I’m Steve Lawes
Certified Church Consultant
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Church in Decline? Plateaud?
Helping Churches Thrive
Utilizing a process we call “Virtual Church Consulting” we work with you through a series of steps to help pinpoint problems and offer solutions. This all online church consulting method is effective and affordable.
Internet Impact (Learn about your digital footprint)
Community Statistics (Learn about your community)
Effective Outreach Ideas (Learn how to reach your community)
Church Marketing (Help your community learn about your church)
Internet Impact
Your website is the “digital foyer” for the church. It is the first impression for almost everyone that visits your church.
Community Statistics
Demographic information is helpful in getting an overview of what is happening in your community.
Church Marketing
Church marketing is a tool to help people who are in need of what your church offers to be able to connect with you.
Effective Outreach Ideas
An outreach strategy is a specific set of tactics intended to ultimately attract new people to your church.
Meet Steve Lawes
Steve Lawes is a Certified Church Consultant. He has been the lead Pastor of Keys Vineyard Church in Big Pine Key since 1992. He has a Bachelors Degree in Bible and Theology from Berean University and Masters and PhD Degrees from Atlantic Coast Theological Seminary. He lead the Cuba Missions Team for Vineyard Missions from 1995-2005 and traveled to Cuba more than twenty times helping to plant churches and build up local leaders. He served as the South Florida Area Leader for the Association of Vineyard Churches for ten years. He also founded the Jesus Moment Bible Institute and Seminary in 2014 which has a student enrollment of over 2000. He has written three devotional books, Daily Psalt Intake, Daily Sage Intake and Daily Strength Training which are now out of print but are currently available as free e-books.
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Recent Posts from Church Consultant
Finding Peace in Life’s Storms: Lessons from Jesus Walking on Water
Life is filled with both literal and figurative storms. In John 6:16-20, we witness a powerful encounter where Jesus meets his disciples in the midst of a storm, walking on water and declaring “It is I. Don’t be afraid.” This miracle reveals more than just Jesus’s power over nature – it shows us who He is and why He came.
Who Really Controls Our Lives?
After Jesus fed the 5,000, people wanted to make Him king by force. They were thinking selfishly, wanting Him to fulfill their immediate needs and free them from Roman rule. But Jesus withdrew because His mission was greater – addressing deeper issues of sin, separation from God, and our need for eternal life.
Too often, we try to fit Jesus into our own plans rather than surrendering to His greater purpose. We want Jesus to be our co-pilot when He should be the pilot. True abundant life comes from living His way, not ours.
How Does Jesus Respond to Our Struggles?
Jesus sees us in our struggles, just as He saw His disciples in the storm. He doesn’t always immediately rescue us, but He walks toward us in our fear. When the disciples were terrified, Jesus spoke gently: “It is I. Don’t be afraid.” He didn’t rebuke them for their fear but reassured them with His presence.
What Makes Jesus Different from Other Religious Figures?
When Jesus said “It is I” (ego eimi in Greek), He was making a divine declaration, the same phrase God used in Exodus. Unlike the Old Testament where God’s presence brought fear and distance, Jesus brings God’s presence directly to us in our storms.
How Does Jesus Handle Our Storms?
Sometimes we pray for immediate deliverance from our storms, but Jesus often chooses to walk with us through them instead. Our greatest refuge isn’t the absence of storms – it’s Jesus Himself. He took on the ultimate storm for us through His death on the cross, demonstrating God’s love while we were still sinners.
Life Application
This week, consider these questions:
Where are you trying to control Jesus instead of trusting Him?
What areas of your life need to hear Jesus say “It is I, don’t be afraid”?
Are you willing to trust God with your storms, even if immediate relief doesn’t come?
Challenge: Take time in your daily devotions to shift your prayers from “Lord, do this for me” to “Lord, what can I do for you?” Submit to His will rather than trying to bend His will to yours.
Remember, Jesus will never abandon you in life’s storms. He’s already taken on the ultimate storm for you through His sacrifice. Trust in His presence, even when the waters are rough.
This series may be taken as a course offered by the Online Bible Institute. For more information check out the Keys Vineyard Ministries Courses page.
Steve Lawes is a Church Consultant and also provides coaching for pastors, churches, ministries and church planters.
Finding True Satisfaction: Jesus as the Bread of Life
In John 6, we discover a profound truth about finding lasting satisfaction through Jesus Christ. This passage connects the physical provision of bread to deeper spiritual nourishment that only Jesus can provide.
What is the Significance of the Feeding of 5,000?
The miraculous feeding of 5,000 people demonstrates Jesus’s supernatural ability to provide abundantly. Starting with just five loaves and two fish, Jesus not only fed the entire crowd until they were satisfied but also had twelve baskets of leftovers. This miracle shows that we should never discount God’s ability to work in seemingly impossible situations.
How Does This Connect to Israel’s History with Manna?
The story intentionally parallels God’s provision of manna to the Israelites in the wilderness. Just as God provided daily bread to sustain His people physically, Jesus reveals Himself as the spiritual bread that provides eternal sustenance. The manna required daily gathering – teaching Israel to trust God’s provision one day at a time.
What Does Jesus Mean by “I am the Bread of Life”?
When Jesus declares “I am the bread of life,” He’s making a profound statement about His ability to satisfy our deepest spiritual hunger. He promises that whoever comes to Him will never go hungry and whoever believes in Him will never be thirsty. This isn’t about physical sustenance but about finding complete fulfillment in relationship with Him.
Why Must We Seek Jesus Daily?
Just as the Israelites needed to gather manna daily, our relationship with Jesus requires daily nurturing. We can’t store up spiritual nourishment for later – it requires consistent, everyday commitment to:
Reading God’s Word
Praying
Seeking fresh encounters with God
Making our relationship with Him a priority
Life Application
This week, challenge yourself to establish or strengthen your daily practice of seeking Jesus. Ask yourself:
Am I treating my relationship with God as a daily priority or a one-time event?
What distractions are keeping me from spending daily time with God?
How can I better structure my day to ensure I’m receiving spiritual nourishment?
Remember: Just as you wouldn’t try to go days without eating, don’t neglect your spiritual nourishment. Make a commitment to daily “gather” the bread of life through time with Jesus in prayer and His Word.
This series may be taken as a course offered by the Online Bible Institute. For more information check out the Keys Vineyard Ministries Courses page.
Steve Lawes is a Church Consultant and also provides coaching for pastors, churches, ministries and church planters.
Do You Really Want to Get Well? Understanding Jesus’s Powerful Question
In John 5, we encounter a profound interaction between Jesus and a man who had been disabled for 38 years. This story reveals deep truths about healing, transformation, and our response to Jesus’s offer of abundant life.
The Setting: Pool of Bethesda
The story takes place at the Pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem, where many sick and disabled people gathered hoping for healing. Local superstition held that when the water was stirred, the first person to enter would be healed. This created a cruel competition among desperate people seeking wellness.
Why Did Jesus Ask “Do You Want to Get Well?”
When Jesus approached the disabled man, He asked what seems like an obvious question: “Do you want to get well?” This question operates on multiple levels:
Are you willing to leave what’s familiar?
Will you trust God completely?
Are you ready to stop making excuses?
Will you take responsibility for change?
The Man’s Response: A Pattern of Excuses
Instead of saying “yes,” the man immediately offered excuses:
“I have no one to help me”
“Someone always gets there first”
“It’s not my fault”
These excuses reveal how we often rationalize staying in unhealthy situations rather than embracing change.
Jesus’s Command: Take Action
Jesus didn’t help the man into the pool. Instead, He commanded: “Get up, pick up your mat and walk.” This required:
Immediate faith
Taking action
Leaving the familiar behind
Trust in Jesus’s authority
The Real Battle: Two Trees
The story points to a deeper spiritual reality – we must choose between:
The Tree of Life (God’s way)
The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (our way)
Our healing and transformation depend on which tree we choose to live under.
Life Application
Consider these questions this week:
What areas of your life need healing or transformation?
What excuses are you making that prevent change?
Are you willing to trust Jesus completely and take action?
The Challenge: Identify one area where you need to “get up and walk” – then take one concrete step of faith this week. It might mean:
Starting a new spiritual habit
Letting go of a harmful pattern
Seeking help or accountability
Making a difficult but necessary change
Remember: Jesus is pursuing you with love and offering transformation. The question is – do you really want to get well?
This series may be taken as a course offered by the Online Bible Institute. For more information check out the Keys Vineyard Ministries Courses page.
Steve Lawes is a Church Consultant and also provides coaching for pastors, churches, ministries and church planters.
Testimonials
“Steve and his team at Keys Vineyard Church have built a church that has done an inspiring job reaching their community. Steve is a treasure trove of experience and has continued to prioritize learning and growth throughout his more than 30 years of ministry in a way few pastors have. You’ll get a lot out of connecting with him!”
“I watched first hand as Steve experienced the devastation of hurricane Irma in his town of Big Pine Key, Florida. The town was destroyed, the church building rendered unusable and the staff impacted personally. I watched a leader rise to the need of his community and minister in a situation that not very many could. He has a powerful voice of experience and wisdom earned the hard way.”
“Steve Lawes is a valuable coach/ mentor. I’ve watched Steve over the last thirty years build a substantial outward focused church with disciples who do what Jesus did. He has inspired leaders of churches with simple/tested ideas to develop leaders and grow churches.
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“Steve Lawes is an outstanding coach. He is authentic, creative, and personable. He has more cutting edge ideas than any pastor I know in regard to evangelism and meeting the needs of people in his community.”
Interested in Becoming a Church Consultant?
We are pleased to be partnering with the Jesus Moment Bible Institute and Seminary to be able to offer Free Church Consulting Training. Even if you are not looking to become a certified church consultant, the free church consultant training will be beneficial for your personal ministry.
One of the greatest questions Jesus asked was “Do You Want to Get Well?”
I t would seem that the answer was obvious. But getting well for the man who had been not well for a very long time meant that he would have to do something different. It is not easy to change, but it always starts with a first step.
Take that first step now by sceduling your no obligation, free thirty (30) minute Zoom meeting with us today. You have nothing to lose and it may be your first step to a new and healthy way of doing and being the church.
Don’t Wait Any Longer. Take The First Step Toward Getting Well Today!
