PastorMentor.com

How to Help Other Churches Reach People for Christ

Pastor, what are your goals for 2013? 

Whatever they are, I’d like to encourage you to include at least one goal that helps other churches. 

Helping other churches is a multiplication strategy. If you can help someone else do what you do well, you’ve doubled your effectiveness. More importantly, Genesis 12 indicates that we are blessed to be a blessing. Helping others has always been God’s intention for his people, particularly for leaders. 

How We Stumbled into Helping

New Song started helping other churches almost by accident. Three years after we launched the church, I had to lay off our entire staff. We were transitioning from the “portable church” stage into a 24/7 lease situation, and it was obvious that we weren’t going to have enough to pay our staff and our lease. So we wrote pink slips which said, “We may not be able to pay your full salary for the next few months, but we’ve always lived by faith and we hope you’ll stay on. We believe God will provide for you until we grow into our increased budget.” 

Each of our guys agreed to pray and see what would happen. The next day, my Associate Pastor, Scott Evans, got a call from a church, asking if they could pay him to produce a mailer similar to the ones we had been sending to our neighbors. Another church called the following week. Scott began offering his services to more churches, and eventually Outreach, Inc. was born. Seventeen years later, Outreach has served over 90,000 churches with mailers and other marketing tools because of a pink slip and a nudge from the Lord. 

How to Get Started

1. Find out what God is up to…

The week before churches began to call, Scott and I had read Henry Blackaby’s Experiencing God. Henry’s chief tenant is Find out what God is up to and join him in his work. God is always at work around you. What is he doing in you or through you or around you that might benefit other churches? 

2. Figure out what you do well.

One clue to how you might help is by figuring out what you do better than other churches. We’re all good at something. What’s your strength? 

3. When you solve a problem, share the solution.

If your church has a problem, chances are that others have that same problem. When you develop a solution, share it!

4. Don’t be afraid to share.

Church leaders are sometimes tempted to think they’re in competition with other churches. Not so. Other churches are our teammates. They want to win others to Christ as fervently as we do. 

The competition is the beach, the sports league, the internet and other distractions that keep people from considering church and Jesus on Sunday mornings. There are plenty of unchurched people to go around! 

Sharing has changed our hearts

Over the years, dozens of churches in our area have used Outreach’s postcards, banners, and the tools. Seeing our efforts coupled with theirs has strengthened our bonds. A few years ago, our staff started praying for the other churches in our area during our weekly prayer time. Our standard prayer is, “Lord, everything we want for our church, we ask for theirs as well. Use us together to reach this city.” Last year we decided that, once a quarter, we would divide into teams and visit nearby churches to pray for their pastors in person. This is sometimes a shock for the visited pastor, but I think it’s good for the body of Christ. 

I feel so strongly about this that we started producing campaigns for other churches. It takes more work, but it’s worth it. A few years ago, The God Questions helped a ton of churches reach out. We estimate that over ten thousand people have come to Christ through that one tool. When we did a series on Daniel and the church grew by 18% in ten weeks, we made that available as well. This year we released The Bible Questions for the same reason. Churches are our neighbors. If we really love our neighbors as ourselves, we ought to give them our best tools. 

4. Think like a parachurch

Once upon a time, almost all ministry was done by the church. Then churches got insular and the parachurch grew up to fill the gap. Today, the pendulum is swinging back. Churches are thinking more beyond their walls. 

During the frontier days, a country parson looked around his village and when he found a need, he’d mobilize the community’s resources to meet that need. That’s the spirit I see returning to many church leaders as they pray for the salvation of their communities. 

Hal Seed is the Founding Pastor of New Song Community Church and author of The Bible Questions, The God Questions, Future History, and Jonah. Check out these books, campaigns and other resources at: www.pastormentor.com.

Seven Questions for Measuring Your Church's Success

I don’t know where we got the idea that church success should be measured in nickels and noses (or attendance and dollars). I affirm that large numbers in church is better than small and more money for ministry is better than less. But if Jesus’ goal is to build his church, I believe there are better questions than, “How many were here last week? And How much did they give?”  

Here are a few suggestions for better ways to measure great ministry: 

1. Salvations.

How many have come to Christ in our church?

Jesus asked us to make disciples. The first step in that process is moving from unbelief to belief. 

2. Baptisms.

How many have been baptized?

Public proclamation is a great second step of faith. 

3. Faith-sharing.

How many members of our church have shared their faith in the last few years?

The Great Commission was given to all believers, not just pastors and evangelists. The actual work of conversion belongs to God, but he asks every believer to share their faith. 

4. Community transformation.

How have we influenced our city?

This question doesn’t measure qualitative or quantitative growth directly, but caring for the needy and rectifying injustice is an important by-product of a vibrant faith. 

5. Kingdom ministry.

What are we doing to help the wider body of Christ?

During Spurgeon’s ministry, the Metropolitan Tabernacle developed sixty ministries to help other churches and the poor. Life Church’s development of the YouVersion Bible is a modern example. How well are we participating in God’s work outside our church?  

6. Church Planting.

How many new churches have we started or helped start?

The true fruit of an apple tree isn’t an apple. It’s another apple tree. The more apple trees, the more fruit. This is why church planting is the most effective means to reach people for Christ. Ministry is accelerated when it’s multiplied. 

7. Movement Planting.

How are we helping with world-changing movements?

Movements aren’t limited to one church; they spread from one to another. If it’s good to launch a Bible reading movement in your church, isn’t better to launch a Bible reading movement in several churches? Other movements might focus on prayer, fasting, a social cause, or the like. 

Since church planting is the most effective means to reach people for Christ, the ultimate movement is a church planting movement. If planting a church is like adding a second apple tree, developing or supporting a movement of church planting is like adding an entire orchard. 

Hal is the Founding Pastor of New Song Church in Oceanside, CA. New Song has helped launch a church planting movement that has planted 163,000 churches in the past fifteen years. His latest book The Bible Questions is designed to launch a Bible Reading Revolution in our churches and cities. To get the book, or the Campaign Kit, or find out how to participate in the movement, go to www.pastormentor.com.

How to Launch 163,000 Churches

A few months after we started New Song I began to pray about how our little church could play a part in Jesus’ Acts 1:8 vision for the church. How could a young church like ours play a part in reaching our Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world? Fast forward twenty years and God has done exceedingly abundantly above what we could ask or imagine. By His grace, New Song has played a measurable part in planting 163,000 churches around the world. Those 163,000 churches have seen over 7,000,000 come to Christ. 

The other day I asked myself, “How did this happen?” 

Clearly, it’s a miracle from God. Yet God often orchestrates miracles through the actions of people. So what can church leaders do to increase the potential for ministry miracles? I’ve got seven suggestions for you: 

1. Pray

Work done by the Holy Spirit starts with work done with the Holy Spirit. Prayer is the key to every great work of God. 

About the time I started praying, Paul Becker, one of New Song’s Board members, got a sense that he should expand his ministry of mentoring church planters. Coincidence? I doubt it. 

2. Have a BHAG

Jim Collins coined the term “BHAG” in his book Built to Last. A BHAG is a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. 

As Paul prayed about the expansion of his ministry, he first felt God leading him to impact the planting of a thousand churches in his lifetime. That seemed like a huge goal to us. Then one day, the Lord blew Paul’s vision apart by impressing on him the need to impact the planting of a millions churches instead. 

Paul emailed me to ask if I thought that was crazy. I said,“Of course it is! It’s a BHAG!” Paul picked up a copy of Built to Last and has been working on his God-given BHAG ever since. 

3. Work with others

Paul knew that if he was going to plant a million churches, he was going to need help. No single church can hope to plant a thousand churches, much less a million. So Paul founded an organization dedicated to church planting. It’s called Dynamic Church Planting, International (“DCPI”). 

My associate pastor became chairman of DCPI’s board, and my wife is a board member. Other members of our church volunteer and a few have become support-raising missionaries with DCPI. DCPI has become an organization of church leaders from around the world dedicated to planting churches. We partner with any evangelical willing to make church planting happen. In fact, we are constantly on the look-out for more leaders. We’ve even begun training high school students in how to plant churches. (God is doing incredible things with “Youth Churches” around the world.) 

4. Make everything replicable

If you want to add a church or two (or a ministry or two), to your Great Commission efforts, you can start them intuitively, doing the things you know will work. But if you’re going to multiply churches (or ministries), you’ve got to develop reproducible systems so that others can do what you are doing and get similar results. Early on, Paul asked me to record everything we had done to launch New Song. A few years ago I was blown away to see our original launch timeline on a blackboard in the middle of a rural village church in Africa. The same fundamental principles and processes we used to start New Song Chruch in Oceanside, California were being used by Masai warriors to launch churches in their territories in rural Kenya!

DCPI currently has five week-long training events designed to teach church planters what we know and how to do it themselves:

   1. Church Planting Essentials

   2. Churches Planting Churches

   3. Mentoring Church Planters

   4. Launching Church Planting Movements

   5. Growing New Churches

At each training event dozens of leaders are trained and several of them are certified to train others, using DCPI materials.  

5. Set simple goals

Every year, DCPI’s leadership sets simple goals. The goals revolve around: How many church planters will we train? How many new trainers will we certify? And How many new countries will we train in?  

From surveys, we know that the average trained church planter will plant 2.7 churches in five years and that those churches will lead an average of 46.7 people to Christ. Everything is focused on achieving simple goals which result in kingdom expansion. 

6. Give it away

We have been given freely, so we freely give. All DCPI training is free. This eliminates barriers of who can afford to come, and encourages financial participation by those who see the vision and see that we have no ulterior agenda except to plant to more churches. 

7. Keep doing it

By God’s grace, I’ve had the privilege of watching several kingdom-expanding ministries incubate in our church. (I’ll describe a few more of them in blogs over the next few weeks.) What tends to happen is, miracles develop like snowballs. The longer they roll, the bigger they get. We started by praying we could impact a thousand new churches in our lifetimes. That number seemed impossible at the time. Yet this year, DCPI trainers impacted the planting of twenty-one thousand churches! The key is to continue to roll that snowball down the hill by praying, working with others, and setting simple goals to expand our efforts a little farther every year. 

A million is too small

A few years ago, a numbers guy did some projections and figured out that DCPI was on-pace to reach its million-church goal by 2022. Six months later, God once again blew over Paul’s vision and challenged him to plant five million churches by 2050. Think we’ll make it? Maybe.  

My hope is that the Lord will return before we get there. But in the meantime this colossal vision drives prayer, and partnerships and passionate training throughout the world. 

God gets the credit

You could say that an accomplishment like planting 163,000 churches comes not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord, and I wouldn’t disagree with you. It is all his work. But I think that if you’re going to see the Lord accomplish something great through your ministry, most, if not all, of these seven actions will be involved in the process. 

Pray about it. I believe the Lord is calling today’s church leaders to pray bold prayers, dream big dreams, and take God-sized risks for the fulfilling of his Great Commission in our lifetime. 

Another movement of God?

Hal is the Founding Pastor of New Song Church in Oceanside, CA. He is currently encouraging churches to launch a Bible Reading Revolution in their churches and cities. Find out how to participate at www.pastormentor.com.

3 Ways to Turn Christmas Visitors into Regular Attenders

Christmas visitors are not like normal visitors. Every year a significant percentage of them will leave your Christmas services with good feelings, but without any thoughts of returning soon. They don’t expect to be back until Easter. How can you change those expectations so they’ll return sooner? 

Answer: You can’t. Only God can change a human heart. 

But you can help that heart change.  

1. Make a good first impression.

Whether they know it or not, visitors want to be greeted, directed, seated, and treated.  

First impressions are critical. Some years ago, I experienced a pastor’s greatest nightmare: I got to church without my notes! I jumped back in the car, dashed home for my sermon, and arrived back as the service was starting.  

As I scrambled out of the car, Brooks Bodie came up to me with a warm smile and said, “Welcome to New Song!"

Brooks had been greeting guests for years, but I was always inside before he got started. As I ambled for the entrance door, I thought to myself, “I would want to be part of this church even if I weren’t on staff!” 

Greeting:

New Song’s goal is to have every guest greeted five times on their way in and three on their way out. If your church is smaller, you can scale that accordingly.  

Directing:

Last week I asked a Wal-Mart clerk where I could find a particular item. She surprised me by walking me to the exact aisle. That left me with such a good impression that I’m now telling you about it.  

Visitors want to know three locations: Where are the children’s rooms? Where are the bathrooms? And where is the auditorium? Good signage can help with this, but nothing beats a smile, a handshake, and an offer to show me where I need to go. This is especially true of a Christmas guest, who may not have been in a church building in a long time.  

Seating:

Walking into a church auditorium can feel awkward. A sparsely populated room makes me feel self-conscious. A densely populated one makes it hard to find a seat. Both problems are diminished by the help of a friendly usher who suggests a particular seat or section and walks me there.  

Treating:

Last impressions are as important as first impressions. We offer every first time guest a copy of The God Questions, Gift Edition as our way of saying, “Thank you for coming.” It’s a small gift book, available at http://www.pastormentor.com/html/the_god_questions_-_gift_edition.html. It reads quickly and provides simple answers to the five major questions people have about God.  

Most weekends, we put the books by the entrance door or offer them at our Information Counter. But on Christmas Eve, I stand at the front of the church and offer to sign the gift page and for all guests. This gives me a chance to say a personal word to everyone willing to come up after the service. 

2. Invite them to Christ.

The one force that can change a person’s mind about church attendance is the Holy Spirit. I believe every church should present an invitation to Christ at every Christmas, Easter, and funeral service.  

Many churches miss this opportunity. Your Christmas visitors expect you to talk about Jesus. So explain how Jesus wants to have a relationship with them, and spell out the benefits they’ll receive from bowing down to him (salvation, forgiveness, peace, etc.). This can be scary the first time you try it, but the rewards of seeing someone come to Christ will quickly convince you to be bold every chance you get! 

3. Contact them afterwards.

During every service, we ask everyone to fill out a Connection Card. I email all guests within 48 hours. A member of our First Impressions Team calls them. Two days later, I send a hand-written note. The note tells them what we’ll be covering the next weekend, and includes a second gift: a coupon for the movie To Save a Life, which they can redeem next time they’re in church.

Last Christmas, a young Marine named George received Christ in one of our services. George responded to my email by saying that he wanted to sing in church soon. I’m hesitant to put an unknown artist on our stage. I thanked him and told him one of our Worship Pastors would be in touch. 

To my surprise, George sang the next weekend, and he was good! George sang a song he had written on Christmas Eve, after receiving Christ. His wife had miscarried a few weeks earlier. They came to church desperate, and God met them here. What a Christmas gift!

Pastors, I’m praying you have many Georges in your church this Christmas!

New Song has seen 1,800 come to Christ this year, and is praying for more this Christmas. Hal is praying for a Bible Reading Revolution in our country. Check out The Bible Questions at www.pastormentor.com.

3 Ways a Church Can Change the World

You’ve heard it said “We over-estimate what can get done in one year and under-estimate what’s possible in five.” We celebrated New Song’s 20th Anniversary last month, and when we tabulated all that had happened, I was shocked. I now know it really is possible to change the world. In fact, I think I've had a front-row seat in watching it happen: 

• We’ve planted 163,000 churches worldwide, leading over 7,000,000 to Christ.
• We’ve helped 90,000 American churches to reach their communities for Christ.
• We’ve helped 2,400 churches in 17 countries with database management systems.
• Over the last twenty years, we’ve seen 12,923 people pray to receive Christ here.
• Over the last seven years, we’ve seen gang violence in our city decrease by 35%.
• Over the last four years, we’ve fed, clothed and educated 85 children in Africa, and 100 in Honduras.
• Over the last three years, we’ve helped prevent a suicide a day.  

A friend asked me how this all happened. My initial answer was, "God did it." That was too spiritual for him, so this is my attempt to "quantify a miracle," if that’s even possible.  

Actions that Change the World:

1. Thinking entrepreneurially.

A church planter's resources are always limited, and always limitless. We've never had the money necessary to do world-changing ministry. But the task is so urgent, we can't afford to let money hold us back. So we look for ways to start and sustain ministries like a new business-owner would look to start and sustain his or her business.  

Seventeen years ago we set the goal of impacting the planting of 1,000 churches. Few churches could do that alone, so Paul Becker raised support, started a mission and began partnering with every orthodox Christian group on the planet. Today he has over 10,000 leaders training church planters in 86 countries of the world. (Our goal now is five million churches – so if you’re reading this, we want to partner with you!) 

Fifteen years ago we discovered that mailing postcard invitations was effective in reaching our neighbors. So Scott Evans started offering to help other churches do the same. To date, the organization he started has helped 90,000 local churches with a half a billion mailers.

Ten years ago we couldn't afford to purchase a database to keep New Song's records. So Chris Fowler and Free Grafton built a database from scratch. They started offering it to other churches. So far, 2,400 of them have benefitted. 

Seven years ago, Roy Vallez got a heart to reach gang members. He started hanging out with them, playing football and feeding them pizza. He's earned their trust, leading them to Christ, placing them in educational programs, and bringing others in the city together. As a result, gang violence has decreased. 

Five years ago, San Diego was hit with major fires. The relief center near us was overwhelmed, so we offered to house evacuees in our building. We had no food to feed them, no beds to sleep them, and no money to pay for all the repairs we'd need to make once the disaster was over. We called on 125 local churches and businesses and for help. At the end of the week, we had fed and clothed 790 evacuees, led 94 of them to Christ, and our congressman wrote us a personal check to cover the repairs to our building. 

Right now, we're trying to figure out how to put a New Song location in all sixteen quadrants of our city. We don't know how yet, but we believe it must be done. So we're thinking entrepreneurially again.

2. Setting leaders free.

Four years ago, Steve Foster (our Executive Pastor) and Jim Britts (our Next Generation Pastor) came to me with the idea of creating a movie to reach teens. The theme was teen suicide, and the goal was to stop it. God had clearly put this idea in their hearts. Who was I to withhold the church’s support? So in 2010, we produced To Save A Life. So far, the movie has saved hundreds of teens in dozens of countries.  Jim put prodigious amounts of time into the movie, for over a year. Steve Foster decided he could have a greater impact making more movies and  leading more outreach efforts. He no longer works for us.  

Paul Becker was one of our Board Members. Now he's the President of Dynamic Church Planting International. Scott Evans was our Associate Pastor. Now he's CEO of Outreach, Inc. Free Grafton was our Music Pastor. He now owns Church Community Builders Online. If you don't think losing those guys was painful, try giving birth with no epidural! But how dare we hold on, when the Great Commission is so great? I've actually come to believe that part of my ministry is supporting and blowing on others' kingdom visions. I'm cheering on five new kingdom-initiatives developing in our church right now. 

3. Staying long term.

Some pastors are catalytic. They like to start things and move on. I've learned that if I can start new things or help others start new things, I can be catalytic and stay. For most pastors, staying is better. Trust is built over time. Understanding a city takes time. Lessons are learned over time. Most pastors hit their stride around year ten and become city-statesmen around year twenty.  

Lori and I once visited Ireland. One of its downtown churches has been around almost since the days of St. Patrick. It's full of monuments and tombs. One of the church’s walls had plaques and dates of their pastors going back several hundred years. As I read down the wall, I came across a pastor who had come to the church at age 44 and left at age 86. (I assume his reason for leaving was death, but the plaque didn’t say.) This guy had led his church for 42 years!  

Whenever I think of quitting or moving on, I think of that guy. Four decades. Half his life. I hope to interview him in heaven one day. I'll bet he can tell a story or two about changing the world. 

Hal is Founding Pastor of New Song Community Church in Oceanside, CA. His most recent book, The Bible Questions is designed to launch a Bible reading revolution in your church and city. The book, and other resources, can be found at www.pastormentor.com.

 

Ten Things the Bible Will Do For You

I've been helped by a lot of books in my lifetime. The Bible has helped me more than any other book -  by several orders of magnitude. Here's what the Bible claims it will do for you:

1. It will inspire you.

When I read the story of David killing his giant enemy with nothing but five stones and a sling, I start to think that maybe I can conquer the giants in my life.  When I read the story of Daniel rising to become Prime Minister of a large foreign country, I think maybe I can do a little more than I am right now. 

When I read about Moses’ delivering two million people from slavery, Esther preventing the genocide of her people, Elijah calling out the prophets of Baal, Ruth’s unswerving loyalty to her mother-in-law, Stephen standing up to the Sanhedrin, Paul facing beatings and imprisonment and Jesus going to the Cross on behalf of the sin of the world, I’m inspired. My dreams get bigger, my determination gets stronger, and my adrenaline flows like Rocky Balboa yelling, “Yo Adrian!”

2. It will speak the truth to you and about you.

Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

Sometimes when I read the Bible, God’s Spirit whispers, “The truth about you is, you’re shallow.” Or, “You’re lazy.” Or, “You like to take shortcuts.” The Spirit convicts me that I can be better. 

3. It will teach you.

Paul says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). I call this passage, “The 2 Timothy Road” because it follows the pattern of a person getting onto a road and then running off of it and getting steered back onto it again. 

The Bible teaches me the way to live. In effect, it says, “This is the road. Walk on it.”  

4. It will rebuke you.

Inevitably, when I wander off the road, the Bible rebukes me. It says, “Hey! You’re off the road.”

5. It will correct you.

Once it has my attention, the Bible lovingly corrects me, whispering, “This is the way to get back on the road.”

6. It will train you.

And, once I’m back on the road, the Bible trains me in how to stay on the road. 

7. It will increase your I.Q.

Psalm 119:98-99 promises that reading the Bible will make you wiser than your enemies and give you more insight than your teachers. That’s worth the investment of a few minutes a day, isn’t it? 

8. It will prolong your life.

Deuteronomy 32:47 says that by taking God’s words into my heart I will, “live long.” That’s definitely worth the investment of a few minutes a day! 

9. It will transform you.

Romans 12:2 says “…be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The Greek word, “transform” is our word, “metamorphosis.” Caterpillars metamorphose into butterflies. When I read the Bible, it changes me from one thing into something better. 

The average American is exposed to around 5,000 messages per day. Most of those are designed to make you a better consumer. God’s will is that we become increasingly good givers and lovers, not buyers and wearers. Every message I hear, see or experience changes me in some small way. I want to expose myself to messages that change me for the better. That means messages from the Bible! 

10. It will make me prosperous and successful.

The promise of Joshua 1:8 is prosperity and success to those who read, think about, talk about, and do what the Bible says: “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” People spend a lot of time trying to get ahead in this world. The Bible indicates that the best (and maybe the easiest) way to get ahead is to read the Bible day and night. 

Thomas Jefferson once said “…the studious perusal of the sacred volume will make better homes, better citizens, better fathers and better husbands.” 

If that’s true, then why don’t we “studiously peruse the sacred volume” more? 

In my experience, there are four reasons:

1. We think we’re too busy.

Somehow we think there are better ways to invest our time than learning from what God has to say to us in his word.

2. We’re proud.

We think we don’t need God’s advice and perspective. We shelve the Bible and relegate it to religious times, rather than absorbing it in our everyday lives.

3. We don’t really want to change.

Change can be stretching. Sometimes we’d rather stay in the muck-hole we’re in than climb to better, safer, more pleasant heights.

4. The Devil doesn’t want us to.

The Devil knows that the Bible can do all the things we’ve listed here, and he’d rather anything happen to you than you experience the growth and blessings of God. The minute who determine to sit down with your Bible, he will distract you, woo you away, make you false promises, and do anything else to keep you from reading God’s Word. 

Jesus said, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). If we want to be fed in a healthy way, we’ve got to be absorbing the words of God. The more often we read, the more steadily we grow. Period.

That pretty much settles it, don’t you agree?

The Radio, Television, and Facebook: How Technology is Competing with Spiritual Formation

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, and I’ve love to hear your thoughts.

In 1917 the American Radio and Research Corporation began radio broadcasting and within a few years Americans were bent over little boxes almost every night of the week. Television came in the 1940’s, and within a decade our habits shifted from listening to speakers to watching screens for hours on end. Then Al Gore invented the internet, and soon AOL, then MySpace, then Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest began competing for our evenings.

A little more than a hundred years ago, the American frontier family huddled around candles at the kitchen table after dark. While mom and grandma sewed and mended, kids played quietly and dad read Scripture – out loud – for an hour or more each evening.

Romans 12:2 says, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” For the later part of the 19^th century, the truths of Scripture seeped into American minds, reminding us of virtues like integrity, the importance of personal responsibility, the nobility of labor, and a thousand other healthy concepts.

In the mid-1800s, American church attendance and spirituality were at an all-time low. Not surprisingly, our economy was in the doldrums as well. In 1857, desperation led Jeremiah Lanphier and a few business friends to found a noontime prayer meeting in New York City. The practice spread throughout the city, then throughout the country. That’s when Bible-reading began to take hold of us as a nation.

For the next 50 years or so, Americans absorbed Scripture, renewing their minds and transforming their behavior. By the end of World War I, we had become the most prosperous and powerful nation on earth. Reading, studying, and hearing the Bible preached is fundamental to personal transformation.

The revivals of Wesley and Whitfield drove Englishmen to the Bible. Within a few generations, they were the most prosperous nation on earth. The revivals of 1857 and 1858 drove Americans to the Bible, and within a few generations we became the most prosperous nation on earth.

Today, everyone is busy. Doing what? I don’t know for sure, but I suspect it’s watching television, surfing the web, and posting on Facebook. Where once we were a nation of Bible-readers, we’ve become a nation of technology-consumers.

With the upcoming elections, everyone has an opinion on which candidate can help us more. I believe what will really help us is a Bible-reading revolution! What would happen to our country if we all began reading the Bible for a half hour a day? What would happen to you if you began letting Scripture, instead of Facebook, reshape your perspectives? What would happen to your family, if they thought more about God's thoughts and less about The Kardashians? What would happen to your neighborhood if people reset their standards by the Golden Rule instead of the rule of media?

Thomas Jefferson once said, ...the studious perusal of the sacred volume will make better homes, better citizens, better fathers and better husbands.

What do you think?

Attendance will be down the week after Easter, and 4 things to do about it.

For those of us who lead local churches, Easter is our Super Bowl. More people attend. More people come to Christ. There’s excitement. There’s hope. And there’s a letdown. Because no matter how high your Easter attendance, the week after Easter will be one of your lowest attended Sundays of the year.

Why? Because everyone attends on Easter. – All of your Chreasters, all your once-in-a-whilers, once-a-month-ers, and twice-a-month-ers. Having done their religious duty, they’re going to take the next week off.

What can you do about this?

1. Understand that this is the law of unintended consequences at work. The consequence of getting everyone to church on the same weekend means that not everyone will show up the following weekend. Don’t fret. They haven’t left you. They’re just following their normal pattern.

2. Connect with newcomers. Some of your Easter visitors will return – if you give them a reason to. Reason one would be that they develop a relationship with you or someone from your church.

For that to happen, you need to get their name and contact information. We ask everyone to sign a Connection Card, and we give them incentive by offering them a free gift. We say, “For those of you who are brand new with us, if you’ll take your Connection Card to our Information Counter, we have a free book there for you as our way of saying ‘Thank you for coming and welcome to our family.'"

I email all first-time guests the next day, asking how I can pray for them. A volunteer calls to invite them to a free lunch with our staff the following Sunday. And I send a hand-written note telling them about next week’s sermon and why they’ll want to attend.

3. Invite them to something. We know that it takes a few weeks to build a new habit. So we schedule some events for the weeks following Easter that might appeal to non-church-goers. We schedule a newcomers lunch the week after Easter. We’re hosting a special guest (Bethany Hamilton) two weeks after Easter. And we’re holding our quarterly “Family Experience” (a kid-centered Friday night program) three weeks after Easter. Our guests will get invited to all of them.

4. Pray. Pray for your guests by name. Pray for your city with passion. Refuse to surrender to discouragement or the patterns of this world. As you’re praying, listen to God’s Spirit. He wants to direct you. He wants to show you the next steps for your church.

John Knox prayed, “Lord, give me Scotland or I die!” I pray, “Lord, give me Oceanside and Bonsal!” with similar fervor. My job is to cooperate with God’s Spirit as authentically and strategically as I can. I can’t personally change a single human heart, but God can use all the good of Easter for lasting good in
your life, your church and your city!

Leading Chreasters To Christ

I ate dinner the other night with a couple who first came to church at Christmas. After hearing their story, the wife looked at me sheepishly and said, “We were Chreasters.”

“For years we’ve attend church on Christmas and Easter,” she continued. “Then, on Christmas Eve, you said we should start attending every week, so we are.”

I couldn’t help but smile. This is what we pray for twice a year!

The Chreaster Mindset

Chreasters are easy to reach and hard to keep. The easy part is getting them to one of your holiday services. They’re actually out there looking for a place to attend on those days. The difficult part is getting them to return on a regular Sunday. How do you persuade someone to come back to church who has no intention of doing so?

You don’t. But God can. I’ve found that if you line up grace, truth, and prayer, God can work miracles at Christmas and Easter.

1. Concentrated Prayer

At New Song, we spend two weeks in 24/7 prayer for our Christmas and Easter guests. We set up stations in our Prayer Room and ask members to fill one hour prayer five minutes at a time for the names of lost people submitted by other members, for the city, and for the other churches in town. We pray that people will be drawn to the churches of our city on Easter, but our bigger prayer is that they’ll be drawn back in the weeks following.

2. A Confident Invitation to Receive Christ

My message on Christmas Eve and Easter is always pointed towards an invitation to receive Christ. If you’re not going to present the gospel on the two days when your greatest number of lost people are in church, what’s the point in being a church?

This Christmas I went old school. Instead of asking people to respond to the Lord by raising their hands, I went a step further. While hands were up, I asked each one, “Are you serious about this?” After they each nodded in agreement, I said, “Then I’m going to invite you to come up here so I can pray with you.” What could they do? They had to come forward. Before praying with them, I got their names. After praying with them, I introduced them to someone who would take them through their first steps of faith.

3. An Immediate Follow-Up

The person I introduced them to was holding a packet. It contained a copy of the New Testament, a Spiritual Birth Certificate, and the first lesson in a follow-up course called, “Foundations.” Before returning to their seats, follow up was begun.

4. A Free Book

At the end of the service, I asked everyone to stand for the Benediction. Before praying I said, “I know some of you couldn’t pray that prayer with me a few minutes ago because you still have a lot of questions you need answered. I have a book here called, The God Questions, which I’ll gladly give you if you’ll read it. I’ll be up here in front after the service if you’d like a copy.” Then I prayed, grabbed a stack of books, and waited, pen in hand.

I asked each person in my line, “So you have questions about God?”

They always say, “I do.”

After finding out their name, I handed them the book and said, “I hope we’ll see you back here next week.”

5. A Volunteer Phone Call

Those who came forward to receive Christ that night began one-on-one discipleship within a few days. But what about the Chreasters who didn’t register a decision with us? We asked them all to fill out a Commitment Card and place it in the offering. Those who did were called by a volunteer the next day. We have found that Chreaster contacts grow cold quickly, so we make a huge effort to call within 24 hours. The call never lasts more than five minute. (In fact, surveys show that the longer the call lasts, the less likely your visitor is to return.) Our callers thank the guest for attending and invite them our next “R.U. New Café,” where they can meet the staff and learn more about the church.

6. A Personal Email

Also within 24 hours, I send a brief email to each guest, telling them how great it was to have them visit and asking how we can pray for them. I time my email for mid-morning. I don’t want it to get lost in the beginning of the day load of emails everyone gets first thing in the morning. I’m hoping they check their email at break time and find my note there.

7. A Personal Note

Within 48 hours, I also send all guests a handwritten note, with a coupon in it. The coupon is for a free copy of a movie we made a few years ago. In 2010, New Song partnered with Sony Pictures to produce, “To Save A Life.” The coupon is a pleasant surprise, and since they have to stop by our bookstore to pick up their copy, it’s an additional incentive to return soon.

8. A Reason to Return

Every year we try to offer a reason for the unchurched to return. One year it was to hear a comedian the following Friday night. Another year it was to be part of a family series. The year we released our movie, we held a movie showing. This year, we’re hosting a high profile guest (Bethany Hamilton) two weeks after Easter.

I know from Jesus’ attempts that not even he reached everyone he spoke to. But God is not willing that any should perish, and neither am I. So right now I’m mobilizing every resource at my disposal to attract and connect Chreasters to my church. And the day after Easter, I’ll write my knuckles white with notes inviting them to return.

What are you doing to lead Chreasters to Christ? I’d love to hear about it.

Would you like a deeper heart for your community? Hal has developed a free course called, "Momentum Bootcamp," designed to infect you with love your the lost and tools to reach them. You can sign up for it at www.pastormentor.com.

Hal’s newest book The Bible Questions comes out this September. He’s praying it will launch a Bible reading revolution among seekers and believers alike, and is hoping you and your church will join New Song for this six-week Church-Wide Campaign. Go to http://www.amazon.com/The-Bible-Questions-Shedding-Important/dp/0830856129/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332286835&sr=1-2 to pre-order, or visit www.pastormentor.com in July for quantity discounts and Campaign materials.

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 [email protected] for further information.