Practical Church

How can you best walk your people through pain and tragedy? What are things that are helpful and unhelpful? In this episode, we share practical things to help people who are suffering, and it isn’t always what you think. Welcome to welcome to episode 203 of Practical Church Planting.  Here at the tips we discuss in this episode: Don’t tell them you understand or relativize their pain Tell them you are thinking about them or are praying from them Don’t ask if there is anything you can do, specifically ask to do something Schedule time to be together and only talk about their pain if they want to

How do you know when or if your church is ready to plant a church? Is it just something that will happen eventually, or are there signs that your church is ready? The good news is that there are indicators that show if your church is ready, and we discuss seven of them in this episode. Welcome to welcome to episode 202 of Practical Church Planting. Here are seven signs your church is ready to plant that we discuss in this episode: Your financial situation is solvent Your church isn't struggling to gather your people You can financially support your church plant You're not worried if your church is going to survive You're not working 60 hour weeks Your people can get behind planting a church You have someone to plant a church Connect and never miss an episode Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get practical tips delivered right to you. For free resources to help you plant a church that thrives, check out practicalplanting.com. Have questions or want encouragement from other church planters? Join the Practical Church Planting Facebook group.

Figuring out a good livestream setup can be confusing, especially if you don't have much experience in this area. In this episode, we walk through what our livestreaming setup looks like at New City and breakdown the equipment that we use. Welcome to welcome to episode 201 of Practical Church Planting. Below is the equipment we use and discussed in this episode. Click here to see a video of our setup. Our main camera for the sermon: Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4k Our camera for worship: Panasonic HC-VX981K Our switcher for switching between cameras/screens: Blackmagic ATEM Mini Switcher Our streaming software: Open Broadcast Software What we use to get our stream on Facebook and Youtube at the same time: Castr Connect and never miss an episode Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get practical tips delivered right to you. For free resources to help you plant a church thrives, check out practicalplanting.com. Have questions or want encouragement from other church planters? Join the Practical Church Planting Facebook group.

One of the most helpful and interesting things for church planters is to hear the stories of other church planters. In this special edition episode of the podcast, you'll hear the church planting journey of Adam Pickard and Citizens Church. Welcome to welcome to episode 200 of Practical Church Planting. Click here to learn more about Citizens Church and/or to connect with Adam. Connect and never miss an episode Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get practical tips delivered right to you. For free resources to help you plant a church thrives, check out practicalplanting.com. Have questions or want encouragement from other church planters? Join the Practical Church Planting Facebook group.

How do you know the difference between desiring to plant a church and when you should actually pursue that desire? As we all know, God's timing is often different than our own. The good news is there are some tangible markers of when you should begin your church planting journey. In this episode, we share five signs of when you should actually pursue planting a church. Welcome to welcome to episode 199 of Practical Church Planting. Here are the five signs we discuss in this episode: Your willingness to serve at a smaller church with a no-name pastor Your willingness to raise your own financial support for a church planting residency Your willingness to submit yourself to an assessment process Your willingness to let your spouse make the final decision on your church plant Your willingness to live in a lower society-economic status than your friends Connect and never miss an episode Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get practical tips delivered right to you. For free resources to help you plant a church thrives, check out practicalplanting.com. Have questions or want encouragement from other church planters? Join the Practical Church Planting Facebook group.

Sermon prep takes a lot of time and effort. But what if there was a way to reduce the amount of time it takes and make your sermons better? In this episode, we share six practical things you can do to spend less time on sermon prep without reducing the quality of your sermons. Welcome to welcome to episode 198 of Practical Church Planting.  Here are the six things you can do to reduce your sermon prep time that are discussed in this episode: Schedule and uninterrupted 3-4 hour time block Schedule sermon prep at the same times each week Prioritize sermon prep for when you are at your best Give yourself a defined end time Use online/software tools Use a sermon outline Connect and never miss an episode Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get practical tips delivered right to you. For free resources to help you plant a church thrives, check out practicalplanting.com. Have questions or want encouragement from other church planters? Join the Practical Church Planting Facebook group.

Most church planters have a desire to connect with other churches and pastors in the area. The problem? It's hard developing those relationships? The good news is there are some things you can do to help you connect with other churches and pastors in your area. In this episode, we share six specific things you can do to help you not feel so alone. Welcome to welcome to episode 197 of Practical Church Planting. You can listen to this episode below, or subscribe to the podcast and get our episodes delivered right to you. Here are the six things we discuss in this episode: Ask to take pastors to coffee or lunch so you can hear their story and ask questions about their experience Have specific questions and bring something to take notes Follow up with three takeaways Be careful how you promote your church online Attend their church on a Sunday Find a local pastor gathering and prioritize going Connect and never miss an episode Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get practical tips delivered right to you. For free resources to help you plant a church thrives, check out practicalplanting.com. Have questions or want encouragement from other church planters? Join the Practical Church Planting Facebook group.

Pastors are called to care from people and emails come from people. If you have trouble staying on top of your email, you're missing out on loving your people well. The good news is that email doesn't have to be overwhelming. In this episode, we share with you seven practical things you can do today to stay on top of your email and love your people well. Welcome to welcome to episode 196 of Practical Church Planting. Here are the seven tips we discuss in this episode: View unanswered/forgotten emails as a problem Don't view your inbox as a task list Create separate folders if necessary To stay at Inbox 0, live by these two rules: Only open it once & deal with or move it once you do Unsubscribe to all emails the first time you receive them Deal with all currently/inboxed emails Check your email less. Email script to help you get to inbox 0 Afraid you might miss something critical while clearing out your inbox? Simply send an email like the one below to all the critical people in your contact list: Subject: Got a pressing issue I haven’t dealt with? Can you re-send your email? Hi Friends, I’ve decided to get to inbox zero and start organizing my workflow in a new way. To that end, today I’m going to delete every email that’s over 30 days old. I apologize for not getting back to you on the relevant matter. If it’s still a current issue for you, do you mind resending me the email? I promise I’ll be responding much faster in the future. Thanks! I appreciate you! Connect and never miss an episode Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get practical tips delivered right to you. For free resources to help you plant a church thrives, check out practicalplanting.com. Have questions or want encouragement from other church planters? Join the Practical Church Planting Facebook group.

There has been a lot of talk about the "new normal" that COVID-19 has created. The truth, however, is that we are not currently living in a "new normal." COVID-19 will certainly change a lot of things, but our current season is not how life will be like forever. This means that there are some normal things that COVID-19 won't change, and we want to be sure churches continue to do things well. So what exactly are some of those things? In this episode, we share four specific normal things COVID will not change. Welcome to welcome to episode 195 of Practical Church Planting. Here are the four normal things we discuss in this episode: The importance of the physical worship gathering The importance of online engagement The negative or positive effect of livestreaming The need for local community Connect and never miss an episode Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get practical tips delivered right to you. For free resources to help you plant a church thrives, check out practicalplanting.com. Have questions or want encouragement from other church planters? Join the Practical Church Planting Facebook group.

We often hear about the difficulties of ministry. But does ministry have to be as miserable as we can sometimes make it sound? It does when we believe five particular lies about what ministry has to be like. If you want your ministry to be life-giving and instead of life-sucking, you'll want to see if you have bought into any of these 5 lies. Welcome to welcome to episode 194 of Practical Church Planting.  Connect and never miss an episode Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get practical tips delivered right to you. For free resources to help you plant a church thrives, check out practicalplanting.com. Have questions or want encouragement from other church planters? Join the Practical Church Planting Facebook group.