Pastorpreneur

Reproducing Who You Are...

So I'm talking with a friend and leader in our church .  In that conversation, he talks about how people in a meeting went from being very excited about something to developing an action plan--with what seemed to him to be very little prayer.

I felt like he was describing a real problem that sometimes happens with...ME!  People around me (like me!) tend to move from passion to action.   Here is what I think should happen:

Prayer---Passion---Prayer---Action

The truth is that you can have the right passion and take the wrong action unless prayer is part of the entire process.  Truthfully, I believe that...

In fact, I think that Prayer+Passion+Prayer+Action=Kingdom Impact

what do you think?

Thrive 2009 Sold Out-Studio Seating Now Available!

Well friends...I'd been warning you that Thrive 2009 would sell out.  And, it has.  BUT, in order to squeeze in more people, we are going to provide up to 600 additional seats at a RECESSION BUSTING price of $50!!  Oh my goodness...you still get to experience all the amazing stuff of Thrive (I was in a programming meeting yesterday and you better get your seatbelt on)...and catch all the breakouts...for about 80% OFF the base price. You can register here for the $50 Studio Seating

 

Kingdom Agenda not on my Schedule

Yesterday (Monday) I had a day where I had about 3 good chunks of time where I wanted to read, write, and get ahead on teaching and vision preparation.  It was going to be a good day and I was going to do what I thought God wanted me to do.

I ended up having a 17 hour day...where only about 6 hours of the day's activities were on my scheduled agenda.  The rest got either added, expanded, or down right changed.  I struggled with frustration all day about not getting my agenda "done".  Then, about 10 p.m. I felt like the Holy Spirit said this, "Thanks for cooperating with my agenda today instead of yours".  OUCH!  I ended up repenting and giving thanks to God for letting me hear His voice about HIS agenda instead of mine.

I went to bed with a sense of peace.  I woke up with peace.  The work will get done.  HIS work will get done.  My understanding of what He wants me to do is less important than what He wants me to do.  Make sense?  Making more sense to me today than it did yesterday...

Thrive 2009 Conference...better act quickly...

I have some inside information.  I could tell you my source, but then...well...you get the picture. 

The Thrive 2009 Conference is "technically" sold out.  However, we are actually going to sell just 400 more spaces and ask the dear folks at Bayside Church if they would be willing to spend one general session in the  overflow rooms.

Franklin Graham, Frances Chan, Brenda Salter-McNeil, Ray Johnston, Sherwood Carthen, Nick Vujicic are all General Session Speakers.  But this year, we have added some "Super Breakouts" in addition to the 50 plus breakouts on all the key ministry areas.  Super Breakout speakers include Larry Osborne, Chris Brown, Bil Cornelius, Eric Bryant, Gerardo Marti, David Chow and others. 

Thrive is like a "Niagra Falls" of refreshment and this year will be no different...PLUS, I happen to know that there are some amazing announcements that will be made this year.

So...if you have not yet registered, Don't Delay any Longer--REGISTER NOW

See you there...I'm yours for Thriving! 

10 Days in the flow...

So...my oldest daughter gets married, lots of stuff going on...and I have not posted for 10 days. So let me "catch up" with you.  Here we go with random stuff:

*  Modern weddings are 7 day events.  We had a blast with Jennifer's wedding party, with our new in-laws (Peter & Liz Martin) and with the extended family (David & MaryAnn Collins) and a host of family and friends

*  Things are really cooking with Thriving Churches International (TCI).  The Thrive (www.thrive2009.com) conference will be happening in 7 weeks!  We only have a couple hundred spots left...so if you are a CVC attender, we actually only have a few spots left...contact Tamy Sabo at tamy@cvcwired.com immediately...you won't want to miss this opportunity!  Great times with my friends at Bayside Church each week as we prepare for unveiling what we believe God is preparing to do through TCI's partnership.  Here is just a hint:   What do Compassion International, EQUIP, ISS, and we think about 50 churches across the country all have in common?

*  Have now caught up on all episodes of "24".  Have never watched the show during the season.  Love the show.  Hate waiting.

*We have  started a brand new series at CVC called JTV:  The Miracle Worker.  Several times this year we are going to do a JTV (Jesus TV..all Jesus, all the time) series where we focus on an aspect of the life and ministry of Jesus.  The first two weeks of teaching have already happened and GOD has been on the move.  Two key take aways:

-Miracles happen where the Kingdom of God rules and reigns

-Kingdom people do not deny reality..NOR are they defined by it.

*  Went to a communication seminar with the CVC Exec Team and a couple others put on by my friends at Growing Healthy Churches .  Great to see lots of good people again; Jeff Borden (www.jeffpresents.com) did his usual awesome job teaching.  Good time with a strong crew.

*  Staff meetings and chapel with the CVC teams always connect me with Jesus and with them

*  Spent time with Mike Stonbraker and 12 large church pastors from the North Alabama UMC teaching about God-Size Your Church and praying for their ministry expansion.  I always feel like I am fulfilling my life purpose and expanding the ministry of CVC when I do these trips

*  Finally, spent time with Billy Hornsby of  ARC and Chris Hodges of Church of the Highlands to discuss how they train church planters and  possible partnership with TCI. 

Lots of family time in between all this..but not enough!  I have another 4 days in this "run"..and then I plan on sequestering myself with my girls and boys pre Easter!  Sitting in Phoenix airport now believing that I will be home soon!  

Easter-Seize the Season!

I have always believed that Easter was the HUGE moment for cultural impact.  In fact, we say that our church simply has to OWN Christmas and Easter.  I think we have done a good job at our church (CVC), but I also know that no one on planet earth does systems like my cross-country friend in ministry, Nelson Searcy.  Nelson does a great job of thinking about systems, and has an awesome opportunity for you to grow in your approach to Easter.  So, without further ado...here is some information to help you Maximize Your Easter Impact with this Tele-Seminar:

  

This Easter, God will prompt thousands of people in the US and millions around the world, to attend a church this Easter. For some reason, people who don't normally attend church will make a decision to do so during this time of the year like no other. What can we do to have the maximum impact possible that will bring guests back the following week?

 

Join Nelson Searcy in this 90 minute tele-seminar without ever having to leave your office or home! Nelson will go into greater detail not covered in the "How To Maximize Easter Report." This is your opportunity to train your entire staff with this tele-seminar.

 

Here's what you can expect to learn that's not covered in "The Maximizing Easter" report:

- How to promote Easter for maximum effectiveness

- How to mobilize all your members to invite their friends on Easter

- What to preach on at Easter (and what not to preach on...its not what you think)

- The biggest mistakes most people make in planning Easter

- How to get people to come back the month after Easter

- How to lead your staff and key volunteers to spiritually prepare for Easter

- How to do a church wide spiritual survey on Easter.

- How to get a 100% connection card completion on Easter.

- Easter and your volunteers (you may be hurting your attendance but having too many volunteers, yep, too many)

- Choosing the times of your Easter service (the wrong times can keep the unchurched away).

- How you can leverage Easter to grow your church in the fall.

 

Click here to register:  https://nelsonsearcy.infusionsoft.com/cart/store.jsp?view=1&i=51

 

Following the tele-seminar you'll receive these FREE BONUSES (more than $120 value):

"Maximizing Easter Podcast" ($15.95 value) "Fasting for Spiritual Breakthrough" ($23.95 value) "Top Five Invite Tools" ($13.95 value) "Relationship Rescue" ($59.95 value)

 

Preaching for Life Impact

Preaching for Leadership Impact

© Dr. John Jackson, 2007

www.pastorpreneur.com

 

            We all know (or should!) that the goal of preaching is life change.  We want to be conformed to the image of Christ (Romans

8:29

).  We want disciples to be made and thus fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20).  Preaching is about life change.  But, I also believe preaching is one of the most powerful tools of leadership.  Pastors who utilize their preaching  opportunities as a leadership instrument will increase the fruitfulness of their ministry.

 

            My friend Ray Johnston of

Bayside

Church

(www.baysideonline.com) in

Sacramento

, says that ordinary people become extraordinary communicators when they are fired with conviction….which then translates into passion…which then translates into impact.  Leadership impact happens when we couple our leadership passion and preaching for the powerful purposes of God among our people.  John Maxwell says one way to determine your passion is to ask, “What makes you cry?  What makes you sing?  What makes you dance?”  Answering those questions will draw you closer to the passion that God has placed within you.

 

Every leader has a vision from God for the future that is compelling for his people.  Habakuk 2:2 tells us to “write the vision and make it plain”.  Preachers who preach for leadership impact recognize the opportunity to cast vision whenever they speak from the pulpit.  Many of us who preach find it far easier to simply explain the text and apply it to the individual lives of our hearers from a pastoral perspective.  While this is noble, it is insufficient.  When a pastor stands before his people, there is an opportunity to fulfill the Old Testament roles of prophet, priest, and king.  The leadership role is a prophetic and kingly assignment that the preacher can best fulfill by intentionally asking the tough questions of himself and of the Biblical text.

 

            Leaders automatically are question askers….and the questions they ask of the Biblical text relate to their roles as leaders of the people of God.  Here are some basic questions that leaders believe the text asks of them and the contrast between the purely pastoral questions…these are admittedly quite broad, but they hint at the key differences

 

Pastoral Questions                                          Leadership Questions

 

What does it say?                                            What does it mean?

 

What does it mean to me?                              What does it mean to us?

 

What should I do?                                          What changes should we make?

 

How does this speak to my present?              How does this speak to our future?

 

Kingdom Impact increases in our ministry when we recognize that we are preaching BOTH to the individual and to the congregation.  Both are needed, and the effective preacher is both aware of the opportunity and the privilege to address both needs.

 

            Ephesians

4:29

tells us that we should “speak only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen”.  As leaders who preach, we are to use the pulpit as a faithful tool for declaring God’s will for individuals

AND

building up the local body of believers that we lead.  Preachers who communicate with excellence are preachers who exercise leadership in and through the pulpit on a regular basis.

 

You can learn more about these and other topics by visiting my website at www.pastorpreneur.com

Discipleship: Teach or Train?

“Discipleship:  Teach or Train?”

 

 

            Should we or shouldn’t we?  Which is better?  Can you prove that?  All those questions are reasonable about a critical issue in the life and ministry of a healthy church.  When we are trying to disciple people, should we teach or should we train?

 

The Miracle of “And”

           

            I believe in the miracle of and.  We in the church are much too quick to dichotomize our solutions to the troubling questions of church leadership and ministry.  We are prone to quickly fall subject to the belief that the issue we are facing has a singular answer in the form of either x or y. 

 

Discipleship is about teaching AND training.  There is both a content aspect to our faith and a conduct dimension to our faith.  Healthy churches and leaders want to see both evidenced in the lives of those who come into relationship with Christ.

 

Discipleship is about Teaching

 

            Discipleship is about forming Christ in the life of a believer through the spiritual transformation of the mind (Romans 12:1-2).  Obviously the Holy Spirit is the only one who produces genuine growth for a young man or woman, but the “seedbed” of that growth is an increasing understanding and application of God’s Word into their thinking and living.  At our church (CVC, www.cvcwired.com), we have grappled these last ten years with how to teach, transmit, and reproduce the content aspect of our faith.  We are coming to the conclusion, after ten years of experimenting, that there is no “silver bullet” to the teaching aspect of the faith.  So, we use:

 

·          One on One Relationships

·         Small Groups

·         Classes

·         Seminars

 

We use all of these methods and yet still find ourselves struggling in this arena.  Willow Creek’s recent study (of which our church was a secondary participant) called REVEAL suggests that our church is not alone in this regard.  I think one of the most helpful tools from Reveal is the understanding that discipleship is a journey.  Identifying where a person is on the journey and customizing the resources and tools available may help undergird their growth.

 

 Discipleship is about Training

 

            Discipleship is about forming Christ in the life of a believer through continual surrender of our will to His will (Colossians 2:6-7).  Most parents know Proverbs 22:6, “Train a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it”.  Study of that text reveals that one of the meanings of the word “train” is to “make narrow”.  Discipleship is about training in that we are helping men and women to become more and more like Christ in the way we think, the way we feel, and the way we live.  The Apostle John is clear that if we know Him (Jesus), then we “must walk as Jesus did” (I John 2:3-6).

 

            Discipleship training is the aspect of spiritual formation where we cultivate surrender of our will to the power and presence of the Holy Spirit and learn to follow God with our mind and with our heart, and with our feet.  In my experience, this never happens until we are in relationship with others where we allow genuine and grace filled accountability; in essence, that we allow other people to speak truth into our lives.  At CVC , we operate with these primary values in view as we live out “Friends Helping Friends Follow Christ”….

 

·          People Matter to God

·         God’s Word Changes Lives

·         Spiritual Growth Happens in Relationships

 

The End Result

 

Our prayer is that Christ is shaped into our hearts and we progressively learn to surrender to His Spirit as we learn to speak the truth to one another and grow up to maturity as a disciple of Jesus (Ephesians 4:29-32).  When we think like and act like Jesus as the result of teaching and training that comes from organic and healthy relationships, we will reproduce health in the lives of those we are able to impact for the sake of His kingdom.

 

 Dr. John Jackson is the Senior Pastor of Carson Valley Christian Center (www.cvcwired.com), the Executive Director of Thriving Churches International (www.thrive2009.com) and an author of several books, including Leveraging Your Leadership Style Leveraging Your Comunication Style, God-Size Your Church and Pastorpreneur.  You may learn more about John’s ministry at www.pastorpreneur.com

 

 

 

My job is easier than Bills...

Normally I wouldn't be saying such a thing (it's generally bad form to tell someone that your job is easier than theirs, and it has the potential to engender a salary cut for the one saying it).  However, I was recently e-mailing Bill Mcready, pastor of FBC Pocatello and all around cool guy and great pastor.  I think the church is reaching about 400 people every week and Bill is assembling a great team (I got to meet them about a month ago) as the church grows.  So, Bill wanted to know how I got so much done (or at least appear to) since I pastor a larger church than him and must be even busier than he is at his church.  That made me think about my job compared to his job (I'm the Founding Pastor at CVC .  Then I thought I'd like to share it with my blog community.

Here's the truth I told Bill:  My job is easier than his.

The truth is that I think pastoring a church of 300-800 may be the hardest job in America.

Why is his job harder?

 

1) You are too big to be small and too small to be big.  You live in that trap of being "neither"

2) The expectations of the people about your personal care of them are impossible to meet

3) The expectations of the ministries of the church corporately are also impossible to meet.

 

So, one of the key things I said in God-Size Your Church was that you either "set expectations or meet them".  I'll talk more about that in a future post.

 

Why is my job easier?

 

I have a competent and capable team around me.   When we started the church 10.5 years ago, I did everything and so did everyone else!  Today, my piece of the pie is smaller than ever.  HOWEVER, every decision I make today has far more impact than ever before. 

 

My job is easier than Bill's....tomorrow I'll share some help for Bill and those pastoring churches reaching 300-800 every week.

 

 

God-Size Your Church!

“John Jackson wisely sidesteps the “numbers” issue in the church growth conversation by challenging us to think what it would mean to achieve God’s vision for our church.  John’s book is a refreshing blend of inspiration and instruction about leading the local church to reach its full potential.  I highly recommend it!”  David Cooke, Coldsprings Community Church

There have been several really cool endorsements of my latest book, God-Size Your Church: Beyond Growth for Growth's Sake, but I'm very thankful that good friend David Cooke (who  posts on his blog about every quarter) enjoyed the book.  In case you are interested, the book also has received a number of other endorsements as well.

If you would like copies in bulk, send me an e-mail to john@cvcwired.com and we will hook you up for 45% off retail price for 10 copies or more! If you order 25 copies or more, we'll throw in free shipping!

Or, if you'd like a single copy, you can purchase at the Pastorpreneur website store or at  Amazon   If you do purchase at Amazon, please leave feedback after you read the book..that helps the rankings!