Investing Wisely
Director, Passion for Planting
In Luke 19, Jesus tells a parable about a would-be king, who entrusts certain resources to his servants, while he leaves to be appointed king. After a long journey, he returns home and calls his servants to give an account for what they’ve done with the money entrusted to them. Two servants reveal that they’ve invested his money and have made a profit with it. As a reward for their good stewardship the king grants them positions of privilege and authority in his kingdom. After this the king finds one servant who has done nothing with the resources entrusted to him. As a consequence for his laziness the king takes his money away from him and gives it to the others. Jesus tells this parable to emphasize his call for us to be faithful stewards of the resources God’s entrusted to us.
At Passion for Planting we want to help you be a wise and faithful stewards of the time, talents, and treasures that God’s entrusted to you. That’s why we’re in the process of updating the resources in our free resource library. This is why we offer free online church planting training courses and send out this monthly newsletter full of content focused on equipping church planting leaders. This is also why we provide Project Management services to help start healthy multiplying churches.
We want to help you invest into Jesus’ kingdom, so one day he says to you, “Well done, good servant.” Visit our website to learn more about how we can support you in accomplishing the vision God’s entrusted to you.
–Dale Spaulding, Director
February 2017 – Contents
- Church Planting Primer
- Direct Mail Marketing
- Equipping Parents To Lead
Church Planting Primer
Are you passionate about church planting? Be faithful with that passion and share it with others like your church, missions team, or friends. You can do this with the help of a free church planting primer created by New City Network. New City Network developed this engaging curriculum in order to help leaders cast the vision for church planting among individuals and congregations. Through the course participants will learn the biblical-rationale for church planting and be challenged to consider how they can play a role in starting new faith communities.
Individuals can take the course on their own or they can complete it with others just by signing up at the website. Anyone interested in leading a group through the course material can do so by signing up for the course and then downloading the course material. It’s that simple. All the material from presentation slides to teaching scripts to student handbooks are free and available here: http://www.newcityplanting.org/primer/
Thank you New City Network!
Direct Mail Marketing
Mark Batterson once said, “The greatest message deserves the greatest marketing.” Every church plant needs a marketing strategy that helps them connect their community with the gospel. While we don’t recommend churches rely solely on direct mail campaigns to spread the news about their church, we do see it as a helpful component in many contexts. If you think postcards could benefit your church’s marketing strategy, investigate how a company like Mail Works can help you develop an effective direct mail campaign.
Mail Works is a large print and mail company that has assisted in over 500 church plant launches in the United States. Mail Works offers a comprehensive print and mail program. If you are new to direct mail campaigns or are preparing to start a church, Mail Works can help you (for free) gain approval to mail at nonprofit rates with United States Postal Service. Their goal is to help your church reach your community by placing a personal invite into the hands of each person in your town.
Based upon years of experience, Mail Works knows what should be on your postcards in order to make them an effective marketing tool, so they produce the highest rate of returns. Knowing what to put on the postcard starts by knowing your community. This will help increase the odds that people will respond to the card’s invitation.
Typically, churches working with Mail Works see a response rate somewhere between a ¼% to ½%. That means on a 10,000 piece campaign you can see somewhere between 25 and 50 people attend your church as a result of the campaign. Direct mail works best when coupled with other forms of marketing. Oftentimes the mailer is a teaser that drives people to your website to introduce them to church. The front of the mailer should be creative and alluring in order to drive recipients to the backside of the mailer. The backside of the mailer drives them to your website. The mailer should always attract, engage and educate the reader. No church postcard is complete without a call to action.
If you’d like to see how Mail Works can help your church develop a direct mail campaign, visit www.mailworksii.com.
Equipping Parents To Lead Spiritually
Do the parents in your church feel equipped to invest into the lives of their children or do they rely on your church’s children’s ministry to do this? If you can’t affirm that statement, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Church plants have an inherent problem fulfilling one of the most common goals in children’s ministry. It’s the goal that states, “Parents are equipped to be the primary spiritual leaders of their children.”
This is a great and worthy goal, one that most children’s ministries worth their salt would aspire to, but one that is challenging to accomplish in a church plant, and in many well-established churches too. Why? For the simple reason that many parents don’t feel qualified or capable of becoming their child’s spiritual leader.
What’s the solution? One solution is aligned learning throughout the entire church. This strategy builds confidence in parents to be able to share with their children how God’s truth applies to their lives.
Aligned learning is the best confidence-building strategy.
Read the complete article by Shelly Leith, Director of Church Relations for Zondervan Publishing here.