Every year, most of our churches are in need of some game changing weekends in the life of our church. This can happen by bringing in a game changing guest speaker for a weekend of ministry.   Unfortunately, when most pastors are out of the pulpit, many churches default to always and only using a staff member or church leader to be the guest speaker.  But with a little bit of forethought and wise planning, a church can “hit the ball out of the park” by effectively utilizing a designated home run hitting guest speaker when the pastor will be gone or to help the pastor address an important topic.

To illustrate this point from the world of farming, farmers change the depth of the plow periodically to avoid hardpack.  Hardpack is what happens when the plow is kept at the same depth and the dirt forms a hard crust below the surface that doesn’t allow water or the seed’s roots to grow.  Guest speakers can be used by God to allow the seed of His word and the living water to “break through” the spiritual hardpack in a congregation in powerful ways that brings genuine life change and transformation to your people on a vital area of their spiritual lives.

As a senior/preaching pastor, guest speaker at hundreds of churches/conferences, and organizer for an annual 1000-person conference that worked with hundreds of guest speakers, I learned a few tips along the way on how to most about effectively utilize a game changing guest speaker.

Tip #1 - Choose guest speakers to “say” something you want said or to “reinforce” something you’ve been saying. 

Guest speakers can often be used by God to bring a needed breakthrough to families in your church on a specific topic.  Through the guest speaker’s powerful life message, moving experiences, and personal stories -- they can effectively communicate important spiritual truths for your church family that they will hear with “fresh ears/hearts” because it comes from a “fresh voice”.  It is similar to your teens or adult children telling you a “new” spiritual insight they learned from someone they just met that you’ve been “telling” them for years.  Sometimes our congregation just tunes us out on certain subjects and a fresh voice will break through to people with amazing results.  Also, because guest speakers don’t personally know your church families and all their failings, failures, and frailties, they can usually speak God’s truth into people lives more freely in a way the people respond to more positively than if you would have said the exact same thing.

Tip #2 - Choose guest speakers that won’t just speak “to” your congregation but who will also have follow-up resources “for” your congregation.

Let’s face it, most sermons are quickly forgotten by the time our people hit the parking lot.  Even as pastors, by lunch time some of us have already forgotten what we said in our sermon. The greatest long-term impact of a message won’t be what a guest speaker says “to” your people, but it is what the guest speaker leaves “for” your people.   To maximize the long-term ministry impact of a guest speaker, make sure they have CD’s, books, handouts, DVD’s, and other resources that people can get after the service.  Last year I preached at a church for 30 minutes, but afterwards people took over 800 of my resources that I made available after the service for any size love offering (note: you want to use speakers that have materials that feed your sheep, not fleece your sheep).    For example, CD’s and DVD’s can provide hours of additional teaching and books and devotionals can be used by individuals/families/groups/classes.  So, what do you think had the greatest long-term impact on people’s lives - - my 30 minute sermon or the 800 resources that people took to use at home?  God uses sermons to create awareness on a subject, but resources and materials that people can take home are the real game changers that God uses to bring about spiritual transformation in people’s lives.

Tip #3 - Choose guest speakers that will share powerful Scriptural insights, a moving message, and inspirational stories. 

One time I invited a guest speaker who was a Vice President from one of the largest Christian relief agencies in the world to speak at our church.  I asked him to share the Scriptures, talk about their work around the world, and share personal stories about the impact their ministry was having on people’s lives.  When he got up to speak he gave a Bible lesson from one of the gospels that was void of any mention of his organization’s ministry, stories, and the impact they were having on people’s lives.  If I wanted this type of Bible lesson, I could have asked one of my staff or elders to be the guest speaker.   From this experience, I learned that it is important to get a sample video of someone’s guest speaking before you invite them to your church to make sure they can deliver a powerful message and true stories that no one else in your church can give.  In this video world in which we live, any guest speaker worth having should have samples of his video messages available for viewing to help you decide if the guest speaker will be a good fit to bring to your church.

Tip #4 - Choose guest speakers to help provide credibility and expertise to a particular topic. 

Many pastors will preach a sermon series on family, marriage, finances/generosity, parenting, work, etc..  When doing a special sermon or series, utilize a recognized expert that can speak on the subject you are addressing.  Their lifelong experiences, work, study, and research on a specific topic can help bring the topic to life in powerful and life-changing way for your congregation.

Tip #5 - Choose guest speakers that can provide more than just a Sunday sermon. 

If you’re going to pay money to have a quality speaker come to your church, whenever possible, see if they could also be available to provide an afternoon or evening seminar, joint Sunday school (if a Sunday school hour is offered when no worship service is happening), or a meal or dessert time with available leaders, staff, or key people to allow the guest speaker to more deeply share his expertise and a Q&A time, and/or a coaching/mentoring time for the senior pastor and/or committee.  Most guest speakers have a lot more to contribute than a 30 minutes message and they want to be effectively used by the LORD to minister to your people, staff, and leaders.  So, look for creative ways to maximize the speaker’s expertise and availability to impact and influence as many people as possible (while also respecting the speaker’s need for rest and/or private time).

If you follow these five tips, you will be amazed at the long-term impact a weekend of ministry by a proven guest speaker can have in the life of your congregation and the amazing breakthroughs many of your families will personally experience.

A 2^nd article entitled on this subject, 10 Point CHECKLIST for Working with Game Changing Guest Speakers, is also available at: http://www.churchcentral.com/blog/5546/10-POINT-CHECKLIST-for-Working-with-a-Game-Changing-Speaker-at-Your-Church

PASTOR BRIAN KLUTH lives in Denver, CO and has been a popular guest speaker (www.BrianKluth.org and www.GenerosityPledge.org) for hundreds of churches, conferences, colleges, seminary, and leadership events.  His is a pastor, bestselling author, researcher, and radio speaker.  He has written the www.GenerousLife.org 40 Day Bible devotional, www.GodIsYourProvider.com book by Moody Publishers, www.MyFamilyOrganizer.org manual, and www.GiveWithJoy.org FREE online eDevotional.  He founded the www.MAXIMUMgenerosity.org website and FREE eNewsletter for pastors and church leaders and the www.STATEofthePLATE.info research on church giving.