...on Typepad :) 

Seriously, I am still going to be sharing quality content and giving away from stuff. I'm just going to be doing it from my new blog home: bobfranquiz.net

I decided to switch to Wordpress and the great Tony McCollum did a fantastic job building the new blog (seriously, you should hire him to do yours as well). 

Anyway, here's the new RSS feed so you can still read it through Google reader or whoever else you're using -----> Link to new feed

By the way, check out the site. I think you'll like it. 

See you over there! 

With Mother's Day this weekend, I thought I'd share a couple of FREE resources that I believe will help you as you reach out...

1. Start Here - I wrote a book that we give away to those who make the decision to follow Jesus at Calvary. I'm giving away a pdf copy of the book. Click here to request a free copy. 

2. 5 Steps to Making Facebook your greatest Evangelist - There's still time to use Facebook ads to invite your community to your Mother's Day services. Click here to request a Special Report I wrote called, "5 Steps to Making Facebook your greatest Evangelist". The report is free. 

I pray these resources are a blessing to you! 

Historically, churches usually break out their best Proverbs 31 message on Mother's Day and moms leave feeling inadequate for the task of being a mom. 

Over the years I've taken a different approach. Instead of focusing on moms on Mother's Day, I focus on talking about family. Why? 

Mother's Day is the one day that mom can get even the most hardened unbeliever to come to church, simply because she says, "All I want for Mother's Day is for my whole family to go to church together." 

So to only preach to mom is a wasted opportunity to reach the whole family. 

My advice to you: preach a message that the whole family can relate to. A message that even that hardened unbeliever can walk away knowing that message spoke to him or her as well.  

If you do that, you'll see the number of first time decisions increase because you spoke to the whole family rather than just mom. 

I make no apologies that I believe Mother's Day is the 2nd best day (only after Easter) of the year to reach people. Historically, it's been the 2nd highest attended service of the year at Calvary and also our 2nd highest day of people making decisions for Jesus. 

Here's a couple of tips for making Mother's Day big: 

1. Mobilize your congregation

2. Use Facebook to get the word out 

3. Do free Mother's day portraits for families 

4. Use direct mail to your list (those that are connected to your church in some way

5. Email your list and remind them 

This can be a huge Sunday for your church. I pray we make the most of every opportunity afforded to us and use it to reach people with the Gospel. 

Most churches experienced lower attended services the Sunday after Easter. Some Pastors will get depressed. Those of us who understand the tides, know that the weekend after a huge Sunday that attendance usually dips a bit.  

Here's the thing: don't stop reaching out to those who showed up on Easter. Many of them will return on Mother's Day if you invite them. 

I know many churches added those newcomers to their database and they'll get the weekly emails about the upcoming weekend. 

But here's my recommendation to you: invite those first time guests specifically to attend on Mother's Day. 

Here's a few ways to do that: 

1. Mail them a personalized card with an invite to Mother's Day included

2. Use a calling service to leave a message on their voice mail

3. Email them a specific invite to Mother's Day 

4. Mail them a "lumpy" package with an invite to Easter (it could be a pen that makes the package lumpy, but lumpy mail gets opened).

5. Ask your congregation to invite those guests they brought to Easter to attend

Use any or all of these ideas to get those you reached on Easter to attend. If they come back a second time within a short period, they are much more likely to stick. 

Tomorrow I'll talk about Mother's Day and making this day huge for outreach...

As you're doing your Easter follow up, consider the following: 

1. No matter what you do, the Sunday after Easter is going to be less attended than Easter. Don't sweat it. Just accept it and move on. 

2. It's never too soon to invite your Easter guests to come back. Mail and email everyone who attended that you're hoping to see them back next week. 

3. Mother's Day is a great Sunday to invite everyone back. Do something special and Mother's Day can be a great bounce back Sunday for many of your Easter guests. 

(FYI - Mother's Day has historically been one of the biggest Sundays of the year for us at Calvary). 

If you're interested in how we maximize the calendar to reach people, check out our resource, "How to Make Every Sunday like Easter" by clicking here. 

So it's back to reality...

Easter is over, but the hard work is just beginning. Now is the time to start the follow up process of those who took next steps in your Easter services yesterday. 

Here's my advice to you: don't do anything else until all of your Easter follow up is done. 

It's too easy to move on and get busy doing other things and all the while, those who trusted Jesus yesterday are waiting to be follow up on. 

So...

1. Get that new believer material in the mail

2. Send the emails to those who took next steps 

3. Write the thank you cards to the volunteers who went above and beyond the call of duty yesterday. 

4. Make sure that all the first time guest information has been updated into your system 

Then, move on to this week's agenda items.

If you take the time to do the hard work of follow up, you'll see the results of your Easter services become lasting fruit! 

- One of the best days in Calvary's history today!

- I was blown away at the response to the Gospel. Over 100 people made a decision to follow Jesus! I love it!

- Nearly 2,000 attended one of our 3 Easter celebrations. That shattered last year's Easter record!

- The band was incredible today. 

- Our host teams were over the top as well

- Children's ministry was running better than I've ever seen it 

- Every area of ministry was running on all 8 cylinders

- I felt great about my message. We kicked off a new series called, "Inside Out" as we journey through the books of Romans

- I taught Romans 10 years ago. Funny enough, I didn't even look at my old notes. I had a message in my heart and I just let it rip.  

- Looking forward to spending the Spring & Summer teaching through this foundational book. 

- Also looking forward to having next Sunday off. If you're in South Florida and you're looking for a guest speaker, I may be available :)

- Also looking forward to hanging out with some great people and teaching at this years Exponential Conference in Orlando. I'll leading a session on "financing the mission" as part of the "Leading beyond the Launch" pre-conference intensive. 

- Here's the link if you want to sign up. If not, just come by and say hi. 

- Have a great week following up with those who took significant next steps!

One of the easiest ways to get contact information is to ask for it in different environments. Here's a couple of ways to do that:

#1 - So if a first time guest is checking in children, make sure you get their contact information in your Children's Ministry. This way, if they make a decision in the service but don't fill out all of their info on the connection card, you still have the completed info from their children's check-in.

#2 - When you present the Gospel, let those who make a decision know that you want to mail them a book as a gift to help them take their first few steps of faith. I always mention my book "Start Here" and I have a copy on the pulpit which I show them. This will get more people to give their contact info. 

#3 - Have an area for guests to get free stuff - we call this "the 10 minute party". We didn't come up with this idea, but our goal here is to give away some free stuff and have the guests sign our "guest book", which gives us their information as well. 

Some will say, "So you're asking people to fill their info out 3 times?" Yes, but most aren't filling it out all 3 times. We have 3 places to capture info and our hope is to get it so we can help them take their next step of faith. Because as I mentioned yesterday, you can't follow up with those whose contact information you don't have. 

For a complete follow up resource for New Believers, check out our New Believer Follow up System by clicking here.