Consider John Wesley, one of the greatest Christian preachers who ever lived, as an example. Nathan Busenitz, at the Cripplegate Blog, recently wrote an article titled “John Wesley’s Failed Marriage.” In this passage from Stephen Tomkins’ biography on Wesley, he quotes a couple biographies about Wesley, and some statements about Wesley’s marriage are startling:

• When Wesley left for a ministry tour in Ireland in 1758, Molly reported that her husband’s parting words to her were: “I hope I shall see your wicked face no more” (p. 155).
• “Reunited in England, they clashed violently—Wesley refusing to change his writing habits [of sending affectionate letters to other women] and Molly accusing him of adultery and calling down on him, in her own words, ‘all the curses from Genesis to Revelation’” (p. 155).
• “Almost the sole surviving record of this marriage from Molly’s side dates from December 1760, when she said Wesley left a meeting early with one Betty Disine and was seen still with her the following morning. She told him ‘in a loving manner to desist from running after strange women for your character is at stake’” (p. 159).
• “In 1771, Molly announced that she was leaving John again. On 23 January, the Journal reports, ‘For what I cause I know not to this day, [my wife] set out for Newcastel, purposing “never to return.” I did not leave her: I did not send her away: I will not call her back.” (p. 174).

How could the father of Methodism have such a glaring blind spot? I don’t know. But don’t assume that you and I are immune from such blind spots.

Continue reading.

Sign up to receive weekly WorshipIdeas every Tuesday morning in your email:

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

 

We guarantee 100% privacy.
Your information will not be shared.

Todd Rhoades on why you can’t stop now.

Whew!

Easter is over.

For many dynamic churches, this meant extra services and quite possibly the highest attendance of the year.

And now you’re probably exhausted.

But you can’t stop now.

You see, it’s pretty easy to get people to come to church on Sunday. But I think your main goal is getting them to return the week after Easter.

Many of the crowd you saw Sunday won’t be back. Ever. And some won’t be back until Christmas.

And most of us didn’t accept Christ the first time we heard the gospel.

Which makes the week AFTER Easter vitally important and a great opportunity.

If your visitors yesterday had a good experience, now is the time to invite them back and invite them to start a new journey.

Yet few churches capitalize on this opportunity.

Hopefully you gathered good information on your visitors yesterday. Today you might want to:

1. Plan your services with something in mind for your new folks that return.

2. Send a nice letter (or better yet, a hand-written note) from the pastor to those who attended yesterday and encourage them to come back.

3. Offer something new for new people. (People always feel out of place when visiting a church… make them feel like they won’t be alone).

4. It’s kind of late to the game, but if you did marketing for Easter, follow up with some advertising for the week after Easter.

Here’s a good article from Rick Warren on post-Easter follow-up and strategy I think you’ll find helpful.

Vocal coach Chris Beatty answers this question from a concerned mother.

Your Question:

My daughter’s school trains children on musical instruments, which is great. But there’s no systematic voice training because they are afraid of injuring the undeveloped voice. I get that, but can’t a qualified teacher teach a lot of good habits and principles without risking damage? She’s ready to learn and we want her to be encouraged, not held back. Can you help me present my case?

My Answer

I totally understand where people on both sides of this argument are coming from. On one side, parents/teachers are trying to protect the young, not-fully-developed voice. On the other hand, children love singing, shouldn’t they learn the right way? Especially since they will be imitating pop recordings of singers who had lots of electronic help making those sounds.

Continue reading.

Sign up to receive weekly WorshipIdeas every Tuesday morning in your email:

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

 

We guarantee 100% privacy.
Your information will not be shared.

Garrison Smith: you might be in the wrong job if you don’t want to try every available strategy to share the Gospel.

In college I was taught McCarthy’s 4 P’s of Marketing.

Product. Price. Promotion. Place.

The product is what you are selling to the consumer (i.e. candy bar, life insurance, trip to Disneyland). Price is what the consumer is willing to pay for the product (i.e. $1.25, $100 per month, Too much). Promotion is how you communicate information about what you are selling (i.e. TV ads, radio commercials, email marketing). Place is where the consumer is able to purchase the product (i.e. grocery store, over the phone, online).

This was the lens we filtered all our research and insights through in order to come up with a strategy for a brand. Addressing these points does not guarantee a recipe for a successful brand, but it helps establish a strong foundation for the rest of the campaign.

In 1990, Robert F. Lauterborn argued another lens to view advertising and marketing through: the Four C’s:

Consumer. Cost. Communication. Convenience.

Lauterborn suggests the consumer is no longer who you are selling to but it is identifying the wants and the desires they have that your product can solve. The cost is no longer just a dollar sign because it costs more than just money to invest in something. Gaining awareness and engagement is no longer about shouting information from rooftops, rather it is about engaging in a conversation. How readily available your good or service is more important that traditional means of interaction.

While the landscape these principles were suggested in has changed dramatically in the last 20 years, they still act as a framework to think about how we position brands – in our case, the church.

WHAT DOES ALL THIS MARKETING AND ADVERTISING HAVE TO DO WITH CHURCH?

The reality is, the church is one of the worst marketers and advertisers in the world today. Take a look at any of the church signs around your town that make you cringe because of their puns, shame-filled statements, or cheesy cultural analogies. It is time we completely overhauled the way church does marketing and advertising. I think one practical way is to think through the Four C’s in the context of your local church.

1. Consumer – From the perspective of the church, the consumer’s wants and desires are pretty easy to put a finger on. While we understand the desires of our heart as inherently evil (Jeremiah 17:9), there are common desires that are hardwired in every human being: love, acceptance, hope, purpose, etc. If we identify those as the wants and needs of the world, the church is perfectly positioned to address those desires.

Continue reading.

Sign up to receive weekly WorshipIdeas every Tuesday morning in your email:

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

 

We guarantee 100% privacy.
Your information will not be shared.

Kevin D. Hendricks: It can be a crazy week for church communicators.

Yesterday we remembered Christ’s triumphant march into Jerusalem with waving palm branches. And so begins the inevitable march to Easter, your last-minute, last-ditch effort to get everything done during Holy Week and before Easter Sunday. It can be a crazy week for church communicators, and honestly, it’s too late to launch anything new. So we’ve got three simple things to help you out this week: Prayer, Peace & Post Personally.

1. Prayer First and foremost, this is a good time to pray. One of the first things West Ridge Church communications director Phil Bowdle mentioned when talking about Easter during our debut sneak peek podcast was prayer: “We’re focusing a lot on prayer. We often get so wrapped up in our own plans and ideas and here’s how we want it to go. But we know nothing of eternal significance happens apart from prayer. So for us, even as a team, we’re trying to focus on that side of it too, and pray that God will use Easter services here and all over in a big way.”

Continue reading.

Ava Pennington: Realize things will go wrong.

Basketball has March Madness.

Football has Superbowl Sunday.

Baseball has the World Series.

The Church has…Easter.

Christmas may be an eventful season for churches and ministry leaders. But the busyness and ministry stress of Christmas is often surpassed by the church version of Superbowl Sunday: Easter.

Easter weekend – when every service must meet the high expectations of the congregation. The pastor and worship team have to strike the right note in each scheduled service. The solemnity of Maundy Thursday. The somberness of Good Friday. The silence of Saturday as everyone holds their breath for the big game: Easter Sunday.

The day when unsaved husbands finally accompany their wives to church. When unbelieving grandparents endure a church service to watch grandchildren dressed in Easter finery sing a sweet song about Jesus. When people you haven’t seen since Christmas – and won’t see again till next Christmas – show up to prove that of course they’re Christians.

To please the faithful and the not-so-faithful, pastors and ministry leaders end up walking a tightrope. Don’t talk about money. Don’t talk about hell. Well, maybe a little mention of hell is okay since that’s what the resurrection saves us from. Don’t overdo the old hymns, and don’t play the praise choruses too loud. Everything has to be perfect.

But this is not a game. Not a sport. Not a show. And perfection? Not a chance.

So before Easter arrives, now is the time to manage expectations.

Things will go wrong.

Not might. Not could. Things will go wrong. The microphone will cut out in the middle of a solo. The lights won’t be centered properly on the worship dance. Greeters and parking lot volunteers will call in sick at the last minute. It happens. And Murphy’s Law says it will happen at the absolute worst time.

If your church is advancing the kingdom of God, the enemy will not be happy. And he will make his unhappiness known. Expect it. Roll with it. Maybe even laugh at the certainty that something will go wrong. Then, by the grace of God and his enabling, move forward in the knowledge that whatever the hitch, it cannot take away from the victory we are celebrating.

Continue reading.