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Nearly twelve years ago, I was burdened to do something for the drug problem in my community. Within a few months, I wrote a four step program called Addiction Deliverance Outreach, or better known as ADO. A lot of people ask me, “Why only four steps?” Well, I had never been to an AA meeting, so I had no idea there were supposed to be twelve steps. In a very short time, ADO became an icon of hope in our community. We seen hundreds of people go through it and recover. Other pastors began to send us people from their church who were struggling with addiction and soon, we had more than we could handle. So I began to write down what I was doing and handing it out to pastors, so they could help their own people. At the end of the day, and over about four years, I accidentally wrote a book and a workbook.  Today our church has three recovery homes; we serve men and women off the streets and straight out of prison. Other churches have jumped on board as well. The ADO is now used in chur

There are far too many churches who have hundreds of "members" but less than one hundred attending the weekend gathering. I believe the church has sent the wrong message when it comes to membership; and perhaps the wrong message is a symptom of a wrong motive, which is numbers. Membership should be about gospel impact, not an attendance report.  Traditional Membership : In most churches becoming a member means going through some sort of class that shares the vision, doctrine, and mission of the church. Church membership is often presented the same way you join the country club or some other social gathering. The protocol isn't that different.  When you join a secular club, you are given the beliefs, expectations, and benefits. When people join most churches, they share the church's beliefs about Jesus; detail what good church members should do (give their time, talent, and treasure) and talk about the benefits of being a church member. Unfortunately, most people

    There are many things that can make sermon delivery effective (and yes, prayer is a given). I want to talk about four that I believe are vital in becoming a strong communicator: passion, context, relevancy, and authenticity.  Passion is the driving force of the sermon; passion is contagious and causes both response and participation from the people. A passion-less preacher means he isn't passionate about the gospel, which means...he probably shouldn't be preaching. On a side note, passion is not defined by how loud or how exuberant a person speaks; more so, passion is the expression of the heart and what we really believe.  Contextualizing  is huge in sermon delivery. If you want to kill a sermon, take it out of context. I have always told the guys I coach, "Every scripture has one literal meaning and one million applications." If you want to make good applications, then make sure you understand what context the scripture was written in. With today's