5 Ways To Discern A Call To Overseas Ministry

from Jenny Manley:

1. Opportunity (Acts 16:6-10; 20:22)
2. Need (Matt. 9:37)
3. Desire (Ps. 40:8)
4. Godly Counsel (Prov. 15:22)
5. Willingness (Acts 20:24, Ps. 37:4)

Click through to read her explanations for each of these points.

(ht: Vitamin Z)

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7 Alternatives To Sunday Morning Announcements

from unseminary:

Ministry leaders think if they just get their event or program “promoted from the stage” people will flood into it. Church communications people are peppered with requests all the time for people wanting to get “their deal” in the announcements. The urgency from those leaders leans towards desperate. However, the more you talk about on a Sunday morning the less effective the messaging for everything is. You need some solid ways to say “no” to other ministry leaders by providing alternative communication channels.

Direct Emails: Each of your ministry areas needs to cultivate an email list of people who are interested in their area. This is a critical skill for communication today. 

Cause Foyer Chaos: Church is fun … right? How could you bring a little piece of the event you are promoting to the foyer on the weekend? Taking the students on a Camping Trip? What if you figured out how to serve s'mores to guests? (And then hand them an info sheet on the event.) Is your small group ministry launching off for the fall? What if you brought a living room into the middle of the foyer? 

 
Social Media: How can you engage your people to get “talking” about the ministry program through social media channels? The goal here isn’t just to “call to action” but to create content that spreads dialogue about the ministry initiative. Ask some questions related to the topic on Facebook. Take some pictures of your team prepping and post them on Instagram. Think conversations not signups. 

Information Cards: As people are leaving the service have your ushers hand out a small printed piece that has all the information you are attempting to communicate as well as a compelling ask to join. Make sure to train your ushers to be friendly and to ask your people if they would like the cards.

 
Call People  

Snail Mail

Kill It

(read the whole post at unseminary)

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Top 11 Signs You May Not Be A Good Leader

from Scott Williams:

The reason I attribute these signs to not being a ”Good Leader” is because a leader has to at least reach the mantle of being a “Good Leader” before they can be a ”Great Leader” Here are 11 Signs They Are Not A Good Leader… Remember ”They”could be you! 

1. they are not willing to fail.
2. they only talk and never listen.
3. they don’t develop and produce other leaders.
4. they micro-manage; that’s management not leadership.
5. they are insecure or threatened by someone that they lead.
6. they are not willing to follow and learn from those that they lead.
7. they are focused on pleasing people and what people think. Consumed with whether or not they look good to their superiors.
8. they don’t genuinely care about the people they lead and have difficulty getting people to follow.
9. they are willing to make the wrong decision, because of the fear of fall-out from making the right decision.
10. they only dream about being like so and so, instead of being the best they can be.
11. they don’t embrace the reality that the culture they create trumps all of the little vision talks and rah-rah cheers. Culture eats vision for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

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Do You Have A 90-Day Plan To Leave Your Church?

One of our most read and commented posts on this site is How To Leave Your Church - And Do It Well!

It has struck a chord with so many people because many have felt trapped in unhealthy or spiritually abusive churches. They know they've needed to move on, but the church hasn't provided that freedom (i.e. spiritual abuse, heavy handed leadership, control).  At Ministry Best Practices, we've tried to provide advise that will honor God and His church, at the same time give people the freedom to find a spiritually healthy place to worship and serve.

Recently I received a comment from a reader named "George" and he provided some helpful advise from his recent experience having to leave his church. Here is what he said below:

This year, I left my church due to heavy-handed leadership issues. I would recommend people start their 90-day exit plan now.

1. Find a new church FIRST by asking other people who left years ago where they are now. 

2. Set a meeting with the pastor at the new church you wish to attend. Ask how you can fit in. Explain the ministries you've been part of and ask if they need your help.

3. If you are a volunteer, find someone to take your place at the old church. If you run a ministry, shut it down during a logical time (Summer, or at the end of the curriculum or end of month or year).

4. Quietly disappear. Don't confront leadership, especially if they are heavy-handed. They will try to meet with you but that's only to bully your, or failing to do that they will pretend to take your comments to heart, but will actually start marginalizing and backstabbing you. It's best to just slip out the back door, and enjoy your new life and ministry.
I wasted 2 years of ministry time at my church trying to make the pastors sensitive to certain issues. I should have gone to another church that had the same vision that God had given me. I could have ministered to dozens more people had I left earlier.

Blessings to you, George

Would you add anything to George's comments and thoughts?

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Even More (Honest) Church Postcards

A continuation from my previous post, here are even more honest church postcards, that you'll never see in your mailbox, from Echo Hub

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Do More Than Just Pass The Plate - Infographic

Does your church or ministry provide online giving? Perhaps you do in some way, yet is it easy to access and use? Are you encouraging people to utilize it? Many organizations aren't fully utilizing online giving and all of it's capabilities (i.e. mobile, access to giving history).

If your organization is simply only passing the offering plate and not providing for online giving then you are missing out.

Here are three key points from the infographic below:

• Outside of the church, Americans are writing less checks and paying bills online more.
• With online giving, you can reach this generation of checkless and paperless people as well as set up automatic, recurring donations.
• Only 14% of Protestant churches in the U.S. offer online giving, but churches with online giving actually earn more money.

(ht: Churchm.ag)

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How Is Media Affecting Kids?

It is important for the church to understand how technology and the digital media is impacting the next generation - so here are some important facts to consider:

• Children under 2 spend 53 minutes a day watching television.
• 73% of parents say they want to limit their children’s TV watching, but many do not put up barriers or rules to prevent it.
• More than three fourths of teachers use media and technology as a teaching tool in schools.

(ht: 78p.tv)

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Book Giveaway - Ministry In The Digital Age

Ministry Best Practices is giving away a free copy of this fantastic primer on how to use and leverage technology for your church and ministry.

Ministry in a Digital Age is not a simple "how to create a website" or "how to use Facebook" for churches and ministries   This is a book on how to go about putting together a strategy for using digital tools.  

David Bourgeois wrote this book not to convince you that the Internet or social media is important or that your ministry should use it. Rather, he wrote this book for one purpose: to provide churches and ministries with the guidance they need to successfully embrace and use digital technologies as a means to fulfill their mission.

Ministry Best Practices has ONE FREE copy to give away.  To enter to win all we ask you to do is either:

Tweet this post with the hashtag #MinistryBestPractices  OR
Share this post on Facebook and put a comment on the post stating you did

A winner will be chosen by the end of the week, midnight on Saturday.

CONGRATS to Karla Meachem winner of the book giveaway.

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The Hyper-Connected Teenager

It is self-evident that you and I are living in a hyper-connected culture - we seem to be always "on". And what is true of many adults is even more true of our teenagers-they are constantly connected. For those of you involved in youth ministry, that fact can either be a good thing, or it can be a disaster.

The infographic below looks at both sides of the hyper-connected coin...here are some key takeaways:

1. The risk of losing face to face communication.  Teens today are replacing relationships for digital ones. They are similar, but face to face communication is critical and crucial in a church/youth group setting.

2. 95% of teens have access to the internet, and 74% have access to internet through a mobile device. The fact of the matter is that youth ministers/workers need to be navigators of the digital world, not novices.

  

(ht: Youth Ministry Media)

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How To Treat Your Elders?

How should we treat our elders - those in leadership within our church? 1 Timothy 5:17-25 lays out 4 things that God’s people must do:

• Provide for their needs (5:17-18)
• Protect their reputation (5:19)
• Pursue their repentance (5:20-21)
• Provide their reinforcements (5:22-25)

(ht: Blog of Dan)

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Science And Religion - Infographic

For many in our culture science is their religion...and unfortunately science and faith have been pitted against each other- yet that hasn't always been historically the case. But as Dr. Voorhis aptly says, "Science and faith must be friends, for the same God is active in both."

(ht: Veritas Forum)

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Characteristics Of A Good Leader

Just being in a position of leadership does not make a leader great. Clare De Graaf, author of "The 10 Second Rule", explores what it takes to become a great leader.

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Are Christians More Like Jesus Or Like The Pharisees?

One of the common critiques leveled at present-day Christianity is that it’s a religion full of hypocritical people. A new Barna Group study examines the degree to which this perception may be accurate. The study explores how well Christians seem to emulate the actions and attitudes of Jesus in their interactions with others. You can find more about the study and it's methodology HERE

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Where Are You The Most Creative?

According to this infographic below, a British company surveyed workers and found that not only are their workers more productive when working remotely, but they also feel less creative at the office. Where do they get their most innovative ideas? At the pub :-)

Where are you the most creative?  I know for me it certainly isn't in a boardroom or office environment.

Where are we most creative? infographic by GigaOM.

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Finding Success In Failure

Love this infographic demonstrating how people found success even in the face of continual failure. The key was that they persevered and choose to learn from the failures and to not let their failures define them.

People Who Found Success Despite Failures infographic

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