Dustin Serns

If our church doesn’t get more young people soon, we’re going to die,” blurted the head deaconess during my pastoral interview. The dedicated church leaders were in their sixties and seventies with fewer than 5 young adults (ages 18-35).

What could we do to see a change? Jesus works miracles. In four years,
our church grew 64% in attendance with over 30 young adults.

Read this inspiring story of God's miracles and what He taught us about empowering young adults in the mission through the process.

I recently watched The Grinch and thought it had some incredible applications for the church through what happened in Whoville. The creative depiction of the human psyche's need for community from the movie sheds light on who and how we can be as a church community.

"We need more volunteers," Your ministry leader begs from the front of the church. Even after fervent appeals, guilt trips, repetitive bulletin announcements, and complaints at board meetings, no one has responded to the call. Ever been there? How can you help your ministry leader build a strong ministry team?

You just came up with an exciting idea for a new ministry. It will make a big difference for the mission. How can you recruit a strong, committed team ministry team to effectively carry it out?

Whether you are coaching a leader in building their ministry team or starting a new ministry yourself, here are some basic, yet powerful practices that can help people buy-in and sacrifice for the ministry vision.

Read this short article to discover "Five Ways to Recruit an Incredible Ministry Team."

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, our children's programming shut down. Many families stopped attending worship gatherings. Like all churches during these uncertain times, we wondered what to do. How can our church grow kids as spiritual leaders during this pandemic? We were in middle of planting LifeBridge Church in Tacoma, WA, especially focused on reaching young families. We began to wonder about our effectiveness at growing kids as spiritual leaders even before the pandemic. Were we empowering kids and families or were we merely entertaining them? Giving kids joyful experiences learning about Jesus is essential… but how could we help families become not just consumers of church programs but contributors to the mission? The Holy Spirit was giving us a new vision. How could we support parents in raising their kids to be heroes for Jesus? Every parent desires for his or her child to become a servant leader. Even parents who are not religious dream for their kids serving and making a difference. We all want our kids to be heroes, but heroes aren't made by accident. Heroes don't emerge out of good intentions. Heroes are developed by intentional investments over time. We built a team and came up with a plan for how we could resource, inspire and support parents in developing their kids as spiritual leaders. Compass to Christ was launched. What's Included in Compass to Christ?

Do you ever feel you have a shortage of good leaders in your church? It is easy to get discouraged and frustrated when we don’t feel others are stepping up. I have found that one of the greatest inhibitors to leadership multiplication is not “them,” it’s “me.” How I lead has a direct impact on raising up other leaders or preventing them from growing. What if there was a way to have a steady stream of gifted emerging leaders in our churches?

Understand 4 leadership mindsets from the National Football League: Referee, Running back, Quarterback, Coach. Choose to adopt the ministry mindset that leads to multiplying leaders.

Would you like a deeper connection with God in your prayer life? Why not give prayer journaling a try? This article shares a simple 5-step process for how to begin the habit of a daily prayer journal and the transformational impact it can have on you, your family, your church and your community.

"One of the most life-changing things I have ever done is start a daily prayer journal. What started out as a few minutes a day has grown into often more than an hour. I used to think I didn’t have time to spend in prayer in the morning. But after I tried it, I began to realize how much more I can accomplish when I take the time to start my day right. The God of the universe lovingly invites us to connect with Him in prayer every morning. Our moments in prayer become Jesus’ greatest treasures, and ours as well."

"How are we going to raise $40,000 for worthy students this year?" The amount was more than double what we needed last year. Our Adventist elementary school was growing rapidly (from 16 to 40 students in two years). Our needs were growing rapidly with it. Our church of 130 had a generous history of raising about $17,000 a year outside the church budget for worthy students. We could only afford to take out $10,000 from reserves. We still needed $30,000. What could we do?

Find out the four simple, powerful steps we took and the way God did miracles!

Self-appointed 26-year-old tour guide, Dustin Serns, leads over 400 strangers on tours of the top seven attractions of the British Museum. This engaging story shares about the museum tour highlights and the resistance they faced. Ultimately one of the British museum staff said, "This was one of the best presentations I have ever heard! I have never heard history and the Bible blended in that way."

                                                      WATCH- To watch video recordings of the tour online visit https://www.youtube.com/top7tours 

                                                        ARTICLE-  "Hi! I'm leading a free tour of the top seven attractions of the British Museum. We're going to look at 4,000 years in 45 minutes..." I stood on the front steps of one of the most prestigious archaeological museums in the world, recruiting visitors to check out my tour.
"What's the catch?" everyone wanted to know.

(Open the article to keep reading)

"If our church doesn't get more young people soon, we're going to die," blurted the head deaconess during my pastoral interview. I looked around the room at the dedicated group of 60- and 70-year-old church leaders. I respected their openness about the reality in their church (and many other churches in North America).

When you don't have many, or any, young adults in your church, what do you do?

Here are four things that ANYONE in ANY CHURCH can do to activate young adults in your church whether you don't have many or any.

Based on our extensive research, this article looks at three of the greatest stated obstacles to church planting. Using real examples, we see how God can turn every obstacle into an incredible opportunity.

In the first century A.D. the Christian church was raised up as a rapidly expanding church planting movement. In the 1800s the Adventist church was raised up as a rapidly expanding church planting movement. The Seventh-day Adventist Church experienced explosive growth, launching a movement that spread and continues to advance across the world. Today, 150 years later, the time has come to ask, How are we doing with raising up new congregations to finish the harvest in North America?

To answer this question, we decided to look at at statistics from the last century of church planting and population growth in North America. We hope that the findings of this study will benefit the global church.
We also identified the top conferences in church planting in the last decade and interviewed leaders from all levels of the church to find out what they were doing that was working to multiply churches in their areas. What could God do to raise a Spirit-led Adventist church-planting movement in North America?