As I was driving out of town recently, I noticed this sign out in front of the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant. The sign has been out front of the restaurant for quite some time. As you can see, they’re advertising a liver meal for $2.99. Fortunately for all of us, it’s an “everyday special.”

It seemed odd to me that Kentucky Fried Chicken would be promoting a special on liver. I thought Kentucky Fried Chicken sold chicken. Apparently there’s a high demand for liver in this area of the country. I can’t imagine any other reason why, among everything else on their menu, they’d choose to promote their liver special.

If I had to list some of the things the church “does right,” I’d suggest our “chicken” might include being:

• a place to find new life
• a place to find your purpose
• a place to receive unconditional love
• a place to find forgiveness
• a place to heal
• a place to find community
• a place to help others
• a place to change the world

I think our chicken can be pretty tasty. But, to be honest, I sometimes get a little fed up with churches that promote the “liver” instead of the chicken. For example, I’ve seen too many churches promoting things like car washes (saw another one this weekend), bake sales, political agendas (in today’s news), theological agendas, boycotts and business meetings. And then there are the more subtle dishes of liver that sometimes get disguised as ministry programs. They may start on target, but they end up just being a drain on people’s time and energy and not really encouraging people to eat chicken.

That’s just my opinion. You don’t have to agree with it. I would suggest, however, that you need to identify what your “chicken” is and make that your everyday special. Instead of promoting the liver special, “do something right” that’s going to help people meet Jesus and experience a new life in Christ. People don’t need our liver–they just need to see life change.

Take a look at your weekly bulletins and platform announcements and newsletters. Study your programs and events on the ministry calendar. Are you really pointing folks to Jesus and helping people take their next steps toward Christ? Or…

Are you trying to sell the liver meal?

Look what arrived in the mail today! It’s my very own autographed copy of Less Clutter. Less Noise.by Kem Meyer.

Here are four reasons why this book makes me smile:

1. I’m really proud of Kem. Not only because she’s written this book, but because she’s shaping how we communicate the Gospel more clearly in churches throughout the country.
2. I’ve watched Kem live out and lead through all the principles she writes about. She doesn’t want you to change your message, but she will challenge you to deliver it differently.
3. Most churches are about more clutter and more noise especially when it comes to communications. I know churches of all shapes and sizes are going to benefit from this book.
4. It reminds me that Kem has my old snowblower. When I left Indiana for South Carolina, I walked my snowblower down the street to Kem’s house. Now I have less clutter and less noise in my garage.

What if I told you there’s a way to get more people to hear and respond to your message, and you can do it by spending less money? What if it created more time for you to focus on ministry? What if it made life easier for you and your team?

I know you. I’ve seen your church. I’ve seen your life. You need Less Clutter. Less Noise.

Here’s a video summary of Perry’s message yesterday where he talked about NewSpring’s next steps to minister in Kenya:

You can learn more about opportunities to participate by visiting www.NewSpring.cc/kenya. Also, there are more video highlights of yesterday’s service on the NewSpring YouTube channel.

It’s been interesting to watch the trends in browsers accessing my site. I last wrote about this in December 2008. At the time, people using Internet Explorer to access my site still had a slight edge (41% of visits) over those using Firefox (39%). That was a huge change from August 2007 when Explorer was running 63% and Firefox was at 27%.

In just three months, the numbers have shifted again. Now Firefox is the leading browser for people visiting my site. You can see the numbers in the graph to the right. It appears, however, that Explorer is losing users to Safari and Chrome rather than Firefox. In December those two browsers accounted for 18% of the visitors, and three months later 23% of the visitors are using those two browsers.

Any way you cut it, Explorer is no longer the dominant choice for web browsers.

Have you recently switched? If so, why?

I know. It’s been some time since I last posted Perryisms. My apologies. Here are some highlights from Perry’s message today, though, that should make up for it. Enjoy!

• “We’re talking about Jesus. He’s pretty important. He was dead, and now he’s alive. I’m going to listen to that guy.”
• “If you don’t have a problem writing a big check for a car you’re driving but you do have a problem writing a big check to the church you’re attending, that’s a problem.”
• “I know that’s a problem for some of you because you have a G-rated God.”
• “Jesus said, ‘If you put me first, I’ll take care of everything else.’”
• “I don’t want to do church. I want this church to be an unstoppable force.”
• “I’m an ice cream connoisseur.
• “We don’t have a problem recommending a restaurant, but we do have a problem recommending a Savior.”
• “People need Jesus.”
• “Hell is real. And people that don’t know Jesus go there.”
• “If you think the church was created for you, either get saved or get out.”
• “I’m a numbers guy. I want more and more people to know Jesus. Is that a sin?”
• “At what point in the process was I supposed to tell people to go to Hell, because we want authentic community?”
• “God’s plan is always bigger than our plans.”
• “Every dime we take in goes to missions.”
• “I don’t want to send money. I want to send people.”
• “I stood at the ends of the earth.”
• “Most Christians are willing to do something for Jesus as long as it doesn’t cost them anything.”
• “If the things of God don’t matter to you, does he actually live inside of you?”

Check out NewSpring’s website for more details on our plans to minister to people in Kenya.

I had a great conversation on Friday with a group of 12 guys in ministry throughout the country. Among other things, we talked about the leadership trap. You’ve probably experienced this before. It’s that feeling in your gut that says:

“If I don’t do it, no one will do it.”

You know that feeling don’t you? Every leader experiences it…especially in ministry where we’re dependent on volunteers to carry out the mission. Either we have that sense that if we don’t do it, it won’t get done. Or, we have the sense that if we don’t do it, it won’t be done right. You know what I’m talking about don’t you?

Here’s what’s crazy about that thinking. It’s not really true. Your mind says that’s truth, but it’s really a lie. Here’s the truth:

“If I do it, no one will do it.”

Did you catch that? Whenever you decide to step in an do it, you’re taking away the opportunity for someone else to do it. Whenever you step in to do it right, you’re denying the opportunity for someone else to do it better.

We are the body of Christ. God has gifted each of us uniquely. We were designed to serve Jesus differently. You may think you have all the gifts and all the abilities to do all the ministry, but that’s a lie from Satan. And, if you do it all, no one else will do it.

The workers are few but if you continue doing the work, the workers will be fewer.

Until we embrace that reality, our impact and influence as a church will be limited. When that happens it won’t be because God isn’t answering our prayers, it’ll be because we have decided we’d rather continue to sin.

What type of leader are you going to be? Are you going to deny the power of God working through others or are you going to empower people to live out their God-given purpose?

If you do it, no one will do it.

In case you missed them, here are the posts that generated the most traffic last month in order of popularity:

1. Are you really the leader?
2. 25 Free Web Apps That Make Life Easier
3. The New Traditional Church
4. Does your church have an ugly website?
5. Churches That Give the Middle Finger
6. Listen to the New U2 Album for FREE!
7. 14 Ways to Spend Less so You Can Do More
8. Replay of Unleash 09 Main Sessions
9. First Five Minutes of Sunday
10. Twitter vs. Blogging

This top ten list is brought to you with the help of Google Analytics. It’s the easy, free way to track stats for your website.

Our staff team from all our campuses gathered in Anderson today. We introduced the new folks on our team, and then Perry opened it up for the team to share stories. It’s one of my favorite parts of ministry. I love to hear how God is moving in the lives of people in and out of our church.

Here are some of the highlights of what people shared:

• “Last night I had the opportunity to pray with a middle school student who accepted Christ.”
• “More and more people are watching video of our services online. Within the last 12 months, the amount of video bandwidth has quadrupled.”
• “He said, ‘I’d like to have lunch with you because I have some questions about Jesus.’”
• “There’s a woman in Wales connected to our web campus for her community of faith.”
• “And then I thought, I’m going to be judged if I don’t get to know his name.”
• “His dad is in prison for murder, but he’s showing up for student ministry.”
• “God told him to buy a school bus and now 37 students are being picked up every week.”
• “She said, ‘Every Sunday my kids wake up and ask if we’re going back to that church.’”
• “He lives in Columbia, but he’s already referring to NewSpring as ‘my church.’”

Wish you could have been there. Some of these stories, like the bus story, are amazing.

Speaking of great stories, Perry will be talking about the the greatest story ever told on Easter Sunday. If you haven’t already, please get your FREE tickets for Easter services if you’re planning to attend one of the NewSpring campuses. That’ll help us make sure we have enough seats for everyone.

Emily and I are looking forward to heading out west in a few weeks to participate in the Catalyst West Coast event. We’ll be there to hear Perry and a number of other great communicators talk about faith and the future of the church. Here’s the scoop on all the details:

• April 22-24, 2009 at Mariners Church in Irvine, CA.
• Worship by Hillsong United, Steve Fee, Aaron Keyes and Joel Auge
• Speakers include Perry, Andy Stanley, Craig Groeschel, Rick Warren, Guy Kawasaki, Ravi Zacharias, Francis Chan, Brian Houston, Erwin McManus, Catherine Rohr, Jud Wilhite, and Luis Palau.

The first day, April 22, will feature lab sessions including talks from people such as Dave Gibbons, Alan Hirsch, Erwin McManus, Eric Bryant, Dan Kimball, Margaret Feinberg, Mark Batterson and others.

You can also attend the BEFORE PARTY on Wednesday, April 22 at 6pm that’s being hosted by Carlos Whittaker. You’ll get to enjoy free food, entertainment and an outdoor lounge-like party. Can’t wait to see Los in a “lounge-like” environment.

Register at catalystwestcoast.com or by phone at 888-334-6569. Mention Rate Code SPE and you can save an extra 10% on the ticket price.

Hope to see you in SoCal.