- Awesome day at Calvary!

- We kicked our new Christmas series Advent: Rediscover the moment that changed history

- The idea behind the series is that we all know the Christmas story, but it becomes new when we look at it through the eyes of someone else

- Today I taught on “Christmas through Simeon’s Eyes”

- Really happy with how the message turned out

- I have been working 2-3 weeks ahead, so I was a little nervous on Saturday to see how much modifying the message needed.

- Minor changes was all it needed.

- The band did a great job as always

- I’m looking forward to “Bizarro Sunday” next week.

- That’s when Pastor Mark teaches and I lead worship.

- It’s always a good time. (at least I have a good time – ha!)

- With Christmas a couple of weeks away, I’ll be talking about New Believer follow up this week on the blog. Stay tuned.

- If there’s a topic you want me to address on the blog, put it in the comments. I want this blog to be helpful to you.

I tell my Outreach Ninja coaching members that every church has limited funds.

Even if your budget runs into the millions, it’s not unlimited.

That means, every church should be looking to steward their outreach dollars well.

So how do you remain fiscally responsible while at the same time aggressively seeking to reach you community?

It’s simple.

Focus on reaching those who are most likely to attend your church.

Right now, there are commonalities with those who attend your church.

Even the most ethnically diverse churches (like the church I Pastor) have common attributes that naturally draw them together.

The key is to discover those commonalities and use them as markers in our outreach efforts. That’s what makes Facebook advertising so effective… as well as direct mail.

But you have to know how to use these outreach means strategically to get maximum results for minimum cost.

That’s what Outreach Ninja is all about.

Helping you understand who you’re trying to reach and teaching you the most effective ways of reaching them (for a fraction of what churches normally pay).

In fact, if you register for Outreach Ninja before tomorrow (December 1), you can test drive Outreach Ninja for December for only $49 (that’s 50% off the normal $97 investment).

Plus, we’re including our Outreach Ninja coaching session for November as well (That’s an extra $97 value!).

Think about it. If you register today, you receive…

– 30 days of Outreach Ninja for December (A $97 value)
– All of Outreach Ninja for November (A $97 value)
– A pile of bonus resources valued at $695.91

That’s almost $900 in training and resources for $49!

December’s Outreach Ninja Coaching is on Evangelistic Preaching and November’s coaching was on creating buzz in your community.

So if you’re interested, grab your nunchucks and head over to www.outreachninja.com/testdrive


P.S. This 2 month test drive offer ends today (November 30). So don’t delay and take 1 minute to register!

I took martial arts as a kid and the first lesson I received turned out to be the foundation for everything else I learned.

What was it?

Really simple…

Balance.

You must have balance to throw a punch, block a kick or jump from danger.

You couldn’t do anything else until your learned balance.

As churches seeking to reach our communities, there’s a foundational truth that’s vital to reaching people and growing our churches.

Few know it.

That’s why most church marketing falls flat.

It’s also why people say marketing or promotion doesn’t work in their area.

Once you know this lesson, you have something to build on.

Without it, you’re lost and in the dark.

The foundation of all outreach is understanding who you’re trying to reach.

Once you know you’re trying to reach, you’re job gets 50% easier.

You know their…

– Likes
– Dislikes
– Language
– Profile
– Preferred means of communication

It all starts with understanding who you’re trying to reach.

That’s what Outreach Ninja is all about.

Helping you understand who you’re trying to reach and teaching you the most effective ways of reaching them (for a fraction of what churches normally pay).

In fact, if you register for Outreach Ninja before tomorrow (November 30th), you can test drive Outreach Ninja for December for only $49 (that’s 50% off the normal $97 investment).

Plus, we’re including our Outreach Ninja coaching session for November as well (That’s an extra $97 value!).

Think about it. If you register today, you receive…

– 30 days of Outreach Ninja for December (A $97 value)
– All of Outreach Ninja for November (A $97 value)
– A pile of bonus resources valued at $695.91

That’s almost $900 in training and resources for $49! Wow!

All yours when you register for Outreach Ninja today.

December’s Outreach Ninja Coaching is on Evangelistic Preaching and November’s coaching was on creating buzz in your community.

So if you’re interested, grab your nunchucks and head over to www.outreachninja.com/testdrive

Everyone loves predictions. Sports.Political.Weather.

And while I am neither a prophet nor Miss Cleo (10 points if you remember her), I do know something that will certainly be true for you and your church this Christmas season.

So here are my 2 Christmas predictions for churches…

Prediction #1: Churches who invest in outreach will continue to reach people 

Outreach is never an expense; it’s always an investment. Churches who see direct mail, Facebook ads, Google adwords, placement ads or any other form of marketing as an expense will usually go cheap and reach very few people.

Prediction #2: Pastors who learn new skills will grow their churches and reach their communities 

After coaching more than 200 Pastors, I can tell you that the Pastors who invest in their own education grow larger churches and reach more people.

Unfortunately, many leaders will keep “plugging along” and take the road to nowhere and wonder why their church doesn’t grow and why they never reach unchurched people.

In contrast, check out the email I got this week from Outreach Ninja member Andrew Winburn:

“We are strictly using what you are teaching and we doubled our size on our second ‘mini-Easter’ on 10/30. This was after a triple size growth after our first one in July. It has been fun and challenging to do followup and baptism from these outreach services.” 

I’m not saying you’ll get the same results Andrew got, but Outreach Ninja churches grow.

In our December coaching session, I’m going to show you how we’ve seen over 1,000 unchurched people make first time decisions in the last 18 months.

So invest in yourself and your church and test drive Outreach Ninja for the next 30 days for 50% off the normal monthly investment. 

Plus, you receive $695.71 in bonus resources when you join.

So head over to www.outreachninja.comtestdrive

Happy Thanksgiving!

I recently ran across an outline for a message out of the book of Romans that I preached in the first year of our church.

I looked over the notes and thought they were still pretty good even though they were 10 years old.

Here’s the odd part: I was teaching Romans again when I found them.

I had taught the same area of scripture just a few weeks before, so I thought it would be fun to compare the notes.

10 years later I thought my 2011 message was more polished, but all in all, the messages were very much the same.

Except for one thing.

A really big thing.

The 2011 message saw more than 20 first time decisions as well as several recommitments and the 2001 message had Zero.Zip. Zilch. by way of decisions.

What was the difference?

Was one more Gospel centered? Nope.

Did the second message have a clearer Gospel presentation? No, sorry, but thanks for playing.

After wracking my brain to find out the difference, here’s what it was: in 2011 there were dozens of unchurched people in the crowd and in 2001 there were none.

Here’s the deal: this can be the biggest Christmas in the history of your church, but you’re going to have to get lots of unchurched people to your church to hear the Gospel.

That’s why we’re offering our “Double your Decisions this Christmas” webinar today and tomorrow (November 22 and 23).

There’s 4 convenient times to choose from for you and your team to participate:

Today (Tuesday, November 22 @ 11AM EST and 3PM EST)
Tomorrow (Wednesday, November 23 @ 11AM EST and 3PM EST)

This 35 minute webinar is going to give you 5 simple strategies for getting unchurched people into your church and help you lead them to make a decision for Christ!

You can register for FREE here.



P.S. Our December Outreach Ninja coaching is all about evangelistic preaching. I’m going to teach you how we’ve seen over 1,000 people make first time decisions in the last 18 months!

P.P.S. You can test drive Outreach Ninja for one month for $49. More info here.