Our Blog | Clayton Cloer Ministries

(Select by Date or Title)

Ten Things That Encourage My Pastor
Posted by: Clayton Cloer, 01/18/10 at 03:08:17 PM

1. Be there - faithfulness goes a long way to encourage a pastor.
2. Pay him - show me the money! Value your pastor with a hearty package. I have heard it said: “Well, we want to keep him humble.” You won’t keep him long if you approach him that way. God will put him in a church that loves their pastor.
3. Follow him and support the vision.
4. Tell him that you appreciate him.
5. Be patient with him when he is struggling, sick, or spiritually in the valley. Pastors have needs like the people. The leaders and the people need to give him care as he gives everyone else care.
6. Respect his time. Don’t expect him to be at everything or even most things.
7. Ask him to pray for you. Include your pastor in your life, your family, and your business.
8. Love Jesus. It makes us all better.
9. Give him grace. "Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt."
10. Treat his kids and his wife like people. I hate to hear: "you are a pastor’s son and you should dress a certain way, talk a certain way, or act a certain way." The pastor’s kids are not copastors. They are kids. The pastor’s wife should be honored, respected, and loved. Let her be herself.

Stay Focused on Guests for Church Growth
Posted by: Clayton Cloer, 01/06/10 at 11:37:25 AM

If you want your church to grow, make sure that you keep your eyes on the guests. I have a few suggestions that we are radically implementing this year.

1) Have a simple way of getting their information and don’t be ashamed to ask for it. I lead everyone through filling out the registration card at the end of every service.

2) Make sure your people are proud of what a guest will receive at church. Your people will not invite and bring guests if they are embarrassed by the music, the preaching, the parking, the room, the nursery, the ushers, or the membership.

3) Celebrate bringing guests. Make it a big deal. The best place to celebrate it is in the baptistry. Tell the story of how the person met the friend who brought them to church and to Christ.

4) Take a hard look at your spending. What are you investing in guests? We found that we invest much in features of our events instead of in attracting guests.

5) Plan in advance. Weekly creative planning meetings that produce strategies that engage new people make probable many new guests.

6) Get creative. Our best growth has occurred when we created something and got our people excited about it. We had huge Mother’s Days, Marriage Sundays, Revivals, Good Friday services, Easter services, Christmas Eve, Special sermon series, and the like.

7) Move the guest to salvation, membership, maturity, and ministry.

8) Focus on Sunday morning! Spend your energy on prime time.