By unSeminary: Thanks for tuning in to this week’s unSeminary podcast. We’re excited to be talking with Vivienne Bechtold, the Director of Studio and Leadership Development at Crossroads Church in Ohio. Crossroads has been one of the fastest growing churches in the country for several years, but this growth hasn’t happened without being intentional about reaching those who are far from Jesus. Listen in as Vivienne shares how Crossroads has used data to make informed decisions about how to be increasingly effective at drawing more people into a relationship with Christ.

Use data for marketing. // Most churches try to collect some sort of information from the people who visit or attend. However if you don’t dig into that data, you won’t know how it can help you understand your audience better. Vivienne has spent 27 years in the marketing industry and now runs Studio, an internal agency at Crossroads that interprets data, handles research, design, marketing, social media and other digital products for the church. Their ultimate goal is to help the church more effectively reach people who are far from God. Learning to market to people using the data you collect isn’t just about numbers, but about being curious about people and the insights behind the numbers.Understand who you’re reaching. // Initially Crossroads didn’t have a team handling their data and marketing, but rather started with two people that would do focus groups and one-on-ones to gather research on what attendees were looking for. The church then built an analytics team that mined that data about who was coming, what areas they were coming from, what their demographics were, and so on. Using these insights, Crossroads started to put together a picture of who was drawn to the church and what they needed. This information led to them targeting a group of a dozen 25 to 35 year old men who didn’t go to Crossroads. Church staff went to where these people hung out, interviewed some of them, and invited them to attend two services and then offer feedback on their experiences.Implement changes. // The information Crossroads received from these new guests helped them to see the Sunday experience from the perspective of a visitor. As a result, they were aware of what people connected with and what turned them off. They made changes in training their teams how to recognize new people, right from the parking lot, so they could serve guests better. Crossroads also altered the order of their service. Rather than starting with worship, they started with something that would help connect people coming in with what was going to happen the rest of the time. Seekers often didn’t understand the value of worship and instead wanted to hear a message, so the church wanted to make sure their visitors stayed to hear the teaching.Your strongest marketing tool. // Crossroads discovered that when their people knew the topic of an upcoming message, or some sound bites that would be interesting to their friends, they were much more likely to invite others to church. When your people invite their friends or family to church, it is the most powerful marketing strategy you can use. Empower your people to share about the church and what is coming up in a sermon series by providing tools for social media or email that can be shared. Consider direct mail pieces leading up to Easter or Christmas and work with the natural dynamics of how people interact with your church.Use data to rebrand. // Churches tend to plateau after 20 years and in order to get over that, they need to reinvent themselves. Crossroads found that the seekers coming to their church today were different than ones from 25 years ago, and generally had no experience with church at all. So the church began to ask how to be relevant to these people today and reevaluated its branding. Crossroads realized their branding was very corporate and wanted it to be more unfiltered, fun and and fearless, which better represented what the church had grown into. So Crossroads rebranded in 2020 to better capture who they were as well as target that group of 25-35 year old men they are trying to keep in mind. The rebrand includes new colors and visuals, but also new vocabulary that everyday people use. Crossroads talks about themselves as “Spiritual Outfitters” that equip and guide you through this adventure that you were made for as you follow God. Consider your church’s current branding and if it’s serving to help reach the people you are targeting.Look to the future. // As we continue to collect data and process our learnings from 2020, it can inform changes we need to make for the future. One lesson is that first impressions can happen a lot of different places, including online, and when people do show up in person, they are looking to connect more quickly. Pay attention to when people want to watch sermons online. For some, Sunday mornings may now mean family time. Are your people more likely to listen to a message and participate in worship online, but come to a physical location for groups or service opportunities? The pandemic was a time of isolation so think about how can you help people engage and serve together when they attend church at your physical location.

To learn more about Crossroads Church, you can visit them at www.crossroads.net or download their app at www.crossroads.net/app. If your church is considering a rebrand, check out the book “What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand-Building Principles that Separate the Best from the Rest” by Denise Lee Yohn.

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Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: Chemistry Staffing

It’s important for church leaders to pursue the right fit for the right position, which helps determine a long-term, healthy fit. It all starts with properly assessing the applicant’s resumé. Download Chemistry Staffing’s Resumé Screening Playbook and walk through a screening process that will help you discover which candidates to focus on.

Source: Leveraging Research to Drive Design & Communication Insights at Crossroads Church with Vivienne Bechtold

The post Leveraging Research to Drive Design & Communication Insights at Crossroads Church with Vivienne Bechtold appeared first on Passion for Planting.

Source: Does Church Branding Matter?

The post Does Church Branding Matter? appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Carey Nieuwhof: Silicon Valley titan Pat Gelsinger, the CEO of VMWare and former CTO of Intel, and Scott Beck, who scaled Blockbuster Video, Boston Market, Einstein Brothers Bagels and Ancestry.com, and is the Founder of Gloo, talk about how the future church can use technology to reach people and connect people.

Pat and Scott also talk with Carey about why church leaders resist technology, privacy concerns and why the future is more relationally-connected than we imagine.

Welcome to Episode 372 of the podcast. Listen and access the show notes below or search for the Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and listen for free.

Plus, in this episode’s What I’m Thinking About segment, Carey talks about weird lies that pastors and church leaders believe about church online.

Guest Links

Pat Gelsinger on Twitter | Gloo | GlooConnect

Episode Links

Remodel Health

The season to reevaluate your health benefits is right around the corner. Are you ready for it?

These times are challenging enough for leaders within churches and faith-based organizations, let alone trying to navigate health insurance questions and rate increases! What if you could have an industry expert come alongside you to not only help you understand your options, but find a solution that could save you and your employees hundreds of thousands of dollars? I know this sounds too good to be true, but I promise you it isn’t.

Remodel Health is the health benefits software and consulting service that helps employers save money and care better for their teams. By switching organizations from traditional group insurance to individual plans for each employee, Remodel Health helps you and your team tap into significant savings on health insurance.

To date, Remodel Health has helped Carey Nieuwhof listeners save $2.1 million in the last year and a half! Imagine what your ministry could do with that extra money. We know right now is a very challenging time for churches, so why not take healthcare off your list of financial stressors.

If you’re interested in learning more, Remodel Health’s benefits consultants can run a free analysis for your unique team to help you evaluate all of your options.

Visit remodelhealth.com/carey today to learn more and get access to their free Savings Calculator, Church Buyer’s Guide and brand new e-book.

ServeHQ

Our partner, ServeHQ, is launching a new option for homeschool families and we want to tell you about it.

Homeschool Magnet supports homeschooling families by providing students with instruction from world-class credentialed teachers in a remote classroom with their peers. Parents choose the best teachers for each student based on values and teaching approach to ensure every child is receiving exactly the education they desire. This puts you, as the parent, in full control of your child’s education without the daily responsibilities of lesson planning, pre-learning, teaching, tutoring, and grading.

Each student will receive instruction in the four core subject areas of Math, English, Language Arts, Science and Social Studies. Parents ultimately have the freedom to involve their student in as much or as little learning as they prefer based on each student’s learning goals.

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Learn more about Homeschool Magnet’s student experience, by going to homeschoolmagnet.com and join the growing waitlist.

CONVERSATION LINKS

GlooConnect

The Juggling Act by Pat Gelsinger

Moore’s Law

ChurchPulse Weekly

Barna

7 Weird Lies About Online Church Pastors Need to Stop Believing by Carey Nieuwhof

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INSIGHTS FROM PAT AND SCOTT

1. Your church should use technology, not rejecting it, to reach more people

If you look back at the times of Martin Luther, it’s obvious that it would have been foolish for him to say, “We shouldn’t use the printing press to print more bibles. We should keep doing things the way they’ve always been done.” The printing press was a groundbreaking advance of technology that allowed more Christians to have access to the Bible.

The problem is that many Christians and churches are doing the exact thing with the internet. A lot of pastors are looking at online technology and saying, “It’s only temporary.” Or, “We need to keep getting people into our buildings on Sunday morning.” Sadly, those leaders are going to miss out on the biggest opportunity to spread the Gospel in our lifetime.

2. Privacy needs to be a priority as you move forward with technology

While technology is great, there are some dangers that come with any new technology. One of the biggest concerns with using the internet is data privacy. If your church has an email list or an online database of any kind, you know this is a challenge. Where do you store your members’ data? What happens if it gets hacked? How should you use it?

As you move online, you should put more energy into making sure your church’s data is secure. Platforms like Gloo and GlooConnect are backed with the highest data security in the world and have the resources to continually watch for potential breaches. Most churches don’t have the bandwidth or resources to do this, so it’s critical to outsource this.

3. Digital churches need to scale 1-to-1 interactions along with the 1-to-many

Pastors are focused on three things right now when it comes to online church: Video broadcasting, video broadcasting and video broadcasting. That’s great, but if you want to begin engaging more people online, you need to do more than just broadcast. You need to scale online 1-on-1 interactions as you scale up your broadcast interactions online.

As you put more and more of your effort online, ask yourself, “How am I helping my church have more 1-on-1 or 1-on-a few interactions online?” Are you providing Zoom rooms? Running ad campaigns around certain felt needs? Whatever you do, your ability to scale your reach will match your ability to scale healthy and helpful 1-on-1 interactions.

Quotes from Episode 372

90% of humanity will be persistently connected to the internet by 2030. 10 billion people are part of your potential congregation. @PGelsinger

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There are going to be two types of churches going forward. There’s going to be the phigital church, that is digital and physical, or the church that’s all digital. @PGelsinger

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This is the opportunity for churches to really scale, to really reach the world. – Scott Beck

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If you’re a physical-only church, you’re dead in the future. I just don’t think that you’re going to be able to survive in this increasing digitally-connected world. @PGelsinger

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Christ didn’t command us to go build churches, he said, ‘Go make disciples.’ @PGelsinger

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There’s nothing more important today than to be able to make sure that the smallest recovery center, the smallest church has the world-class capabilities to be able to leverage technologies. – Scott Beck

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Church is limited today by the capital of the edifices that we’re building. @PGelsinger

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We have to bring technology into the right design in order for it to be used for personal growth and for God’s purposes. – Scott Beck

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The average American spends 152 minutes a day on social media alone. @cnieuwhof

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People are screened out on things that aren’t interesting to them. They’re screened out on bad content, but are they screened out? Nope. @cnieuwhof

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Read or Download the Transcript for Episode 372

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Turn Online Viewers into Real Relationships: Meet GlooConnect

Ever wondered how to turn online viewers into real relationships?

Every day, people visit your church website and access your content, but few ever really identify.

GlooConnect is a new solution that gives people watching the opportunity to introduce themselves to your church.

It can help your church:

Get a steady stream of introductions to people ready to connect with your church
Build real relationships with the people visiting your church’s website
Connect with people who are looking for guidance, hope, and support in life’s challenges where their church is already equipped to serve
Participate in world-class digital campaigns to reach people with needs in your community
Do digital outreach in a way that’s compliant with the strictest privacy laws in the world

GlooConnect lets you pastor while GlooConnect programs. No extra staff. No complex tech. Get started in as little as 15 minutes, and get ready to meet the people already connecting with you online.

To get instant access to GlooConnect and learn more, click here, and make 2021 a year of unprecedented growth for your church.

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Next Episode: Andy Stanley

In July 2020, Andy Stanley made national news when he announced North Point would not reopen until 2021. In this interview, Andy explains his reasons for the decision, the methodology he uses to find clarity, what he’s learning about preaching to a camera and the hardest part of the pandemic for him personally.

Subscribe for free now so you won’t miss Episode 373.

The post CNLP 372: Pat Gelsinger and Scott Beck on the Future Church, How to Connect with the People Watching Your Church Online and Why So Many Church Leaders Resist Tech appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: CNLP 372: Pat Gelsinger and Scott Beck on the Future Church, How to Connect with the People Watching Your Church Online and Why So Many Church Leaders Resist Tech

The post CNLP 372: Pat Gelsinger and Scott Beck on the Future Church, How to Connect with the People Watching Your Church Online and Why So Many Church Leaders Resist Tech appeared first on Passion for Planting.

COVID is teaching us, the church, many lessons. Obviously, there are many lessons about the value of Church Online or Discipleship Online. But why stop there? Church Communications Directors have been working overtime in this COVID season, managing the chaos that has been 2020.

While we don’t talk about Communications much here at THECHURCH.DIGITAL, let’s pause and ask some questions. To that end, we’ve pulled in three church communication experts from around the country to ask them some simple questions… what have you learned in this COVID season? What are you currently experimenting with? How can communication help your church go PHYGITAL? All sorts of fun questions that can help your church take the next steps in communications.

If you’re enjoying this episode, subscribe for free using your favorite podcast app below:

Apple Podcasts | RSS Feed | Anchor | Overcast | Spotify | Pocket Casts | Google Play

ON THE SHOW

Source: PODCAST 095: Launching & Elevating Church Communication Teams

The post PODCAST 095: Launching & Elevating Church Communication Teams appeared first on Passion for Planting.

By: The Church.Digital

The short answer is no – the very definition of social media confirms that the purpose of social media is for “users (to) create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content”. (Merrian Webster)

So how do you begin to shift the communication to being one way only to a two way highway with your staff and attendees?

Give them permission to drive on the highway: Ask questions! It could be as simple as asking for people to respond with their favorite flavor of ice cream on #NationalIceCreamDay or as deep as asking viewers to share a personal prayer request or a personal testimony about their walk with Christ. If your social media posts only tell without asking for a response, you will get little to no response.
Show them how to drive on the highway: Get your staff involved in this process! Use 5 minutes of a staff meeting to ask each member of your team to comment on a particular social media post. Have them pull out their phone and do it right in the moment. Send out a weekly email with a call to action to your staff and key volunteers to interact on a specific post. Your staff and key volunteers set the example for your viewers and can be a positive change in helping people feel empowered to engage in your content. (It also doesn’t hurt to keep the algorithms happy and working in your favor!) 
Ask them to drive on the highway: Yes – make it a part of your order of service to ask for people to follow your social media accounts and perhaps even challenge them to share a post or host a watch party for your weekend worship services. Once asked, we hope you are surprised with the engagement that you will create. Don’t assume that the people that enter your doors or watch online are following your social media accounts or that they understand the impact they can have on their own networks.

The Bible says that we are the light of the world, and even in the digital age we find ourselves in, the digital world needs the light of Jesus more than ever. So open your social media accounts for two way traffic to not only communicate but to listen!

Source: Is Social Media a One-Way Street?

The post Is Social Media a One-Way Street? appeared first on Passion for Planting.

By: The Church.Digital

I’ve been gardening for 9 years, and every year our garden grows bigger. This pandemic year meant we spent even more time in our garden, and my wife harvested a child’s wagon full of vegetables just this evening. My wife and I host a podcast where we talk about our garden week-by-week this year. That podcast and COVID-19 have given me the chance to think hard about lessons from my garden and how that applies to ministry in our current context. Here are 3 things I’m thinking about regarding gardening and ministry:

1. Pay Close Attention to the Soil.

My best gardening happens in our raised beds where we control most of what happens in the soil and can track changes.

This is our fourth summer in this house, our previous houses we only lived and gardened in them for two and three years. This year I’m learning that gardening depends on the soil. You can manage your way around the need to develop your soil by starting with raised beds, but eventually, you have to start working on your soil.

This year I noticed two side-by-side beds where one is producing bountifully, the other is limping along. When we took some time to think about it, we realized that the one doing really well has manure from a local dairy farm that has aged in a pile next to our shed, the other box has “compost and manure” bought in a bag from a big box store. The soil is what made the difference.

Working on the soil is a long process that you have to start long in advance, you might start with making your own compost, finding a farmer friend to give you manure that you can let age in a pile, etc. It takes work, planning, and patience, there is no easy route to developing your soil. If you don’t prepare and develop the soil, then you will struggle to grow anything.

How does this apply to ministry?

Some things in ministry are a slow process. They take preparation long in advance. “Sunday’s always coming” tends to be my attitude, but some things need more time to marinate. It is really easy in this current season to be rushing from one thing to the next and just try to get through the week or through the next milestone, but we should stop to think about what the “soil” of our ministry is that will help us grow.

For me, personal growth is some of the “soil” that needs work now. I’m coming off a hard year. People, conflict, and leadership challenges combined with a breakneck pace left me destroyed. Something that alarmed me was when I realized that I stopped learning and developing because I was so busy with hard and urgent matters. Learning and developing is the “soil” of my leadership. We have to put in the work in advance to prepare for future growth.

2. Keep Planting Seeds.

In years past, I farmed like an industrial farmer. I planted once, and then hoped that the success of the garden would last me all year. This year, I plan to plant more seeds every week. I ask every weekend, ”What can I plant?” I have to plan to plant or I can easily ignore it and think that this isn’t the time. I’ve learned that what doesn’t get planted doesn’t grow. So I focus on how and when to plant more.

One of my priorities this year has been to use whatever space and time that I have to grow more things. Whenever I have an open space, it is easy to plant more fast growing vegetables like lettuce, arugula, peas, or beans. Right now, I’m preparing to plant Brussels Sprouts and spinach because they prefer summer-to-fall weather.

The reality is that every seed doesn’t grow. I often plant two seeds in one hole just in case. With things like carrots and mesclun mix, I cannot predict which seeds will grow and which will never germinate. So to make up for that, I keep planting.

Jesus talked about planting seeds in the parable of the sower in Luke 8. The reality of our job in ministry is that we don’t know which seeds will grow. We don’t know who and when someone will take their next step of growth with Jesus. Our job is not to figure out how to engineer growth in a few people. Our job is to sow seeds and watch to see the results.

What does this mean for us in phygital ministry?

We need to be sowing the seeds that we want to see grow. We probably don’t plant enough seeds in our ministry.

In a phygital church world, I want to apply this to digital ad campaigns. For me, digital ad campaigns are like a modern day sowing of seed. We don’t know who is out there that needs to hear our message of hope and freedom, so we’re going to spread it far and wide. It is too easy for me to get bogged down into getting the ad campaign right and targeting correctly, but maybe targeting incorrectly is the seed that needs to be sown. Instead of targeting a few people perfectly, maybe we want to target all of the people around us imperfectly because we don’t know who is ready to hear the good news of Jesus.

A woman in our community came to Christ recently beginning with our church’s digital presence. One of her family members, living out of state, looked to find a church in our area. He connected with us digitally and then connected us with her physically, giving me the chance to share the gospel with her, and walk with her as she responded. That story is the result of us digitally sowing seed over a period of years. We didn’t know which seeds would pay off. So we kept scattering.

3. Gardening is Always Solar-Work.

This year, I’m marveling at the work of the sun to grow plants.

A couple of years ago, I taught my kids some science for their school and felt like I saw with new eyes the energy systems that turn sunlight into stored energy in the plants. When I walk through our garden now, I marvel at how they are turning beams from a distant star into structures that we can use and eat. I pay attention to when each part of my yard gets sun in the morning and when the they are in the shade in the afternoon or evening. When we have too many overcast days, I begin to worry about the health of the plants because they need sunlight to grow and develop. I think about how too much sun can cause some plants to grow too fast and turn bitter so maybe we need to set up shade cloth.

There is much to do in gardening like developing soil, weeding, watering, fertilizing, watching for pests, etc. All that work is for nothing, though, if there is no sun to shine on them. All our gardening work does not grow plants. The sun grows plants.

I’m writing this for ministry leaders, but we easily forget that ministry is a spiritual work. We easily have plans and methods and systems and strategies, but all growth is from God. 1 Corinthians 3:6-7 blatantly says this same thing, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” (ESV).

Just as the sun is the big deal in plant growth, the Spirit’s work is the big deal in our church growth. Do we do phygital church like it is a spiritual work? Do we do all the important work that needs to be done while keeping in mind that we desperately need the face of God to shine on us and our communities?

I want to be aware in my own ministry that I need the face and work of God in my life and ministry, just like my garden needs the sun.

Source: Gardening and the Phygital Church

The post Gardening and the Phygital Church appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Greg Curtis: Here is a photo of Michelle and I once we made it down the long road to the Church of All Nations in the Garden of Gethsemane. We are standing in front of what is the oldest Olive Tree in the garden, around a thousand years old.

I recently got back from a bucket list trip to Israel. This is the kind of trip you hope you will get to go on someday and pray it doesn’t let you down.

It did not.

People asked me what I was looking forward to seeing the most. I told them I didn’t want to even go there mentally because I suspected that what I was looking forward to might be eclipsed by things I didn’t even know we were going to see.

That is exactly what happened.

One of those surprise locations was discovered when we got off the bus in Jerusalem. We were on a bluff with a fantastic view of the old city. With a guide ahead of us, he got us access to an old stone road, framed in high walls with a steep decline down toward the valley in front of the city. It had security cameras, occasional wood doors that seemed to offer some kind of access to the kind of stone homes you would visualize a scene from the Bible to take place in. Parts were asphalted, some parts not.

Long, uneven, winding and descending, this was the road that Jesus came into Jerusalem on, riding a donkey the Sunday before his execution.

As I descended, I was awed that I was actually walking the road I had seen on flannel graphs in Sunday School growing up so many Palm Sundays. I had no idea this was what we were going to do on this particular day. But as I watched people from all over the world walk this road with me, a couple principles about connecting with people came to mind.

Two principles to keep in mind for connecting people at your church:

I took this photo on the same road that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on. Picture palms and praise happening on this road, but also note how it had no other options but down through the Kidron Valley and up to the Eastern Gate into the Old City. Our connection path for guests to enter into our church community should be as singular and clear as this.

Make your connection path clear and singular.

I was struck by the high walls and the narrow road that formed this old road into Jerusalem. As it exists now, there’s really no escaping it. Once you go through its locked entrance gate, you will walk this road until it reaches its destination, period. Walking downhill like this, it is also difficult to turn back and go uphill against the crowd.

This made me think of a warning I find myself sharing with Sherpa Leaders who want to create engagement pathways for their guests. The warning is this: Don’t offer guests multiple choice. If you do, they will always choose D) None of the above. Like this road into Jerusalem, offer one connection path they can say yes or no to.

We live in an age where we are inundated by information and options. As a result, we are often in a state of decision fatigue. The “Have it your way” Burger King approach to customer service has been replaced by the “In & Out experience”. In California where I live, In & Out Burger pretty much offers just one thing to order. The only choice is whether to make it a double.

People are paying now for information to be distilled into decisions for them due to decision fatigue. Some have their groceries delivered and chosen for them by others via an app. Some now do this with clothing and wine. Others just stay with the tried and true, foregoing a cheaper price at the Costco-type warehouses around them, opting instead for a smaller less overwhelming market where the choices may be more expensive, but fewer and known.

Please hear this: The same is true for your guests this weekend at church. Trust me: they don’t want to hear about your women’s retreat, men’s work day, every kind of small group, and multiple ways to serve and get involved. They just want to connect and in order to do so, they want one option that looks like it will deliver on that. One option that they can say yes or no to. That’s one option. One.

As a leader, this should inform you in multiple scenarios in your entire church, especially when it comes to growing a follower of Jesus: Have only one ask at the end of any event, program, or environment you create. The good news about this is that you get to decide what you want them to say yes or no to. 100 people saying yes to one thing beats 5 groups of 10 saying yes to 5 things. Yes the number of responders are cut in half because people don’t come to church to evaluate choices you lay before them. They are looking for hope, comfort, grace and God…not a menu.

Offering multiple options creates sidewise energy. Having one clear path you point all guests to that they can choose to walk or not allows you and them to put all your energies into that option and the results become exponential.

For example: At my church, we have no info material at our info counter. None. Why? Because the answer to every question (except “Where’s the bathroom?” and “Is there a doctor in the house?”) is “Next Steps” which is our connection pathway. We’ve designed it to answer every question a guest has.

Similarly, at each of the 4 weekly steps of Next Steps, there is only one ask:

Week One: Follow Jesus

Week Two: Join a small group

Week Three: Serve on a ministry team

Week Four: Try a Compassion Project

Leveraging this simplicity, this year (2020) in Next Steps campus wide we have…

Week One: 31% making a decision to follow Jesus

Week Two: 59% sign up for a small group

Week Three: 73% Choose a ministry team to serve on

Week Four: 65% Express interest in a Compassion Project

Some years we have bested that. If we promoted everything at our church with several asks, I believe those responses would be less than half of what they are. So hear me on this. We cannot afford to dilute a guest’s focus, energy and effort. We must decide what is important and build walls on either side of the pathway so that it leads to just one important step, the best step for them as new or growing Christ followers.

On the road that Jesus came into Jerusalem on, there was only one option: down to the valley that leads to the old city. Our connection path for guest should be that simple. Which leads me to the 2nd principle…

Make your connection path simple, not necessarily easy. There’s a difference.

I took this shot shortly after we began descending toward the valley on the Palm Sunday route. That’s Diane with her cain holding the railing that soon disappeared as we made the descent.

Two days before we got on the plane for Israel, I looked down and one of my knees was swollen. I don’t know why. It just puffed up like a blowfish for reasons unknown to me. So armed with a knee brace I bought at CVS, I slid it on and started the paths and narrow stone stairways that are the ancients ways of getting around in Israel.

It hurt when we went down the Palm Sunday route toward Jerusalem, especially due to the decline. But my challenge was nothing compared to a very fun older lady (let’s call her Diane) who due to her age had a walker or a cane for the entire trip. She is in the photo to the right, holding onto the railing, a railing that was only present for a few yards of the long journey down. But we waited for Diane when we needed to, and her family helped her as well. It was a lot more challenging for her than for me.

What made Diane, myself and others struggling with pain continue on this road with enthusiasm despite our issues? The destination. We were headed to the Garden of Gethsemane, an olive grove where Jesus wrestled in prayer and was arrested. So much of our story begins in this grove that wasn’t really a Garden as we would think of it. It was a working farm that produced the olive oil that was fuel for all their lamps and gave light to the city.

Here’s what I want to remind you of: Where your connection path leads allows you to ask more of those walking it. When you are leading them towards an environment they want to experience or even feel a need for, they will do what you ask, even if its not easy.

When we transitioned from a quarterly 7-week connection experience to a 4 week monthly one, there was some vital content that guests found valuable in making a connection with us that could no longer fit. Rather than throw it away, we took a risk. We added 2 additional “Go Deeper” opportunities to the 3 assignments they already get to complete each week at Next Steps. These “Go Deepers” come in the form of 9 to 30 minute long videos with blanks in their books to fill in. I incentivized the completion of them with a swag gift for everyone at the table with the highest percentage of completion, evidenced by all the blanks filled in. When we launched it, I told myself that I would have been thrilled to have 20% to 30% of guest complete them each week. I was shocked to see 80% to 100% complete them (much to the depletion of our swag budget!).

We discovered that guests love investing an extra hour each week in these Go Deepers because they contain some life giving information that helps them in their journey (not a walk through our statement of faith or our church’s position on specific issues). They come back describing their value, many times through tears.

My learning to pass on to you is this: Though your connection path needs to be simple, do not shrink away from tasks or assignments that have real and obvious value to them because if the destination is desirable, they will do it.

Just ask Diane and I. We would both say yes to a challenge that leads to something meaningful. We powered through our bad knees and got to a section of the garden that not everyone gets to see. It was a part cared for by the Franciscans and we were allowed to explore it and find a our own niche in it for a prolonged period of solitary prayer like Jesus did. It was sooooo worth it.

Make sure what you ask of guests is worth it too, even if it’s not easy. They will do it.

This photo is of a small corner of a large section of the Garden of Gethsemane walled off for private prayer. This was why we ignored our swollen knees and kept walking downhill and it was so worth it.

If you were to ask the following people how a guest can connect and get involved at your church, what would they say?

The Senior Pastor

A random staff person

The average church member

A guest

If there are different answers, why is that? Is it…

a) There is no specified way to connect and get involved

b) There are multiple ways for them to connect and get involved

c) There is a specified way but it is not promoted well

d) Other

What needs to happen next in order to have a singular well promoted and effective connection pathway for guests at your church?

a) Have someone meet with our staff this year to form a more effective connection path for our church (click here for my best resource for that)

b) Learn all the necessary ingredients of a successful assimilation strategy so I can evaluate where we are really at (click here for a resource I have for learning this quickly)

c) Get more education and training about what it takes to even have a successful assimilation strategy (click here for my best educational resource)

d) Learn some dos and don’t for effectively promoting your connection pathway. (click here for help with that)

To receive more resources and ideas on connecting people well at your church each month, let me know briefly who you are below:

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Thank you!

Source: Two principals I learned in Jerusalem that will help you connect new people at your church

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by Jeff Reed: Video, Video, Video! You’ve heard it – Video is the king of content on social media. So how do you start to incorporate video into your social media plan? Here are five tips!

Start Small – Add one video per month to your plan, then, try a weekly video. Don’t get overwhelmed or set yourself up with an expectation that you can’t carry on.

Don’t Record Live at First – If you (or your pastor) are timid about being on camera or concerned about being ‘live’, take the videos on your phone first and then upload as a video on Facebook or Instagram. Don’t worry about the one minute limit on Instagram because you can load the video into IGTV.

Set Reminders – If you plan to go live, set reminders in your calendar or phone roughly 15 minutes before you plan to go live. This time will allow you to get to your perfect spot and walk through what you want to say.

Find Good Lighting – If your office is dark and dim, head outside! Test out a few locations with quick videos and ask for feedback from someone else to see which location is the best for your video recording.

Don’t Overthink It – Live videos are just that LIVE! They might not be perfect, you might say the wrong thing – just pause and correct yourself. Be human and move on!

Here’s a good example of a Wednesday Live video from my church in Tampa. Pastor Matthew goes live like clockwork every Wednesday around noon. Sometimes he brings a scripture, sometimes he talks about upcoming events, sometimes he is on vacation and he still hops on to talk with our viewers!

Source: 5 Tips for Incorporating Live Video in Your Social Media Plan

The post 5 Tips for Incorporating Live Video in Your Social Media Plan appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Jeff Reed: You are a small church pastor, minister, staff member, or volunteer. You want to make a difference. You want your communication to move people. You want your invites to result in guests.

You likely ask questions such as, “How do I use what I have to make a difference in our community? How do I use online tools to reach people? Do I need a new camera, microphone, or software to do online ministry?” It is tempting to think that a new piece of gear, or a new method, or a new program will make the difference.

I want to show you a framework that you can use in a small church with a lot of tools or just a few. This works incredibly well in online ministry. I’m a small church pastor too. I clean toilets and take out the trash. And our church uses this framework to communicate in ways that make a difference online and offline.

The Storybrand framework is a way of thinking of marketing, communications, and strategy from the guest’s or customer’s perspective. It comes from Donald Miller’s book, Building a Storybrand.

Churches tend to think of communications, invites, and marketing from the perspective of the church’s goal, rather than from the guest, attender, or member’s needs, wants, and goals. This is especially true in smaller churches where staff and volunteers do multiple jobs and often have little training for things like communications and marketing.

Think of the difference between “Do you want to go to a marriage conference? Please sign up!” and “You want a great marriage. But maybe you’re hitting a rough patch. We’ve been through our own rough spots and believe every marriage is worth the work! Join us for our upcoming marriage conference.” One is focused on the event and the desire of the church (sign up). The other puts the couple and their desires and fears at the front (“You want…”).

Your communications will be more effective, no matter the tool, as you learn to shift your communication from church-focused to others-focused.

Learning to make this shift will help you reach your online audience, as well as, offline. Any tool you use becomes more relevant and useful. Your communications will make a difference when you reach out with something that is in some way relevant to a need that the user already feels.

Example 1:

Let me show you a way that we used this framework for a recent series. A typical church invite says, “We’re doing an exciting new series that you should join us for. Please come.” We wanted to flip that around and speak to a felt need that most people have as the reason they would want to join us.

Our big Fall series was called “Failure is Not Final.” Failure is not final is one of our core values. We believe God is near to the brokenhearted and that he does his work in and through our failures. Here is how we framed this series:

“Problems, challenges, failures. We all have them. But you don’t want them as your baggage. Join Belgium Community Church online and on Sundays starting September 8th! We’ll see that with God, Failure is not final.”

We created a landing page at belgiumchurch.com/final, did video ads, and sent flyers to every home in our village pointing people to this message.

Notice that the messaging is focused on not coming to church or engaging with us. The focus is on our community and their wants, needs, and fears. We did not start with a felt need. The series was a core value series for us. That was set. It was the communication of that series that started with a felt need. The communication method and messaging changed, not the message itself.

Example 2:

For our second Fall series, we went through the book of Titus. Instead of speaking to ourselves and how we will get more Bible knowledge (which is valuable), we spoke to the situation we all find ourselves in:

“These times can be crazy. Whether it is events around the globe or just down our block, life can surprise and overwhelm us. How should we live in times like these? Do we throw up our hands and retreat? Do we get angry and fight?In the Bible, the letter to Titus is for times like ours. Crazy times are an opportunity for us to live in such a way that we make the good news of Jesus attractive. Instead of being scared or angry, we are called to shine brightly.Will you join us on Sundays and online in October as we learn together what it means to adorn the good news of Jesus?”

Learning and applying the storybrand framework gives you an engaging and motivating strategy that can be applied with any tool. I showed us using text here, but we use the framework with video, audio, graphics, etc.

So then, if you have small budgets and volunteers, you can still communicate in a way that makes a difference.

What do you do?

Get the book Building a Storybrand by Donald Miller.
Read the book. Do it rather quickly (try to block off 2-3 times in a week to read through it. It is not long).
Go to their website: mystorybrand.com where you can build practice scripts or frameworks.
Practice on your next sermon series, community project, etc. Try to do it several times in the first month to get the hang of it.

What difference will it make?

Your communication will stand out and move people. You can use print, visual, audio, and video to communicate and get a response. You won’t waste time and effort anymore putting out content and invites and flyers and videos that no one responds to.

Any digital tool you use will have a purpose and be more effective. You won’t be stuck with a shiny camera with no message and no ideas on how to communicate.

Source: Storybrand for Small Church Pastors

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by Jeff Reed: Creating meaningful social media posts for your church can feel like such a daunting task, but being intentional and taking the time to plan your content will create a much more meaningful experience for your audience!

What is God Up To – “Publish his glorious deeds among the nations. Tell everyone about the amazing things he does.” – Psalm 96:3. Share photos from a recent event, share a story from a mission trip, share a personal story of an attender that was impacted by your church, or other ‘glory sighting’. Use your social media as a space to tell the stories that you might not have time or space in a Sunday morning service to share.
Meet The Staff – Tell us about their family, their hobbies, or how they got into ministry. This is your chance to introduce your congregation to staff that doesn’t appear on stage as often. Parents often see their child’s bible school teacher or youth leader for a few minutes before and after service, but they would love to get to know them better – they are caring for and teaching their children.
Volunteer Spotlight – This post is two fold! First, the post introduces your attendees to the volunteers that serve and challenges them to get involved. It is perfectly ok to introduce a volunteer and end the post with “Join them in Kid’s Ministry – email Suzie to get involved.” Give them a call to action! The second amazing benefit is it shows value to your volunteer – these people work hours and will feel so valued and special by being featured on the social media accounts! It helps if you can tag them or share it with them once it is posted live.
Sermon Quote or Video Clip – Take a memorable or challenging quote and provide it to your audience during the week – in text form or a bonus if you can share a video clip from the service. Whether they attended your service over the weekend or not, this could be a great mid-week check for them to realign their week with Jesus.
A Mid-Week Live Video – This can be done by your pastor or other key person. Provide an encouraging word to those that may need a ‘pick-me-up’. Preview the weekend message and challenge people to invite someone new with them. Or you could highlight an event that your church is hosting! There are so many options for this type of video and it’s a bonus that video plays so well in the algorithms.

Source: 5 Social Media Posts That Your Church Should Be Sharing

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