What goals have you set for your ministry? Before you jump in and start setting goals, think through which types of goals you should consider. In The One Thing, authors Gary Keller and Jay Papasan talk about how leaders need to set “big and specific” goals. I’ve reflected on this handy rubric for thinking through the […]

Welcome to this week’s unSeminary podcast and thank you for joining us. I’m honored to talk today with Bobby Herrington, the executive pastor at Mercy Hill Church in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Mercy Hill started in 2012 as a plant of the Summit Church, and is now one of the fastest growing churches in the country. Mercy Hill has an attractional-feel with a simple church model; their primary goal to be gospel-centered in everything they do. As Bobby says, they don’t want anything to be offensive to people except the gospel. They have had exponential growth since their plant four years ago and have seen the church attendance double each year.

Bobby is with us today to talk about how they grew their church and how you can incorporate these ideas into your own church.

* Plug into the body of Christ. // During Mercy Hill’s beginning, the church held services on Sunday nights in a clubhouse at a local park. It wasn’t the ideal setting, but it worked to get the church started. Bobby admits they didn’t think enough about assimilation when the church was planted. Their membership class focused primarily on the theological beliefs of the church, but other than signing a covenant members were not asked to take next steps or contribute in any way.. It was a simple set up and this worked for the first year and a half, but then Mercy Hill realized that this method was not actually helping people get plugged into church life. They were getting people to hear the gospel, but they weren’t really doing anything else.

* Change the ways to plug into the church. // As Mercy Hill grew, they realized they needed to change their assimilation structure. At the same time they decided to rework the assimilation process, they also happened to be shifting their services from Sunday nights to Sunday mornings. Revamping everything created even more opportunities for growth and Mercy Hill and went from 300 to 900 people within a 3 to 4 month period. So what did they change? During this time, they shut down all of the “doors” for getting involved in the church except for their new Weekender process. This new experience became the single way to get connected and plugged in at Mercy Hill. Currently it’s held once a month over the course of a weekend, but Mercy Hill reminds their community about it almost every single Sunday of the year. Now when people bring friends who are interested in becoming connected to the church, everyone knows that the only way to get involved is through the Weekender.

* Plug people into doing something. // The Weekender was created to help people take their next steps at Mercy Hill – from the beginning the church wanted it to focus on more than just affirming beliefs and signing a covenant. The Weekender takes place once a month over a Friday night, Saturday morning, and Sunday morning. There were those who doubted that the process would work since it would require a high commitment: people would need to give up 6 hours of their weekend to attend. But during the first year alone over 400 people attended the Weekender and got plugged in! The Weekender continues to be a a successful way to assimilate new people into the church.

You can learn more about Mercy Hill Church at their website mercyhillgso.com.

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 podcast on iTunes,

Welcome to this week’s unSeminary podcast and thank you for joining us. I’m honored to talk today with Bobby Herrington, the executive pastor at Mercy Hill Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. Mercy Hill started in 2012 as a plant of the Summit Church, and is now one of the fastest growing churches in the country. […]

Prevailing churches always look for ways to grow their leaders. Although training often takes the form of traveling to conferences or visiting other churches, we also need to take advantage of smaller moments to push our team to think differently and grow. This can be as simple as giving your team something to read over and then leading a conversation about how it relates to your church. Here are links to 5 FREE PDFs and MP3s that you could use to drive training with your team:

Leadership Personalities Needed for Your Church Team

I’ve had the privilege of seeing some high-performing teams up close. There is a common characteristic of a healthy tension in the variety of personalities that make up those groups. Here are 4 different personalities that seem to be common to those teams.

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Help Unchurched Guests Feel Welcome Without Selling Out

How can we create spaces where people feel welcome at our churches regardless of their spiritual background? What can we do to ensure that unchurched people know they are welcome every weekend? How can we do this in a way that doesn’t compromise the core of our experiences, if we’re concerned about that? This PDF includes 7 ways to help unchurched people feel welcome that don’t impact our teaching or music ministries.

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Dealing with Short Attention Spans

Rather than bemoaning shrinking attention spans, church leaders need to face this reality head on and structure our ministry for people who lose focus easily. For too long, the church has ignored these realities. We do so at great risk of losing our ability to connect with the broader culture. We have to adjust to the times. Here are a few ways that any church can deal with people’s diminished ability to focus.

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Pastoral Tips for Non-Pastoral Types

Even if we aren’t in a primarily “caring” role, we need to care for people. Here are 6 simple tips for folks (like me!) to whom all this “people stuff” doesn’t come naturally.

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Stages of Engagement with First-Time Guests

Use these stages as discussion starters with your team to think about each step that your guests go through. Identify areas that need improvement and build a plan to improve the experience!

Prevailing churches always look for ways to grow their leaders. Although training often takes the form of traveling to conferences or visiting other churches, we also need to take advantage of smaller moments to push our team to think differently and grow. This can be as simple as giving your team something to read over and […]

Welcome to this week’s unSeminary podcast. We’re honored to have Pastor Danny Anderson with us from Emmanuel Church in Indiana.

Jim Devney founded Emmanuel Church in 1977 and Danny, who was originally the church’s high school pastor, took over in 2006 at the age of 28. The church continues to grow and became a multi-site church in 2013. Emmanuel’s message is about life and how the bible intersects with our lives. The transition from one pastor to another at Emmanuel was supposed to be a two year period easing the church into this new phase, but things didn’t work out that way and Danny took over as senior pastor more quickly than originally planned. Danny talks with us today about the bumps along the road in church transitions and how to address them.

* Honor the pastor who came before you. // If Danny could go back in time to the transition phase, he says he would honor Pastor Jim more. The previous pastor has fought for the congregation and led them, whether it be for months or years.

* Have a plan. // “Most senior pastors who are transitioning don’t have a plan,” Danny says, “and that’s a big part of the problem.” What are the steps your church needs to take in order to make this transition as easy as possible? Without a written plan that both pastors agree on, things can quickly get ugly both behind the scenes and within the church as a whole. It causes confusion for the congregation and people begin to take sides once the tension builds between the old pastor and the new. As a result people can begin to leave the church during the process.

* Lean on your elders. // Danny encourages any pastors going through the transition of taking over as senior pastor to get buy-in from the elders and lean heavily on them. “Without their strength and support, you’re just not going to make it,” Danny says. Talk to your elders about your vision for the church and the path you plan to take. Their belief and support in you can ease the transition for the rest of the congregation.

* Make communication and evangelism clear. // When Danny took over in 2006, things seemed to be heading downhill as a large number of people left the church. But in 2008, they noticed that people were bringing their friends and the numbers were growing again. Danny believes the reason for this is because they were communicating openly with the congregation about their vision for the church to reach people in the community. Danny was practicing evangelism in his personal life and he showed others how to do it themselves. This allowed the congregation to feel connected to the church and really want to bring other people into it. Additionally Danny sought to be authentic in how he lead the church. As he explains, “People today are looking for the pastor to be authentic…you have to open up your life.” People want to invite their friends if the communication from the platform is inspirational and transformational.

You can learn more about Emmanuel Church at their website www.eclife.org. You can email Danny at [email protected] and you can find his blog at DannyAnderson.net.

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 podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet...

Welcome to this week’s unSeminary podcast. We’re honored to have Pastor Danny Anderson with us from Emmanuel Church in Indiana. Jim Devney founded Emmanuel Church in 1977 and Danny, who was originally the church’s high school pastor, took over in 2006 at the age of 28. The church continues to grow and became a multi-site […]

Executive Pastors sit in an important role in the local church today. They often find themselves at the intersection of the “organism” of the church community and the “organization” of the business of running the church.

When moments of crisis or concern arise, Executive Pastors need to seek the advice of other community leaders. Now is the time to build these relationships. Could you call the following people today if there was an issue at your church?

* Human Resources Specialist // Navigating the complexity of building a staff team to push the mission forward can be a daunting task. Ensuring best practices in human resources can be a lot to figure out. In a moment of crisis with a team member, you need to be able to pick up the phone quickly and get straightforward answers because a timely response is often at the core of building healthy teams.

* Contract Lawyer // Finding a lawyer who helps companies sort through contractual obligations can save the church time and money. It also ensures that you don’t bind the church to something that could negatively affect the ministry. At their simplest form, contracts are ways for organizations to talk about how they are going to relate to each other; however, they are also tools to extract value out of another entity. Too many churches have made bad deals because no one looked closely at how the relationship was structured in their contracts.

* Child Protective Services Social Worker // One of the areas of greatest vulnerability for a church is in the programming we provide for kids and teenagers. Sometimes, through the course of normal interactions with these young people, flags are raised about home situations that are less than ideal. Ensuring that you have someone you can talk to when any issues come up will give you comfort to serve your community well.

* Community Police Officer // What happens when the youth event on Friday night gets a little out of hand and the neighbors call the police? Or how do you deal with the fact that you anticipate twice as many people at Easter this year from a parking and community point of view? Having a police officer on hand to get some advice on dealing with these sorts of situations helps the church be a better corporate citizen and have a better witness too!

* Executive Pastor at a Larger Church // We all need to be stretched by people who lead ministries at a higher level than we are. But even more importantly, it’s good to have friends who can support us when we have questions. A peer from a larger ministry can provide insight and direction when you feel stuck. Often, they can see problems more clearly and provide quick solutions to help your church get unstuck.

4 Guidelines for How to Win and Influence Leaders to Help Your Church

* Don’t Abuse the Contact // They are not just around to help you. Build a relationship with them because they are great not because they can be a great help to you.

* Allow Off-the-Record “Opinions” // Often, these people can’t speak in an official capacity when you ask them a question. Allow them to give you their opinions in a way that protects their professionalism.

* Network Them // You are in a spot as a church leader where you have lots of contacts that these leaders might need professionally. Make those connections where it seems appropriate.

* Always Loop Back to Thank Them // If people go out of their way to help you with something, make sure you go out of your way to thank them. A handwritten thank-you note is always a winner — and a lost art form.

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Executive Pastors sit in an important role in the local church today. They often find themselves at the intersection of the “organism” of the church community and the “organization” of the business of running the church. When moments of crisis or concern arise, Executive Pastors need to seek the advice of other community leaders. Now […]

Thank you for joining us today for this episode of the unSeminary podcast. We have Kevin Peck from Austin Stone Community Church in Austin, Texas with us today.

Austin Stone began 15 years ago and now has seven campuses at five locations in and around Austin. Kevin began working with the church about a year after it first began, when he moved back to Austin to take care of his father. Kevin currently works as the lead pastor in conjunction with the original founder of the church, Matt Carter, who has the role of pastor of preaching.

Kevin is with us today to talk about leadership development within the church and how Austin Stone is handling this part of their ministry.

* Make leadership development a core conviction. // The truth is the leaders of your church won’t be there forever. At Austin Stone, they decided early on that developing the next generation of leaders within the church was a key issue if they were going to continue to reach the lost in their community. As new people come to the church, it serves to strengthen this conviction for leadership development. Austin Stone has made this so much of their DNA that it would be abnormal not to work on leadership development and raise up future leaders.

* Keep tweaking the constructs. //As time moves forward, people will change and the culture will change, so the constructs you use to develop leaders will also need to change. The conviction will remain the same, but always be willing to change the constructs and tweak them to suit current needs.

* Leadership is theologically about plurality. // Austin Stone strongly holds that leadership development has a theological basis, and that is the plurality of leadership. From the beginning, God chose to demonstrate the image of God not through just one person, but through Adam and Eve. Another example in scripture: we see Moses trying to do leadership on his own and it doesn’t work. There needs to be more than one person in order to make leadership succeed. As Kevin explains, “Listen, what’s best for the church is for people not to be hinged on our abilities, our talents…but it should be hinged on this plural leadership so that if one leader either dies or gets sent across the seas or falls in ministry, all of those things God has already taken care of by offering to us the wisdom and grace of plural leadership.” In this way the church isn’t dependent upon one person and isn’t left trying to fill a void with people who aren’t ready or who aren’t capable of taking on one large role.

* Have a clear articulated leadership pipeline. // Make becoming a leader within your church a clear path for anyone who is interested. That doesn’t mean that everyone who wants to become a deacon, for example, will become one, but the path to deaconship needs to be there and laid out well for those who want to follow it. This can be an application and interview process, or any other process that might work best for your church. The important thing is to have specific next steps so individuals know what is required for the job and what process needs to be completed in order to move forward.

You can learn more about Austin Stone at their website austinstone.org and you can reach Kevin on Twitter @_KPeck_.

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 podcast on iTunes,