PastorMentor.com

Why I'm Changing My Easter Plans

Last week my friend Scott Evans came to me with an idea that has changed my Easter plans.

As President of Outreach, Inc., Scott keeps his hand on the pulse of our society better than anyone I know. He asked me a simple question over lunch: “Hal, Outreach is thinking about creating an invitation card to an “End Times” series for churches after Easter. Do you think this would be useful to New Song?”

As we talked about the earthquakes in Japan and revolutions in the Middle East, it occurred to me that we’ve been selling an increased number of Future History books lately. (Future History is my book on Daniel and End Times Prophecy.) I should have spotted the trend myself: people are thinking about the end times!

Easter is the biggest event on our church calendar. Tons of guests visit us, and we try to encourage them to return by launching a need-oriented sermon series the following week. Up to the minute Scott mentioned end times, we’d been planning a marriage series. With his one question, he changed our direction.

Now I’ll be preaching how “When the time had fully come, God sent forth His Son” (Galatians 4:4) and ending with a forecast that, once the time had fully come, the time of the Gentiles had begun. Romans 11:25 speaks of a transition that will take place, when “the full number of the Gentiles has come in.” What will that time look like?  A lot like the time we’re in! Before I close, I’ll invite our guests back to find out more about the end times.

I believe we are in one of those “chiros moments” when people will listen to God’s Word to find out their immediate and future destiny. So we’ll be changing our series. The day after Easter, we’ll mail an invitation to our neighborhoods, inviting them to come find out about the end times. Pray with me that many eternities are changed as a result of our change in plans.

 

Reaching Those We Haven't Reached Before

I’m sure I’m not the only pastor who’s been rocked by Craig Groeschel’s famous statement that, “If you want to reach people you’re not currently reaching you’re going to have to do things you’re not currently doing.” That idea has pushed me to do some things that, well, I had never considered doing before.

A few months ago the thought came to me that most unchurched and dechurched people have an image of church services being dull and boring. We probably haven’t reached many people with that mindset, so I decided to do something that might get their attention: I hired a comedian… to preach for me.

The Funniest Church Service Ever

We billed the services as, “The Funniest Church Service Ever.” We empowered our people with invitations, put a big banner out front and prayed that the disenfranchised would come. My prayer was, “Lord, draw some people who never thought they’d come to church.”

I know, it’s written somewhere that comedians and preaching don’t mix.  

But testimonies and church services go quite well together.

So I asked our comedian to share some of his personal experiences (i.e., testimony), along with a biblical message, and it worked better than I had hoped. By God’s grace, we touched 500 people that we had never touched before. And a surprisingly large number of them returned the following weekend and are becoming part of the church.

Drawing Outside the Lines

Yes, we drew a line that deviated slightly from “the box.” That’s what we intended to do, because we wanted to reach some people that we hadn’t reached before.

Yes, we took some criticism from members that felt we crossed a line.

And yes, I suppose I’ll get several critical comments from pastors reading this.

But I decided a long time ago I was willing to do anything short of sin to reach people for Christ. And it looks like somewhere around 50 eternities have been changed as a result of our funny church service.

An Easy Invitation

The truth about me is, I work fairly hard at inviting friends and neighbors to church, and most of them turn me down regularly. I discovered that inviting them to hear a comedian at church was easier than almost any other invitation I’ve given. Over breakfast one morning, I invited three men to attend. All of them agreed. One of them was our city’s former mayor - who thanked me profusely (with a big smile on his face) after the service.

The Power of Laughter

Ecclesiastes says that there is a time to mourn and a time to laugh. We do a lot of mourning in church. Proverbs 17:22 says that, “A cheerful heart is good medicine.” I got to experience that upclose and personal that weekend.

Dozens of people reported how healed they felt as a result of laughing together. A lady told me she enjoyed it so much, she stayed for a second service. – I wish I could say that happens when I preach!

 A few days afterwards, an older gentleman emailed me so say that he hadn’t been to a church in years. The one-two emotional punch of laughter from our speaker combined with a personal touch during our prayer partner time so moved him that he’s decided to continue attending. His note concluded with, “I was at the point of suicide more than once… I hope this encourages you in your efforts to reach the wounded.”

 Risk

I am learning that there’s a close relationship between faith and risk. This one seems to have paid off for us. It may not work for everyone. Maybe our next outside-the-box venture won’t turn out as well for us. But as for me and my church, I hope we’ll continue to find ways to draw our boundaries wider, in order to reach previously unreached segments of our city.

What risks have you taken that have paid off for the gospel? I'd love to hear about them.

Bad News/Good News

It will soon be official. In less than three days, the 2010 calendar will be in the drawer and we will have entered into the second decade of the 21st century.

Economically, this decade was a bust. Stock values ended the decade almost where they began.  While our population has grown by 27,000,000, the number of employed Americans is virtually unchanged. And adjusted for inflation, the average American earns 5% less than 10 years ago. 

The good news is that America has never had two down decades in a row, so this one ought to be better. (Though I'm not making any predictions.)

Physically, a decade ago we were downsizing our military because of peace. Few of us had heard of the Taliban, even less of Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. Today, members of our own church are in a fistfight on the ground in the country of Afghanistan, and we're all wondering just how close Iran is to having a nuclear weapon, and what that might mean to Israel and end times prophecies.

The good news is, the Bible predicted that there would be a rise in wars and earthquakes before the return of Christ. So who knows, we might be getting close!

Spiritually, to God's sorrow, millions died this decade without knowing Christ. And 1,700,000 Christians were martyred.

The good news is, Christianity (in all its expressions) is growing by 8.9% annually, worldwide. At the current rate, every person on the planet will be a Christ-follower by 2032. And here at New Song, we've helped by training 100,000 church planters through DCPI throughout the world, and seen 6,100 receive Christ locally.

My friend Walt Wilson (president of Global Media Outreach) tells me that 85% of the world now has access to the worldwide web either by computer or mobile phone, and that the whole world will be connected by 2015. Jesus predicted that his gospel would be preached in the whole world and then the end would come. So we may be entering the most strategic period in human history!

Personally, I'm listening for God's voice and hearing him call his church to a greater focus and intensity level. The people of this world need Jesus, and our chances may soon be passing away. I'm praying that 50% of the city I serve comes to Christ before my death, or his return. It may be soon, so we must pray, sacrifice and engage! May this new decade begin a whole new era of fervency for Christ. Amen?

Someone to thank God for

With Veteran’s Day just a few days behind us, a friend sent me this article from the wife of a soldier. Many of us are aware of the price paid by those who serve in our armed forces. If you’ve never thought about the price paid by the SPOUSES of members of the armed forces, I encourage you to read this and take a minute to thank God for them:

 It was just another harried Wednesday afternoon trip to the commissary (grocery store on military bases). My husband was off teaching young men to fly. My daughters were going about their daily activities knowing I would return to them at the appointed time, bearing, among other things, their favorite fruit snacks, frozen pizza, and all the little extras that never had to be written down on a grocery list. My grocery list, by the way, was in my 16-month-old daughter's mouth, and I was lamenting the fact that the next four aisles of needed items would wait while extracting the last of my list from my daughter's mouth, when I nearly ran over an old man.

 This man clearly had no appreciation for the fact that I had 45 minutes left to finish the grocery shopping, pick up my 4-year old from tumbling class, and get to school, where my 12-year-old and her carpool mates would be waiting.

 I knew men didn't belong in a commissary, and this old guy was no exception. He stood in front of the soap selection staring blankly, as if he'd never had to choose a bar of soap in his life. I was ready to bark an order at him when I realized there was a tear on his face.

 Instantly, this grocery aisle roadblock transformed into a human..."Can I help you find something?" I asked. He hesitated, and then told me he was looking for soap.

 "Any one in particular?" I continued.

 "Well, I'm trying to find my wife's brand of soap." I started to loan him my cell phone to call her when he said, "She died a year ago, and I just want to smell her again."

 Chills ran down my spine. I don't think the 22,000-pound Mother of all Bombs could have had the same impact. As tears welled up in my eyes, my half-eaten grocery list didn't seem so important. Neither did fruit snacks or frozen pizza.

 I spent the remainder of my time in the commissary that day listening to a man tell the story of how important his wife was to him -- how she took care of their children while he served our country. A retired, decorated World War II pilot who flew missions to protect Americans still needed the protection of a woman who served him at home.

 My life was forever changed that day. Every time my husband works too late or leaves before the crack of dawn, I try to remember the sense of importance I felt that day in the commissary.

 Some times the monotony of laundry, housecleaning, grocery shopping, and taxi driving leaves military wives feeling empty -- the kind of emptiness that is rarely fulfilled when our husbands come home and don't want to or can't talk about work.

 We need to be reminded, at times; of the important role we fill for our family and for our country. Over the years, I've talked a lot about military spouses...how special they are and the price they pay for freedom too. The funny thing is; most military spouses don't consider themselves different from other spouses. They do what they have to do, bound together not by blood or merely friendship, but with a shared spirit whose origin is in the very essence of what love truly is. Is there truly a difference? I think there is. You have to decide for yourself...

 Other spouses get married and look forward to building equity in a home and putting down family roots. Military spouses get married and know they'll live in base housing or rent, and their roots must be short so they can be transplanted frequently.

 Other spouses decorate a home with flair and personality that will last a lifetime. Military spouses decorate a home with flare tempered with the knowledge that no two base houses have the same size windows or same size rooms.

 Curtains have to be flexible and multiple sets are a plus. Furniture must fit like puzzle pieces.

 Other spouses have living rooms that are immaculate and seldom used. Military spouses have immaculate living room/dining room combos. The coffee table got a scratch or two moving from Germany, but it still looks pretty good.

 Other spouses say goodbye to their spouse for a business trip and know they won't see them for a week. They are lonely, but can survive. Military spouses say good-bye to their deploying spouse and know they won't see them for months, or a year, or longer. They are lonely, but will survive.

 Other spouses, when a washer hose blows off, call Maytag and then write a check out for having the hose reconnected. Military spouses have to cut the water off and fix it themselves.

 Other spouses get used to saying "hello" to friends they see all the time. Military spouses get used to saying "goodbye" to friends made the last two years.

 Other spouses worry about whether their child will be class president next year. Military spouses worry about whether their child will be accepted in yet another school next year and whether that school will be the worst in the city...again.

 Other spouses can count on spouse participation in special events...birthdays, anniversaries, concerts, football games, graduation, and even the birth of a child. Military spouses only count on each other; because they realize that the flag has to come first if freedom is to survive. It has to be that way.

 Other spouses put up yellow ribbons when the troops are imperiled across the globe and take them down when the troops come home. Military spouses wear yellow ribbons around their hearts and they never go away.

 Other spouses worry about being late for mom's Thanksgiving dinner. Military spouses worry about getting back from Japan in time for dad's funeral.

 The television program showing an elderly lady putting a card down in front of a long, black wall that has names on it touches other spouses. The card simply says, "Happy Birthday, Sweetheart. You would have been sixty today." A military spouse is the lady with the card, and the wall is the Vietnam Memorial.

 I would NEVER say military spouses are better than other spouses. But I will say there is a difference. I will say, without hesitation, that military spouses pay just as high a price for freedom as do their active duty husbands and wives.

 Perhaps the price they pay is even higher. Dying in service to our country isn't near as hard as loving someone who has died in service to our country, and having to live without them.

 God bless our military spouses for all they freely give.

 

A Risk That's Paying Off

I'm surprised.

Last weekend we launched a new sermon series called, “How to Become a Superhero.” I didn’t come up with the title. I didn't even like it at first. Now I'm lovin' it.

I was planning to do a series called, “The Me I Want to Be” (based on John Ortberg’s excellent new book by that title.) Our Program Team commented, “That title would appeal more to women than men., and asked if we they change it. They came up with the Superhero idea. I wondered if it would fly.

The day we launched the series, our musicians all wore superhero t-shirts. (Would people criticize us for being led in worship by people wearing t-shirts?)

Plus,Batman, Superman, Iron Man, Spiderman and Captain America joined me on stage for the message. (Would people wag their fingers at mixing fantasy characters with the Word of God?)

Our superheroes struck poses behind me while I preached. Between services, they climbed on the roof and waved to people coming and going. Everyone got such a kick out of them, we’re holding them over for a five-week engagement. We may even have them pose for pictures with children on Halloween.

Taking Risks
What I've just described may not seem like much of a risk to you, but it did to me. I was fearful that some of our senior saints would think we had gone crazy, and that some of our more conservative element would accuse us of “selling out to entertainment.”

To my delight, that didn’t happen. Just the opposite. The whole thing created a buzz. Attendance is up. People are telling their friends about this crazy thing we're doing. Men are challenging each other to become superheroes of the faith.

New Song is 18 years old. In our younger days we took a lot of risks. One of our early series was called, “Great Sex.” Now that we’ve gotten older, we have a reputation to uphold and we have more to lose. This series helped me see that I have slowly gotten more predictable.

I want to break out of that box. I believe that “risk” was a synonym for “faith.” I want to live on that edge, rather than on the “preserve and conserve” side of life.

Here’s what I’ve realized (again) over the last few days:

The Virtues of Risk
1. Risk can send a signal that you’re serious.
We knew the series had the potential to turn some people off. Just the opposite happened. It demonstrated how serious we are about reaching and growing people in Christ.

2. Risk can create a buzz.
I like to think that everyone goes home every weekend talking about the lifechanging lessons they learned from my sermon, but you and I both know that doesn’t happen all that often. Whereas, last Sunday EVERYONE was talking about the superheroes on the roof. Several posted pictures of them posing behind me during the sermon. When was the last time someone took pictures in church, and it didn’t involve their family members?

3. Risk can attract a new kind of person.
If we always do what we’ve always done, we’ll always get what we’ve always got. Trying something new might just tap a segment of society your church has never touched before.

I have a few cautions, but I think they should be qualified cautions:

What to Risk for:
1. Risk for risk sake is foolish. Risk for Christ’s sake is worth it.
Our goal for the series was to grow our believers while giving them something to invite their unchurched friends to. “The Me I Want to Be” is a great concept, but not a very compelling title (unless you’re deep into self-actualization.) The audacity of the title has attracted several newcomers.

2. Take risks in the direction of men.
Much of what is done in church is geared towards women. I did a survey the week before we launched the series. Women preferred, “The Me I Want to Be,” while men were actually excited about “Becoming a Superhero.” Women are generally more tolerant and open to spiritual things, so if you can hook the men, most women will go along with it. Lean towards men.

3. Take risks in the direction of youth.
The more mature we become, the more others-centered we ought to be. So gearing a series towards a youthful audience makes sense.

4. Take risks in the direction of relevance.
Head into Wal-Mart and you’ll find a plethora of superhero t-shirts on sale right now. Ask friends (at least those under 40) if they own a superhero t-shirt. Most of them do. Survey the big theater hits over the last few years: Spiderman, Iron Man and X-Men rock. Superheroes may be make-believe, but they're connected with our culture these days.

5. Take risks in the direction of fun.
Because of their sacred nature, church services can have a tendency to turn solemn. I’m discovering that having a little fun can generate a lot of joy. And in the meantime, I’m watching members of my church dream and pray and work towards becoming superheroes of the faith.

Suggestion: Pastor, get 2-3 young men together and analyze the title of your upcoming series. How can you make it appeal more to men? To the younger generation? How can you build anticipation for it? How can you make it fun?

I think I’ll put more superheroes on our roof. Some of them may not fly, but if we reach a few more for Jesus, it'll be worth it.

A Dangerous Prayer

Twenty-one years ago I prayed a prayer that has changed me more than any other. It changed my vocation, location, orientation, and just about every other “ation” in my life.

 The prayer? “God, I don’t ask you for much today. I just ask that you give me your heart for lost people.”

Nineteen words. Twenty-one syllables. Seventy letters. One request.

I prayed that prayer every day for ninety days. By the end of it, I was a new man. I was no longer content to serve the church. I was compelled to serve God and his purposes in the world. At the time, I was an associate pastor in a nice, safe church in rural Colorado. I was content with that. I planned to stay there for a long, long time.

But the prayer (or, the Lord) wouldn’t let me. The prayer moved me to San Diego County, where I founded New Song Community Church, a church focused on reaching the lost. To date, just a few less than 8,000 people have received Christ through New Song’s ministries. Last year we released a movie that we believe is saving lives daily. (The movie is aptly named, “To Save A Life.”) We’ve helped start seven churches and seven parachurch ministries or outreach-focused companies, one of which has planted 104,000 churches. I am in awe of what God has done.

Here’s what I know:

1. A simple prayer really can change you.

 2. God’s great desire is that all people come to know him.

 3. God uses ordinary people who are willing to take extraordinary risks.

 4. The community you live in will only be reached if people like you pray dangerous prayers and get about the business of building Christ’s church.

 5. Churches that reach out are led by pastors who are compelled by God to reach their communities. Most of these pastors don’t see themselves as overly impressive. They’re just convicted to their core that they must mobilize people to reach out because they are convinced that this is God’s primary purpose for them, and for their people. 

I’ve written an eight-week adventure designed to infect pastors and churches with a love for the lost. If you’d like to become infected, email me at hal@pastormentor.com and I’ll send you a lesson a week for the next eight weeks. If all goes well, you and your community will be changed more than you’ve ever imagined.

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. 

Three Unspoken Promises a Leader Makes

Stepping into leadership can be exhilarating and daunting at the same time. Newly-minted leaders find themselves asking, “Will people follow me? Will they like me? Will I be able to accomplish anything?” Those and a dozen other questions run through their minds.

 

Meanwhile, followers are asking a reverse set of questions. They want to know, “Is this person trustworthy? Do I want to follow him (or her)? Do I like where they are going?”

 

Underneath this unspoken exchange is a covenant that all leaders make with everyone who signs up for their cause. Like the questions, this covenant is never verbalized and almost never brought to the level of consciousness. But it’s there, and if you’re going to be a great leader, you need to own it and live up to it.

 

The leader’s unspoken covenant has three promises:

   1. If you follow me, I will make your life better.

   2. If you follow me, I will take you where you cannot go without me.

   3. If you follow me, I will care about you.

 

When a follower decides to leave a church, cause, or movement, it’s almost always because one of these three promises has been broken.

 

Years ago, Kelly asked me to pray that God would give her a baby. Lori and I had experienced some years of infertility, so we knew the pain she was enduring. I prayed often and fervently, but, no baby. A year later, Kelly quietly slipped out of the back of the church. Promise #1 was broken: I hadn’t made her life better.

 

It didn’t matter that I was incapable of making her life better. Only God could have repaired her reproductive organs. A better life was the unspoken expectation. Without a baby, we had a breach of contract.

 

A more realistic expectation is that I, as leader, will take the Kellys of this world to places they cannot go on their own. Had Kelly stayed at New Song, she would have seen over 7,000 come to Christ, countless marriages and families helped, and lots of other divine interventions as well.

 

The easiest deliverable is the “I will care about you,” promise. Leaders often feel stretched thin, but when a parishioner is in a crisis, they expect you to respond. A few years back, a lady in my church lost her sister to spina bifida. Her sister (Diane) and family were long-standing members of Saddleback Church. I was impressed to learn that Rick Warren delivered on promise #3. He showed at Diane’s hospital bed a few days before she died. Promise kept.

 

On the upside, making people’s lives better, taking them where they cannot go on their own, and caring for them are why we got into leadership in the first place. One of my greatest joys is Scott Evans, a friend ten years my junior who two decades ago made the decision to follow me to San Diego and help me plant New Song. Today he’s the founder of Outreach, Inc., a company that serves churches and ministries nation-wide. He knows that if he had stayed at his computer-industry job, he’d be half the man he is today.

 

Another is Jim Britts, a man twenty years my junior who has served on my staff for the past nine years. Jim’s passion is youth, and he’s got a talent for screenwriting. He recently released his first film [To Save A Life], which is changing lives all over the world. Jim would have been a success at whatever he put his hand to, but with my encouragement, he’s achieved great things in both youth ministry and the film industry. Nothing could thrill me more.

 

As New Song has grown, I’ve found it harder to express care to everyone who’s following. Sometimes I don’t hear about people’s sorrows until long after the fact. But when I can look them in the eye within hours of their loss, or pick up the phone and pray for them, those small acts of care go along ways towards fulfilling our covenant.

 

It’s easy to get busy and forget the unspoken promises we’ve made. Now that they’re at the forefront of your consciousness, how are you doing on them? Think for a minute about the most impressive person in your church, cause or movement. Is your leadership making their life better? Are you taking them somewhere they couldn’t go without you? Have you expressed your care for them lately?

 

Unfulfilled promises can lead to deep disappointments, whether the promises are ever spoken aloud. But a promise fulfilled is a tree of life, and a great spur to even greater leadership. Because when a leader thinks about making lives better, taking them to greater places, and caring for them, well, that’s what Jesus thinks about and does for each of his followers.

 

Ten Reasons to Hold Your Own Church Leadership Conference

Every church leader I know loves to attend a great conference. We love the learning, and we love to expose our people to inspiration and training that will take them, and our churches, to the next level. And we love the atmosphere. There is explosive power in any room where leaders gather.

 

During New Song’s earliest years, I maintained perfect attendance at Willow Creek’s Leadership Summit. The conference breathed life into me. I flew a team to Chicago with me every year. When The Summit decentralized, I was able to bring even more people as we drove an hour to attend via video conference.

 

The experience was so inspiring that I wanted every leader and wanna-be-leader to experience it. If you’re a pastor or church leader, you’re probably nodding your head right now. Every time you experience a great conference, half of you is pumped, and the other half is thinking about all the people you wished you’d brought with you.

 

Five years ago I did some focused thinking on this. “Why weren’t more people attending leadership conferences with me?” The two biggest reasons were time and money. Getting off work, traveling, and plunking down several hundred dollars for a conference is hard to do - and even harder to sell.

 

My next thought was, “How could we eliminate the time and money barriers?”

 

For years I’d been purchasing the conference videos to show at home to those who missed them. In 2006, I put together a line-up of the best speakers in my video library, and New Song hosted our first ever home-grown leadership conference. Those were the best three days of training in our church’s history!

 

Since then, we’ve held our own conference every year, and it continues to get better. We’ve learned a few things over the years. Here are the top ten reasons I recommend you hold your leadership conference:

 

1. Quality

Every conference I attend has a few sessions that miss the mark. By showing videos, I can show “the best of” Catalyst, The Summit, and other conferences held around the country. You’d think seeing the speaker on video would diminish the experience, but it doesn’t. Many conferences are so large, you watch the speaker on a screen anyway. And some (like The Summit) are actually broadcast a few hours after the live event anyway. What’s the difference between a delay of two hours and a delay of ten months?

 

Before each speaker, I stand up and explain why we’ll be watching this particular person, and what it is they have to offer us. After many of the speakers, we’ll either hold a large group discussion of what we learned, or break into small group discussions. Learning retention and implementation is far higher in this format.

 

2. Cost

Most conferences charge a few hundred dollars, plus gas, meals, and sometimes lodging. New Song used to spend upwards of $3,000 to send key staff and volunteers to “live” conferences. Now, we ask attendees to pay $30 each. For that, they get a conference binder, snacks, meals, and a few surprises along the way. Instead of spending thousands of dollars, our only expense is the cost of the videos, which we used to buy anyway. So many people are now exposed to the videos that they become part of our culture. Our Community Life Pastor lends them out to small groups throughout the year.

 

3. Attendance

In our final year of The Summit live, we had 38 people attend. In our first year of “New Song Summit,” we had 110. This year, we were up to 147.

 

Most conference run from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30p.m., with a 90 minute lunch break. That’s 6 ½ hours of actual conference time. We run our conference from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m., including discussion during dinner, so people can put in two-thirds of a workday and still get six hours of conference. Plus, those who simply can’t get off work show up at 5:30 or 6 p.m. and experience three or more hours worth each evening.

 

4. Unity

I can’t explain it fully, but there is incredible unity when more than 10% of your church experience a conference together. We worship, we laugh, we cry, we discuss together at a depth that can’t take place during the normal pace of life. We held this year’s conference three weeks ago and I am hearing buzzes and seeing ripples from it all over the church.

 

5. Influence

Because it’s our conference, I can personally influence its direction and outcomes. We run our conference from Thursday afternoon through Saturday morning. I do the opening session, celebrating where we’ve been over the past year and building hopes and expectations for what we’ll experience together over the ensuing 2 ½ days. I get to set the tone and direction for where we will go throughout the conference.  

 

6. Theme

This year’s theme was “Experiencing God at a Deeper Level.” I’ve discovered that most people don’t think of themselves as leaders, and therefore, aren’t attracted to leadership themes, or leadership conferences. Instead of calling ours a “Summit” or  including “Leadership” in the title, we call it “Oasis,” and promise folks spiritual refreshment if they’ll come. Learning about leadership is so inspiring, that so far, no non-leader has wised up to what we’re actually doing!

 

7. Prayer

Because we control the pace of the conference, we budget time for prayer together after each session. Talk about impacting! When a significant portion of your church prayers over significant topics that are fresh on their minds, God hears and responds!

 

We keep our Prayer Room open throughout the conference so people can meditate and pray there if they’d like. Many people stay late into the night “debriefing” with the Lord about what He’s said to them throughout the day.

 

8. Interviews

During our first year, the sound system wasn’t working right during our opening worship set, so the worship leader cut the session short. That left me with an extra 20 minutes before the final speaker that evening. To fill the time, I pulled a founding member out of the audience and interviewed him about what it was like in the early years of our church. I did the same thing with another founder the following evening. A few days later I asked some of our younger members what they liked most about Oasis. They said, “The interviews! They helped us to understand the church’s history and get to know some people we’ve never known before.” Now we build interview time into the conference schedule.

 

8. Awards

During our second year, several of our staff members reached the five and ten year marks of their service with us. I handed them plaques and we thanked God for them. Since then we’ve added “Entrepreneurial Faith” awards for those who’ve started significant ministries, and this year I honored our Board Chairman with a dinner coupon. This “family recognition” time bonds our leadership more deeply than I would have imagined.

 

9. Extended Worship

Being together over 2 ½ days gives us freedom to spend time in extended worship. Our sets can run longer than at a normal weekend service, giving us leisure to move into God’s presence together.

 

Whenever you attend a conference, you learn new songs. We do the same. We’ll do an extended worship set before two of the speakers each day, mingling new songs in with familiar favorites. By the time the conference is over, our core has mastered some new songs, which we’ll introduce to the church over the next few weeks.

 

10. Goal-Setting

When I used to take folks to “live” conferences, I would hope and pray they would come home with specific action plans. Now, I build it into the conference experience. Our Saturday morning opens with great worship, one final video speaker, then a vision-casting message by me. During the talk, I ask everyone to prayerfully consider what part they should play in our plans for the year. I hand out a sheet of questions to work through (like, “What three things do you want to put into action from our time together?” “How do you want to serve the Lord in this coming year?”) Then ask them to share their answers in groups, and pray for one another. We close with a commitment song and people walk out filled and ready to serve.

 

Be Aware

I should admit to you that I pour significant energy into preparing and emceeing Oasis. I come away from it exhilarated, but more exhausted than refreshed. The same goes for the conference coordinator, meal-server, and worship leader. The four of us need some down time when it’s over. I encourage you to experiment with your own annual conference, and plan on having someone else preach your weekend services the week you hold it.

 

But it’s more than worth it. Following our Thursday sessions this year, I received emails from several of our key volunteers and two of our staff members praising my efforts. The following evening, I got more emails, including one from my own son, telling me what a great leader I am. After our final session I introduced myself to a lady I had seen before but never met. She’s become a Christian, and her husband is following close behind. This lady said to me, “This conference has changed my life! I can’t wait to get home to share everything I’ve learned with my husband. We’re ready to jump with both feet!” Needless to say, I don’t normally receive this much positive feedback after a weekend service. There is something powerful about an extended conference. It fills your people’s tanks. It can also raise your stature in their eyes. Not a bad return on investment, wouldn't you agree?

 

Hal Seed is the Founding and Senior Pastor of New Song Community Church, in Oceanside, CA. Learn more at www.pastormentor.com

Four Keys to Finding a Mentor who Makes a Difference

I once took a course from Dallas Willard where he lined out thirty-some-odd spiritual disciplines. “These are all tools,” he would say. “Use whichever ones help you personally.”

 

I’ve discovered one that wasn't on his list. Call it the practice of mentoring.

 

It took me a few months, but when I found a pastor who could mentor me, his tutelage was so helpful that I haven't been without one since. These are the traits I look for in my mentors.

 A pastor who has been where I am today.

If you’re like me, you loved every one of your seminary profs, and they still have a lot to teach you about exegesis, systematic theology, and the other “love the Lord with all your mind” parts of ministry. Pastoring requires so many shepherding and management skills that when I look for a new mentor, I look for one who is two or three steps ahead of me.

 

 Has gifts of leadership and wisdom.

Jesus diagnosed that A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher. (Luke 6:40). To improve your communication skills, you want to listen to a communicator – which most of us do through podcasts. When it comes to mentoring, I want a leader to help me with my leadership, so I look for someone who has the gift of leadership.

 Is willing to give me personal time every month.

For years I settled for long-distance mentors. I’ve read almost everything John Maxwell has written. I love the guy. He’s really helped me. But for me, personal interaction spurs me to action in a way that reading can’t. I want a mentor who knows me and my situation, will answer my emails, and coach me over the phone on a regular basis.

 

Most pastors I know attend one to three conferences a year. We come home pumped, jump back into ministry, get busy, and implement about 1/10^th of what we learned at the conference. Between registration, transportation, food, and lodging, we spend about $1,000 per conference. Nowadays, instead of attending conferences, I spend less than $200 to get the conference DVDs. I get the full benefit of the conference and multiply the learning by watching the DVDs with my staff. I use the rest of the money to hire a mentor, who helps me implement a huge percentage of what I learn from him.

 Loves Jesus.

The Bible is packed with promises about God’s power: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord.” “Unless the Lord builders the house, its builds labor in vain.” “I will build my church…”

 

When you  look for a mentor, hero, or coach, the most important quality in their life is, “Do they love Jesus?” After all, it’s His church, and apart from Him you and I can do nothing. It’s surprisingly easy to get caught up in the “church business,” but if Jesus isn’t in it, what’s the point?

 

Pastor, if you can show me Jesus and inspire me to love him more, I want you in my life! The longer I’m in ministry, the more I want to be a man who can say, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” So when you hire someone to help you get to the next level, do your best to find someone who will first and foremost remind you and reflect for you how to walk closer to Jesus – to steer you back to his love, his call, his cause and his compassion. When all is said and done, you are a child of God first, and a servant of God second.

 

Learn more about Hal's resources at www.pastormentor.com.