In the early 2000s, we did an advertising campaign for a church that actually transformed us.

We sent out a 10,000-piece mailer to their community, and this church, which normally ran 1,500 on a weekend, saw 300 first-time visitors show up. That's 300 first-time visitors because of a 10,000-piece mailer.

That's a 3% return on a mailer. It's just rockstar good, and we were running around high-fiving each other. The church was singing songs about us. But about three months later, the pastor called me. He said, "Hey, Richard, you know what? We've been doing some evaluation because we track things really well, and none of those people came back."

I said, "Well, do you know why?" He said, "They didn't come back because of that mailer."

And I remember going, "What? That mailer was normal. It didn't promise them a million bucks."

And all of a sudden it dawned on me that if we promote a church that's not ready for the people who are going to walk through their doors, we're going to do more damage than good.

As a matter of fact, advertising and branding for a church that's not naturally growing is actually a detriment to its future growth. And we began to realize our call is not just to help them promote themselves, but to help them become the church that people can't wait to invite their friends to.

Because if we can help a church become that church, then we don't even have to spend money on mailers, because the gospel is doing its good work in us.

We have learned how to walk alongside a church—help them see their blind spots, the unintended consequences of decisions they've made along the way, and turn roadblocks into on-ramps into the knowledge of God. That's what drives us. Thank you for what you do for the King and the kingdom.