With one BILLION internet users how is the church going to respond and take advantage of the future. Check out this video:

I don’t even feel the current online church is what church online in the future will be like.  What are your thoughts?

HEY CHURCH LEADERS: Do you want to double or even triple your ministry impact in 12 to 18 months?

Then you need to check out the Exponential Pastor/Church Planter Mentoring Program with Bil Cornelius.

Pastor Bil’s goal is to provide the insights that helped Bay Area double from 200 to 400, then double again to 800, then double to 1600, then again to over 3,000 and even then, double to over 6,000!

If you are interested, the first scheduled day is December 8, all day. Bil will meet with no more than 15 to 20 leaders, and will help create a customized plan for growth. Here’s what you will learn:

1. How to raise money for the dream and go beyond “financial survival.”
2. How to create a buzz in your city about your church.
3. How to attract and keep a crowd.
4. How to break growth barriers quickly.
5. How to change your leadership to accommodate what is needed to sustain the growth.

Read more about the program [HERE]

Check out this short video from Bil:

This is a great quote found on a wall at the Kansas City Chiefs.

“Losers assemble in small groups and complain about the coaches and other players.  Winners assemble as a team and find ways to WIN.”

Are you assembling around the water cooler to complain?  Are you complaining about your boss or pastor or leader? How about the next time you assemble you assemble to pray (and not those gossipy types of prayers) pray for your leaders and lets make a difference in your organization.

What crowd are you circulating in????

I found it here via @nsween

It’s no wonder Disney delivers the difference in excellence and customer service…it’s drilled down to every employee cast member.  I happened across these points in an article on excellence and think there is a huge take-away for churches and church staffs.

The Disney Difference:

• It’s what sets us apart from other companies.
• It’s the way we do things at WDW Resort for our cast and our guests.
• It’s the pride we feel because we’re a part of this special family.
• It’s an environment where people feel comfortable and welcome.
• It’s a place where people care about their jobs and each other.
• It’s that feeling of being a part of something really special.
• It’s the basis for everything we do.

These are points that every cast member at Disney is infused with as they set out to create environments of excellence that keep crowds coming back again and again.

Imagine if every church could add that kind of difference to their organization.

[ht Christian Standard]

If you want your church to grow…you will need to deal with six barriers that will hold it back:

1. Vision - Do you have a vision to reach out?  Do you have a vision to grow?  What is it that you want your church to do and be?
2. Leadership - You want your church to grow…it starts by growing yourself as a leader…you will have to become a different leader at every level to break each barriers.
3. Team - Do you have the team to break through these barriers? You either need to grow them or replace them.
4. Presentation - Hands down you will need to be a dynamic communicator.  You need to work on your communication skills.
5. Follow-Through – You must be able to follow-through with your vision and goals with your team.  Execution is a key trait to getting to new levels.
6. Community - You must find ways to connect with your community.  Most churches want the community to beat down their doors…but…are we beating our doors down to the community.

What are some other barriers you have found?  Or how do you see breaking through some of these?

Here are two great FREE resources to help you go to another level by planning out your teaching/preaching for the year:

• Developing a Preaching Calendar – This is a great series I created here at JasonCurlee.com to help get you started.  Loaded with practical tips and guidance this is a great resource to get you going. Click [HERE]
• Develop Your Preaching Calendar Training – This is a great audio resource free from Nelson Searcy at Church Leader Insights.  Nelson says that by planning your preaching calendar in advance, you can lower your stress, increase the creativity of your team and leverage the calendar more effectively than ever before! Click [HERE]

In this video I talk about marketing and the church and how you don’t get a harvest planting one seed.

…For Halloween?

Actually do you think Christians should participate in Halloween?  Can you do it modestly?  What about those Church “Harvest Fests”?

Let’s do it…get the dialog started.

Here is an excerpt of a great post by Michael Hyatt, make sure you go read the entire post called “Five Ways To Energize Your Team“:

…at the end of the day, everyone is a volunteer. People will only go so far in the performance of a duty. If you want their very best, you have to have their hearts. You can’t demand this or even buy it with a paycheck. You have to earn it.

In my experience, there are five ways to do this:

1. Assume others are smart and working hard.
2. Listen intently and ask thoughtful questions.
3. Acknowledge the sacrifices others have made on your behalf.
4. Express gratitude for their effort and their results.
5. Remind them why their work is so important and the difference they are making.

Been busy as of late and thought I was a little due for an update of what I’ve been working on.

• baf | 5 points – our campus for the first time has hit over 250 people in average attendance for our first time ever on a 10 week average.  We have worked so hard as a team and are poised to continue to reach new levels.  This alone keeps me extremely busy as I spend a lot of time developing and working with my team.
• baf | multi-site – so the word on the baf streets is that we are starting SIX campuses in the next SIX months…well I’ve heard that might be SEVEN but who’s counting.  No kidding we are about to go into a MASSIVE campus birthing process.  This is going to stretch our team which is led by Pastor John Atkinson to the limits.
• graphics – last week I made 17 different graphics between advertising and campus screen and online graphics.  My brain was fried.
• CPMP – I’m in the process of designing a Campus Pastor Mentoring Program that I’m going to use to help prepare someone that may want to become a campus pastor in our system.  I am initially taking two guys from my campus through the program.  It’s loaded with books, audios, videos, practical ministry work, and may even culminate with them taking the reigns of my campus for two weeks.  Still working it all out and am not sure on the length of time it will last.
• baf | 5 points online – we have been spending a lot of time developing and using our online presence…with a facebook, twitter and web page we feel our campus has a lot of interaction points each week.
• follow-up systems – I’ve been working with one of my leaders on the first response team which does the follow up at our campus.  We are now working to track everything online from 1st time guests to 1st time salvations.  This will enable us to help people walk through their next steps.