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The Top 100

2008-10-06T07:00:00-04:00

I just got done creating a bookmark folder with the website of the 100 largest churches in America and the 100 fastest growing churches in America according to Outreach magazine.

I think this is an important exercise for any Pastor because I believe these are churches we should learn from.

I'm guessing that all pro golfers lear from Tiger and all basketball players learn from Koby. We should learn from those who are getting it done.

Here's a couple of observations I had:

- This is the most diverse group of churches I've ever seen. Every church listed is an different as the next church on the list.

- Each Pastor on this list isn't trying to be someone else. They all seems thought they're comfortable being themselves.

- They have a heart to reach people. Every Pastor whose name I knew on that list has a heart for evangelism. I believe this is one of the distinctives of this group.

- They're all over the US. Almost every state in America is represented. That means, there's no whining about how heard your area is. Figure out how to reach people and do it!

Sunday Stuff...

2008-10-05T20:29:07-04:00

- Today was incredible!
- I thought we'd see a dip in attendance from last week... we didn't!
- The band did an amazing job.
- The band did 4 song clips during the message to describe the 4 Greek words for love. When I was talking about "eros" love and Mark and the band played "Let's get it on" by Marvin Gaye, the place went nuts. It was hilarious!
- Our set up/ tear down crew are the most amazing group of people on planet earth.
- I felt great today teaching the services. 2 services with 30 minutes between teachings is a breeze.
- Lots of first time guests today. That's a sign of church health.
- Our series, "New Testament Challenge" has been awesome. People are really responding to the challenges we're laying out. Almost our entire church is committed to reading through the New Testament in 63 days. I'm doing it too. It's really pushing me.
- 30 dozen Krispy Kreme donuts! Plus, cookies, Starbucks coffee and other goodies. Man, this church can eat! I guess every church takes on characteristics of its' Pastor :)
- I'm so happy meeting at the High School. It's taken our services to a new level.
- I talked to a bunch of people today and all of them were signed up for a small group. That's good news!
- I uploaded some pictures from our first Sunday. You can view them here.
- This week was a crazy week, but I'm looking forward to a full week in the office. Plenty to do and get ready for.
- I love being the Pastor of this church. I am blown away by how much God has blessed me!
- I'm hoping the Red Sox wrap it up tonight. Sweeping the Angels 3 times in a row would be awesome.
- I'm hoping for a Dodgers vs. Red Sox World Series where the Red Sox can exact their revenge on Manny Ramirez :)
- Have a great week!

Hanging in Atlanta

2008-10-02T07:00:00-04:00

I've had a great time during my brief Atlanta trip. I've been able to hang with my good friend Jason which has been a lot of fun. Jason was the best man at my wedding and I was his best man, so it's been great to hang out.

I got here Monday evening and recorded a podcast for Catalyst with Nelson Searcy on the subject of church planting. I'll let you know when it airs.

Tuesday Nelson and I taught a Launch Conference for church planters. It was great connecting with a bunch of guys who are going to be planting churches in the near future.

Wednesday and Thursday Jason and I are at a writer's conference which has been blowing my mind. I haven't been able to type fast enough!

I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed on Thursday night and seeing my girls!

Sunday is going to be great at Calvary Fellowship. Can't wait for it to get here!

A Couple of Book Reviews

2008-10-01T07:00:00-04:00

Here's a review of a couple of books I enjoyed reading recently:

- Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven ways to be Persuasive - This was a fascinating book. I really enjoyed reading it. Some of the book is just interesting quirks about human behavior, but another 1/2 of the book is great insight about how to be persuasive. I don't know about you, but I'd like to be a more persuasive person. What I also loved about this book is that it was 50 short (4-5 pages) chapters. All books should be written like this.

- The Ultimate Sales Letter - This book by Dan Kennedy was really helpful to me in writing good copy for series descriptions, churchwide emails, and other promotion that we do as a church. If you write an email to your church every week, a newsletter, or do direct mail or some other promotion that involves words, I'd pick this book up. Plus, it's a quick read.

- The Encore Effect - I like Mark Sanborn. I heard him speak at Catalyst in 2004 and have enjoyed his books. The encore effect is about how to become so good at what you do that people are asking for more. Since he's a professional speaker, he talks a lot about speaking in his illustrations, which was really helpful to me as a Pastor. It's not a long book, so you should be able to put it away in an hour of so.

Church Planting Pitfalls

2008-09-30T07:00:00-04:00

Last month, Nelson Searcy and I recorded a resource for Church Planters entitled, "Church Planting Pitfalls". It's being released this week! In this resource, we talk about the 10 most common pitfalls (plus a few bonus ones) that church planters fall into. You can order the CD version here or you can get the MP3 version here. Either way, I think this is going to be a really helpful resource for church planters and Pastors in general because we can fall into these pitfalls at any time in our ministries.

Sunday Stuff... (Monday Edition)

2008-09-29T06:02:54-04:00

- Today was totally insane!
- It was our first service at Barbara Goleman High School and it was amazing!
- Both services went great. Tons of new equipment to figure out, but it was smooth.
- First, thanks to Jesus for allowing us to serve Him in ministry. What an honor it is to preach the Gospel!
- Second, thanks to all of our volunteers who got to the school at 5AM to make the services happen.
- Third, our staff hasn't slept in 2 weeks as they've been working hard to make this service a reality. Guys, thank you so much for all your hard work!
- Fourth, we were at the theatre for 6 years and our church didn't skip a beat. I was a little worried we might get nostalgic about the theatre. The only thing we heard all day was how much better the school was over the theatre!
- The band was amazing! They were as tight as ever.
- The new screens were awesome.
- The intelligent lighting added great mood to the auditorium.
- It went back to teaching from a pulpit (that's the old school in me). I retired the old "Andy Stanley" table and chair. This look just fits better with what we're doing. (pictures are forthcoming)
- We kicked off a new series called "The New Testament Challenge". I believe this is going to be an intense time of spiritual growth in our church.
- We completely underestimated our church's ability to eat donuts. Apparently, 20 dozen Krispy Kremes were nowhere near adequate. They were gone by the end of the 1st service!
- We transitioned from a full service cafe to free Starbuck's coffee. It was over great!
- I got a lot of great feedback about the message. I was happy about that.
- We started piping a live feed from the service into a room we're calling the "Parent/ child room". This is where parents who aren't ready to leave their kids in the children's ministry or nursing moms can watch the service. It was over very well. Several families sat in there during both services.
- Even though things went great, our staff has a laundry list as long as my arm of things we need to tighten up, tweak, or outright change before next week.
- I'l be in Atlanta on Tuesday teaching a Launch Conference to a bunch of church planters. I'm looking forward to that. If you want to attend, there's still time. Click this link and we'll see you there!
- Lastly, we have a new church website that we're going to be rolling out this week. It looks amazing. I think you're going to love it!

Launch Conference!

2008-09-25T07:00:00-04:00

Just an FYI to those thinking of coming to the Launch Conference in Atlanta on September 30th from 9AM-4PM. The price for the conference goes up on Sunday, so register today if you want to get the get the discounted rate. The link is here.

This is going to be a great conference that has already helped 1,000's of Pastors. A church planter should get every bit of info he can before he launches. If you don't, you'll be kicking yourself later.

BTW - I've gotten lots of responses for church planting tele-coaching network that we're forming. If you're interested, email me at bob (at) calvarywired.com to get put on the priority list. I'll be sending the info out in the next week or so.

The 100

2008-09-24T07:00:00-04:00

September 22nd marked the beginning of the final 100 days of 2008. Carey and I have been talking about our goals for 2008 and what we can do in these last 100 days to reach them.

Here's some questions to ask:

- What are the 3 most important things I've wanted to accomplish in 2008?

- How close am I to accomplishing those goals?

- What could I do right now to accomplish those goals?

- How many of my goals could I realistically reach by the end of 2008?

- Who could I ask to help me reach a goal I have?

Many times we don't reach our goals because we don't review them regularly. Why not take a moment to review what you wrote down at the beginning of 2008 and be proactive about finishing strong in 2008?

A few Book Reviews

2008-09-23T07:55:41-04:00

Here's a few book reviews of books I've read in the last week or two:

101 Survival Tips for Your Business - I loved this book. I love books that have short, to the point chapters and no fluff. This was one of them. This is a must read for church planters. This book is filled with practical wisdom and insight into surviving and thriving in ministry.

The Ultimate Marketing Plan - I sometimes get on a kick with authors and read everything they've written. I've done that recently with Dan Kennedy. While I don't recommend everything he writes, he has some great stuff. This book was really helpful to me. It caused me to really think through what our plan was for getting the word out about our church and improving it. This guy is a marketing genius and while everything won't apply to the local church, there's plenty to make this a worthwhile read.

Coaching Questions - Because I do coaching, I picked this book on the recommendation of a friend and it was a good read. I was amazed at how much great content the author fit into a 100 page book. But I found it helpful in leading staff, meeting with people, and leading myself.

Sunday Stuff... (Monday Edition)

2008-09-22T10:14:41-04:00

- Awesome and crazy Sunday!
- After 6 years, Sunday was our last Sunday at the theatre. People asked me if I felt nostalgic or sad. I didn't until I saw the whole place empty and the theatre looked like the first day I saw it.
- I remembered seeing 450 seats and thinking, "Will we ever fill this place up?" The fact that we were doing 3 services in the theatre reminded me of God's faithfulness and power.
- I also reminded me that God wants our churches to succeed more than we do.
- Have said that, I am totally excited about move to Barbara Goleman High School this Sunday. You can't beat an 1,000 seat auditorium.
- I love that we're moving to 2 services: 10:00AM and 11:30AM.
- Lots of stuff going on last week and this week. The office has been crazy.
- I've been getting up at 3AM-4AM everyday because I have so much to do.
- I'm excited about having Monday off. Work all you want for 6 days, but don't forget to take the Sabbath. I'm convinced a day off will make your 6 days more productive.
- Hector led worship again on Sunday and it was fantastic. He's developing into a solid worship leader. It's a tribute to Mark's leadership that we have 3 worship leaders who can lead at any time.
- Mark and I co-taught the message on Sunday. This was a first at our church. We talked about "Next Steps" in our walk with God. It was fun.
- The great part of co-teaching with 3 services is that your voice isn't trashed by the end of the 3rd service.
- After church, about 50 guys grabbed all of our stuff and moved it into the 2 trailers we got.
- These guys killed about 20 pizzas that we bought for them for helping out. That's a lot of pizza!
- Man, do we have a lot of stuff! I was amazed by how much stuff we use :)
- That doesn't include all the stuff we're getting for services at the school!
- Can't wait for this Sunday! I think people are going to be blown away when they walk in.
- Can't wait for the Launch conference Nelson Searcy and I are teaching next Tuesday (9/30) in Atlanta! It's going to be awesome! You can register here.
- Looking forward to hanging out with my good friend Jason as well. We're going to a private training event in Atlanta on Wednesday and Thursday that we're looking forward to.