I (Heart) San Diego

What a great year we have experienced here @VOSD. It has been one of our best, but reality is that there are many people who have struggled this year. Families have lost their homes, marriages have been stressed & children have really just sit back and watched it all with worry. That is why VOSD is stepping out to make a difference through our I (Heart) San Diego Campaign. God has given us a 5 point plan to touch the families of our community with God’s love:

• Provide a safe and healthy alternative to families during Halloween. A Christian alternative to the families of our community. We handed out candy to hundreds of children in our community. It was great to so many smiles.

• Provide a place of restoration to men & women with life controlling problems. We want to help young men & women to rebuild their lives. We want to house, clothe & feed men and women who are rebuilding their lives!

• Provide free health examinations to uninsured families in the community. We will be partnering with health professionals from the San Diego area along with the many Doctors, RN, Nurses assistants and health field workers in our church.

• Provide 500 turkeys to struggling families in our community. We want to make sure that families will have a great Thanksgiving. Through our canned food drive & turkey drive we aim to feed 500 families.

• Provide Christmas toys to children whose families have been affected by the economy. We will be partnering with Toys for Tots. Of all of the Toys for Tots sponsors, we are the only church that has stepped out represent our community! This is our opportunity to help people in a tough time of their lives.

If you would like to get involved in this great campaign or you can donate turkeys to help VOSD to love our community please contact Liz Portillo @ (619)262-0172. We would love to partner with you during this holiday season. You can make a difference!

I (Heart) San Diego!

Following the Mega-Church Trend Part. 2

Here is the second part of my article from earlier in the week about the Mega-Church trends. I would like to start out this article with this question: Is Victory Outreach International ready for a mega church? You might be surprised to know a few things about mega-churches, their pastors & their organizational needs.

1. Mega-churches are led by large personalities in virtually every case. According to John H. Armstrong, “These churches are pastor centered and work like corporations led by CEO’s.” It is true. Not that these churches are personality driven, in my opinion only a few leaders can build a church on their personality, but their teams allow these pastors to be free to be the prevailing personality of the church. These teams do not feel uncomfortable working under this type of leader as long as their goals are met. The question is: Can a denomination deal with an emergent personality without feeling the burden to curb their enthusiasm?

2. Mega-churches are largely non-denominational. With the exception of the SBC Case in point: Many people may not know that the largest church in Southern California is a denominational church. They call it Saddleback Community Church  in Lake Forest, CA, led by a pastor named Rick Warren, who authored a best selling book entitled, The Purpose Driven Life. Here is a fact: Many years ago Rick & his lovely wife were sent and financed from Texas by the Southern Baptist Convention. This church was planted and has made history. However, would you be able to identify this church as a SBC church today? Is this church faithful to the SBC agenda? What role does this church play in the convention? A Pastors.com article recently read, “Southern Baptists Elect New President. The question is does anybody even care?”—Wow.

3. Those who attend mega-churches are relatively young & economically diverse. An important thing to know is that this growth is not by accident. Often it is by design. These churches are positioned for this type of harvest through their music, atmosphere, decor, teaching style, dress code, promotion, etc. Recent statistics show that the average mega-church attender is 40 years old. However, many might be shocked to know that most mega-churches have reported a 45% volunteer ratio. This is based on people who give more than 5 hours a week in volunteer time to the church & the community. Not a bad number.

Elevate.

Following the Mega-Church Trend Part.1

In the hallways of our movement you can hear the whispers of pastors & leaders speaking of a long eluded goal. “When will Victory Outreach International see a mega-church emerge.” Fact is: for many years Victory Outreach La Puente was at mega-church status in the Los Angeles area. At one time it was the largest church in the region with the largest worship center in San Gabriel Valley seating over 3500 people. However, times do change, and the driving force of our movement has never really been building mega-type churches. We have always been focused on church planting. And for 42 years that is what we have done faithfully.

If the future of VOI does call for mega-churches to arise, what should we be looking for? What does a mega-church look like, and kind of work & personnel does it take to build a mega-church? For those of you who are interested, I have compiled some information that I hope is helpful to you.

1. 2000 or more people in attendance at weekend worship. 

2. A charismatic authoritative senior pastor.

3. A very active 7 day a week congregational community.

4. A multitude of social & outreach ministries.

5. A complex differentiated organizational structure. (Basically different structures that act independently & interdependently)

Here are a few more facts that you might find interesting:

The majority of megachurches (over sixty percent) are located in the southern Sunbelt of the United States – with California, Texas, Georgia and Florida having the highest concentrations.  

Generally, these congregations have significant parking lots and sanctuaries that are able to accommodate the large numbers of worshipers they attract.  The average megachurch has weekly attendance of 3857 persons.

Megachurches tend to grow to their great size within a very short period of time, usually in less than ten years, and under the tenure of a single senior pastor. Nearly all megachurch pastors are male, and are viewed as having considerable personal charisma. 

The senior minister often has an authoritative style of preaching and administration and is nearly always the singular dominant leader of the church.  Supporting these senior pastors are teams of 5 to 25 associate ministers, and often hundreds of full-time staff.  

The 406 megachurches surveyed in 2005 averaged 20 full time paid ministerial staff persons, and 22 full time paid program staff persons.  The average number of volunteer workers (giving 5 or more hours a week to the church) was 284.

Megachurches host a multitude of social, recreational, and aid ministries.  Likewise, a majority of megachurches employ intentional efforts at enhancing congregational community, such as home fellowships and interest-based small group meetings.  Contrary to expectations, these congregations promote intense personal commitment in a majority of their members but also contain a large percentage of anonymous spectators in their ranks.

Few megachurches have been exceptionally large for longer than the tenure of their current minister.  Evidence suggests, however, that these churches can remain vital following a shift in leadership from the founder to his successor.  Although some researchers argue the era of megachurch proliferation is drawing to a close, the total number has increased from 350 in 1990 to over 600 in 2000 and there are now over 1200 megachurches in the US.

Thanks to the Hartford Institute for Religious Studies

Elevate. 

The Missing Link to Your Church Growth Strategy

For the last 8 days Victory Outreach Church of San Diego has been positioned under the windows of revival. Mario Murillo Ministries & VOSD have partnered to win souls and declare healing over hundreds of people. The faith of our church and the surrounding areas have been elevated to a brand new dimension. What is amazing to me is God’s ability to speak to a pastor about the direction and pathway of the church. What has become overwhelmingly true in our churches direction, is that we can never get away from the supernatural. For a church that has been in existence for 25 years, it is impossible to get away from the power of God. That power has made itself known once again and our direction will never be the same.

What is the missing link to your church growth strategy? Without a doubt. It is the power of God. Every Sunday Morning is a priceless opportunity to touch the hurts of your city. God’s power is the only way. Here are a few things that I have learned over these past few days.

1. Doctors have no medicine for the people we minister to. The day of supernatural anointing is upon us. God is looking for a church that will stand in the miracle working power of His word. Methods, strategies, systems work wonderfully to attract a certain component of society, but there is a certain windfall of growth for VO churches. No matter what we do, we will always attract the marginalized people of society. This is why God raised up Victory Outreach. What will you do, when your cell group system, your follow-up plan and christian ed. classes are lacking the power of God in the face of people who are suffering and without hope? The only remedy is the power of God.

2. God wants to give us miracles more than we want to see them. There may be a possibility that you have not even expected miracles. But that has not detoured God from giving them. The only thing is that God is not giving them in your church. Winky Pratney, a famous pastor from New Zealand in his research for a newly released Revival Bible, noticed that since the days of Pentecost, there has not been one place on earth that has not experienced an ongoing revival. The days of pentecost have continued because revival is God’s will and not ours. Revival takes place where people gather to pray in diligence for God to shake the ground underneath them. The upper room was that place where prayer set a fire that has not been quenched sinced.

3. You will have your rhema moment. If you are a teacher of the Bible you will definitely know the difference between the “logos” & the “rhema”. A rhema moment is when something comes to powerful light in our hearts and minds. A new understanding. A revelation of sorts. Something of an illumination that will bring change to your life and to your ministry.

In conclusion, I believe that we can have both. We can have innovative and creative churches all while experiencing the power of God. Miracles work from God’s creative side. Our job is to tap into that creativity and for our people to experience what cannot be fabricated or imitated. However, we cannot have mass appeal & miracles. We must make the choice.

Elevate.

Evangelism That Works

Have you ever just battled over your summer evangelism strategy? I mean really wondered if people would enter into a rich relationship with Jesus Christ, after you and your team invested so much time, energy & finance into the plan? Well, it’s important to know that your evangelism plan can work if you are properly prepared to receive the harvest. Here is how:

1. Plan events that will attract people to your worship space. For years, I have seen churches pack-out stadiums, high school auditoriums, parks, etc. We have also seen hundreds & thousands of people get saved, but here is the question. How many of those people are still in church today? How many of them even made it back to church? I have found that when we reach out directly from our worship space, people feel more comfortable to return because they have already become familiar with the environment. They have seen the parking, children’s ministry, worship style, leaders, pastors. They get the full picture and they hunger for a second visit.

2. Have your next event planned & ready for promotion. When someone has a great experience at your church they leave with this thought. I can’t wait to come back! So give them a reason to come back. Have a quality follow up event planned that they can return to. I guarantee, they will be back if they had a great first experience.

3. Develop a mobile & ministering congregation. They most effective type of evangelism is “personal evangelism”. The numbers are mind-boggling & there is so much information to support the fact that people attract people to a church. If we are going be an effective church when it comes to evangelism, our members are the key to the success. Most of your church growth will come from their visiting family members, friends, co-workers. etc. Event committees are great, crusaders/promo teams are great, television & radio is great, but in the end, they don’t get the job done. The people who get it done are the church members.

4. Challenge them to go deeper. Just ask yourself this: Are people coming just to check it out or are they really ready for change? I say, they are really ready for change. I can remember when I was invited to church, I was ready for it. If I wasn’t I could have been so many other places. So this is our chance to challenge them to go deeper in God. I think the best way to do that is water baptism. This is their way of taking a stand for what they have just experienced in Christ.

5. Position your church to receive the harvest. Once people get saved, where do they go? Who do they connect with? What if they don’t have family in the church? This is where your cell group strategy comes in handy. Cell groups provide an atmosphere where people can become comfortable. And you can be secure that there is someone who is taking a personal interest in that new baby in Christ.

In the past 19 months, VOSD has hosted over 10,000 people in our sanctuary through strategic outreaches, baptized close to 600 new members, added 2 new Sunday services & launched out 54 journey groups through the city. We are staying committed to reaching our community with the gospel.

Elevate.

10 Things You Might Not Know About Mega-Church Pastors

Since everyone in Victory Outreach is on the Mega-bubble. I thought it would be nice to post a blog I received from my friend Samuel Chand over @ Leadership Network. They do some great studies on leaders, churches, finances & other various topics pertaining to church growth. 

Leadership Network surveyed 232 pastors of churches with an average weekend worship attendance of at least 2,000. Here are 10 things you might not know about megachurch pastors. 

1. They think of themselves more as teachers and directional leaders than as pastors.
2. Preaching tops the list of things they do best.
3. They haven’t always worked in churches.
4. Being an extrovert isn’t mandatory.
5. Family stays at the top of mind when it comes to prayers.
6. They usually like the people they work with.
7. They believe their top gift is leadership.
8. They are actively involved in sports.
9. They find worship at their church helpful for personal spiritual growth.
10. They’re not thinking about quitting.