Live Blog From Purpose Driven Leadership Conference – 32 Leadership Quotes From The Afternoon Session

Today I am being dispatched by Injoy Stewardship Solutions (ISS) to attend the Purpose Driven Leadership Conference.  In an effort to grow in my skills to better add value to pastors and church leaders, I will be live blogging throughout.

The afternoon’s session speakers were David Chrzan, Saddleback Church’s Chief of Staff along with Jim and Jennifer Cowart.  The following were their thoughts on Purpose Driven Leadership:

1. If you can get the men, you can get the family. – Jim
2. A lot of men in your community think church is feminine. – Jim
3. To connect men to a church, you must connect them to God, then to each other, and then to a ministry. – Jennifer
4. Church members want to see how you live.  They don’t want you to see how they live. – David
5. Rick would ask two questions – What first brought you to Saddleback Church?  and What brought you back? – The second question gives you your positioning statement.  It is what the community says about you. – David
6. Another question Saddleback asks is What was your first impression?  This lets you see your church through their eyes. – David
7. When you invite people into your home and let them talk, they become your advocate. – David
8. Features.  Attitudes.  Benefits.  When you’re trying to get someone to make a decision you speak to the features, their attitude (how they see themselves) or the benefits. – David
9. Most pastors miss the benefits of the Christian life.  The benefits answer the question what is that to me?  What is the benefit to me? – David
10. You can become more like Jesus Christ if you speak about the benefits of the Christian life.  Ex. What are the benefits of giving? – David
11. We are believers and belongers.  A believer without a church home is an orphan.
12. If we are part of a church family is means there is someone who is looking out for me. – David
13. Leaders see opportunities and step into them and bring order when most people would step away from it…They don’t mind working in a little bit of chaos at the start. – David
14. The You’re It Principle – You see the need.  Tag you’re it. – David
15. I want our parents talking about what their kids experienced on Sunday on Monday morning. – Jennifer
16. Our best inviters are people who are pre-Christian. – Jim
17. Our worst inviters are people who have been Christ-followers for a long time. – Jim
18. No church grows without visitors. – Jim
19. There are few places still left in America where someone will sit still and quietly for 20 minutes and listen to a person talk.  So we need to be sensitive to their needs. – Jim
20. It takes unselfish, mature believers to offer an evangelistic worship service. – Jennifer

The Four Most Common Reasons People Give About Avoiding Church

1. Sermons are boring and irrelevant to my life.
2. The members are unfriendly to new attenders.
3. There’s too much emphasis on money.
4. The Childcare and Programs for Children are weak.

Eight additional thoughts:

1. Most unchurched people are not aetheists.  They’re just turned off and too busy. – Jennifer
2.  Is there anything going on in an unchurched person’s life to give up their free time? – Jennifer
3. Answer people’s questions before they ask. – Jim
4. Partner with your people to bring their unchurched friends. – Jim
5. You need to design your service so that it’s not embarrassing to your people. – Jim
6. You’re not going to get better by accident. You’re going to get better by evaluating and setting strategies to get better.- Jim
7. If you have a need to be everyone’s shepherd, your church will not grow beyond 70-80 in attendance. – Jim
8. If you’re so busy being a nice, sweet shepherd you’re not going to have time to lead. – Jennifer

Getting ready for day 2.

As a special gift to everyone reading this post, ISS is pleased to offer our latest resource Nothing Grows A Church Faster absolutely FREE.  This complimentary eBook contains 5 sermon outlines you can use this fall to speak on money and possessions.  Click HERE or on the image to the left to receive your copy today.  Enjoy!!!