● Pastor to Pastor
Pastor, here’s how I actually do it.
Jon-Michael Sherman is a former ARC & CMN church planter, lead pastor, and executive pastor. He has preached over 1,000 sermons, spent the last decade coaching pastors of churches from 200 to 5,000, and is the author of Elite Preaching and Pastoral Intelligence. He is the founder of Pastor Center and SpiritualGiftsPlus. These articles are the systems behind it — preaching, church marketing, AI in ministry, groups, and serving teams — written pastor to pastor, in plain steps you can run this week.
— Preaching & the craft
Pastor, I stopped preaching my ideas and started preaching the text. Here’s how.
Eisegesis is the silent killer of good preaching — reading your point into the passage instead of out of it. The 4-step discipline that keeps the text in the driver’s seat.
5 min readPastor, here’s how I close every sermon with the gospel — no matter the text.
The close is where sermons are won or lost — and most die in application-only endings. The 4-step gospel close that lands any passage on Christ.
5 min readPastor, I watch my own tape every week. Here’s the review system that made me better.
Elite athletes review film; most preachers never watch themselves once. The 4-step weekly tape review that compounds into elite preaching.
4 min readPastor, I plan my preaching 12 months out. Here’s the calendar system.
Week-to-week preaching is survival mode. The 4-step annual calendar — series arcs, season mapping, and the margin that makes every week deeper.
5 min read— AI & Pastoral Intelligence
Pastor, I had every objection to AI in ministry. Here’s what changed my mind.
Most objections to AI in ministry aren’t theological — they’re cultural fear wearing a Bible verse. The 4-step test that separates discernment from doomerism.
5 min readPastor, here’s how to stop falling for AI doomerism.
Doomerism isn’t discernment — half the time it’s someone else’s business model. Five moves: follow the money, settle what AI actually is, and pick up the printing press of our generation.
6 min readPastor, AI gave me back 10 hours a week. Here’s exactly what I automated.
The promise of AI isn’t doing more — it’s doing less of the wrong things. The 4-step audit: what to automate, what to never touch, and where the hours go.
5 min readPastor, here’s how I use AI every week without losing my voice — or my soul.
Be prompted before you prompt. The 4-step order of operations — prayer before AI, conviction before composition — that keeps you the author.
4 min readPastor, only 1 in 5 of us finish well. Here’s how I’m building for the long game.
The drop-out isn’t usually moral — it’s exhaustion. The 4-step longevity system: margin, rhythms, and the tools that keep you preaching for 40 years.
5 min read— Teams & leadership structure
Pastor, my teams kept failing until I learned this about seats.
Teams don’t fail from lack of effort — they fail from gifted people in the wrong seats. The 4-step placement system that fixed ours.
5 min readPastor, here are the 8 teams every church needs — and the order to build them.
Worship, production, kids, first impressions, ushers, security, prayer, hospitality. Which come first, who leads them, and the 4-step build order.
5 min readPastor, here’s the leadership tree that breaks growth ceilings.
If every team reports to you, you are the ceiling. The 4-step leadership tree — leaders of leaders, drawn on one page — that lets a church scale.
5 min readPastor, guests decide in 10 minutes. Here’s how I built a first impressions team that wins them.
Most guests decide before the sermon starts. The 4-step system — parking lot to seat — that turns first-time guests into second-time guests.
4 min read— Engagement & the ask
Pastor, I stopped counting attendance and started measuring engagement. Here’s how.
Nickels and noses only measure 2 of the 5 levels of engagement. The scoring system that shows you every person’s next step — and your church’s real condition.
5 min readPastor, here’s how I find the people slipping out the back door.
Nobody announces they’re drifting — they decline four weeks in a row, stop giving, go quiet. The lean-out signals that surface people before they’re gone.
5 min readPastor, everyone in your church is one personal ask away. Here’s how I make the ask.
Announcements don’t move people — a personal ask does. The mindset shift and the exact asks for every level, from “come sit with me” to generosity.
6 min readPastor, here’s how I win a new person’s first 90 days.
People choose a church for preaching and kids. They stay because they made friends and found a place to serve. The 90-day system that closes the back door.
5 min readPastor, I can’t make every ask. Here’s how every ask still gets made.
An engaged church isn’t one pastor asking a lot — it’s many people asking a little. Assign every person a leader, give every leader a list, log every ask.
5 min read— Small groups & multiplication
Pastor, I stopped counting groups and started counting leaders. Here’s the math.
Five groups isn’t five leaders — it’s ten. The doubling game that turns 10 leaders into 189, and 50 people in groups into 945, in five years.
6 min readPastor, here’s how I recruit small group leaders without begging.
“Who wants to be a leader?” gets silence — it sounds like a title, a competency test, and an unknown time cost. Publish the group list six weeks out and invite passion instead.
5 min readPastor, your group leaders are not interchangeable. Learn the four types.
Super Multiplier, Multiplier, Steady, Struggling — same sower, same soil, different yields. How you deploy each type decides whether groups compound or churn.
6 min readPastor, your groups fizzle because they never end. Run semesters.
Nobody commits to leading a living-room group forever — but almost anyone says yes to ten weeks. The flywheel and six annual events that sustain groups.
5 min readPastor, someone is discipling your people 30 hours a week. It isn’t you — yet.
Two hours a month with you; thirty hours a month on YouTube. The core catechism, the four content buckets, and how one sermon series becomes a ten-week group curriculum.
6 min readPastor, small groups aren’t a trend. Here’s the 2,000-year receipt.
Catechism, Benedict, Wesley’s class meetings, Cho’s cells, Simple Church — the methods changed every century. The commitment never did.
8 min readPastor, here are the 10 objections to small groups I hear most — answered straight.
“We can’t find leaders.” “Groups fizzle.” “People won’t commit.” None of the fixes is “try harder” — every one is structural.
7 min read— Church marketing & reach
Pastor, “build it and they’ll come” is not a church marketing strategy.
You show up at the building every day, so you assume your city knows you exist. It doesn’t. Here’s the awareness problem — and the two questions that fix it.
6 min readPastor, boosting posts isn’t marketing. It’s gambling.
$15 here, $30 there, $100 before Father’s Day. No targeting, no geofence, no feedback — all risk. The two-budget system that replaces it.
6 min readPastor, here’s the church marketing funnel that actually fills a room.
Most pastors’ funnel starts in the parking lot. By then you’ve missed four steps — and marketing alone was never going to close the gap.
8 min readPastor, your personal account matters more than the church page.
The church page is a business brand. You’re the primary disciple-maker — and people choose a church because of the preaching, which means they’re looking for you.
6 min readPastor, Christmas-and-Easter-only marketing is costing you the other 50 weeks.
Every church in your city bids on the same two weekends. Your dollar goes further — and you actually learn something — the other ten months.
7 min readPastor, church mailers don’t work anymore. Here’s where that budget should go.
You send one mailer a year — at Easter — and credit the mailer for an Easter bump that was always coming. The data doesn’t back it up.
6 min readPastor, church marketing isn’t expensive. Gambling is.
Real numbers for rural, suburban, and urban churches — plus the three metrics that tell you whether a dollar of ad spend is working.
7 min readPastor, “we tried marketing and it didn’t work” usually means one thing.
It usually means: we put it all on red and lost. There are no failed channels — only campaigns nobody measured.
6 min readFree course · 17 lessons
Elite Preaching — the system behind the sermons.
The decision to be elite, orthodoxy, exegesis, story architecture, the gospel close, and the 12–36 month calendar. Jon-Michael’s complete preaching system, free.
Free course · 11 lessons
Pastoral Artificial Intelligence — the AI advantage.
The wise, Christ-centered use of AI to amplify your calling — never replace it. Doomerism dismantled, the workflows, and the guardrails.
Free course · 16 lessons
Elite Serving Teams — the structure behind growth.
The eight key teams every church needs, right people in right seats, and the full leadership tree that breaks growth ceilings.
Free course · 10 lessons
Church Engagement — the system behind the asks.
The five levels of engagement, the personal ask that moves people, follow-through rhythms, and winning every new person’s first 90 days.
Free course · 16 lessons
Elite Groups — don’t just launch groups. Multiply them.
The model chosen on purpose, the group operating system, the leader pipeline, the semester flywheel, and the five-year multiplication roadmap.
Free webinar · 42 min
Church Marketing Myths — stop gambling with the church cash.
The eight myths pastors believe about church marketing, plus the two budget lines, the full funnel, and the channel stack that actually fills a room.
The full library
Seven courses. 91 lessons. One free signup.
Everything Jon-Michael and Eric teach — preaching, small groups, serving teams, engagement, and AI for ministry. Free forever, plus every future release.