Charles Arn writes: “How do we identify the receptive people in our community?” One proven way is through life events.  Or, more specifically, transitional life events.  Here is the principle: The more disruptive a life event is to a person’s psychological equilibrium, the more it will cause him/her to be spiritually receptive. The “Social Readjustment Scale” below was originally developed by two cardiology researchers at the University of Washington Medical Center.  The events were identified as precipitators of a heart attack.  (The numbers to the right are the relative severity of...

This is a really cool behind the scenes look at how Joel Osteen Ministries is using social media.  It’s a major piece written over at the Huffington Post. See if you can find a quote from yours truly somewhere in the article.  :) Read the article here… Please do leave your comments below.  What did you think of the article? Todd

J. D. Greear offers some personal rules that he follows: 1.     If I ever preach the gist of another person’s sermon, meaning that I used the lion’s share of their message’s organization, points, or applications, I give credit. 2.    If I glean an interpretation of a passage from someone, but the organization of the points, application and presentation are my own, I generally do not feel the need to cite. 3.     When I take a direct point or a line or the creative wording of a truth from someone, I feel like I should cite.  4.     When I give a list that someone else has come up...

Margaret Marcuson thinks it’s time for you to face the financial facts in your church.  Do you know the following basic information about how people give in your church? What are the trends in giving and expenses? What is the giving pyramid – how many givers do you have at successive giving levels? What is the pace of income through the year – what percentage comes in during December each year? What percentage of income goes to ministries outside your congregation? She offers seven tips to dealing and working with these facts: Be as open as possible. Even difficult facts, calmly presented...

How safe will your church be this weekend?  Security is a big issue in churches today.  You never know when an upset parent, or mentally unstable person will find his way on to your campus and into your church building. Active Faith has created a free ebook that will help you come up with a plan to make your church more secure. ACTIVE Faith’s free ebook covers 7 critical areas for modern church security. Background Checks Check-in System Disarming Friendliness Emergency Action Plan Triage Teams Emergency Response Team Kits Emergency Communications The larger a church body becomes, the more...

Many churches this Sunday will talk about what happened in OK. And some will be looking to partner with organizations that are helping the people on the ground.  That’s a great thing. Here are some of my favorite ways that your church body can help the victims of the tornados, either corporately or individually: LifeChurch.tv Life Church.tv, which describes itself as “Oklahoma’s largest evangelical church,” says its Oklahoma City metro locations will accept donations of items over the next week, between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., and distribute them to tornado victims....

I found this over at Stuff Fundies Like. Check out this job description.  It HAS to be worse than your situation: The church needs a man to come and back up the pastor in both the activities of the church as well as the keeping of the grounds. This is a nonpaying position but housing is available. This assistant should be a King James only, independent Baptist who is the husband of one wife with some Bible college education. A degree in Christian Ministries or Theology is preferred. If you feel that God would have you be the #2 man for our church, please send your resume to… What do you think? Would...

Whether you’re designing a website, brochure, or writing a sermon… people love images. Here’s what Justin Dean, the Communications Manager for Mars Hill in Seattle says they have learned about images in their social media and web outreach: Last year I attended a talk at the Seattle Interactive Conference by Ben Huh, the Cheezburger guy. He was explaining why sharing photos and images do so well. His theory was that if you post a link, your followers have to make a decision before clicking it. Even if its just a split second decision, they still have to decide: is this going to take...

James MacDonald writes: Each next risk is the biggest one. I think it was a big risk to go to Bible college when I didn’t even know that God could use my life. I think it was a risk to move two hours away from my family and become a youth pastor while we were still finishing our education. It was a risk to buy a house and stay there for a couple of years. It was a massive risk to put the house up for sale, when my dad probably thought we’d never even own a house in ministry. But we did, and we left Canada and moved to Chicago to go to seminary—another risk. While we were packing the van, someone...

QUESTION:  If your church could reach more people for Christ by focusing on one “people group” in your community, would you do so? Charles Arn writes:  Certain people around your church are more receptive to the Gospel than others.  I suggest that good stewardship of your church’s human and fiscal resources calls you to find and focus on these receptive people.  They are the “fertile soil” (see Mt. 13:1-23) who are “ripe unto harvest” (Jn. 4:35).  And your successful evangelistic results will be praised by the Master with the same words heard by those who returned more talents than...