About Lee

I am passionate about starting new churches, but also helping established churches thrive and prepare to reach the next generation. I thrive on assisting pastors and those in ministry think through leadership challenges and strategically plan for the future.

Besides being the son of a pastor, I have been in pastoral ministry for more than 16 years.  I have a bachelor's degree in Christian ministry and a Master's degree in ministry.  Currently, I have the privilege of serving the Kingdom as the Executive Director of Church Planting with Converge Worldwide.

The greatest times in my life are spent with my wife of 12 years, Melissa.  Together we have two kids...Aaron and Noel.

My Clifton Strengths profile is:

• Competition
• Futuristic
• Strategic
• Relator
• Activator

For fun I enjoy camping, mountain biking, golfing, hanging with my family, watching movies with my wife, and reading a good book.  And yes, I am obsessed with Notre Dame football.

Contact:

If you would like to connect with me or engage in a coaching experience please contact me. You can do so on Twitter or Facebook.

5 Steps to Creating a Culture of Evangelism

People are everywhere. Sadly, many of those people are dying never knowing the love, grace and life available to them because of Jesus. God created the church to be his avenue of hope to a dying world. The challenge lies in teaching and equipping the church, our people, on how to practically evangelize the circles of influence God has uniquely placed them in. This is something that cannot be ignored.

Here are some basic tips and things to consider when it comes to creating a culture that reaches the lost:

Encourage people to share their story

Ask people if Jesus has made a difference in their life. If so, why would you keep that to yourself?  Give it away. As believers we are called to share God’s love and message with people around us. A way to do that is a process called invest and invite. We as a church “invest” in people far from God, in order to “invite” them to church, in order to “invite” them into a relationship with Jesus.

This is about each individual sharing from their own experience. In sharing, don’t be weird or pushy. Respect the process and be patient with people. A helpful tip is to encourage people to write it out.  Writing out their experiences will help them feel more prepared.

Give people a reason to invite their friends, family and co-workers.

If people aren’t inviting people to church it might be because they are embarrassed at the “product” their friends would experience. Work hard to make the worship hour guest friendly. Create systems that let guests know you were expecting them. Secondly, when doing a push for people to invite friends on a specific weekend- make sure you deliver.

Create the expectation that this is who we are as a church.

Finish off every Sunday with the charge, “See you next weekend and don’t come alone.” These types of statements serve as a constant reminder that we care about those that aren’t here yet. Another great way to re-enforce the reaching culture is to share personal stories in the sermon of conversations you are having with neighbors or others who are far from God.

One small thing that I did in our church was write letters to families and individuals that brought first time guests. In the letter I thanked them for having the courage to reaching out and investing in someone’s eternity by inviting them to church. That small letter reaped huge dividends over the years.

Train your people

Many people never share their faith because they feel inadequate or ill-prepared to do so. The best way to overcome this fear and problem is to train them regularly. Consider doing a two or three week series before Easter on sharing your faith. Do a special workshop at the church on personal evangelism. Help people connect the dots and feel prepared to go out and make a difference for the Gospel.

Pray

Never underestimate prayer. Pray with your people. Pray for your people. Teach them how to pray for their love ones. Several times we did a prayer emphasis in the church in preparation for a big weekend (Easter, Christmas Eve). One time we had people fill out cards with three names on each card of who they are going to pray for over the next three months. We then asked people to hand them in. During the week we made a prayer wall in the back of the room that displayed all the names. It was fun for people to bring a guest and then walk over to the wall and show them their name on the wall. The conversations that followed those moments were priceless.

There is not a magic formula in teaching your people the importance of spiritually investing in others. The only thing is it must be intentional.

How to Share a Compelling Vision

Creating vision and casting vision is one of the great privileges of being a pastor. It also proves to be one of the biggest challenges to leading a church. The challenge with vision comes in the communication of it. Every leader longs to cast a compelling vision that motivates the masses. However, it is easier said than done. Here are a few pointers to help when it comes to communicating vision:

The vision needs to be clear

Clear is always better than clever. Clarity around a vision is imperative. As the communicator, you have to be clear about your understanding of it. Consider writing and wordsmithing the vision. Walking through a meticulous process only helps solidify the vision. When the vision is clear to you, you are more able to clearly communicate it to others. It is not about how much you share, but you must share enough for people to have complete clarity.

The vision needs to be concrete

A concrete vision means that you have a vision that is real and tangible. It is not about using language that no one understands or trying to impress others with great and extensive content. Not only does the vision need to be clear it needs to be something people can touch, feel and engage.

The vision needs to be concise

When it comes to casting vision, less is more. It needs to be concise and free of too many details. Great vision statements are memorable.  Keeping the vision concise allows others to grasp it with the goal of communicating it to others. It is not about how much you share but sharing enough for people to own the vision themselves.

The vision needs to be compelling.

A compelling vision moves people to action. This is the motivational side of vision casting. People are motivated and a vision becomes compelling when it centers on the “WHY” instead of the “HOW” or “WHAT.”  Author Simon Sinek does a great TED Talk titled,

How Great Leaders Inspire Action

. In his presentation, Sinek talks about the importance of the “WHY” and without it people are never really inspired to move to action.

The “WHY” is critical in motivating people behind a vision; but how the why is communicated is just as important.  There are many different levels by which people feel motivated to action.  Understanding the levels of motivation will only help you in the communication of vision and moving people to action. Here is a quick glimpse at the different levels of motivation:

Top Level/long-term movitation:

Love (grace), Relationship and Identity

This level is fueled by our love for God and people. It finds its strength in who we are, what God has asked us to do and who has need. Vision becomes motivating at this level because people recognize the grace of God, see Him as the owner of all things and ourselves as stewards entrusted with resources to accomplish much good. As a result, there is a sense of destiny and privilege that goes with this level.

Vision/Opportunity

This level is driven by a compelling vision for a preferred future. Part of the art of using this level is to make sure that the question “Why can’t we stay here?” results in a discontent in the status quo prior to painting the picture of our future opportunities.

Personal Benefit

This level becomes powerful when people realize that the reason we are approaching them is that we want something “for them” not “from them”.  Here it is important to spell out the benefits of making the change, joining the team, taking the action or letting go. 

Lower level/Short term motivations

Need

While need is a good reason to give, needs are endless.  Asking your people to give and serve just because there is a need will eventually lose its power when they realize that they will never be able to meet every need.  We have to move toward more long-term motivations.

Duty/ Responsibility

While responsibility is valuable, it is a short-term motivation for most people these days.  Previous generations gave great allegiance to God and country, but duty and responsibility are no longer high values in our day. “To whom much has been given, much will be required” is a favorite verse at this level, but in the end there is a lacking element – joy.

Guilt, shame and fear

This is lowest of the motivational levels. Guilt for sins, shame of lack of performance and fear of punishment/consequences are what drive action. The goal at this level is to make people feel so bad about how they have performed in the past that they will give and serve in the future. It is often full of manipulation and results in damage to the person’s understanding of personal worth and value to God. While this level works, eventually it clouds our understanding of God and his grace.  Thus, it runs out of steam.

When it comes to communicating vision, which motivations have been your normal mode? How can you grow as a leader in casting vision? What do you need to change?