Seth Godin is a genius when it comes to marketing. I read his blog today and was intrigued by what he had to say about tribalism and elections, but it was the last paragraph that really stunned me. It’s what I’ve been saying for months now about our two choices… we get the leaders we deserve!

The lesson that society should take away about all marketing is a simple one. When you buy a product, you’re also buying the marketing. Buy something from a phone telemarketer, you get more phone telemarketers, guaranteed. Buy a gas guzzler and they’ll build more. Marketers are simple people… they make what sells. Our culture has purchased (and voted) itself into the place we are today.

When Israel demanded a king against God’s will, they got the tall and handsome Saul who wound up being a flake. God eventually rescued them with a leader after His own heart. I feel like we’re demanding something we won’t be happy with a year from now… but we get what we demand, what we deserve.

You can read his entire article below…

Seth’s Blog: Marketing lessons from the US election.

Ha, thought that headline might grab attention - I’m joyfully married, but I’m also being blessed this week at engage08. It’s being hosted by Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas. We’re hearing from some amazing speakers, including:

• Kerry Shook, Pastor of Fellowship of the Woodlands outside Houston, Texas.
• David Jeremiah, Pastor of Shadow Mountain Church in San Diego.
• Jack Graham, Pastor of Prestonwood.
• Jonathan Falwell, Pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia.
• Greg Laurie, Pastor of Harvest Fellowship.

WAIT! There is more to read… read on »

Last night, I had an epiphany. Well, several actually. We intended to kick off our new outreach program at Bethel using the GROW strategy. Justin worked excessively hard making copies, arranging the room, preparing a video, and of course praying about this new opportunity. Aside from he and I, two others showed up. We have twelve Sunday school classes, eight active deacons, and about 220 people attending worship. Two?

Times are hard, people are busy, some are under the weather, old methods don’t work, evangelism is scary… we talked about it all. We few brainstormed and prayed. And I had some significant thoughts about the situation…

The evangelistic temperature of a church begins to rise with its Pastor. That’s right, if there’s a weak link in the chain, it’s the leader. And it’s the other leaders alongside him. My own passion needs stirring. Like John Wesley, I need God to set me on fire and set me before the people so they can watch me burn with evangelistic fervor.

We need an evangelistic culture. I’m quite weary of hearing complaints about stuff. I hear people getting emotional about trivial matters, but few hearts seem to be breaking over the lost culture in which we live. Did you realize millions are speeding toward hell today? We can stop them with the good news of Christ, but we’re too busy arguing over silly issues and personal preferences.

We need some confidence boosting. Okay I admit, witnessing is hard. It’s hard for you, it’s hard for me, it’s hard for Billy Graham. Do you expect any different? I don’t think Jesus commissioned us to tell the whole world about Him… if it’s easy to do so. Nonetheless, the leadership of our church needs to help folks understand how to witness with confidence, which means…

• Providing resources such as videos, CD’s, tracts, books, etc.
• Providing training, but apparently not on Tuesday nights.
• Telling stories - sharpening each other by mutually inspiring experiences.
• Prayer, prayer, and more prayer for a brokenness about the lost.

We’re growing a bit. We’re adding a second service. We’re seeing visitors come, and return. Great. But these are things that are happening without much effort. We can’t get to the throne some day and say, “Well Lord, I didn’t do much, but growth happened anyway… where’s my crown?” No, I need to evangelize. It’s a need in my life. I can’t grow if I don’t share, and if I try to grow without sharing, I’ll become a grumpy, self-centered believer.

We must turn up the heat, increase our passion, and get involved. I, as a Pastor and Leader, promise to prayerfully find ways to encourage and equip. I won’t resort to guilt trips (except in the beginning of this article), but will instead challenge you to search your own heart. Are you sharing the faith? You’re His child, His ambassador, saved and covered by the gracious provision of the blood of Christ. You remain alive today for the primary purpose of bringing the nations into the white hot enjoyment of God’s glory by telling them about Jesus. Do you have a fever?

I often peruse websites about web design and last night noticed this article about giving an elevator speech. I thought about how it applies to Pastors. There are often crucial moments when we have an opportunity to be vision-casters with people, one-on-one. It may be a car ride making a visit, coffee with a fellow member, or a staff meeting with five extra minutes at the end. It begs the question, could I state my vision for my church if I only had a few floors to travel in an elevator with someone?

You see, vision is great, but it needs to be transferrable. Members of a church should be able to share their church’s vision with their friends, relatives, associates, and neighbors, but they can only share a vision that has been concisely articulated from their leadership. And a vision isn’t “reaching people” or “glorifying God.” Those are eternal purposes, universal to every church. A vision (in an elevator speech format) would be more like, “I want our church to be a visible and active change agent in Bentonville. I want us to share the gospel outside the walls of our church through our words, our integrity, and our acts of service. And I want us to help leaders have greater confidence in sharing the gospel in their circles of influence.”

I suppose that’s my elevator speech, or at least one version I might share in an elevator this week. What’s your elevator speech about your vision for your church?

What Does the Future Look Like for Your Church’s Ministry? | Ministry Marketing Coach.

Chris Forbes, the Ministry Marketing Church, has written a pretty great article about writing our future as a church. Goals, dreams, ambitions… though they aren’t everything, they do determine our direction. You lean into a curve and try not to lean into a punch. Are we leaning toward success or failure?

If you could write tomorrow’s headlines for your life, your church, your family, or your organization today, what would you want to write? So, write it, and go for it, and let God have all the say, as well as all the glory

I just finished reading The Creative Leader: Unleashing the Power of Your Creative Potential. It’s been an enjoyable and challenging read. I don’t know that I would ever do ministry just the way Ed does, but that’s really kind of the point - duplication and imitation squelches creativity.

As we’ve journeyed through change at Bethel, we’ve witnessed some friction here and there. God has graciously bound us together and I feel great about our unified direction, but one portion of the book ministered to my heart for days on end - it was a timely word.

Pay attention to what people have to say and evaluate their suggestions honestly. But don’t allow their fear of change to cause you creative cramps… Creativity is a long-term investment. If your top leaders are not totally committed to the vertical vision, then fear of friction will dismantle this God-given virtue. At Fellowship, we do not value upsetting people, but we do value upsetting their equilibrium to challenge them for spiritual growth… To be sure, creativity must be biblically driven and it must honor God. However, when we have our people off balance, we have a great potential to catch them off guard with a powerful punch from the pages of Scripture… It is very tempting to want to please people, but leaders often experience leadership cramps when they allow their vision to be compromised to appease a few negative people. Once the vision goes horizontal, disaster will follow.

One of the toughest aspects of leadership for me is finding the confidence to lead with conviction regardless of the reactions of people. We all want to be liked, and praise is one of the most dangerous traps for leaders. We certainly ought to be listeners and learners or we’ll stunt our growth, but at the end of the day, God has called us to lead, and if we aren’t leading, we aren’t leaders. (Profound, I know!)

This book has challenged me to be more creative in how I minister to people, how I present the word, and to be willing to do what it takes to reach people instead of just trying to keeping the fish tank peaceful. I highly recommend that every leader get this book, read it, and apply it by exploring your God-implanted creativity.

Does your family play the garbage game? You know, that game where the trash begins to overflow and you come up with imaginative ways of placing one more piece of trash in such a way that the mass of garbage doesn’t collapse, utilizing every nook and cranny and every physical principle of gravity and balance to your advantage. After all, the one for whom it comes tumbling down is automatically the trash-taker-outer.

That overstuffed trash can resembles our lives sometimes. We fill every moment of every day with something. In the meantime, we stifle our creative juices. There’s no room to be creative because we’re trying to do too many things at once - we’re trying to be all things to all people. Pretty soon, it all comes tumbling down like the end of a Jenga game.

I’ve been challenged lately to make more room for creativity. I’m not talking so much about the work of creating, but the time we need to get alone and relate to our Creator, to dream great things, to plan, to envision, to think creatively. The problem with cramming our lives full of stuff is that we get focused on maintaining the stuff we’ve created and can’t create anything new.

I want to challenge you the way I’ve been challenged. Take a walk, read a book, fill up on something other than the mental junk food of modern media. Take some time to do nothing but read, dream, pray, and envision what God wants to do in, around, and through you. Leave some margin and get creative!

Today, I caught this headline online…

A Prestonwood Baptist Church minister arrested for soliciting a minor online has resigned from the church, Pastor Jack Graham told his congregation Saturday evening.

I appreciate Pastor Graham - he’s a hero to me, and my heart aches for him, his church, and the family of this fallen Pastor. I’ve watched Satan wreak havoc on Pastors across America, especially in the area of sexuality. It’s terrible to see the carnage left behind. No doubt, some will question the very credibility of Christianity based on the actions of men like this staff Pastor.

I would ask that you pray for your Pastor, and for church staff everywhere, who are the special targets of Satan, as leaders among God’s flock. We absolutely must wage war on Satan to restore dignity and integrity to the pulpit in the face of a culture that is always sliding into deeper immorality. We need a counter-cultural revolution in this world gone made on the influence of Satan and his minions.

As I prepared my message a couple of weeks ago on this topic, “No Lone Rangers Allowed,” my Ministry Assistant emailed me to see if I was sure I wanted the title to go into the bulletin as I had sent it to her, which was “No Lone Rangers Aloud.” What’s funny is, it proved the sermon title true. Had I been a lone ranger leader, I would have looked rather silly. That’s why there are no lone rangers aloud… I mean, allowed! WAIT! There is more to read… read on »

I believe God blesses the areas of our church’s life in which we are most willing to be sacrificial in our investment. Further, if we’re unwilling to invest in a group of people, I think God often withholds the blessings of growth in that area. We’ve done some heavy investing in our children’s ministries and God has blessed. We expanded our budget, hired staff, and recruited more willing and loving volunteers and we’ve seen child after child come to know the Lord and become a part of Bethel, their parents usually with them. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »