Church Marketing Sucks recently released an article about a gentleman that attempted to portray his church in a different light.  The pastor, Adam, wanted to run a campaign that would “play off of [a] shared experience”, or the stigmas of the church.

“To create the buzz, they sent out 120,000 mailers. One featured a church in the rear-view mirror of a car, another featured simple text about their church, a third read, ‘God Doesn’t Care,’ and a fourth had the text, ‘Church Sucks. Or at least we thought so.’”

Instead of drawing a crowd as originally anticipated, the campaign instead opened the door to a slew of Christian hate-mail and phone calls.  In fact, “they underperformed on expected launch attendance by 75%.”

So what is the point?  Don’t try new things? Don’t try and push the envelope?  Perpetuate the stigma?

No.

While we fully support creative means to reach a new crowd, we must remember that our fight for visitors is not against other churches, but rather, against the busyness of life.  As quoted in the article, Michael Buckingham said,

“Messages like this simply perpetuate people’s negative view of church, cast a negative message and come across as self serving.   While you’re trying to say that you’re trying something new you’re main message just points out how other churches aren’t. Remember, we’re in this together. This isn’t about being the best church, this is about finding the best way to share Christ.”

The church should always seek to be innovative and creative in how it reaches new people.  As Rick Bezet put it at the Dirt Conference this past week, “If you’re not willing to change anything then you probably aren’t creative.”

Cultural and technological shifts happen everyday, determining how we distribute our message.  But the message itself does not change.

I found the high point of the article at the very end.  Joshua Cody shares some great ideas for churches to “differentiate” themselves.

• “Instead of beginning services immediately, begin with concerts or events. Hold these monthly with great music, great production, etc. to let people know this won’t be like the church of their childhood.
• Say you won’t launch your church until $100,000 has been raised for your community. And don’t back down from your goal.
• Go door-to-door. Leave no house unvisited. Ask them their biggest needs right now, and never mention your church. Then get back together and figure out how, as a church, you can start meeting those needs.”

Of course, make sure your website is worthy of all the attention your efforts will attract to it.  Studies show that 85% of people will visit your website before attending your church.

As my husband and I help our friends start a church, we’ll be seeking new ways to reach people.  Do you have any great ideas to share?  Please post them below!  I can’t wait to see them.

Photo by BillyRowlinson

• Think Short. Every small group ministry I talked to is running on a semester system: Fall, Winter/Spring and usually a short Summer.  I know there are 9 and 12 month closed models as well that are successful, but they seem to be pretty few a far between.  I like the semester approach because it seems like it gives natural points of momentum several times a year rather than one big push.  The semester approach also seems to break at the right times, which for a lot of our people means school breaks.  For example the first semester (Fall) will break at the end of November and start up again the beginning of February.  This is perfect to alleviate the sometimes stress of Christmas, winter break, new years and getting back to normalcy again.  Without this natural break, and a push toward newly formed Winter/Spring groups, you will naturally lose people who lose interest and motivation during these months.  This also, gives people who “don’t like the people in their group” a chance to switch without hurting any ones feelings.  Beautiful!

• Think Less. The heavy slant toward total grass roots marketing came as a surprise to me.  When I asked about sermon series, big graphics, mailers, banners, website, big “small group push parties” I got silence and an “uhhh, yeah … not really”.  They said that those avenues are great in the right context … in other words.  Rally around vision and what the individuals want to do.  You want people’s excitement and buy in to be extremely high and the marketing material to be there as a much needed support (so it has a high quality feel to how it is presented and supported).  Instead of the marketing and support presence being high and the small group leader and staff’s excitement having a “take it or leave it” attitude.  This lines up with the stats that say 81% of people that come to Christ are because of the invitation of a “friend” or “relative” as opposed to only 3% from a “church program”.  Also, very few churches did a sermon series to launch their small groups ministry, but all of them incorporated it in to the verbiage and points of at least one of the messages in every series throughout the year.

• Think Individual. One other thing is that most of these churches had their accountability worked into personal monthly trainings that their “coaches” or “zone leader” had with them and not just big once-a-semester meetings.  When you have affinity, study and fellowship based groups, the opportunity to get a bit “out there” is great.  Most of these churches had some sort of middle tier leader that didn’t have a group, but instead visited the groups under them randomly as well as phone calls/meetings every 2-4 weeks.  This not only helps to keep the ministries under authority but helps the leadership to recognize the rising stars who will be their future small group leaders.

pic by axle

Being in Media consulting and personally talking with over 1000 churches about their ministries, I found that finding a church with a small group ministry is extremely common.  Finding a church with a successful small group ministry is however extremely uncommon.  Why is this?  I really am not sure, but here is a first of many thoughts.  There is no book or article or plan or flowchart or plug-n-play method that works for every church.  Every one of the churches that I talked to said,

“Hey, this is working for us now, but we are re-evaluating how to improve what we do to make it better … We definitely don’t have it figured out yet.”

Even one of the churches, that have 825 groups and 75% participation, was trying to figure out how to make it work better because they “still have problems.”

The thing that I kept getting was that this is one big organic monster that has to have complete buy-in from the pastor on the direction that it is going.  It has to be the senior guy’s heart and not some other thing you do that has no connection to him.  There was one church that boldly stated that they are not a “Small Group Church” but a “Church that has Small Groups.”  This is opposite of what most people will tell you to say or do, but it was done exactly in the way that the pastor had vision for it, and because of the way the rest of their ministry operated, it worked for them.  They still had over 30% participation.  The point is, first make sure it is your heart to have this ministry and not just a good idea that you “should be doing.”  If small groups are a part of your vision, then you, as the pastor, will know how they fit into the grand scheme of your church’s calling.  If it isn’t your heart, then don’t do this … there is nothing worse than an “after-thought ministry.”

I found many other commonalities of successful small group ministries that I am going to spend some more time with over the next couple of posts that I think prove interesting and yet allow for a tremendous amount of flexibility within those confines.

pic by (nutmeg)

Here is a crack at paraphrasing Law 17 of John Maxwell’s “21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership,” The Law of Priorities. For me, these have been life changing nuggets.

Regardless of how we want to think about staying busy, busyness does not equal productivity and activity does not necessarily produce accomplishment.  If you are not prioritizing, then you are not thinking ahead of where you currently are and this means that you also probably don’t have a handle on where you are in relation to your overall vision.  This can be a very scary realization.

We all know that the best things in life are fought for and are usually not obtained through walking on the easy path.  Prioritizing can cause you to do things that are uncomfortable and can be very painful, but it is necessary if we are to move forward.  One of the statements that really jumped out to me is that, “Prioritizing helps you to define reality”.  What do we call those detached from reality?  Insane.  Think about it.  The insane have a very difficult time coming to grips with the fact that they are extremely mentally ill.  We can’t do anything and be effective unless we have the clear honest picture of reality.  I have never thought about prioritizing this way, but I do now.

Maxwell also says that the top 20% (in importance) of your to do list, your goals or your core team are what you should give 80% of your time to, because it will give you the most return.

As any good article should have, here is the triad of alliteration: “The 3 R’s of Ordering Your Priorities:”

1. Requirement – Ask the question: “What can I do that no one can or should do for me?”
2. Return – Work in the areas of your greatest strength … get out of your comfort zone, but stay in your strength zone.  If it can be done 80% as well by someone else then delegate it.
3. Reward – Take time to do the things that you love.  Passion provides the fuel in your life to keep you going.

As always I pray that in some way this provides an honest self evaluation and adds life and efficiency to the church planting process.  And, of course remember to, “… walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. (Eph 5:15-16)

pic by gewhgill

According to Maggie Jackson, the author of Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age, multitasking is not necessarily the ultimate in efficiency as we might have been lead to believe.  Maggie has said that multitasking supposedly,

“… allows us to perform several tasks simultaneously. But multitasking is most often about “task-switching,” hopping back and forth among several tasks in quick succession, never giving deep, full attention to any of them. It’s characterized by frequent interruption, and that makes it highly inefficient. Each time we’re interrupted — or we interrupt ourselves — it takes time to get back to where we were on a project” (Bielaszka-DuVernay).

On the other hand she also says that,

“… in the digital age we need to multitask at times. But we also need to revalue the skills of deep focus. What I’m really arguing is that we need balance” (Bielaszka-DuVernay).

We still need to,

“… make sure we’re allowing time for reflection, problem-solving, and innovation” (Bielaszka-DuVernay).

How can we make sure we’re allowing time for reflection, problem-solving, and innovation?  Surely we don’t believe that a culture of constant multitasking and interruption is what we need to start a church and maintain ultimate efficiency.  When we are in a staff meeting, we need to make sure that people aren’t mentally absent, checking emails, updating twitter, responding to the urgent.

I am a man, and as much as I would like to think I am multitasking efficiently, the truth is I am actually fostering a culture of lost threads, stunted thinking, and stress. I cannot afford to have ideas getting abandoned and forgotten before they have a chance to develop, all at the alter of the extreme adrenaline rush sport called task-switching

On the other end, we probably all have a to-do list system of some sort that we use.  Unless this is guided by a couple of principles, you will be at the same place as extreme task switching, frustrated and numb at your inefficiencies.

“We all have those dreadful tasks that stick around on our to-do lists forever” (Trapani).

You know, the thing that has to get done (like cleaning the garage), but we without doubt always find something more pleasant to do, like organize your DVD collection.

So that we don’t make a to-do list on how to make a to-do list effective, here are two easy guidelines that will help tremendously.

1. Take time to plan out the steps – “Then break it down some more.  Don’t confuse to-do’s with goals or projects. A to-do is a single, specific action that will move a project toward completion. It’s just one step” (Trapani). For example, Clean the garage is a project and Pick a day my wife and kids are able to help is a to-do. The to-do is bite size. Like the infamous Dr. Leo Marvin would say: “Baby steps, Bob, baby steps.” This provides a step in the right direction.  Then add the next small step.
2. Be specific – You’re overdue for getting the 501(c)(3) process started, but the “Contact a Lawyer” to-do just hasn’t gotten done. “When you write that task down, use an actionable verb (call? email?) and include whatever details your future self needs to check it off” (Trapani). By having a name, phone number, and possible times lined up on your list, you make the task manageable. It becomes “something you can get done while you’re stuck in traffic with a cell phone” (Trapani).

I hope this has helped and remember to,

“… walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” (Eph 5:15-16)

Concepts and statements for the article were taken from:
Bielaszka-DuVernay, Christina. The Dangers of Distraction.
Trapani, Gina. How to Write To-Do Lists That Work.

pic by fdecomite

We are going to highlight three different aspects of time management over the next three articles.  The concepts for these articles are taken from http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org and “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” by John C. Maxwell.  As a church planter these are things that I believe can hinder and even block God’s plan to reach the fullest potential that God has for your new work.  I would also say that I had to write this to help myself; with 4 different focal points right now, this is becoming a pretty big issue more and more.

“Busy people have two options when they decide how their workdays will go: they can choose to be reactive to urgent demands on their time or proactive about focusing on what they decide is important. The only way to actually get things done is to mitigate the urgent to work on the important.

Let’s differentiate between what I call urgent and important.

Urgent tasks include things like that frantic email that needs a response RIGHT NOW; a sudden request that seems like it’ll only take two minutes but often ends up taking an hour.”
More honest than most are willing to admit, these are “tasks that you’d rather do first because they’re less intimidating than your current project list.”

The Urgent can be exciting.  Can anyone say, “Adrenaline Rush”?  The urgent is by nature “short-term and we’re drawn to them because they keep us busy, make us feel needed” and important.  If your day is filled with the urgent then the end of the day comes and you have this horrible feeling that you worked extremely hard, but the time is gone and the undone actual work is still there even more intimidating than it was yesterday.  It leaves this bad feeling right in the pit of your stomach.

“Important work moves you […] towards your goals […]  It can involve actually thinking out longer-term goals, being honest about where you […] and just doing plain hard work that feels boring and tedious.”  Include both personal and business items in this category.  Whether planning your nutritional and work out habits or “devising your yearly plan, breaking it down into quarterly and monthly deliverables” these are important aspects of your life that should take precedents over checking your email one more time to find something that you can respond to?

Here are three things that will help.

1. Make a 3-point checklist – “Write them down on a slip of paper and keep it visible on your desk. When you have a moment, instead of checking your email, look at the slip, and work on an item. Keep the list to just three, and see how many you can complete.”
2. Isolate Interruptions. – “Shut down Outlook, […] new email notifications on your BlackBerry,” disconnect from the internet if possible.  “Give yourself an hour […] of uninterrupted time” in certain parts of the day.
3. Review and revise weekly – “Put it on your calendar” and always make that meeting happen. Get out “your project list, to-do list, and calendar, and [review] what you finished that past week” and decide what needs done by the next week.

Until next time, “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” (Eph 5:15-16)

Concepts and statements for the article were taken from: How to Migrate to the Urgent

pic by ~Twon~

I found a great site for general city info at http://www.city-data.com.  I was thoroughly impressed by the sheer amount of info: median housing cost, population over the last 3 decades, ethnic mix, income ranges, weather, occupations, etc.  For the Cleveland area (which I have a personal affection for) I also found a local magazine (so named: Cleveland Magazine) that has an annual report on Cleveland and the 76 suburbs.  I would imagine most major cities would have something similar.  The nice thing about this is that the magazine not only had great stats but also a great local touch to it with a more intimate type of feel to the content.

Another great research project is found at: www.theamericanchurch.org.  This research project gives you information about the “American Church” and how your city is reacting with the church.  Answers questions such as: What percentage of your city goes to church, how many have stopped going to church, how many of those moving in are looking for a church, etc.

No matter where you are going, you need to check out www.espn.com to get all of the stats on the local college level and professional teams.  I personally don’t watch a great deal of sports, but it is great to be able get onto ESPN through the web on your phone when you get a free minute or so to be able to have a decent conversation with someone who has made sport their reason for living.

Here are a few other sites and links for getting general stats and analysis: Pew Internet, Barna Group, Lifeway Research, Hartford Institute and Church Planting Novice.

pic by Noël Zia Lee

We just got back from Ohio.  I remember when we had our first trip to the Cleveland, Ohio area, we were thinking that we would immediately know the section of town that we would be planting in.  Then, when we got there, we found out that there were 76 suburbs that would be considered the “Cleveland Ohio Area”.   I remember thinking: “You gotta be kidding me: 76 suburbs.”  So, we began our search for where to plant.  We visited and found 6 cities that we thought might be compatible with what we are called to.  We came home and prayed about where and then made plans to go back again 4 months later.

This time we took a couple of our team (the only 2 at that point) with us.  We looked at the areas, drove around, prayed, talked to people.  We came home again, prayed and looked at the material that we had acquired.  Cleveland Magazine has an annual review of all of the suburbs and rates them according to schools, real estate, security, community activity, and etc.  It was very helpful.  As a side note, there is also a great site that offers research on states and cities as it relates to church and church growth in areas.  Check out www.theamericanchurch.org, the $20 you spend is worth the info and will give good insight into the trends of your area.  So, we thought we had narrowed it down to 2 cities with an emphasis on one.  The frustrating part is that through prayer I couldn’t seem to get confirmation on the primary city.

On this last trip, I found out why I couldn’t quite get confirmation on that city.  After spending some time there, we realized that that city just isn’t going to work (not going into why right now, but trust me here).  So, I was thinking that we were back to square one again, but this time, we had some great contacts (definitely intentional on this 3rd trip).  We met with some of the pastors in that area that were church planters and are doing very well.  They were all over a thousand members, knew the city very well, and oddly enough, they were excited about us coming to help in the work.  God really worked these connections out effortlessly for us.  We met some great people that were Christians, with ministry background, which had moved and were looking for a church to connect and get involved.  They were a referral from a pastor that I know in Arkansas.  We met with another 2 couples that were in the same boat and that we actually knew when we were kids.  We are now down to 2 cities again and are very excited about the direction that God has given us so far.

So, what am I really saying here with this elevator version of our exploratory trips to the launch city area?

1. Take as many trips as you can to the launch city.  I had people pushing me to go, and I am glad they did.  To be honest, finances and time were a concern, but any time and finances you could spend here is well worth it.  We even had to raise the money for our last trip to the Cleveland area, because we couldn’t afford to go. People stepped up, and it was great to see that kind of support this early on.
2. Just because God calls you to a city does not mean that it is where you are supposed to start. Many times it is just to get you to move in the right direction and once you get in the right area, He gives clearer direction.  I had never heard of the cities that we are actually looking at planting, even though I grew up an hour away from there.  He is the Alpha and the Omega … what happens in the middle is sometimes a bit foggy and sometimes He only shows us the beginning and the end.
3. Pray for Divine connections when you go to the city. I believe that God is Jehovah Jireh, our Pro (ahead) vider (vision – seeing), the one who sees ahead of where you are and prepares things in advance, so that when we get there connections and direction are not an after-thought, but a fore-thought in the heart of God toward us.  Pray, like in Ephesians: “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling…”

If you are in this stage of the game, have fun with it and embrace it; it is a fun part of the journey.

Blessings,

Sean Alexander

www.venuechurchonline.com
www.venuechurch.blogspot.com

Reaction 1
The first kind of reaction was: “Yeah, I did an internship … seemed like a waste of time to me … I didn’t even get to preach that much.”  Some comments I would like to make to this response, again the typical 3-point outline (haha).

1. Be Teachable. The attitude that would usually go along with that was one of, “What can they really teach me that I didn’t know anyway?”  It is my opinion that it is impossible to be a good church planter, with longevity and proven success, without being teachable.  I believe the moment that we stop learning from those around us and from what is currently happening in other places is the beginning of our decline (morally, mentally and spiritually).  The greatest minds I know (yes, even the pioneers leading the way), are also some of the most teachable.
2. Be in the NOW. The phrase: “It seemed like a waste of time to me” is an interesting one.  If something seems like it will be a waste of time, then it probably will be.  There were people that had to be at bible school because their parents required it as a prerequisite to “real college.”  It seemed like a waste of time to them and therefore it was.  They got absolutely nothing out of it.  I truly believe that we should not despise small beginnings.  That if there is a path to take, then we should squeeze every bit of life, wonderment and lesson out of it, eat the meat, suck all of the marrow out and then eat the bones too (I knew people who would eat chicken that way … weird).  Embrace where you are, and you will get the most from it.
3. Be Resourceful. You can go to a church and hear a phenomenal preacher and think to yourself: “Why is there no growth here.  They should be busting at the seams with preaching like that.”  You can also go to a place where there is decent preaching but nothing to call home about and think: “Why is there so much growth and people coming to Christ every weekend.  The preaching isn’t that good.”  Preaching is a small percentage of what makes a successful church so don’t get discouraged if there isn’t a ton of stage time, because you should be learning more about solidifying the overall DNA of who you are and how you handle the day to day elements (meetings, visioneering, personal character, people building, gathering, good communication, etc) than preaching.  You should be in a place where you like “the preacher” so take notes about the general outline, mannerisms, inflections, how long, how many points, transitions and segues, setting up and knocking down, etc.  Also, during this time, do the same thing with other great communicators, through all of the free podcasts that are out there.  There is a huge resource available to you, use it.

Reaction 2
The second reaction was: “Wow!  What an awesome opportunity.  I would do anything in the world to go back and do it that way” or “It was the best thing that I did.”  These folks were very refreshing to talk to, not only because they were encouraging me to go the direction I was headed (which is always nice), but more so, because of their overall attitude toward ministry.  I generally get along with and partner up with people who are resourceful, teachable and “in the now” type people.  Their attitude toward ministry was infectious and invigorating rather than draining and negative and the fruit was there as well.
In short, whatever the case, listen to the voice of God and follow that path with everything you have and don’t look back.  Be encouraged, that it is God’s plan for your life and He can make every situation turn out for the good for those who love & serve him.

Blessings,
Sean Alexander
www.venuechuchonline.com
www.venuechurch.blogspot.com