Blog – Motion Worship – Video Loops, Countdowns, & Moving Backgrounds for the Christian Church

How to Jumpstart a Sermon-Based Small Group Curriculum

As a teaching pastor, creating sermon series that will serve your congregations is an important part of your job description. From finding the right scripture, narrowing in on salient themes, and constructing messages that will build meaningfully week after week, the time and intention that goes into crafting these series shouldn’t have to end after everyone leaves the sanctuary for Sunday brunc...

designing-your-youth-ministry-room-to-support-your-series

Designing Your Youth Ministry Room to Match Your Series

The visual impact of the space your youth ministry meets in can make a subtle, but significant difference in the way your sermon series are received. The lighting, color, and arrangement of your room can be a big piece that influences whether your messages feel introspective or community-minded, energetic or subdued. We want to create atmospheres that are inviting and engaging, and the design of t...

Creating Sermon Series for a Multi-Generational Audience

As a pastor, one of your primary goals is to engage with your congregation and make sure everyone feels like they are gaining something valuable from attending services. But creating sermon series that appeal to a wide range of ages can be a daunting task. It's easy to slip into creating messages tailored toward the adults in attendance, but how do you create something that engages your youngest m...

Why Young Adults Are Leaving Your Church

Many churches are struggling to attract and retain young adults in their congregations. Many of these young adults— college-aged through mid-twenties— grew up in youth groups and fell away from the church and potentially their faith during college or shortly after. This mass exodus has been felt in churches across the country, leading pastors to strategize how they can better reach this slippi...

How Do You Talk About Pastor Appreciation Month?

I’m uncomfortable, you’re uncomfortable, everyone’s uncomfortable. October is almost here, and if you’re a pastor, you know what that means – it’s pastor appreciation month. Which, if we’re being honest, feels delicate. When I served as a pastor, I was always the first to say that I didn’t need any special recognition. And while I didn’t NEED the extra recognition, I think ...

When Should You Start Planning Your Christmas Church Services?

What if I told you that it’s possible to relax during the week leading up to Christmas, even as a senior pastor, worship pastor, or tech director? I know, I know, sounds crazy, right? While December 22nd is traditionally reserved for crippling anxiety and last-minute service planning, I’m here to tell you that it’s possible to be prepared and give yourself space to soak in the holiness of th...

Why You Should Talk About Labor Day At Your Church

If you lead a church, you’re used to making time in your services to speak into various national and cultural holidays. Beyond the major Christian holidays like Christmas and Easter, many of us in the United States recognize and celebrate holidays like Memorial Day, MLK day, or the 4th of July. One holiday that seems to fly under the radar in most churches is Labor Day. Frequently this is tr...

Facilitate Tough Conversations with Your Youth Group

Youth ministry, at its best, has long been a space where teenagers and adults can speak candidly about difficult topics. However, today, those topics extend beyond sexuality and our existential place in the world — racism, politics, and national tragedies all deserve a seat at the table. These days, students expect the adults in their lives to address difficult topics and big events as they ...

How to Plan a Sermon Series with Impact

Creating a sermon series can feel overwhelming. Maybe you’ve been inspired by a creative hook, but don’t know how to keep the momentum going for multiple weeks. Maybe you can get lost for hours exploring themes and big ideas, but are struggling to distill that information into a format that will actually translate with your congregation. Planning a sermon series is an organizational art, an...

Making Livestream Church Services Look Professional

Church service livestreaming has certainly gotten popular since the pandemic hit. While it’s a step in the right direction, it’s been a huge stressor for several churches across the nation. Making livestream church services look professional is tough. There are so many factors that contribute to the look of your services online - lighting, cameras, lenses, number and angle of shots, and the...

5 Ways Your Church Is Losing Money

Managing finances in any organization is difficult. Each department/staff member has different expenditures happening at different times, and it can feel like money is constantly going out the door. Churches are no different. While some churches and small church plants have a good grasp on their finances, the truth is that most of us struggle to keep control of all expenses. If you are trying t...

4 Reasons Your Congregation is Disengaged from the Sermon

People in your congregation don’t think you can see them, but you know as well as anyone that you see everything they’re doing… all the time. And when eyes begin to wander about the room, thumbs twiddle, and for a few shameless congregants, phones light up their faces, what do you do? Call them out publicly from the stage. Kidding. Please don’t do that… But it’s so tough as a ...

How to Be Proactive About a Pastoral Transition

Pastoral transitions are never easy. There are a number of reasons they occur - your pastor is retiring, transitioning jobs, moving, or being asked to step down. Regardless of the purpose, the fact remains that pastoral transitions are tough on everyone; your congregation, your staff, and your volunteers. While you can’t avoid all of the challenges associated with a pastoral transition, there...

3 Ways to Make Sermon Slides Look Better

Accompanying a sermon with visuals helps to clarify and drive home the message exponentially. That’s what sermon slides are for. It’s meant to reinforce the message and give an easy-to-digest summary of the main points of the sermon. But sermon slides aren’t always helpful. In fact, in many instances they can detract from the message. Bad design, poor font choice, improperly sized text, t...

Getting Your Congregation Excited About Giving

Giving a sermon on tithing is difficult. Obviously, we all know it’s a Biblical teaching, and the church survives only as a result of people’s commitment to and generosity for her mission. But everyone tends to think of giving as a necessity. As a chore. Giving 10% of your income as a tithe to the church frequently feels like an obligation rather than a joy, and it seems that in the last sever...

How to Properly Handle Church Complaints

If you’ve worked in a pastoral role for any amount of time, you know full-well that there are people who just love to complain. And generally, most of the complaints received in a church always seem to come from the same few congregation members. Complaining is a habit in some people - there’s no doubt. And it can be hard to deal with when much of it is aimed directly at you. But complaints...

Where to Find Inspiration for Unique Sermon Series

Anyone who works a repetitive job is prone to going through creative ruts at some point in their career. Obviously, no week is every the exact same as a pastor, but there’s no doubt that you deal with a lot of repetitive tasks on a monthly, weekly, or even daily basis. The most obvious task that falls in that category is sermon prep. Sermon prep is the most repetitive task of a lead pastor at...

3 Tips to Be More Efficient with Sermon Prep

Being a pastor isn’t a typical day job. You’re pretty much on call 24/7, and it’s rare that you ever have the ability to devote 100% of your attention for an extended period of time to any one thing. That’s just the nature of the job. Being a pastor is a lot more than speaking on a Sunday. But… sermon preparation is incredibly important and it’s a weekly activity. While you probably...

Why is My Church’s Giving Decreasing?

Church giving is so important for your ministry to thrive. You know more than anyone how valuable congregational giving is for the growth of your church, and the investment in worship, youth, young adults, and other ministries. But giving isn’t always the easiest topic to deal with. Your church will almost certainly go through seasons where congregational giving is down. The question is - why is...

Working Ahead: Building a Sermon Calendar

Staying on top of your work as a pastor can be difficult at times. You wear a lot of hats, and depending on your church size and culture, you may be working what feels like much more than a single job. But your primary job as a pastor is to lead your congregation and “make disciples”. While preaching a sermon allows you to teach someone about a single concept or passage of scripture, “dis...