Think about it. What else can your church spend 3o minutes a day doing that will bring two new families to your church every month (or more)?  Two new families a month equals 24 new families in a year.

Think about the positive impact that would have [...]]]> This is so good just had to share.

Think about it. What else can your church spend 3o minutes a day doing that will bring two new families to your church every month (or more)?  Two new families a month equals 24 new families in a year.

Think about the positive impact that would have on your church in the areas of encouragement, financial resources, and volunteers. 

Social Media can do just that. Yet SO MANY churches have yet to begin using social media, or they are not using social media correctly and therefore not seeing measurable  results.

John Saddington over at ChurchMag has once again provided churches with a valuable resource, and this time it’s the Free Social Media Handbook For Churches. You can download it here.

Every Sunday streams of people enter your church already filled to overflowing with information. But not your information. The vision you cast last week is gone. Long gone.

Where did it go? Well it didn’t just just [...]]]> When it comes to casting vision to people in today’s distracted ever-connected world, vision does not just leak, it spills.

Every Sunday streams of people enter your church already filled to overflowing with information. But not your information. The vision you cast last week is gone. Long gone.

Where did it go? Well it didn’t just just leak out through the week. The vision you cast last week was intentionally knocked around and it spilled from the hearts of your people. Like so much of today’s communication, your vision got lost in the tangled web of information overload.

May I Have Your Attention. Please!

Think about it. During the last week your people have been engaged in connected conversation 24/7. They have been force-fed hundreds of short messages, messages produced by professionals who have spent millions learning how to cast the vision of their products. The counter vision they cast is designed to convince your people to buy what they are selling, temporal satisfaction in an eternal world.

It’s Not Personal – It’s Just Vision Casting

Church leaders tend to be a perky bunch and can get pretty defensive when it comes to talking about their vision, and rightly so. They are the stewards and defenders of the vision God has entrusted to them.  The problem is they are not usually the best at measuring how effective they are at casting vision. More often than not church leaders either think they are casting vision enough, too much, or they don’t feel that casting vision is necessary at all.

When it comes to casting vision I suggest:

• Do what works-here. Since most of us are in America and not in Rome, to reach our American target we have to learn to cast vision in a way that Americans can relate to. First, that means we have to learn to speak in the language of today. Next, we have to embrace the fact that America is filled with consumers. That’s our target. Thankfully, large corporations have learned about our target demographic and done the expensive R&D for us, and what they learned is that repetition creates action and builds followers.
• Take the test. Think you’re good? That you have cast enough vision? Hmmm. Okay then, I triple-dog-dare you to walk around your church before the service this Sunday and randomly ask people “What is the vision of our church?” If three different people instantly spew it out, you win a cookie and are in great shape!  But if they stumble over their words, or if you get three different answers, it’s time to back up, relearn, and release a new version of your vision casting machine.
• Again, again, and again. Vision casting in our distracted ever-connected world is not a quarterly thing, or even a monthly thing. It’s an every week thing. Remember, vision no longer leaks, it spills!
• Change it up. How you cast vision is just as important as when you cast vision.  There are a million ways to cast vision, and it should not just be limited to text or verbal communication on a Sunday morning. Every time people gather at your church, for any occasion, your leaders should already have a strategic vision casting plan in place.
• Keep score. Just as you track the church finances, measure how well your vision is being communicated. It’s that important.
• Move vision from the head to the heart (or it doesn’t count!) It’s not enough cast the line, you have to catch a fish! If you don’t move the vision from the head to the heart, it doesn’t count, nor will it help accomplish your mission.

The results of effective vision casting are out of this world and will make an eternal difference!

No longer is a handshake and a bulletin enough to connect with the first time church visitor.  To connect with [the heart of] today’s visitor, greeters must wear several different hats.

One of the reasons for the change comes from [...]]]> In today’s always connected-all about me American culture, the role of the church greeter is changing.

No longer is a handshake and a bulletin enough to connect with the first time church visitor.  To connect with [the heart of] today’s visitor, greeters must wear several different hats.

One of the reasons for the change comes from the influence of the Web. Over the last few years Americans have gotten used to being able to access detailed information on the Web as well as make personal comments about their experiences, and rate what kind of expereince they had.  Like no other time in the history of the American church, visitors keep score and are paying more attention to how they and their families are treated.

In order to respond to today’s visitors, church greeters should not only be trained to cover the entire church E2E (Entry-to-Exit), but should also be trained to function in the following areas:

• First Impression Specialist: Not only should the greeting team be the first ones to greet first time visitors, they also should be trained in how to greet. For example, does the greeter know how to identify a first time visitor, or what to say to them to make them feel the most welcome?
• Guest Services Specialist: Does the greeter know how to quickly help the first time visitor feel relaxed and at home? Are they aware of the most common questions that visitors have? Questions like “Where do my kids go?”, “Where are the restrooms?”, “How do I get involved?”, or “How do I join?” (some visitors will be so excited about finally finding “their” church home that they will want to join right away).
• Church Ambassador: Since greeters are ambassadors of your church, they not only should be able to state the church mission in one sentence (Why are we here?), but they also should be able to easily share with a visitor the vision of your church (Where are we going?).
• Last Impression Specialist: What is the last thing your first time visitor remembers about your church? Is it bumping into other people while trying to leave the service and pick up their kids? Or is it a friendly “Thank you for coming!” that was joyfully delivered by a greeter that has been trained to love and serve the people at your church?

It was 4:17 p.m. when the [...]]]> Forty two years ago, Neil Armstrong uttered the iconic words “The Eagle has landed.” While NASA controllers in Houston, and much of the planet, held its collective breath, Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set down the Eagle Lunar Module, becoming the first men to land on the moon.

It was 4:17 p.m. when the Eagle touched down on the moon -with only 25 seconds of fuel to spare.

Each day that we are alive, we are given another opportunity to land our Eagle. To do our work (that matters). To create (and ship) our art.

As long as we still have the fuel called life in the tank, we have yet another opportunity… to be involved in our grand mission.

What’s your mission? No, not “what’s your job?” What is your mission? Your grand life mission?

You have locked deep within what you and this world desperatley needs.

A song.

A book.

A table.

A shirt.

A joke.

A dish.

A procedure.

A ministry.

A unique code.

A something that is 100% you. 100% yours.

You own it. You are the steward. This 1-thing is “the mission” God has placed deep within your heart. Yes, it’s hard to pull it out. To make it real. Tangible. Living. Everything natural pulls it back in. Puts it up. Pushes it away.

Seek it, discover it, and then develop your purpose. That -is- your calling. That -is- your life.

Today, and every day. Take some time to prepare to land your Eagle.

History has proven that a country is only as strong as the strength of their moral convictions.

Here is what one of God’s stars [...]]]> After watching this years Golden Globes and enduring the carnality of several of our country’s brightest(?) stars, I was reminded of the sad moral path our country is headed.

image credit: armystrongstories.com

History has proven that a country is only as strong as the strength of their moral convictions.

Here is what one of God’s stars named Bill Bright once said about the need for renewed morality in our great land:

“… In a nutshell, we need a great spiritual revival in America. What is revival? It is not just scheduled annual meetings with a sign out in front of the church. Charles Finney, revered as the father of modern revival, called revival a “renewed conviction of sin and repentance, followed by an intense desire to live in obedience to God. It is giving up one’s will to God in deep humility.” For revival, the first requirement is for God’s people to “humble themselves.” In my opinion, there is no other Christian discipline but fasting with prayer that fully meets the conditions of this marvelous promise from God. By faith we humble ourselves, fast and pray for God’s intervention and answers, and by faith we receive. Faith with fasting and prayer move the hand of God. Another requirement of 2 Chronicles 7:14 is to “turn from their wicked ways.” To turn means to repent. God’s people must turn from, or repent of, living, thinking, speaking and acting like the world…”

The body of Christ as a whole is not of one voice on this matter and seems to be numb about what to do about the moral tsunami that is upon us.

One thing is for sure, change starts with(in) us, in our individual homes, on our knees, before our all-powerful God.

Strengthen us, fill us, for Your glory Lord.

In 2012 churches will either be managing disruption, or creating it. Just like Amazon and the Kahn Academy have disrupted retail and education, numerous outside influences are poised to disrupt the local church, and many [...]]]>

Source: thaitravelnews.net

Whether they know it or not, “disruption” IS the main topic and strategy for churches in 2012.

In 2012 churches will either be managing disruption, or creating it. Just like Amazon and the Kahn Academy have disrupted retail and education, numerous outside influences are poised to disrupt the local church, and many churches that have been healthy and growing in the past, will not survive the onslaught much longer.

THE COMING AGE OF CHURCH DISRUPTION

On of the strongest indicators of the coming age of disruption for the church is this telling statistic: 70% of the people in most communities “choose” not to attend church on Sunday.

With so many people in our communities needing to be reached, should the church embrace disruption, or resist it?

For the sake of the Gospel and all that we the Church hold true, we must embrace it.

Leaders of many established churches and denominations, as well as some mainstream church planting organizations are in for a rough ride in 2012.

Changing the questions we are asking as well as the sources that we go to for answers are both needed to stay relevant and survive in this coming Disruptive Age.

One reality in the church world is that 70% of the people living [...]]]> As a pastor and church leader I’ve always been sort of a rebel. I look at things not as they are, but as they could be. That’s not an easy path, particularly in the church world where along with the bad economy safe often is the understated status quo.

One reality in the church world is that 70% of the people living in most American communities now CHOOSE not to get up and go to a church service on Sunday.

I’m pretty sure if Batman heard that amazing statistic he would shout:  “Holy church frustration!!”

The experts say there are lots of reasons for this stat, but the one that I don’t ever hear is the one that I feel should be at the TOP of the list:

There is an ever-growing CHURCH COMMUNICATION GAP.

The 70% can no longer relate to how most churches in America communicate their message on Sunday.

• THEY watch videos (3 billion a day) – WE talk to them.

• THEY love variety – WE do pretty much the exact same thing every Sunday (greet/music/message/music/dismiss/repeat-repeat-repeat-repeat).

• THEY live to be entertained – WE package the most important message on earth in a mostly verbal communicated by one person sermon.

• THEY learn from ‘multi’media through the week – WE teach them with lectures and a quick splash of multimedia.

• THEY want choices – WE remain the same.

• THEY want God to be relevant to THEIR world – WE want them to be relevant to ours.

So what’s it going to take to reach the 70%?

Change-change-change.

Here’s what made this sermon art:

That’s important because as the CHURCH COMMUNICATION GAP between the church and those [...]]]> Like medicine God intended [church] COMMUNICATION to be evolutionary. If we are not communicating in church differently now than we did 20, 10, 5, or even 2 years ago, then we are lagging behind the way our culture communicates.

That’s important because as the CHURCH COMMUNICATION GAP between the church and those we are trying to reach grows, the 70% becomes less willing to visit our churches and listen to our message.

And that’s why we are creating a like no other church event called StudioChurchLIVE that will not only reach new people for Christ, but we will share what we learn and be a communication learning lab for churches.

Top 5 Reasons To Use MORE Video In Your Church Services: