CreativePastors Blog & Podcast

Last Chance!

Today is the last day to get in on the ipod Getaway Giveaway drawing! We look forward to drawing our two winners tomorrow. Stay tuned!

3 Quick Break Strategies

Recently we talked about the best times during the year to take a break. Here are three more ideas for planning your time away.

1. Don't announce to your church members that you are going to be gone. Too many people like to use that as an excuse for skipping the weekend service. Keep the element of surprise in the speaking schedule so that they will show up and be blessed by your other speakers.
2. If you are in town during your time off, consider introducing the speaker. This will show your buy-in and remind your church that you enjoy learning from other speakers too.
3. If you will be out of town, think about recording a video introduction for the speaker. Ed does this frequently and it's a great way to maintain his presence in the church while he is on a break. Sometimes he adds a teaser for an upcoming series.

Team Creativity

Check out what Gary Lamb at Mad Babble from a Church Planter had to say about switching to creative team planning:

About two months ago, we started creative team planning for our Sunday morning messages. I have to admit this was a hard change, yet we stuck with it and the last two weeks we are finally getting in the groove. If you are a pastor, order this CD from Creative Pastors and put this into action. It is amazing the difference in my sermons. The stress I feel during the week is so much less. The pressure to do it all myself is gone. The different ideas have been great. It is very hard work to get in the groove and there is much I have to learn about tweaking it but, try it, stick with it, and be amazed at the results.

It is an odd feeling when your people are talking about how much better a speaker you are over the last month but, ego aside, that is what they should be saying.

Thanks, Gary! For those who want to get a glimpse of what creative team planning looks like, check out this DVD.

A Creative Twist

Recently we asked to hear about creative ways that you are using our resources in your churches.  Check out this amazing story from Kevin Green, Senior Pastor of The Living Room Church in Martinsburg, West Virginia, who put his own cool spin on a CreativePastors video:

My wife and I had the opportunity to attend Total Access with the Fellowship staff.  Our church is only a year and a half old and we have never been away on a Sunday. Our creative team talked over what we should do and decided to take the church with us to Texas via video.

We started out the service with the band and other abnormal stuff.  Then we went to video for the greeting (prerecorded by my wife and I).  We did the shoot with a private jet on display in a building.  We were careful on the angles not to show where the jet was. Included in the shoot was some B roll of worship and speaking at Fellowship.  Beth and I talked briefly about the influence Fellowship has had on our church.  We grabbed our bags from the above cargo and invited everyone to enjoy a Fellowship experience with us in Texas.  Until playing this video our people didn't know we weren't in the service.  We then rolled into one of Ed's messages from Retro that fit in with a series I was in the middle of.  Our people laughed at the jokes and interacted with Ed on the screen as if he was there. At first we had no idea how effective it would be, but the people thought they were in the same service we were.  We never did tell them the difference.  Our people now have a greater appreciation for our Fellowship Connection.

You should try it sometime.  Ed is a great guest speaker and super on video so you should plan a vacation soon.  Your people will enjoy it and may want to send you away more often.  Ha!      

Note: One thing I will do to make it better next time is rent out a center projector and screen to place Ed at center stage.  (We currently have screens left and right of the stage.)

There is no limit when it comes to creativity!  If you have an innovative or artistic story of how you have used one of our products in your church, let us hear about it!

Timing your breaks

When is there a good time in ministry to take a break? Since the weekends don't stop, it's tempting to feel like we shouldn't stop either. When attendance is low, you might think you need to be there so more people will show up. Don't fall for that! There are certain times of the year when your numbers will dip no matter who is speaking.

Look at your calendar and find those natural times when attendance might be flat and take advantage of that. Also, check out your schedule and see where you are going to expend the most energy. Try to line up a break after those big events or seasons.

Here's a look at our slower attendance times when Ed usually takes a break from speaking:

• The weekend after Christmas
• The first weekend of the New Year
• Spring Break
• Memorial Day weekend
• Summertime, particularly in July
• The weekend after Thanksgiving

Taking a break is a great time to develop other speakers, and also allows other ministries to be in the spotlight.

Leadership Uncensored- Break it Up!

I just got back from a vacation and a separate family trip. Wow, I feel energized and ready to take on the challenges that are ahead. In this month's Leadership Uncensored Newsletter, Ed discusses the value and importance of just that, Break it Up! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. We are going to feature some more thoughts about breaks throughout the rest of the month. Stay tuned! To learn more about Leadership Uncensored, click here.

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Break it Up!
Taking time off is a must for church leaders—here's why and how to do it.

I've had the opportunity to see the inner workings of church life from an early age-I grew up as a PK (preacher's kid), I'm a pastor, and I've been in churches ranging from several hundred to more than 20,000 in attendance. One constant I've noticed in churches, regardless of size, is that a leader's schedule usually runs at an insane, NASCAR-speed pace. The truly great leaders in these churches, though, understand a basic, yet absolutely critical principle for surviving the marathon of ministry. They draw away on a regular basis. Because here's the bottom line, leaders—if you don't take scheduled breaks, your schedule will break you. 

God created and then He rested. He's built that rhythm into our lives. And it's amazing when you look at the life of Jesus Christ to see how many times He pulled back and gave himself some time alone during his ministry. We were not designed to run on and on and on without stopping. If we aren't getting rejuvenated and refreshed regularly, we won't be able to give the 100% we want to our church, our staff, our family, and ultimately to God. If we are emotionally drained, we are susceptible to all types of temptations and sins. That's why so many people end up on the side of the road in a ditch, because they did not pay attention to this.

Let me share with you some of what I've learned throughout the years about taking breaks:

We should take time off daily. We should find at least 15-30 minutes a day to do something replenishing, whether it's working out, reading a book, going to the driving range, or taking a walk.

We should take time off weekly. We should have a weekly Sabbath, a day when we do zero concerning the church. The church can become very seductive, like a mistress, so on that day don't call the church, don't work the cell phone, and don't stop by the church. I would challenge you to do something that really recharges your batteries during that time.

We should take time off quarterly. You should at least take one weekend off per quarter that does not count against your vacation time. We've put this provision in place for all of our staff that work weekends and it has made such a huge difference.

We should take time off yearly. Everyone should at least take one or two extended breaks a year. Shoot for two weeks away to allow enough time to completely unwind and renew yourself.

Taking time off will develop other communicators. I love to see how God uses unique people to communicate in unique ways. It's thrilling for me to hear about how God has blessed a weekend when I wasn't even a part of it.

When you take time off, you'll hear God in a deeper and more profound way. Without that weekend wave cresting over my head, I can disengage and be a regular guy. During one break, I stopped in at a little coffee shop after a long run and was reading the paper.  I was scanning the editorial section, something I don't normally give myself time to do, and saw this headline that said, "Uncertainty—the key word in our culture today."  As I read it, God said to me, "Ed, that's a sermon series."  Boom, I came back and it was one of the best sermon series we've ever done.

Don't let ego get in the way of taking time off. It's tempting to feel like, "Man I'm the only one who can do that, I'm the only one that can really preach, I'm the only one that can really sing…" No you're not, no I'm not, we're not the only ones. God wants to use other people, and some of us are so dominated by pride that we're afraid if we're not there, someone might step up and actually do a better job than us or that things might fall apart. I truly believe that leadership is measured more by your absence than your presence.

You won't know how badly you need time off until you're off. You don't realize the energy that you are utilizing emotionally, spiritually, and physically until you take a break. The enemy wants to keep you going so fast that you stress out and dry up, because he doesn't want your church to thrive. But if we draw away regularly, we can get off that downward spiral, recalibrate, and stay focused on what God wants to do in our ministries.

I understand there are certain times when you're starting a church that you've got to have a huge energy burst.  But I would challenge you, after that first year, to start doing what we're talking about right now. Taking regular breaks communicates powerful stuff to your spouse, to your kids and to your church about your priorities. I surround myself with great people who hold me accountable on this.

Gettin' in on the Giveaway?

We are counting it down—only 10 more days to go!  Remember, for every purchase you make in June you will be entered in the drawings for daily MP3 giveaways and ultimately the two iPod minis, complete with a library of our favorite message MP3s.  Don't miss your chance to get in on the Getaway Giveaway. 

Congratulations to our Leisure Suits You MP3 winners for June 14-19:

6/14 – Shawn Lovejoy
6/15 – Tim Combs
6/16 – Chris Moon
6/17 – Chris Marlow
6/18 – Shannon O’Dell
6/19 – Bryan Mills

So what is a mind map, anyway?

Mind map is one of those phrases that conjures up all kinds of images, whether it's a state-of-the-art CAT scan or an atlas of a cluttered cranium. But at CreativePastors it's a download we offer that is a great tool for sermon development. Some of our customers have asked us for a little deeper explanation of what Ed's mind maps are all about, so we got the scoop from Cliff McNeely, FC’s resource development pastor and a regular in Ed’s sermon planning meetings.

"In 15 years of delivering sermons at Fellowship Church, Ed Young has developed close to 1,000 messages. A tool that has been instrumental in achieving this undertaking is what we call a mind map. Mind Mapping is simply a method of organizing notes to aid in memorization. Its premise is that the mind works in clockwise order, so message notes are transferred to one legal size sheet of paper, front and back, in clockwise order starting at the top-center. This method is especially helpful for those who are highly visual learners. The method pays particular attention to "mapping" or visually arranging the main ideas, transitional statements and illustrative stories around the message's big idea to trigger the memory. Color coding and use of symbols and drawings may also be used to visually aid the speaker.

"Ed first learned about mind mapping from an author named Michael Gelb. He has several books out, but one in particular is called Mind Mapping: How to Liberate Your Natural Genius. Ed has modified Gelb's method over the years, but he still develops what he calls "Mind Maps," In the past, Ed would painstakingly handwrite, color code and illustrate his mind maps (Click here to see an example.)  but now uses a computer template developed in MS Word to create them. Even on these computerized versions, though, he still color codes major points, illustrations, and transitional statements (key phrases, sentences or paragraphs that are crucial to the flow of the sermon).(Click here to see an example.)  He also adds handwritten notes to aid in memorization or to make last minute changes as needed."

Thanks, Cliff! You can find mind maps as downloads on CreativePastors and in the Pastor’s Kits as well.

Half Way There

We are almost half way through the month of June and that means half way through our Getaway Giveaway.  We're stacking up names for the iPod drawing at the end of the month and we're having a great time pulling out a new winner each day for the Leisure Suits You MP3. Check out our daily picks so far:

6/1 – Jan Deans
6/2 – Todd Williams
6/3 – Scott Meisner
6/4 – Ronald Clarkson
6/5 – Richard Fredricks
6/6 – Sarah Kiger
6/7 – Alisha Barker
6/8 – Peggy Heald
6/9 – Mark Broussard
6/10 – Bryan Carter
6/11 – Charlie Pridmore
6/12 – Bill Slater
6/13 - Carlyle Naylor

Remember, for every purchase you make in the month of June we will add your name to the drawing. We're going low tech with this one and we are pulling the names from a giant glass jar. (Don't worry, MP3 winners—you're still in there!) Only 17 more days until we give away the iPods… and it could be to you!

Interested in Small Groups?

We've received a lot of calls and emails asking how Fellowship Church does small groups, so I'm excited to tell you we are creating a resource that will address that very question.  We're planning on sharing foundational basics, details on lessons learned, and tried-and-true tips for building a thriving small groups ministry.

In a recent product development meeting, Jimmy York, our Married Home Teams Pastor, spoke about one of the major challenges of encouraging others to attend small groups. "Attending a small group requires people to go against so many factors of society.  We box ourselves in with our fenced-in yards, driving alone in our cars with tinted windows, going to work in our office cubicles and out to eat in private booths.  Our challenge comes with encouraging others to step out of their box and into someone else's." 

Small groups have been crucial in helping Fellowship Church maintain a "small town" feeling as we grow larger. They not only provide a place for people to truly belong, but are a great venue for members to carry out The Great Commission.  There is a true passion for small groups at Fellowship that I can't wait to share with you in this resource.

Please post a comment or send us your ideas (Info@CreativePastors.com) about what you would like to see in this resource. We'd love to hear your feedback!