What Your Church can Learn from a Broadway Show

Have you ever been to a Broadway show? It’s Jason Hatley here, Pastor of Worship Arts at The Journey. Our Journey office in New York City is right in the heart of Times Square. Literally, whenever I walk down “the great white way” to go to our office I pass three of the big shows that are currently playing. If … Read More


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Should You Make September 11 A “Big Day” at Your Church?

With the 10 year anniversary of 9/11, I’ve gotten quite a few questions about whether or not you should try to make it a “Big Day” and I wanted to address that today. I don’t like making it a Big Day for a few reasons: 1)     It’s not the best time to kick off a new series for most people.  … Read More


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Free Podcast – Leading Your Worship Team through Change

We’re in the middle of a great series of posts from Jason Hatley – Pastor of Worship Arts at The Journey and Founder of Worship Leader Insights – about how Pastors can help their Worship Leaders to be successful (click here and here for those posts), and I wanted to take an opportunity today to share his latest podcast – … Read More


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Your Preaching Calendar Questions – Summer Sermon Series?

Q: You mentioned doing a series during the summer that isn’t sequential.  Can you elaborate on what that looks like? A: The basic concept is to do a number of messages that can be combined under the same title, but that don’t build on one another from week to week. Essentially, you should do a series that is made up … Read More


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Your Preaching Calendar Questions – What to Promote

Q: How do you balance promoting a new sermon series with the current sermon series? A: I use the word “promotion” to refer primarily to external promotion, or promoting a message series to the people in your community. Most of this type of promotion is reserved for your Attraction series (or at least those with attractional titles). Think from the … Read More


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Your Preaching Calendar Questions – “Splitting” a Series?

Q: Is there ever a need to split a series (maybe for a guest speaker)? A: In most cases I would say no. Rather than “split” a message series, see if the guest speaker’s message will fit into the series that is scheduled during that time (this may be as simple as changing the title of their message so that … Read More


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Your Preaching Calendar Questions – Full Church Campaigns?

Q: You recommended doing a “full church campaign” in the fall. That just looks like an extra long series on the calendar – can you explain further what is involved in a campaign like this? A: I do recommend doing a full church campaign each fall. The concept behind the campaign is to take your entire church through the same … Read More


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Your Preaching Calendar Questions – Open Dates & More

Last week’s “How to Plan Your 2010 Preaching Calendar” Webinars were a great success and I’ve enjoyed hearing from so many of you about how your planning is going.  Here are my answers to more of your frequently asked questions. Q: Once I have my preaching calendar together, who should I share it with?  Should I share it with other … Read More


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Your Preaching Calendar Questions – How Far in Advance Should I Plan and More

Last week’s “How to Plan Your 2010 Preaching Calendar” Webinars were a great success and I’ve enjoyed hearing from so many of you about how your planning is going.  I have also received a number of recurring questions that I’d like to address, starting today, here on the blog. Q: How far in advance does the preaching calendar planning process … Read More


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FREE Preaching Calendar Webinars (next week)

Planning your preaching calendar in advance is one of the absolute best ways I’ve found to reduce stress and increase creativity as a pastor.  And I’m determined to help you implement this practice for 2010! Hopefully, you’ve already seen and downloaded a FREE copy of my “Planning a One Year Preaching Calendar” Resource that I’ve been giving away this week … Read More


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