A Ministry Led By Pastors for Pastors

MEET DR. NELSON SEARCY 

Our Lead "Renegade" Pastor 

Nelson is the Founding and Lead Pastor of The Journey Church, with locations across New York City and in Boca Raton, FL. By God’s grace, he identified and developed the Eight Systems of a Healthy Church^® that he has used to coach over 4,000 churches in the US and around the world to adapt those eight systems to their unique ministry fields, resulting in great health and growth.

Nelson regularly coaches pastors online and in-person through the Church Leader Insights and Renegade Pastors Network ministries that he founded. He also leads several pastor in-person conferences and online training events. In ministry for more than 35 years, Nelson and his church routinely appear on lists such as “The 50 Most Influential Churches” and “The 25 Most Innovative Leaders.”

He is the author of over 100 church growth resources and 20+ books, including The Renegade Pastor: Abandoning Average in Your Life and Ministry, The Difference Maker: Using Your Everyday Life for Eternal Impact, and Fusion: Turning First-Time Guests Into Fully-Engaged Members of Your Church. Nelson is the recipient of the prestigious Donald A. McGavran Award for Outstanding Leadership in Great Commission Research.

He is a longtime student of church history, especially mastering the areas of evangelism and church growth. He holds a BA and BS from Gardner Webb University, MDiv from Duke University and DLitt from Louisiana Baptist University. 

He divides his time between NYC and South Florida. He battled Stage 4 cancer and has been cancer-free since 2018, praise God! He has an amazing wife, Kelley, and a teenage son, Alexander, who continues to grow in so many ways.

His continued mission is to help church leaders and church members around the world cooperate with God to fulfill the Great Commission. 

The Story Behind Church Leader Insights

In early summer 2004, when Nelson Searcy was asked to teach six hours on Church Planting at Rick Warren’s annual May conference, he had no idea what God had in store.

The schedule was adjusted and he was left with more content than time, so Nelson made an inspired decision to record the extra training to CDs to distribute to the conference participants. At that point, Church Leader Insights (CLI) began humbly with these four church planting resources:

  Am I Called to Be a Church Planter?

  Funding Your Church Plant

  Launching Large

  Is My Husband’s Call My Call (with Nelson’s wife Kelley)

Impacting 50,000+ Church Leaders Around the World 

That conference came and went, but the calls and emails continued afterwards requesting those CDs for purchase. From these “accidental” beginnings, CLI began making Nelson Searcy’s resources available for purchase at various conferences, at speaking events and over the internet.

Since 2004, Nelson Searcy has developed over 100 church growth resources. Beginning with that handful of church planters back in 2004, Church Leader Insights has grown to impact 50,000+ church leaders a year.

Today, those early church planting resources are given away on this web site. CLI gives away thousands of dollars in free resources to church planters around the world each week. (Church Planters: click here for more info). In addition to these resources, CLI gives away thousands of dollars in free e-books, international downloads, free books and audio resources.

Church Leader Insights continues to develop and offer resources . . . In fact, it’s those resources that enable CLI to run the ministry and provide the free resources they offer (like the e-books, webinars, etc.). Their goal is to always give those who purchase resources far more value than the dollars they invest. It seems to be working, as this ministry is currently expanding by hundreds of new church leaders a week.

With all that has happened since 2004, Nelson Searcy and Church Leader Insights are more committed than ever to helping you maximize your leadership and grow your church, all for the glory of God!