I love Larry Bird! Partly because he is white and I am white and it gives me hope as a basketball player!
My favorite story of Larry Bird is when his team, the Boston Celtics, were at Seattle playing the Seattle Supersonics. The Celtics were two down with six seconds to go and they had the ball. They called a timeout.
Larry walks to the huddle and says ‘Guys, here is what we are going to do. You get the ball to me, get the hell out of the way and we will win!’
The Coach, KC Jones said ‘Hey Larry, I am the coach I call the shots! Ok guys here is what we are going to do. Get the ball to Larry, get the hell out of the way and we will win!’
After the timeout, Larry walks over to the guy who was marking him, Xavier McDaniel, a guy who was 6’7 and who could go bear hunting with a twig and come back with seven carcasses. Larry looked McDaniel in the eye and said ‘X we both know what’s going to happen, I am going to get the ball here I am going to fake left dribble right and shoot a three in your face. It will go in swish and I will look you in the eye and say I told you so!’
The ref blows the whistle, Larry gets the ball, he fakes left dribbles right and shoots a three in McDaniel’s face. It goes in swish and he looks McDaniel in the eye and says ‘I told you so!’
After the Game KC Jones is asked is he ever nervous when the Celtics are in that situation? There are a few ticks of the clock left down by two and Larry is taking a shot that will either make or break the whole game, is he ever nervous?’ KC Jones smiled and said ‘ No, cause Larry always comes through’
I think the essence of Character is someone who always comes through. Who always does what they say they the will do. As a leader, character is essential, the Bible speaks of leaders of the church having great character (1Timothy 3). So what about you have you got great Character?
Do you always come to places on time?
Do you confront people or talk behind their back?
Do you own up for your own mistakes when it is your fault?
Do you tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Do you look after your family well?
Are you accountable to people?
Do you work hard or bludge a lot?
Do you always do what you say you will do?
As a leader Character is essential!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Leadership: do you have the right people?
I once had a dinner with a very well known leader who had just retired as the CEO of one of the biggest companies in the world ever. Here is a brief part of the conversation:
Me: Leadership is hard
Him: It is
Me: It is lonely being at the top
Him: Hans you aren’t a leader
Me: What? Why?
Him: Because a lonely person is not a leader. A leader is a person who gathers a team and leads them somewhere. If you are alone you have no followers and therefore you aren’t a leader!
These words floored me! Partly because an oft quoted leadership maxim ‘It is lonely being at the top’ is seen for what it is: absolute crap.
If a leader is someone who, through influence and example, inspires, motivates, rebukes, trains and teaches a group of people to reach a goal or destination.
It is all about people and who you have around you.
Would Michael Jordan have won all those championships without his teammates?
Without Scottie Pippen and his all round play?
Without Horace Grant or Dennis Rodman providing the muscle down low?
Without the three point shooting of Kerr, Paxson and Kukoc
Without a coach like Phil Jackson who mastered the art of taming fragile, overpriced egos?
I think not
You show me a great leader and I will show you a person who can pick the best people for then job, motivate them, train them and inspire them to be the best they can be for the organization, church, team or whatever they are a part of.
What kind of people do you want?
Jack Welch the CEO of general electric said he looks for people who have four E’s and one P
Welch says he wants people with Energy, people who have the ability to Energize those around them, those people who Execute and get things done and those who have the Edge to make tough calls under fire. All these are useless if they don’t have Passion that is the P.
I am blessed with the right people around me in my church plant. People who love me enough to say the hard things to my face, who execute on things we need done and who are passionate people with energy.
Have you got the right people around you? Or do you just get the first people who put their hand up for the job? If you get the right people your job will be made mostly easier but if you get the wrong people you will probably go nowhere.
As a leader, who is surrounding you?
Me: Leadership is hard
Him: It is
Me: It is lonely being at the top
Him: Hans you aren’t a leader
Me: What? Why?
Him: Because a lonely person is not a leader. A leader is a person who gathers a team and leads them somewhere. If you are alone you have no followers and therefore you aren’t a leader!
These words floored me! Partly because an oft quoted leadership maxim ‘It is lonely being at the top’ is seen for what it is: absolute crap.
If a leader is someone who, through influence and example, inspires, motivates, rebukes, trains and teaches a group of people to reach a goal or destination.
It is all about people and who you have around you.
Would Michael Jordan have won all those championships without his teammates?
Without Scottie Pippen and his all round play?
Without Horace Grant or Dennis Rodman providing the muscle down low?
Without the three point shooting of Kerr, Paxson and Kukoc
Without a coach like Phil Jackson who mastered the art of taming fragile, overpriced egos?
I think not
You show me a great leader and I will show you a person who can pick the best people for then job, motivate them, train them and inspire them to be the best they can be for the organization, church, team or whatever they are a part of.
What kind of people do you want?
Jack Welch the CEO of general electric said he looks for people who have four E’s and one P
Welch says he wants people with Energy, people who have the ability to Energize those around them, those people who Execute and get things done and those who have the Edge to make tough calls under fire. All these are useless if they don’t have Passion that is the P.
I am blessed with the right people around me in my church plant. People who love me enough to say the hard things to my face, who execute on things we need done and who are passionate people with energy.
Have you got the right people around you? Or do you just get the first people who put their hand up for the job? If you get the right people your job will be made mostly easier but if you get the wrong people you will probably go nowhere.
As a leader, who is surrounding you?
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Leadership: do they love you?
‘A leader always touches a heart before he asks for a hand’
John C. Maxwell
I once went into a meeting with a bunch of youth group leaders at a previous church I was at, I was the student minister responsible for running the youth group and I had a brand new vision that was going revolutionize the way we did the youth ministry. In fact, because of this strategy, so many people were going to come to youth group that we would have to hire a fulltime youth minister!! That is how good the plan was.
I gave my spiel and then asked them what they thought.
‘I think its crap!’
‘What’s wrong with the way we do it now?’
‘Dude, you are only here for a year, what do you care anyway?’
I am not sure how good the strategy was (I don’t even remember it), but that was the day I learnt that no one would follow me just because I had a title. The biggest reason people were going to follow me is if they loved me. If I wanted people to buy into a vision they must first buy into me. They must first love me and trust me.
Have you got a vision?
Do you think people will buy into your vision?
Firstly have they bought into you?
The minister at my home church is a great example of the buy in. From what I was told, when he got there he did not make any grand plans or sweeping strategies.
He loved them.
He ate with them, he cried with them, he laughed with them, opened the bible with them, helped them with anything he could, opened his house to them, etc.
Now my friends at my home church will follow him almost anywhere, because they have bought into him.
Have your people bought into you? Have you wept, listened to, apologized to, laughed, ate, drank, played, sat, read, helped, sung, danced, xboxed, warcrafted, footballed, watched movies, went to bands etc. with them?
Have you shown by your time that you love them
Do they love you?
‘People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care’
John C. Maxwell
John C. Maxwell
I once went into a meeting with a bunch of youth group leaders at a previous church I was at, I was the student minister responsible for running the youth group and I had a brand new vision that was going revolutionize the way we did the youth ministry. In fact, because of this strategy, so many people were going to come to youth group that we would have to hire a fulltime youth minister!! That is how good the plan was.
I gave my spiel and then asked them what they thought.
‘I think its crap!’
‘What’s wrong with the way we do it now?’
‘Dude, you are only here for a year, what do you care anyway?’
I am not sure how good the strategy was (I don’t even remember it), but that was the day I learnt that no one would follow me just because I had a title. The biggest reason people were going to follow me is if they loved me. If I wanted people to buy into a vision they must first buy into me. They must first love me and trust me.
Have you got a vision?
Do you think people will buy into your vision?
Firstly have they bought into you?
The minister at my home church is a great example of the buy in. From what I was told, when he got there he did not make any grand plans or sweeping strategies.
He loved them.
He ate with them, he cried with them, he laughed with them, opened the bible with them, helped them with anything he could, opened his house to them, etc.
Now my friends at my home church will follow him almost anywhere, because they have bought into him.
Have your people bought into you? Have you wept, listened to, apologized to, laughed, ate, drank, played, sat, read, helped, sung, danced, xboxed, warcrafted, footballed, watched movies, went to bands etc. with them?
Have you shown by your time that you love them
Do they love you?
‘People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care’
John C. Maxwell
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Leadership: Do you love them?
I had a conversation with a friend who was trying to lead a bunch of people at his workplace through a difficult time. He said he tried everything to get them onside but it hasn’t worked and then he dropped the bombshell. This is how the conversation rolled
Him: ‘I guess I just don’t like them.’
Me: ‘You don’t like them? What do you feel towards them?’
Him: ‘Good question! I guess not much at all. I don’t really like them and I don’t feel anything for them.’
Me: ‘Do you love them’
Him: ‘Hell no.’
Me: ‘Would you do anything for them outside of your job?’
Him: ‘Hans, you are the pastor I am just an engineer!’
I said to my friend that he could never lead this group of people, because Leadership is all about relationships of service.
If I don’t love I will never lead.
That doesn’t mean you have to like them and want to hang out with them. I have lead teams where I wouldn’t consider the people in those teams friends but I have loved them and have tried to show them this.
What’s the difference? The Bible says this ‘This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers’ Notice how practical the definition is? The laying down of your life constitutes the very heart of love that you are showing towards a person.
If you want to lead you will love.
So,
Do you communicate well to your followers?
Do you ask them how they are and really want to know how they are?
When was the last time you sat down with someone and did nothing but listen?
When was the last time you lovingly said something hard to someone because they needed to hear it?
When was the last time you held the people around you up in prayer?
When did you last weep with the people around you?
When did you last do something like go to the movies with them on your day off?
I am asking myself these questions. Because I think if I communicate with, weep with, listen to, pray for, rebuke gently, Give my time to my followers I am loving them and I am showing that I love them. So my friend who I was talking to might not have been able to like the people around him but he could have loved them.
What about you? Do you love the people you are trying to lead?
Him: ‘I guess I just don’t like them.’
Me: ‘You don’t like them? What do you feel towards them?’
Him: ‘Good question! I guess not much at all. I don’t really like them and I don’t feel anything for them.’
Me: ‘Do you love them’
Him: ‘Hell no.’
Me: ‘Would you do anything for them outside of your job?’
Him: ‘Hans, you are the pastor I am just an engineer!’
I said to my friend that he could never lead this group of people, because Leadership is all about relationships of service.
If I don’t love I will never lead.
That doesn’t mean you have to like them and want to hang out with them. I have lead teams where I wouldn’t consider the people in those teams friends but I have loved them and have tried to show them this.
What’s the difference? The Bible says this ‘This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers’ Notice how practical the definition is? The laying down of your life constitutes the very heart of love that you are showing towards a person.
If you want to lead you will love.
So,
Do you communicate well to your followers?
Do you ask them how they are and really want to know how they are?
When was the last time you sat down with someone and did nothing but listen?
When was the last time you lovingly said something hard to someone because they needed to hear it?
When was the last time you held the people around you up in prayer?
When did you last weep with the people around you?
When did you last do something like go to the movies with them on your day off?
I am asking myself these questions. Because I think if I communicate with, weep with, listen to, pray for, rebuke gently, Give my time to my followers I am loving them and I am showing that I love them. So my friend who I was talking to might not have been able to like the people around him but he could have loved them.
What about you? Do you love the people you are trying to lead?
Monday, March 9, 2009
Leadership: What kind of leader are you?
In my few years on this planet I have seen two types of leaders:
• Narcissistic leaders who are generally insecure and leadership is all about them and their ego and
• Servant leaders who care more about the team winning then them looking good
So why do you lead? Is it all for your glory or is it for the glory of the team/band/group you lead. Or is it for the glory of God?
In Jim Collin’s book Good to Great he describes two different leaders. A level four leader is a leader that: catalyzes commitment to and vigorous pursuit of a clear and compelling vision, stimulating higher performance standards. Whereas a level five leader: Builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. Collins and his team say the best kind of leader is the level five leader. Because when a level five leader goes the company usually misses its star and suffers. Whereas, the Level five leader builds infrastructure around him so he is expendable.
Also:
The level five leader is not the big personality that by his presence inspires people. Rather, he is humble and is ambitious for the company not himself.
The level five leader is a person who is quick to credit his team when things go right and always apportions blame to himself when things go wrong.
The level five leader, wants the people around him to look better than he does because he knows that if they succeed the company succeeds.
The level five leader is driven by the growth of his company and not the growth of his empire.
Rereading Jim Collins on this has given me pause to think about my own leadership. What kind of leader are you?
• Narcissistic leaders who are generally insecure and leadership is all about them and their ego and
• Servant leaders who care more about the team winning then them looking good
So why do you lead? Is it all for your glory or is it for the glory of the team/band/group you lead. Or is it for the glory of God?
In Jim Collin’s book Good to Great he describes two different leaders. A level four leader is a leader that: catalyzes commitment to and vigorous pursuit of a clear and compelling vision, stimulating higher performance standards. Whereas a level five leader: Builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. Collins and his team say the best kind of leader is the level five leader. Because when a level five leader goes the company usually misses its star and suffers. Whereas, the Level five leader builds infrastructure around him so he is expendable.
Also:
The level five leader is not the big personality that by his presence inspires people. Rather, he is humble and is ambitious for the company not himself.
The level five leader is a person who is quick to credit his team when things go right and always apportions blame to himself when things go wrong.
The level five leader, wants the people around him to look better than he does because he knows that if they succeed the company succeeds.
The level five leader is driven by the growth of his company and not the growth of his empire.
Rereading Jim Collins on this has given me pause to think about my own leadership. What kind of leader are you?
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Leadership: A definition
I have been asked about my views on Leadership and so I decided to put some thoughts down over the next two weeks.
Here is my definiton of what a leader is: A leader is someone who, through influence and example, inspires, motivates, rebukes, trains and teaches a group of people to reach a goal or destination.
The first thing about Leadership is Influence. A Chinese proverb says ‘A leader with no followers is a man just out for a walk’. If you don’t influence anyone you are not a leader. Conversely, if you do influence someone or some people and you don’t think you are a leader you actually are.
The leader sets the example; a leader must do what he expects his followers to do. Do you want people to come on time for your meetings but are always late for theirs? Do you want people to talk straight to you but you talk behind their back? Example is key because your life will give the people you lead the green light to do what they see you doing.
The leader inspires and motivates through vision and feedback. If people don’t have a vision they will get lost and not want to follow you and if you don’t give them feedback they will never be encouraged, thanked, rebuked or rewarded.
The leader teaches and trains behaviors, models and skills. If you only motivate but don’t teach your followers will be shallow and ultimately won't have the skills you need them to have.
The leader sets goals and targets and is relentless in pursing them. If you don’t have a clear vision of where you want the group to go don’t waste the time of the people you are trying to lead step aside and let one of them lead. They probably will be a better leader than you anyway.
All of what I have said will be fleshed out in the coming days. Let me know what you think.
Here is my definiton of what a leader is: A leader is someone who, through influence and example, inspires, motivates, rebukes, trains and teaches a group of people to reach a goal or destination.
The first thing about Leadership is Influence. A Chinese proverb says ‘A leader with no followers is a man just out for a walk’. If you don’t influence anyone you are not a leader. Conversely, if you do influence someone or some people and you don’t think you are a leader you actually are.
The leader sets the example; a leader must do what he expects his followers to do. Do you want people to come on time for your meetings but are always late for theirs? Do you want people to talk straight to you but you talk behind their back? Example is key because your life will give the people you lead the green light to do what they see you doing.
The leader inspires and motivates through vision and feedback. If people don’t have a vision they will get lost and not want to follow you and if you don’t give them feedback they will never be encouraged, thanked, rebuked or rewarded.
The leader teaches and trains behaviors, models and skills. If you only motivate but don’t teach your followers will be shallow and ultimately won't have the skills you need them to have.
The leader sets goals and targets and is relentless in pursing them. If you don’t have a clear vision of where you want the group to go don’t waste the time of the people you are trying to lead step aside and let one of them lead. They probably will be a better leader than you anyway.
All of what I have said will be fleshed out in the coming days. Let me know what you think.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Questions and answers
Thanks guys for responding to the last post.
We will chuck some pics up somewhere in the next week. If you want to keep in touch with us and see what is up we are on:
Twitter http://twitter.com/resolvedchurch
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=51712788940&ref=ts
And we will be uploading videos and having channels on Mogulus and Youtube before Sunday. The website should be up within two weeks
Music wise we have Paul Liao who sings and plays guitar and that is it so far. We want to develop bands organically. As for Gear we have a Yamaha PA which was Bought with the Money that Mortdale Anglican church gave us. Songs we try to do about 50 percent hymns done well and the rest are various contemporary ones.
We are meeting on Sunday at 6pm which is late enough so Musicians and artists can go to their Sunday BBQs (which is almost a religious practice) and they can still get to their gig on a Sunday night.
Keep the questions coming
Hans
We will chuck some pics up somewhere in the next week. If you want to keep in touch with us and see what is up we are on:
Twitter http://twitter.com/resolvedchurch
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=51712788940&ref=ts
And we will be uploading videos and having channels on Mogulus and Youtube before Sunday. The website should be up within two weeks
Music wise we have Paul Liao who sings and plays guitar and that is it so far. We want to develop bands organically. As for Gear we have a Yamaha PA which was Bought with the Money that Mortdale Anglican church gave us. Songs we try to do about 50 percent hymns done well and the rest are various contemporary ones.
We are meeting on Sunday at 6pm which is late enough so Musicians and artists can go to their Sunday BBQs (which is almost a religious practice) and they can still get to their gig on a Sunday night.
Keep the questions coming
Hans
Sunday, March 1, 2009
First night for RESOLVED
Hey guys we had our first service last night and we were aiming to get 30 people. We got 32 people!! The service itself had a few very minor things we have to sort out but the service had vibe and was pretty much what we wanted to do and people said they loved it!!! Thanks guys for praying and encouraging me!
Hey I realize I pretty much suck at this blog thing so if you have anything you want me to blog about like how did I get a core team together or whatever could you leave a suggestion.
Hey I realize I pretty much suck at this blog thing so if you have anything you want me to blog about like how did I get a core team together or whatever could you leave a suggestion.
Sermon series branding
What is sermon series branding?
Sermons series branding is when you think about how a Church may package and market a sermon series so that
1. it is appealing to the people you are trying to reach
2. your congregation is excited by the upcoming sermon series
When you come up with a brand you may just have a title and a graphic or you use the brand in videos or a website, you may create an evite or an invite or a tshirt or whatever.
Is this marketing?
Yes it is. But if you preach the word faithfully does it matter that you market a series? Shouldn’t you do all things so that some people may connect in with what your Church is doing? Now I am not saying that people will become Christians through a great sermons series branding, what I am saying is that the brand is just an in where people may connect with your Church or have an interest sparked because of the branding. They hopefully will come to hear the sermon series and be changed by the preaching of the word.
Why have sermon series branding?
1. We brand because we Love. We are meant to do all things so that all men might find Jesus. We at Resolved are spending good amounts of time to brand our series on the Gospel of Luke so that our lost friends may see the branding or the video and have an interest sparked and then it will be hopefully easier to invite them to Church with the hope that they may hear the gospel and respond. We do all this work because we love the lost
2. We brand because it forces us to think about the sermon series and what we want to get out of it. In thinking through our current sermon series branding I had to ask myself questions like: What are the themes that we want to hit on in Luke? What are the main applications from Luke that we want to emphasize? How is Jesus Presented in the Gospel of Luke? Working through these questions will help me with preparation and the communication of the text.
3. We brand because it forces us to think about the people we are trying to reach. We had to think about what are the thoughts, hopes, dreams, worldviews of the people we are trying to reach and then how the Gospel of Luke answers, encourages or confronts those hopes, thoughts, dreams and worldviews. So in branding we have to think more about the people God has placed on our hearts to reach. Which is never a bad thing is it?
4. We brand because it harnesses the creativity and the gifts of the congregation. I must admit for this series the thought about branding was mostly done by me. (I did consult a few people on team though) But despite that we used the gifts of a graphic designer and a director/ film editor and I will be talking to one of our artists about how we can tap into the creativity of our artists by getting them to create art in response to this series. In the future I hope to get teams of graphics people, web people, video people, musicians etc all working on different aspects where they can use the branding to get the word out about this series. So as you can see if we used all those people we would be tapping into the creative gifts of many in our congregation. I think if people were in some way to own a sermon series through having creative input they will be more excited about the series and more likely to invite people to Church to hear the series. Do you have people in your Church that would love to use their creative gifts in this way?
Steps to branding a sermon series
1. Ask where the congregation is at and what series we should preach next? Is the congregation or Church weak on Christology? Maybe do a sermon series on John’s gospel or Revelation. Are there massive moral issues in your Church? Maybe a series on the Sermon on the Mount or 1 Corinthians is in order. The sermon series branding starts with, after deep prayer reflection and discussion, choosing a sermon series that you think would be helpful to your Church. (I know that all scripture is God breathed and therefore any part of scripture is good to preach at any time. But, as we all have experienced, certain parts of scripture speak to us more in certain times then others based on what is happening to us at that time or what we are learning or where we are heading. I am saying that a minister needs to ask these question of his congregation when thinking about a sermon series.)
2. Work out the themes you want to emphasize in the series. Are you going to emphasize the idea of being sent or belief in the gospel of John for example? I think asking these questions will help you to be clearer on what you want out of your sermon series. For example I want to emphasize a few things from the gospel of Luke. That Jesus ate with those who are outcasts and the subsequent invitation he gave to them, that he was clashed wit the leaders of his day by emphasizing who he was and what he came to do, the fact that Jesus cared about the poor and had a lot to say about money, and the person of Jesus; he was not just a normal guy but he claimed in word and deed to be God who has come to bring a new age and eternal life.
3. How do your emphases interact with your congregations and those people you want to reach? How does it come up against some of their worldview issues? How does it encourage them? How does it meet their felt needs and deepest needs? Thinking through these things is going to help you with application and communication.
4. Come up with a sermon series title. Up until this point the hard work is usually done by the preacher of the series, hopefully with consultation with trusted congregation members. Now is the time to get your creative people together and lay out what the sermon series is and what are the theological emphases and how it interacts with the congregation and the people you are trying to reach. You then come up with a sermon series title that will catchy and will hopefully spark the interest of the congregation and those they may invite to Church and yet still communicate what the series is about. Our sermon series is called ‘Jesus the Progressive Saviour: Come discover the ultimate revolutionary.’ This brings out that Jesus ate and hung out with the ‘wrong people’ and clashed with the establishment of his day and he was therefore both progressive and revolutionary. The words progressive and revolutionary are buzzwords amongst some of the people we are trying to reach.
5. Create a series Graphic. You will need a graphic designer for this. The clipart you got for free off the internet will not do. If there is not a Graphic Designer in your congregation I am sure you would know someone who knows a graphic designer. The graphic should communicate the series title and hopefully will spark interest in the series. You want to get your graphic designer to put your graphic in a few different sizes so you can use them in a video or a flyer or an internet banner etc. If you can’t find a graphic designer two great friends of mine who are great graphic designers are Corrine Moseley corrine.moseley@gmail.com and Murray Bunton murray@streetlinemedia.com.au.
6. Create an invite that people can give to their friends and an evite that people can email to their friends inviting them to the sermon series. You want to advertise through word of mouth and word of mouse.
7. Create a video. We spent one morning shooting two videos so it shouldn’t take long. The video needs to explain why you are doing the sermon series and in a way which is winsome to those who may not go to Church. Keep it short, sharp, simple and on message. Our series video should be up on Youtube within days and when it is I will post it here. The video was shot on a handycam but was edited brilliantly by one of our team. I have been told that the gear you use is not half as important as having great editing. So maybe you can use the handycam you have but you may need to pay someone to edit it well.
8. Create a minisite that will have a blog and or a question answer section about the series. It may have a forum section too.
9. Find ways in which you can use Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Myspace and anything else on the internet you can use to spread the word about your sermon series. There are bound to be geeks in your Church that can do this for you. Get them away from playing World of Warcraft and give them this as their ministry.
10. Brainstorm new items that can be used in the services during this series. Is there a singer/songwriter that can write a song about what she has learnt in this series? Can your music director write a new song to sing as a congregation based on this series? Is there a drama or a series of dramas that can be used for this series? Can you have a panel during the service? Is there a book your congregation might read for the series?
11. Create other things that might spark interest. You could do a tshirt, or a Facebook application or internet game or whatever? The idea is put as many things out there that people can connect with as possible so that they may be intrigued and come along to hear about Jesus and that your congregation are excited about the upcoming sermon series and may invite their friends to hear about Jesus.
One final note, all this takes time. Resolved will be doing our current series till Easter 2010. But we will be thinking about our series after that and panning all this stuff from the start of October this year. This gives us more than half a year to brainstorm and come up with all the things listed above. Also, as I said before, branding may be as simple as creating a series title and a graphic all the above suggestions are optional.
I hope this stimulates discussion.
Sermons series branding is when you think about how a Church may package and market a sermon series so that
1. it is appealing to the people you are trying to reach
2. your congregation is excited by the upcoming sermon series
When you come up with a brand you may just have a title and a graphic or you use the brand in videos or a website, you may create an evite or an invite or a tshirt or whatever.
Is this marketing?
Yes it is. But if you preach the word faithfully does it matter that you market a series? Shouldn’t you do all things so that some people may connect in with what your Church is doing? Now I am not saying that people will become Christians through a great sermons series branding, what I am saying is that the brand is just an in where people may connect with your Church or have an interest sparked because of the branding. They hopefully will come to hear the sermon series and be changed by the preaching of the word.
Why have sermon series branding?
1. We brand because we Love. We are meant to do all things so that all men might find Jesus. We at Resolved are spending good amounts of time to brand our series on the Gospel of Luke so that our lost friends may see the branding or the video and have an interest sparked and then it will be hopefully easier to invite them to Church with the hope that they may hear the gospel and respond. We do all this work because we love the lost
2. We brand because it forces us to think about the sermon series and what we want to get out of it. In thinking through our current sermon series branding I had to ask myself questions like: What are the themes that we want to hit on in Luke? What are the main applications from Luke that we want to emphasize? How is Jesus Presented in the Gospel of Luke? Working through these questions will help me with preparation and the communication of the text.
3. We brand because it forces us to think about the people we are trying to reach. We had to think about what are the thoughts, hopes, dreams, worldviews of the people we are trying to reach and then how the Gospel of Luke answers, encourages or confronts those hopes, thoughts, dreams and worldviews. So in branding we have to think more about the people God has placed on our hearts to reach. Which is never a bad thing is it?
4. We brand because it harnesses the creativity and the gifts of the congregation. I must admit for this series the thought about branding was mostly done by me. (I did consult a few people on team though) But despite that we used the gifts of a graphic designer and a director/ film editor and I will be talking to one of our artists about how we can tap into the creativity of our artists by getting them to create art in response to this series. In the future I hope to get teams of graphics people, web people, video people, musicians etc all working on different aspects where they can use the branding to get the word out about this series. So as you can see if we used all those people we would be tapping into the creative gifts of many in our congregation. I think if people were in some way to own a sermon series through having creative input they will be more excited about the series and more likely to invite people to Church to hear the series. Do you have people in your Church that would love to use their creative gifts in this way?
Steps to branding a sermon series
1. Ask where the congregation is at and what series we should preach next? Is the congregation or Church weak on Christology? Maybe do a sermon series on John’s gospel or Revelation. Are there massive moral issues in your Church? Maybe a series on the Sermon on the Mount or 1 Corinthians is in order. The sermon series branding starts with, after deep prayer reflection and discussion, choosing a sermon series that you think would be helpful to your Church. (I know that all scripture is God breathed and therefore any part of scripture is good to preach at any time. But, as we all have experienced, certain parts of scripture speak to us more in certain times then others based on what is happening to us at that time or what we are learning or where we are heading. I am saying that a minister needs to ask these question of his congregation when thinking about a sermon series.)
2. Work out the themes you want to emphasize in the series. Are you going to emphasize the idea of being sent or belief in the gospel of John for example? I think asking these questions will help you to be clearer on what you want out of your sermon series. For example I want to emphasize a few things from the gospel of Luke. That Jesus ate with those who are outcasts and the subsequent invitation he gave to them, that he was clashed wit the leaders of his day by emphasizing who he was and what he came to do, the fact that Jesus cared about the poor and had a lot to say about money, and the person of Jesus; he was not just a normal guy but he claimed in word and deed to be God who has come to bring a new age and eternal life.
3. How do your emphases interact with your congregations and those people you want to reach? How does it come up against some of their worldview issues? How does it encourage them? How does it meet their felt needs and deepest needs? Thinking through these things is going to help you with application and communication.
4. Come up with a sermon series title. Up until this point the hard work is usually done by the preacher of the series, hopefully with consultation with trusted congregation members. Now is the time to get your creative people together and lay out what the sermon series is and what are the theological emphases and how it interacts with the congregation and the people you are trying to reach. You then come up with a sermon series title that will catchy and will hopefully spark the interest of the congregation and those they may invite to Church and yet still communicate what the series is about. Our sermon series is called ‘Jesus the Progressive Saviour: Come discover the ultimate revolutionary.’ This brings out that Jesus ate and hung out with the ‘wrong people’ and clashed with the establishment of his day and he was therefore both progressive and revolutionary. The words progressive and revolutionary are buzzwords amongst some of the people we are trying to reach.
5. Create a series Graphic. You will need a graphic designer for this. The clipart you got for free off the internet will not do. If there is not a Graphic Designer in your congregation I am sure you would know someone who knows a graphic designer. The graphic should communicate the series title and hopefully will spark interest in the series. You want to get your graphic designer to put your graphic in a few different sizes so you can use them in a video or a flyer or an internet banner etc. If you can’t find a graphic designer two great friends of mine who are great graphic designers are Corrine Moseley corrine.moseley@gmail.com and Murray Bunton murray@streetlinemedia.com.au.
6. Create an invite that people can give to their friends and an evite that people can email to their friends inviting them to the sermon series. You want to advertise through word of mouth and word of mouse.
7. Create a video. We spent one morning shooting two videos so it shouldn’t take long. The video needs to explain why you are doing the sermon series and in a way which is winsome to those who may not go to Church. Keep it short, sharp, simple and on message. Our series video should be up on Youtube within days and when it is I will post it here. The video was shot on a handycam but was edited brilliantly by one of our team. I have been told that the gear you use is not half as important as having great editing. So maybe you can use the handycam you have but you may need to pay someone to edit it well.
8. Create a minisite that will have a blog and or a question answer section about the series. It may have a forum section too.
9. Find ways in which you can use Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Myspace and anything else on the internet you can use to spread the word about your sermon series. There are bound to be geeks in your Church that can do this for you. Get them away from playing World of Warcraft and give them this as their ministry.
10. Brainstorm new items that can be used in the services during this series. Is there a singer/songwriter that can write a song about what she has learnt in this series? Can your music director write a new song to sing as a congregation based on this series? Is there a drama or a series of dramas that can be used for this series? Can you have a panel during the service? Is there a book your congregation might read for the series?
11. Create other things that might spark interest. You could do a tshirt, or a Facebook application or internet game or whatever? The idea is put as many things out there that people can connect with as possible so that they may be intrigued and come along to hear about Jesus and that your congregation are excited about the upcoming sermon series and may invite their friends to hear about Jesus.
One final note, all this takes time. Resolved will be doing our current series till Easter 2010. But we will be thinking about our series after that and panning all this stuff from the start of October this year. This gives us more than half a year to brainstorm and come up with all the things listed above. Also, as I said before, branding may be as simple as creating a series title and a graphic all the above suggestions are optional.
I hope this stimulates discussion.
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