This story has an implied answer, but it also implies something else.  Without stating it, the story makes the assumption that the shepherd was paying close enough attention to notice that he was missing one of his sheep.  A hundred sheep isn’t easy to track, but the shepherd in Jesus’ story was diligent and paying close attention.  He was watching to make sure that no sheep wandered off.  He was always counting, and recounting – 97, 98, 99, hey, where did sheep #100 go?!

Today many pastors struggle to keep track of the sheep in their care.  Some are just not putting in the effort, they are not counting, and sheep are wandering off without them even noticing.  Others are trying, but they donâ€t have the right systems in place to track their sheep effectively.  So, how can pastors better track their sheep, notice when they are missing, and go after them when they are?

1. Know the flock – First, to track the people in their churches effectively pastors have to know their sheep.  This means spending time with them, talking to them, eating them, getting to know them.  It also means tracking them by collecting their names, addresses, phone numbers, and putting all that into a directory of some sort.  A pastor can’t effectively care for all their sheep until they know how many sheep there are, what their names are, where they live, etc.  The first step to effective pastoral care is having an accurate listing of who is in the flock.
2. Pray for the flock – Once pastors know who their sheep are one of the most basic things they can do for them is pray.  Prayer doesn’t just show concern, but it can also be used to better track the flock.  Once you know the people, have their information, it is easy to print out a directory of everyone in the church.  Pastors should take the time to pray through a few pages of that directory every day.  As they are praying through those directories, they will come across the names of people they haven’t seen in a few weeks and then they can follow-up with those missing sheep.  The second thing a pastors can do to effectively track the flock, is to systematically review and pray for every name in church with an eye out for missing sheep.
3. Care for flock – Sheep get sick and require extra care.  To discover sheep that need some extra attention churches should create a culture of communicating when something is going on in someones life.  At my church, we offer a course entitled Starting Point.  Starting Point is for anyone that wants to learn more about the church, what we believe, what we are all about, who are staff is, and more.  In the class we also talk about how we do pastoral care.  We discuss how we visit people in hospital every day, how there is always a pastor on call, and also how we want to know what is going on in peoples lives.  In this class we mention we want to know if they go into the hospital or are having surgery. We ask that they let us know if they are going to be gone on vacation, or if they are missing church because they are caring for their sick mother. When the sheep know there is someone who will care for them, they are more likely to let you know something is going on.  Good shepherds know who in the congregation is in need of extra care and attention.  The third thing a pastor can do is create a sheet, in Excel or Google Docs, where they are tracking who in the hospital, shut-in, or gone, and follow-up until they are healthy and back at church again.
4. Watch the flock – Sheep can get distracted at any time.  Sometimes they just wander.  There are, however, certain times in peoples lives where they tend to veer off more often.  Good shepherds know these times and watch their sheep more closely during them.  This could be when they are going through a divorce, or their marriage is strained. It could be after experiencing conflict with someone in the church, or during a time where their work life isn’t great.  It could be after a new baby is born, or when a parent dies.Pastors can discover what is going on in people’s lives by listening, spending time with the sheep, but another good way is through prayer request cards.  Churches can provide prayer requests cards for the people in the church to fill out.   Weekly, those prayer requests can be copied or scanned and sent out to the various pastors and leaders in the church.  Those leaders should pray for the requests, but also review them for situations that might signal something serious going on that might require additional follow-up.  Good shepherds know when members of their church are going through these difficult times and they watch them closely, because it is in these times that sheep tend to wander more often.  The fourth thing a good shepherd can do is track hurting sheep.  When they become aware of events in peoples lives they should track them (perhaps even using the same sheet above), pray, and follow-up regularly with them.

I don’t know if the shepherd in Jesus’ story had any kind of directory, ledger or notebook that he kept on the sheep in his care, but good pastors today do.  They literally have a list of sheep that they are praying for and then tracking who they feel like they haven’t seen in a while.  They know the sheep that were in the hospital and that they haven’t seen back out at church.  They know who is going trough difficult times in their church.  And,  when their sheep go missing they make visits and calls.  They send texts and cards.   They can go after the one, because they know the one is missing and they are a shepherd who cares.

Recently I was challenged to think more critically about my preaching, specifically when it comes to application.  Often when we preach, the application of that preaching is for use in the church, or in our private Christian lives.  It may be how to serve in ministry, how to pray, read our Bibles, or live out any other number of Christian disciplines.  There is certainly nothing wrong with sermons that teach us how do any of this, as they are a part of Christian life and growing in these areas is drastically needed.  We need to preach sermons that cover these topics.  However, effective preaching, preaching that sticks with people, should cover far more ground.

Think about the average person’s week.  Most working adults will spend 40, 50 or 60 hours a week at work.  Many people sitting on the pews Sunday, have families and friends that they will share most evenings and weekends with.  Some will spend hours enjoying hobbies, whether that is playing golf, watching baseball, or running half marathons.  They’ll coach pop warner, volunteer in civic organizations, and take naps.  Those are all great things.  On the not-so-great side, some studies say the average American is spending over five hours a day watching TV, and spending countless hours online mindlessly scrolling through Facebook.  Those that attend church will also sit in service for an hour, or hour and half, each week.  Additionally, they may even volunteer in a ministry or attend a class.  Hopefully they will spend time praying and reading their Bibles as well.

Here is the issue though, even if we rounded up, and said the average person sitting on the pews spends 10 hours a week in church and focused on spiritual disciplines, it is still only 10 hours.  Ten hours is a pretty small part of someone’s week.  Clearly, the majority of people’s time is spent outside the church, whether it is with family or watching ESPN.

This is where many sermons miss the mark.  With people spending 158+ hours of their time outside the church each week, sermons that exclusively focus on the 10 hours are not addressing the largest part of  people’s lives.  The challenge I was given a few weeks ago was worded this way, when you are preparing your sermon for a Sunday, don’t think about where the people in the congregation are going to be 10:00am on a Sunday…think about where they will be at 10:00am on Monday.  They most likely won’t be sitting in a church pew, they will be sitting in a cubicle at work.  They won’t be rushing around the church serving, they will be rushing around town doing errands.  They won’t be sitting and listening to you, they will be sitting and listening to their professor lecture or their doctor give them a diagnosis.  Think about where they are going to be at 10:00am Monday morning and make sure you sermon speaks to that situation.  Think about how to apply your sermon to the largest percentage of people’s lives, their life outside the church, and it will be much more memorable.

At lot more people would remember our sermons if we would think about how they were going to apply what we were saying on a Monday at 10:00am.

This one day local conference, on Tuesday, June 13th,  is designed to help pastors and church leaders create fresh momentum and energy in their ministries, promote and market their churches better within their communities, and so much more!  In order to make the conference as accessible as possible, the cost is only $30, which includes a catered lunch.

If you are a pastor or church leader in New England you do not want to miss out on this special day!  To register, or find out more information, simply go to nepastorsinitiative.org.

Too many pastors go for the quick kill.  They are looking for the one big event that will reach their community and bring hundreds, if not thousands, of people to their church.  They start a new ministry hoping that it will immediately touch a felt need around them and reach a throng of new people.  They are looking for a silver bullet, one that kills quickly all in one shot.

The reality is, that is not how most growing churches actually grow.  Most churches grow slowly over years.  Most healthy churches grow one day, and one small decision, at a time.  They build a reputation based not on doing one event well, but on doing many things well over the course of years.  Gary McIntosh of the Church Growth Network said it this way, “Word of mouth is not based on one thing you do or donâ€t do.  Itâ€s the result of tens or hundreds of little things you do consistently well.  Occasionally, short term rumors may focus on one particular aspect of your ministry.  The long-term rumors, or word-of-mouth conversation, changes slowly since it depends on the history of ministry found in your church over many years.”

Most churches grow when they do things consistently well over many years.   One great event is not likely to singlehandedly grow a church, however, doing a great Easter production every year over the course of decades might.  Preaching one great sermon that knocks it out of the park probably won’t do much to help your church grow, but preaching consistently solid sermons every week will.  Going the extra mile to care for one family in need is important, but caring and ministering to families over the course of years is what truly builds a church’s reputation.  It’s not the one time event that grows a church, it is the faithful ministry over the course of a long time.

The question becomes then, not what big event are we planning next, but what reputation are we building with each and every small decision we make.  Are we caring for people by visiting them in the hospital?  Are we providing quality ministries, not just one time, but each and every week?  Are we administrating the day-to-day business of the church well? Are we doing small and consistent things in our community to build a good reputation? Are we loving people and sharing the love of Christ in every interaction we have?

There is no quick route to church growth.  Churches grow slowly, by building a reputation over time and through doing the small things well.  So, what type of reputation is your church building?

George Barna identified the top stressors pastors face several years ago, and I don’t believe the list has changed much at all.  Here is what he discovered:

1. Thirty percent of all pastors said the lack of commitment from the laity was their number one stressor in ministry.  The number one challenge that pastors say they face is the feeling that they are expected to do it all on their own.  Regarding the ministry at the church, they often hear verbally or through innuendo, “that’s what we pay you to do.”
2. The handling of financial and administrative duties was listed by 13% as their number one stress in ministry.  These are the bible college and seminary graduates who took classes in preaching, counseling, biblical interpretation, but never once took a class on budgets, contracts, project management or human resources.
3. Twelve percent of pastors said the number one question they are grappling with is how to do effective outreach.  Whether do to limited budgets, not understanding the demographics of their community, or just not being sure what to try first, slightly more than one out of ten pastors said they struggle with how to best reach out to their community.
4. One in ten pastors (10%) say that implementing change is their greatest concern.  They know the things that need to change in church, but they don’t know how to make it happen.  Personally, the first class that I can remember having taken that focused exclusively on implementing change in the church was in my doctoral program.  I wonder how many pastors have never had a single class, or even lecture, on how to implement change in their churches?
5. Counseling was listed by 9% of pastors as their greatest challenge.  This is probably not due to a lack of concern for people, or an unwillingness to counsel.  This is likely due to a feeling of ineptitude.  Parishioners bring heavy issues to their pastors such as addictions, severe dysfunction in their lives and families, pending divorce, secrets that no one knows about, and personal sin.  Often, a pastor, who maybe has only had a few classes in counseling, feels in over their head.
6. Developing community within the congregation was listed by 8% of pastors as their greatest challenge.  They see people who attend a service for 75 or 90 minutes on a Sunday, but never relationally connect with anyone beyond that.  They see people who call themselves “regular attenders” but only attend church once or twice a month, and never forge any real friendships in the church.
7. Eight percent said the low level of spiritual maturity found in the people of the church caused them great concern.  They see people who have relegated the entire spiritual life to attending on Sunday, and are not praying, studying their Bible, or talking about faith around their dinner table at home throughout the week.  Pastors see that their people are not growing but they don’t know what to do to change this.
8. How to gain greater leadership involvement by the laity was listed by 7% as something they struggle to answer.  Pastors know that their primary calling is not to do the work of the ministry, rather it is to train people to do the work of the ministry, but they struggle to find people who are willing to step up and take the lead.   Too many other things are vying for people’s attention and to make a commitment, certainly a commitment to leadership in the church, gets pushed to the side.
9. Church politics was listed by 4% as their greatest pastoral challenge in ministry.  This could be official politics of boards, deacons, trustees and the like, that don’t let the pastor lead the church as they should.  It could also be the unofficial politics of the real power brokers and influencers in the church controlling things from behind the scenes. Whichever direction the influence comes from, politics that control, slow down, and chart a course different than the vision that God has given the pastor for the church was listed by 4% as the number one difficulty they face.
10. Relational difficulties was also listed by 4% of pastors as their greatest challenge.  This could be quite a few different things.  It could be relationships and conflict within the church.  It could be a lack of feeling like one has genuine friends in or outside the church. It could be the toll that ministry places on the relationship the pastor has with his family.  It could be a number of things, but relationships, or the lack thereof, was listed by nearly 1 in 20 pastors as their number one concern in ministry.

This was Barna’s list, and again I don’t believe it has changed much in recent years.  What about you though, do you think there is something missing from this list?  If so, what?

As a pastor, here are some of my current favorites…

• The Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast: Lead Like Never Before – This podcast is designed to help you develop as a leader in your church or business.
• The ChurchLeaders Podcast – This podcast features all sorts of church leaders speaking on a wide range of topics of interest to those involved in church ministry.
• Vanderbloemen Leadership Podcast – This podcast focuses on building and leading great teams.
• Perry Noble Leadership Podcast – This podcast will stretch you as a leader and force you to think more like Christ.
• unSeminary Podcast – This podcast gives practical, tangible and easy to use ideas for ministry.
• Rainer on Leadership – Great easily applicable advice for local church ministry.
• The Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast – This podcast, obviously put out by Andy Stanley, is designed to help you go further as a leader.
• The Productivity Show – Getting Things Done – This is a great podcast full of amazing ways to save time and increase productivity.

These are some of my favorites.  What about you?  What do you listen to?  If nothing, maybe consider subscribing to one of the ones above, or something you are interested in, this week.

How can churches better equip, train and encourage their people to go out and share their faith?  Although the list is no doubt extensive, here are five things that churches can do to get people talking about Christ:

• Preach on Evangelism.  Whether it is a standalone message, or an entire eight part series on evangelism, make a deliberate effort to regularly preach on the christian’s responsibility to share their faith.  Many christians do not share their faith because they are rarely challenged to do so.  If nothing else, simply preach through the Bible, and this theme of personal evangelism will come up often.
• Teach on Evangelism.  Multiple times a year offer courses on evangelism.  Many people don’t share their faith because they are afraid to, or think they just don’t know how. It’s older, but Evangelism Explosion, is still one of the best ways to train people in sharing their faith.  EE provides them with an outline they memorize and even sends them out a few times to share that outline with others.  Yes, it is scripted, but learning that script helps people share their faith, as they feel like they now have something to say.  Yes, having people share their faith with people they don’t know, like EE does, can come across as “cold-calling.”  Many people, however, come to believe that if they can share their faith with someone they don’t know at all, that is much easier to share their faith with someone they know and care about.
• Offer Events that Make Invitation Easy.  Many people would come to church if they were invited, but even more would come to an event like a concert, Easter or Christmas production, movies in the city park, or some other event that wasn’t a traditional church service.  Having regular events that are less “churchy” provide additional opportunities for people to invite their friends.  Recent studies by the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism have shown that 61% of non-churched people would either be like “likely” or “extremely likely” to attend a church sponsored event that helps makes the neighborhood safer.  Fifty-one percent would attend a community service project sponsored by a church, 46% would attend a sports or exercise program.  This compares with 34% who would attend a worship service and 26% a small group for those curious about God.  Non-service events are a great way to introduce people to the church.
• Provide a Trigger.  I actually go to the gym or out for a run often.  Here is what I have realized though, I am much more likely to exercise when I give myself a reminder.  If I lay out my gym clothes the night before, and put my sneakers by the door, I am more likely to actually go for that morning run.  The same is true for sharing our faith, more people do it if we provide a trigger to remind them.  This means designing and printing invite cards to special events.  This means providing events, pictures and videos on social media that people can share.  This means offering a new sermon series from time-to-time to give people the opportunity to invite their friends to something new.  Give people reminders, resources and opportunities to share their faith.
• Make it Part of the Culture.  Preach it, teach it, offer events, provide triggers for people, but also model it, share about it in the new members class, put it on banners and displays, highlight stories of people who are doing it, share testimonies of people coming to faith because people reached out, have prayer meetings focusing on missions and evangelism, write it into the mission statement of the church, help people see that evangelism is not just something they do as Christians but that evangelism should be part of their identity, ask for volunteers with community outreaches, etc.

These are five things that churches can do to encourage people to share their faith and invite others to church.  What else can be added to this list?

1. Friends and relatives who do not attend church.  People should hear often about the importance of inviting their family, friends, coworkers, and other to church.  Churches should make it easy for people to invite their friends and family.  Their services should be consistent so that people know what they are inviting their friends to. They should have invite cards to help people break the ice with those they want to invite.  They should have special events that are less intimidating to those who may not be comfortable with a church service.
2. Visitors who have not returned.  Churches should track their visitors, follow-up with them, and attempt to get them plugged in right away.   For those visitors who do not return for a second visit, the church should follow-up.
3. Visitors to big events.  VBS, Easter and Christmas productions, egg hunts, and more are all great ways to connect with lots of new people.  These events can be a first step in getting them to come to church and churches should always extend the invitation.
4. Deactivated members.  Churches should watch theback door of the church.  If people are leaving, before the church writes them off completely they should make an effort to reach out.  Sometimes all it takes is a phone call to get someone to come back.
5. Others that meet in the building.  People who come out to Bible studies, ministries of the church, non-church ministries, or even community groups that use the churches facilities are excellent candidates to invite to a church service.
6. Contacts from funerals and other ministry.  Pastors will find themselves doing funerals and other ministry to non-church members.  Pastors should follow-up in attempts to reach out to those they minister to outside of the church.
7. People in transition.  Churches should get a list of people moving into the community and reach out to them.  These days this can even be automated as there are organizations that will send invite cards to every new mover within an area for a very nominal cost.  Others, such as those who are going through a divorce or grieving the loss of a loved one, are great candidates to reach out to.  Many churches have found great success in reaching people through ministries such as DivorceCare and GriefShare.
8. People in need. People often respond to an invitation to something deeper after they have had a tangible need met.  Giving away meals at Thanksgiving or toys at Christmas doesnâ€t address a person’s spiritual need, but it may be all they need to open the door to coming to church and something greater.

Certainly this list is just a few of the people that churches should be inviting?  Who else do you think churches should invite to come?

Here is the point, they didnâ€t just tell their friend about Jesus….they brought him to Jesus.  They didnâ€t just tell their friend “Jesus is over there” if you can find a way to get there he might be able to heal you…no, they actually took him to Jesus.  They didnâ€t just invite their friend to church, they brought him to church and when they couldnâ€t get in they went the extra mile and cut a hole in the roof to get him in (now please donâ€t get any ideas and cut holes in our roof of your church to get people to church!!).Bringing someone to church is better than just inviting someone to church.  Bringing someone to church and saying youâ€ll sit with them lets them know that there is at least one person they will know at church, that way they donâ€t feel awkward and weird like they are the only new person there. Bringing them lets them know you will be there to “show them the ropes”, as being in church may be new and unfamiliar to them.   Bringing them and promising lunch afterwards means that youâ€re not just trying to get them to church to get something out of them, you personally are trying to get to know them and develop a relationship with them.   Bringing someone, and offering to be with them, opposed to just handing them an invite card and saying they should check it out, may just give them that last little push they need to come.

One quick story.  I know a gentleman in my church who bumped into a man he didnâ€t know in a grocery store and they got talking.  Long story short, he didnâ€t just invite the person to church, he told him when and where they would meet before the church service started.  He offered to sit with him, and even offered to buy him a free lunch afterwards.  The man came and on that very first Sunday gave his life to Christ, and then he even came back the following week.  Honestly, I donâ€t know that this man would have ever come if he had simply been given an invite card and not “brought” like he was.  These two men were complete strangers and the man came.  I imagine there are a lot of people we know personally – friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, etc. – who would perhaps come to church but an invite is not enough, they need us to bring them like the friends of the paralytic in Mark chapter 2.

Who can you bring to church with you this Sunday?

Pros

1. Provides convenience. People will only drive so far to church.  Even if you have a committed person that will make the drive, will their friends and family they would like to invite also make the commute?  Putting a campus in their neighborhood makes coming easier. As Josh Hunt says about multiple worship options it “allows us to overcome the number-one obstacles facing the people we are trying to reach: inconvenience.”
2. Allows for Variety. Each satellite campus should retain the first campuses’ DNA, but a new campus allows for a bit of variety in feel.  It should be allowed to be a bit different to match the community it is in.  This allows the church to reach new people as ”It takes all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people.  The more hooks you cast in the water, and the more varied the bait, the more fish you will catch” (Hunt).
3. Allows us to Reach Areas We Typically Wouldnâ€t. Starting a new campus can be expensive and volunteer intensive, but it doesnâ€t have to be.  A few people who have a heart for a new area, a worship team, and a projector with a recorded sermon can reach some areas that typically may not have a church.  Think of prisons, nursing homes, rural areas.
4. Cheaper & Easier to Scale. It is cheaper to start a new campus in a rented facility than it is to build new construction. Because it can be done with less cost, adding additional sites is an easier model to scale than building buildings.
5. Develops Leaders & Allows for More People to be Involved. To have an additional service you need additional ushers, greeters, childrenâ€s workers, etc.  Some people may be intimidated to step up and serve in a large church, but a smaller campus allows them to serve without being intimidated by the church size.
6. Multisite is More Team Oriented. The lead pastor canâ€t be the campus pastor as well.  It takes a team of shepherds to pull off a multisite approach.
7. Easier for Main Preacher. The senior pastor doesnâ€t have to preach every time either because the sermon is played via video or because there is a team of preachers.  Hunt shares, “It is no longer physically, emotionally, or spiritually possible for one individual to teach five times a week, every week, week in and week out.”
8. More Biblical. “I believe we can conclude that the idea of a plurality of preaching pastors, though foreign to the practice of most modern churches, clearly determined the pattern of the early church….One of the advantages of the multi-congregation approach is the opportunity to hear Paul and Cephas and Apollos” (Hunt).
9. Accountability.  Rather than an independent church plant that is loosely tied to the mother church, most often satellite campuses are more accountable.
10. Focuses Church on Unchurched. It makes people ask the question “okay, now who is going to come?” and focuses them on reaching those who are currently outside of the church. 69% of multisite churches report that they have become more evangelistic as a church as a result of a new campus.

Cons

1. You Need Volunteers. Getting people to leave the comforts of the main campus is not always easy.  It takes someone who can cast vision well.
2. Communication issues. Communication gets harder when you are communicating across campuses.  It gets exponentially harder when you are communicating across 3, 4, 5 or more campuses.
3. Technology Issues. Whether you are talking streaming services or multicampus childrenâ€s check-in, most campuses utilize technology.
4. Complaints. Just like when you go to two services youâ€ll hear people complain that they wonâ€t know everyone (Reality check: if your church already has two services or is larger than 75 people they donâ€t know everyone already anyhow).