unSeminary Podcast

Welcome back to this week’s unSeminary podcast. We’re talking with Eddie Hastings, Executive Pastor of Ministries at Chets Creek Church in Florida. Eddie is talking with us about using personality tests to better build and communicate with your staff teams. Know and trust each other. // When a church grows, especially to have multiple campuses, you’re not with the teams at each location often. As a result, you have to work harder with those teams to get to know each other and build trust. Value each team’s input on the strategy in their context at their location. Provide opportunities for the people on different teams to come together in meetings to talk with each other.Understand your team. // It’s important for us to understand ourselves as well as the people on our team – who they are, what they’re like, how they think. Just because you all work for the same church doesn’t mean you view and process things the same way. Eddie’s staff uses the DISC personality profile to bring together individuals that are all very different into a community which God has called together to accomplish a mission.Differences between us. // Rather than pigeon-holing people, understanding different personalities helps us ask, “What does this person need from me as I lead them? How do I talk to them, give them feedback, and help them develop?” We often communicate with others the way we want to be communicated with and that doesn’t always work to reach those who are wired differently from us.Balance the personalities on each team. // Eddie uses the DISC profile to explore how a potential hire might fit into the team they would be part of. In this way he can balance out the personalities within teams and distribute strengths where they are needed across the staff.Talk and understand each other. // Eddie’s team does one staff retreat a year. They do the DISC profile tests every other year and then talk about them together as a team. As they discuss the results, they review what fits them and what doesn’t. These moments help people to better understand each other.Know what works for each member. // When it comes to coaching conversations, personality tests can help you better understand how to approach a team member. The goal here is to help them understand where their performance needs improvement so they can receive it and act on it, rather than seeing it as an attack and becoming defensive. For more task-oriented people, a direct approach that is clear on the specific changes they need to make is important. For more relationally-oriented people, they will take feedback to heart, so focus on the action that needs changing, not their personality.Find what each staff needs. // Personality assessments can help you find what each campus staff needs. Take a look at who is already on the team at a location and see what may still be needed in gifting and strengths. When hiring for a leadership position, look for a personality that the other team members will work well with and want to follow.Have multiple interviews when hiring. // When interviewing someone new for a position, have as many interviews with them as you can, and more than you think you need. Bring other people into the interview who may have nothing to do with the position, but are trusted and know the church culture well, so that you can get a better feel for the potential hire and how they might fit in with the church staff. Remember that ultimately hiring is a spiritual decision. You can learn more about Chets Creek Church at www.chetscreek.com. Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally! Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live! Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: FiveTwo It’s hard to know how to grow your church. Especially as you come out of a pandemic in a changing culture. But you desperately want to. You believe the church can still grow. The good news? You don’t have to do it all yourself. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to find the right group of people who will help carry the load and bring growth to your ministry. You’ll be relieved. People will be helped. Your church will grow. Download this guide TODAY for an easy 5-step plan to get the right leaders on board. We’ll give you 5 surprisingly easy steps to activate your congregation.

Are you a senior leader in church thinking about health care options for your team? Did you know that your team is anxious about this aspect of serving at your church? Today on unSeminary we want to help with that worry & stress. We are joined by Marq James, an expert in health care sharing options for church leadership teams to talk about this innovative and cost savings approach. We tackle questions like … What are health care sharing ministries and what makes them different than traditional insurance? What sort of churches is a health care sharing a good fit for? What are the top reasons churches don’t consider health care sharing at times? Is there a church team too small for health care sharing? What about too big? Why should a church or individual consider and trust Medi-Share specifically? Marq James is a strategic, customer-driven leader known for consistently creating value, profitability and aggressive growth through sound fiscal management and building, leading and enabling high-performing teams. Possessing the passion of a successful entrepreneur and the discipline of a veteran executive with tremendous personal energy and strong emotional maturity. Utilizes keen analysis, insights, and a team approach to drive organizational improvements and implementation of best practices. An adept relationship builder, known for guiding executive teams through complex dealings, cultivating strategic partnerships, and fusing disparate interests for win-win outcomes. It’s our honor to have Marq on the show! Medi-Share, the largest and most-trusted Christian health care sharing ministry, might be exactly what you’ve been looking for. We’ve been long-standing partners with Medi-Share and despite its growing popularity, we’re always surprised at how many people haven’t heard of health care sharing or don’t know exactly how it works. For more information about Medi-Share click here. Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally! Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live!

Thanks for joining in for the unSeminary podcast. We’re talking with Charles Stone, lead pastor at West Park Church in Ontario, Canada. He also is an author and provides training for pastors. 75% of people forget most of what they’ve heard from a talk within an hour. 90% forget what they’ve heard after a week unless we learn to employ certain techniques and principles in our communications. Charles is with us today to share how to craft your communication so that it better sticks with your listener. Understand your listeners. // Most pastors do a good job extracting what the scriptures say. However, we also need to clearly pay attention to what is going on in the brain of our listeners and how to craft the communication of the message (before we get up to preach) so that it sticks.Consider how we process. // It’s hard to keep people’s interest today. You can overdo the entertainment side of teaching. We need to take into consideration the way God created our brains and how we process information and learn as we preach the gospel because Jesus modeled these same things.Eight blobs of communication. // Charles refers to eight “blobs” on the platter of communication to keep in mind: clarity, attention, affinity, capacity, durability, emotion, mindset, and transfer. Each of these principles has three takeaways in Charles’s teachings. You don’t have to use all eight of these when giving a message, but try using three or four at a time. Download the 8 Core Communication Principles Checklist here.Principle of clarity. // In the principle of clarity, Charles teaches to begin with the end in mind. The three takeaways for this principle are to clarify the big takeaway (gist or verbatim), create a concept map, and the primacy recency principle. The primacy recency principle is about how people remember the most of what you say at the beginning of a talk, and they remember the second most at the end of the talk. This is because as you introduce a new concept, the brain begins to process the information to send it into long term memory. It’s important to front load and back load your key points because that’s what your audience will remember.Dual coding in our brains. // The brain encodes both visually and auditorily. When you mesh those two together, that is known as dual coding, and what you’re saying will stick better with the listener. Your working memory is where things are processed and if it’s important enough it then moves to the long-term memory. Working memory is like a small stage. Only so much information can be on that stage at the same time. If you can use dual coding to better help people remember your teaching, it will stay in memory longer. One of the ways of helping someone remember is by using acronyms. Acronyms can be easier to remember, and then your listeners can recall those memories of what was learned.Stay simple and clean. // Don’t allow the visuals you use to be so attention-getting by themselves that people forget what the message is about and what the visual means. Don’t overcomplicate your visuals. People may be so focused on the visuals that they don’t listen to your words. Meanwhile putting a small amount of text on a screen reinforces what people are hearing because it is both heard and seen.Create a concept map. // Another way to use simple visuals is with a concept map. This technique might look like using an image to represent a concept, such as love. There are several websites that offer free stock images for your slides, or try software like Doodly to sketch a simple diagram. You can learn more about Charles’s book, If Jesus Gave a TED Talk: Eight Neuroscience Principles the Master Teacher Used to Persuade His Audience, and read the first chapter at his website www.jesustedtalk.com. Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally! Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live! Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: Leadership Pathway If you are trying to find, develop and keep young leaders on your team look no further than Leadership Pathway. They have worked with hundreds of churches, and have interviewed thousands of candidates over the past several years. They are offering a new ebook about five of the core competencies that are at the heart of the leadership development process with every church that they partner with…just go to leadershippathway.org/unseminary to pick up this free resource.

Welcome back to the unSeminary podcast. We’re talking with Zeb Cook, the lead pastor at Apex Baptist Church in Apex, North Carolina. Zeb is talking with us today about establishing healthy rhythms and boundaries in your life so that you can continue to thrive in the ministry where God has called you. Create a system of boundaries. // When you’re young and just starting out in ministry, it’s easy to think that you can run at a fast pace nonstop, especially because the power of God is with you. But the reality is that ministry can be very draining. We can keep up a fast pace for a time, but at some point we will all hit a wall. Zeb found in his journey that creating healthy rhythms in his life is an important part of running the race well. Developing a system of boundaries around you will help you see clearly when you’re running in an unhealthy direction.Be honest about your limits. // To begin establishing healthy rhythms and boundaries we have to get really honest about our limitations. Stop pretending that you can handle it all. Be honest with yourself and then be honest with other people around you. There will be certain seasons of your life that are especially draining and it’s important to recognize when you are pouring a lot out because you will equally need to refuel more. Remind yourself that it’s okay to say no to things.Make the changes needed. // Take the time you need to do the simple things in your life like get a good night’s sleep, exercise, or eat better. Be cognizant of the small compromises that can happen when we are depleted. Recognize the dragon when the dragon is small and slay it. Have a layer of accountability so that you can address temptation and sin before it gets out of hand, and make the changes needed.Be disciplined and committed. // When you make a radical commitment, the results always come. Make a commitment to make the changes needed to take care of yourself. Be disciplined in developing healthy habits, your relationships with others, and your time with God. Identify where there are deficits in your life and what needs more attention. Keep the balance. // There has to be a balance of boundaries when you’re a servant leader. There are some invitations you are drawn to while you won’t connect with others. But you can’t base all boundaries simply on what you do and don’t like to do. Instead ask what is best for the faith family you’re serving. Take a look at what’s coming up in the church and what hours you have in your calendar, and attend what you can. It’s ok to say no too.Don’t hide yourself. // We can easily identify narcissistic pride in people, but for many of us pride can be more subtle. Instead it manifests itself because of our insecurities. Pride wells up when we constantly try to prove ourselves and be seen in the best light. Combat this by remembering when you were first called into ministry and what was driving you then. Don’t hide your struggles just to look good. Be vulnerable and honest with people around you.Connect with others. // Everyone in ministry needs a support network. Look to other pastors or church leaders in your area and connect with them. They can understand experiences you’re walking through and be the friends you need in your life. You can learn more about Apex Baptist Church at www.apexbaptist.org. Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally! Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live! Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: Risepointe Is your church ready? Are you re-opening? Ready to welcome MORE people to worship and grow with your church? Are you out of space or are your interiors dated and needing improvement? The architecture and design team at Risepointe want to help you align your facility with the mission and vision that God has given your church. That’s why Risepointe developed The Needs Analysis. The Needs Analysis is a comprehensive look at your site to seat experience through the lens of your first time guests. Learn more by visiting www.theneedsanalysis.com. Let them know you heard about The Needs Analysis on unSeminary for $500 off!

Thanks for joining us for this week’s unSeminary podcast. We’re talking with Tommie Bozich, the executive pastor of Trinity Church, a multisite church with locations in Virginia and also internationally. Tommie is talking with us about what led them to launch a location in Stuttgart, Germany, and what a church should think about when considering an international campus. Problems and opportunities. // As Trinity began their multisite journey, they realized that with the help of video teaching, they could take sermon messages anywhere. They already had a few campuses in the Virginia Beach/Norfolk area, which has a huge military population. When some church members who had been transferred to Stuttgart, Germany lamented at the difficulty of finding an English-speaking church overseas, Trinity realized the opportunity to launch a campus serving the military and English-speaking community abroad.Church plant vs church campus. // Launching a church campus is very different from planting a church and when Tommie went to Germany with his family, they were sent with the mindset that this international campus is part of Trinity. Trinity did not want to start up this campus and then check back months later, but there were still challenges with the distance that made this campus feel separate.Thank God for the resources. // As the Stuttgart campus pastor, Tommie and his team had to rely heavily on video and remote meetings before that was widely popular. It can be easy to become resentful and feel left out when you’re so far away. But rather cultivate humility and thank God for all that you can do with the resources you have. Embrace being uncomfortable.Find family. // An incredible family is created when you connect with other English-speaking believers in a foreign country. It teaches us a great deal of humility and breaks down many of the dividing walls that exist back in the USA. Everyone is looking for community, especially those who are moving to a new country and don’t know anyone around them. Tommie found that people who were not followers of Jesus came to the church so that they could find community and then were saved through that experience.Love goes a long way. // The church in Germany started out primarily with American families living there, a lot of them military. But soon German friends and neighbors were invited and started attending, and they loved it. Love transcends a lot of boundaries and brings people together.Identify similarities between locations. // Decide what elements of your international campus you want to be the same as your other campuses. At Trinity’s Stuttgart location, they had similar worship styles and branding, and were on the same sermon series. Make sure your central staff thinks about how teaching and kids content will translate in another context. Accept that some things won’t translate and incorporate the elements that will.Reliance on God. // When Tommie and his family moved to Germany to help launch the campus, it forced him to rely heavily on prayer for everything. Nondenominational churches in Germany were practically nonexistent and God had to open the doors for the church to find a place to meet. As you lean on God in prayer, He will show up in ways you never would have expected.More than one. // When sending people into foreign places to launch a campus, be sure to send them in at least a pair so they can work together. Their families can keep each other company and help each other through this new environment and life.Mission over method. // Have a decent amount of flexibility both in the personalities of the people starting this new location and the church’s ability to allow them to minister in their context. The mission always has to be more important than the method. How do you need to shift the method to accomplish the mission?Think outside the box. // Consider the possibilities of what can be done with technology and sending people out. Trinity now knows that they can equip a believer who’s in the military and going overseas to be a light for Christ and create community. This doesn’t always look like launching a campus, but it could be providing resources for a person to lead a small group and invite others to participate in church online in their home. You can learn more about Trinity Church at www.trinitychurchvb.com. Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally! Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live! Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: Chemistry Staffing It’s important for church leaders to pursue the right fit for the right position, which helps determine a long-term, healthy fit. It all starts with properly assessing the applicant’s resumé. Download Chemistry Staffing’s Resumé Screening Playbook and walk through a screening process that will help you discover which candidates to focus on.

Welcome back to this week’s unSeminary podcast. We’re talking with Brian McMillan, from CenterPoint Church in Long Island, New York. Brian is talking with us today about how pastors can keep their souls healthy by being generous and Kingdom-minded toward church plants coming into their area. Challenges of church planting. // When planting a church, many pastors quickly discover that other pastors in the area may be territorial or fearful about a new church in town. When Brian was planting CenterPoint Church on Long Island, it was before there was much church planting support and resources available. As a result, Brian sought the help of five other respected pastors in the area, assuming they would welcome his efforts to reach the unchurched on Long Island. Instead Brian was met with rejection, loneliness, discouragement, and even slander. Sadly these experiences are not uncommon because of the deep brokenness, insecurity and fear that many pastors are living with.Bringing beauty from pain. // After so much rejection, Brian and his church planting team had nothing but faith to go on. God often takes pain and rejection and redeems it, making it into something beautiful. In the end CenterPoint developed a strong desire to be the kind of church that raised other churches and ministries in the area up. By being Kingdom-minded they saw church planting to be about much more than simply starting a church. Instead it’s about seeing Long Island come to Christ.Blessing other churches in the area. // A large part of CenterPoint’s budget goes to local church planting. They make sure that any church plant, no matter how close by, is supported by them. Support can be financial, offering opportunities for another church’s teams to shadow their teams, or giving a new church stage time in some way. CenterPoint even lets the people in their services know that if God is calling them to help with a new church plant, then to follow where He leads. CenterPoint also lists on their website over 20 reputable churches of different denominations and personalities so that if someone visits their church and doesn’t find it to be a good fit, they have some other solid options in the area to consider.Be generous and openhanded. // Staying Kingdom-minded isn’t easy. Brian admits that losing people to other churches is hard and it can be easy to get jealous of other churches and the amazing things they are doing. But if you want your church to grow and be healthy, you need to get the blessing of God. And God blesses people when we’re openhanded and put His Kingdom above our own kingdoms. When we’re generous, God will do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine.Keep your soul in check. // Generosity keeps the souls of church leaders healthy too. Without it, fear creeps in and affects decision-making. It becomes based on self-preservation or bettering ourselves for our persona or church brand. But being really generous and willing to give away the people in our churches is a soul check. It shows that this movement is all really about God and not about a person or a brand. Give as much as you can to bring life to other churches in your area without bringing pain to yourself.Build connections with local leaders. // ReviveLI, a group that Brian started, brings church leaders on Long island together to support one another. Currently it includes about 50 pastors who get together every two months. They pray and eat together, building relational connection and supporting one another. As Brian puts it, when you can be life-giving to other pastors, you are racking up some serious treasure in heaven. You can learn more about CenterPoint Church at www.cpchurch.com. You can also learn about ReviveLI at www.reviveli.com. Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally! Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live! Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: Medi-Share Medi-Share is an innovative health care solution for Christians looking to save money without sacrificing on quality. As the nation’s largest health care sharing community, Medi-Share members take comfort in knowing their eligible medical expenses will be shared by their community. Click here to download the FREE REPORT: The 10 Things About Mental Health Every Pastor (& Leader) MUST Know!

Thanks for tuning into this week’s unSeminary podcast. We’re talking with Stone Meyer, executive pastor from The Bridge Church in Tennessee. Stone is talking with us today about the musical worship part of services and how to develop excellence in your unpaid volunteer musicians. The musical worship aspect. // The musical worship aspect of services is an important part and is often the first thing people hear when they enter your church. We may think of church as a presentation, but church is really people. Ephesians 4:11-12 says we are to equip God’s people for acts of service so the body can be built up, and this includes musicians who have been gifted to minister to God’s people through their talents. Raise the standard. // For many churches it can feel like we need to pay musicians in order to get the quality of music that we want. The truth is it’s a risk to use volunteers for the worship team. And if we don’t have enough volunteers, we can be tempted to lower the standard to attract more people. Really the opposite is true. If you raise the standard, you’re going to get more volunteers because great players love to serve with great players.Make changes when needed. // Rebuild the music team when things aren’t working out as you’re hoping. The Bridge Church took one step back to take two steps forward. First they scaled down their worship teams, and then they looked for people who were both excellent in their proficiency, and had great spiritual leadership. Initially these steps eliminated volunteers, but ultimately it raised the level of excellence and now they have a large pool of worship team volunteers to invite into service.DVLP process. // The Bridge Church wanted to raise the standard on their volunteer worship team, but they also wanted to create a development pipeline so people could reach that standard. That pipeline is a program called DVLP which is 100% volunteer run. Each week there are 90-minute rehearsals for the worship music, and in the hour before the rehearsals DVLP happens. DVLP is a 12-week development process for anyone new to the team. It helps set new members up for success, allowing them get to know their teammates and coaches, be immersed in the culture, and learn about how everything works.Don’t say no. // Someone interested in DVLP begins by completing a short form about their relationship with Jesus and their music knowledge. There is then a 10-15 minute evaluation with the individual. About 75% of the people go on to join DVLP, but for the others the team doesn’t tell people “no”, but instead “not yet.” Those interested persons may still need to grow or develop skills in some areas before this group would be right for them. Encourage those you coach. // The primary role of the coaches in DVLP is not to tell the new members what they did wrong, but to train, teach and develop people, encouraging them to believe in themselves. They ask those going through DVLP what they felt that they could do better during rehearsal so that they can examine and study their own skills.Learning and developing. // The end of DVLP involves evaluations for each person to see where they are and if they’re ready to graduate and begin serving on a team. Some of the main values of the team are development, learning and curiosity. Some people will go back through DVLP to coach, or to grow new aspects of their God-given potential.Download the DVLP Playbook. // You can learn more through the DVLP Playbook that we have available to download. It walks the reader through the vision for DVLP as well as practical aspects of the program. You can learn more about The Bridge Church at bridge.tv. Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally! Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live! Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: FiveTwo It’s hard to know how to grow your church. Especially as you come out of a pandemic in a changing culture. But you desperately want to. You believe the church can still grow. The good news? You don’t have to do it all yourself. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to find the right group of people who will help carry the load and bring growth to your ministry. You’ll be relieved. People will be helped. Your church will grow. Download this guide TODAY for an easy 5-step plan to get the right leaders on board. We’ll give you 5 surprisingly easy steps to activate your congregation.

Welcome back to the unSeminary podcast. This week we’re talking with Van Vandegriff, lead pastor at Cedarcrest Church in Acworth, Georgia. Van is talking with us today about dealing with COVID and helping people at the church to shift out of neutral and reengage with the mission of the church. Reengage with the mission. // When the church reopened in 2020 after the quarantine in Georgia, Van found that people had formed new habits. Some people preferred staying home and watching the service online rather than gathering in the church building. Others had slid into neutral in their faith. But the number one thing isn’t having people in a seat at church on Sunday mornings, rather it’s helping people follow Jesus. Cedarcrest decided that leading people to reengage with the mission, instead of getting people inside the church, was the thing to focus on.Pay attention to needs. // One of the ways Cedarcrest helped its people to reengage with the mission was by paying attention to the needs in the community around them. Right across from the church is a community of under-resourced families who could not afford laptops or even things like internet. When schools closed down in 2020 and met online, Cedarcrest opened its doors and provided a place for the children to come and attend classes online. Volunteers from the church helped the kids connect with their teachers on laptops provided by the church and even held P.E. classes, playing games of kickball during the school day. This outreach was a huge success for the children nearby, introduced their families to the church, and Cedarcrest’s people came alive as they were invited to live on mission.Join God in his work. // Van and his staff started to really pay attention to what God was already doing in their communities so that they could join him in his work. This led to them taking church out to the neighborhoods around them during the month of July. Each Sunday they showed up in a different neighborhood with musicians, speakers, bounce houses for the kids, and food to grill. Being willing to take this risk opened the way for Cedarcrest to meet lots of new people and get them connected to the church.Using giveaways. // Giveaways can get people’s attention, so the church held one for various prizes at their outdoor summer services. This incentive allowed them to collect people’s information with their permission, and then the church could reach out to those people in the future.Next steps tent. // At their Summer in the Suburbs events, Cedarcrest Church saw at least four times the normal number of first time guests. Cedarcrest set up a next step tent at their outdoor services which provided information on what people could do in their next step toward Christ, how to get connected at the church, and what activities are available for kids. Even if people don’t take their next step immediately, Cedarcrest hopes it will point them to God down the road. You can learn more about Cedarcrest Church at cedarcrestchurch.com and connect with Van on Instagram @vanvandegriff. Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally! Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live! Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: CDF Capital Since 1953, CDF Capital has helped Christians and churches embrace their part in this story by providing the 3 kinds of capital every congregation needs for growth—Financial Capital, Leadership Capital, and Spiritual Capital. CDF Capital’s XP Summit Cohorts provide an exclusive, year-long experience that brings together hand-selected global ministry leaders and your peers in an intimate, small-group setting. Visit http://cdf.capital/UnCohort to learn more and enroll today!

Lead pastor Zach Lambert from Restore Austin shares insights on stress-free sermon planning and engaging teaching. Topics include developing a residency program, creating welcoming church environments, crafting sermon series around annual themes, and reflecting on impactful books and personal anecdotes in ministry.

Welcome back to the unSeminary podcast. We’re talking with Rusty George, the lead pastor at Real Life Church in the Los Angeles area. He’s talking with us today about what it’s like stepping into the lead pastor role after the founding pastor. Don’t squeeze into the previous mold. // When you are stepping into a leadership role at a new church, particularly as the lead pastor, it’s important to be your authentic self. Trying to squeeze yourself into the mold of the previous pastor will feel disingenuous because it’s not who God created you to be. Some people will be surprised at things changing with the new leader, but continue to lean heavily on vision rather than memorializing the past. Right guy, right place, right time. // When God puts you into a position, it’s so you can bring your unique wiring and gifting to the table to serve the church. A church consultant taught Rusty that what makes a church grow is having the right guy at the right place at the right time. We need to be ok with not everyone being happy with us and stop apologizing when we follow God’s leading to make changes at the church. If you’re going to follow a legend into your new role, you’ve got to be really certain that it is the call of God because there will be some dark nights of the soul. It’s only the knowledge that it’s the call of God that will keep you going. Be clear on your calling. // While transitioning to his new position, it was initially expectations of other people that Rusty had to wrestle through and quickly get over. Ultimately, however, it was his own doubts and questions that were the bigger challenge to overcome. We can compare ourselves to other leaders at other churches and feel like we haven’t “made-it” yet. To get passed this ineffective thinking, be really clear about what you’re trying to do. Are you trying to just make people happy, or are you really trying to reach people in the community? If you’re trying to really reach people, double down on that and explain that it might change the way the church teaches, the programs offered, where the church meets, and so on. Get to know your staff. // Each of your staff represents a constituency of people and you want their buy-in right away. Spend quality time with your staff so you can get to know them. Work together to make the vision and mission statements clear. Have fun together, share wins, and build those relationships with each other. Appreciate the past and accept the new when it comes to changes within your staff. Have unifying, specific initiatives. // To articulate and move people in your congregation toward vision, cut the plans down into bite-sized portions rather than just focusing on plans far into the future. Have a specific mission for the future but create micro-plans to focus on along the way which serve to unify your people. If you are unsure about how to develop unifying, specific initiatives, ask: Is how other people see your church what you want it to be? How do other people react when they hear your church mentioned? Identify that unifying mission for your congregation so that others in the community will know what your church is about. What to do after prayer. // Rusty’s book After Amen: What Do you Do When You’re Waiting on God helps us understand what Jesus teaches us to do after we pray. The book offers seven steps of faith based on scripture that we can take after prayer which can affect the type of answer we might receive from God. Rusty offers a number of resources on his website for churches who might want to use this book to preach a sermon series as well. You can learn more about Real Life Church at reallifechurch.org and about Rusty and his book at www.pastorrustygeorge.com.  Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally! Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live! Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: Medi-Share Medi-Share is an innovative health care solution for Christians looking to save money without sacrificing on quality. As the nation’s largest health care sharing community, Medi-Share members take comfort in knowing their eligible medical expenses will be shared by their community. Click here to download the FREE REPORT: The 10 Things About Mental Health Every Pastor (& Leader) MUST Know!