My latest book, Ignite: How to Spark Immediate Growth in Your Church, has been selected as one of Outreach Magazine’s Resources of the Year for 2010!

Click here to read the article and see all of the resources that were chosen.

What an amazing honor this is, and I want to say this: it wouldn’t have happened without you picking up your copy, reading, reviewing and recommending it!

Accolades like this one are always humbling, but the best part of all this is knowing that so many of you are being blessed by the book and that God is honoring our efforts to expand His Kingdom.

Keep up the good work you’re doing and Thank You again for being a part of the Church Leader Insights family.

P.S. If you haven’t yet read Ignite, click here to grab your copy.

P.P.S. If you have read Ignite and have a testimony about how it’s been of help to your church, please click the “Ask Nelson” button on the right side of this blog and share your story.

Here’s an article from Steven Furtick that was included in this month’s newsletter (in case you missed it):

COUNT WHAT COUNTS

“Here’s the distinction: it’s good to be concerned with numbers.  But we’ve got to be concerned about the right numbers…for the right reasons.  We’ve got to make sure we’re measuring ministry numbers to measure our effectiveness and enlarge the Kingdom of God…not simply to placate our ego…I want to count what counts.  It matters to me how many people show up for a worship experience.  But it also matters to me how many of those same people are plugged into community and embracing Christ-centered generosity.  It matters to me how much money we take in.  But it also matters to me…” Read the full article here…

The Church Leader Insights Newsletter is designed to bring the best and latest thinking on Church Growth, Evangelism, Leadership and Church Planting directly to your inbox every month!

If you’re not already subscribed, you can click this link to sign up right now.

Space is limited by our webinar provider for this webinar, but we do have a few spots still available – however, you need to Register Now.

If you can make the time to join me for this webinar, you’ll learn the principles you need to turn your Easter first-time guests into second-time guests and ultimately into fully committed members of your church.

In addition, just for being a part of the webinar you’re going to receive more than $125.00 in Bonus Resources (that’s more than three times your “per church” registration investment).

I am pumped about this webinar because I love hearing all the stories about how God uses the Fusion principles to help churches keep more guests!

So, will you join me?

Here’s the link for more info and to register now:

The Fusion Webinar – Tuesday, March 16
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm (Eastern)
12:00 pm – 2:00 pm (Central)
11:00 am – 1:00 pm (Mountain)
10:00 am – 12:00 pm (Pacific)

“Lost time is never found again.”

P.S. To learn 34 proven principles to minimizing your “lost time,” check out Time Management for Busy Pastors.

So I thought I’d take a moment today to ask you a couple of questions:

Are you a self-starting and Kingdom-minded person who has an affinity for hard work?

Do you want to be a part of an exciting team that is impacting pastors and church leaders across the U.S. and Internationally?

If you answered “yes” to both of these questions, you may be interested in one of the following positions with Church Leader Insights:

POSITIONS AVAILABLE:

1) EVENTS MARKETING DIRECTOR (Full-Time)
Are you up for the challenge of helping us multiply the Church Leader Insights training events ministry?

Each year, CLI trains hundreds of pastors and church leaders across the United States. We’re looking for just the right go-getter to be responsible for coordinating and marketing all CLI events.

Must have first-hand experience coordinating first class events from the planning stage through completion. Travel is required. Direct Marketing background is a must. Salary is commission based.

2) WEB EDITOR DESIGNER (Part-Time to Full-Time)
Do you have the technical abilities to maintain and upgrade an ever-expanding ministry web presence?

We are currently looking for someone with experience in HTML and Web Content Management to help with various CLI projects. Graphic design, audio and video editing skills preferred. Competency in HTML, CSS, PHP, Dreaweaver CS4 or equivalent, JavaScript, Flash, ASP and willingness to learn Infusionsoft.com is a must.

If you are aggressive and would like to join our Kingdom impacting team, send a cover letter outlining why you are interested and what you can bring to the position.

Attach a resume or work history. Resumes received without cover letters will not be considered. Ministry or church experience preferred for both positions.

Email info@churchleaderinsights.com

P.S. We’re only going to consider serious prospects. If you can’t put the time and energy into your cover letter and resume, that’s a pretty clear indicator to me that you’re not a good fit for these openings.

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.

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.

I mentioned that I’d share some sample invitation tools that we have used at The Journey, so here they are (right-click and choose “Save As…” to download now):

2009 Samples:

• Easter Mailer #1 – Front (PDF)
• Easter Mailer #1 – Back (PDF)
• Easter Mailer #2 – Front (JPG)
• Easter Mailer #2 – Back (JPG)
• Easter Tent Fold Card – Outside (PDF)
• Easter Tent Fold Card – Inside (PDF)

2010 Samples:

• Easter Ticket (PDF)
• Easter Tent Fold Card (PDF)

P.S. For more information on how to make the most of Easter (and ALL of your church’s Big Days), check out The Ignite Seminar.

You’re invited to join me on Tuesday, March 16, from 1:00pm – 3:00pm Eastern time for The Fusion Webinar.

This two hour webinar is all about helping you become the best possible steward of the guests that God sends your way.

Best of all, you (and your entire Assimilation team if possible) can join me for this training without ever leaving your office or home!  You just need a phone and a computer with internet access to participate.

To help you make it worth your while, I’m giving you some of my most helpful assimilation resources as bonuses (worth far more than your $39 registration fee) just for signing up!

You’ll learn:

• Principles to help you create an inviting environment for first-time guests
• How to ”wow” first-time guests into wanting to come back
• The Journey Church’s ”Assimilation System,” used to follow up with the 30+ first-time guests who attend the service each week
• How to turn first-time guests into second-time guests
• How to turn second-time guests into regular attenders and then fully-engaged members
• How to drastically increase the number of guests who give you their contact information
• How to use a Connection Card (Including what to put on it – and what not to put on it)
• How to get people to turn in a Connection Card
• Plus much more!

P.S. To learn more or to register now for The Fusion Webinar on March 16th, CLICK HERE.

I recently read just such an article from Jimmy Britt, a friend and coaching alumni.  Jimmy is the Founding and Lead Pastor of Rocky River Community Church in North Carolina and he gave me permission to re-print this article for you, so enjoy!

I was thinking today that I have not written anything in a while to the church planters who read my blog. I’m in the mood so let me just give you some stuff rapid fire style. ☺ BTW, I think this is pretty good info for church goers everywhere.

- If you can’t raise money, go do something else. You are not a church planter if you can’t raise money. Seriously. You can be on a church planting team – you may even make a great Executive Pastor, but if you can’t raise money you are NOT a church planter. I know some of you are thinking that sounds too harsh so let me tell you why this is true. If you can’t raise money it means that you can’t talk to people, sell your vision (you can’t sell what you don’t have), or people just don’t feel confident enough in you to give you their money.

Note: You need at least one or two guys (or gals) in your church that you can go to and ask for money when you really need it. God has blessed me with a couple of men who will help me when I need it. They are not “money bags.” They just have some resources and are willing to help when we’re really in need, or just have a great opportunity and no cash. These folks are as valuable to you as your worship pastor. If you don’t have these folks who can have your back financially, you should question your call as a planter. I am FULLY convinced that God puts these people in your life. Everyone doesn’t agree with me on this, but they aren’t church planters either (they just teach it in seminary). ☺

- The latest, greatest technology is NOT the most important thing about your new church plant. Seriously, I’ve gotten some great deals on projectors and other great stuff from the coolest church plants that didn’t make it.

- Effective is better than cool any day of the week.

- Everything in “traditionally modeled churches” is not all bad. Know why you do what you do.

- People want to know what is in the Bible. It’s the Bible they need. Help people understand it and apply it to their life and they will beat a path to your door. They will find you!

- If you’re lazy, go to seminary, don’t plant a church. Planting a church is NOT for lazy people.

- If your wife thinks that you and her got married just to sit on the couch and snuggle every night after dinner until time to go to bed, find something else to do. A church planting couple has to understand that they were married for the mission. You two are partners in the Kingdom first and if she doesn’t get that then your life is going to be miserable.

I’m not saying your wife is bad. I’m really not. I’m just saying that your church plant has to be her church plant too. She doesn’t have to be the pastor, but she’s got to be called to the church plant. And if she’s not, she will not give you the “kitchen pass” you need to get the flywheel of your church going. PLANTING A CHURCH IS NOT A 9-5 JOB!

- You have to know “who you are” and “Who’s you are” and “where” you intend to lead your church. There are a number of reasons why these things are important, but chief among them is this. People are going to come and go. You love to watch them come, and they rip your heart out when they leave. Well, most of them that is. You need to let some people go and if you don’t know that now, just wait. You may call them “your” people now, but one day you’ll be ready to give some of them back to God. ☺

Anyway, if you don’t know who you are, some people will do everything they can to make you into what they want you to be. If you don’t know “Who’s you are,” there will always be someone around to try and make you “theirs.” And if you don’t know where you’re headed, someone else will take the lead.

- The people you start with are not the people you’ll end up with. They won’t stay. I don’t care how much they love you right now; eventually they will realize that the church plant is not what they thought it would be. And slowly, they will remember back to the good ol’ days when they could just “go” to church, back when no one depended on them or needed them. There will be all kinds of reasons why people will leave (some of them are your fault), just trust me when I say that the people you start with will not be with you at your first year anniversary.

NOTE: December is a hard time for a lot of church planters. Here’s why. The people on your launch team probably came from another church. At Christmas time they forget about the reasons they wanted to leaver their former church and help you start a new church. Why? Because they get home sick for children’s pageants and Christmas carols. People walk away in December.

- Do the ministry (serve people) because it is the right thing to do – it is what God has called you to do, not because you’re trying to create loyalty. Some of the folks you do the most for will be the ones who will walk away from you. Yep, after ten years it still hurts me. It will hurt you. But it is something you have to get used to.

- Build disciples. Build disciples. Build disciples. If you’ll do this even half-butted, it will payoff BIG TIME. These are the folks who will help you grow a church because they will reach other people. They will also be the people who you can count on when things get tough. And things WILL get tough!

- LOVE PEOPLE! Do life with people and enjoy them. Let them enjoy you. Don’t try and create a “safe” distance between you and your people. There’s no such thing. If there is, you’re not doing your job.

- Being a jackass is not a requirement for being a good planter/pastor. You only have to look at Rick Warren to know that. He’s absolutely one of the most inviting, hospitable, personable guys I’ve ever known. He’s also planted a pretty successful church – Saddleback Church.

- Youth Pastors who start a new church just because they’re pissed-off at their senior pastor are usually terrible church planters. It’s not as easy sitting in the front seat as you might think.

- When you are putting together a team of people to help you lead the church, remember that chemistry matters. The guy with the most talent may not be the best hire. Let me say that again. THE GUY WITH THE MOST TALENT IS NOT ALWAYS THE BEST HIRE!

- Get you “some” mentors. Yes, I mean more than one. And choose guys who have been there and done that, usually NOT a seminary professor or a kid straight out of college or seminary. Why? Because they think they know everything!

- Remember that you have the greatest, coolest, most rewarding job on the planet! Don’t take it for granted.

Thanks for the great advice Jimmy!

P.S. If you’re pursuing God’s call to plant a church, check out The Launch Conference on CD.

a little misleading. I apologize in advance for disappointing you.

It gives you hope that I’m going to endorse or recommend or review one specific church tracking software and tell you “this is unequivocally the best package – go and get it,” but alas….

The truth is, there’s no such thing as great tracking software.

As you develop and strengthen your church’s systems, you’ll inevitably find that you want to track more information, view more reports and just generally “do more” than any of the available church database software allows.

Full disclosure: at The Journey we currently use FellowshipOne, and while we are happy with it, there are still things that we’d like to do that just aren’t possible.

All of the “big three” (FellowshipOne, Shelby & ACS) can prove quite expensive, and my experience has been that the less expensive offerings available on the market don’t get the job done.

Even though the available tracking tools are far from perfect, your church’s systems (especially Assimilation and Stewardship) depend heavily on your ability to keep track of vital information.

My purpose for today’s post is to say this: Don’t let the lack of a perfect database software keep you and your church from tracking the information that makes all the difference today and in the months and years to come.

And as long as you can do it securely, feel free to get creative…

We used Microsoft Excel for all of our tracking at The Journey until we had over 800 people in attendance!

P.S. Even if you’re tracking the right information, you may be missing out on prime opportunities to use that info to strengthen and grow your church.

Learn the proven, step-by-step process to move people from first-time giving to faithful (even extravagant) giving with The Stewardship Seminar.

Every Worship Leader faces challenges – seven major challenges to be specific.

Once you identify these challenges and build a systematic approach to overcoming them, you and your worship ministry can thrive!

In this brand-new report from Jason Hatley, you will discover the secret to building a successful, systematic and God-honoring worship ministry.

Download your copy of this E-Book (in PDF format) immediately by clicking the link below:

Overcoming the Seven Challenges of a Worship Leader
by Jason Hatley

While you’re at it, check out Jason’s brand new Worship Leader Tele-Coaching Network, which starts in only two weeks (Thursday, March 19)!  Click here for more information and to download your application now.

P.S. When you apply for Jason’s Worship Leader Coaching Network, be sure to note that you read about it on my blog and I’ll put in a good word for you to get “priority consideration”

The Purpose Driven Church

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.

I recently received the following email from Jonathan Bilima, Lead Pastor of Kairos Church in Riverside, California.  Jonathan is in my brand new Tele-Coaching Network and here’s the Ignite testimony he shared:

Hey Nelson

Just wanted to thank you for all the valuable insight you give in your resources. Reading Ignite really pumped me up for having a big day at our small church plant. We run about 65-70 people a Sunday.

After reading Ignite, we organized a Big Day centered around our Christmas Eve service and had 300 people come out for our service. That’s huge for us being that we are a new church plant.

I look forward to learning more and implementing the strategies you teach.

In Christ alone,

Jonathan Bilima

That’s awesome to hear Jonathan – thanks for sharing! I look forward to seeing how God will use our Coaching Network together to grow you and Kairos Church in the coming months.

Do you have a story of how God has used Ignite to spark immediate growth in your church?  Click on “Ask Nelson” to the right of this blog to share your story.

P.S. If you still haven’t picked up your copy of Ignite, you can order it now from Amazon by clicking here.