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EP 53: How To Write Your Book Without Spending A Dime Aug 15, 2016

Show notes

You have more material than most professional authors. You spend multiple hours per week writing sermons to bless your congregations. Each sermon is potentially a chapter for one or more books.

You can write, design and publish a book in a matter of days with the simple tools of today’s technology. During today's podcast I share the simple steps you can take to publish it at little or no cost.

Thousands of new authors give up after receiving a boatload of rejection letters. With Amazon, those days are gone.

You can write your book in Microsoft Word and download it to Amazon. In moments, you will have a formatted book ready to publish.

In addition to a paperback and Kindle, you can also create an audiobook for free as well.

Since we are talking today about writing books, I would be remiss to not mention my first book entitled, When A Good Church Goes Bad. It contains both my testimony and help for anyone who has been hurt by their church experience. It is a great book for people in your church who have taken to the back row and refuse to get involved because of a negative church exp

On today's show, we spoke about many free resources you can use to publish your own book. Create Space is the first I mentioned, a division of Amazon.

For book covers, you should bookmark Canva to do free design work. To hire someone to do it for you, there is Fiverr and also 99 Designs.

For audiobooks, there is ACX. If you need to purchase a microphone, I recommend the ATR 2100 which can be plugged into your computer.

You can read the first three chapters of my new book here.

EP 52: Is It Time To Change Your Way Of Doing Church? Aug 08, 2016

Show notes

Change is at the heart of what we do as church leaders, but you remember I said this is a bit ironic. The irony is, that by and large, church leaders are typically people who don’t change at all!

What if you were an alien from another planet who visited your church. What would you see and experience? Would the report you give to your superiors reflect New Testament Christianity?

Principles must remain unchanged, but methods ARE changeable to intersect with the culture we want to reach. We can easily get stuck on doing things because they have always been done that way.

During the podcast, I look at some things to examine in your ministry that may need an update.

Getting stuck in traditions you prefer rather than traditions scripture teaches is the fastest way to get old as a minister and old as a church.

Winston Churchill said, “To improve is to change. To be perfect is to change often.”

On today's show, I spoke about my book, When A Good Church Goes Bad. You can learn more about it here. If you prefer Kindle, go here. Go to our free downloads page here.

EP 51: Never Buy Inexpensive Toilet Paper Jul 31, 2016

Show notes

I am always amazed, particularly at national restaurant chains and how they operate. Millions are spent to get a franchise, build a building and open for business. Before you walk in the door, literally millions have been invested by seemingly astute businessmen.

What amazes me in many of these establishments is first: the employees. In many fast food places, you can see dirty floors. You can see into the kitchen and notice sweating workers with shirts unbuttoned handling food. All that money and you will never return because someone did not think it was important to clean the floor or train the staff to present themselves properly.

During the podcast, I contrast restaurants with local churches.

What happens when your guest uses the bathroom and finds a dirty floor and the most inexpensive toilet paper?

We spend sometimes hours crafting the best sermon, but if your guests or members either cannot hear you or the sound is distorted, what happens next?

I also share how you can order my new book When A Good Church Goes Bad by clicking here.

EP 50: The Most Important Ministry You Have Is Not What You Think Jul 25, 2016

Show notes

If I asked pastors what their most important ministry is, many would say family. A great answer, but wrong. Your most important ministry is to the Lord.

Now before you roll your eyes and think, “O brother, that is obvious,” listen to the podcast and allow me to explain myself. This is crucial to your present and future ministry.

David ministered to the Lord. That single dynamic caused scripture to identify him as a man after God’s own heart. Time and time again, we see him in battle, pulling away from the army and inquiring of God.

During the podcast, I mentioned that you could order my new book, When A Good Church Goes Bad on Kindle. Click here to order.

EP 49: Are You Enlightened Or Effective? Jul 17, 2016

Show notes

Have you noticed that reports of the miraculous are much more plentiful in third world countries than in the U.S. or Europe?

For our part, we pretty much dismiss most of it as ignorance, superstition and unimportant.

A philosophy governs society and permeates our educational system. It affects how we view ourselves and the world. To a large extent this philosophy deeply hinders gospel efforts by both churches and leaders. The worse thing is, the vast majority of us are not even aware of this.

It occurred several hundred years ago and now thoroughly dominates the lives of millions of people. The Enlightenment proposed that science and logic give people more knowledge and understanding scripture.

I discuss how this philosophy has hindered the effectiveness of our members during the podcast.

I mentioned that you can listen to the first chapter of my book, When A Good Church Goes Bad, but now that it is published, you can read the first three chapters here.

EP 48: Are You Stuck Chasing The Next Shiny New Thing? Jul 11, 2016

Show notes

Numerical growth is one gauge people use to determine the effectiveness of any ministry. It is a legitimate gauge, providing we are talking about actually reaching lost people.

Throughout the United States and other parts of the world, growth tends to be cosmetic. Only about 5% is due to new converts.

Without realizing it pastors can unwittingly become the ringmasters of a circus. Our time is spent trying to keep the crowd happy by the next trapeze or clown act, not realizing that much of the effort is fruitless. Pastors burn out and waste a lot of church resources trying to keep the excitement level up, but is that what Jesus honestly asked us to do with our ministries? Last time I checked, there was something there about making disciples, but I could be wrong.

There are dangers in striving to make our church the biggest, the best and the greatest. During the podcast, I share about how to keep things real.

We mentioned MileIQ on the show today. Here is the link if you would like to try the free app.

You can now read the first three chapters of my book When A Good Church Goes Bad for free here.

EP 47: Are You Engaged In Genuine Ministry Or Professional Nonsense? Jul 05, 2016

Show notes

Most pastors do a lot of things in ministry. By the end of the week or year, we look back and wonder if all the preaching, counseling, budgeting, seminars and meetings were actually productive.

Ephesians 4:11-16 states that there are five specific leadership callings in the church: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. We talk about what this means in present-day terms during the podcast.

At the end of the day, the number one question we all must answer when we stand before Christ and give an account of our labors is: did we train the people God gave us to do the work of ministry?

If you want to see Christianity in action, sneak into a restaurant sometime and observe how Christians act. In general, Christians often are the most disagreeable and demanding patrons! Something is broken in how we train people for ministry.

I wrote a study guide designed for individuals or small groups. The guide will help people in your congregation discover and then function in their gifts under your supervision.

On today's show, I mentioned the soon to be released book, When A Good Church Goes Bad. Now that it is published in three separate formats (book, Kindle, and Audio book), I invite you to read the first three chapters for free here.

EP 46: Is Everyone Truly Welcome At Your Church? Probably Not! Jun 20, 2016

Show notes

How much of what we do or practice as a church is sending the opposite message of what we are trying to convey? Is our church saying, "All Are Welcome" outwardly, but in reality, saying, all are welcome if you become like us as soon as possible?

About 80% of people come to your church through personal invitation. Included in that statistic is checking you out on the web before they come.

During the podcast we attempt to look at your church through the eyes of guests.

Other than telling people to come again, have you thought through why people should? Is your church actively thinking about how to attract your guests to return again and again and again?

“You never have to advertise a fire. Everyone comes running when there's a fire. Likewise, if your church is on fire, you will not have to advertise it. The community will already know it.”

During the podcast, I offered two chapters of my (now published) book, When A Good Church Goes Bad. You can read THREE chapters for free here.

EP 45: How Can We Help Victims Of Spiritual Abuse? Jun 06, 2016

Show notes

Christians tend to move around. They come to your church from another church across town because they are searching for something they haven’t found elsewhere.

When people come from other churches, we can be faced with several ethical dilemmas. For example, what about people who come to us as victims of spiritual abuse? What if it is a pastor we know?

During the podcast, we delve into solving these ethical questions and offer real solutions.

I can attest from personal experience that coming away from a spiritually abusive environment is not easy. Here is the reason: To become genuinely free of spiritual abuse, you must address what attracted you to it in the first place.

I republished a book about this experience I had more than 30 years ago and it is now available on Kindle, as a paperback and also on Audiobooks. It is entitled Spiritual Abuse: How To Break Free From Toxic Churches Without Losing Your Faith. The book shares my journey as both a congregant and a leader over 15 years of my Christian life. If you would like to read 3 chapters of the book, click this link and click synopsis.

In addition, I mentioned a few other resources. The first is a book entitled, The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse and Healing Spiritual Abuse.

EP 44: 3 Tips To Help You Become More Productive May 31, 2016

Show notes

Someone says, “How are you doing?” Our #1 answer is: “Busy.”

Busy is a great word because it means absolutely nothing. People who are not in ministry honestly don’t understand fully what it means to work for God. You decide on what activities will be productive towards reaching the goals heaven has set for your life, family, and ministry.

I have always worked in non-denominational settings, so for the most part; I am master of my own time. That can be great or disastrous if a person is not disciplined.

Perhaps it is time to pull that blue tooth out of your ear and get your life back. You are not a machine after all. God did not create you to be June bug, bouncing off the wall of one crisis after another.

During the podcast, I share the three tips to help you become more productive together with a free download.

Chinese proverb: “He that chases two rabbits catches neither."

I also mentioned a free To-Do list download that you can access here.

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