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

“This Christian life is a great mystery, far exceeding our understanding, but some things are clear enough: He appeared in a human body, was proved right by the invisible Spirit, was seen by angels. He was proclaimed among all kinds of peoples, believed in all over the world, taken up into heavenly glory.”  – 1 Timothy 3:16 (Msg)

P.S. I’m on vacation this week so I’m sharing some favorite quotes – see you December 8 – Nelson

The September 11 attacks happened less than two months after Kelley and I moved to New York City to launch The Journey. In an odd way, I thank God that He brought us here before that infamous day.

There is a sense in the city, even seven years later, that if you didn’t experience September 11, 2001 as a New Yorker, you can’t relate to the horror of being here during the attacks… and you had better not try. If we had come in after the fact and attempted to do ministry – to help people wrap their minds around their questions and grief – we wouldn’t have had the same ability to empathize. We wouldn’t have had the same voice.

The Journey launched weekly services six months after September 11, 2001, on a schedule that was not our own, but totally God’s. Since that day, I have been privileged to pastor in New York City. It’s a city unlike any other.

The Journey currently meets under the shadow of the Empire State building, seen here on September 11, 2001 with the smoking towers in view just behind. This is the city we love. Its people are strong and courageous. They are intelligent, thoughtful and resilient. God is doing an amazing work here and we are humbled to be part of it.

Spend some time thinking about your city. What is its story? What events, both good and bad, have helped to shape and define it in the last couple of decades? To do ministry effectively, you must understand the voice of your city – and learn to speak the same language.

On this anniversary of, arguably, our nation’s worst tragedy, also take a few minutes to remember and reflect on how you felt on September 11, 2001. Say a prayer for the families who still deal with the resulting loss each and every day and for our country as we continue to move into the future with the lessons of September 11 always fresh in our hearts.

- Nelson

Earlier this week, I came across a quote by Og Mandino that really struck me:

“Never neglect the little things. Never skimp on that extra effort, that additional few minutes, that soft word of praise or thanks, that delivery of the very best you can do.”

When I read this quote, I immediately thought about the Raving Fans principle of “Deliver Plus One.” This principle teaches us to deliver excellence consistently and then to go beyond that to give people one percent more than they expect. (Those of you who have read my book, Fusion, and who have spent any time with me in seminars are familiar with the book Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles. If you’ve never read it, add it to your list.)

The Og Mandino quote and the principle of “Deliver Plus One” operate from the same mindset. That is, always go the extra mile.

Church leaders are busy people and we tend to get caught up in the big things. But when we make the conscious effort to take “that additional few minutes” or “deliver the very best” we speak volumes to the on-looking world – many of them skeptics.

Take some time today to think about the little things in your life. Are you delivering the best you can? Are you delivering not only what’s expected, but an extra one percent?

Let’s break it down:

• Do you take the time to deal with small staff concerns?
• Do you mail your first time guests an unexpected free gift?
• Do you serve Starbucks coffee on Sunday mornings rather than Bargainbucks?
• Do you go out of your way to speak a word of encouragement to the people serving?

You may have heard that “the devil is in the details.” I prefer the opposite spin on that saying. I believe that God is in the details. Why? Because it’s the details – the little things in our lives and ministry – that give us the best opportunity to truly reflect the extent of God’s grace and love.

- Nelson

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.

SYSTEM #7: THE LEADERSHIP SYSTEM

Welcome back to the weekly, Wednesday “Where There’s Slack There’s Lack” series! If you’ve been following along with us for the last six Wednesdays, let me commend you for putting in the effort to take your systems up a notch. As we learned a couple of weeks ago, effort = excellence when it comes to building stronger systems!

Today, we’re going to be diving into the Leadership System. This is the system that asks, “How do you develop leaders at all levels of your church?”

As your church grows, you will need to develop leaders at every level – staff, lay leaders and high power volunteers. A well-planned Leadership System will make sure you are developing the right people in the right ways. This system will help you with staff management, organizational efficiency, and personal development.

To get an idea of how things are going with your Leadership System, ask yourself these questions:

• When was the last time I invested in developing new leaders?
• How am I helping my current leaders grow personally and spiritually?
• Am I modeling the kind of leadership I want to see from my leaders?
• Are any of my levels of leadership in need of more people?

Here are a few tips to help you start structuring this system for health: Define the expectations of every leadership position in your church. Assign requirements for each role, and make sure that you don’t let anyone blindly climb the leadership ladder. And put deadlines on service roles, so that everyone who agrees to serve in a high level volunteer position knows that it isn’t forever.

I encourage you to carve out some time this week to sit down with your Leadership System. Think through your leader development process. Take a hard look at who is moving up through the ranks and make sure that you have enough leaders at all levels of service. Pick up and scan a book on leadership that you might want your staff to read together.

By the way – Don’t forget to make the connections between systems. The Ministry System that we discussed two weeks ago is a direct inroad to the Leadership System. Everything works together for optimal success.

The more attention you give your Leadership System, the better the leaders you’ll attract. So make this your mantra for the week:

In my Leadership System, attention = attraction.

Nelson

P.S. – If you haven’t already, make sure you download the free Church Systems Report, which details all eight systems and how they work together.

SYSTEM #5: THE MINISTRY SYSTEM

Welcome to Part 5 of the weekly, Wednesday series, “Where There’s Slack There’s Lack!” If you’ve been tracking with me each week, I hope the effort you’ve been putting in is creating a new level of excellence in your church.

If you have you ever had a hard time mobilizing volunteers, then you are going to like today’s system – The Ministry System. We’ve also been known to call this system The Volunteer System. However you want to label it, it’s the system that asks, “How do you mobilize people for significant ministry?”

God created people to serve. It’s part of how they grow as disciples. You have to have a system in place that will help them get plugged in, or you will be hurting both yourself and your potential leaders.

At The Journey, our goal is to get 50% of our people involved in serving at least one hour each week. What’s your goal? Do you have one?

If you have multiple services on a Sunday, try asking volunteers to serve at one service and attend another. You can never have too many volunteers.

To take the pulse of your Ministry System, ask yourself these questions:

• How many passionate volunteers do we have?
• How many passionate volunteers would we like to have?
• What are we doing to make people want to serve?
• When was the last time I personally invested in our volunteers?

Encouraging people to serve will strengthen your church on every level. Ultimately, all of the eight systems will be run by volunteers, so you need as many dedicated servers as possible.

This week, spend some time thinking about what steps you need to take to create a volunteer system that makes people want to get involved… One that makes them want to do the things that you can’t hire people to do.

If you will give this system some true attention, I can guarantee you will begin to attract more volunteers.

Make this your mantra for the week: In my Ministry System, attention = attraction!

Nelson

P.S. – Don’t forget to download the free Church Systems Report to learn more about the eight church systems and how they work together for the health of your church.

“What is the path of Discipleship in your church?”  This is a question I get a lot.  My response is usually that the path of discipleship at The Jouney is not knowledge driven with an appeal for people to serve at the end, but service driven with the knowledge that people need provided along the way.  There is a huge difference between the two.

Knowledge is a very dangerous thing.  In 1 Corinthians 8:1 Paul told the Corinthians “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.”  When we teach a class at The Journey that is knowledge based, we let people know that if they sit through 3 hours of Bible teaching and leave without acting in a different and more loving way as a result of the class, they have become less spiritually mature as a result of their attendance.  They would have been better off if they had stayed home and taken a nap!

What is the path of discipleship in your church?  Do you challenge (and give opportunities) for people to serve and provide the knowledge they need along the way, or do you give them knowledge and training and then try to convince them to serve at the end?

“If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.” – Jesus (John 13:17)

P.S.  You might want to check out he sermon series “Fully Engaged: The Power of a Committed Life.” It helped us challenge those attending The Journey to act out their faith in a deeper way.