You’re thinking, what else would 13 come after? But the content is interesting; that chapter 12 is all about spiritual gifts. Then along comes 13. All about love.

Love. Agape love. The kind that’s perfect. Just like God.

We’re to be known for our Love. And the love that’s described in Chapter 13 using fifteen specific qualities is the “love” I want to be known for.

1. Inclusive vs Exclusive. The gifts described in Chapter 12 are distributed perfectly among believers so that the Spirit’s work is competed. Not everyone gets every gift. Can you imagine the chaos that would issue?! They are exclusive. But fortunately, God’s Love (and the ability to love God’s way) is inclusive. We’re all given this gift. We just have to hone it and use it (like the spiritual gifts that we also received)!
2. Foundational and Permeating. Our spiritual gifts ride on God’s love. We can’t effectively use the gifts we’ve been given, unless we allow them to ride on Love. Like the perfect flapping of the vocal chords that ride on the perfect amount of air from our lungs; the perfect recipe for the melodic musical notes in a Praise and Worship chorus. But foundational is limiting. Love needs to be permeating through every layer and depth of what we do. Like a solid-surface in the kitchen, it doesn’t matter if there’s imperfection, the content is the same throughout so you don’t quickly notice the flaws. And do we have imperfections!
3. Missional and Visionary. Love reaches out and shapes our mission. Love is the beginning ingredients and the perfect product. God’s love helps us shape our vision if we let it. If we feel like we’ve lost our way, we must return to the definition of God’s love. The 15-quality checklist found in Chapter 13:4-7. Your vision will become clear and your mission will not fail (see verse 8)!

13:13. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

God’s love. We need to get back to the basics!

Can you imagine what God feels like when these gifts aren’t used?

I’ve recently blogged about this and my aggravation of people not being utilized in ministry, so I won’t add to that.

But how about the fact that the local church is part of the global Church? All of our spiritual gifts are scattered throughout the world. And together, we use our gifts to help the worldwide Church.

Many local churches (and Pastors) are reticent to go outside of their pews to get things done. You can usually look no farther than a church website to see the error of this. Or stewardship campaigns. Or architecture and construction. And the list goes on and on…

God doesn’t guarantee that your church has all the gifts, just that the gifts exist in the Church (big “C” church).

I want to assure you that God has allowed us to help the local church with branding, marketing and communications. We’re using the gifts He’s given us for His glory.

And we’d love to help you. Especially if your local church doesn’t have the abilities in the pews. Or at least we can assist you in directing those in your church through strategy development. We do this for a living, we work in it daily, and we love the Lord. That’s all the building blocks to success! Contact us today!

In fact, I know we’ve Googled search and looked in directories for a company just like them. And we’ve never heard of this company!

Everyone likes to be found. Especially on Google (or Yahoo, Bing, etc.) — it’s cheap and where most people look.

The average seeker doesn’t go past the second page of search results. So it’s imperative to get high on the organic (non-paid) results. Or the alternative is to pay for the placement at the top or to the right. And that can get expensive.

This is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Sound scary? Here’s an over-simplification of how it’s done. It starts with the Search Engines sending spiders (digital super sleuths that randomly look at every page on the internet) arriving at your website. Here’s some of what they’re looking for:

• Content that changes. Not sure if I need to explain this, but when the spiders check your site they look to see if the information changes. They believe (rightly so) that if you’re engaging an audience, you will give them new content regularly. Blogs and social media feeds will do this. But remember to have an easy way to change the actual page contents too!
• Meta-tags that are used. Most people know that you can “hide” words on a page. These words tell the spiders what you’re really good at — what the benefits are on your site. Surprisingly, there’s a disconnect between what is in those words and the content on a page. They now compare the two and see if you genuinely have the pertinent information you put in the meta-tags. Again, this is great for those searching! And it forces websites to be authentic in content.
• Other Websites refer to your website. If the search engines want to point people to your site via an organic (non-paid) search, they want to make sure others like you too. So as they search the web, they look for links to your site. The more that others say your site has good content (based on the volume of links that point to your site), the more they want to say it too! This isn’t easy to do, but request associations, groups, members, tourist websites to list and link to you. The more the better!

Is this everything to SEO? No. In fact, my programmers (who incorporate good SEO foundations into every site we construct) are probably going to “share” some more with me when they read this. I’ll be sure to pass them along. But if you work hard about getting the content to follow the 3 steps above, you’re well on the way! Let me know if you have any questions!

1 in 4 Americans believe that Christ will return by 2050. And a whopping 58% of evangelicals do.

So what’s your Church doing to educate the general population about the second coming? Especially with the news items of the Mayan Calendar ending in 2012.

Think it’s important? It is for those who have no basis of hope.

Seems like a perfect opportunity for bringing the community into the church or educating the church so they have the answers to share with their neighbors and friends.

So how can it help you or your church? Here’s 3 ways (and hopefully 3 reasons) for you to develop a Social Media strategy for your church!

1. Measure their Contentment – Social media relies on community engagement (and content). That’s why there are comment forms (or status updates) on almost every one. Wouldn’t it be good to know what your congregation is talking about throughout the week? Or the takeaway message from your latest sermon? How about hearing testimonies of your audience before a sermon is delivered — and maybe even use them for an illustration! All of this can easily be done through Facebook, twitter, blogging or youtube.
2. Monitor other Churches – Now more than ever, you can check out the blogs, statuses or tweets of the church down the road and see what they’re doing or talking about. Or how about following the great leaders of our faith online! Imagine what you can glean from them and their experience. You may even start an online friendship with them. The Christian community is a large one — and social media helps you have a voice in it. Or at the least, an ear.
3. Save Money – Think about how restricting your bulletin (worship guide) is. It needs to be printed. It’s hand-delivered during a service. If someone isn’t there, they don’t get it. It’s limited in how much information can be in it. People are tired of getting a huge book — and most don’t read it. Instead, imagine an online ability to notify your congregational groups with the information they particularly need, and when they need it. And most of all it’s free. All you need to do is be consistent, be reliable, and then listen for feedback. It’s not perfect, but it saves time, money and drives people to your website. And what’s best… it allows your congregation to share the announcements and invitations to a wider community that you wouldn’t be able to. The joy of word-of-mouth!

Want to get started? It’s quite easy and straight-forward. You can find the ways to set all this up online. Or you can give me a call or email — I’d love to help you.

I’m declaring that it’s (almost) the era of NO SUBSCRIPTION fees.

What does this mean to you? It means that your Church should stop paying regular subscriptions for having websites.

What?!? Yes. No more fees.

How? We’re introducing our Church Website Conversion Package that allows you to switch your content to an open source, interactive environment that allow you to:

• Built-in simple content management system so you can easily keep your content up-to-date. Multiple passwords for individual sections is no problem either!
• Church Consultant Recommendations for content and design. We use eye-tracking technology to make sure your content is found and that in engages your audience. And since Content is the #1 important thing on your site, we’ll help you develop the right information for your site. We know the Church and we know what your options are.
• Plugins to add robust, interactive content. The best thing is that we build the outlets in the core website so the plugins can be added in the initial build-out or later when you have more budget.
• Content Priority is key. The average person spends less than 10-seconds on a page so it’s important to provide the information quickly and within the 3-Click rule. The average person will click 3 times before leaving a site.
• Editing of text is also offered to deliver your content quickly with eye-interruptions to catch attention in larger blocks of copy.

And all of this is offered with no monthly fees or subscriptions. Keep in mind you’ll have to pay for your hosting package (ours is about $100/yr) and some plugins that aren’t delivered in an open source programming world. But normally, the entire conversion package is completed for just one upfront fee. Then the site is turned over to you to easily update with the built-in content management system. Contact us for more information!

Barron Group of Companies (one of our design build clients in Texas; and a fellow member of the National Association of Church Design Builders) was awarded the contract. A $40,000,000 3-year contract.

Pastor Rickie Rush took us on the tour of his facility. He was so giddy to show us every part of this amazing building. Recently, IBOC was named as the best design/built structure in Texas by TEXO. So more than the Pastor is excited about this grand worship area.

From the moment you meet Pastor Rush, you know he’s a special man. His contagious, energetic way makes you want to do better for God. I can see why Barron created such an amazing facility for him. He dreams big, has a heart for God and motivates everyone around him. But if you ask Rickie, he’s quick to say all this is for God.

My simple take-away of the success of IBOC would be summed up in 3 points:

1. A Purpose – When you walk into any entrance, you’re greeted by Aquariums and a large wall beside each aquarium that spells out the purpose of IBOC. We’re called to be “fishers” of men. And the aquariums set the theme perfectly. All the fish come from various environments from around the world and now have to co-mingle. They have to go through a “decontamination” process before entering. Then they’re on show. Pastor Rush believes that the church acts as the decontamination zone before we’re “on show” as believers. The fish theme is everywhere in the church (kid’s areas and even a wave pattern in their spacious hall carpets). There’s no way that any one can attend or visit and not know their purpose. Singleness of purpose is the key to a lively, growing church.
2. A Passion – The Pastor runs this church like he runs his life. And I mean literally runs! He’s a small-in-stature yet large-in-presence person. He never stops loving. When our small group went on the tour, he took time to hug each one of us and tell us why we were special. Since I was the designated photographer, he took the time to tell me I was doing a great job. His passion for being Christ-like poured from him. And that emotion transcends to each volunteer. His presence motivates. In fact, the whole church is run by only 7 full-time employees and multitudes of volunteers. Motivation always flows from the top down. If the Pastor doesn’t have energy, the church won’t.
3. A People – Rickie is clear that he wants to win the world for Christ. And he’ll start in his targeted community. He loves each person who attends and is committed to influencing them to accept Christ. That targeted audience is talked about and prayed for regularly. The more you target a specific audience, the more you’ll see the results. Pastor Rush talks of specific stories of lives changed in his community. He knows them by name. Start small with a target of who you want to reach and you’ll grow faster than aiming for a huge territory.

I speak across the nation and I often ask why people like their church. Here’s the reasons I hear:

• I work there. Ok, I speak at a lot of Pastors’ conferences. So I guess you can ignore this answer.
• I grew up at the church. Their family went there, so they had to, and they continue to.
• It’s the closest one to me. When someone moves to a community, they often look in a directory (and 80%+ check online) for the denomination that they feel comfortable with.
• I go with my friends. They sit with them, hang out with them and meet with their friends at your church.

All of these are great reasons, but ultimately they aren’t compelling reasons for someone to come to your church.

You need to help direct your church members into why they actually go to your church. It sounds weird, but (like customers of a product) your congregation need to hear the positives of attending your church. The benefits of actually going. Most of the time, a consumer (or parishioner) won’t come up with their own reason.

According to Ranier, the Top 6 Reasons (in order) to be active in a Church are:

1. Ministry Involvement
2. Sunday School
3. Obedience to God
4. Fellowship of Members
5. Pastor/Preaching
6. Worship Services

These are the start of determining benefits that are compelling for people to use to invite others. How do you determine yours? Start with listing programs and features of your church — then talk to your most active people. See what they are drawn to, and then listen to their benefits of doing a program or being involved with a feature.

You’ll start to hear key benefits of attending your church. Choose the most compelling (to your core audience) and add it (as a tagline) to your logo. Then repeat it over and over. Preach about it. Tell people about it. Communicate it. In Unison.

Your church will start to grow as people start hearing compelling benefits of attending your church.

Can you imagine if God directed us in the local church that way?

So here’s the leadership steps that Moses takes:

1. Moses gets the people together. What a great way to start! A big business meeting. It’s interesting that they don’t go into any great details of how they got the millions of people together to hear the message. In fact, they probably weren’t gathered all in one place, but instead they had a “system” to spread the word. It’s important for every minister to have this ability (no matter what size your church is!).
2. He shares God’s vision, not His. He pours his heart out; but his heart is to do God’s will. That’s the critical step that many Pastors and leaders forget. Be sure to seek God’s will, and communicate the process and vision!
3. He creates a plan: Give Hard, Work Hard and Serve Hard. Moses wants the people to give of their possessions, use their abilities/talents, or teach those who need the skills. And then he appointed the ones who would be the leaders, but their role will be servants.

Ready for my favorite verse? It comes in the next chapter after all of this was discussed.

Exodus 36: 7. The people were ordered to stop bringing offerings! There was plenty of material for all the work to be done. Enough and more than enough.

What a recipe of getting people involved. They caught the vision and acted on it. It’s what we all seek!

From the wilderness to worship. In 500 intricate steps.

God gives very specific step-by-step instructions (OK, I didn’t actually count the steps, but wow, there are a lot of them!). And the Israelites didn’t quibble over any of them. At least that I can remember — or that are notated in the Bible.

I can only imagine what we would have done. “but God, I think if we made the tabernacle a bit wider, we could fit more people in.” Or “God, have you considered adding more windows?”

This time reading it, I was struck by the fact that God asked the people to contribute. To be involved.

God could have done it all Himself with a mighty “poof” of His hand. But He wanted the Isrealites to participate in the materials and manufacturing of their house of worship.

I think that often, Pastors and “full-time Leaders in the church” get in the swing of doing almost everything, and they don’t allow the people in the pew to participate.

I know they talk the talk of how they want volunteers, but I wonder how many Pastors allow people of the congregation to share the stage with them on a Sunday. Or do you only allow the congregation to be involved with “back stage” roles?

What’s the Solution?

Think about it. Virtually every educational or edutainment outlet has been broken down into bite-sized pieces. If you watch the morning news shows, you see that our attention span is short. All the stories are less than 3 minutes long. And even most tv shows know that a scene can’t last much longer than a few minutes. Commercials are 30 seconds or a minute. Short, to the point, BAM!

We’ve been primed to take in short bites of information.

So how do those points go together? Consider how long your worship times are in your service, or your preaching times. Then consider using talented people from your congregation to “break up” the times. Solos, testimonials, video clips, Bible reading, dramatic scenes, and the list goes on and on.

What you’d end up with is more “ownership” of the worship time, more interesting services, and the messages would be solidified more in our minds.

All it takes is a little organization and pre-planning. And allowing the congregation to use their gifts. I guess that’s what the Isrealites did. And as their tabernacle came together perfectly, it was worth the effort.