CreativePastors Blog & Podcast

Speedy New Search Tool

We love it when we can streamline and simplify the work of church leaders, so we're especially excited about the new sermon search tool on CreativePastors.com! Now you can explore the complete text of more than 600 sermons that Ed has delivered during his sixteen years at Fellowship Church - and it's all available within our simple search bar.

It couldn’t be easier to use. Getting ready to preach a message on lust? Type lust into the search bar on the left hand side of the site. Within seconds you'll be taken to a search results page, where you’ll see the number of times that word is mentioned within the text of the transcripts on the site. Click the link and you’ll find every series and message where that word is mentioned, along with a short sample showing the reference in context.

Whether you’re looking for different perspectives on a book of the bible, a unique approach to a much-used topic or a specific cultural reference, you’ll find your results in the blink of an eye. And this month, every sermon transcript is available for 15% off. So go have fun with our new search tool and stock up on your favorite sermon transcripts!

Show Us What You're Made Of - Year 2

You really blew us away last year with your phenomenally creative Show Us What You're Made Of Contest entries - we had to do it again! Our second annual contest is officially underway. Send us your creative ideas by November 3rd and you could win 2 free tickets to our Creative Church Conference in February and 2 copies of Ed's book The Creative Leader. Get the whole scoop here!

It's a blast seeing how churches throughout the world are pushing the creative envelope to reach their communities, so we'll share the fun with you throughout the month by highlighting some entries here. The ideas have already started to show up in our inbox! Check out the first official entry we received this afternoon from Adam Flynt of Mars Hill Worship Gathering in Jacksonville, Florida:

We have just started Mars Hill about a month ago after two years worth of praying and working.  We launched with over 200 people in worship the first night and have been running strong since.

The idea I'm submitting is for our next series called "Identity".  It is a 5 week study of Psalm 139 about where we find our true identity.  I've attached a picture of our worship guide.  They are actually custom made credit cards with the series information on them.  Each person will get one as they come to worship.  At the end of the series we will make sure everyone has two so that they can sign one and turn it in as a sign they want their true identity in Christ.  They can sign and keep the other one as a reminder.  We hope it will be a great invite tool as well.  We are also thinking about putting a couple bucks on each card at the local coffee shop so people can go after worship and spend some time getting to know each other.

Pretty cool, Adam! Thanks for sharing your idea. We can't wait to hear from the rest of you!

Elevate News

There's lots of excitement around our new Elevate Children's Curriculum these days! Here are a few quick reasons why:

1. Elevate began shipping last week and has been landing on the desks of Children's pastors throughout the country.
2. Video samples and previews for Elevate are now available online at CreativePastors.com.
3. We're featuring 20% off the Base Pack for the first Elevate series, On the Trail.
4. Fall is just around the corner. Children everywhere are going to be heading back to school within the next few weeks and we can't wait for them to experience Elevate!

New Site Tip

Next to our downloads, you might have noticed a blue circle with a question mark in the middle. Click on this and you'll see an example of that download format. This is a great way to learn more about the different types of downloads we offer, and what will best meet your needs.

And in the not too distant future, we'll be rolling out an expanded contents PDF for our Kits and other selected products, allowing you to see a very detailed description of exactly what's inside.

CreativePastors Site Gets Overhauled!

We're excited to introduce the new CreativePastors website! You'll definitely need to check it out firsthand, but let us tip you off on a few things to expect.  No doubt you'll notice a fresh look,  complete with a new logo. It's more than a pretty face, though - every change we've made is designed to improve your experience, including:

• All resources for a message series can now be found on one page
• Prominent, clear navigation makes things easier to find
• Blog and podcast content on the home page keeps Ed Young's free weekend messages and articles front and center
• Add a product to your cart without being taken to a new page
• Complete your order by checking out on one simple page
• Simplified account management, including downloads and order history 

And the fun's not over! We're continuing to develop new ways to make CreativePastors a pleasure to use and a frequent source of support and encouragement for you and your ministry.

Check out the new digs and let us know what you think!

A New CreativePastors is on the way!

At this very moment, we are transitioning to a brand new CreativePastors website! We've kept your interests at the forefront during this entire project and have focused on making the site super quick and easy to use. We can't wait to show you around the place, so check back soon for the official unveiling!

Last Days to Order G-Force

To make room for our brand-new Elevate Children's Curriculum, we will be removing G-Force from our CreativePastors inventory. If you've been meaning to place an order, make sure to get it in before this Tuesday, June 13.

And if you haven't had a chance to check out Elevate yet, you can catch the vision with this PDF . This curriculum is being developed completely in-house by our FC Kids department and takes children's church to a whole new level. One important difference from the G-Force curriculum is that Elevate offers you the option of showing the skit and Bible story on DVD, keeping you from having to recruit and train actors if you'd prefer not to. Elevate also offers you a training DVD for every small group activity, taking the guesswork out of small groups. We're so excited about the creativity and flexibility Elevate offers - we'll be sharing more about it in the next few weeks!

Free shipping ends soon

Just a friendly reminder - our March special offers, including free shipping with the purchase of any holiday resource, will end this Friday. If there's an order you've been meaning to place, now is a great time to do it!

CP In-site

Did you know that the upper right-hand corner of the CreativePastors website is dedicated to you? That's right... YOU! In this upper right hand corner you will find links that will take you to your very own tools on the site.

For example, when you click on ACCOUNT, you can:

• check your order history
• change your e-mail address
• change your password
• update your subscriptions
• update your contact information

(You may want to note that the UPDATE CONTACT INFORMATION link is where you need to put in your Fellowship Connection Member Number to receive your discount.)

The DOWNLOADS link will let you access any downloads that you have purchased from CreativePastors. And we give all of our users a little something just for creating an account with us. So, even if you haven't purchased any downloads from CreativePastors, you should check out the DOWNLOADS link! There you will find a free download of the transcript from Retro - Back to the Basics titled Relational Realities.

The CART link takes you to, where else? The cart! If you've shopped with us before and had not made it all the way to the checkout, you will most likely find your last selections still loaded! You can continue on from there, add items to the cart, or remove items by clicking on the negative sign (-) next to the item you wish to remove.

We hope this helps you to enjoy your visits to CreativePastors even more in the future!

Holiday Schedule

We're on a break! The CreativePastors offices will be closed from December 26-27 and from December 30 through January 2.  This means that any orders requiring shipping will be processed on the next available business day, including express orders. In the meantime, be sure to check out the thousands of downloads available throughout the site!