Category — Church Planting

OK, two quick things…

FIRST: I have the Dino Rizzo interview finally ready for you… we had a great conversation about servant evangelism, the Healing Place Church, and Dino’s new book Servolution.

Check it out here:

The Dino Rizzo Interview

SECOND: You’ll want to save this date: May 6th at 1pm 3PM EST. I’ll tell you why soon.

Keep walking in the outflow!

Steve

P.S. Go check out that Dino Rizzo Interview… it’s great.

Based on the hundreds of email responses I received, a large number of you are having difficulty getting servant evangelism going.  If you are wondering how to get servant evangelism started at your church, I think you will find this video very helpful.

Click the link below to view it:
How to Get Servant Evangelism Started In Your Church

I will be posting a few more videos this week, so stay tuned for my updates about those.

A quick heads up… I just finished my first video response to your top outreach challenges and posted it over at the ServeCoach blog:

“How to Motivate People to Do Outreach”

Also, next Tuesday I’ll be posting my recent interview with Dino Rizzo, pastor of the Healing Place Church in Louisiana and author of “Servolution.” Dino’s church is doing some outstanding things when it comes to outreach, and I know you are going to gain some practical insights that will encourage and help you in your situation.

Be sure to sign up on the ServeCoach blog for updates to find out when exactly that will be available.

Though I’m sure there are plenty of times when you probably feel like you’re all alone, you are not. The concerns and issues you have with trying to reach people for Christ are not unique to you or your setting—and that’s good news!

A couple of days ago I asked you (and thousands of other people like you) to share with me the top two challenges you’re facing with doing outreach in your church … and I can’t believe the response!

Hundreds and hundreds of emails from people like you came FLOODING into my inbox.

(Note: If you haven’t written yours yet, I’d still love to hear from you!)

The one thing that was and is abundantly clear is that there are an awful lot of people, just like you, who want to see their community reached for Christ—but are FRUSTRATED because they’re facing difficult roadblocks in front of them.

However, the good news is that the roadblocks you’re facing are all pretty similar. In other words, while you might feel that the roadblocks you’re facing are unique to you and your situation, chances are they’re not. There are probably hundreds of other people, just like you, facing the same situation.

Which is why I’ve decided to develop a series of video responses to the most common challenges that people like you are facing when it comes to reaching their communities for Christ.

If you’d like to know when I complete each one, head over to the ServeCoach blog and enter your name and email in the subscribe form in the upper right of the blog.

However, I have even better news than that. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be unveiling a number of new and exciting opportunities that I’m confident you’re going to find incredibly helpful as you seek to reach more and more people for Christ in your community.

Wishing you outreach success,

P.S. Don’t forget, if you haven’t sent your response to last week’s question yet, send me an email and let me know the top two challenges you’re currently having with outreach… do it now. Make your voice heard!

- the fine art of church suicide

“My word… I now know for certain. My church has lost its collective mind…” – Bob, the cowboy commentator and church consultant

My friend Bob looked up from reading the blog on his laptop. He pulled off his reading glasses with some drama as he does when miffed (an effective technique – you might consider picking up a pair of spectacles whether you need them or not).

Bob explained his ‘Mad-as-a-hornet, can’t take no more’ response.

He wasn’t one bit negative. Deep love and pain was emerging.

“I’ve always thought when someone takes their own life that they are out of their mind – at least at that moment. Maybe this holds true for groups when they do the same…”

Bob’s words hung in the air – like a slow moving indoor cloud hovering in the room. Bob spoke a drop dead amazing truth.

One thing is certain – 100% of the innumerable groups who succeeded in a suicide attempt – not one was thinking clearly at the moment of the ultimate deed.

Is there a pattern that leads up to a church or a spiritual movement to self-destruct? Ponder these common patterns that lead up to what lemmings do each spring.

•Celebrating The Tragedy of Others… other leaders / churches!

“They finally got what was coming them them / him / her. Yep, God got ‘em good. You can’t fool Him…”

If you haven’t thought this or said it you likely aren’t thinking back hard enough. Human nature makes such behavior tendencies natural to us all. Call it “The Martha Stewart Effect.” She goes to prison without protesting the initial sentence dished out to her. Amazingly, the vast majority of Americans decided they hated Martha – they decided to enthusiastically believe the worst about her. There is something particularly savory about believing the worst about those who have been highly successful in life. This goes double for the leaders of large churches. ‘They are large because they are doing something that’s not kosher…’ (No names here please…)

Recommend: Start praying for a church each week like this, “God we ask you to bless this other church today – we ask you to profoundly touch them today more than us…”

•Church Suicide Comes From The Passive Condoning of Toxic Attitudes
Rarely will leaders in the local church clearly say aloud what is as negative as what is carried about in the heart. “We really don’t like people who aren’t like us…” Who in their right mind would cop to that?… especially official leaders. Yet can you explain how it is that great public efforts are taken to increase attendance yet the ‘backdoor’ siphons more out than in?

Recommend: If you are one who speaks or has a voice into the leadership, be candid about your heart. Fear keeps us stuck and away rather than toward people. To like people is more costly than to love people very often!

•Church Suicide Begins With Bombastic Attitudes
“We really are all that – and more!” No comment necessary.

Recommend: Pray with an honest, open heart. Start with confessions. When God shows up honesty tends to happen.

Bob never told me what upset him that day. That wasn’t the point. He loves his heritage. Even more he loves the Church at large – as do I on both points. Maybe we are on the same boat as it works in fellow-ship.