If you want to be more effective in pursuing your mission—more effective in reaching people with the gospel message of Jesus—you must have an intentional first impressions ministry. An investment into first impressions is an investment into every other ministry in your church—it’s one of the few areas where you can increase your effectiveness across the board as a church. It’s a non-negotiable.
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Ed Stetzer and I have partnered to create a brand new opportunity for pastors just like you. We will be leading a cohort of large church pastors through a 3-year process to give you the training and understanding you need to lead and serve your church in this new, post-COVID reality.
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We're entering the final quarter of the year, when many churches typically receive a significant portion of their ministry funding. And in 2020, the need for continued funding of your mission may be greater than you've seen in a while.
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I founded the Future Church Company to bring break-thru, disciple-making clarity to church leaders in the next era of 2020-2040, based on my forthcoming book, Future Church: 7 Laws of Real Church Growth
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I want to help you prioritize and focus your energy where it will produce the greatest return for your mission—that’s one of the best ways I know to defeat exhaustion.
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I want to offer 5 ways for you to experience replenishment in the next 30 days. If I could, I would give each one of you a miraculous, instantaneous, supernatural injection of energy. Since I can’t do that, all I can do is offer these insights that have refreshed and replenished me over the years. I’m confident that they will serve you well.
[...]The events of the last two weeks in our nation have been unsettling, frustrating, maddening, and even shocking. With the death of George Floyd on May 25, a spark seems to have been kindled to a fire in our society. When we don’t see the God-given values in others, we easily become violent toward them. If we don’t believe at the core that human beings are made in the image of God, we can ignore each other, oppress each other, The Greek word translated as “workmanship” in Ephesians 2:10 above is only used in one other place in the New Testament. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood We have taken intentional steps as an organization to do what we can to make the gospel-centered life design process accessible for everyone, regardless of race or socio-economic background. Unfortunately, in the past, life planning or life coaching have been As we shared with our Younique family and I wanted to share with my blog readers as well, we would humbly invite you to do 3 things during this moment in our nation. 1 - Reflect and listen. One of the practices Jesus said that people will know we are His followers by our love for one another. He said this to His disciples after washing their feet … and hours before He would lay down His life for them, for us, [...]
Effective leadership includes an acute awareness of context. What are people feeling? What are they thinking about? What is most important to them right now? How can I best serve them where they are today? Most times, these questions don't need Why is This Moment So Critical? There are several reasons why this particular moment is so critical to your future mission-related effectiveness. The most important one, though, can be summed up in one word: disruption. People's lives have been completely disrupted. This is Why I Wrote Future Church I've been working on a book for the last 9 months that was already going to be called Future Church: Seven Laws of Real Church Growth. What's astounded me, though, is how quickly we've [...]
What is success? And how do you measure it? Some measure success by how happy they feel.Some by how much they have accomplished.Some by how wealthy they are.Some by how many friends they have.Some by how many people know their name. But #1 – Ups and Downs O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water. . . . When #2 – Your Bucket List David said, “My son Solomon is just an inexperienced young man, and the temple to be built for the LORD must be especially magnificent so it will become famous and be considered splendid by all the #3 – Your Ultimate Contribution David, after he had served God’s purpose in his own generation, died [and] was buried with his ancestors. – Acts 13:36 (NET) “You had one job.” You’ve probably heard this chastisement before, especially when delivered by a comedian [...]
Now more than ever, church leaders need practical tools to make them more effective in doing ministry. Especially in a time where we are being forced to abandon previous assumptions and develop new strategies, done-for-you tools can save countless hours [...]
Last week, Dave Rhodes and I launched a webinar series that is taking place every Monday through May 11. In this series, we're talking about how pastors and church leaders can move from making frantic decisions to making strategic decisions [...]
Here's part 2 of the 2-part Primer on the central tool from the Innovating Discipleship book. (You can get the FREE PDF download of that book here.) This was from Auxano's Better Future webinar on Friday morning, March 20. [...]
I want you and your ministry to experience the benefits of stunning, God-given clarity. As a pastor turned vision coach, I’ve worked with an unprecedented variety of churches from growing mega-churches and missional communities, to mainline revitalization and church plants. I started several interconnected organizations that help the church embody the movement that Jesus founded. My visionary planning tools, the Vision Frame and the Horizon Storyline are used by thousands of churches every year through my calling to raise up other consultants and trainers. In 2004, I founded Auxano, which I sold to LifeWay and continued to lead until 2020. In 2014, I created Younique to deliver gospel-centered life design through the church. It is now the world's only comprehensive, open-source life plan system.
In 2023, I founded Run Free as my official team-based consulting shop. We deliver the most innovative Vision Framing experiences available to church teams through the "Pivvot Process" and to network/denominational leaders through the "Denominee Process." We also offer team coaching to church leaders using the "Performance Practices" of meta-performance executive coaching.
I've written seven books: Future Church, Church Unique, Younique, Clarity Spiral, God Dreams, Innovating Discipleship, and Building Leaders. I enjoy speaking about clarity, calling, disciple-making, and vision. It's all about helping one another do more than we can imagine. I co-locate in Houston and Chile with my wife, Romy, and the last of my four children, Poema.
If you are interested in Run Free's consulting offerings or want to discuss getting a LifePlan, just reach out to set up a conversation.
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