NEW Sermon Series – Teach Your People How to Face Life’s Storms!

One of the most helpful and well-received sermon series we’ve done at The Journey this year was called “Unshakeable Faith.”

And now I’m excited to let you know that the full, six-part series (and everything you need to teach it at your church) is available in the Church Leader Insights Store.

Here are the details:

Teach your people how to “Stand Strong When Things Go Wrong” with this brand new, six-part sermon series.

Jesus tells a story of two men in Matthew 7:24-27 – one wise, one foolish – who chose to build their homes on two very different foundations – one on ROCK, one on sand. And when the storms came, one house survived and one didn’t.

Your people are no different – no matter how much we wish it wouldn’t, the storms of life WILL come.

• The question is “on what foundation will they depend to get them through?”
• When the unexpected happens, how will the people of your church respond?

Unshakeable Faith is a six-week sermon series that will help you equip your people to face the toughest of situations with their faith not only intact, but stronger than ever!

This Sermon Series Includes these Messages:

• Unshakeable Faith
• Facing Failure with Faith
• Facing Death with Faith
• Facing Doubt with Faith
• Facing Illness with Faith
• Living with Unshakeable Faith

You’ll also receive these resources:

• Sermon Notes
• Sermon Transcripts
• Graphics
• Presentation Backgrounds
• Memory Verse Cards
• And more!

P.S. This is a great series to teach your people this fall – order it for Immediate Download (click here) and you can download the entire series within minutes.  Or click here to secure your 7-CD Set.

Top 10 Signs Your Sermon Isn’t Going Well

Can’t we all use a chuckle on Monday morning?

Here’s a list I saw recently from the folks at Preaching Magazine (www.Preaching.com):

The Top 10 Signs Your Sermon Isn’t Going Well

13. Your associate pastor is warming up in the bullpen.

12. The praise band begins playing you off the stage.

11. The congregation is filling in the blanks of your outline before you get there.

10. You think the lyrics to a bluegrass song are really connecting with your audience.

9. When you pause for dramatic effect, several people giggle.

8. Your cell phone starts ringing, and you answer it.

7. The person signing for the deaf just pulled on mittens.

6. When the children are dismissed to junior church, most of their parents go, too.

5. Your sermon took shape over a glass of wine and volume three of Left Behind.

4. Your interpreter just rolled his eyes and put your last statement in quotation marks.

3. Desperate mothers are pinching their babies.

2. The ushers are handing out refunds.

1. You began your sermon with “Top 10 signs your sermon isn’t going well.”

Have a great Monday!

P.S. To increase the effectiveness of your preaching and reduce your stress from week to week, check out “Planning a One Year Preaching Calendar“

What Makes A Great Sermon Great? Abraham Lincoln’s Opinion…

I just finished reading John Maxwell’s new book, Everyone Communicates, Few Connect, and I’ll be talking about it in a future CLI Newsletter (you are getting the newsletter aren’t you? if not, click here).

Here’s a powerful story that Maxwell shares in this book:

President Abraham Lincoln, an incredible communicator, was known during the Civil War to attend a church not far from the White House on Wednesday nights. The preacher, Dr. Gurley, allowed the president to sit in the pastor’s study with the door open to the chancel so he could listen to the sermon without having to interact with the crowd.

One Wednesday evening as Lincoln and a companion walked back to the White House after the sermon, the president’s companion asked, “What did you think of tonight’s sermon?”

“Well,” Lincoln responded, “it was brilliantly conceived, biblical, relevant, and well presented.”

“So, it was a great sermon?”

“No,” Lincoln replied. “It failed. It failed because Dr. Gurley did not ask us to do something great.” Inspiring communicators always expect a lot from their listeners.

I often joke about my propensity for “crash-landing” my sermons, but one thing I’ve learned to check for in every sermon I prepare: What am I asking these people to do with what I teach them?  I call it “preaching for next steps.”

The point is – as President Lincoln noted above – no matter how biblical, relevant, well presented or even brilliant your message may be, the lack of a clear and compelling call to action will render it a failure in motivating people to radical obedience.

So, what do you expect of the people you’ll be preaching to this Sunday?

What is the great thing that you’re going to challenge them to do?

P.S. For my hand-selected book recommendations and the best and latest in church leadership each month, be sure to subscribe to the Church Leader Insights Newsletter - click here for your Free Subscription.

FDR on Sermon Preparation…

I ran across this story in a book I was reading recently and I think it has great application when it comes to planning and preparing to preach:

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was once asked how long it would take to prepare an address on a particular theme. “That depends on how long you want me to speak,’ the President answered.

“If you want an hour on the issue, I can be ready in two days. If you want thirty minutes, it will take me a week. If you want five minutes, it may take a month to prepare.”

FDR knew that arriving at the essence is one of the most demanding exercises of all.

“…Arriving at the essence is one of the most demanding exercises of all” – Isn’t that true for our sermon prep as well?

P.S. One of the best tactics I know of to get ahead and give myself plenty of time to hone in on the essence of the message is planning your preaching in advance.  To learn more and get started, check out my one hour training called “Planning a One Year Preaching Calendar.”

Igniting Growth In Your Church – Week 3 of 6

Welcome to week 3 of my 6-week blog series, “Igniting Growth In Your Church.” I trust that this Thursday series is driving you deeper in your study of my new book, Ignite: How To Spark Immediate Growth In Your Church.

Last week we dissected the four best times of year to do a big day. Now that you have a big day on your calendar (you do, right?), the next step is to understand how you, as the pastor, can use it to ignite evangelism in your church…

Today’s Topic:

Pastor – Igniting Evangelism Through the Stage, Staff and Structure

Each and every time you step in front of your crowd, you have the chance to speak truth into their lives. Whether you are preaching from a stage to thousands of listeners, from a pulpit to hundreds, or from a makeshift sanctuary to just a handful, you have been given incredible power to shape the lives and eternities of every person listening to you.

That’s exactly why the responsibility for keeping the evangelistic temperature in the church boiling hot falls on you. There are three ways that you can raise the level of evangelism in your church…  1) through the stage 2) through your staff and 3) through your church’s structure. Let’s look at each one in a little more detail:

Stage: What gets presented from the stage is more likely to get accomplished in the pews. In other words, you can’t keep quiet and assume that your people will do anything. You have to challenge. You have to encourage. Here are three of the most effective ways to use the stage to challenge your people toward evangelism:

• Tell Your Own Evangelistic Stories
• Have Others Give Their Testimony
• Teach an Evangelism System

Staff: Challenge your staff to be actively involved in evangelism and then hold them accountable for what you’ve asked them to do. Encourage them to lead the way by:

• Serving in Evangelistic Activities
• Praying for Unchurched Friends
• Praying and Fasting for Big Days
• Inviting Friends to Church

Structure: Think about the underlying structure of your church. Have you structured with an eye to the greater community? Have you structured in a way that helps you mobilize your people for evangelism? You can either structure your church for control or for growth, but not for both. Here are three of the best ways to make sure you are structuring for growth:

• Plan Regular Evangelistic Events
• Engage Small Groups in Evangelism
• Allow People to Belong Before They Believe

As you use the stage wisely, expect the best of your staff and structure your church for evangelism, you will be cooperating with God in reaching people for His glory. He will bless your efforts with lots of new people!

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.

So now you have an idea of what you, as the pastor, need to do to foster evangelism in your church. But what about your church members? How can you mobilize them for evangelism? That’s what we’ll talk about next Thursday. Make sure to check back!

- Nelson

P.S – If you missed the first two posts, don’t worry! Just click here for Week 1 and click here for Week 2.

Great Lesson – Saturday Quote

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”
— Benjamin Franklin: 18th century statesman, scientist, and writer

Profane Preachers

On my recent panel discussion at Fox News I was asked if I thought it was appropriate to use foul language in the church (curse words, profanity, etc.).

My answer was ‘No’ and I did my best to explain it, but honestly, Ed Young says it so much better than me in this 3 minute video:

Thanks Ed!

P.S. Looking for something “clean” to say from your pulpit?
Check out these Sermon Series

Feeling Good

I just finished the video shoot for the Easter message. . . we filmed the entire message from start to finish at noon today.  I’m feeling good!  I sorta wish I had the pressure to finish my message by Tuesday noon each week (OK, not really).

But it does feel good to know the manuscript is done and there’s a (pretty) good video in can.

We did the video shoot of the message because we are beginning monthly services at a new location this week (Journey-Queens) and we wanted the first message to be via video since the location is a video venue.  Hope that makes sense.

All other locations will be live this weekend.  But. . .if anyone gets hit by a bus we have a video back-up!

I’m praying that none of you are hit by buses on Easter Sunday

Nelson

A “Wonder”-ous Opportunity

I have been invited to lead the Teaching Track at the Willow Arts Conference on June 10-12. The theme is “Wonder” and it’s definitely a wondrous opportunity for me.

In fact, with big names like John Ortberg leading this track in the past, it’s got me scratching my head… everyone else must be out of town that week.

Seriously though, it is a tremendous honor and I hope you will consider joining me. The folks at Willow put together a powerful conference each year and this one won’t disappoint.

Here’s the link if you’re interested:
http://www.willowcreek.com/events/arts/2009/index.html

Either way, I hope you’ll pray for me as I prepare.

Thanks!

P.S. If you don’t already have it, I encourage you to invest in my Planning a One Year Preaching Calendar resource by clicking here: https://nelsonsearcy.infusionsoft.com/cart/store.jsp?view=4&i=p93&navicat=35

Is this true about your sermons?

I heard this quote last week:

“Samson killed a thousand men with the jaw bone of an ass. That many sales are killed every day with the same weapon.”
– Anonymous

I wonder, could you replace the word ‘sales’ with the word ‘sermons’?

Nelson