MOMENTUM

The following is an article I would like to introduce to my readers concerning what I have learned about MOMENTUM. What I am about to share with you is from personal experience over the years of my priviledge of being in leadership. Please note that this is all personal experience nothing is taken from any other material.

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED ABOUT MOMENTUM:

 

1. MOMENTUM IS NOT BY ACCIDENT; IT IS SOUGHT OUT ON PURPOSE. 

Many people can look at a growing church or ministry and say “If I had what they had I would be able to do what they do”. The truth of that comment is; that leader didn’t start with what he has. Often, he started like everyone else – “With Nothing”. Even in my case of inheriting a church. I did start with people but there was no momentum. I needed to “look” on how I could CREATE momentum in my church! I just mentioned a key word called “Create”. This is where momentum begins. We as growing leaders always need to be on the lookout for creating. This is one of the first things GOD did in the beginning. In the beginning God “created” the heavens and the earth. A growing leader is always creating movements in his ministry. When things are not moving, they are dying. A lack of movement results in lots of moss. The creator in momentum are always the lead pastor or the main leader’s responsibility. It isn’t anybody elses job to create momentum in my church other than mine! As we will learn later on in this article that MOMENTUM IS CONTAGIOUS! But, it is YOUR job to be the one that initially creates the momentum. We must always remember that “Momentum is not by accident it is sought out on purpose”. So go ahead! get going, start creating. I can’t wait till you find it!

2. MOMENTUM IS TO BE TREASURED.

Once you’ve created momentum then you have found it. The next thing I am learning is how to keep momentum. Momentum has always been my best friend in building my church! Therefore, I had to learn to treat it as a best friend. If I want my friend to always be my friend I need to treasure it. When I am not treasuring the momentum, then that is when I start to lose it! Once I’ve lost it, it is always harder to start again. Imagine with me for a moment; “Do you remember when you were a child; trying to get going on the park’s swing by yourself?” It took a while to get moving quicker and quicker, higher and higher. But once you got the momentum going it wasn’t so hard to keep it going. All it took was to “keep feeding” the swing. When you stopped feeding the swing, you slowly lost the momentum. Then, you had to start the work all over again! Sometimes, when you lose the momentum on a frequent basis a leader gets discouraged with the hard work to start it again and will never get the momentum back. Remember, treasure the momentum. Momentum grows a ministry. “Keep feeding the swing!”

3. MOMENTUM IS CONTAGIOUS.

This is one of my favorite things about momentum! It is very contagious. The people closest to me will catch it and the people closest to them catch it, and you know the rest. “The beat goes on!” People are attracted to winners. Everyone wants to win and nobody wants to lose. Momentum always makes leaders look better than they really are. And no momentum makes a leader look worse than he really is. If the main leader can keep momentum going in his personal life 90% of the time, he will have a ministry full of ministries that operate on a full tank of momentum. When momentum has died in the church, it means it has died in the leader of that church.

In closing, those of you that have read this complete article have been attracted with the desire to get momentum or have been awakened not to let it slip from your leadership hands.

Pastor Fernie 

V.E.T.I. INTERVIEW

 Last month, a few growing churches in Victory Outreach (Domestic) were invited by V.E.T.I. for a video interview. The topic; CHURCH GROWTH. Some of the pastors that were invited to this video interview were..

Pastor Al Valdez (Victory Outreach San Diego), Pastor Joe Cotinola (Victory Outreach Whittier), Pastor Robert Maes , and others. I would like to share the QUESTIONS that were asked to all of us. I pray that this can be helpful to many of you pastors and leaders. Here are the questions that were asked and the answers I gave for my church personally. Please note that we were given an alloted time during the interview so the following answers are in greater detail than the ones given in the interview.

#1 QUESTION: V.E.T.I. “In your opinion, what would you say was the single most important contributing aspect for the growth of your church?”

ANSWER: Pastor Fernie “I must admit. I inherited a congregation that I was able to mobilize. I didn’t start with nothing! Although some members left the church during the transition I still had people to work with. I must say that the most single important contributing factor would be more than just one but if I could have permission let me sum it up with three…  

1. “The sharing of influence”. On a professional sports team when a team wins a championship it is important to take notice that everyone gets a ring. Not only does the starting line up receive a championship ring, but the entire team gets one. Something I started immediately in the transition was something that I called “VICTORY SUNDAY’S”. I got this idea from a book I read entitled “The 21 irrefutable laws of leadership”. One of the leadership laws was “The Law of Victory”. In other words, celebrate victories with your followers. The more I brought the victories to the attention of the church, the more people wanted to be on my team. The bigger the team, the more positions you got to create! The more positions you create-the more influence is shared with the church.

2. Relevant preaching and atmosphere. In the book of Acts, one of the secrets to the mega growth of the church was that those who were visiting heard them speaking in their own language. This could be a good way of looking to the word relevance. It is important to understand that the  un-churched can view church as history. We have a job to stay relevant and current with the times when communicating the message of Jesus Christ! 
 

3. My wife. Last but not least, behind every growing pastor there is his wife! I learned immediately that my wife has a set of eyes that God gave her for the church too. It seems to be that the Pastor’s wife is very instrumental in Children’s Ministry and Women’s ministry. My wife is good at both of those but is more POWERFUL in budgeting and fundraising. Veronica is very creative and innovative and has brought tremendous growth to our church.

#2 QUESTION V.E.T.I. What resources (books, seminars, sermons, etc.) do you find helpful in developing an attitude for church growth?

ANSWER: Pastor Fernie I must say that this is a great question! When I inherited the church, one of  the first things I needed to become was a SELF LEARNER. The book that transformed my perspective on leadership would be: The 21 irrefutable laws of leadership. (The Law of Influence) is a chapter in the book that really helped me grow as a leader. We must remember that passionate leadership is contagious. I found out that you attract who you are. Leadership attracts leaders!

Other books and seminars that have helped me would be 1. Courages leadership, 2. Futuring, 3. Who’s holding your ladder,       4.  Thinking for a change 5. Quitting Church are just a few to name. I and my staff have been to numerous church growth seminars such as “Outreach Marketing” Seminar, “The Engaging Church” Seminar, “Connection Power Seminar”, “Church Growth Institute” just to name a few and personal one on one interviews with mega churches and their pastors.

#3 QUESTION: V.E.T.I. Has the use of technology (internet, media, social networks, etc.) contributed to your growth?

ANSWER: Pastor Fernie Yes! Yes! Yes! Today we live in what is called the EPIC generation. 

Expiriental
Participants
Image driven
Connected

You can see the word IMAGE DRIVEN in this EPIC generation. This generation are MEDIA fanatics! People seem to adapt to your church if you provide images, technology, etc. People stay connected to your church through the means of internet. Webcasting your church services seem to be popular with many growing churches today. This is one way for people in your congregation who are ill or possibly handicap to stay current with the flow of the church. People find your church through the means of internet (I suggest investing in ADWORDS by GOOGLE). People no longer are looking through the phone book for a church, they are using technology. People even pay their tithes through the internet. 

As far as social networking; I have involved myself with the Chief of Police Clergy Council and Networking with other pastors.

#4 QUESTION V.E.T.I. Can you comment on how VOI’s core ministries contribute to church growth?

ANSWER: Pastor Fernie Our church would have not grown an inch if we didn’t apply the core ministries of V.O.I. Investing in theses core ministries are the success to our church.  They are NON NEGOTIABLE. They are proven ministries that work. If you don’t know where to start your churches growth plan, I recommend that you focus, invest and strengthen every one of our core ministries in your local church for a start. You will be surprised!

#5 QUESTION V.E.T.I. In what ways do you engage the community surrounding your church?

ANSWER: Pastor Fernie We have many ways but probably one of the most effective ways would be the 10 evangelistic centers in 10 gang infested neighborhoods in our city and county. Therefore, we are ALWAYS in the gang members territory at all times. These centers consist of their own church buildings or recreation centers and conduct a gang outreach church service once a week and consistently evangelizing them on a weekly basis. This is one way our city knows that Victory Outreach is an Evangelistic Ministry!

#6 QUESTION  If you could state the single most influential church growth principle in a sentence what would it be?

ANSWER: Pastor Fernie Again, It’s hard to answer with just one answer. I’m going to have to put it this way. 

1. Plan ahead  2. work hard 3. celebrate victories and 4. NEVER GIVE UP on your vision! (Of course, PRAY!)

#7 QUESTION V.E.T.I.. If you had the chance to start all over again, what would you do different?

ANSWER: Pastor Fernie Lol! Wow… good question! I guess I would have been a little more patient with God, the people and with my vision. We still have a loooooonng way to go so I guess I still could have the same attitude.

I would like to thank Pastor Kevin Young and the V.E.T.I. team for considering Victory Outreach Oxnard as a church for this interview. It has been an honor and we are deeply humbled for the invitation for this interview.