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.

4 Reasons My Kids Turned Out So Well

This is the month of Father’s Day and weddings, so every June I get asked, “What did you do to cause your kids to turn out so well?”

At this writing, Bryan is 24 and Amy is 23. By God’s grace, both of them love the Lord more than I do. They’re committed to ministry, and purity, and integrity. They have great people skills. They’re leaders. And people love being around them. How did this happen? Here are my honest answers:

1. Only God knows.

They turned out. He gets the credit. I’m fortunate to be their father.

2. They made great choices.

The truth about child-raising is that every child has free will. Bryan and Amy get the credit for how they turned out. Both of them made great choices and practiced healthy habits. I got to enjoy watching!

3. They have an outstanding mother.

I remember the day we brought Bryan home from the hospital. I thought, “It’s weird that my wife is a mother.” Somehow a miraculous transformation had taken place. The woman I married became a mom.

And what a mom! Because we had had trouble getting pregnant, she never took either child for granted. They were never a burden, in the way, or a problem. To her (and me), they were two of God’s greatest gifts to us. Lori prayed faithfully, read books on child-rearing religiously, and practiced great parenting almost flawlessly. She gets the credit for how they turned out.

4. We did some things suggested, demanded, or hinted at in the Bible.

This is the part where I may have made a small contribution. 

a. We pointed them towards God.

Jesus said that the greatest thing we could do with our lives was to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Lori and I have tried to do that all of our adult lives. We’ve tried to make his priorities our priorities. We’ve tried to make our time his time. We’ve tried to make his cause our cause. We’ve tried to let his character shape our character. It’s a Matthew 6:33 thing: as we’ve sought first his kingdom and his righteous, he’s “added all these things” to us – including great children.

b. We read the Bible personally.

There are a lot of habits that enable you to become a better person: prayer, church attendance, fellowship in a small group, generous giving, exercise, etc. But nothing can substitute for the transforming effects of daily Bible reading (Josh. 1:8; Ps. 119:105; Heb. 4:12; Matt. 4:4; Ps. 19:7). By taking in portions of God’s Word each day, Lori and I have become better people. And the better we get, the better parents we become.

c. We talked at dinner about what God was doing in our lives and what we were learning from him.

There is no substitute for time spent talking around the dinner table. Since Lori and I were never much for having some sort of formal “family devotional” time, we made an intentional effort to ask each other, “What do you see God doing these days?” And “What are you learning about the Lord right now?” Those questions led to a lot of informal dinner-time discipleship.

d. We served at church together.

I once read a survey that said the number one measurable factor in whether your children will grow up to love God and the church is whether or not the members of your family serve together at church on a regular basis. Since we all have different spiritual gifts, the four of all ended up serving in different ministries around the church. But for us, going to church meant serving others and advancing Christ’s cause together.

In a lot of families, the dad sits in sanctuary (or at home) while the mom does the ministry. Kids pick up on this. They learn that ministry is for women, which translates to “God is for women.” Over time, this can created a jaded view in the minds of children. Not good. The family that serves together tends to grow in love with Jesus and his cause together. 

e. We sent them on cross-cultural missions trips.

We’ve been fortunate to be part of a church that is committed to fulfilling the Great Commission. Every spring break, our youth group has headed somewhere, not to build buildings, but to lead people to Christ. Our Youth Pastor trains his students to run a full-service Vacation Bible School. He equips every teen to know how to present the gospel. From these experiences, Bryan and Amy learned two things that are critical to the unselfish formation of character: (1) Looking around at impoverished people in Mexico (or Honduras, or Peru, or inner city L.A.), they realized they were incredibly blessed from a material standpoint. This built within them a grateful heart and a sense of responsibility to care for others. (2) By leading important parts of a Vacation Bible School, they learned that they could be dangerous contributors to the mission of God.

f. We enlisted godly mentors for them.

Somewhere between the ages of 11 and 14, every child begins to be cool and have parents who aren’t. That’s why it’s critical that they have a godly “bridge” person in their lives during adolescence. By God’s grace, a young woman named Brittany Doss adopted Amy as her mentee, and a young man named Michael Wright adopted Bryan. Both of them were able to say things and model behaviors for our kids that we never could. – It really does take a village to raise a great young person to adulthood!

Five Benefits of Having A Mentor

A few years ago I hired a mentor. It was kind of humbling. After all, I had spent the previous three years mentoring nine pastors myself. But I finally admitted it: I don’t know everything I wish I knew!

 

Hiring a mentor was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, both for my personal development and for the health of our church. I benefitted so much that my staff and Board encouraged me to hire a mentor every year. I hired this year’s mentor two weeks ago. We’ll start formally in August, but we’ve already talked by phone and he’s given me several nuggets that should help right away.

 

The Benefits of a Mentor:

Ø  A mentor can help you to see what you don’t currently see.

Without a mentor, I wouldn’t have known the difference between ministry expansion and ministry multiplication. I wouldn’t have known what to do to help our subministries break through the 69 barrier. I wouldn’t have read a half dozen books that have boosted my knowledge and enthusiasm. The list goes on.

 

Ø  A mentor can help you get to the next level.

New Song had plateaued over the previous few years. Within months we were back to growing 10-20% annually. On a personal level, my mentor challenged me to new and deeper habits. He held me accountable to work on the church more and in the church less.

 

Ø  A mentor can stimulate you to work more on your church and less just in it.

Ministry is so daily, it’s easy to get caught up in the trees and forget about managing the forest.

 

Ø  A mentor can help improve the health of your church.

All of us are good at a few things. Our strengths tend to be reflected in our churches. A senior pastor should major on the things he’s good at. But that doesn’t mean we can neglect the things we’re not-so-good-at. This is one of the greatest benefits of having a mentor: they can spot weaknesses and help us admit (1) we’re probably never going to be great at those areas of weakness and (2) help us figure out who in our church might love doing those things that need to get done for the church to be balanced and healthy.

 

Ø  A mentor can help you lead your church to growth.

I had a conversation with one of my mentees yesterday. Today he emailed me to report that he’s recruited two new Sunday School teachers, planned a Church-Wide Campaign for January, laid out a pre-campaign series to help his members gain a heart for the lost, and started a visitation program. Think growth will come from that?

 

Joshua had Moses. Elisha had Elijah. Timothy had Paul. Paul had Barnabas. Twelve guys had Jesus, and they changed the world. Pastor, who is the Lord calling you to mentor, and who is two to three steps ahead of you and can help you in your journey?

 

Learn about resources from Hal at www.pastormentor.com.

 

 

Introducing... The Introducer

During a job screening one day, the interviewer asked me a question that threw me off: “Growing up, what role did you play in your family or origin?”

 

I didn’t know what he meant. He read the wrinkled look on my face and gave me some help. “A family is a system,” he said. “Every member plays a role. Were you the achiever, the analyzer, the clown, the one everyone else looked after, or what?”

 

Churches, like families, are also systems. Members all have a role to play. Some are organizers, some are givers, others are encouragers, and still others play roles with children and youth. One role that’s seldom noticed, but essential for every healthy, growing church, is The Introducer.

 

The Introducer is the man or woman who introducers newcomers to their future friends. He or she is not necessarily everyone’s friend, but when you trace back how people found their friends, the line almost always leads through the Introducer. Great Introducers establish the church lobby as their home base. They instinctively seek out newcomers, find out their interests and stage in life, and then introduce them to people who are like them.

 

This role is crucial, and very hard to train for. In my experience, great Introducers are born, not made. The role is so important, you should pray that God sends you one if your church doesn’t already have one. And until that person comes, you need to throw a half dozen well-trained and well-intentioned greeters into the lobby to make sure that newcomers meet core members who are like them.

 

I watched an Introducer take her perch one day. Her name was Vicki. She and her husband visited the church I was then part of and decided the next weekend that this was going to be their home church. A week later she arrived early and staked out her spot in the lobby. That was 24 years ago. As far as I know, she’s still in that lobby to this day.

 

Ask members of that church, “Is Vicki your best friend?” and most of them will say “no.” Ask them “Who introduced you to your best friend?” and after giving it some thought, most will say, “Vicki!” (Bear in mind, this is not a small church. It was about 200 when I joined and 400 when I left, in 1985. Today, it’s over 3,000.) Most of its newcomers are still being introduced to their friends by lobby-loving Vicki.

 

Who is the Introducer in your church? If you don’t have one, I can almost guarantee your church is not growing. If you do have one (or more), thank God for him or her; and tell the rest of us about them in the comments below. – We can’t all be Introducers, but we can all increase our friendliness factors by learning from them.

Webmentoring

A few summers ago, I did a sermon series on the book of Titus. The whole thing was kind of by accident, but once I waded into it, I found myself teaching our congregation about mentoring. It’s a central theme in Titus.

 

That teaching sparked some things in me. I’ve now got four groups I mentor face to face: seminarians, local pastors, smaller church pastors in a retreat setting, and large church pastors (which is actually a mutual-mentoring thing I’ll be doing in January). Last week, in a conversation with my wife, another spark was lit, which is why I'm beginning this blog. I'll continue to blog occasionally on Amazon on things like books, resources, writing, etc., (http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/A1F5BTA0EIVMAI/ref=cm_blog_dp_artist_blog)  but the main chatter will be here on typepad. My hope is to stimulate dialogue that's helpful to  healthy, growing churches and healthy, growing Christian lives. I’m thinking of it as “webmentoring” and hope to receive as well as give.

 

In coming weeks, I hope to cover principles and phenomenon that have been the most helpful to me, like "Pastor/Parish Poker," "The Berry Bucket," "The Whitewaters of Chaos," and "Hill-taking." I'm hopeful others will join in with things they've seen that enhance church health as well. So here's a question: what is the most helpful thing your church is doing these days to build believers, bring people to Christ, or care for your community?