So I thought I’d share 5 reasons for you to keep a marriage series on the preaching calendar every year…

#1 – Preach on Marriage because it’s good for your marriage – I’ll be honest, there are times that I wanted to cancel a marriage series we had planned because Carey and I got into an argument and I didn’t feel like studying all week about how to be a great husband. The reality is, that’s exactly what I needed to do. Most of the time the disagreements are my fault anyways (haha!) and I need to get into God’s Word and straighten out my own heart. It also reminds me of things I should be doing that I may have gotten lax about.

#2 – Preach on Marriage because Your Congregation Needs It – The #1 reason people come to Calvary for counseling is due to marriage related issues. Every week many couples walk through your doors who are hanging on by a thread. For this reason, we need to be preaching a message that helps couples work through problems.

#3 – Preach on Marriage because We all Struggle – One of the most common themes I hear when I teach on marriage is, “Pastor Bob, I didn’t realize so many people are going through the same things.” Yes, all couples argue. Yes, all couples go through challenging seasons. When couples know that they aren’t alone, it gives us hope because if other came make it, so can we.

#4 – Preach on Marriage because it will Help Unchurched People – Every week I talk to couples who started attending Calvary because we they were invited to our marriage series. Unchurched people struggle in their marriages and are looking for answers on how to be happily married. I’m grateful the church can be that place where we can welcome fellow strugglers and all work together to have happy, healthy marriages.

#5 – Preach on Marriage because It Will Grow your Church – People need Jesus. Many times, marital struggles are simply the tip of the iceberg. I make no apologies that I want Calvary to grow. There are over 5 million people in Broward and Miami-Dade counties and they need to hear the Gospel. I want people to come to know Jesus and grow from infancy to maturity in their walk with God. This happens within the context of the local church. I’m not talking about numbers so we can puff ourselves up in pride. I’m talking about adding people, lives, families to the Kingdom of God. Pastors, never be ashamed for wanting for community to know Jesus and for you be one of the vessels God uses to help them grow. That’s why you got into ministry in the first place.

So preach on marriage, you’ll be glad you did.

As I’ve coached more than 2,500 pastors in the last 4 years, I can say that the path to breaking the 200 barrier in attendance isn’t difficult. However, it takes courage to do things that are next to impossible in some church settings. But for those who wish to make the bold decisions needed to reach people far from God, I believe there are 5 reasons churches don’t break 200 in attendance….

#1 – There’s No Bigger Vision Beyond Current Circumstances

A few years ago I was consulting with a church that wanted to break 200. I arrived at the church and found a sanctuary which sat only 100 people. While they were doing 2 services on Sunday, the church could not exceed 200. The diagnosis was easy. The remedy was far more difficult. The church needed to move so they could keep growing. This is why churches need to be careful when picking meeting space early on and building auditoriums later on. If you aren’t careful, the shoe will tell the foot how big it can grow. If you want our church to grow beyond your current size, there needs to be a God-sized vision, not a survival mode mentality.

#2 – There’s No Commitment to Reproduce Leaders

I tell our leaders at Calvary that you cannot build a 20 story building on a 10 story foundation. That means, for the church to further grow, we need to continue investing in leaders at every level of the organization. Everyone who serves at Calvary receives investment. The individual’s level of commitment determines what level of investment they receive. The reason is because we want to give the most training and time to those who are the most committed. Churches who want to grow beyond 200 can start this today. Gather a group of leaders and potential leaders and start investing in them. Do some teaching. Read a book together. Rub shoulders with them. Investing in leaders always returns a huge dividend.

#3 – There’s No Strategy to Reach the Community 

Growing churches know that the community isn’t going to just come to them. Churches need to get out in the community and start serving, inviting, and sharing the Gospel. Churches also need to recognize that they need unique strategies to reach those who have friends who at you church versus those who have no idea your church exists. Obviously, word of mouth costs nothing and servant evangelism costs next to nothing. So if you can’t spend money on postcards, billboards, or Facebook ads, do the things that don’t cost anything. We do an entire module in our Breaking 200 course about the Bootstrapper’s Guide to Church Outreach.

#4 – There’s No Commitment to Excellence on Sunday

Too many pastors are putting together their sermons on Saturday night and wondering why the service on Sunday doesn’t run on all 8-cylinders. I tell pastors to make an appointment with themselves during the week to study and get Sunday’s message ready. Because here’s the reality: people are judging your church based on the Sunday experience. You can have exceptional small groups, but no one will get that far unless Sunday grips them. Pastors need to understand that their greatest contribution to the church comes in the form of casting vision and preaching. I want people who attend Calvary to have the best experience possible on Sunday because that is where they are making decisions to stay or go.

#5 – There’s No Glue to Keep Those You Reach

There are few things more frustrating than reaching people through the front door and seeing them walk out the back door because there’s no process to help them stick. Unchurched people don’t know the drill when it comes to church. They attend, enjoy the service, but it’s up to us as church leaders to help them their next steps with God. That means we need to make these steps easy and strategic. That means we need to follow up with those who God brings to us. I have long said that the greatest stewardship we are given is the stewardship of people. Treat people like the gifts they are. Help them grow. Crete a process that leads them from infancy in Christ to maturity. When you do, breaking 200 won’t be a problem for very long.

Though we are in a digital age, people are still opening their mail every day.  In fact, with the flood of email we get, you actually have a better chance of standing out with an actual mail piece.

At the same time, if you don’t know what you’re doing with direct mail, you can waste a lot of money.

So, here’s 5 things you must know if you’re going to get great direct mail results: 

#1 – You must know who you’re trying to reach – most churches have no idea who they’re best equipped to reach

#2 – You must know what you’re going to say to them – Most churches are not connecting their copy with the recipients of their direct mail.

#3 – You must know why you’re reaching out – direct mail that doesn’t give a call to action doesn’t make any impact.

#4 – You must know who you’re not equipped to reach – we’re not good at reaching everyone. Focus on who you’re best equipped to reach.

#5 – You must get their attention with your copy AND your design – everyone thinks they can do this; few actually can.

So, next time you’re about to send out a mailer, at a minimum go through this list of 5 items and make sure you’re covered.  Otherwise, you’re wasting your church’s money.

To help you a little more I’ve written a short ebook for you called “Direct Mail Secrets.”

You can get for free here:

Takeaway #1: Insecurity

You remember the scene. You were probably 5 or 6 when you first saw it, but by now you’ve seen it close to 150 times. Darth Vader walks into a meeting on the Death Star and someone challenges his authority.

So what does this leader do? He decides to choke the guy until he agrees. He even throws a spiritual phrase in there to boot: “I find your lack of faith disturbing!”

What’s the deal with this guy?

It’s really simple: he’s insecure. Insecure leaders refuse to have someone disagree with them.

Let’s be honest, no one likes it when people disagree. If you do, let me recommend you ask your doctor for stronger medication!

But leadership is about fulfilling the vision for your church or organization. It’s not about the leader needing to be right.

I think that was one of the biggest problems I had when we first started our church. I was under the impression that I had to come up with all of the good ideas and solutions to our problems as a church.

Then I discovered the people that God has placed around me were really gifted and talented. They were sitting on the sidelines waiting for me to ask them for help. The day I did, a flurry of new perspectives, ideas, and solutions arose that I would have never thought of.

That’s when I realized we were all on the same team. So the question is, are you empowering your leaders to think freely and even disagree with you in a healthy manner? If you do, you’ve find some of the most innovative ideas will emerge and you’ll be a lot less stressed as a leader.

Takeaway #2: Dealing with Mistakes

Mistakes. Everyone makes them. The issue that will affect your ability to lead is, “How do you handle it when those around you make mistakes?” Let’s look at Darth Vader’s leadership on staff mistakes.

In The Empire Strikes Back, Captain Needa has made a critical error in allowing the Millennium Falcon to escape. He apologizes to the dark lord of the Sith and Darth Vader chokes him to death and says, “Apology accepted, Captain Needa.”

While we probably don’t choke people to death when they make mistakes, let’s be honest, we probably want to. No one likes mistakes, but they are going to happen. We are all going to screw things up at some point in time. That’s just a fact of life. But a truly great leader is one that can take a failure and make it an opportunity for teaching and training.

If you decide to take that moment and turn it into a lesson, we’ll gain an ally for the long haul. But we will never build trust with our teams if we humiliate them publicly and ‘choke them’ through our words and reactions.

The truth is if our team members are making mistakes, it means they’re doing something. And I’d rather have active team members making mistakes than perfect benchwarmers any day!

Takeaway#3: Trust

“I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further.” – Darth Vader

Those words must have hit Lando Calrissian like a ton of bricks. He made a deal with a leader and he broke his promise.

One of the keys to leadership is trust and when we go back on our word we lose whatever credibility we have built.

I believe Kouzes and Posner were right when they said that the foundation of all leadership is credibility in “The Leadership Challenge.” John Maxwell called it, “The Law of buy-in: People buy into the leader, then the vision.”

It only makes sense because a person can have a great vision, but without proven character very few will get on board. That’s is why when we promise to deliver something to someone on our team, we need to follow through.

The greatest leaders make a promise and keep it because they know that if a leader doesn’t have his word, then no one will be willing to follow him.

I don’t think Lando is going to make any more deals with Mr. Vader any time soon. Because a leader that alters the deal is a leader that isn’t worth following…

I hope you enjoyed these lessons from our classic villain.  I created a short ebook to help you get a few more pointers on leadership.  You can get it here free:

If you’ve broken a certain threshold, you might now be thinking about bringing on another staff member.

So how do you go about finding the right person? 

When it comes to staffing, most leaders start with a person they’re looking to hire. I believe that’s the wrong approach.

When you’re looking to add someone to your team, the place to begin is with a job description.

This is important when staff come to you and say, “I need help. Can you hire me an assistant?”

The first thing that should should happen is for that staff member to write a job description of the position.

The key here is to answer the questions:

– What skills does this person need?

– What responsibilities are required?

– What gifts and talents are needed to make this person excel in this person?

This is the only way to interview well. If we aren’t beginning from a clear job description, it’s next to impossible to interview well. Without a job description, we can decide is we like the person we’re interviewing and if they’d gel with the rest of the team (this is really important, but they won’t last if they’re in the wrong position no matter how nice they are), but we can’t discern if they’d be right for this position.

So if you’re looking to add staff, start with defining the position. Then begin the search. It will make your process easier and you’ll hire better.

To get more staffing tips get my free Church Staffing Survival Guide here:

Now we’re celebrating what God has done, following up with guests and new believers, starting a new series, getting ready for Mother’s Day…and the list goes on.

Obviously, I don’t personally do all those things.  We do it as a team.

But as the leader, people ask me all the time, How do you get your “to do’s” done?  

So here’s what I personally do…

#1 – Group tasks together – I don’t know why, but it takes me only slightly more time to respond to 5 email as it does to 30 emails. So I plan to respond to email all at the same time.

#2 – Understand Myself – My best creative energies are in the morning, so I never schedule appointments in the morning. I use that time for message prep, developing systems, and problem solving. My afternoons then become times for me to meet with people, do admin, write letters, etc… It allows me to be much more effective.

#3 – To Do Lists – If I don’t have a list on my desk of what needs to be done, I am completely lost. Every morning before I get to the office, I spend 10 minutes writing down everything that I need to accomplish (this ranges from calls I need to make, research I need to do, messages to write, things I need to listen to, etc…). Backpack has really helped me in this regard. Now I do all of this online.

#4 – Be organized – You can’t make good use of your time if you’re spending 1/2 your time looking for stuff. This store will help you get organized and store things in an orderly way. Trust me, you’ll save time just by knowing where stuff is.

#5 – Use technology – My Trello helps me by having so much information stored in one place. The beauty of technology is that it can help us accomplish more by having what we need at our disposal. I just added a text messaging feature (I know I’m late to the party) to my phone because sometimes a 2 line text is all someone needs. If I call, it’s a 20 minute conversation about everything under the sun. Sometimes a call is necessary, but I like having the option to text, email, or call.

#6 – Utilize “Dead” Time – My executive pastor has helped me in this regard. He makes many of his calls while he’s in the car siting in traffic. This way the time isn’t wasted. I’ve been doing this as well. I always have a list of people to call, so when I’m hopping into my car I’ve usually got my phone in hand ready to call someone.

If you want some more help generating time I put together a short ebook called “The Productive Pastor” for you.

Get it free here:

A leaky pipe burst and left me without a kitchen for the better part of a month.

I learned that when you have a leaky pipe, you have to pump twice the water through the pipe to get 1/2 the amount H2O when you open your faucet.

Here’s how this relates to church leadership and outreach…

Your church can spend lots of money on outreach and fill your seats on Easter.

However, if you don’t have a good follow up system and newcomers and new believers, they will slip out the back door like water through a leaky pipe.

So what’s the solution?

Fix.the.pipe.

You can see more growth in your church by simply fixing your follow up strategy.

What are the common problems of a leaky follow up system?

Here’s 5 common leaks in the follow up funnel…

#1 – Not continually working on your follow up system

#2 – Not capturing contact information

#3 – Not preparing for New Believers

#4 – Not Giving Clear Next Steps

#5 – New Believers aren’t valued by the staff and leaders

The bottom line is, we more we work on these issues, the better our follow up becomes and the better we can serve people and help them take significant next steps in their faith.

If you want some more pointers on follow up, I created a free follow up strategy you can get here:

And this is the time to do it.

People are making their plans for the weekend right now.

So make sure they’re planning to come to your church.

Here’s what our Facebook engagement looked like this past week:

Almost 11,000 people reached in the last week and we’re just getting started.

More importantly, this is just our church’s page!

A majority of the post engagement is happening through our congregation’s personal pages. 

Here’s my simple guidance if you haven’t gotten the ball rolling yet on Facebook:

1. Create some graphics for your congregation to share online this week promoting Easter.
2. Send an email to your congregation asking them to share online and invite this weekend.
3. Comment and share on what your people post about Easter to encourage engagement and re-posting.

Facebook can be huge for reaching people if you do it right.

To get some more tips on a consistent Facebook Strategy, get my free strategy here:

I responded with one word. Facebook.

I love Facebook ads.

Why?

Because it’s the cheapest way to drive traffic to your website and let people know about your services.

Think about it. Facebook lets you…

1. Pick who your want to market to
2. Set a maximum budget
3. Constantly tweak and change your ads
4. Create different ads for different people at no extra cost

And that isn’t even the half of it!

Yet I giveth thee a word of warning…

Facebook can be very expensive if you don’t know what you’re doing.

But if you do it right, Facebook can be like buying high end merchandise at Walmart prices.

So here are 3 tips to creating Facebook ads or posts that get people to attend your church:

1. Know What you can and Can’t Do – Online evangelism/ marketing is most effective when you’re inviting someone to a church event. With Facebook ads for example, you have so few characters to work with that you can’t give a complete Gospel presentation. Instead, your best bet is to invite them to your church where you can present the Gospel in an environment conducive to them responding.

2. Think Active not Passive – At Calvary, we use both Google and Facebook. I prefer Facebook because it’s a more active outreach approach. Instead of waiting for someone to type “Church in (my town)”, you can craft a message they can respond to by speaking their language in the copy.

3. Focus on Benefits, not Features – A feature is “Batteries included”. A benefit is “Ready to play with right of the box”. So write copy that explains the benefits of attending your church.

I’ve written about these tips and more in my ebook, “4 Keys to Easter Outreach.”
Get it for free here:

The reason:  In the ever-expanding world of the net, TRUST is paramount.

That is why platforms like Facebook and Instagram are so important for spreading the word about your church.  They provide your congregation with the opportunity to recommend their church to everyone they know.

The question is:  How are you helping your congregation reach their friends? 

Let me give you three things that you can do:

1)   Post pictures from your service.  Some people think taking a picture is going to ruin the vibe or is making something spiritual worldly…this is just false.  God wants people to know about what He is doing in your church.  Theologians have argued that the rise of the Roman empire coincided with Jesus’ birth because our sovereign God wanted a way for His gospel to spread quickly.   Today God in his sovereignty has allowed the internet and platforms like Facebook to exist because they help spread the gospel.  As Christians we need to leverage them as such and not focus on how the world is using them.

2)   Post Pictures and Graphics with your Address and Service Times.  People post all kinds of things and they fail to communicate the most basic.  It’s great that you show all the things that are happening at your church but if people don’t know where they need to go to be a part of it, no one will show up. Here’s a couple examples we’ve used that our congregation has been able to share:

3)   On Sunday encourage the congregation to share during the week.  In the same way that we have to be clear with people who we want to come to our church, we have to be clear with our congregation about how they can participate.   Most people want to share the good news but think about a million different things every day. Be clear and tell them how they can do it.

To help you maximize your social media impact, we created this 5 Step Social Media Strategy.

Get it free here: