KidsPlace

This summer my wife, Mandy, joined our staff for a 10-week project in which she got our children's ministry off the ground. She interviewed several children's ministers, researched curriculum, wrote guidelines and procedures, coordinated volunteers, and purchased equipment and supplies. Quite a 10-week project, huh! She did an amazing job, and the result is that we now have an awesome children's ministry.

We had two priorities for KidsPlace. First, we wanted every parent to feel that their child would be safe. Second, we wanted every parent to feel that their child was not just being babysat. We wanted them to know that their child would learn the Bible while they were at KidsPlace.

As to the safety component, Mandy researched background checks and other safety procedures. She settled on using a company called Protect My Ministry for the background checks. We paid $39 for an initial setup fee, and then $12-20 for an individual background check, depending on how exhaustive we want it to be. If you've ever looked into background checks, this is a good deal. The other good thing about it is that it's all done through their website.

Download KidsPlace Guidelines & Procedures
Download KidsPlace Set-up Checklist
Download KidsPlace Fall07 Budget
Download Comment Form
Download Contagious Illness Parent Note

Facility and Storage

Of all of the amazing doors that God opened over the past few months, this had to be one of the best. One day Jason dropped by the Skinner Center at Peabody Park to see if they would allow us to rent their facilities once a month. The director told him that they would rent it for $100 each Sunday. That's $100 for four hours and for as many rooms as we needed! Amazing! He called me immediately, I dropped what I was doing and came over, and we signed the paperwork.

We met there for the first time on Sunday evening, September 9, and it worked out great. We had the infants in one room, the toddlers in another, and the adults in the main room. There's also a gym that we'll probably use at some point

There was also had the issue of storage to deal with. The first church plant that I was a part of was in Nashville, and I remember every Sunday morning meeting at 7:45 at the pastor's house to load up the equipment. After a couple of years of that we ended up getting office space, so then we started meeting at the office at 7:45 to load up the equipment. I really didn't like doing that.

We decided that the best option was to purchase a trailer. That way it wouldn't be in one of the pastor's homes (which would thrill our wives). It also meant that we would be able to drive the trailer right up to the door of the room we were meeting in and unload. The negatives to this were the upfront cost of the trailer (at least $2000), the question of where to store the trailer, and the fact that the sound equipment would not be in a climate-controlled environment.

When we initially signed the papers at the Skinner Center we asked about storage, and they said they really didn't have space for us. That's when we started pursuing the trailer. One evening, though, we went to take a look at the facility to begin planning how we were going to set up the room. Right before leaving, I decided to ask the assistant director once more about the possibility of renting some space. At this point she thought that might work out.

To make a long story a bit shorter, we ended up being able to rent a good sized closet for $60/month. Now we pretty much just have to take about 20 steps holding a speaker. Not bad!

Update: A few weeks ago we went back to the director to ask him about the possibility of meeting there every week beginning in February. After talking to his supervisor, they agreed to do this for $3,600.00. That’s $3,600.00 for the entire year, and for those of you who didn’t excel in math, that’s an amazing deal. This also includes storage for the year. We’ve been amazed by God’s provision for us!

Marketing - Pt. 2

We were able to write an article for the Lamplighter, our neighborhood's monthly newspaper. Shelley Thomas, one of our newer core group members, wrote the article, and I have heard lots of good feedback on it. Here's the link to the article (it's on page 29). We ran the mailer as an ad as well (page 33). It just goes to show you that some of the best marketing is free!

Marketing

We ended up going with a marketing firm based in Benton, AR. We were referred to Shaun McFarland and YourAdTeam by Hoyt Lovelace, a fellow pastor and friend who just moved to Japan.

They did our logo.










They also helped us with our domain name (www.ncmidtown.com). The one we had come up with was not very good at all.

They did our first mailer, which went out to 5000 households at the end of August. They also did our Connection Cards (aka visitor cards), our business cards, our thank you notes, and our programs for our monthly worship gatherings.

Just like with some of these other things, I would highly recommend Shaun and YourAdTeam. The best thing about the mailer is that they are a one-stop shop. They designed it, printed it, put postage on it, and brought it to the post office for it to be mailed. I received my mailer when all of my neighbors received theirs.

As far as costs, we paid $300.00 to get a mailing list of over 5000 households. We used a company called USA Data for that. Once again, I had no experience with mailing lists, but did a little google research and found them. If you're not familiar with mailing lists, most of them retrieve data based on an address, and a 1/2 mile or mile radius. One afternoon I did a lot of driving throughout Midtown and found a central address. Then I used a 1 mile radius and we ended up with 5800 households. I cut that down to 5000, then emailed it (an Excel document) to Shaun.

We paid around $3000 for our first mailer and logo, though we will be refunded around $700 from the post office because our paperwork for a nonprofit bulk mail permit had not gone through.

We are planning on doing one more mailer right before our November service.

Download NC September mailer

Video Equipment

This was one area that I was pretty clueless in. I first began researching projectors, and was told by one person that I would need to spend at least $3000 on one. That was $2000 more than I had first estimated. I ended up buying a Dell 2400mp projector for $1000.00. That included a three year warranty. It's a 3000 lumen projector, and I've been very happy with it thus far. I purchased it here.

After spending ten to fifteen hours on a projector, I thought I would just order a screen and be done with it. After going to this site, I quickly learned that you can spend anywhere between $100 and $5000 for a projector screen. That site alone has almost 10,000 screens to choose from. Needless to say, I was a little overwhelmed.

I ended up going with a local company after not having much luck with the customer service at the above site. I stumbled onto Bluff City Electronics after doing a google search (Praise God for google, right). They were extremely helpful, and I ended up purchasing a Da-Lite tripod projector and case for a little over $200. After getting a 50-ft VGA cable, my video purchasing was complete at under $1300.00, which, by the way was just a little more than if I had purchased the projector from Dell.

Sound Equipment

I probably know a little more about sound than the average church planter because my background is worship leading. However, I still needed help in this department. I researched several church planting websites, and discovered that many sound budgets exceed $30,000. I knew that we could only do a fraction of that, so frugal shopping was essential.

I did most of our shopping at Yarbrough's Music. They spent a lot of time helping me design the system, then teaching me how to operate it once it came in.

I'll post our sound budget soon, but I can tell you that we came in under $5000.00, and I feel like we got a lot for that amount.

Download Neighborhood Church Sound Budget

Website

For most churches, the hub for information is the weekly service. People come every week and hear what is going on during the coming week. Because we are starting out with monthly worship gatherings, we knew that we needed a great website to serve this purpose.

We ended up going with a company called Ecclesia 360. I cannot speak highly enough of these guys. This company was started by church planters and their product is targeted towards church plants. The primary thing you are purchasing from them is a Content Management System. I know just a tiny bit of html, but definitely not enough to design a website that would serve the needs mentioned above. I can honestly say that I thoroughly enjoyed putting this website together using their CMS. Jason and I did all of the writing, but I got to play around with the site.

We ended up paying $2500 for the site, and we'll pay $50-60/month for the hosting. That also includes the use of the Content Management System.

I'll let you read more on it, but I highly recommend them. If you'd like to see our website, here it is.

Post-Launch Thoughts

Our first service was this past Sunday evening. Getting ready for that service was so much more work than I had first thought, and now that I've gotten caught up a little, I thought it might be helpful to others down the road if I began putting some of what we've learned down on paper (electronic paper that is).

So I'm going to use this blog to compile a procedures manual, so to speak. There is so much that we did not know going into this. I'm sure that's always the case, no matter what kind of task one is doing. However, I hope that some of the steep learning curve can be made a little less steep for other church planters.

Discovering Your Brand

In many cases, branding refers to an organization’s logo, but a logo is not a brand. Rather, it is a symbol of the brand.

Branding actually goes much deeper than design and marketing and is a representation of the unique personality of your church. It should take into account your church’s calling, strengths, and core values. In fact, your church’s brand should be communicated at every touch point your with your congregation and community.

Read more

Church Planting in North America

Watch this video. The statistics presented here are pretty staggering.

Dave Ferguson – Session 3

Here's how we count today: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5…

This wasn't always the case. 1000 years ago we counted this way: I, II, III, IV, V…

Why the change? Fibbonaci was the mathematician behind the change. The change came because of a question/problem that could not be solved using the system in place. The math problem concerned rabbit reproduction. He ended up having to create an entirely new system in order to solve the problem. By solving the problem of rabbit reproduction, Fibbonaci forever changed the way we do math and count.

Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

How do you think the disciples reacted to this proclamation by Jesus? How do we react? Either we chalk that up to grandiose, naïve dreams that are nice to talk about but which we know will never happen, or we admit that there is something fundamentally wrong with our systems, and that we have to start counting differently in order to solve this problem.

Fibbonaci gave us the problem of rabbit reproduction. Jesus gave us the problem of rapid reproduction.

Rodney Stark believes that Christianity grew from approximately 1000 Christians in 40 CE to approximately 31 million Christians in 350 CE (Cities of God, 67).

How did this happen?

What's it going to take for each of us to see rapid reproduction in our own churches?

We need to start with a big dream. Jesus gave us a big dream in Acts 1:8.

1. Dream BIG
   
2. Talk about that dream all the time. People need to know about it.
   
3. Dream big, but start small (2 Timothy 2:2)
   
   1. Start with yourself – we reproduce who we are; if we want people to be intimate with God, we have to be intimate with God
      
   2. Reproduce leaders – for small groups and teams
      
   3. Reproduce artists – for larger worship gatherings
      
4. Set goals
   

   
   

Characteristics of big dreams

1. The bigger the dream, the more profound the questions you are going to ask.
   
2. Big dreams will begin to change your prayers. You become more dependent on God. There is no way that you on your own can accomplish what you feel God wants you to do.
   
3. Big dreams are contagious.
   

How do you know when you have the culture of rapid reproduction?

1. When you're more concerned with the lost than the found; Jesus left the 99 sheep to go in search of the 1 lost sheep
   
2. When you begin to love the edge (risk) more than the center (safety)
   
3. When you begin preferring the going more than the staying
   

One of CCC's sayings: Treat them like Christians until they realize that they're not.

Bill Hybels – Session 4

There was once a community of people who were completely devoted to God. They were so devoted to God that when He told them to go, they went. They would do whatever God told them to do. In this community there was a radical love for one another that broke down every kind of wall there is. Each member used his or her spiritual gifts, and they knew that they were dependent not only on God, but on one another as well. They believed that God could perform signs and wonders, and because of this, they regularly stood in awe. The people in this community of faith burned with passion to take the gospel to their world. When they were threatened and told to stop, they met in an open room and prayed not for God to stop the Romans, but for courage to spill their blood. There was once a community of faith like this.

Hybels' Counsel for those thinking about Church Planting

• Understand the difference between a hankering and a holy discontent.
  
  • A hankering doesn't last. A true holy discontent cannot be put out. God has stirred something in you that cannot be quieted.
    
  • David – he got the point where he could not take any more trash talking by Goliath about his God.
    
  • Bob Pierce (World Vision) – He saw children dying because of a lack of food. This wrecked him for the rest of his life, and he decided right then and there to devote the rest of life towards providing food for children.
    
  • Martin Luther King, Jr. – His dream for racial reconciliation eventually killed him.
    
  • If church planting is simply a hankering, then when the hard times come, you will quit. If it is a holy discontent, then nothing anyone can do to you will stop you.
    
• Understand how God has gifted you.
  
  • Who's got what gifts?
    
  • Rank order of giftedness matters.
    
  • There are times when we have to do lots of things to keep things going, but we need to make a habit in the beginning of doing things based on our giftedness.
    
• Understand the connection between leadership and faith.
  
  • We walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7)
    
  • There are going to be countless times when the money is not there, the people are not there, and problems are all around us. If we walk by sight, we are going to lose heart.
    
  • We have to walk by faith, believing that God will do what only he can do between here and there. That's what faith is.
    
  • Faith is walking in the direction that God has told you to go, believing that somewhere between here and there, he is going to show up in power and He's going to help you do what He has called you to do.
    
  • Moses and the Red Sea
    
  • Joshua and the Jordan River
    
  • Jesus at the wedding in Canaan (faith of the wine tasters)
    
• Figure out early on if you're going to take the high road or the low road.
  
  • More than anything, people desire for their leaders to have integrity and character
    
• Ask God to let you finish with a few of the people with whom you started.
  
  • It's naïve to believe that everyone you start with will be here in twenty years, but ask God to let you finish with two or three of them.

Ed Stetzer – Session 2

Missional DNA



Acts 16:9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.



Come over to Macedonia and help us.

• Come Over
  
  • What/where is our Macedonia? Forty times in the gospel of John refers to himself as "sent." We are a sent people, and so we are to GO. As the Father has sent me, I am sending you (John 20:21). John 3:16 leads to John 20:21. The NT is a book about a God who sends, who then sends his people on mission.
    
  • Paul had a vision for a people. We have to have a vision for a people, not a vision for a church. The how of church planting is going to be influenced by the who, when and where of church planting.
    
  • We have to bring Christ, not just a church. We are planting the gospel that gives birth to a church.
    
• Help
  
  • What does "help" mean? The most important help we can give people in our neighborhood is to help them understand that it's all about Jesus.
    
  • The answer can be found in the text. It was the preaching and the proclamation of the Gospel. It's at this point that Luke begins writing "we" instead of "they." It was at this point that he joined them in this "helping."
    
  • 2 Corinthians 5:11-21 Here we find words like persuade, compel, appeal, implore, reconcile, ambassador.
    
  • The totality of the Christian message is not that we can be saved from hell. It is much bigger than that. However, if at any point we remove a bloody Cross from our message, then what we are planting is not a church.
    
  • Francis Dubose, God Who Sends
    
  • If being missional is reduced to simply helping people with their physical needs, then this is not the complete help that they need.
    
  • We must BE, DO, & TELL the Gospel (good news). We must do all of these in a relevant way.
    
  • Relevance is a tool. The Gospel is the goal. We must not mix those two up. Relevance should never be our goal.
    
• Us
  
  • The "us" here refers to a lost world. Lost people matter to God.
    
  • Augustine: "My heart was restless until it had found its rest in Thee."
    
  • People have a God-shaped hole.
    
  • John Knox: "Give me Scotland or I die."
    

Ways to Determine Whether Relevance Has Become the Goal Rather than the Tool

1. When we focus on personal transformation and not gospel transformation. Gospel transformation will always include personal transformation. The same is not always true for personal transformation.
   
2. When our sermons are so practical that they do not contain the gospel. We should not preach any message that would not be true if Jesus had not died on the Cross. This is what separates us from Dr. Phil.
   
3. When we talk more about practical than we do about biblical. Do we believe that the Bible shape who we are?
   
4. When our outreach demeans those who are preaching the gospel.
   
5. When our approach makes us the hero rather than Jesus.
   
6. When personal evangelism is an oxymoron at our church.
   
7. When Invest and Invite never leads to Evangelize.
   
8. When attendance is a bigger value than conversion.
   
9. When the cross gets less focus than our church.
   
10. When not offending seekers is more important than telling the gospel.
    

National New Church Conference

This conference was going on at the same time as I was in Atlanta for Q, so I'm grateful that they have the audio from their main sessions available for download. You can download them here. I've listened to two of them so far, and both have been very thought provoking. I thought I'd take some notes on both of them.

Donald Miller - Storytelling

Jason sent me this article from Christianity Today.

Marketing Tips from Christian Community Church

Dave Ferguson, the lead pastor at Community Christian Church, shares the three keys to creating a big weekend at his church.

1. Marketing - If mailing postcards, Dave recommends mailing to each household 1-3 pieces for awareness and 4-6 pieces for action. Recently, they tried something new and launched a web-based campaign and also used door hangers and yard signs.

2. Inviting - CCC challenges its people to commit to bring three people.

3. Wow! - Lastly, they make sure to create a “Wow!” experience for first time guests.

Marketing Tips from Fellowship Church

Some excerpts:

• Banners and signage outside the church are worth every penny. Many visitors have told us that they saw our signs and logged on to our Miami campus website for more information.
• We made sure the front page of [the website] is very easy to navigate with important information prominently displayed, and also included content that would give them a taste of the Fellowship Miami experience.
• Because of a press release we filed two weeks ago with national and local news agencies, the Miami Herald was on site covering our Kickoff Weekend.
• Nothing beats one-on-one dialogue. Whether we are in local stores, restaurants or just waiting in line somewhere, we strike up conversations with the people around us. Building relationships within the community is the most successful form of outreach available.
• Our staff personally calls each first time visitor. And we’re making a special effort to call in the evenings so we can actually talk to the visitors, answer questions and invite them back.
• We know that our overall vision for this environment will take time to achieve. But we are taking immediate, easy steps (and lots of volunteer elbow grease) to upgrade the campus by planting additional landscaping and applying fresh paint. We’ve brought in some more modern wood tables for hospitality areas. We’re adding music, Cuban coffee and local pastries to create a welcoming atmosphere. And we’re fanatical about keeping the facility sparkling clean!
• A positive attitude and huge smile are tremendous assets in attracting people to any church. We have a team of floaters (greeters) who circulate throughout the entrance and areas outside the worship center, so visitors usually are engaged in several conversations before they sit down. The parking lot entrance is flanked by greeters who wave at passing traffic and incoming cars. In fact, we just talked to some visitors recently who said they turned around and came back because we waved at them!

More on Church Marketing

Here are some more links I've found. Most are from Church Relevance.

10 Big Web Photography Mistakes

15 Questions for the Perfect Postcard

How to Get what your Postage Pays For

Online Children’s Ministry Check-In System

Three Lessons about Owning a Website

Some useful tips on domain names.

Influencing Culture - Gabe Lyons

Gabe Lyons is the co-founder of The Fermi Project, the organization that put on Q. This is a great read if you'd like to understand more about the Church's role in shaping culture.

Review of Cities of God

Here's a review of Rodney Stark's newest book, Cities of God. I just ordered it, and am looking forward to reading it.

Copyright Issues

Note: I haven't listened to this yet, so I'm not sure how good it is.

Free Creative Content from LifeChurch.tv

Church = a self-theologizing community?

I like what I've been reading by this guy! This is the second part of his review of Breaking the Missional Code. Stetzer and Putnam refer to three types of emergent churches: relevants, reconstructionists, and revisionists. They appreciate and promote the first two types, but warn against the third type. You can read more here.

Bolger is not so sure that being a revisionist is so bad. (Actually, he doesn't like the term revisionist, so he uses a self-theologizing, which is pretty different). Here's what he writes:

In the nineteenth century, Rufus Anderson and Henry Venn contributed a new idea to missiology -- that of the three-self formula. They advocated that a new church work or mission, if it is to become indigenous, must be self-supporting, self-propagating, and self-governing. My colleague, Charles Van Engen, mission theologian (and former President of the Reformed Church of America), advocates a fourth 'self' -- self-theologizing. Why his addition to the formula?

A new community must be self-theologizing or it will become nominal. Self-theologizing, how? To become an indigenous expression of faith, a community must form its life around scripture, engaging their culture within a praxis-reflection orientation. In other words, the community goes deep into the word in order to answer the questions of their culture. They 'practice' those answers in the world, and then reflect biblically again. Instead of self-theologizing, however, what frequently happens is that new faith communities are given a theology that answers nineteenth-century questions, or sixteenth-century questions, or fifth-century questions. These historical works will undoubtedly be helpful, but they will inevitably leave some questions unanswered. Each context presents its own issues. If the deep questions of a culture go unanswered, then Christians will seek answers elsewhere, without reference to scripture, thus inviting in nominality.

What Stetzman and Putman call revisionist I see as self-theologizing: reading scripture in light of a culture's questions. These emerging "self-theologians" copy the example of historical theologians engaging their particular culture) but they do not necessarily copy their responses.

Bounded and Centered

This post is a review by Ryan Bolger on Breaking the Missional Code, by Ed Stetzer and David Putnam. In the review he critiques their use of Christian and non-Christian, believing that it implies "that that church is inherently good and unchurched is correspondingly bad." Instead, he believes that a better language might be in order. He prefers the terms "bounded and centered."

Tim Keller gives the following descriptions of bounded and centered sets...

In mathematics, there are two different ways to define a 'set'. One is a 'bounded set'. A point is in the set if it is related properly to (i.e. if it is inside) the boundary. Another is the 'centered set'. A point is in the set if it is related properly to (i.e. if it is in alignment with or moving toward) the center of the set. Organizations that are 'bounded sets' put great emphasis on the lines of demarcation 'around the circle' – at all points. 1) A person cannot work with or be part of the organization in any meaningful sense without the rite of initiation and the adoption of extensive standards which set the person apart. 2) Differences between members and the outside world are emphasized. 3) Membership is defined in terms of common beliefs and policies and folkways that are pretty extensive. Organizations that are centered-sets put more emphasis on central goals and commitments. 1) A person can work with the organization as long as it shares basic goals and is willing to work for them. 2) Differences between members and the outside world are not emphasized. 3) Membership is defined in terms of active participation toward common tasks and goals.

Bolger says it this way: "What matters is not whether we are in or out (churched or unchurched), but instead it is our direction that matters – are we moving closer to the King (or Kingdom) or moving further away?"

He goes on to say:

Why is that important? Well, given our knowledge of history, we see that some churches do not exhibit kingdom aspects -- they do not manifest the fruits of the spirit, nor do they stand for justice in the world. Using Hiebert’s rubric, these churches would be moving away from the center. Conversely, some unchurched people serve the poor (among many other good things) and are moving in God’s direction. Again, we measure what we value, and church, apart from kingdom activities, becomes a club, a lifestyle enclave, a meaningless endeavor. Indeed, the church is dependent on its mission for its very identity. So, kingdom and movement are better markers of faithfulness to the gospel than are churched and unchurched.

My friend Linda Bergquist first explained bounded and centered sets to me about four years ago. I have to admit that at first I really didn't understand what she was talking about. However, as I have been placed by God into cultures that were either apathetic or hostile to the gospel and to church, I have begun to see the importance of this.

Follow Me

Mark Batterson gives some thoughts on the simplicity of Jesus' message of discipleship.

Just wanted to share a thought. I've been reflecting on the simplicity of Jesus' invitation: follow me. That invitation is repeated twenty times in the gospels.

Find Your Own Calcutta

Can I share a goal? I never want NCC to feel like a church. I want us to feel like a movement. The church is way too static these days! The church is called to knock down the gates of hell. The church is the vehicle whereby heaven invades hell.

That is why the world resonated with Mother Teresa. She brought heaven to a hell hole. By the way, I love the advice Mother Teresa gave when someone asked them how they could make a difference with their life the way she'd made with hers. Mother Teresa said, "Find Your Own Calcutta."

Rethinking Discipleship

The National New Church Conference was taking place at the same time I was at Q. David Putnam, co-author of Breaking the Missional Code, taught a breakout session. Here are the notes. They're very good.

Missional Families - Bob Roberts

Each person has to determine how they are called to incarnationally live out the Gospel and the principles of the Kingdom in their own context of work, neighborhood, community, nation and world.

Tim Keller on How Churches Will Be Effective in City-Centers

This is from the current issue of Vineyard's Cutting Edge church planting publication.

1. Hold the historic Christian gospel-- orthodox and Biblical in doctrine and practice, but are neither legalistic nor liberal, neither doctrinalist nor pietist, neither individualistic nor collectivistic.

2. Have a positive regard for the city; recognize that it is the most strategic possible place for ministry.

3. Neither over or under adapt to the culture of those in their surrounding neighborhood and culture.

4. Are intensely, creatively evangelistic and effective in reaching not just people who are already traditional or conservative but who are very secular.

5. Relentlessly emphasize and seek to build strong, "thick" counter-cultural Christian community in cities, especially through cell groups.

6. Are holistic, ministering in both word and deed to their community and the poor in extremely creative and generous ways.

7. Have a bias toward being multi-ethnic-- seek to be at least as multi-ethnic as their neighborhood.

8. Are arts and culture friendly; both supportive of Christian witness in "secular work" and willing to train people for cultural leadership, not just church leadership.

9. See church planting as a ministry as natural and important as discipleship, music, education, and pastoral care.

Top 10 Ways a Core Group Can Kill a Church

1. Talk about how much you love your church because it's so small and personable.
2. If your church doesn't have a particular ministry, start attending it at another church, rather than starting one where you are.
3. Don't forgive anyone for hurting you or offending you.
4. Instead of telling the pastor about your frustrations, hold out in silence as long as you can, getting angrier and angrier until you can finally leave in one, unforseen blaze of flaming glory.
5. Go to church for what you get out of it.
6. Don't invite anyone.
7. Forget faith ~ that's the pastor's job. Sit back and wait to see what happens, rather than becoming personally invested.
8. Use "prayer" as a conversational piece rather than a spiritual discipline (as in: "I'll be praying for you," or "Let me pray about that.")
9. Do frequent "polling" in hallway conversations to see if other people have the same concerns about the church as you.
10. Meditate on how wonderful the church would be if it weren't for the pastor.

The New Discipleship: Converted to a Cause before Christ

I like the term "missional community" because I think it contains two very important elements for people. People want to belong, and as this guy says, they want to belong before they believe. The other key, though, is that people want to be a part of something bigger than themselves. This is where mission comes in. The mission of God is the biggest thing that we could ever involve ourselves in. This writer believes that the mission, or, another way of stating it, the "getting involved", is more important to a lot of people than community (belonging).

"I would submit that it is mission that provides the motion from which community is created... In this scenario, community isn't the key for reaching the lost, but CAUSE is the key."

Church Marketing with Stock Photography

I just used iStockphoto.com for a mortgage ad, and really like it.

Lesa Snider King, the chief evangelist of iStockphoto.com, recently an excellent tip with MinistryCOM on how to create an engaging postcard with stock photography:

You have precious few moments to grab someone’s attention, and the simplest way to do it is by using strong, effective imagery.

The next time you create an event postcard, spend less time on the text or copy, and more time on choosing an image that communicates what the event is all about. Pick something eye-catching, something powerful, and colorful. After all, if you can’t grab the person’s attention with your image, it’s unlikely they’ll read your copy!

Of course, this principle applies to any church marketing you do. Effective communication requires that you can first get the individual’s attention.

Related Reading:
- 10 Big Web Photography Mistakes
- 15 Questions for the Perfect Postcard
- Direct Mail Technique :: Using a #12 Envelope
- How to Get What Your Postage Pays For

Howard Snyder on Missional Church

Howard Snyder in Decoding the Church writes of missional church in chapter 3. The missional church is genetically missional, an alternative community, a covenant community, and Trinitarian.

Genetically Missional

The church is genetically missional because it is the community of Jesus Christ, God’s great missionary. It is the body of Christ, the community called into existence by the mission of God. this is the starting point for all ecclesiology… Mission is the church’s DNA, even if mission often gets suppressed in practice.

An Alternative Community

A missional church is an alternative community called to build its own culture, economy, and lifestyle in the world and among all peoples. A faithful fchurch is a visible alternative to both neopagan society and to ecclesial models of Christendom that clash with the church’s basic DNA… The church is an alternative community when its mission is the kingdom of God. Its mission makes it countercultural. ANd it is an alternative reality when it exists as a covenant community.

A Covenant Community

A mssional church is covenantal. The church is the covenanted community of God’s reign. The covenant calls the church to ministry and mission, to “equip [God’s people] for the work of ministry (Eph 4:12) and to structure its life and mission accordingly.

A Trinitarian Community

A missional church is Trinitarian. The Trinity teaches us about ecclesiology and mission. Because the church is Trinitarian — based on what God the Father has done and will do through Christ by the power of the Spirit — the church is at the same time incarnational and eschatological.

Read the rest of this post here.

Some Reasons Why the Lone "Senior Pastor" Might Not Make Sense Anymore

At Life on the Vine, we recently added a fourth pastor. Some people told me such multiple leadership would never work. There would be no single face to attach to the vision of the church. Therefore the church would never grow.

Balderdash (is that a word?). The church continues to grow. Signs of healing, new mission, new souls finding God abound.

I now preach approximately half the time. On a typical Sunday morning, the preaching is approximately 25 minutes. But you should know that at our church the gathering does not gather to just hear the preacher. The worship gathering does not culminate and focus on the preacher delivering a masterpiece. Our time together is meant to be a gathering fully engaged with meeting and responding to God, all He has done, what He is saying. And then we are sent out from here collectively into mission. And so honestly, many times I think I've blown the sermon really badly, yet the time together did not miss a beat. The proclamation of the gospel reality over us all is important, but it is not the isolated core of the service. We come to worship to hear from and respond to God corporately.

Review of The Forgotten Ways

A couple of months ago now I started reading Alan Hirsch's latest book, The Forgotten Ways. Along with Michael Frost, he wrote The Shaping of Things to Come, one of the most important books in the area of the church and missiology that many of us have ever read. Not only can they write good books together but they can write solo as well. Michael Frost's book Exiles came out last year and Alan Hirsch's book, The Forgotten Ways showed up in my mailbox in early 2007. For the last two months every free moment has been spent with the book or thinking about the consequences of what has been written. It's a book that I will read more than once but here are some early thoughts that will do the book justice.

The book is divided into two sections. Section One is “The Making of a Missionary.” Hirsch tells his own story. It is a path that many of us would recognize that starts with him in the "come to us" attractional model of doing church that has defined evangelicalism since it became part of the establishment to moving towards a missional incarnation. Section Two is titled “A Journey to the Heart of Apostolic Genius.” There we explore what Hirsch calls Missional DNA. Methodists will recognize the work of Howard Snyder who has used the DNA analogy in the past. For us Canadians who read a lot of Alan Roxburgh, you will recognize the concepts of liminality and "communitas vs. community".

A Starbucks Conversation - John Burke

Ideally, pastors would be cultural anthropologists or experts on the unchurched. Instead, non-Christians often complain that pastors can’t relate to them or their culture. As a pastor,
do you interact with non-Christians on a daily basis? Do you know what the average unchurched person thinks about Jesus, heaven and hell, and Christians in general? What would make him or her willing to explore Christianity? Maybe even at your church?

If you haven’t asked these questions lately, much less gotten answers, you may unknowingly have lost touch with the culture and the very people you’re trying to reach. Get reacquainted with your “target audience,” as you listen in on this casual conversation with Jennifer, 29, Lalit, 33, Sree, 35, Geno, 28, James, 40, and Lars, 34, who share with Gateway Community Church’s Pastor John Burke the insights you need to know to reach them.

Church Plants: Why Some Survive

According to research from the Center for Missional Research:

• 99% of church plants survive the 1st year
• 92% survive the 2nd year
• 81% survive the 3rd year
• 68% survive the 4th year

Four reasons why are:

1. Expectations
   >> 87% with realistic expectations survived
   >> 61% with unmet expectations survived
2. Leadership Development
   >> 79% with leadership training for church members survived
   >> 59% with no leadership training for church members survived
3. Peer Groups
   >> 83% with planters who were part of a church planting peer group survived
   >> 67% with planters who were not part of a church planting peer group survived
4. Stewardship Plans
   >> 81% with a stewardship development plan survived
   >> 67% with no stewardship development plan survived

Demographics

Here are two sites that provide free demographic research.

Yahoo's Neighborhood Profiles

Claritas

Three Questions for Church Evaluation

Craig Groeschel of LifeChurch.tv (Edmond, OK) shares three questions on his blog that are valuable in evaluating the quality and effectiveness of your church.

1. If you weren’t on staff at your church, would you worship there?
2. If you didn’t know ANYTHING about Jesus, what would you know about him after a normal weekend at your church?
3. If you had a loved one who didn’t know Christ, and they had one week left to live, would you take them to your church or another?

Seven Rules for Church Project Management

Next week we're having our first launch team meeting. We have a lot to do in the next few months to get ready for the Fall. These are some resources from Church Relevance that I've found helpful.

Seven Rules for Church Project Management

Women Prefer Direct Mail More than Email

Church Marketing with Stock Photography

Why People Do and Do Not Attend Church

Four Essential Elements for Church Logo Designs

Free Marketing Resources from Southeast Christian Church

Email vs. Direct Mail

Ten Factors for Higher Attendance in Church Plants

Free Online Courses on Marketing, Management & Leadership

Free Admin Resources from NorthPoint Community Church

Is Evangelism Necessary?

This is the question that Jason Clark poses in this post. He sets the question up by sharing a story about the time when we was on vacation in Hawaii with his wife and they ended up saving a couple from drowning.

Shane Claiborne on Hell - Pt. 2

Here's part 2.

Shane Claiborne on Hell - Pt. 1

Here's an article by Shane Claiborne.

I figure anytime you are about to talk about hell it’s good to start with a joke, so here we go….It was a busy day in heaven as folks waited in line at the pearly gates. Peter stood as gatekeeper checking each newcomer’s name in the Lamb’s Book of Life. But there was some confusion, as the numbers were not adding up. Heaven was a little overcrowded, and a bunch of folks were unaccounted for. So some of the angels were sent on a mission to investigate things. And it was not long before two of them returned, “We found the problem,” they said. “Jesus is out back, lifting people up over the gate.”

I remember as a child hearing all the hellfire and damnation sermons. We had a theater group perform a play called, “Heaven’s Gates and Hell’s Flames” where actors presented scenes of folks being ripped away from loved ones only to be sent to the fiery pits of hell where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, and we all went forward to repent of all the evil things we had done over our first decade of life, in paralyzing fear of being “left behind”… the preacher literally scared the “hell” out of us.

But have you ever noticed that Jesus didn’t spend much time on hell.

Why is Cultural Relevance a Big Deal?

Great post by Ed Stetzer.

The scriptures are relevant to this and every culture. They do not need updating, correcting, or revisioning. On the contrary, what needs revisioning is our understanding and obedience to God's word as we live out His mission in context. When we live a humble orthodoxy and humble missiology, we will be salt and light in contemporary culture—a biblically-faithful, culturally-relevant, counter culture. Here is a brief article I wrote for my friends at Catalyst that might be an encouragement:

Ed Stetzer Interviews Mark Driscoll

Finding a Facility

Something we're going to have to do soon.

Elder Government - Mark Driscoll

Leadership Lessons from Nehemiah

These are two audio teachings from Mark Driscoll. Highly recommended!

Part 1
Part 2

A Quote by Seth Goden on Creativity

Goden just nailed me with this.

99% of the time, in my experience, the hard part about creativity isn’t coming up with something no one has ever thought of before. The hard part is actually executing the thing you’ve thought of.
- Seth Godin

10 Tips for Making Meetings Effective

Interview with Bob Roberts

This is a great interview of Bob Roberts by the people with Out of Ur. The interview is titled "We Aren't About Weekends." Northwood Church, where Roberts pastors, has made some intentional decisions on what they are and, more importantly, what they aren't, going to be about.

Fighter Verses

This is the entire list of Fighter Verses. The Fighter Verses System was developed by John Piper. It's a great tool for memorizing Scripture.

Beginning a Conversation about Christ

This is Resurgence post by Ed Stetzer on evangelism.

Biblical Eldership

This is a post by Alexander Strauch on eldership. (I don't know if this is an excerpt from his book or not),

Leadership thoughts from Mark Batterson

Excerpts

I feel like my primary job as lead pastor of National Community Church is to make sure we keep playing offense. We need to keep learning, keep growing, keep experimenting, and keep making mistakes.

At some point most leaders start doing ministry out of memory and stop doing ministry out of imagination. They start repeating the past and stop creating the future. And most churches stop taking the risks that got them to where they are. They start playing defense.

Interview with Phyllis Tickle

Out of Ur interviews Phyllis Tickle on the future of the emerging church.

What are we going to be about?

This post comes from a missional community in Florida. I've been deeply influenced by what they've written (primarily this post). There's some good language here.

Mark Driscoll on Preaching

10 Tips for Preaching and Teaching

Seven Guiding Principles on Church Structure

This post is from Mark Batterson, pastor of National Community Church in D.C.

Rodney Stark Interview

Alan Hirsch interviews Rodney Stark

Michael Frost: Unless a Seed Falls

Here is the audio from a conference taught by Michael Frost (co-author of The Shaping of Things to Come).

Small Missional Community or Mega Church - which is harder?

I came across this David Fitch post on why starting a missional community from scratch is more difficult than starting a "potential" mega church when you have a large core to begin with.

Why I started this blog

I find that most of my posts on my other blogs end up being links to articles that have provoked my thinking. Some of those might be useful to others, some are pretty much just for me. Therefore...I decided to start this blog so that I can post links to my heart's delight.