Start by doing what’s necessary, then what’s possible and suddenly you are doing the impossible.

St Francis of Assisi

“If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it away from him.

An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”

- Ben Franklin

The FREE “How to Make 2012 Your Best Year Ever Conference Call”

Will you join me for a FREE “Senior Pastors Only” Conference Call on Tuesday? We’ll jump-start the New Year together on this “first of its kind” conference call where I’ll teach you the skills you need to maximize your leadership and make 2012 your Best Year Ever!

After coaching over 1,000 Senior Pastors and interacting with tens of thousands more, I’ve observed that many (dare I say most) pastors aren’t making the most of their God-given potential, and I want to do my part to help.

If you could spend just one hour of your day next Tuesday to ensure that 2012 is the Best Year Ever, wouldn’t it be worth the investment? Join me on this free conference call and together we can set 2012 on the right course!

TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2012
2:00pm – 3:00pm Eastern
1:00pm – 2:00pm Central
12:00pm – 1:00pm Mountain
11:00am – 12:00pm Pacific

REGISTER NOW AT:

http://www.churchleaderinsights.com/index.php/free-stuff/best-year-ever-call

You’re invited to join me next week for one of 4 free webinars I’m leading called “Planning Your 2012 Preaching Calendar.”

After coaching more than 1,000 pastors over the last few years, I’ve learned that one of the best tools for reducing your stress, maximizing creativity, honoring God and working with the natural patterns of your people is planning your preaching calendar months in advance.

With that in mind, I am committed to doing everything I can to help you plan out what you’re going to preach in 2011.

My bestselling “Planning a One Year Preaching Calendar” resource lays out the principles of how to plan your preaching a year in advance, but next week I want to go a step further!

That’s why next week I’m doing a series of FREE WEBINARS for pastors called “Planning Your 2012 Preaching Calendar,” where I will literally walk you (by phone and on your computer) through the 2011 calendar during the course of our 75 minutes together and help you plan what you’re going to preach over the next year.

You can register now at this link:

www.ChurchLeaderInsights.com/preachingwebinar

This is NOT the same general training that I teach in the 1 hour preaching calendar CD resource…

Instead, I will help you APPLY the preaching calendar ”principles” to the unique makeup of the 2012 calendar.

In each of these webinars, I will walk you through:

* When, specifically, to plan your 2012 Big Days (and when not to plan them).
* The pitfalls and possibilities built into the 2012 calendar
* How to make the most of people’s natural seasonal patterns.
* The best times in 2012 for each of the 3 different types of sermon series (attraction, growth & balance).
* How to make Easter in 2012 more effective than ever at your church.
* Which days you can expect fewer people and how to best use those days.
* Plus much more!

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

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 (over the phone and on your computer) and walk you through this planning process.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2011
2:00pm – 3:15pm Eastern
1:00pm – 2:15pm Central
12:00pm – 1:15pm Mountain
11:00am – 12:15pm Pacific

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2011
7:00pm – 8:15pm Eastern
6:00pm – 7:15pm Central
5:00pm – 6:15pm Mountain
4:00pm – 5:15pm Pacific

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2011
2:00pm – 3:15pm Eastern
1:00pm – 2:15pm Central
12:00pm – 1:15pm Mountain
11:00am – 12:15pm Pacific

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2011
2:00pm – 3:15pm Eastern
1:00pm – 2:15pm Central
12:00pm – 1:15pm Mountain
11:00am – 12:15pm Pacific

www.ChurchLeaderInsights.com/preachingwebinar

Thanks for your continued support of Church Leader Insights and I can’t wait to talk to you next week!

If you have any questions or prefer to register by phone, simply call             1-800-264-5129      .

Remember, all you need is a phone line for the long distance call and computer access to join me on one of these webinars. Oh, and did I mention that each one is FREE!

Your partner in ministry,

Nelson

P.S. Do you know any other pastors who would benefit from one of these webinars?
Please forward this invite to them — I’d love for them to join us!

Here’s the address to sign up again:

www.ChurchLeaderInsights.com/preachingwebinar

A number of you have already let me know how my new book Ignite has helped you and your church.

That’s always encouraging to me, so keep ‘em coming! Feel free to use the “Ask Nelson” button on the right side of this blog to send me your story.

One such email that I recently received from Clark Frailey, member of the CLI family and Pastor of Coffee Creek Baptist Church in Edmond, Oklahoma.

He took what he learned from Ignite and created a PDF Whitepaper to share with his Leadership Team, then he gave me permission to share that document with you here.

This document takes the Big Day principles from Ignite and applies them to their church’s four Big Days.  It’s a great example of one way to create excitement and buy-in in your leadership team.

Download your copy here:
Coffee Creek 2010 Big Days Strategy (PDF)

Thanks so much for your feedback Clark and especially for sharing your hard work with us!  Keep up the good work!

P.S. To learn even more about developing a local church strategy for each of your church’s systems, including Evangelism, check out The Strategy Seminar.

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.

“The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”
– William Faulkner

SYSTEM #8: THE STRATEGIC SYSTEM

It’s hard to believe that we’ve worked our way to the last post in our weekly, Wednesday “Where There’s Slack There’s Lack” series! If you have been taking this opportunity to spend some quality time with your systems over the last eight weeks, I trust that you are already seeing the effects. If you haven’t been following along, make sure you go back and check out all of the Slack=Lack posts.

Today, we’re going to wrap things up by looking at the system that sits above the other seven systems and ties them all together – The Strategic System. This is the system that asks, “How do you constantly evaluate and improve your church?”

Think of the Strategic System as your church’s annual physical. Just like with your body, if you don’t pay periodic attention to how the systems are working, disease can creep in. The Strategic System keeps your church humming along efficiently, by making sure that you are continually evaluating and improving all of your other systems.

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

• When was the last time I checked in with my eight church systems? (Hopefully, this blog series has helped you with that one!)
• How prepared am I for what God wants to do in and through my church?
• Do my staff members know and understand our strategy?

Strategy has a bad wrap, but without it, we continue to re-invent the wheel week after week, month after month and year after year. A well thought out strategy will help you become more faithful and fruitful in every area of your ministry.

Take some time this week to think through your church’s Strategic System. Meet with your strategic team and discuss ways to improve your strategy. As you sow some time and effort into you Strategic System, you will reap the reward in your other seven systems.

Don’t skimp on strategy. It’s the thread that ties your church systems together.

Here’s your mantra for the week:

In my Strategic System, effort = excellence.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this blog series as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it. Let’s all commit to no more slack and no more lack!

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.

P.P.S – For more on developing a strategy for your church, check out The Strategy Seminar.