Just got confirmation that Guy Kawasaki’s latest, www.alltop.com has selected Godvertiser.com to be featured on their http://CHURCH.alltop.com page.

If you haven’t heard of Alltop, it’s a neat news/blog aggregator that spans hundreds of categories - Guy’s metaphor is a newsstand rack of the best blogs in each section.

Kind of an neat to be up there with Craig Groeshel, John Piper, Mark Driscoll, DJ Chuang, and the other cool kids of Kingdomwork.  The Church Alltop page is a great place to find interesting content to stir things up in your mind about what’s going on with the church and faith today.

Thanks for reading and let me know of the top church marketing / church tech issues you’re facing with right now.

Today’s guest post is from Atlanta’s Rev. Joel Hug.  He has been meditating on Psalm 23 and shares with us what he has discovered about our God of Increase.

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Psalm 23:1 - The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want.

This verse, I believe, has been twisted by Satan himself to force a crowbar into our lives and slowly dismantle our future.

If you look up the word “want” in history, the common definition today is “to desire”, which didn’t come into existence until the early 1700’s. Prior to this, Read the rest of this entry »

Today, you can grab any Christian Music mp3 download from Amazon for free.

Here’s the details of the free mp3 download offer from Amazon:

1. Click through to the Amazon Free mp3 promotion details page with this link: http://tinyurl.com/freemp3fromamazon
2. Click on the “ENTER CODE” button
3. Use code FIRSTMIL and click the “Apply” button
4. Go find your mp3 and then buy it!  The promo credit balance should be applied automatically.
5. Personally, I browsed through the Top 100 Christian Contemporary Music songs list and picked out Chris Tomlin’s God of This City.  Great song!
   

NOTE: According to Amazonmp3.com fine print, you must redeem the credit by September 6, 2009 11:59 PM PDT

Bonus: Here’s an extra freebie, How Great Is Our God, sung by Kimberly and Alberto Rivera

Super Bonus: You’re not satisfied with TWO free mp3 songs?  Will you be satisfied with 16 MORE Free Christian Music mp3 downloads?

A Sunday school teacher asked her children as they were on the way to church service:

‘And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?’

One bright little girl raised her hand eagerly because she knew the answer.

After the teacher acknowledged her enthusiasm, she simply replied. . .

Read the rest of this entry »

Whenever discussions steer toward the ministries of mega churches (approx. 2000 or more attenders weekly) I find myself waiting for the inevitable slams against “the machine” or the lack of individual attention found in these large congregations or how seeker-friendly focused they are or something to do with consumeristic approaches to programming.

Over time, I started to think about whether or not these are really the right measures for judging these large operations in the name of Christ.

Lo and behold, I came across some research that revealed religious beliefs of church goers based on what size church they attend.

So do smaller church settings produce better discipleship environments?  And by smaller churches, let’s say with the average Presbyterian church worship attendance of 100 or so.

Do these church members come out as Christians that are more involved in serving and using their gifts?  Where do they fall regarding works righteousness?  What do they think about Jesus…like, was he supernatural and sinless or just a teacher’s pet type-better than average Joe?  How important is the Great Commission regarding their own responsibility as a Christian?

I was surprised to see the results so consistent across all factors measured between the small congregations with under 100 attenders, all the way up to churches with 1000+ attenders.    Perhaps it’s time to let the numbers speak and stop making arguments without real tangible back-up on these issues?

Here’s the data so that you can decide for yourself:

Read the rest of this entry »

Are you a pastor in a church that seems to ignore the fact that there’s only 168 hours in a week?

Does it seem like your original intentions to be centered on prayer, go out and build rock-solid deep relationships with your entire congregation and spend enough time studying the Scriptures were all bad typos in the job description?

Perhaps you need to reassess your game plan.

Here’s a quick pop quiz to help figure out your approach to ministry:

If you, as the pastor, have only limited time available during the week, would you prefer to choose (A) OR (B) in each scenario below:

A. Do more visiting to shut-ins?
B. Put more time into sermon preparation?

A. Attend a wedding reception?
B. Go on a retreat with parish staff?

A. Call on prospective members?
B. Conduct a training session for church officers?

A. Visit a bereaved family?
B. Help two church officers resolve a conflict?

A. Make a hospital call on a fringe member?
B. Attend a continuing education event?

A. Engage in pastoral counseling with members?
B. Attend a planning event with officers?

A. Do more parish calling?
B. Recruit leaders for parish events?

A. Attend an activity with parish youth?
B. Critique a meeting with a church officer?

Apparently the correct answers differ largely NOT ON YOU, but where your called to ministry.  The Alban Institute published an interesting article which gives practical insights for how to approach various types of ministry environments.

Surprise! It turns out that a pastor is not a pastor is not a pastor anywhere and everywhere.  One size does not fit all!

Being self-aware of the context first will dramatically increase the odds of success in your role as pastor.  Requirements for leadership style, relationships, and responsibilities all change based on whether you are in a family, pastoral, program, and corporate sized church.

Are you sitting in the right seat?  Is there more than one seat at the table?  It all matters tremendously.

If you read the informative article from the Congregational Resource Guide site, you’ll also learn the landmines of moving down in church size.

What’s the good news in all this? You’ll notice that pastor burnout is largely avoidable by being able to answer the pop quiz questions correctly.

Tim Keller was recently featured as one of the headliners at this year’s Leadership Summit put on by Willow Creek.

Some of the other speakers on the list are favorites of mine too including Jessica Jackley (the best $25 you’ll spend this year if you try out Kiva.org), Dave Gibbons (Monkey and the Fish and if you’re ever in southern CA, you must visit New Song Church) and Chip and Dan Heath (awesome book! Made to Stick from the moment you see the book cover jacket in person you’ll understand why).

But back to Dr. Keller. . . Read the rest of this entry »

I recently had a chance to connect again with Mike Kim of Generation Holy Ministries.  Mike is one of those guys that take the stage and just exudes worship.  He loves God and you really see it when you are with him live.   He just released a new album on iTunes which is a project that always calls for digging deep into the creative center that drives you.

Whether you are leading a worship band, facilitating a Bible Study group or a working in any other ministry for the church, you need continuous inspiration.  I asked Mike to share with us some of his current sources for renewal and refreshment in creativity. . . .

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One of the things I’ve always wrestled with as a worship leader is marketing and promotion. There’s just something about it that seems paradoxical when the whole point of leading worship is to draw attention to God instead of myself.

On the other hand, I am also a songwriter and recording artist; the whole point of these things is to draw attention to my songs and myself. This is an even tougher issue for me personally because I really don’t like attention!

Despite that tension I still want to do what I’m called to with excellence and inspiration. Inspiration channeled through creativity, skill, and excellence glorifies God. I try to draw my main inspiration from the Holy Spirit, the place of prayer, the place of His presence. It’s cliché but true; if I want what I do to give true life to people, it needs to come by the spirit. Any song or sermon I’ve written that “worked” was birthed in the place of prayer and worship.

I also try to be very honest about my strengths and weaknesses. It’s not an arrogant thing to know what we’re gifted in. If we know our strengths, we can hone them and offer them in humility. Conversely, knowing our weaknesses forces us to stay small in our own eyes (check my blog on the Praise of Man) and get others involved in kingdom work. Majoring on the minors will cause me to run thin on doing the things I’m gifted at and prevent others from contributing.

My primary assignment right now is to help pastor a church by developing its worship ministry. I try not to be creative outside of what I’m called to; that just burns time and energy. Jealously keeping the main thing the main thing keeps me focused and allows me to soak up inspiration from other streams of ministry that apply to what I’m doing.

Here’s a quick rundown of some current sources of inspiration to me for what I do:

• Bethel Church in Redding, CA - my wife and I got to attend Bethel last summer for one of their conferences. My understanding of what is possible in a local church in terms of pursuing and hosting the presence of God was changed here. It inspired me to stay hungry for God and to see worship as a by-product of that pursuit. Jesus Culture is Bethel’s youth ministry; their worship band is quickly gaining mainstream recognition. I love how they press and stretch people in worship. Their songs are uncomfortably long, in a good way.

• Kent Henry in St. Louis, MO - not many know Kent by name but they know the songs he introduced to the body of Christ. Kent was the worship leader on many of Hosanna! Integrity’s early works and has recorded numerous independent albums. I grew up listening to his tapes (!) and CD’s and my style of leading worship was defined because of him. You can imagine how cool it was for me to get to know Kent personally…we’ve known each other several years now and he is a regular guest at my church. Kent always inspires me because he stays youthful and relevant (it’s pretty fun rockin’ out with a 50+ year old to Hillsong United tunes) and he continually challenges me to intermingle praise with prayer and worship with intercession. That’s had a direct influence on my songwriting as I want my songs to be launching pads for people to pray off of.

• Ross Parsley/New Life Church in Colorado Springs, CO - Pastor Ross has given me a model of what a worship pastor is. I know a lot of worship leaders and even worship pastors by title, but I had a hard time finding people who took the aspects of pastoral ministry into the worship department. The title of “worship pastor” in some churches is merely another way of saying “primary worship leader.” I knew there had to be more. I got a chance to sit down with Pastor Ross recently and he shared about building a culture in my team and helped me see what ministry in a megachurch looks like-I wanted to know in case mine becomes one! He’s also been at New Life for almost 20 years, which speaks to me of consistency and longevity.

All this inspiration wouldn’t be worth much if I didn’t have an outlet for it. I gear my endeavors towards the needs of my circle of influence. Being honest with myself involves being honest about what field God has me working in. I write songs based on what we’re going through as a community of believers and try to write and record our albums with excellence so other churches can adopt them if so led. I ask God regularly to give me insight and skill to build our people and ministry like a master-builder. If what we’re doing is good enough to “grow wings” and be used elsewhere, that is great. If not, that’s fine.

What’s really important is that I tend to the field I’m in. It’s easy to focus on touching the world that we fail to touch home. God wants to use us to reach the world, but the road that bears the most fruit goes from the inside out.

I encourage you to pray, worship, stay honest about your assignment and field, staff to your weaknesses, and stay teachable. If you do you’ll be bound to be inspired along the way.

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Mike Kim is a worship leader, pastor, and songwriter.  He currently serves at Church of the Living God and is president of Generation Holy Ministries with the vision to empower and equip all generations through worship and life-transforming truth. Spirit-led and highly congregational, many of Mike’s songs are being sung around the world.

You’ve probably heard of the challenge to always preach as if it’s the last message you’ll ever share.  But I realized recently that this same frame of mind can be applied to everything I am doing in ministry.

Just how much of our daily work is just passing the bar?  Especially things that belong to the daily routine.

Even the most mundane tasks can be done with excellence or with such dynamic creativity that it leaves people breathless.

I saw this video clip and was reminded that even the most mundane handful of sand can be used to witness to God’s glory in the world he created for you and me.  All you need is some movement, rearrangement and creativity.

“We all leave footprints in the sand, the question is, will we be a big heal, or a great soul.”

So are there any parts of your ministry that can use some movement or rearrangement so that you can be a beacon of light to everyone that watches?

The Gospel message is about relationships, right?

And I think you’ll agree that our world is undergoing a fundamental shift in how we relate to each other due to the undeniable impact of technology (Internet) and the social media that has evolved out of it.

The Google generation doesn’t email, they Facebook.  It is just a fact now that people check Facebook first and more often each day than their email.  People are learning the ins and out of syndicating their lives through FB status updates, Twitter and other social media platforms.

But note that I recently sat in a mandatory seminary workshop for the graduate program at Princeton Theological Seminary where the facilitator actually proposed that pastors NOT get involved with Facebook, Twitter, etc in their methods of communicating with their congregation 24/7 - specifically with youth.

But if the ways in which we (meaning humans in the 21st century and beyond) now meet, connect and relate to each other is changing in seismic ways, why isn’t the Church following suit?

If you’re not convinced that social networking / social media is changing our lives, check this video out:

This is not about pushing Twittering during worship services.

What I’m talking about is for the Church to be visible and available in the places where the people are already.  Today’s that’s online and on social networking platforms.

It’s also about creating volumes of first class content that is able to be shared and given exposure where millions and millions of people are already tuning in.

What is your church doing with social media / social networking?