The Power Of Lunch

One time I took a new guy in our church out to lunch.

He was a former senior pastor and I could tell he carried a lot of baggage.

Sure enough, sitting across the table from me, he started to unpack the negative experiences he'd been through at the church he used to pastor. I listened to him, because listening is a powerful way to help people. And after about 15 minutes he said, "It feels good to share this with you and I know you get it." Then he really opened up and started to share his particular views about church and how it should be done, etc.

He wasn't negative, rude, or arrogant. But he definitely had some strong opinions about how things should be done!

Only after listening to him tell me his story for 15 minutes and then another 15 minutes of his church ideas/vision did he stop and ask me what I thought.

And it was in that moment I was able to share my vision for the church with him.

He balked a little because it wasn't exactly the same as what he had just shared with me.

In fact, I even told him what the key differences were between our visions and where he might not like how we did certain things!

(If you're not willing to lose people because of your vision you don't have a God-given vision...)

After I finished he told me he wanted to wait and see how things went for him and his family before totally committing.

He carried some serious wounds from his past church experiences.

But here's where it gets good.

Because he felt heard by me...he was willing to listen to me.

And he was willing to "give it a go" as some of my friends down under say!

Fast forward a few years...

He and his wife are key members of our church...leading, serving, discipling, and a big support to my wife and I personally.

They're a strength to our church.

And it all started with a simple lunch.

Moral of the story?

When we planted our church I did a lot of lunches and coffee!

Lunch is one of the best church growth strategies on the planet in fact.

Why?

It's relationship building.

And everyone loves lunch, right?

So when you say to a new or prospective church member, "Hey can I buy you lunch this week..." You'll get a lot of yes's. And you can use that power hour sitting across from someone sharing a meal to great effect!

And lunch has another secret power.

Vision casting.

There's no better time or place than sharing a meal with someone to share the vision God's placed in your heart as a pastor!

Something about a friendly, relational environment helps people buy in...

And believe me on this.

There's nothing more important than VISION when it comes to your leadership.

What most leaders don't understand is that vision has four stages that it goes through before it can be realized. And those four stages all have to happen in sequence. If you skip one or skimp out on one it can really stop your vision in its tracks.

But when you take your vision through the four stages it gathers momentum and people start buying in!

That's when momentum and victory takes place!

The good news is I recently hosted a short, action packed workshop called "The Four Stages of Vision" where I taught lead pastors in my coaching program how to see their God-given vision become a reality.

There was great feedback from this session so I decided to make it available to you for a very limited time.

Go here to learn more about the workshop.

Let's do lunch!

Pastor Jake

PS - This workshop will only be available for the next few days. So don’t miss out!