What a voicemail I just got! Listen to it and learn how this church went from 10 years of being a little over 100 in attendance to reaching almost 900 in such a brief amount of time. Fun, inspiring and accessible stuff.

I am looking at this coming Easter through the lens of something that didn’t happen at our Christmas services for the first time ever. Here is what I learned and the 2 questions I am asking myself that will inform how we plan Easter and all holiday services moving forward.

A new year offers seemingly endless possibilities. As a leader in a church that wants to connect people, these possibilities can either bring hopefulness or it can make you overwhelmed. Here is the one objective I would focus on this year, above all others.

If you are wondering this week, “Are we doing everything we can do to reach and connect the new people coming to church for Christmas this weekend?”, then this post is for you.

As Christmas and the year come to a close, many of us find ourselves with low energy and with inner resources that do not seem to match the requirements of the season. Here’s something to put a little wind in your sails.

Your “One Program” for guests is always going to require the best kind of invitational promotion you can create to connect the most people possible to your church. Here are 5 hacks for this that we did recently that really made a HUGE difference…

Over the last year, I have discovered a new hack for making sure no one visiting our church gets forgotten. Whether they are first time guests, just made a decision for Christ, just checked in the kids for the first time or gotten baptized, I can count on this one hack to connect with them all.

If you read my very personal post last month, you may be interested to know 3 new beliefs that are keeping my head above water as of late. They are truly transforming me post-COVID and have helped me move from a winter season in my life and ministry and into a full blown spring. I know that if you buy into them, they will do that for you too.

Do you ever feel like you’re dropping the ball when it comes to connecting people who are making new decisions to follow Jesus at your church? Even if you don’t, few of us would say we couldn’t do better. If you want to see these people pursuing God and building community with you, here are 3 things we are doing right now that are yielding new results.

If you don’t follow me on facebook or instagram, you probably feel I went MIA for almost a year now. I feel I owe you a report on what happened to me late 2020 through 2021, what I learned from it, and what comes next.

So here goes.

Here is a last minute resource for your staff, leaders and volunteer teams prior to Easter services.

Let’s face it. 2020 has taken a huge bite out of our volunteer apple. Now is the time for a fresh group of people to be invited into the game at your church by establishing a way of letting an overlooked group of people taste what it means to serve God and others. These are individuals who would not be allowed to serve in many churches. Find out who they are and how to recruit them now.

There has never been more of a need for community and less of an ability to resist the effects of isolation than now. If you are raising kids, and you’re single or married, times that by ten. Here are the 4 questions to answer for yourself and for young families if you want to experience a sense of community and connection this new year.

Third-time visits from people are gold in terms of developing a long term connection to your church. Wondering how to turn your first time guest from this Christmas into third time guests in January? Here’s how.

Christmas at your church will be different this year. Despite the difference, I believe you could see Christmas guests return in January not just in spite of COVID but because of COVID. Are you ready for that possibility? You just need to identify at least one new way to engage guests by answering these questions.

Their 10 year journey as a small church of 120 in attendance was fairly typical for U.S. churches. What happened in year 11 was not. Hear the incredible story of what happened, especially if you pastor a church under 200.

It's a humbling experience to be speaking alongside thought leaders of this caliber. I am so excited about this conference and the help it will give to all of us who strive to serve and connect guests….and it’s coming in just a few weeks from now! Get a $20 off code from me here.

To say this is a challenging year to be a spiritual leader would be an understatement. After quarantining for months, protests breakout that have polarized the culture we serve so severely that it has politicized whether your church even reopens or remain closed. How can we stay focused on the right thing when forces are pulling us to one extreme or the other, especially when so much is at stake for guests?

For years, most churches offer a welcome gift in exchange for a guest’s contact information so they can start building a relationship with them. But what if that giveaway no longer works in an online service? Here are 3 reasons a guest will share their contact info with you online.

Amazing. People are now finding a church in the same way they find a show they want to binge on Netflix. This has given me 3 realizations about connecting with them as “on demand viewers”.