Winning on Game Day

Here are what I thought were great thoughts from Kevin Gerald, Pastor of the Champion Center in Washington State. The overarching premise is this...you can mess up a lot of things in the church, but don't mess up Sunday....it's game day and it is urgent that we win!! Kevin offered 9 points at a recent conference (I did not attend, just was given the CD). Here they are. This will connect especially with the Pastors that are reading my blog (I am aware of a growing number of them).

1. Plan a service that you would attend if you were not the Pastor. Is yours a church you would attend if you were not the Pastor?
   
2. Have a service that passes the cost/benefit analysis for men. If you get the man, you often get the whole family! Men need to feel like its worth it...and a "nurturing environment" is not enough for them.
   
3. Services should be well planned. Certainly weeks, if not months in advance.
   
4. Train your team to recognize the urgency of winning on Sundays! It is so urgent that every staff member and key Sunday volunteer knows and feels this!
   
5. Know your service goals and stick to them. Don't let issues hijack your services. As long as their are people, there are issues. And don't let your own issues with people bleed on the innocent. Make a list of service goals so you reach them.
   
6. Appoint a service coordinator and create a service planning team to work at planning services. The Pastor brings topic of upcoming messages and the other thinkers make it creative, run with it and execute it. Gerald says that you can/should do this even if you are a church of 30 people.
7. Have an appealing, fresh and highly communicative stage. Use whatever you have (even limited budget) to get some cool decor and some variety. The platform is BY FAR the most influential place in your church. Entire buildings are designed to bring attention to the platform. From the moment that people arrive their attention is directed where?
8. Keep your communication simple and relevant. Intelligent people don't want to preached at but communicated with. Watch what America is watching. Watch Jay Leno one night. We walks out and talks. Millions tune in.
   
9. Make sincere affirmation a consistent ingredient of your services. Not bogus flattery, but genuine love and value from your heart. Anyone that takes the stage should see "10" on every persons forehead in the room.

Certainly some areas that we need to work on at CCF. I love learning what others are doing and thinking. Helps me dream.

--Noah