Want to Read My Book Without Turning Pages?

Just learned that Pop Goes the Church is available for Kindle. My guess is that you are probably in one of four categories…

1) You already own a Kindle but have never read my book because you've been waiting for the electronic version.

2) You just ordered a Kindle 2 (brand new, second-generation gadget) and want to order my book as your very first title.

3) You have no idea what a Kindle is and you really don't care. That's okay, the book is available in old-fashioned paperback.

4) You don't want to read my book in any form. That's also okay. You should curl up in one of these and read this or this while sipping this.

I'd love to hear from any of you who own a Kindle or Kindle 2 — tell me about your experience. Also, bonus points to the first person who sends me a picture of Pop Goes the Church loaded on your Kindle.

Free Leadership E-Book

Our friends at Exponential Network just gave the church world a huge gift. They sifted through thousands of blog posts from some great church leaders and compiled an e-book of the best of the best. The e-book contains articles authored by…

Ben Arment
Mark Batterson
Chris Elrod
Dave Ferguson
Mike Foster
Seth Godin
Craig Groeschel
Alan Hirsch
Scott Hodge
Michael Hyatt
Gary Lamb
Brad Lomenick
Shawn Lovejoy
Will Mancini
Tony Morgan
Perry Noble
Bob Roberts, Jr.
Ed Stetzer
Tim Stevens
Tullian Tchividjian
Jud Wilhite
Jared Wilson

You can get your free PDF copy right here… Download Leadership-learnings

I personally love this concept of compiling the best blog posts…what do you think?

You Can Be Innovative Without Being Original

I’ve been to lots of conferences. I’ve read a bunch of articles. I’ve heard many speakers. And lately, there has been a recurring theme that rubs me the wrong way. It goes something like this…

“It grieves my spirit to see churches copying the culture. We shouldn’t be copying culture, we should be creating culture…”

“We have the Creator of the Universe residing within us, so let’s stop copying art and begin creating art…”

“Many churches should be ashamed that they spend more time surfing the internet to find out what some other church did, rather than using their God-given artistic gifts to be innovative and come up with something new…”

These statements often come from the pastor of some mombo-huge church. He has staff, money and volunteer resources at his disposal, and yet in the crowd are church leaders, most of them in small churches with shoe-string budgets and no staff. And they are being told they should feel guilty for using something that’s been done before. “Quit copying. Be original!”

Or the statements are made by an artistic genius…someone who God has uniquely gifted to be a creator of art, most often a person who is paid full-time to live and breathe and research and dream and present the art they create. “Quit being lazy and create new!”

Let me offer an opposing view: Lighten up! If recycling what someone else has already created will work in your setting, then by all means—become an expert in recycling! Go green dude!

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think there is anything wrong with creating art. I think more thoughtful lyrics should be put to song; more captivating moments should be captured on video; and more creativity should be applied to drama, dance, stage sets and more. Churches should be coming up with artistic elements that are so new and innovative they can’t even be categorized.

But I have met church leaders who refuse to use something that has been used somewhere else. They want to be the first to do something, try something, or preach something.

You can be innovative without being original. Sometimes the most innovative idea for your church or your community is something that was borrowed from somewhere else. That is okay, because being original is overrated.

At Granger, we get lots of attention for being innovative, and we even host the annual Innovate Conference. However, here is a secret: Very little of what we do is original. Once or twice a year, we have a good idea that hasn’t been done. (At least that is what we think when we do it, but often we find out later that another church did the same thing a few years prior!)

Since when is innovation the goal? Why have we made original the ultimate achievement? Shouldn’t our goal be effectiveness? Shouldn’t we measure success by whether something worked or not…whether it moved people toward Jesus? Is our goal making disciples or being original? Do we care more about artistic purity or life impact?

It is 2009, and there are amazing resources available to you. Most our ideas come from taking someone else’s idea and making it work for us. We Grangerize it. That is, we make it work for our culture, and that is okay with us. We truly do not care whether what we do is original or not—we just care if it works. If it is effective, who cares whether we got the idea from a church in Tupelo or off of YouTube? If we can use the idea to impact our community, why does it matter if it is an already-been-used idea from LifeChurch.tv or Willow Creek?

Artists—keep making great art! Video professionals—keep creating visual wonders that inspire and motivate me. Musicians—don’t stop writing lyrics and songs that draw me close to God.
But for everyone else—don’t apologize for being a recycling expert. Find the best of the best and use it to make a difference in your community!

This article is from a column I write for Collide Magazine which appeared in the January 2009 issue.

We Have Shifted Our Method

For many years, we have equally promoted every weekend series. Every month we have introduced a new series, printed thousands of postcards, and mailed them to our community to invite them to join us.

That worked really well…for a long time. Our full-color postcards have been an effective invite tool for our people to hand to their friends.

But sometime last year we realized the effectiveness of that method was decreasing. Many of our people would get a postcard, glance at it, smile and throw it away. It had become just more noise in their life. It no longer grabbed their attention. It no longer motivated them to invite their friends. So, we stopped printing them.

That's right, we decided we could get more people to our series if we stopped spending so much money on advertising. So, for most series, that means we no longer print or mail the full-size color postcards.

Instead, we will put all of our advertising dollars into two series each year–we'll call them the "Big Deal" series. This year we are doing our first Big Deal series in March. Taking an idea from CedarCreek Church, we will make two series each year a big deal. And we'll ramp up everything we do to make a big deal out of our guests during those series.

This month our entire Go Fish series is for the purpose of preparing our congregation for the big deal series. You might say we are turning up the evangelism temperature in the church. 

So what is the Big Deal series? I'm glad you asked…here is Mark Beeson introducing the idea to our crowd this past weekend.

Nearly 1100 people voted by text for the promotional graphic. Which idea would you have chosen?

Guaranteed to Make Women Take Their Clothes Off

In case you have any doubt that Mark Beeson has a sense of humor, you only had to read this blog post last week…

"I was watching the television news. During a commercial break an ad declared there is a gift guaranteed to make women take their clothes off.  I don’t know what you think about such a gift, but to me it seems a dangerous notion indeed. I’m sure warning labels clearly explain the perils that accompany each package, but imagine the issues you’ll face if the present is opened without proper caution, or in a crowded room!

"Unsettled by the prospect of a gift so potent women can’t stay clothed in its presence, I averted my eyes and switched channels to watch the news on another station.  (I’m an equal-opportunity propaganda consumer.) Imagine my surprise when I discovered the present guaranteed to make women take their clothes off was also capable of taking over the television airwaves!  The omnipresent pajama promo proved unavoidable and though my digits danced, and the remote took me through a universe of options, I could not escape its influence. That pajama commercial was everywhere…except on the stations selling Teddy Bears – which apparently cause women to behave as if they've been given the gift of pajamas!"

If you haven't become acquainted with Mark Beeson's blog, you should check it out. In addition to his humor, Mark has some great insights–plus, every one of his posts includes his original photography (not including the photo above which I borrowed from Pajamagram.com.

Is Twitter Replacing Blogging?

I've been noticing recently that my blog reading habits have changed significantly in the past few months. In fact, I read far fewer blogs than I did just a few months ago. Twitter and Facebook have changed that for me. I'm still an avid believer in blogs and can't imagine that I'll ever stop. But my social networking is more diverse now than it used to be. Each tool has its value:

Facebook…

1. Gives me valuable connection to people from my past.
2. Exposes a different audience to my blog posts (through Facebook Notes) and my tweets (through Facebook status updates). I have 1200 Facebook friends, and I'm guessing 80% of them don't connect with me anywhere else.
3. Is more personal. It is the place I upload pictures of my family, our vacation or a recent house renovation project.
4. Gives me a connection to my teens and their friends.

Twitter…

1. Is an instant feedback tool. I've been in numerous meetings where we are looking for a resource. I can ask the question on Twitter and have a dozen answers within minutes.
2. Spreads influence. Last week I tweeted a quote by Beeson during a staff meeting. The quote was quickly re-tweeted by 11 other people to a total of 5,545 followers…all within 18 minutes.
3. Makes leaders real. I love hearing that Dave Ferguson prioritizes his family and is going to his kids game and that Mark Batterson is a 48-year old on Wii Fit. It's just good to know that people you respect are real.
4. Gives me bite-sized teasers to blog posts. The ones that interest me are the ones I click on.
5. Connects me to more than 1400 "followers" (not my word, that's part of the Twitter vocabulary). I only officially follow a few, but I visit many more every day as others link to them.

6. Is easy to review from my phone, anywhere, any time.

Blogging…

1. Gives me an outlet for writing. I'm not a verbal guy…I'm a writer. Writing gives me energy and renews my passion. Blogging gives me that outlet. Knowing that 3,000+ people may read my words on any given day makes me breath deeply and suck air!
2. Is a great journaling tool. I'm not a journal guy — but I see and appreciate the value in journaling. I can look back at a few years of blogging and re-live some of my journey along the way.
3. Is easy to archive. Pretty much anything I've ever blogged is easy to find and retrieve.
4. Helps me stay connected to the thoughts of my friends, my staff, my leaders, and my mentors. I get a glimpse into their hearts and minds when I read what they've been blogging.

I'm curious, am I the only one whose social networking habits are changing? How have yours changed?

I Can’t Say it Any Better Than This

There was a discussion going on at the Monday Morning Insight blog about the upcoming Sticks Conference in Arkansas. One guy left a comment, and I figured I can't say it any better than he did…

I am somewhat of a Conference Junkie. The problem with many of them is "The Cult of Personality". You go to the big town with the big megachurch rock star pastors and everyone is looking for the next big thing to make their church grow.

I was skeptical of The Sticks myself. I had never heard of the any of the churches involved and only knew 2 of the speakers. But something about the concept of "The Sticks" gripped me. How could I overcome the challenges of ministering in a small town with limited resources and an over abundance of churches that quite literally "run" the town.

…anyway – what I saw in The Sticks conference was something different. An ordinary church in an ordinary town – that did incredible things. 1000 member churches in 2000 person towns? 2000 member churches in 500 person towns? How does that happen. In my town there are 100 churches and not 2 that might have 1200 people. – But still 50% don't go to church.

I wanted to see what was happening in The Sticks – so I took my team. Honestly I didn't expect much. I've been to Granger, C3, Unleash, Willow Creek. I've seen the best do their thing. And I left inspired and sometimes had principles I could translate back to my town.

But The Sticks was different. I wasn't watching the Mega Rock Stars of Church and listening to the Top Most Innovative, fastest gowing, cutting edge, blah blah blah people and feeling convicted that I wasn't cutting it as a Pastor. I was watching normal guys who were doing abnormal things and I felt like I was home among friends.

We laughed, we cried, we worshiped and we felt the Presence of God – and we left more than inspired and overwhelmed with information. We left equipped and encouraged and ready to engage (I alliterated that for my baptist friends) our community for Christ!

If I could go to one conference this year – it would be The Sticks. This isn't about small/large town, small/large church. It's about being effective no matter what the obstacle. It just so happens in The Sticks there are unique obstacles to reaching more people and these guys get it and can help you overcome whatever your obstacle is.

There you go. I'd love to meet you at The Sticks in Arkansas on March 17-18…so register soon. Early bird rate ends on Feb 20th.

Shaking Up Workshops in 2009

The workshops offered at Granger by WiredChurches.com have helped thousands over the years. We constantly get feedback about how they are practical, specific and immediately helpful for pastors and church staff members.

This year we will continue to offer workshops, but we are making a few big changes…

1. Regardless which workshop you are attending, everyone will begin together in the auditorium with a time of energetic worship.
2. We are doing two days back-to-back. You might want to attend two different workshops. Now you can do that without a return visit.
3. We've simplified the pricing. No early early bird, early bird, bird, late bird, etc. Instead, just one price if you pre-register.
4. We've added more Practicums. You'll get a little teaching and a lot of interactive conversation with staff working through the same stuff you are.

Our first workshops are coming up–on March 5th or 6th. Eight workshops and three practicums to choose from. Attend either day or both…your choice. Our whole team will be ready to serve you and I'd love to meet you.

Some People Are Just Born With Talent

We Want to Spend 2 Days With 24 Leaders

For only the second time ever, our entire Granger senior management team is setting aside two full days to pour everything we can into 24 church leaders. We had a chance to do this last year, and it was an amazing  time for our team and the leaders we were able to invest in. We are calling it Leadership Live, and we've decided to do this again because of our passion to help leaders learn and churches grow. And we have seen first-hand that an intensive couple days of mentoring with a small group will yield much more than a conference ever could for those churches and leaders.

We've kept the price the same as last year – $1,500 per person — which includes your hotel and meal costs.

If you have an interest, sign up soon. Last year it filled up in just a few weeks. And, it is limited to the first 24 leaders that register.