Carey Nieuwhof is a leader you need to follow and I count him as a friend. He is kicking off a brand new podcast, The Canadian Church Leader’s Podcast, and I’m honored to have him guest post here today at unSeminary. The Top 5 Canadian Church Myths It’s Time to Bust by Carey Nieuwhof You’ve probably […]

Thanks so much for spending some of your day with us at the unSeminary podcast. Today we have a great guest with us, Kent Jacobs of Epic Church.

Epic Church started in 2008 and is experiencing tremendous growth in Philadelphia. In the northeast part of the country, most people either have no church background or else follow a pretty traditional church experience. Epic Church is a multi-site church that is different from the usual church experience in the northeast. They are multi-cultural, reflecting the makeup of the city, and they always include a practical application as part of their services, which means giving an action step to lead their congregation into applying what they’ve just learned.

The name Epic stands for Every Person In the City and Kent is with us today to talk about that mission to make disciples in this urban center.

* Strategy and process. // A lot of what Epic does is as Kent describes “five loaves and two fish.” They simply go out and do their work, providing what people need when they need it. But there is also a lot of strategy, process and methodology. When a church is experiencing growth, church leaders tend to be less likely to continually improve their strategies for reaching the lost. But if there is a plateau or even a decline in attendance, they are more motivated to examine these processes. What is not working? What can be done to attract those individuals and new ones back to the church? As Kent explains, some of the mystery of church growth can be removed if we look at the basic processes.

* Look at your back and front doors. // You need to take a good look at your back door and figure out how to retain who God’s already brought, but you also need to take a look at your front door. Do everything you can to create an inviting culture that attracts people into community. Someone once told Kent that church growth is directly related to the number of first time guests. The more you create an invitational culture and are intentional about interacting with first time guests, the more likely you’ll be to retain some of those people. As Kent notes: “The point of the church is the great commission…we want to make disciples who make disciples, but that all starts by someone attending.” Ask what are the church’s strategies around getting new people through the front door.

* Connect with guests and regular attendees. // Epic uses connection cards to connect with everyone, not just the first time guests. They have deliberately set time aside during the service when they ask everyone to fill out the connection card. Here people can let the church know where they need prayer, as well as what is the next step they are taking. Connection cards promote engagement, help the staff to connect with people, and demonstrate that the church cares. Intentionally making the connection cards part of the service, instead of something mentioned in passing at the end, encourages everyone to participate in filling them out.

* Work with the tools you have to invite people. // A lot of churches use business cards that tell a little about the church and where they’re located. Epic has those too, but they also use social media to create a digital version of the invite. One of the action steps on the back of the connection card is to invite a friend to church the next week. This is something that is encouraged every week, and every week the church gives people an invite card to use. The invite cards look the same all year, except when there is a specific event the church wants to emphasize and encourage people to attend. This card, whether in print or online, coupled with someone encouraging their friend to attend Epic Church, is a huge step in helping new people feel welcome and connecting them with the church.

You can learn more about Epic Church at their web...

Thanks so much for spending some of your day with us at the unSeminary podcast. Today we have a great guest with us, Kent Jacobs of Epic Church. Epic Church started in 2008 and is experiencing tremendous growth in Philadelphia. In the northeast part of the country, most people either have no church background or […]

Welcome to this week’s unSeminary podcast and thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to join us.

Today we’re honored to have Carey Nieuwhof with us. Carey is the founding and teaching pastor of Connexus Church just north of Toronto. Carey describes Canada as being a post-modern, post-Christian country. Going to church is the minority among the people. Most traffic on Sundays is caused by people going shopping or to the beach, not to church. In spite of these statistics, most Canadians do consider themselves spiritual, although they have no affiliation with a church.

Carey has spent his life looking for new ways to reach the culture as well as helping church leaders with develop their own leadership. He talks with us on this podcast about some of the ways he’s done that over the years.

* Use the culture to reach the culture. // Carey grew up in a traditional church, with stained glass, organ music and hymnals. He always wished as a young boy that the music inside the church could be more like the music outside the church. When he was preaching one day at his church, he realized that the traditional methods didn’t always work and that some things needed to change to engage the current culture and reach new people. “If we’re waiting on the culture to change, we’ll be waiting all day long,” Carey says. “We’re the ones who need to change.” Be willing to change the strategies within your church to match the current culture. We can confuse changing our methods with changing our mission, but the mission stays the same. Changing your method to reach the culture may mean changing the music during worship, altering the style of sermons, or changing the order of the service. Even contemporary churches can find themselves stuck and in need of some revitalization to continue to stay current with the changing culture.

* Take time to build relationships. // We’ve probably all been guilty of ranting on social media at one time or another, but attacking people in the world for the way they live is not going to win them to Christ. When we rant about things we don’t agree with, we can’t be surprised when the world doesn’t come running to join us at church. In all honesty, some Christians may see unchurched people as below them, or as projects that need to be fixed rather than people that God loves. There may be people that you don’t like or lifestyles you don’t agree with, but if you treat these people as if they are projects, or act like you don’t like them, how will they then hear that God loves them? The reality is human beings are going to the people they feel truly love them. As Carey notes: “In building relationships you need to have a lot of empathy—and empathy doesn’t mean agreement. If you don’t have a relationship, there is no way you can have influence in somebody’s life.”

* Invest in that relationship. // Building relationships with unchurched people takes time and intentionality. Make time in your schedule for that relationship. Plan activities together, such as bike rides or meeting for coffee. And don’t give up even when it doesn’t seem that you’re impacting them. Take the initiative as a leader to reach out to them because unchurched people won’t come to you first.

You can learn more about Connexus Church at their website connexuschurch.com or connect with Carey at careynieuwhof.com.

Learn more about UNREASONABLE CHURCHES.

All month we’re celebrating 3 years of the unSeminary podcast and anticipating the launch of my new book … UNREASONABLE CHURCHES | 10 Churches Who Zagged When Others Zigged and Saw More Impact Because of it.

Welcome to this week’s unSeminary podcast and thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to join us. Today we’re honored to have Carey Nieuwhof with us. Carey is the founding and teaching pastor of Connexus Church just north of Toronto. Carey describes Canada as being a post-modern, post-Christian country. Going to […]

Hey, everybody, and welcome to the unSeminary podcast. I’ve been looking forward to this podcast and am excited to share it with you all. Today we have Dave and Scott from Redeemer Dubai.

Dave and his wife started Redeemer Dubai after praying for guidance on where to go to help lead people to Christ. They stopped in Dubai between ministries in China and Kenya and were fascinated by what they saw. Dubai is a fast growing city, but there was no healthy Christian church in downtown Dubai. They decided to put down roots there and arrived in August 2008 to plant a church in the center of the city. About eighteen months after arriving, they helped launched Redeemer Dubai. Meanwhile Scott and his wife moved to Dubai in 2014. After struggling with health issues for several years in India where they were helping to plant a church, they were praying for where the Lord would lead next. A meeting with Dave in Dubai during a layover started the conversation and soon after they moved to Dubai to help further build Redeemer Dubai.

Today Dave and Scott share a bit of their church’s story as well as how they are raising up leaders to serve the city.

* Get to know the people and the city. // Dave and his family moved suddenly into Dubai without really knowing the city and the people that lived there. So their first mission was to get to know the culture. They prayed that the Lord would lead them to be a blessing to the city. They started walking around the city and meeting the people and shopkeepers there. Instead of diving in immediately to launch the church, Dave took the time to get to know the people in the city. It was eighteen months before Redeemer Dubai was launched, but Dave remained confident in the Lord’s ability to lead him toward developing a relationship with the people there and reaching them.

* Develop partnerships. // When launching Redeemer, Dave partnered with a church on the outskirts of the city. This church sent them money and people to help develop the church and give them credibility within the city. Finding a core that will partner with the vision God has given you and support you in this difficult stage is critical in church planting. This support is especially important in areas or cultures you may not be familiar with. A partnership with another church or people in the community can give you wisdom on where to start to reach the people there.

* Find people with an interest in the church. // Reaching out toward people who are interested in or curious about the church is one of the key parts of starting a new church. Dave began by making a list of the people he had met and friends of friends who might be interested in joining Redeemer Dubai. From there, church planters started reaching out to interested individuals through lunches or visits. These people helped get the word out about the church among their friends.

* Get everyone engaged in the mission. // One of the missions of Redeemer Dubai is not just to have a place of fellowship, but also to reach out to others by sharing the gospel message. They do that by teaching all of their members how to reach out to their friends and people they meet, what it means to sit down with someone and read scriptures, to share with both believers and those unfamiliar with Christianity. They also use the church to build leaders through a program called Church Dependent Theological Education. It provides theological education on a higher level, but they don’t try to replicate a seminary. They focus on providing knowledge about theological development and hope to create leaders that can then go out and plant churches around the world.

To learn more about Redeemer Dubai, or to get in touch with Dave and Scott, visit the church’s website at 

Hey, everybody, and welcome to the unSeminary podcast. I’ve been looking forward to this podcast and am excited to share it with you all. Today we have Dave Furman and Scott Zeller from Redeemer Dubai. Dave and his wife started Redeemer Dubai after praying for guidance on where to go to help lead people to Christ. They stopped […]

Welcome back to the unSeminary Podcast. Today I’m super excited to be talking with John Finkelde again.

John is a church leader from Australia and runs an organization called Grow a Healthy Church. Australia is a very secular culture and less than 10% attend church regularly. Australians are a very independent culture probably because of their isolation as a country, and so church leaders have to work with that anti-authoritarianism that the people have developed.

* Be authentic. // Australians love people who are authentic. A phony person or a ‘holier-than-thou’ attitude won’t gain the trust of the people of Australia. For an Australian church to make an impact in its community, there has to be a deep connection with demonstrating what it’s really like to be a Christian. Live out your faith, with your struggles and failures, in an authentic way and that will shift the way non-believers view you and the Christian faith.

* Connect to non-Christians. // One of the things John has seen in growing churches is their pastors are making their own connections with non-Christians. It’s easy for a pastor to live a monastic lifestyle, working in the church office and surrounded with other believers. Pastors need to lead the way when it comes to relationship-building and connecting with people outside of the church, showing others who they are behind the pastoral title. They might do this in a variety of ways from joining a sports league or photography club to investing in community programs. When a relationship has been established, unchurched people may be more curious and willing to accept an invitation to church or another related event.

* Use Non-Sunday Connection Moments. // Create events in your church to draw people in on non-Sundays. Start an afterschool music club for young people to teach them songs and let them play instruments. Offer childcare or playdates for families. Connect with local schools through counseling or breakfast and lunch programs. You may not be able to preach the gospel in school settings, but you can offer care and support to the students and connect with them in an impactful way.

* Win people over when they’re young. // Don’t view kids’ ministry as just taking care of young people until they get older. Growing churches are extremely intentional about investing in the next generation. Children’s and youth ministries plant seeds and develop foundational faith in young people that will grow as they mature. While people can certainly come to Christ as adults, statistics have shown it’s easier to win people over before age twenty-five, when they’re locked into a lifestyle. “Get intentional, get focused, and you will bear fruit,” John says.

You can learn more about Grow a Healthy Church and John’s ministries at www.growahealthychurch.com.

Learn more about UNREASONABLE CHURCHES.

All month we’re celebrating 3 years of the unSeminary podcast and anticipating

the launch of my new book … UNREASONABLE CHURCHES | 10 Churches Who Zagged When Others Zigged and Saw More Impact Because of it. Click here to sign up on our special microsite to get a FREE SAMPLE CHAPTER & front the line access to more information about the launch.

Thank You for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podca...

Welcome back to the unSeminary Podcast. Today I’m super excited to be talking with John Finkelde again. John is a church leader from Australia and runs an organization called Grow a Healthy Church. Australia is a very secular culture and less than 10% attend church regularly. Australians are a very independent culture probably because of […]

Welcome to this week’s unSeminary podcast and thanks for joining us today. We have lead pastor Robert Manda with us from Eastern Light Presbyterian Church in Malawi in the southern part of Africa.

Eastern Light was started by South Korean missionaries in 2006. It is a church that is still growing and very focused on the Word of God. They continue to reach out to whole families in their community because the family unit is so important in Malawi.

Malawi was first colonized by Britain and gained their independence in 1964. The first missionaries in the area were British and they planted the gospel in many parts of Malawi. But when the missionaries left, there was a gap in the preaching of the Word. Robert explains that people today are very spiritually hungry and interested in hearing the gospel. But this has lead to the rise of false teachers leaving the people of Malawi vulnerable to individuals who claim to be preaching the Word and actually aren’t. The church is at a crossroads where the people may stop pursuing Christ because they are listening to these false teachings.

* Build the church through families. // Eastern Light started as a group of about ten people and now has over 500 members. They believe strongly in using families to build the church, which is the primary way they’ve grown. Invite someone in and let them hear the truth about Jesus. Then that person will tell their family about the gospel and invite them to church. In turn, those families will reach out and share the gospel with other families and the good news spreads.

* Cultivate an intimate relationship with Jesus. // A pastor can’t give the people what he himself doesn’t have. Robert explains, “We’re living in a world where everyone is busy—there are so many needs—but as church leaders we need to deliberately slow down and have time with the Lord Jesus Christ.” Robert maintains his relationship with God through private time involving prayer and reading scripture on his own, and encourages his staff to do the same.

* Work as a team. // Sharing the gospel was never meant to be the responsibility of just one person. Robert knows there is no way he can shoulder all the responsibilities of the church so it’s imperative that he works with a team. He’s blessed to work with a team of pastors, deacons and other ministry leaders in serving the community in a holistic way. Every month all the departments at Eastern Light meet for a time of discipleship and team-building. The key leaders come together to pray and share reports about what God is doing in their ministry and their part of the church. That interaction between the lead pastor and the other leaders within the church allows God to lead them one step at a time and discover how they can pray for each other for further grace and guidance.

You can learn more about the discipleship program Eastern Light provides at their website www.ptimalawi.com.

Learn more about UNREASONABLE CHURCHES.

All month we’re celebrating 3 years of the unSeminary podcast and anticipating

the launch of my new book … UNREASONABLE CHURCHES | 10 Churches Who Zagged When Others Zigged and Saw More Impact Because of it. Click here to sign up on our special microsite to get a FREE SAMPLE CHAPTER & front the line access to more information about the launch.

Thank You for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to