Thom S. Rainer's Blog, page 206

Five Reasons You Should Use Goal Setting for Evangelism

“It’s human-centered, not God-centered.”

“It’s another attempt to transfer a secular methodology to the church.”

“It’s not dependent upon God and prayer.”

Those are three of the most common objections I’ve heard to goal setting in the church, particularly for evangelism.

I get it. You can indeed make goal setting a human-centered endeavor. But the reality is that most any effort in the church can become prayerless and not dependent on the Holy Spirit.

But I want to suggest that goal setting for evangelism can truly be used for God’s glory and Great Commission obedience. To be clear, I advocate lead metrics for goal setting more than lag metrics. We commonly set goals for conversions, baptisms, professions of faith, salvation decisions, or similar nomenclature. Those are lag metrics. I suggest, however, your church use lead metrics along with lag metrics.

Lead metrics are acts of obedience that, in God’s power, result in the lag metrics noted above. They include goals for sharing the gospel; writing letters or emails to non-Christians and unchurched persons; meals or coffee with people without Christ or a church home, or flyers about the church left at homes. Those are but a few examples of evangelistic efforts or pre-evangelistic efforts.

I argue that churches that set lead metric goals for evangelism will actually see greater evangelistic fruit. Here are five reasons why:

Goal setting makes us intentional about the Great Commission. Our natural inclination is to be inwardly-focused. But if we are regularly focused on reaching outwardly through goals, we are more inclined to do so.
Goal setting is a statement about church and individual priorities. Do you think it helps your marriage to have a goal to have one date night a week? For certain. That is a statement of the importance of your marriage relationship. Likewise, goal setting for evangelism is a statement that the church is serious about the Great Commission.
Goal setting is working in many churches. Yes, there is a pragmatic reality here. I know of a church of 130 in attendance that had been plateaued for five years. That church set a faith goal of “1,000 in One Year.” The 1,000 goal noted was the church’s way of using lead metrics. They counted gospel presentations, visits with unchurched persons, and the delivery of hanging invitation brochures (an invitation to the church that can be hung on the door handle or knob or a home) in the 1,000 total. At the end of the year, they had exceeded the goal of 1,000 with 1,700 contacts! The church attendance increased by nearly 50 percent to 190, and the church saw 24 people become believers in Christ through the efforts, the highest number in two decades!
Goal setting is a constant reminder to the church members to be outwardly focused. The church noted above kept a running total of the evangelism contacts before the church and reported every week the growing number. It was a clear statement the church and the members were to be outwardly focused.
Goal setting leads to church unity. The greatest reason for church conflict is members who have an inward focus. They think church membership is all about getting their own way. When they don’t get their way, they become frustrated and even combative. Evangelism goal setting keeps the focus on the “other” instead of “me.”

Goal setting, when used in a gospel-centric effort, can truly be an evangelistic instrument for the church. What lead metrics can your church use to engender this Great Commission focus? How would you engender accountability? Let me hear from you.

Pray for Christ Chapel

Location: Centerville, Massachusetts

Pastor: Reverend Dr. Michael Malanga

Weekly Worship: 10:00 AM, Eastern

Fast Facts: Christ Chapel was established on Cape Cod as an interdenominational fellowship in 1980. It is theologically evangelical and orthodox. They seek to glorify God upwardly in worship and prayer, inwardly through biblical instruction and fellowship and outwardly through evangelism, missions and community involvement. Please pray for their upcoming congregational meeting in February. They are embarking on rebuilding their outreach to the surrounding community and would appreciate prayer for the Lord’s help in reaching the community with the gospel. Also pray for continued improvement with respect to the communication, collaboration, and coordination of the various ministries of the church.

Website: www.christchapelcapecod.org

“Pray for . . .” is the Sunday blog series at ThomRainer.com. We encourage you to pray for these churches noted every Sunday. Please feel free to comment that you are praying as well.

If you would like to have your church featured in the “Pray for…” series, fill out this information form..

Notable Voices and the Week in Review: January 28, 2017

Earlier this week at ThomRainer.com:

Seven Steps to Take If the Cartel and Bullies Run You Out of the Church
Why Smaller Churches Are Going Multisite – Rainer on Leadership #296
Six Current Trends in Land Purchases by Churches
Young Influencer List: January 2017
Seven Questions to Ask When You’re Not Hired Near Unanimously – Rainer on Leadership #297

 

3 Ways Some Churches Grow Without Getting Bigger — Karl Vaters

Sure, there are healthy churches that are growing numerically, and a lot of unhealthy ones that aren’t. But there are a lot of healthy, outward-reaching churches that don’t see the kind of butts-in-the-seats growth they’ve been told is inevitable. So if all healthy things grow, how is growth happening in churches that aren’t seeing the expected increase in attendance? Here are three ways I’ve seen:

 

10 Ridiculously Simple Steps for Writing a Book — Jeff Goins

The hard part of writing a book isn’t getting published. With more opportunities than ever to become an author, the most difficult part of writing now isn’t publishing your work. It’s writing it in the first place.

 

How to Follow a Long-Tenured Pastor — Hershael York

Following a pastor who has run well and gone the distance is only a problem for those who lack the character or the stamina to do the same. Taking the baton of leadership from someone who has served the church for twenty years or more is certainly not without daunting challenges and discouraging obstacles, but the advantages of stability—even when “stability” has morphed into apparent intransigence—are usually preferable to following a rapid succession of pastors who did not stay long enough to lead the people in any meaningful sense of the word.

 

6 Areas Where Ministry and the Generations Collide — Chris Hefner

Generational ministry is important. Embracing the generations in your church may create opportunities for spiritual growth.

 

Four Signs Ministry Has Become All About You — J.D. Greear

Sadly, most of us can all too easily recount stories of pastors who betrayed their congregations, who hurt the very people God had called them to love, who—in short—made their ministry all about them. Some of these pastors may have had their own inflated sense of grandeur from day one. But more often than not, these are the same guys who entered the ministry legitimately wanting to serve others, not angling to build an empire. And yet somewhere along the way, they got a taste for glory. And instead of being the shepherds of God’s people, teaching them to have faith in God, they become stumbling blocks, impediments keeping people from considering God at all.

 

3 Reasons Some Churches Struggle to Empower Young Leaders — Eric Geiger

Seven Questions to Ask When You’re Not Hired Near Unanimously – Rainer on Leadership #297

Podcast Episode #297

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Unanimous votes are rare when pastors are hired. But what if the vote isn’t even close to unanimous? Well, on today’s podcast we discuss a recent post on how to respond when that happens.

Some highlights from today’s episode include:

Cases can be made both for and against secret ballot votes to call pastors and staff.
A pastoral candidate’s age difference from the congregation average can lead to a less positive vote.
It can be difficult for a new pastor to follow a long-term pastor.
“If you’re a well-loved, long-term pastor, work on succession planning.”
Lack of familiarity with a staff position can cause a vote to be lower than normal.
Sometimes, low votes to bring on a staff member is more about a faction in the church than the candidate.

The seven questions to ask are:

Was the vote secret ballot or open vote?
What is the history of the church in voting to call pastors and staff?
Are you replacing a well-loved pastor or staff member?
Is the position new to many people?
How long has the position been vacant?
Are there factions and conflict in the church?
Were there internal candidates who did not get the position?

Episode Sponsors

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Vanderbloemen Search Group is the premier pastor search firm dedicated to helping churches and ministries build great teams. They’ve helped hundreds of churches just like yours find their church staff and are uniquely geared to help you discern who God is calling to lead your church.

Find out more about Vanderbloemen Search Group by visiting WeStaffTheChurch.com.

Feedback

If you have a question you would like answered on the show, fill out the form on the podcast page here at ThomRainer.com. If we use your question, you’ll receive a free copy of Who Moved My Pulpit?

Resources Mentioned in Today’s Podcast

Next by William Vanderbloemen
2017 Pipeline Conference
Autopsy of a Deceased Church
Should a Staff Person Fill the Pulpit When There Is No Pastor?

Young Influencer List: January 2017

By Jonathan Howe

As always, the goal with this list is not to inflate the egos of those named, but to make you, the readers of ThomRainer.com, aware of the dozens and dozens of Christian leaders who are advancing the gospel in their respective spheres of influence. And while some pundits may sit back and claim Christianity is declining or dying, these leaders are clearly making a statement that it will not happen on their watch. They are passionate about Christ Jesus, His gospel, and taking it to the ends of the earth. The qualifications are quite simple: under 40 and making a Kingdom difference.

So without further ado, here is this month’s young influencer list:

Jonathan Perkins (@LeaderFuel) – Entrepreneur and Designer, Jacksonville, FL — Jonathan has a heart for helping churches and businesses with graphics, motion design, and web design.
Jimmy McNeal (@JimmyMcSings) – Worship Leader, The Austin Stone Community Church, Austin, TX — Jimmy serves on the worship team at Austin Stone and leads worship for conferences around the US.
Ashley Smith (@aebsmith) – Instructor, Midwestern Women’s Institute, Kansas City, MO — Ashley serves as an instructor at MWI where she is integrally involved in training up the next generation of ministry wives.
Josh Branum (@joshbranum) – Family Pastor, Faithbridge Church, Jacksonville, FL — Josh serves his local community of faith by overseeing the family ministries at Faithbridge Church in Northeast Florida.
Lore Wilbert (@lorewilbert) – Writer, Washington, DC — Lore writes for several online outlets and blogs at sayable.net
Chris Martin (@chrismartin17) – Author development specialist, LifeWay Christian Resources, Nashville, TN — Chris blogs at MillennialEvangelical.com and works with authors at LifeWay to help develop online content and platforms.

Please continue to pray for these individuals and their ministries. If you’d like to nominate a young influencer for consideration, let me know on Twitter: @Jonathan_Howe or in the comments section below. For previous young influencer lists, click here.

Jonathan Howe serves as Director of Strategic Initiatives at LifeWay Christian Resources, the host and producer of Rainer on Leadership and SBC This Week. Jonathan writes weekly at ThomRainer.com on topics ranging from social media to websites and church communications. Connect with Jonathan on Twitter at @Jonathan_Howe.

Six Current Trends in Land Purchases by Churches

So much change.

Such rapid changes.

I have noted on numerous occasions the incredible pace of change impacting churches. Another change is increasingly become more evident: how and when churches make land purchases. Here are six major shifts:

Churches are more reticent to purchase land at all. Many are opting to lease rather than buy. Some of them choose to move multisite rather than buying adjoining property. Simply stated, more churches are reticent to put a lot of cash into a land purchase.
Churches are purchasing ahead of population growth. Unlike a retail establishment or a service business, churches don’t need to be in a busy commercial area to reach people. Congregations can purchase land where the demographic growth will be in five or ten years. Such decisions offer more choices at more affordable prices. Church leaders are increasingly recognizing this reality.
Churches are buying smaller parcels of property. From the 1960s to the 1990s, church leaders followed a common rule of thumb: for every useable acre, the church can have 100 in average attendance. That conventional wisdom, however, assumed that the church was limited to Sunday morning for its primary worship attendance. It also assumed that the only place to have a worship service was in the sanctuary or worship center. Many churches have multiple venues meeting on their property in various places at the same time.
Churches have less usable acreage when they purchase property today. When churches purchase property today, they are often required to designate portions of the acreage as non-useable. Two common examples are increasing landscaping requirements and retention ponds.
Churches have to deal with more complex requirements from the community when they purchase land. I have heard numerous examples of these requirements. Some churches must pay the cost of an additional turn lane. Others have to carry the cost of a new traffic light where the church is located. Still others have to pay for the cost of sidewalks, walking trails, or bike lanes. The purchase of land often requires other costs than the purchase price itself.
Churches often have to demonstrate with greater diligence the need for the acreage they purchase. When a church purchases land as a non-profit entity, that land is no longer on the property tax rolls. Some governmental entities ask the church to make a clear case for their need of the land. This challenge seems to be an increasing frustration to many church leaders.

To be clear, churches have not stopped purchasing property. But, for many congregations, the process and the decision-making rationale are significantly different than they were just a decade or so ago.

I know many of you readers have been involved in a land purchase for your church. Please let me know your experiences, challenges, successes, and frustrations.

Why Smaller Churches Are Going Multisite – Rainer on Leadership #296

Podcast Episode #296

SUBSCRIBE: iTunes • RSS • Stitcher • TuneIn Radio • Google Play

Multisite used to be something only large churches tried. Now, smaller churches are getting in on the strategy. Today we discuss why this is a good thing for smaller churches to consider.

Some highlights from today’s episode include:

All things being equal, “new” reaches people more than “old.”
You can start a new church/site/service and reach people you wouldn’t reach with an established church/site/service.
Going multisite is often better a stewardship of funds than building a massive facility.
The Millennial Generation is a leasing generation.
Leasing a facility for multisite makes it financially less risky and often assuages some concerns from church members.
Worship service gathering sizes are getting smaller to create greater senses of community and intimacy.
Multisite provides smaller churches the ability to grow while keeping worship gatherings smaller at the same time.
The multisite approach allows you to experiment.

The seven reasons smaller churches are going multisite are:

More effective at reaching people.
Better stewardship, especially with facilities.
Acceptance of non-churchy facilities
Acceptance of leasing instead of owning
They tend to be mid adopters.
The desire to keep the worship service smaller.
Processes and bugs are being worked out.


Episode Sponsors

Vanderbloemen Search Group is the premier pastor search firm dedicated to helping churches and ministries build great teams. They’ve helped hundreds of churches just like yours find their church staff and are uniquely geared to help you discern who God is calling to lead your church.

Find out more about Vanderbloemen Search Group by visiting WeStaffTheChurch.com.

Midwestern Seminary, one of the fastest growing seminaries in North America, exists to train leaders For The Church. The local church is God’s “Plan A” for the proclamation of the gospel, and there is no Plan B. And this is Midwestern’s vision and heartbeat—equipping pastors and other ministry leaders who are called to expand God’s mission in the world through the local church. At Midwestern Seminary: they train leaders ‘For The Church.’

Visit them online at MBTS.edu and start your ministry training today.

Feedback

If you have a question you would like answered on the show, fill out the form on the podcast page here at ThomRainer.com. If we use your question, you’ll receive a free copy of Who Moved My Pulpit?

Resources Mentioned in Today’s Podcast

50 States + Canada Virtual Tour
The Bridge Church, Spring Hill

Seven Steps to Take If the Cartel and Bullies Run You Out of the Church

A bully-led personnel committee ran Frank out of the church. They never told the pastor why they wanted him to resign. Jan was a very active layperson in the student ministry. A cartel of jealous church members pushed her out of the church.

I wish such examples were anomalies, but they aren’t. To the contrary, such incidents seem to be gaining traction. And, of course, they are both the cause and the result of the number of unhealthy churches in American.

I have written and spoken at length about this issue, but I have not yet addressed the aftermath of such bullying from the perspective of the victim. What is he or she to do after the horrific incident? Here are seven suggestions:

Take care of your family. That’s a tough order, especially when you are hurting so much already. But your family is in pain. They need you. They need to know all of you will be okay.
Pray with specificity. You should ask God for comfort, for strength, and for peace. You should ask him to remove the bitterness that such terrible abuse brings. Trust Him to do it, because you can’t.
Find a healthy church. You won’t find a perfect church, but there are many good and healthy churches. You can’t give up on churches completely because of the toxic cartel church. You need to remain in a local body of believers.
Move carefully before taking another ministry position. You need time. You need to take care of your family. You need to take care of yourself. The ministry position can come later, just not immediately.
Count your blessings. This saying is not trite. When we have been hurt deeply by church bullies and a cartel, it is easy and natural to focus on that hurt. Start focusing on your blessings. Ask God to open your eyes and heart to all the great ways He is working in and through your life.
Become an advocate for other victims. Don’t stay on the sidelines the next time you see bullying take place in a church. Stand up to the bully. Be a source of understanding and comfort for the victim. God can use your pain for His glory and others’ good.
Don’t give up. Don’t give in. Don’t give up on God and local churches and fellow believers. Don’t give in to bitterness and self-pity. Though it sounds cliché, you can become a better person and believer in the midst of the struggles you are experiencing.

I wish we didn’t have to talk and write about such issues. I wish they didn’t exist in churches. But the greater harm would be ignoring this evil and letting it run rampant.

Bullying is evil. Cartels are nefarious as well.

But God is good. And He is greater than anything the world or the local church can throw our way.

Pray for Palisades Lutheran Church

Location: Pacific Palisades, California

Pastor: Kenneth Davis

Weekly Worship: 8:30 and 10:30 AM, Pacific

Fast Facts: Palisades Lutheran Church recently extended a call to Kenneth Davis to serve as senior pastor. His first Sunday was last week, January 15. Pastor Davis also became the first African-American pastor of Palisades Lutheran. Please pray for Pastor Davis and the congregation as together they fulfill their mission of connecting their neighborhood to rich life in Christ Jesus.

Website: PLC.cc

“Pray for . . .” is the Sunday blog series at ThomRainer.com. We encourage you to pray for these churches noted every Sunday. Please feel free to comment that you are praying as well.

If you would like to have your church featured in the “Pray for…” series, fill out this information form..

Notable Voices and the Week in Review: January 21, 2017

Earlier this week at ThomRainer.com:

Seven Questions to Ask if You Barely Receive a Positive Vote to Go to a Church
Marketplace Bivocational Ministry, featuring Jimmy Scroggins – Rainer on Leadership #294
Should a Staff Person Fill the Pulpit When There Is No Pastor?
Six Reasons to Consider Avoiding Cute Sermon Series Titles
Six Statements That Could Kill a Church – Rainer on Leadership #295

 

6 Must-Change Items That Are Hindering Your Career — Art Rainer

Whether you work in a church or a for-profit organization, there are a number of reasons why someone doesn’t advance in their career as they had hoped. Sometimes it has to do with an organization’s structure. Sometimes there are just simply limited opportunities. Those are beyond your control. But sometimes the stagnation in someone’s career is less about what they cannot control and more about what they can control, areas where change is possible. Here are six of them:

 

3 Goals in Preaching — Eric Geiger

So what is my aim in preaching? My good friend Ed Stetzer asked me that recently and it caused me to jot down some of my thoughts. One way to describe this sacred stewardship is “Teach Christ and the text in their context.” The aim is three-fold:

 

Pastor, You Need Some Friends — Rob Hurtgen

In a day and age when anyone can have thousands of followers on their myriad of social networks, it is time to build friendships. The following are three of the many biblical principles to embrace and apply towards building friendships.

 

The Top 7 Ways Leaders Demoralize Their Teams — Carey Nieuwhof

More than anything, your leadership will directly impact team morale. You’re either boosting team morale or demoralizing your team. It’s binary. If you think you’re being neutral, you won’t stay neutral for long. Left unattended, the air always leaks out of team spirit. I’ve seen a lot of leaders demoralize their teams without even knowing they’re doing it. And when I look back on my leadership, I realize I’ve done it in seasons too. Demoralizing your team happens primarily for two reasons.

 

How to Discern Your Next Ministry Move — Vanderbloemen Search Group

While in Troas Paul had a vision of a man from Macedonia (Greece) inviting him to come over there. The team talked it over (word “concluded” in Acts 16:10 means “to put it all together”) and decided that was what God wanted for their next ministry move. As one preacher said, “It is better to go to Troas with God, than anywhere else without Him.” What are some takeaways from this section of Scripture that can help guide us in our ministry transitions? Here are a few.

 

How to Ensure You Never Have Another Terrible Meeting — Michael Hyatt

If our teams are going to achieve major goals, we need to be able to plan, coordinate, and tackle problems together. The problem is that many meetings are the least productive use of our time, right?