Twenty years ago, my friend Vince and I started SermonView with a simple dream: to help pastors be more effective at reaching people for Jesus. What I didn’t realize then was how much God would use the next two decades to shape my own faith, my leadership, and my understanding of ministry.

Last month marked 20 years since Vince Williams and I launched SermonView. As I reflect on that journey, I see God’s fingerprints everywhere. Through challenges and blessings, God taught me powerful lessons I believe can encourage you in your own ministry journey.

Here are five of the biggest things I’ve learned along the way.

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1. Add Value First, and Trust God With the Outcome

Early on, we were focused on survival. I’ll never forget the day someone came into my office and said,

“Larry, you’ve got to figure out how to get more money from your customers.”

That struck me wrong. I told him:

“Hold on, I think that’s backwards. We need to figure out how to add more value for our customers, and the revenue will follow.”

That shift in mindset transformed our business.

At the time, we called ourselves evangelism printers. We had beautiful biblical imagery in our preaching graphics library, and we offered to use that art to create handbills for evangelism. But in practice, we were basically saying, “Tell us what you want on the handbill, and we’ll print it.” We were doing okay, but not thriving.

Soon after that conversation, we worked with evangelist Lynnwood Spangler. Vince and I poured all our marketing expertise into his campaign. We changed his art, his series title, his bio, and even the meeting titles. We took everything we had learned about evangelism marketing and added as much value as we could.

Leading up to that event, we were really sweating it. We had put everything we believed about evangelism marketing into that campaign, and Vince said if it wasn’t successful, we should close up shop and do something else.

Opening night came. It was standing room only, with over 200 guests in a little town.

That’s when I learned that when we focus on serving others with excellence, God blesses.

Paul says in Philippians 2:4:

“Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.”

That principle works in business, in evangelism, and in life.

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2. Persevere When Quitting Feels Easier

Innovation is hard. Honestly, there were many days I wanted to quit. We had borrowed money to start SermonView, and that debt became our “burning the boats” moment. There was no going back. We had to keep moving forward.

Ministry is the same. There will be moments when quitting feels easier.

Galatians 6:9 reminds us:

“Let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.”

Perseverance is often the difference between failure and breakthrough. It’s what keeps you standing when the pressure is heavy and the progress is slow.

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3. Pivot When You Have To, Without Losing the Message

We didn’t figure out SermonView’s “economic engine” right away.

We started with:

• a DVD-ROM subscription of biblical art
• sermon series publishing
• banners and church printing

It wasn’t until our fourth year that we did our first evangelistic handbill. And it took another six years before we truly identified as an evangelism marketing company.

Since then, we’ve pivoted into:

• social media ads
• short-form video
• and new outreach tools as the landscape changes

The world keeps changing, and stubbornly clinging to the past would have killed us.

The same thing is true in ministry. Methods change, but the message stays the same.

Ellen White captured it clearly:

“Different methods are to be employed to save different ones. The Lord’s work is not to be narrowed down to one set way” (Evangelism, p. 106).

Flexibility is not weakness. It’s wisdom.

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4. Ideas Are Cheap. Execution Is Everything.

As a creative person with ADD, I’ve had a lot of ideas over the years. But I’ve learned something important:

Entrepreneurship is maybe 2 percent ideas and 98 percent execution.

God blessed me with an incredible team who carry out the consistent execution that doesn’t come naturally to me. Ministry is the same.

Creativity matters, but consistency is what makes it fruitful. Outreach ideas matter, but so does faithful implementation.

James 1:22 says:

“Don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.”

Execution turns vision into reality.

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5. It’s Not Mine. It belongs to God.

The pandemic hit us hard. When public events shut down, it cut straight to the heart of what we do. Evangelistic meetings stopped, and our revenue dried up.

In the fourth quarter of 2020, during the pandemic, our revenue dropped 84 percent from the previous year. By the time churches started holding public events again, we had no financial reserves left.

That season brought one of the scariest moments of our journey.

In my daily routine, I see the balance of our main bank account twice a day. As we entered our slow season at the end of the year, I realized I didn’t have enough money to cover payroll.

I stressed for about 36 hours trying to figure out what to do. Then I realized something:

It’s not my problem. It’s God’s problem.

I asked myself, “Am I spending my time doing what God wants me to do?” Yes. Then I don’t need to panic. I don’t need to scramble to find some project that would derail our long-term plans.

I trust God to provide.

That gave me peace.

For eight weeks, day by day, God provided exactly what we needed. Not once did we miss payroll. We paid every bill.

That season deepened my faith that SermonView is God’s ministry.

And the church where you serve?

It’s not yours. It’s God’s church.

Colossians 1:18 says:

“Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body.”

That truth frees us from panic and allows us to serve with peace and trust.

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Final Thoughts

Pastor, I know ministry isn’t easy. You face constant change, limited resources, and heavy burdens. But never forget: your church belongs to God. He is the Head, and He is faithful. The seeds you’re planting today will grow into eternal fruit. You are building an eternal legacy, even when you can’t see the results right now. So take heart. Stay faithful. And trust that what God has started, He will finish

I love you guys. I’m cheering for you. We’ll see you next time.

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