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	HighPower eNews ~~ Empowering Pastors for Growth & Health ~~ March 2009
HighPower Resources Coaching Sermons Seminars Software Products HighPower Blog Bible Studies Church Growth Factoids Dramas Books	Feel free to forward this to a friend! NEW this month! Church Growth Factoids on Spiritual Gift Percentages” Article (continued): Barna’s “New Statistics on Church Attendance & Avoidance” Blog: "Church Health Resources” "Coaching Triads for Success" "Simple Church Synchronicity & Coaching" "Simple Church Synchronicity" Coaching: free resource -- "Sermon Goals Planner" Sermon: Sermon search page is up & running again Software -- New (lower!) Prices on Software Books - new book "Winning on Purpose" by John Kaiser CHURCH GROWTH FACTOIDS: Christian Schwarz has done a ton of work on spiritual gifts in local churches. Here are some interesting stats about a couple of key gifts in YOUR church, probably: GIFT OF MERCY Our research indicates that 13 percent of all Christians have the gift of mercy as a part of their gift mix. GIFT OF SHEPHERDING Our research indicates that the gift of shepherding is relatively widespread, appearing in 12 percent of the gift mixes of all Christians. (Schwarz, Christian. The Three Colors of Ministry. St. Charles, IL: ChurchSmart Resources, 2001, p. 108, 121) Can you verify this in your church. Do you know who has what spiritual gifts in your church? Question is, what ministries do you have in your church specifically targeted for those with the gift of mercy? or Shepherding? These and other Factoids can be found at ChurchGrowth Factoids Church Growth News from Barna New Statistics on Church Attendance and Avoidance (Barna Report from March 3rd, 2008) George Barna has identified a particular demographic which he calls the “Unattached”. here are some of the characteristics of that group. It may help you to understand better how to reach them. Reaching the Unattached With the final weeks of the Easter season rapidly approaching, the Barna study also identified some of the characteristics of the Unattached that might enable conventional churches or other ministries to more adeptly connect with those people. Compared to regular churchgoers, the Unattached are: more likely to feel stressed out less likely to be concerned about the moral condition of the nation much less likely to believe that they are making a positive difference in the world less optimistic about the future far less likely to believe that the Bible is totally accurate in its principles substantially more likely to believe that Satan and the Holy Spirit are symbolic figures, but are not real more likely to believe that Jesus Christ sinned while He was on earth much more likely to believe that the holy literature of the major faiths all teach the same principles even though they use different stories less likely to believe that a person can be under demonic influence more likely to describe their sociopolitical views as "mostly liberal" than "mostly conservative" A Unique Profile Six out of ten adults in the Unattached category (59%) consider themselves to be Christian. Even more surprising was the revelation that 17% of the Unattached are born again Christians - defined as people who have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ ... The Unattached distinguished themselves from the churched population demographically, too. They are more likely to be single, male, and to have been divorced at some point. They are also less likely to be registered to vote, which is often a sign of people who feel less connected to or influential in society. "The numbers consistently point out that those who live without a regular face-to-face faith connection tend to be relatively isolated from the mainstream of society, tend to be non-committal in institutional and personal relationships, and typically revel in their independence. Attempting to get them involved in the life of a church is a real challenge. The best chance of getting them to a church is when someone they know and trust invites them, offers to accompany them, and there is reason to believe that the church event will address one of the issues or needs they are struggling with at that moment." Barna indicated that if past years are any indication, comparatively few of the Unattached are likely to visit a church during this Easter season, but that a significant number of the Intermittents are likely to return at least once. HighPower Learnings Blog WHAT I'M LEARNING RIGHT NOW IN THE AREAS OF MINISTRY COACHING, SIMPLE CHURCH, CHURCH GROWTH & CHURCH HEALTH Recent Posts: (recent posts) Church Health Resources -- March 2nd, 2009 Weblinks for great sites aimed at church health. Coaching Triads for Success -- Feb. 26th, 2009 My experience of being in a small coaching group with two other Executive Pastors. Simple Church Synchronicity & Coaching -- Feb. 17th , 2009 Coaching new ministries to alignment with Simple Church philosophy. Simple Church Synchronicity -- Feb. 9th, 2009 Discussion showing the challenge of incorporating Simple Church into an existing church. Check out the Blog here. Coaching Free Resources -- Sermon Goals Planner New resource in the free Coaching Resources section. Great questions BEFORE you start writing your sermon to set you up for a sermon that packs a punch. This worksheet helps you ask a number of key questions to put together a powerful sermon. Fill-in-the-blank options for goasl related to Head, Heart, Hands, as well as other helpful questions to make you plan your sermon well before you begin. Other HighPower Coaching Resources can be found HERE. Software Shepherd Care Software is coming! A new software product called “Shepherd Care” software for tracking discipleship groups in your church is on the way. Check out the main page of www.HighPowerResources.com for more info and to sign up for news when it comes out. New prices on software for ministry: FamilyFaces Photo Directory software -- $39 ShepherdCare Group Tracking software -- $49 (when it’s ready) SermonBase Message Planning software -- $59 Why the new prices? Part of our mission at HighPowerResources is to provide you with affordable tools to help you to have a better organized and healthy church. If these new prices help you get the tools you need, then we have achieved that goal. Click on www.HighPowerResources.com/Software to download your new Demo today. Seminars For a list of both our on-site seminars and our “Do-It-Yourself” (DIY) Seminars, click on www.HighPowerResources.com/Seminars to learn more. Sermons News: The sermon search functionality has been restored, so you can do a search by Scripture or Topic. Next month: we will be featuring a two-week mini-series called “Surviving Financial Storms”. With the current economic situation, this is a very important and timely topic for your congregation. So check your “HighPower eNews” next month for that series. These messages and othersare available from HighPower Sermons. BOOK REVIEW: "Winning on Purpose" by John Kaiser New book, I’m currently reading, “Winning on Purpose” by John Kaiser. It is about organizing your church for disciple making effectiveness. Read the following review from the Amazon site: I now rank "Winning on Purpose" among the top 10 books on church organizational life that I've read. The foundational premise is that Christians are to make disciples of Jesus. The way a local church organizes for ministry can hinder or assist in that mission. Kaiser dares to suggest that pastors, church boards, and the membership of the church are to be accountable for the mission. Accountability does not restrict or lay guilt on these persons, but in proper relationship to one another frees them to lead and serve in ways that will give them every opportunity to fulfill their God-given mission. -- by ‘GraveRobber Gary’. Check out other books on our site. Useful Web Links Accountable Leadership (Kaiser) www.accountableleadership.org ChurchSmart Resources (NCD) www.churchsmart.com CoachNet (Logan) www.coachnet.org Easum, Bandy & Associates www.easumbandy.com GHC Network (Church Multiplication) www.ghnetwork.org Gospel Communications www.gospelcom.net Griffith Coaching Network www.griffithcoaching.com Leadership Network www.leadnet.org NexStep Coaching (Hoyt) www.nexstepcoaching.org PastorPreneur (Jackson) www.pastorpreneur.com Purpose-Driven Church (Warren) www.pastors.com Willow Creek Association (Hybels) www.willowcreek.com
Empowering for Growth & Health
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HighPower eNews

~~ Empowering Pastors for Growth & Health ~~

March 2009

HighPower Resources

Feel free to forward this to a friend!

NEW this month!

Church Growth Factoids on Spiritual Gift Percentages”
Article (continued): Barna’s “New Statistics on Church Attendance & Avoidance”
Blog: "Church Health Resources”
    "Coaching Triads for Success"
    "Simple Church Synchronicity & Coaching"
    "Simple Church Synchronicity"
Coaching: free resource -- "Sermon Goals Planner"
Sermon: Sermon search page is up & running again
Software -- New (lower!) Prices on Software
Books - new book "Winning on Purpose" by John Kaiser

CHURCH GROWTH FACTOIDS:

Christian Schwarz has done a ton of work on spiritual gifts in local churches. Here are some interesting stats about a couple of key gifts in YOUR church, probably:

GIFT OF MERCY
Our research indicates that 13 percent of all Christians have the gift of mercy as a part of their gift mix.

GIFT OF SHEPHERDING
Our research indicates that the gift of shepherding is relatively widespread, appearing in 12 percent of the gift mixes of all Christians.

(Schwarz, Christian. The Three Colors of Ministry. St. Charles, IL: ChurchSmart Resources, 2001, p. 108, 121)

Can you verify this in your church. Do you know who has what spiritual gifts in your church? Question is, what ministries do you have in your church specifically targeted for those with the gift of mercy? or Shepherding?

These and other Factoids can be found at ChurchGrowth Factoids

Church Growth News from Barna

New Statistics on Church Attendance and Avoidance
(Barna Report from March 3rd, 2008)

George Barna has identified a particular demographic which he calls the “Unattached”. here are some of the characteristics of that group. It may help you to understand better how to reach them.

Reaching the Unattached
With the final weeks of the Easter season rapidly approaching, the Barna study also identified some of the characteristics of the Unattached that might enable conventional churches or other ministries to more adeptly connect with those people.

Compared to regular churchgoers, the Unattached are:

more likely to feel stressed out
less likely to be concerned about the moral condition of the nation
much less likely to believe that they are making a positive difference in the world
less optimistic about the future
far less likely to believe that the Bible is totally accurate in its principles
substantially more likely to believe that Satan and the Holy Spirit are symbolic figures, but are not real
more likely to believe that Jesus Christ sinned while He was on earth
much more likely to believe that the holy literature of the major faiths all teach the same principles even though they use different stories
less likely to believe that a person can be under demonic influence
more likely to describe their sociopolitical views as "mostly liberal" than "mostly conservative"

A Unique Profile
Six out of ten adults in the Unattached category (59%) consider themselves to be Christian. Even more surprising was the revelation that 17% of the Unattached are born again Christians - defined as people who have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ ...
The Unattached distinguished themselves from the churched population demographically, too. They are more likely to be single, male, and to have been divorced at some point. They are also less likely to be registered to vote, which is often a sign of people who feel less connected to or influential in society.

"The numbers consistently point out that those who live without a regular face-to-face faith connection tend to be relatively isolated from the mainstream of society, tend to be non-committal in institutional and personal relationships, and typically revel in their independence. Attempting to get them involved in the life of a church is a real challenge. The best chance of getting them to a church is when someone they know and trust invites them, offers to accompany them, and there is reason to believe that the church event will address one of the issues or needs they are struggling with at that moment."
Barna indicated that if past years are any indication, comparatively few of the Unattached are likely to visit a church during this Easter season, but that a significant number of the Intermittents are likely to return at least once.

HighPower Learnings Blog

WHAT I'M LEARNING RIGHT NOW IN THE AREAS OF MINISTRY COACHING, SIMPLE CHURCH, CHURCH GROWTH & CHURCH HEALTH

Coaching

Free Resources -- Sermon Goals Planner
New resource in the free Coaching Resources section. Great questions BEFORE you start writing your sermon to set you up for a sermon that packs a punch. This worksheet helps you ask a number of key questions to put together a powerful sermon. Fill-in-the-blank options for goasl related to Head, Heart, Hands, as well as other helpful questions to make you plan your sermon well before you begin.

Other HighPower Coaching Resources can be found HERE.

Software

Shepherd Care Software is coming!

A new software product called “Shepherd Care” software for tracking discipleship groups in your church is on the way. Check out the main page of www.HighPowerResources.com for more info and to sign up for news when it comes out.

New prices on software for ministry:

FamilyFaces Photo Directory software -- $39
ShepherdCare Group Tracking software -- $49 (when it’s ready)
SermonBase Message Planning software -- $59

Why the new prices? Part of our mission at HighPowerResources is to provide you with affordable tools to help you to have a better organized and healthy church. If these new prices help you get the tools you need, then we have achieved that goal.

Click on www.HighPowerResources.com/Software to download your new Demo today.

Seminars

For a list of both our on-site seminars and our “Do-It-Yourself” (DIY) Seminars, click on www.HighPowerResources.com/Seminars to learn more.

Sermons

News: The sermon search functionality has been restored, so you can do a search by Scripture or Topic.

Next month: we will be featuring a two-week mini-series called “Surviving Financial Storms”. With the current economic situation, this is a very important and timely topic for your congregation. So check your “HighPower eNews” next month for that series.

These messages and othersare available from HighPower Sermons.

BOOK REVIEW: "Winning on Purpose" by John Kaiser

New book, I’m currently reading, “Winning on Purpose” by John Kaiser. It is about organizing your church for disciple making effectiveness.
Read the following review from the Amazon site:

I now rank "Winning on Purpose" among the top 10 books on church organizational life that I've read. The foundational premise is that Christians are to make disciples of Jesus. The way a local church organizes for ministry can hinder or assist in that mission.

Kaiser dares to suggest that pastors, church boards, and the membership of the church are to be accountable for the mission. Accountability does not restrict or lay guilt on these persons, but in proper relationship to one another frees them to lead and serve in ways that will give them every opportunity to fulfill their God-given mission. -- by ‘GraveRobber Gary’.

Check out other books on our site.

Useful Web Links

Accountable Leadership (Kaiser) www.accountableleadership.org
ChurchSmart Resources (NCD) www.churchsmart.com
CoachNet (Logan) www.coachnet.org
Easum, Bandy & Associates www.easumbandy.com
GHC Network (Church Multiplication) www.ghnetwork.org
Gospel Communications www.gospelcom.net
Griffith Coaching Network www.griffithcoaching.com
Leadership Network www.leadnet.org
NexStep Coaching (Hoyt) www.nexstepcoaching.org
PastorPreneur (Jackson) www.pastorpreneur.com
Purpose-Driven Church (Warren) www.pastors.com
Willow Creek Association (Hybels) www.willowcreek.com

Empowering for Growth & Health