Reflections on T4G 2012
No, I don’t call myself a Calvinist or reformed, but I do believe in God’s grace and sovereignty and I desire to be gospel-centered. And I thoroughly enjoyed this year’s ‘Together for the Gospel’ Conference. This was my first T4G Conference and though I don’t know how it might compare to the others, I would highly recommend you add this to your schedule in April 2014. There are many reasons, here are a few:
The PREACHING – Nine main sessions about the power of the gospel. I don’t ever remember a time that my spirit was more stirred to preach and witness. I appreciate the authority with which the messages were given, the humility of the messengers, the preeminence of the Scriptures (specifically the gospel) in every session. Zealous. Urgent. Authoritative. Never have I heard such content in such a short conference – every message deeply affected in me a hot passion to continue preach and to share the powerful gospel. Here are my notes.
The MUSIC – Bob Kauflin led worship for 8k+ with his piano and voice. He led us in true worship of spirit and truth. What a joy to sing the old and new hymns – such rich doctrine, such beauty and poetry. What a pleasure to listen to and sing in such a choir of men (and ladies). Listen here.
The ZERO-DOLLAR BOOKSTORE – That’s right… $0. T4G, Crossway, and Lifeway (and others I’m sure) sponsored a bookstore and vendor area where every registrant would receive ~20 books, CDs, pamphlets, etc. absolutely free. This is not just an immediate blessing but will continue to bless as I make time to dig into these resources. Here’s the stack. I also enjoyed browsing the other bookstore with such a wide variety of authors and topics.
The FRIENDSHIPS – I did not go to T4G alone. I came with 3 close friends and left with many more. Thanks to Michael, Brad, Dave, Jamie, Jon, Jared, and Tom. Next time, I will be bringing more friends and making even more…
The PANEL DISCUSSIONS & BREAKOUTS – As I understand it, the format this year was very different than in the past. I have no point of comparative reference, but suffice it to say that these were interesting. Because they were so topically oriented and pointed, I must admit that some interested me much more than others – but the 1-2 that caught my attention were very interesting and facilitated even more questions / study / conversation. I look forward to catching up on the ones I missed on the T4G website.
The TESTIMONIES – This year’s theme, Together for the Underestimated Gospel, was beautifully highlighted by ~8 testimonies of the power of the gospel. This stirred each one of us as a testament to God’s might and the reach of the good news.
The LOCATION – Although this conference was located in my backyard (Louisville), I would definitely travel if it were necessary. I met many people who did travel… from Canada, India, Cayman Is., and all over the USA. The YUM! Center & the Kentucky International Convention Center were excellent venues. (One caveat… the meal plan was a high for the quality of food – but still worth the convenience.)
Generating Web Traffic
This week, our websites clicked over 100,000 page views! In the last 30 months (as long as we’ve been active & keeping stats), we’ve had nearly a MILLION hits, had over 150GB of stuff downloaded, and helped literally hundreds of churches/ministries. We are pumped about those numbers, believe me – but it hasn’t happened by accident. I’m not tooting my own horn, but how can a one-man show with no budget touch over 100 people every day? I’m glad you asked…
1. Use free tools – We make use of three main services: WordPress, Dropbox, and MailChimp [see posts about this]. Use these services to accent your website/blog. Wordpress hosts our blogs; we use Dropbox for cloud-storage; we set up MailChimp to automatically generate beautiful HTML emails of our blog posts.
2. Bring the content – Content draws people in and brings them back. If your site is simply information, they might visit once – but they’ll never come back. Resources, sermons, outlines, music, videos, audio clips, pictures, articles, etc. There’s a ton of stuff that people would love to see, hear, read, learn… just waiting on you to share it!
3. Tag everything – Most of our visitors are NOT direct (meaning they didn’t type in our actual domain name in the address bar); most of our visits come from google and other search engines… especially image searches. When you tag your posts with relevant keywords, you enable them to be found by people doing topical searches. [Our most popular tag-referrals: church themes, fall in love with jesus, easter, dove, peace, hope in god, communion]
4. Be service-oriented – Websites that charge for everything annoy me. I don’t use them unless I have to. Why would you charge for something that could help someone? What if our Military rationed bullets to its soldiers — or worse yet, made them pay per bullet? Don’t just reduce your prices – nix them! Give it all away.
5. Evangelize. Say it often, say it loud… Don’t be afraid to shameless plug your stuff on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, etc. Don’t underestimate SEO. It shouldn’t take a penny for you to get listed on the first page of search engines. Be clever, be specific. For help, read this.
Our most-viewed Post:
Does Your Church Use a Yearly Theme?
Our most-downloaded graphic:
Changed by Jesus
Our most-read article:
Seven Reasons You Can’t Lose Your Salvation
‘you are loved!’ campaign
In a recent study of mine, I rediscovered the essential element of LOVE as the main ingredient for evangelism. I often hand out and speak out the gospel but rarely take time to listen, to share of my time, energy, and money. We can’t just speak the truth and expect people to listen – we must speak it “in love.” And the truth is…
“People don’t care how much you know
until they know how much your care.”
This simple campaign has been burning in my heart for some time – and, thanks to the prodding of a pastor-friend, we are finally launching it this week. Here at LBC, we’re calling it ‘Love Weeks.’ The idea is simple: Showing love in practical ways by sharing time & money with our community. We definitely want out message to be heard (don’t you?), but it all-too-often falls on deaf ears because that’s what exactly the way we treat the world!
RESOURCES AVAILABLE: Card Template / Alternate Design / Campaign Details
We got our cards professionally printed at www.Mi-Cards.com – like a shiny gift card & they look good! [photo]
Feel free to use this material however you would want, but here’s what we did…
How It Works:
Every adult gets at least one card. Let’s say a lady takes the card home to reach out to her lost neighbors. Hopefully, she will do something really nice for them—but not tell them that she did it… just leaving the ‘you are loved!’ card so they will know why she did it! There’s a place on the back to write your name… the goal is not necessarily to be anonymous – but to be humble. There is no minimum or maximum gifts. We will tally up all donated time and money for a grand total at the end of the two weeks. (Our ready-to-print PDF Instruction Sheet)
IDEAS & EXAMPLES:
Sharing Your Time:
1. Make an entire meal (dessert included) and drop it off at a neighbors house with the card—also works for shut-ins and elderly!
2. Mow and weed your neighbors yard without warning & tape the card to their front door!
3. Offer to babysit some children so the parents can have a date night (and don’t take any money)!
4. Offer your skills at the local nursing / retirement homes (mechanical, carpentry, plumbing)!
5. Create a gift box for our local active military!
Sharing Your Money:
6. Buy the meal of the car behind you in the fast food drive-thru (even if it’s a family)!
7. Leave your waitress a huge tip ($20 and the card) – also works with a pizza delivery man!
8. Swipe your card at the pump for another car and say, “Filler Up!” (Start with compact cars first.)
9. Give a gift-card to a public servant or pastor!
10. Buy a ‘spiritual gift’ for someone who needs it!
March Madness
P4G invites Pastors & Church Leaders to our Tournament Challenge. Winner receives a Huge Church Media Collection!
- 900+ Christian images
- 60+ looping videos
- 2 DVD’s absolutely full of custom PSD’s, JPG’s, & much more
Get in the action now:
http://games.espn.go.com/tournament-challenge-bracket/en/group?groupID=158832
*A Twitter ‘RT’ before 3/15 will earn 50 extra points to your total! [May decide winner in close contest.]
From ESPN: Get in on the excitement of this year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Compete against other fans as you fill out a bracket and earn points for every correct pick! Come out on top and you could win a $10,000 Best Buy gift card. Get a group together and earn plenty of bragging rights amongst your friends by winning it all. Best of all, it’s free to play and win.
2012: A Year of Hope
Does your church use an annual theme? Our church has chosen 2012 to focus on HOPE! I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a hopeless generation… teenagers, marriages, and even churches. Our God is the “God of Hope” (Rom. 15:13). Jesus Christ saved us to be a hopeful people (1 Pet. 1:3, 13). So let us pray the prayer of David: Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God. Psalm 43:5 > Other resources: 2012 “Hope in God” Music Video [YouTube] | Bible-size Calendar [PDF] | Bulletin Shells [PDF]
Ideas from our past… (links to more free graphics, banners, bulletins)
2011 – Changed by Jesus (sunrise, butterfly)
2010 – Making a Difference (seasons, tree)
2009 – Grow in Grace (green vectors)
2008 – Now More Than Ever (hourglass, black)
2007 – A Touch of Heaven (lighthouse, sky)
2006 – Here Am I (prophet, parchment)
2005 – Go Forward (digital, compass)
2004 – For Such a Time as This (vintage clock)
2003 – Walking Worthy (path in forest)
2002 – Charting the Course (nautical symbols)
Other Ideas for Annual Themes:
Anointed (Luke 4:18)
Radical (rooted – Col. 2:7)
Refresh
Fall in Love with Jesus
Church Still Works!
The Light of the World (and more)
Anointed
I can’t get this verse out of my heart (from Isaiah 61:1 & Luke 4:18). What if we did ministry according to the commission of Christ?
Radical
Radical: of or going to the root or origin; fundamental
(for example - plant: radish; chemistry: free radical; math: radical number; latin: radicalis)
logistics
Around here (in Louisville), you can’t go far without seeing BROWN. United Parcel Service employs over 20,000 people to service it’s Worldport Air Hub. That place is an engineering marvel – near perfect management of conveyors, scanners, airplanes, semi-trucks, and people. All for the sake of the package! Yep, they know logistics. Click here to go behind the scenes with the UPS Logistics Campaign.
UPS knows logistics. They love logistics. Do you? You should. After all, you carry the most valuable package of all – the gospel. Logistics is: the planning, implementation, and coordination of the details of an operation. Our package needs delivery… and fast! It’s not fragile, just precious. It’s vital and it’s about time it become viral. Will you deliver?
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed ? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard ? and how shall they hear without a preacher ? And how shall they preach , except they be sent ? as it is written , How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! … So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. -Romans 10:14-17
We are merely news-men. Delivery-boy disciples. Christian couriers. That’s it! Jesus already made the news – He IS the good news. And this news needs little-to-no editorializing. We don’t have to add commentary, we just need to publish it. “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” Logistics: from it’s Source, through me and you, to the ears of the hearers, into their hearts… so they may be saved.
The Church isn’t mobile enough. The current state of empire-oriented religion has tied brick and mortar to the gospel in such a way that it’s getting locked into a place. Churches have become warehouses of the truth instead of distributors. We need messengers – delivering the good news. Jesus commanded us to take the gospel to every ‘critter’ (that’s Southern for creature). As Curtis Hutson said many times: “We need to turn our Welcome mats into a Will-Go.” We have strapped ourselves to the Gospel – and we’re slowing it down. Somethings terribly wrong when people have to leave their lives to come to church. No! Church should be invading life and infiltrating culture with the gospel of Jesus.
We will never multiply by assembling groups and seating them neatly into pews for an hour or two a week – not even three or four hours a week. We’ve got to train, equip, and mobilize Christians. We need to de-centralize the church. You don’t like it when the government gets too big & powerful – so how is the church any different? Cut the emphasis on gathering and start scattering. Let’s stop hiding behind our websites and church billboards – calling it outreach. It’s time to reach out and evangelize:
1. Print & distribute more gospel tracts – not just invitations to church.
2. A good witness must have a credible lifestyle. Live the gospel in your actions and reactions.
3. There is NO substitute for a bold tongue surrendered to God. Share the gospel. Faith comes by hearing the Word. Your personal testimony has power – and no one can share what you can about what God has done for you.
4. Set aside time to teach someone else – don’t worry about starting a class or program if you can’t disciple one. Training builds a little confidence and helps the newbie deal with fear. Teach a class about sharing your faith (Syllabus: PDF PUB).
5. Provide all the tools necessary. The proper equipment is essential to effective logistics. Jesus told us that the most important element of our mission is the Spirit. He is the secret to our boldness and to their tenderness.
6. Give other Christians / church members a reason to go. Our folks need a good reason to really step out of their comfort zone. Special days at church, seasonal emphases, and other programs might be a good help – but the greatest motivation is going to be the reality of a God to please in Heaven and of the damned souls in Hell.
7. Last, but not least, just go. As you are going, be telling. As you are going, be winning. As you are going, be discipling. As you are going…
If people wanted religion, they’d come into your church. But there are many people is such tremendous need without any knowledge of the real answer. “Instead of bringing people to church so we can bring them to Christ, let’s take Christ to the people.” (-Neil Cole, Organic Church) We’ve got to stop feeling good about waiting on them to come to us and go to their rescue. They need redeemed and reconciled. God is willing. Are you? So what are you waiting for? Close this silly browser and GO!
Logistics: Plan. Implement. Coordinate.
The price is paid. The gospel is powerful. People are waiting. God is watching. It’s time to go…
