Update: May 24, 2024

We are less than a week from launch! The new site is set to open to subscribers on May 29, 2024. The TPW team is working hard to make sure everything is ready to go at launch so that you are able to take advantage of the new features right from the start! Watch our blog for a post announcing the launch on Wednesday morning, May 29!

Something incredible is happening! The Pastor’s Workshop is getting a HUGE upgrade—and I can’t wait to tell you about it!

A Little History

I founded The Pastor’s Workshop in 2018 with the goal of serving those who serve God and the church by curating excellent resources for sermons and worship services. Some of you have been with us since the beginning and some of you have just joined us. I am deeply grateful to you all. Without you, TPW would not exist. 

Since then, we’ve grown, steadily adding new resources—not to mention many new pastors and leaders from across the denominations. The present format of the website has served us well so far—but it has limits—and over time, we’ve increasingly seen those limits prevent us from offering more content, doing so efficiently, and making that content easy to find for users. Also, users have requested features we’d like to provide, but which aren’t possible to do with the current site set up.

Faster, Easier, and More Inspiration!

This is all about to change. We are excited to announce that we are getting ready to upgrade The Pastor’s Workshop! Some upgrades will be invisible to users, but will have huge benefits that you will see. Others will be impossible to miss. All of these changes are designed to make more excellent resources available and faster and easier for you to find. 

Redesign Preview

It’s still a work in progress, but this is a little sneak peek at where we’re headed.

What’s new?

• A database: You won’t see this directly, but this is the game-changer that makes everything else possible. Instead of storing our resources on individual pages, it will all be stored in a single database and you’ll be able to search the whole thing!  
• Advanced search features: Have you ever searched for something on TPW and been frustrated that you couldn’t find a page for that topic? Or worse, you got lots of “hits” when you searched, but they weren’t really related to the topic? The site upgrade is going to make this a lot better.
• Scripture reference search: The feature we have consistently had the most requests for is the ability to search by scripture references. We’re going to have that! It will start with our liturgy resources, but we will eventually improve it throughout the whole site.
• More content: Right from the launch, you will notice a dramatic increase in topics available across all of our different types of content. The new format will make adding new content a snap—so more and more content will be curated more quickly and put into your hands right away.
• A snappy new look and feel: The limits of the technology that got TPW off the ground limited our ability to freshen up the site’s appearance. We think you’ll like the new look!

When will this happen? We aren’t ready to set a date yet—stay tuned! We’re only about 1 to 2 months out. 

What Does All of This Mean for You?

Think of it this way. Suppose you want to create a sermon and worship service on a particular theme. You’ll be able to type that theme into a search and straight away get prayers, quotes, and illustrations on that theme. Suppose you only want one kind of resource on a theme. Piece of cake. You’ll be able to search from a vastly expanded set of themes and find excellent results faster and easier than ever before. Are you preaching on a particular passage? You’ll be able to search for the scripture and have related resources right away.

The best analogy for this upgrade is that it will be like moving from an old fashioned encyclopedia to Google.

Fear Not! We’ve Got Your Back

Change (especially with technology) can be, if not scary, a bit frustrating. We want the transition to be easy, so you get the benefits of these changes right away. So, we are planning to make this easy as possible.

• Easy by design: We have been thinking about your experience as a user the whole way. So, we hope you’ll find it intuitive from the get-go. 
• Transition period: There won’t be any going “cold turkey.” When the new version of the site goes live, the old one will stay up for a time so that you can explore and get used to the new site on your own schedule.
• Webinars: We will host live webinars to walk through using the site and answering your questions. If you can’t make it to the webinar, no problem! They will be recorded to watch on your schedule.
• One-on-one help: If you are still having difficulties, we can schedule one-on-one sessions with our staff to get live help.

This has been in the works for a long time—I’m so excited to finally share it all with you!  As I said at the beginning, my goal—TPW’s goal—is to serve you as you serve God and your church by assisting you in creating beautiful worship services and powerful sermons. This upgrade will allow us to do this better than we ever have been able to.

Locked-In Prices

The Pastor’s Workshop has not raised subscription prices for five years. Along with the new site design, there will be a modest increase in rates for new subscribers only—that’s right, if you’re already a subscriber, your rates will stay the same.

If you’ve been putting off signing up, get in now and lock in your lower subscription price.

Stay tuned for more details and dates!

Stu is married to Colleen, who currently serves as a spiritual formation lead at Compassion International in Colorado Springs. Stu and Colleen have two children (Jack and Emma) whom they love deeply.

In his free time, Stu enjoys gardening, golf, reading a good book, and watching baseball.