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Sixteen Ways We're Preparing for Easter

Easter is the most important day on the church calendar. Not only is it the day Jesus won the victory over death, it’s the day more people become Christians than any other. I want to take full advantage of this once-a-year opportunity. So every year at this time, New Song begins what we call our “ramp-up for Easter.”

1. Launch a new series.

We start by developing the series we want to launch on Easter. For years, I preached a resurrection message and invited people to return for a new series the following week. But CEO’s (“Christmas and Easter Only”) rarely come to church thinking they’ll return anytime soon, so we want to double their incentive by giving them the first helping of what they’ll receive if they come back.

Yes, I’ll explain the resurrection. Yes, I’ll invite people to receive Christ that day. But this year I’ll be doing it in the midst of a message on Heaven is For Real. Todd Burpo has a best-selling book by that title, so people are interested in it. During the four weeks post-Easter, I’ll preach on what heaven will be like and explain how to get there.

2. Give a free book.

Lots of unchurched people think of the church as stingy and irrelevant. I want to break that perception, so every year we give first time guests a free book. In the past we’ve given gift editions of a book I wrote a few years ago called The God Questions. I’ll still offer that book from upfront to anyone who has questions about God,but in our advertisements we’re offering a copy of Burpo’s book, which guests can pick up at our bookstore.

Giving the free gift not only exceeds people’s expectations, it enables us to gather contact information so we can thank them for coming and invite them back.

3. An email note.

In a church our size, it’s easy for guests to feel lost in the crowd. On the day after Easter, I’m going to email them all, asking if there is anything we can pray for. I want guests to know that the church is more than a building they can come to, it’s a family they can belong to. Every guest who responds will be prayed for by our staff on Tuesday morning.

4. A hand-written note.

As the emails go out, I’ll also be hand-writing notes. I want every guest to know that the church is about relationships, not just programs, and that their pastor took time to write them personally. By the time I’m through, my hand will be cramped, and I’ll wonder if it was worth it. The note will give me a chance to ministry personally. While I’m writing, I will pray for each guest by name.

5. A gift in the mail.

Along with my note, I’ll include a coupon for a free pizza. Few guests will expect this. As they open they letter, I’m hoping they’ll hear the Holy Spirit whisper, “Church isn’t what you thought it was. These people love you.”

6. Prayer Cards.

Our best gift to our neighbors is prayer. Starting this weekend I’ll ask our people to fill out Prayer Cards with the names of seven friends they’ll pray for and invite to Easter.

I’ll ask all New Songers to fill out two cards: one to keep,and one to turn in, so I can pray with them for their friends. Nothing tills the soil of a human heart like prayer.

7. Prayer Room.

During the weeks leading up to Easter, we turn our Prayer Room into a war room. Every card that’s turned in will be posted in the Prayer Room. We’ll feature twelve stations and ask people to fill up all twenty-four hours, praying for our community, praying for people’s friends by name, praying for our ministry teams, and other personal and corporate needs. Our Prayer Room serves double duty for us. It lifts our community to the Lord, and it teaches newer believers that it really is possible to pray for an hour at a time and not get bored.

8. Random Acts of Kindness.

Once we’ve begun praying, we want to pile on the love by serving our community in practical ways. Two weeks after we issue Prayer Cards, we put “RAK” (Random Act of Kindness) Cards in our programs, with a list of 150 suggestions of ways you can show tangible love to your neighbors.

One of our suggestions is “Pay for the coffee of the person in line behind you.” One year a New Songer did this, handing a RAK card to a Starbucks attendant. He ask her to give the card to the driver of the car behind him. As he was pulling away, a friend called and asked him to her a coffee, so he pulled back into line. When he got to the attendant, he was handed his same RAK card. – It had traveled through seven cars, each one paying for the person behind them. Jesus was right: give and it will come back to you!

9. Invite cards.

Once we’ve begun tilling the soil of our community with prayers and acts of service, we’ll start inviting people. A personal invitation is always best, so we print business card sized invitations with the times of our Easter services on it. This year’s card will serve as a coupon good for one free copy of Heaven is For Real.

10. Doorhangers.

We also make doorhanger invitations available for those who are willing to walk and pray through their neighborhoods. The doorhanger also serves as a coupon for the Heaven book.

11. Bumper Stickers.

I used to hate bumper stickers. Not anymore. Last year one of my genius staff members discovered a type of bumper sticker that peels off easily without leaving any glue. We purchased enough to give them to our people for the next several years. Their message is simple: “Easter at New Song.”

12. Yard Signs.

A few years ago we bought a batch of yard signs that read “Easter at New Song,” with our phone number on them. They look like realtor’s signs. I ask people to put one in their yard and return it the week after Easter. These are fun. Once they’re up, our office gets calls about the price of the house on such and such street.

13. Holding a Wednesday night service.

Easter is such a strategic opportunity that we don’t want to miss anyone. Some people will go out of town for the weekend. We offer a Wednesday night Easter service to catch them beforehand. People invite friends from work and some of them receive Christ. Even if the crowd is small, it’s worth it.

14. Attend multiple services.

To take full advantage of this once-a-year opportunity, we ask everyone to attend more than one service. “This is the most important weekend on God’s calendar, so it ought to be the most important weekend on ours. Bring friends to at least one service, and serve during at least one service,” we say. Some people attend four or five.

15. Training a new team.

The excitement of a big day brings the opportunity to launch new ministry teams. I’ve gone old-school recently. Instead of asking people to raise their hand to receive Christ, I invite them to come forward. This year we’re launching an “Aftercare Team.” Their job will be to begin follow up immediately following decisions at each service.

16. An incentive two weeks later.

During our Easter services we’ll invite people back to meet Bethany Hamilton. Bethany’s movie, Soul Surfer, came out last year. People in our beach culture are dying to meet her. She’ll draw a lot of people to church who wouldn’t normally darken the doors. Some will be Easter returnees. We’re believing that that weekend will be one more step on the fruitful life path of many new believers.

New Song Community Church has led over 11,000 to Christ in the last two decades. Hal’s website, www.pastormentor.com is stocked with resources dedicated to helping pastors reach their communities for Christ. If you’d like to develop a heart for reaching the lost of your community, sign up there for his free, five-week e-course called “Momentum Bootcamp.” Hal is hoping to provoke a Bible-reading revolution this September by providing hundreds of churches with a church-wide campaign called, The Bible Questions. Email him at Hal@pastormentor.com for further information.

Seven Benefits of Hosting a High-Profile Guest Speaker

Last weekend, New Song hosted Scott Rigsby for what we call a “Wow Weekend.” Scott is a paraplegic triathlete – the only double amputee to complete the Hawaiian Iron Man competition. Scott did some things for us that we couldn’t have done for ourselves. His unique story of perseverance in the midst of pain gripped our members. And his coming attracted 300 guests, many of whom wouldn’t have otherwise darkened the doors of a church.

Are high profile guests worth the time and money?

Only if you value lost people. (Or rejuvenating lapsed attenders. Or motivating your people to become inviters.)

Craig Groeshel has taught us that to reach people no one else is reaching, you have to do things no one else is doing. Scott helped us do that, and more.

The Benefits of a High-Profile Guest:

1. A high-profile guest can create a heightened incentive for your members to invite friends.

A week before Scott’s visit, many New Songers passed out invitations to their co-workers. Crossing that work-religion barrier can be awkward. The heightened incentive of hearing an athletes’ tale can help overcome the barrier. A lady who works at a gym invited her entire staff. A cross country coach invited his whole team. A swimmer emailed every swim coach in the area.

I invited my barber. I’d invited her a dozen times before, but she always said her schedule wouldn’t allow it. Two weeks ago she mentioned she was thinking about training for a triathlon. As soon as my haircut was finished, I went out to my car and brought her an invitation. She not only came, she brought her mother with her. They both told me they’d be back next week!

During our Saturday night service, I sat next to a family of five who had been invited by one of our vocalists. During our prayer time, the motherwent forward and wept openly in the arms of our prayer partner. Afterwards she told me she was born and raised in Ireland, and had never experienced a church service like this. Her three teenagers all met our Youth Pastor. The whole family promised to return next weekend.

2. A high-profile guest can create a specific time to invite.

Every core member of your church would love to have a guest with them every weekend. But it’s easy to think, “This isn’t the right time, I’ll invite them next week - or the week after that, or the week after that.” With a guest speaker, they’re only with you one time. If you miss the opportunity, it’ll never return. Your church members know that. A special guest provides the “This is the day!” motivation to make the invitation your people intend to make every week.

3. A high-profile guest can create a focused time to invite.

During some stages of life, peer pressure can be a terrible thing. But when it comes to motivating us to do the right thing, peer pressure can be used by God. A nudge from the Holy Spirit, coupled with some positive peer pressure is what convinced the children of Israel to cross the Jordan. That same combination can spur a church to great things.

During the weeks leading up to our Wow Weekend, a common question was, “Who are you invited to hear Scott Rigsby?” God was at work, and so were his people. A side benefit was that several New Songers who had never before invited a friend to church invited someone to this event. Hopefully they’ll
continue to the habit.

4. A high-profile guest can create an excuse to upgrade your systems.

One of the best ways to get your house cleaned is to decide to host a party. Knowing you’ll have guests, the whole family works extra hard to clean their rooms and tidy the common spaces. The same can be true when you know you’re hosting a large group of guests in your church.

New Song has a lot of military members. They tend to be reassigned every few years. So every fall we need to recruit a boatload of servants. In the weeks leading up to Rigsby, we re-staffed our usher core, invited new faces onto our PromiseLand team, and relaunched a badly-needed parking lot ministry.

5. A high-profile guest can create a leveraged opportunity to return.

Now that we have people’s attention, we have a small window to keep it. So next weekend we’re hitting a high-felt-need topic: reducing debt. Dave Ramsay’s materials have helped New Songers reduce thousands of dollars of debt, so we’re showing Dave’s “Basic Money Makeover” during the services next weekend. After Dave’s sermon, we’ll invite people to join a Finance Peace group for the next 13 weeks. (For those who may be worried about us, we’ll return to exegetical Scripture studies by the end of the month. I’ll be teaching a nine week series through the book of Nehemiah for the rest of the fall season.)

6. A high-profile guest can motivate drop-outs to return.

Unique guests will not only draw newcomers to your church, they can help draw back lapsed attenders. From time to time, fringe members can get distracted and stop coming. Last weekend I saw several smiling faces I hadn’t seen in weeks.

7. A high-profile guest can increase people’s love for you.

After each service I had core members and regular attenders say to me, “Pastor, thank you for bringing Scott here today. He was just what I needed.” A key component of a shepherd’s job is to feed his/her sheep. Occasionally that’s best done by offering them an alternative voice. By God’s grace I don’t have the story Scott Rigsby has, so I can’t offer the kind of encouragement he did.

High-profile guests can be overused. But utilized during a few key times of the year, they can bring a breath of fresh air and a boost of attendees who would never otherwise be exposed to the church and the gospel. Finding the right speakers for your congregation take a little effort, and finding the money to cover the expenses of invitations and an honorarium can be a challenge. But the challenge is well worth
it.

How to Grow your Church with a Great Guest Speaker

Last weekend we hosted Michael Franzese as a guest speaker. Michael is a former Mob Captain with the Colombo crime family who now travels the country sharing the story of how he came to Christ. It was an amazing weekend for us. Thanks to God’s blessing and Outreach, Inc’s marketing expertise, we had 1,000 guests join us for the weekend. Every service was filled to capacity, including our overflow room. In each service, people came to Christ. Michael ministered and prayed with people at his booktable for over an hour after each service.

 We’ve had other guest speakers, but never one with such wide appeal. The weekend was such a success, it has forced us to think at a new level. Our Management Team debriefed afterwards. Here’s what we learned.

What this did for us:

1. It gave us an opportunity to raise the value of evangelism and lower the bar of fear.

 For several weeks leading up to his coming, I mentioned Michael and played preview videos in each service. For four weeks running, one of our sermon applications was to write down 4-6 names of people we would pray for and invite to hear Michael. We’ve done this before; and people have responded fairly well to the opportunities, but Michael’s story was so unusual that it lowered all the barriers. Instead of hoping to turn conversations to an invitation to church, I and many others found ourselves able to start conversations with an invitation to church. With people I barely know, I would say, “Hey, have you ever thought about going to church? Because two weeks from now we have a guy coming that I think you’d like to hear.”

With the manager of my gym, I said, “Chris, we’ve talked about you coming to church someday. I think I found the day.” I handed him an invitation and told him about Michael. Then I said, “In fact, I’ve got a whole stack of these cards. Would you mind if I put them on your front desk?”

 He responded, “No, the corporate office wouldn’t allow me to do that, but if you give them to me, I’ll pass them out.”  And he did. I met a guy who came because of an invitation at the gym!

 Our staff all agreed that our Michael Franzese weekend was a win even if very few of our guests return because of what it did for our members: it raised the value of evangelistic invitations for them, while lowering the threshold on their fear of inviting friends.

2. It built momentum for the next big event.

The weekend was such a success that we are now set up for a second one. Currently, we’re looking for another unique speaker with wide appeal to come for a weekend in January. I’m confident our people will rise to the occasion again because this was such a good experience for them.

 3. It put us on people’s maps.

After 18 years of mailing invitations, you’d think everyone would know who and where we are. But they don’t. Hundreds of our guests had never heard of New Song before.  And hundreds more had heard of us but never thought about checking us out. The cool part is, many of these people will return. Maybe even cooler is the number of people who didn’t attend last weekend, but now know we exist. If 1,000 newcomers attended, we believe there are potentially tens of thousands who now know of us and may attend in the future.

 4. It gave us new volunteers.

Every Easter we ask all our people to step forward and serve somewhere. Some of them do it just that one time, but many first time volunteers get permanently assimilated into teams. Because of the size of this event, we were able to make the “big ask” of our whole congregation. Dozens volunteered for the first time. We believe many of them will continue serving, taking the size of our serving core to a new level.

 5. It increased our leaders’ status.

Following the event, dozens of our people posted on Facebook how proud they were of their church and leaders. The truth is, we didn’t do all that much. God, Outreach, and our inviters get the credit for the number of our guests. But the overspray of a great event has put a new shine on the status of every pastor and leader in our church. With it, we’ll be able to leverage more change, advancement, and growth.

 As you can imagine, with every upside, there’s a downside. Some of the things we prayed about didn’t happen. We experienced a miracle, but the miracle didn’t change too many every day realities for us.

 What it didn’t do for us

1. It didn’t make life easier.

Before the event, our staff was stretched with all their weekly responsibilities. Those responsibilities weren’t eased by our success, they were compounded.

 Normally, I write a few dozen first-time guest letters. This week, I didn’t finish the letters until Wednesday at midnight.

 Normally, our weekly Management Team meeting lasts an hour. This week we went two hours working on solutions to new problems our growth has created.

 2. It didn’t help us financially.

We spent about $8,000 on postcards, doorhangers, a newspaper ad, and Michael’s speaking fee. We figure our 1,000 guests contributed about $1 per person to our offering, so it will take months of faithful giving to recoup the cost of this event. The cost was more than worth it, but it’s a cost we will have to absorb until our newcomers grow and  learn about stewardship.

 3. It didn’t endear us to our neighbors.

New Song sits at the end of a commercial parking lot. One hundred yards from us is another, smaller church. We were careful to ask our regular attendees to park past that church, so as not to take their spaces, but even with an active parking team, some of our guests couldn’t imagine one church not letting them park to attend another church a few yards away. Some fence-mending will need to be done before this nearby church counts our “win” as a kingdom win.

 What we learned

1. Think through every system ahead of time.

Our ushers were primed for a larger group. They performed stellarly. So did our children’s, tech, and music teams. Our office staff printed plenty of extra programs. But, we forgot to order extra donuts. And even a beefed-up parking team wasn’t able to handle the additional cars as well as we’d hoped.

 2. Think bigger.

Our normal video feed works well for a small group in our overflow room. We found that a bigger crowd creates the expectation of a better video presentation. To accommodate a bigger crowd, we need to think bigger. The upside of this is that we now have a vision of what we need to do as New Song grows into its new size. The downside is, we wish we’d thought bigger ahead of time, since you only get one chance to make a great first impression.

 3. Forget normal.

Michael spoke for us on the first weekend of the month. Our normal pattern is to celebrate communion on the first weekend of the month, so we did. It didn’t work well at all. Lesson: when you’re doing exceptional things, do away with the normal things. In our case, we’ll move communion to another weekend next time.

 4. Keep the core.

On the other hand, my participation was as “normal” as possible without doing the preaching. I spent a few minutes welcoming the crowd. I emceed the service and “preached” for three minutes during communion. Along with me, our worship band did their “normal” part of the service. We think these were crucial for us. If we are going to persuade visitors to return, they need to sample the preacher and the music of a “normal” weekend so they can see if they like it.

 5. Expect your guest to speak long.

Every guest we’ve ever had has struggled to stay within the time limits of our 35 minute speaking slot. Fortunately, our children’s team anticipated this, so our kids were okay. Still, the strain of going twenty minutes long stretched our transitions between services. Our rule of thumb from now on is, whenever we have a guest, we’ll expect him or her to speak long and adjust accordingly.

 6. Celebrate the victory.

Michael spoke for us on Labor Day weekend. Monday was a holiday for us. Not only did we have more to do as a result of the great turn-out, we had less time to do it. Fortunately, years ago I learned from Bill Hybels and Nehemiah about the value of celebration. So we took an hour Wednesday morning to share victory stories as a staff, an hour Wednesday night to share victories with our Board, and we made lots of posts on Facebook to let our people know what God had done.

 It’s funny how stories can become more precious than the event itself, but that’s what we’ve found. A story told is a distillation of the event into its poignant essence. I will remember the feeling of God’s Spirit in our packed auditorium for years, but I suspect the memory of hearing how our Video Coordinator led her neighbor to Christ after the service will be as sweet and strong, and maybe sweeter and stronger, as the years go by.

 7. Share the victory.

I recently began mentoring a group of nearby pastors. Admittedly, I’m passionate about New Song’s growth, but I’m also passionate about seeing their churches reach their communities as well. So this week I spent some time encouraging them to think about hosting Michael and others like him. I wrote this article for the very same reason.

 I hope you’ll take the risk of thinking bigger than you’ve ever thought before. I’m not saying you have to host Michael Franzese, although I do recommend him to you. Try something outrageously beyond what you’ve done before. Take a risk. Think outside your box.

 Jesus wants to reach your community more than you do. Give him a chance to use you and your church to do it. Even if you don’t succeed, you’ll learn a ton. And the Lord looks on the heart more than on the result. He’ll be as honored by your efforts as he is by your victories. Try something ridiculous and then share the victory with the rest of us so we can imitate it too.

 8. Find a speaker with wide appeal.

Years ago, we hosted a former Misses United States in our services. Dozens of tweenage girls showed up and mobbed her. A few months later we hosted a retired NFL quarterback. Several jocks showed up with memorabilia to autograph. Once we hosted an aging former rock-star. Aged hippies attended.

 All of that was fruitful, but what we learned from hosting Michael Franzese is that there are a few special packages out there that can appeal to a very wide audience. A reformed Mob boss appeals to men. A former Mob boss who left a life of crime because of his love for a beautiful woman appeals to women. Couple that with a first class communication gift and a story of redemption straight from heaven, and you’ve got a volatile mixture for explosive growth.

 Years ago Gatorade did a Michael Jordan commercial whose punchline was, “I wanna be like Mike.” My greatest lesson learned from our big weekend is that I want to find more unique speakers like Mike because I want to see more people become like Jesus.

 Hal Seed is the founding pastor of New Song Community Church, and a mentor for pastors around the country. To learn more about Hal’s books and resources for church leaders, visit www.pastormentor.com. 

One Secret to Momentum in your Church

Want to know one way to get momentum in your church?  Ask yourself this question: when do I take time to work on the ministry of my church?

 

Most pastors feel so busy they spend all their time working in the ministry, rather than on it.

 

I’ve found that the winter and spring are great times to ask, “What’s next for us, Lord? Where do we need to improve? What do we need to add? What needs to change to better serve our church or neighbors?”

 

Then, during June, July and August, I take time away from doing ministry to work on developing more and better ministry.

 

This past month I’ve planned a leadership conference for our church, developed six months of our preaching calendar, hired a new mentor for the fall, planned several “Big Days” for the coming year, and begun working on a systematic mentoring program for the church. In addition, we’ll be launching a Spanish ministry in the fall, adding a fifth weekend service, and changing the start time of our Sunday p.m. service.

 

Since the job of the leader is to mind the future, summertime is the best time for praying, planning, training, goal-setting, and working on the ministry. We’ll launch and relaunch a lot of programs in the fall. Now’s the time to get them, and yourself, ready.

 

Ants know this: Go to the ant… It has no commander… yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food for harvest. (Prov. 6:6-8)

 

What three things, if you were to work on them this summer, would make a 50% difference in your ministry this fall?  How would that make a difference in the momentum in your church?

 

Get more ideas and resources from Hal at www.pastormentor.com.

Are you Ready to Discover the Latent Power of Prayer?

Put a pan of water on the stove and heat it up. For awhile it will look like nothing is happening. Then, when the water hits the magic number of 212 degrees, it expands and turns to steam. This water-to-steam exchange is so powerful that the first modern engines used it to power railroad engines and oceanliners.

 

Prayer has a similar quality. Often when I pray, I don’t see anything for awhile. Then all of a sudden, things start happening. Leaders emerge; people come to Christ, the church surges forward.

 

IMHO, summer’s slower pace is an excellent time to store up latent prayer energy. As a pastor, I’m praying over the Scriptures and sermons and services we’ll experience in the fall. I’m praying over God’s vision for our church in the coming ministry year, for our outreach and service events. Our church is situated in the San Luis Rey Valley. Over 200,000 people live here, and 75-80% of them don’t know Christ. Every morning I pray, “Lord, give me this valley.”

 

I’ve asked our staff to increase their times of prayer this summer. And a week ago, I emailed our Prayer Warriors to ask them to focus on three specific events.

 

You can’t see anything different right now. But spiritual energy is being stored. I believe God’s power will be unleashed in Ephesians 3:20 ways this fall.

 

How can you prepare in prayer for the fall?

 

If you're ready to build momentum in your church, watch for Hal's free e-course, Momentum Bootcamp for Pastors.

Four Ways to Get the Most Out of Summer

Every pastor I know wants to see their church grow by having people come to Christ and take their place as maturing members of the family of God. Yet summer months usually see lower attendance and a slower pace in most churches. What’s the best way to take advantage of this?

 

Proverbs 6:6 gives some wisdom here: “Go to the ant… consider his ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer…”

 

Four Ways to Store Provisions

 

1. Pray – I don’t think ants pray, “God, lead me to the food!” but if they could, I’m sure they would! There is a latent power in prayer that builds up and bursts forth over time. So my summertime praying involves the long-term fulfillment of God’s vision in my area, and his blessing on the events we have planned for the fall.

 

2. Plan – Many pastors are so busy working in their churches they have little time to work on their churches. What improvements do you want to make to existing ministries? And what new ministries do you want to start? Summer is a superior time to plan those improvements and additions so they’re ready for the fall.

 

3. Find a Mentor – During the year we’re too busy to do much about it, but everybody needs a mentor. There are leaders who have gone farther than we have, and they’re out there and willing to help us. Yesterday I signed up for a ten month mentoring program with a pastor I admire and respect. It’ll cost me a little money, but each of the last two years our church has grown by 18%, in part because I took tutelage from men who’ve been mentored ahead of me.  For weeks I was too busy to figure out who I wanted to ask to mentor me this fall. Last week I finally had time to think and pray and yesterday I pulled the trigger. My new mentoring relationship starts in August.

 

4. Get Refreshed - No one I know can run at the pace of a large-church pastorate year after year, so every summer I take a vacation, and I take a writing break. During both of these I listen to CDs and podcasts, read books, SATURATE myself with Scripture reading and memorization, and spend more time journaling and in prayer. Over the past month I’ve learned more about 1 and 2 Kings than I ever remember learning in seminary and feel like I am closer to God than I’ve been in… well, maybe ever.

 

What works for you during the summer?

 

Watch for Hal's free e-course, Momentum Bootcamp for Pastors, coming in early July.