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.

 

Three Reasons Why Faithfulness is More Important than Success

As a teenager, my pastor introduced me to 1 Cor. 4:2 – Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. According to Paul, faithfulness isn’t n option for God’s people, it’s a requirement.

On the other hand, while there’s never a command for us to be successful, Jesus does xpect us to produce results. He doesn’t say, Go and TRY to make disciples. He says, Go and MAKE disciples.”

But faithfulness is more important than any results we might experience, for three reasons:

1. Without faithfulness, I wouldn’t be in the game.

I don’t know any pastor who hasn’t thought about quitting at least every few months. One of the things that keeps me in the game is Ps. 37:4 Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness (NASB).

Pastor, when you quit, you eliminate the possibility of success.

2. Without faithfulness, I wouldn’t be qualified for the game.

I know two pastors who have been unfaithful to the point of having a child out of wedlock. One has tried to continue in ministry. The fruit of his ministry has vastly diminished since his marital unfaithfulness. The other one is currently out of ministry and at odds with the church he once pastored.

3. The Master praises the successful servant for his faithfulness.

In the Parable of the Talents (Mt. 25), two out of three of the servants are incredibly successful. They double their master’s holdings. The Master’s response is not, “Well done good and successful servant,” but “well done good and faithful servant.” Apparently, in Jesus’ mind, our success is determined by our faithfulness.

Maybe Jesus applauds faithfulness because faithfulness leads to success?

Many pastors want to quit almost every Monday. Even “successful” ones. Spurgeon fought depression every Monday.

Lots of pastors want to quit post-Easter. After all, the big day is behind us. So, what’s here to look forward to now?

Something like 85% of pastors quit (or at least want to) after completing a building program. Same reason: what’s there to look forward to now?

Pastor, there is so much to look forward to. Long term, there’s the “well done” words of the Master. Short term, most of what you get to do is a privilege beyond description. You get to handle the Word of God, shepherd the people of God, serve the living God, experience the anointing of the Holy Spirit of God.

Don’t give up!

If you remain faithful, God can achieve success through you. God is an expert at taking little and making much out of it. He took the little boy’s five loaves and two fish and fed the masses with it. He took Gideon’s 300 and defeated the hordes with it. He took David’s stone and dropped a nine foot tall giant with it.

Stay in the game. Don’t disqualify yourself through sin or rude behavior. The Master you serve loves your faithfulness and will reward you for it both here and in the life to come! (Mt. 19:29)

Recovering From the Post-Easter Blues

Every pastor I know gets a little depressed (or a lot depressed) on the days following Easter. It’s natural. Easter is our Super Bowl. We pour our lives into preaching, touching and responding to people, surviving the week on less sleep and more adrenaline than we should. Easter comes and attendance peaks. Then it falls again. Hopefully not to its old level, but we were secretly hoping that ALL our guests would return. When they don’t, well, we’re human, and we get disappointed.

How do you resurrect yourself up from the Post-Easter Blues?

There are a number of ways you might try. Here’s one I don’t suggest: Take a Vacation

Some pastors plan a vacation for the week after Easter. Why not? We’ve worked hard, we’ve earned it. – And if we’re out of town, we won’t have to see the inevitable empty seats the following Sunday.

The problem with is, all our volunteers are exhausted too. If they follow our example, no one will be around the following weekend, and whatever inertia was generated by a great Easter experience will lost by the abdication of the leader at the critical moment.

The Critical Moment for Leadership

The most critical time for leadership isn’t on the mountaintop, it’s in the valley. A leader’s finest moments come when the troops are down, not up. Picture Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings when the hordes of Mordor are surrounding his men. He shouts, “Someday the strength of men may fail, but it is not this day!” Or Coach Boone in Remember the Titans, when the boys are being ripped apart by racial tension. He leads them on a pre-dawn run through Gettysburg. Great leaders rise up when momentum is waning. For that reason, the Sunday after Easter may be the most important day of the year for the pastor to preach a great sermon.

A second approach to your post-Easter discouragement is to think rationally about what’s happened. (1) You are tired because you worked hard. This is how life works. And (2) attendance will be down because your once-a-year attenders all showed up for Easter. They won’t be back next weekend. Nor will your once-a-month, twice-a-month, or twice-a-year attenders. They haven’t left you; they’re just following their normal patterns.

Don’t allow others’ lukewarm attitudes to quench your fire for God. Instead, leverage the pain you feel to motivate a solution. Thinking rationally, what would it take to inspire those people to return the following Sunday?

Here are a few suggestions:

1. Get excited.

You’ve heard the adage, “The speed of the leader, the speed of the team.” If you are not excited about next weekend, nobody else will be either. But if you are over-the-top energized about what’s coming, your excitement will infect others. So, what type of sermon series would really excite you? Better, what type of series would excite you and the people you’re trying to get to return?

2. Launch a Great, Relevant Series

Almost everyone wants help with their family or marriage. Those two subjects are a universal draw. Another relevant topic is purpose. Rick Warren sold more books with this subject than any piece of literature short of the Bible. A matter that’s on everyone’s mind these days is The End Times. With turbulence in the Middle East and earthquakes in the Pacific Rim, everyone wants to know if we’re approaching the end of the world.

As you advertise the series, generate a sense of urgency by impressing on everyone how relevant/important/life-changing the next Sunday’s message will be. If this feels like manipulation to you, find a different topic or rewrite your opening message. The Bible contains the most relevant/important/life-changing material in all of history. Use it that way.

3. Offer an Incentive to Return

This year we decided to get creative about motivating our newcomers to return. Some might question this concept, but God motives us to get out of bed every day with the offer of sunlight and food and meaningful labor. Esther motivated Xerxes to return the following evening by offering a banquet.  Most of what we do in life is because of some sort of incentive.

For years New Song has offered a free lunch to newcomers on the Sunday following Easter. This year we’re letting them know that if they fill out their Connection Card, we’ll mail them a ticket which could win them an iPad if they’re present at the lunch. Will it bring them back? We’ll find out soon.

4. Create a Follow-Up Event

Two weeks after Easter we’re offering additional incentives to return. We’re holding a special Family Experience for parents and kids. We’re starting Dave Ramsay’s Financial Peace University. We’re launching a Date-Night Marriage Experience. And, we’ll be using my book Future History (http://www.pastormentor.com/html/future_history__book.html) for a study of the end times. You may already have similar events coming up that just need a little advertising. If not, I’m guessing you can generate one or two fairly quickly.

Solutions like these will diminish the post-Easter attendance slump, but let’s face it: no matter what the attendance, you’re still going to be tired. How do you fight the desire to curl up in a ball from sheer exhaustion?

To a certain extent, you don’t. The Sabbath was made for man, and unless you put your pants on differently than the rest of us, you will need to rest. I plan to get a little extra sleep after Easter, but from experience I know that sleep alone does not refresh my soul. So years ago I looked at the life of Elijah to find out how to cure physical and spiritual exhaustion. What I found has helped me ever since.

Three Ways to Speed Recovery from Easter

After climbing Mt. Carmel, Elijah prayed down fire from heaven, executed hundreds of false prophets, prayed again until rain fell, then outran a chariot before taking a forty-day walk. Even with the eleven services we’ll be doing this year, my spiritual and physical workload doesn’t come close to matching Elijah’s. If he could recover from his massive exertion, I can too.

What did Elijah do to recover? Well, first, he slept. That’s on my checklist. Then, three things happened to him that enabled him to continue in ministry.

Elijah had a thing about mountains. After expending energy on Mt. Carmel, he recovered energy on Mt. Horeb.

1. Expose Yourself to God’s Power

While Elijah is standing on the mountain, God sends a wind, an earthquake, and a firestorm to rouse him. The Prophet may have been drowsy, but those forces roused him quickly!

In what ways to you experience God’s power?

I get energized by listening to Christian leaders teach on vision and leadership. I’ve never done drugs, but for me, listening to Bill Hybels speak on leadership feels a lot like what I imagine to be a drug-induced high. Bill’s opening talks at the Leadership Summit remind me of why I’m on this planet and why I signed up to plant a church. So every year I buy the Summit DVDs.  Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel have a similar effect on me, so I buy the Catalyst DVDs too.

On Monday and Tuesday after Easter, I’ll watch a few of those messages. And my sense of purpose, hope and energy will elevate.

2. Expose Yourself to God’s Whisper

After his wind, earthquake and fire, Elijah experienced the still small voice of God. The Lord whispered to him, “What are you doing here Elijah?” which initiated an intimate conversation.

I have a chair I love to reflect in. After watching a leadership message, I’ll meet with God in that chair, where more often than not, the Lord brings me to a place of green pastures and restores my soul.

3. Expose Yourself to God’s New Directions

After the whisper, God gave Elijah a new assignment. For three years the Prophet had been focusing on one event: the defeat of Baal worship. Part of his depression came from having no more big event to look forward to.

Pastor, you’re a leader, and leaders need directives and directions on ministries to launch, people to pour into and new hills-to-take. Once the Easter challenge is behind you, listen to God for His next assignment – and don’t settle for something like taking up tennis, or joining a bird-watching society. Listen for how He wants you to build His Kingdom, and then gear up and got after it as He leads. For me, that means sitting in my chair with a journal in my hand, saying, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.”

These three steps (exposure to God’s power, God’s whisper, and God’s new direction) may look different for you than they do for me. But they restored Elijah to ministry and I believe they will help speed your recover too. We are in this contest for life, so let’s run with endurance the race marked out for us!

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 [email protected] 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.

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

How To Improve What You See

The human eye is a neutral instrument. Instant by instant it transmits unfiltered data to your brain. Where you focus determines what you see.

How you see is a completely different subject. How you see is determined not by where you look, but by who you are. Consider this parable:

Just before their plane landed, a traveler asked the man seated next to him, “What are the people like in this city?”

            “What are the people like where you came from?” the man responded.

            “They’re despicable,” the traveler replied. “Rude, unkind, willing to do anything to get

what they want.”

“I suspect that’s what you’ll find here as well,” said the man.

At the baggage carousel, a second traveler asked the same question. “What are the people like here?”

Again the man asked about the people from the traveler’s home town.

“They’re wonderful people. Kind, caring, willing to give you the shirt off their back.”

To which the man responded, “I’m sure you’ll find the same here.”

Who you are determines how you see.

On the positive side, your attitude can overcome anything negative around you. Conversely, your attitude can also sabotage anything positive around you.

If you want to change the world around you, start with the heart that beats inside you.

Ask God today to enable you to see the world the way He sees it.

³⁴Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness. ³⁵See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. ³⁶Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be completely lighted, as when the light of a lamp shines on you." Luke 11:34-36