Disqus - Latest Comments for chadbrooks

Re: Ascended, Not Absent

chadbrooks — Thu, 25 May 2017 16:43:42 -0000

slow clap.

Love it.

Re: Under the Hood: Study Retreat Recap and More | PP75

chadbrooks — Sat, 11 Mar 2017 11:45:08 -0000

Chris-I think audio podcasting is the best resource the local church can use. I see our stats and other churches stats. Folks repeatedly turn to an audio podcast over video by around 5x.

Hoping to have this stuff out before the summer.

Re: 6 Disruptive Church Trends That Will Rule 2017

chadbrooks — Tue, 03 Jan 2017 23:15:34 -0000

Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap. (I was standing as well).

All of these are fantastic. The biggest assumption we make is that we understand what it is like to be unchurched.

I would add a few more things about pastoring the unchurched vs. pastoring church people.

1. The unchurched who finally do come to church expect it to look like church. If we are still acting like 90's seeker-sensitive they are going to be pretty disappointed. Don't tiptoe around Jesus.

2. We have to figure out if people are asking for things because they expect churches to do certain programs/emphasis or if they are trying to meet a deeply felt need. We have struggled consistently with church folks asking for more small groups and the unchurched just wanted deeper relationships. It's the same issue, just totally different language.

3. Don't assume anyone knows what you are talking about. Be as deliberate as possible. Call Communion communion and not a love feast. Realize you have to explain everything pretty much every time you do it.

Great post Carey.

Re: PP46: Organizing Ministry with Trello

chadbrooks — Tue, 03 Jan 2017 10:05:06 -0000

Hey James, much of our content has personal stuff in it. If you look around the rest of the Trello posts, you can see some stuff. For what we are using Trello for right now, it has to stay private.

http://revchadbrooks.com/st...
http://revchadbrooks.com/se...
http://revchadbrooks.com/wh...

What I've done to best see how others are using Trello (and I've seen some good AND bad attempts) is look at the Trello blog and the shared boards they have posted. This is a great one.

https://trello.com/b/ibjiBB...

The Trello Blog. https://blog.trello.com/

Re: The 5 Emails You Need To Be Sending | Productive Pastor 67

chadbrooks — Thu, 15 Dec 2016 09:52:03 -0000

Thanks Jon

Re: The 5 Emails You Need To Be Sending | Productive Pastor 67

chadbrooks — Thu, 17 Nov 2016 14:58:13 -0000

Either aweber or mailchimp. Any email system will help you, I've found Mailchimp integrates best with PC

Re: Building a Sermon Engagement Strategy | Productive Pastor 60

chadbrooks — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 19:31:06 -0000

Hey Richard-

In a word...yes. Some folks have started using the language of podcast for any sort of audio content (or even video) posted online. Think of it as someone calling a Ford Bronco a Jeep. It's the kinda the same...but doesn't have the same abilities.

A podcast has a subscription via RSS technology, the easy way to test this is to simply find out if you are able to find it in the iTunes store.

It isn't that hard to set up, I would recommend Libsyn.com

Re: 7 Habits of Unproductive Pastors | PP58

chadbrooks — Mon, 15 Aug 2016 12:01:41 -0000

Katie-you make a FANTASTIC point. it's absolutely true.

Re: Organizing Workflow Templates in Evernote | PP56

chadbrooks — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 08:38:35 -0000

Thanks Chris

Re: Building Guest Systems | Productive Pastor 48

chadbrooks — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 14:09:04 -0000

Hey Michael-

We use sheets for TONS of things. The main contact page is just a contact sheet. We went this direction so we can access it easier and export it. We use sheets for other lists as well, but we try not to get to complicated with it.

Re: Streamlining Church Assimilation with Trello

chadbrooks — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 07:18:49 -0000

Nathan-It isn't part of our official strategy. Oddly enough, in our culture, a phone call is pretty intimate. I do call sometimes knowing it will go straight to voicemail and leave an intentional message there.

Re: Evangelicals Continue Dominating Fastest-Growing UMC Congregations

chadbrooks — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 13:02:27 -0000

I think the larger question would be how many of these churches still have traditional Sunday School...

Re: Streamlining Church Assimilation with Trello

chadbrooks — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 12:53:14 -0000

we don't put in the system (besides the check box). After the accept the request I have a standard message I send them thanking them for accepting and letting them know they can get in touch with me.

A big part of this is having a super approachable presence on FB. I really don't use it for much "professional" engagement (you don't see me doing tons of productive pastor linking and advertising). For me, when I see I have 40+ related friends with a person, I know they are part of the network of people our church travels in. It isn't uncommon for us to have a good bit of engagement with folks through facebook. It might just be a cultural thing, but it works well for us.

Re: Streamlining Church Assimilation with Trello

chadbrooks — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 12:44:05 -0000

Hey Carl- Thanks for engaging.

With FB, there is a pretty big amount of power that comes from getting connected. I wrote about the power of using Facebook lists. This is the system we run through.

http://revchadbrooks.com/ha...

Re: Proactive vs. Reactive Ministry | PP47

chadbrooks — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 09:10:44 -0000

Hey Paul-Thanks for the comment and thanks for your great writing!

Re: Streamlining Church Assimilation with Trello

chadbrooks — Fri, 25 Mar 2016 16:09:30 -0000

Michael-we catch them two ways.

1. Our connection card has a box for 2nd time guest.
2. Kids Check-In. Most of our guests have kids, and so the checkin procedure gives us another layer of guest contact.

Re: Creating a Collaborative Sermon Workflow With Trello

chadbrooks — Fri, 25 Mar 2016 11:01:28 -0000

Hey Michael-this workflow was actually designed because folks on my team were wanting a copy of the sheet! After a few weeks of texting them a picture, we developed the necessary group elements and then added a few others.

This tool is for communication. I'm not using it for individual preparation so much. I (along with our other preachers) drive the majority of the content. So in essence, this is a "show and tell" resource for others on our team.

Re: PP44: Why You Should Keep A Notebook

chadbrooks — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 20:52:39 -0000

Hey Chris-I've actually moved away from my daysheet. It was super helpful for a season, but I'm know working exclusively off my day sheet.

Re: PP44: Why You Should Keep A Notebook

chadbrooks — Sat, 05 Mar 2016 11:29:22 -0000

Thanks John Mark!!!

Re: PP44: Why You Should Keep A Notebook

chadbrooks — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 09:38:52 -0000

Thanks Matt!

Re: How I Podcast (my podcast toolbox)

chadbrooks — Thu, 07 Jan 2016 20:53:50 -0000

Hey Jason-We have a hard disc recorder that goes through our soundboard.

Re: Links of the Week (12/5/15)

chadbrooks — Sun, 06 Dec 2015 18:40:40 -0000

Thanks for including The Productive Pastor on your list!

Re: Lots-o-Links 5.20.15 — Steve K. McCoy

chadbrooks — Tue, 26 May 2015 09:37:06 -0000

Hey Steve-Thanks for including my post on your link list.

Re: What I Learned Skipping Church

chadbrooks — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 16:53:08 -0000

Thanks Michael-

I understand with those concerns. I think part of it is thinking about the worship service as the entry into discipleship and community. It's hard to do this sometimes.

Re: What I Learned Skipping Church

chadbrooks — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 10:32:37 -0000

Hey Michael-

Thanks for your comment. I agree with you 100%. I spent the better part of a Master's degree studying and writing about worship and liturgical theology (and you can poke around on the site more to read about that).

But here is the issue. The average person in the church isn't where you (or I) am at. For them-it is an issue of consumption. What was promised hasn't been delivered. We talk about the greatness of God and then expect an awkward and ill-prepared worship service to give witness to this reality. We think things have been done "right" so they are good. But the average person doesn't see it this way. So they make a decision to spend time elsewhere.

Expecting people to come to us because we are "worshiping right" is a pretty faulty evangelism strategy and is a little to close to having private priests saying private masses pre-reformation.

We have to meet people where they are at. Culturally, where I am (the deep south), many people have no issues attending church every couple of months. They will usually call that regular attendance. Or if invited by a friend, they will attend. Those are huge steps of discipleship. But we have to ask ourselves the question why are they attending so mildly and take responsibility if we are the reason their attendance is infrequent. I believe the worship service is still one of the easiest and most approachable first steps of discipleship.

That means we have to make people want to take the next step.