A few weeks ago only a handful of us were live-streaming services. And, very few of us were only preaching to a camera. Even if you had a camera in your auditorium, you were focused on preaching to the people physically in front of you, not to the people behind the camera.  All this has changed with the COVID-19 pandemic.   We’ve been thrust into an environment where we no longer have the feedback of a live audience to gauge if our jokes are funny, our point is resonating, or if people are...

Since our world and our lives stopped being normal due to the coronavirus, my mind has regularly been going to a story about leadership from ancient times. For many, the name of “Joseph” from the Bible brings images of a brightly colored “dream coat”. However, more importantly, Joseph was once called on to save an entire nation from devastation during a global crisis.  As the story goes, Joseph was called by the Egyptian Pharaoh to interpret a troubling dream he had. Joseph’s interpretation was...

In the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak, many churches are navigating the challenges of working remotely for the first time. As a fully remote company, we realize that working remotely can be tough at times.  We want to share with you a few tools that we find helpful, all of which offer free options.     SLACK Communication is critical when you’re not working down the hall from your team. One of the tools we use to ensure our team feels connected is Slack. Slack is an easy to use messaging tool...

Last week was one of the most unexpected weeks I’ve experienced as a pastor. In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, our governor banned gatherings over 250 people. That means none of our campuses can gather in person. If your church isn’t yet in the same situation, you likely will be soon.  This post isn’t about whether churches should be closed or what I think about the virus. This post is about how to build a church community if and when you have to shut down weekend services. Here are three...

At Breeze, our mission is -- and will always be -- to serve churches well. We know churches around the world are facing tough decisions on how to best serve their attendees amidst the spread of the COVID-19 virus. As your church works to navigate these challenges, we want to support you however we can. Below are a few resources we hope will be helpful to your church as you walk through these tough decisions.   Free Text Limit Increase within Breeze For the months of March and April, all...

As a 100% remote company, we look forward to getting everyone together at our annual company retreat. It’s always a great time team building, vision planning, and most importantly, strategizing how we can better support our churches well! To allow all Breeze employees to attend the retreat, we will not be able to provide email and phone support March 11-16, 2020. For all support needs during this time, please email our support team and we will begin responding to emails on Tuesday, March 17....

What’s your favorite movie? Why do you love it? One of my favorite movies is Forrest Gump. (Yes, I know I just dated myself.) I love this movie because I love history and I love quirky characters, but most of all, the story moves me. We often love the movies that we do because they move us. We connect with the story emotionally.   Emotional connection is critical to effective communication. It’s likely the most impactful sermons you’ve ever heard connected with you emotionally and moved you.  ...

Something that scares me is that it’s possible to do church without actually doing what a church is called to do. It’s possible to gather people together, sing songs, listen to words spoken from a stage, pass offering plates, and not even come close to the mission that Jesus gave the Church.   Does that scare you? I don’t ever want to be a church that isn’t accomplishing the Great Commission of reaching lost people and discipling them into Jesus followers. And yet, we know from the book of...

Last week, I had the privilege of hosting the ReCourage Conference at Ada Bible Church, the church where I’m a pastor. One of the guest speakers was Gordon MacDonald. If you’re not familiar with Gordon, he’s 81 years old, has served in ministry for over four decades, and has been married for 58 years.   The conference was on faithfulness and longevity in ministry and he was the perfect guest speaker for this topic. One of his talks was called “The View from Eighty.” In it, he shared 15 lessons...

Years ago, I thought of myself as a relatively smart and effective youth pastor. My high school youth group at our church was averaging around 100 students and things were going really well. Five years into my ministry career, I transitioned to the church where I now work and joined a student ministry that blew my mind.   The level of volunteering in this student ministry was off the charts. The volunteer small group leaders functioned as the pastors of the students. They owned their roles....