likely to visit your church around Christmas than any other time of the year (except maybe Easter). If you take some steps now to make sure you are focused on reaching those newcomers, you can pave the way for them to meet Jesus as we celebrate his birth.
Spend some time today thinking about where you’ve been focusing your energy… and then check back tomorrow! I’ll be giving you a great tip on how you can get even more first-time guests than usual to your Christmas service.
- Nelson
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It’s Baptism Day!
In addition to the 6 services we conduct on a Sunday (four in Manhattan, one in Jersey City and one in Brooklyn), we are holding a special baptism service this afternoon. Pastor Taylor Field of Graffiti Community Ministries and East 7th Street Baptist Church graciously allows us to use his church (check out his books about Lower East Side Life here). Our two churches couldn’t be more different, but I love doing baptisms at Graffiti because so many in our church support his community ministries to those in need.
Baptism is my favorite event in the life of our church. It reminds me how much I love being a pastor. I never get tired of hearing the stories of life change. We’ve baptized 103 people so far this year and today I’m hoping we’ll top 130. 130 stories of life change… that’s what keeps me going.
It’s going to be a great Sunday. Hope it’s a great Sunday at your church, too!
Nelson
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The “One Month” Perspective
Sunday was a big day at The Journey – and you know how I love Big Days!
We’ve been gearing up for this Big Day with Kerry Shook for over a month and it really paid off. We had a huge number of first-time guests and everyone was very receptive to Kerry’s message (almost 1200 in attendance and 102 first time guests!).
If you haven’t read Kerry and Chris Shook’s book, “One Month To Live,” I encourage you to pick it up. It’s an incredible lesson in perspective. The main question the book poses is “How would your life change if you found out you only had thirty days to live?”I find myself considering this question not only on a personal level, but also on a ministry level. Just think about it:
If you found out that you only had one month left on this earth, how would that change things in your church? Would you be tempted to walk away? Or would you use the last thirty days to reach as many people for Christ as you possibly could – to make sure that they would be in heaven with you one day?
As church leaders, we operate (we should operate, anyway) with a different mindset than the majority of job-oriented individuals. Most people, upon finding out that their lives were about to end, would walk away from their daily routines and never look back.
But our daily routines reach far past our own interests. We are not in this for a paycheck. If we are on fire for the people in our communities who don’t know Christ, the perspective of only being on this earth for thirty more days should spur us into action.
Collectively, we need to make an effort to resist the “Someday Syndrome” in ministry. You know, “Someday I’ll do a Big Day.” “Someday I’ll be better about reaching out to the community.” “Someday I’ll address the changes that need to be made in my church.”
Instead, let’s keep the “One Month” perspective fresh in our hearts and minds. Time is elusive. It passes too quickly and takes with it so many of the opportunities for outreach that we put off. Every day is a gift from God – an opportunity to draw closer to Him, spend precious time with our families, grow to our full potential, and reach a world who needs to hear the truth.
Someday never comes. Make the most of this day.
- Nelson
P.S. If you aren’t familiar with the Big Day concept, check out my resource “The Big Day by clicking here.
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10 Reasons to Invite People to Follow Jesus Every Week
Friday is for friends and today’s friend is Craig Groeschel from LifeChurch.tv He had two great posts this week that tackle the same subject from two different angles. Here’s the posts:
10 Reasons to Invite People to Follow Christ Every Week At Church
from LifeChurch.tv : swerve by Craig Groeschel1. Someone may be at church only once.
2. The Holy Spirit may have been working on them for months or years.
3. Even some churched people don’t understand the gospel.
4. Many trust in the church for salvation instead of trusting Christ.
5. Seeing others saved gives believers another reason to worship and motivation to witness.
6. New Christians can “light a church on fire.”
7. Angels in heaven get to party when one person meets Christ.
8. Hell is a real place.
9. You care deeply about people.
10. Families, workplaces, neighborhoods, cities, and generations could be different when one person meets Christ.10 Reasons Not To Invite People to Follow Christ at Your Church
from LifeChurch.tv : swerve by Craig Groeschel1. You are afraid of rejection.
2. You think everyone at church is already a believer.
3. You wouldn’t dream of offending someone.
4. You don’t really believe the gospel changes lives.
5. You are so busy preaching about “sex” or “how to have a better life” that you don’t have time to present Christ.
6. You would rather tell another joke than spend time explaining the gospel.
7. You don’t want to be criticized for being narrow minded.
8. You care more about everyone feeling welcome than about their eternity.
9. You are embarrassed to talk a lot about Jesus.
10. You don’t really really believe the gospel yourself.For more from Craig, check out his blog by clicking here. I also highly recommend his new book, find out more by clicking here.
Nelson
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What Happens AFTER Baptism?
Baptism is a very important event in the life of any new Christian. I know that we all go to great lengths to make sure the celebration is done just right. But what about the day or week after the baptism service? What’s your follow-up plan?
I’ve noticed that the week after a person’s baptism can be a trying time. Here are a few thoughts on why:
- Satan isn’t happy
- Their friends and family have a lot of tough questions
- They personally have a lot of doubts (Am I really saved? Am I worthy, etc.)
- An external trail (i.e. an argument at work or argument with a spouse) takes on a higher level of meaning because the baptism was so recent.On Saturday, we baptized 57 people at our Beach Baptism on Long Island. For the last two days I’ve been following up with each person. Here’s my process:
- Since the baptism was on a Saturday, we prayed for all 57 people at the Sunday service. I asked our congregation to pray for them throughout the week too.
- As a staff we divide up the names of each person and pray for them throughout the week.
- I send each person an email copy of their baptism ‘group picture’ and an encouraging email from me. You can download a copy of the email I send to everyone by clicking here.
- We mail each person a copy of his or her baptism certificate.
- We follow up with them in about a month to make sure they are signed up for a small group.
This isn’t everything we do but it’s the highlights. The key point I want to make is that you need a follow-up process.
Even if you haven’t had a lot of baptisms lately, sit down and think through your process. Write it out; discuss it with your leaders; ask God to give you wisdom! I heard someone say one time that ‘if you are faithful with the few, you will be given even more.’
Nelson
P.S. Here’s a link to a few baptism resources we have on our church website. Click here and Click here.
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Beach Baptism Video Montage
Our annual Beach Baptism is tomorrow (Saturday, July 26) at 2:30pm at Jones Beach on Long Island. If you are in the area, stop in and join us - all the details are here.
To prepare for the Baptism we recently put together a montage of previous beach baptism videos. I think its pretty inspirational. Here’s the link:
For more videos from The Journey, check out our The Journey Church YouTube page here.
Your friend,
Nelson
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Where There’s Slack There’s Lack - 2 of 8
SYSTEM #2: THE EVANGELISM SYSTEM
Today, we’re moving ahead in our new Wednesday blog series, “Where There’s Slack There’s Lack.” Last week, we kicked off by examining your Weekend Service System and calling out the slack. Have you spent some time working on that system since last Wednesday? What kind of changes have you made?
This week, we’re going to keep working from the outside in by looking at your Evangelism System. The Evangelism System can also be called the Outreach System or the Marketing System. No matter what name you give it, it’s the system that asks, “How do we attract people to our church?”
Most of you know the principle of spiritual readiness – that God will never give you more than you are prepared to handle. As church leaders, we have a responsibility to plan for and be prepared for first-timers before they come (more on that next week). That way, when we do the work of evangelism that we’ve been called to, God can bless our efforts.
How have you been doing? What has this system looked like in your church over the last six months? Are you seeing a lot of first-time guests? If not, there’s a good chance it’s because you’ve been slacking on evangelism.
To start getting your system back up to par, ask yourself:
When was the last time you did a big direct mail campaign?
Have you invested in servant evangelism lately?
Who was the last person you invited to your church?
When was the last time you challenged your people to bring friends to a big day?
As you begin to think about this system, make sure you are maximizing the seasons of the year when people are most willing to come to church for the first time. (Do you know what those are?) Keep your culture in mind. Know whether your community will respond best to postcards, emails, phone calls, billboards, or a specific combination of outreach methods. It’s true that God attracts, but we have to do our part of the preparation.
I challenge you to spend this week digging into your Evangelism System. Think about specific steps you can take to reach your community next week and next month. Lead the way through your personal evangelism. Give your people opportunities to invite their friends and then support them any way you can.
Evangelism is critical to what we do. We’ll never be able to bring unbelievers into God’s kingdom if we can’t first bring them through the doors of our churches!
Make this your mantra for the week: No slack = No lack.
Nelson
P.S. – If you haven’t already, make sure you download the free Church Systems Report, to learn more about the eight church systems and how they work together.
P.P.S. – To dig deeper into the area of evangelism, check out these resources.
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Are you speaking Christianese?
Chris Forbes as a great article on the danger of speaking Christianease - you can read it here. Here’s a few of the highlights:
(Start Quote) Have you ever read copy in church advertisements like the lines below?
- “Join us this Sunday for anointed Holy Ghost preaching, dynamic praise and worship and intimate fellowship in the body”
- “At our church you will hear sound expository preaching on the doctrines of Grace”
- “We exalt the Savior, equip the saints, and edify the servants!”
- “Our church is a corporate outlet for truth-filled praise and worship!”
I can’t tell you how many church signs, brochures, worship bulletins, and websites I have seen that have sentences like those above. Much marketing coming out of churches today uses terms the general populace doesn’t understand.
We may know what words like, “exalt”, “equip”, and “anointed” mean, but what do these things mean to the people who have never or rarely been inside the walls of a church? (Personally, I am working on what “magnify” really means…it’s not about magnets, right?) For example, for many people the word “gospel” is not about the message of Jesus Christ, it’s a genre of music. You can’t help people understand the real meaning of the gospel, until you understand the people you want to reach.
….
5 Steps to Cleaning Up Your Church Marketing Language:
1. Start with your audience in mind: Instead of just brainstorming in your office how you want to creatively word your message, write copy with specific people in mind. If you define your audience more clearly and have a mental image of the people to whom you are speaking, the best vocabulary will emerge in your mind from understanding them.
2. Purge your copy of words that need to be explained: Be careful to use only terms that have a clear meaning to your target audience. Try using a thesaurus to find other ways of saying what you want to say.
3. Make your meaning plain: When you have to use a specialized term, define the meaning of the word in your copy.
4. Test your copy: Show your materials and concepts to people in your target audience to get their candid impressions and reactions to your writing. It’s not as hard as it sounds, just ask, most people would love to help. Say, “I am working on a writing project and I need another set of eyes, would you mind looking at what I have written and telling me if I am coming through clearly?”
5. Make a commitment to keeping church-speak out of your marketing materials: Help ministry leaders understand the value of clear communication and revisit church documents like mission statements, descriptions of ministries, expressions used from the platform, etc.
(End Quote)
Read the full article here and then go through your website, church signs, bulletins or promotional materials and remove all Christianese. Now!
Nelson
- “Join us this Sunday for anointed Holy Ghost preaching, dynamic praise and worship and intimate fellowship in the body”
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How to Overcome the Barriers to Baptism
Did you know that there are barriers to people being baptized? It’s true and that’s the topic of this months free Church Leader Insights Podcast. I’m particularly proud of this podcast. And I can say that without one once of arrogance as….I’m not even on this month’s podcast! Instead, Roy hosts Bob Franquiz for this insightful and practical podcast.
LISTEN TO BARRIERS TO BAPTISM PODCAST RIGHT NOW
I believe that baptism is the most new testament way of going public with your faith. Yet, a lot of people hold off on the decision to be baptized. Why? That’s what Bob Franquiz discusses in this new podcast. Bob is a three time alumni of my coaching networks, a certified CLI traniner (he’s doing a Fusion event in Connecticut soon) and the Pastor of Calvary Fellowship in Miami Lakes, FL. My huge thanks to Bob for sharing his insights!
LISTEN TO BARRIERS TO BAPTISM PODCAST RIGHT NOW
Bob is also one of the guys who pushed me to enter the blog world (I’m grateful, I think). He was blogging back before it was cool. Here’s a few of my favorite posts from his blog:
6 Years Later: Lessons from Church Planting
What Is Deep? What is Shallow?
I hope you enjoy the podcast! If you have suggestions for future topics, just let me know by commenting below or using the Ask Nelson button on the right —–>
Nelson
P.S. Why not take a moment right now and subscribe to our free podcast using iTunes or your favorite MP3 tool. This way you’ll never miss an issue! Here’s the step by step directions on how to subscribe to the Church Leader Insights Podcast
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Lessons Learned From Rick Warren - Lesson #2
Lesson #2: Evangelism Must Always Be Our Priority
When I was working at Saddleback Church with Rick Warren, I heard him say time and time again, “As long as there is one unchurched person in the Saddleback Valley, we must keep reaching out as a church.”
Rick understands the importance of making evangelism a priority, or as I like to say, the importance of “staying outwardly focused.” It’s all too easy for us to get busy with the demands that direct our days and let the unchurched people who fill our communities slip to the backburner. But those people are the very reason our churches exist! If we don’t intentionally make it a priority to reach them, we are doing them a disservice and falling short of our responsibility to God.
As you think about how you can make evangelism a priority in your church, remember that evangelism is never an expense – It’s always an investment. Every dime you spend to reach a new person is an investment in God’s kingdom. Every bottle of water or pack of gum you hand out as part of a servant evangelism project is an investment. Every postcard you mail to promote a new series is an investment. God has commissioned us to take His truth to the corners of the earth, and that commission starts in our own neighborhoods and communities.
I challenge you to insert the name of your community into Rick’s quote. Write it out and put it on your desk, so that your focus comes back to local evangelism every day…
“As long as there is one unchurched person in _________________________, we must keep reaching out as a church.”
- Nelson
P.S. - Reaching out to ’serve others’ is always a sure way to make an impact. Click here see how one church made a big statement in their community by helping people offset outrageous gas prices. Remember, it’s an investment. BTW, Mike McGown, the pastor of the church featured in the article, is a coaching alumni who is doing a great job in Houston, TX!
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Free Report - How to Maximize Summer
A few days ago I wrote about the Myth of the Summer Slump and argued that summer is the perfect time to reach new people and to creatively connect people to your church. I proposed that you have to learn to do one of two things:
Plant in the summer or beg in the fall!
The response to this post has been incredible with so many people asking for more! In response, our team went to work and we have produced a brand new report for you (my huge thanks to Roy and Jennifer!).
DOWNLOAD THE MAXIMIZING SUMMER REPORT HERE
In this new 15 page report, you’ll learn:
- How to experience more first time guests during the summer months than ever before
- How to design creative outreaches that will take your evangelism to the next level
- How to design creative sermons that draw in more people during the summer
- How to multiply your impact by connecting summer events to your summer sermons
- How to connect more new people through summer small groups
- How to use the summer to develop new small group leaders
- How to use the summer to connect people in small groups that would not previously join a group
DOWNLOAD THE MAXIMIZING SUMMER REPORT HERE
I can’t wait to hear your feedback. You can post comments below or contact me using the “Ask Nelson” button on the right. If you missed the original post, you can read “The Myth of the Summer Slump” by clicking here. Oh, one more thing - if you find this report helpful will you share it with others or direct people to this post? Thanks in advance!
Happy Summer!!
Nelson
P.S. If you missed my earlier report entitled Healthy Systems, Healthy Church then you can join the 2000+ others who have downloaded it by Clicking Here to Download Healthy Systems, Healthy Church Report.
Recent: Evangelism
Church Leader Insights is a bi-weekly publication sent via email that focuses on effective leadership, church growth, church planting evangelism and much more.
My Books
Ignite: How to Spark Immediate Growth in Your Church
Activate: A Totally New Approach to Small Groups
