During the past month, I have had the privilege of interacting with leaders of approximately 75 prevailing churches. This was an abnormal amount of activity for me but I was privileged to be part of the following:
- Nationwide Giving Rocket Tour helping churches increase weekly giving.
- Financial Coaching and Learning Experience which helps people win with their personal finances.
- Velocity Conference put on by www.ChurchPlanters.com
- INJOY Stewardship Solutions which helps churches raise significant capital.
- Attended services at the following churches in the Atlanta area – Fellowship Bible Church, Passion City Church, Piedmont Church, and First Baptist Church of Woodstock.
After spending time with these incredible Christian leaders, I identified 15 common threads of these prevailing churches:
- Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, And When You Are Done Talking About Jesus, Talk Some More About Jesus – Prevailing churches talk about Jesus, sing about Jesus, experience Jesus, and focus entirely on Him.
- Women Have Significant Roles Of Influence – Prevailing churches utilize talented, intelligent, gifted, and skilled women. They create avenues for women with leadership gifts to live out their calling.
- Senior Pastors Have Courageous Vision – Prevailing churches have leaders who are deeply committed to a vision that relieves suffering, frees the enslaved, serves the poor and under-resourced. They have a God-sized, externally-focused vision.
- The Pastor And Staff Are Friends – Pastors of prevailing churches want to “do life” with those they serve alongside of. They have also learned that you not only need competent staff that CAN help you, but also WANTS to help you. Because of this, the…
- Staff Is Deeply Loyal To The Pastor And The Vision – When I talk to prevailing churches, it is noticeable that there is low staff turnover. They have been together for a long time. They are also focused on how to make the vision a reality, not “confirming the vision” or “holding the pastor accountable.”
- Services Are Multi-Racial – Prevailing churches have executive leadership, staff, volunteers, and platform ministries that are fully-integrated and represent all the races and nationalities of their local communities.
- Services Are Multi-Generational – Prevailing churches do more than just say they value young people. They sing music that connects with young people. They make young people part of each service. They speak to young people during the service. And they give young people important positions of service in their church.
- Social Media – I recently attended a mid-week youth service in which 19 teenagers gave their life to Jesus. At the close of the service, the youth pastor said, “Everyone pull out your smart phones.” Over 450 teenagers did. He then said, “Now go to your Facebook app. Type in ‘God is doing amazing things at First Baptist Woodstock on Wednesday nights. See you next week.'” He then gave them a message for Twitter and put the appropriate hash tag on the screens. Through social media, this youth pastor led his students to send out over 900 invites to their friends while telling about the incredible life-changing power of Jesus Christ.
- Senior Leadership Loves People – Prevailing churches have staff that are accessible and love people.
- Generosity – Prevailing churches serve their tribes. They are constantly giving away t-shirts, bags with the church logo, resources, and time. They make those in their churches feel they are a part of a very special faith community.
- Volunteers Are Happy – I can always tell a church’s atmosphere by the parking team and greeters. The people on the outside give me a picture of what is on the inside.
- Volunteering Is Easy – People want to get involved at prevailing churches. These communities of faith make that easy.
- Systems Are In Place – For vision to become reality, you need more than great messages. Systems create the infrastructure needed for vision to become reality.
- People Are Experiencing Life Change – Every time I visit a prevailing church, lives are being changed. People are giving their life to Christ. Baptisms are taking place. Addictions are being broken. Marriages are being restored. Pasts are being forgiven. People are not leaving these churches in the same condition they entered them in just a couple of hours earlier.
- Memorable Events – Prevailing churches have something that happens during every service that people will talk about all week. Sometimes orchestrated, sometimes completely spontaneous. But either way, the people are left with a “Were you there? Did you see that? I can’t wait until next week!” type of experience.
Pastors and church leaders, this is what I experienced this past month. What other activities do you see that contributes to prevailing churches?
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