Well, it’s been quite a journey. I hope these last six weeks have been helpful to you.
Most of what we’ve covered took me 20+ years to learn, and many years to implement, so don’t feel discouraged if you haven’t made instant progress on everything.
That said, I’m hopeful you’ll stick with it. You really can create the momentum necessary for reaching your neighbors, growing your believers, and seeing your church take on increasing influence in your community.
By now, you should be over half way through your 90 days of prayer. That was about the time I broke down in the grocery store. I sincerely hope this has or will happen to you.
Psalm 51 says,
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
I hope your heart is beginning to break for the thing that breaks the heart of God.
One warning: hearts tend to heal up. I find that every other year or so I have to return to my 90 days of prayer. And when I do, I need to call my church back to the prayer as well. I suspect that will be true for you too.
Before we close our learning together, I want to tell you what prompted me to prepare this little six-week adventure.
Please take a minute to pray, asking God to give you an undistracted fifteen minute window to speak to you just now, as you read.
My Best Advice
In 2001, New Song bought its first building. We immediately doubled in size, and then started shrinking. Call that “negative momentum.”
I know what it’s like to feel stuck. I got depressed. I thought about doing something else with my life.
Fortunately, the Lord wouldn’t let me. Every time I asked the question, “What else would I want to do?” I couldn’t think of anything else. Nothing matches the significance of the local church. Nothing else offers the eternal rewards or the internal satisfaction of seeing a life changed by Jesus.
For five years, New Song’s attendance fluctuated in a certain range. One season we’d add 200 people, the next we’d lose the same number. Since we couldn’t seem to make any headway, I decided to find fulfillment in “significance” rather than “success.”
During that time, we developed incredible community service ministries and very effective evangelism strategies. So much so that the crime rate in Oceanside went down every year and our conversion rate went up every year. But we didn’t grow. I remember visiting a pastor who introduced me to a friend by saying, “This is Hal Seed, he’s the pastor who’s holding New Song together.”
That was an apt description. In one sense, we were a transformational dynamo. Quality of life in Oceanside was going up and the number of people headed for Hell was going down.
But you know as well as I do that it’s frustrating when the traffic out your back door matches the traffic in your front door.
I did something desperate. I hired a mentor.
Pride had kept me from doing so previously. I’d toyed with the idea, but always had an excuse, until I finally got desperate enough to humble myself and ask for help.
The other factor that stopped me from engaging a mentor was money. It never seemed like the church had enough extra to justify it.
Then, a friend said, “Hal, the average church attender gives $1,000 a year to their local church. If you could hire someone to help you add 10 people to your church, your budget would increase by $10,000.”
So I did it. I got permission from my Board, and hired a mentor.
My first paid mentor was Jay Pankratz. Jay’s church was five times our size. He had been where I was, size-wise. Jay met with me and my staff once a month, for $1,000 a session.
Was it worth it? In that first year, we broke our attendance ceiling. Jay’s advice helped us grow by over 200 newcomers that year. By my calculations, 200 x $1,000 = $200,000.
Even the Scotsman in me had to admit I’d made a smart decision.
Here’s what I learned: When I attend Pastors’ Conferences, friends ask me, “How’d it go?” Whereas, when I attend mentoring sessions, they ask, “What did you learn and what are we going to do about it?”
There’s an implementation bias involved in monthly mentoring.
I still learn from conferences. I just don’t attend them anymore. Instead, I buy the DVDs, watch them, play them for my leaders, and use the money I would have spent on airfare and hotels in hiring a mentor.
It’s a far better use of the church’s money.
The year after I worked with Jay, I signed up for a tele-coaching network. We grew by another 200. I have never been without a mentor since.
For years I read every book I could find on church growth and church health, but they weren’t practical enough for my little brain. I needed someone to teach me specific, proven systems, step by step.
I believe that everybody needs a mentor.
If what we’ve covered has been helpful to you, I encourage you to pray seriously about acquiring a mentor.
Look for someone who will give you monthly input on specific topics related to church health and growth.
My mentoring program, ChurchEngines, combines one-on-one calls with me, with 62 video lessons and 91 downloadable resources.
You’ll work on developing systems in your church, and on developing your heart, skills, and strength as a leader.
I hope you’ll consider getting mentored by me.
Show Me More about Mentoring with Hal
Your Final Assignment
Within the next week, decide what kind of mentorship you’d like to have and act on it. If you don’t decide in that time-frame, I guarantee it will become a back-burner issue for you and you’ll wind up deciding to do nothing.
And… email me at hal@pastormentor.com to let me know what you’re thinking and the progress you’ve seen.
10,000 blessings,
Hal
Hal Seed is the founding and lead pastor of New Song Community Church in Oceanside, California. Get more resources and equipping for leading a better church at PastorMentor.com.
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