by unSeminary: Thank you for joining this episode of the unSeminary podcast. We’re speaking with Greg Curtis, the Director of Assimilation at Eastside Church in Orange County, California.

We’re talking with Greg today about the importance of developing a ministry-wide strategy for assimilation that is used throughout your church.

Second-nature strategies. // As Eastside Church has launched new campuses and grown, so has the work of connecting all the new guests they’ve come in contact with. As the central Director of Assimilation, Greg oversees all of the processes and strategies that Eastside is using, which are identical at all of their campuses. Using the same system regardless of the location and congregation means the system has to be scaleable so it will multiply properly wherever it is executed.Assimilation strategy. // “Assimilation” is not a department or even ministry at your church, but rather it is a strategy that every department uses. An assimilation strategy that is well-crafted and has a support person (full-time or part-time staff or even a volunteer) is a more organic way of approaching ministry. However, the work of connecting can’t just depend on a staff person, or even on a team. It has to depend on a process that’s become automatic and a strategy that every department in the church uses which becomes almost second nature so that connection just happens. Without a uniform system, department silos occur, guests fall through the cracks, and it creates competition between departments.Tables instead of rows. // The strategic power of environment is going to get you where you want to go. A lot of people may think the best way to connect is to have a class on connection and tell attendees to connect. But what if you create an environment where they actually do connect? Instead of sitting in rows, have them sit at tables so that they can sit and talk with each other.Faith, fun, and friends. // Greg shares that the environment at Eastside which is created so new people can connect with each other focuses on faith, fun, and friends. The faith aspect includes trainings that will help them in their walk with Jesus and connecting with the church. During the time together, use elements of fun with competitions and weird activities that reinforce the trainings, but also allow people sitting together at tables to win prizes. And have you created an environment where they can make new friends? As new guests share tables together, build in discussion time with questions that aren’t too personal, but create connection and commonalty between people.Think about your environment. // What’s causing your guests to return to your church in the first place? It’s the environment that was created when they stepped out of their car, when they walked in, when they experienced God with your community. There was something about your environment that worked for them. Be intentional and attentive about creating an environment of connection for your guests. When you highlight your special event for new guests, promote what the people will experience not the content that will be covered. It’s so easy to promote what people will learn when you’re telling guests about a class, but purpose isn’t the selling point. Instead tell them what the experience is.Online course. // Greg has launched an online course to help churches better understand assimilation and connection. It is a 6 session course, with each session about 30-40 minutes long. The first episode in the course covers the role of assimilation and spiritual formation in church environments. The second is about processes and metrics. The last four episodes are about the four components of assimilation 1 place, 1 program, 2 processes, 2 placements. Greg also offers a free checklist that goes along with the course on his website.

You can learn more about Greg and the Climbing the Assimilayas Video Coursecourse he offers at his website.

Thank You for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!

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Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: Purpose Driven Church Conference

Capture a vision and pathway for your church’s local and global impact at Purpose Driven Church Conference 2019.

Get tickets to the Purpose Driven Church Conference for you and your staff  today!

Source: Do This to Connect More Guests to Your Church with Greg Curtis

The post Do This to Connect More Guests to Your Church with Greg Curtis appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Rich Birch: Welcome to our new podcast all about multisite! I’m chatting with a group of multisite ninjas and answering your questions about the ins and outs of launching new campuses. Our group is as follows:

Natalie Frisk is our family ministry expert. She is a key leader from The Meeting House. This church has 19 (!) locations and is doing all kinds of great stuff, including a killer kids’ & youth curriculum that they give away for free. Natalie’s a lot of fun and will have so many great insights around leading in a thriving multisite church.

Greg Curtis is our guest connections and assimilation expert. He leads at Eastside Christian Church, one of the fastest growing churches in the country, and literally, is the “go to” source for getting people to stick and stay in the church. (Eastside has assimilated something like 1,500 people in the last 18 months!) His coaching practice around assimilation is amazing.

Ben Stapley is our communications and service programming expert. Ben is one of the most helpful leaders I know. His day job is at Liquid Church in NJ, but he does so much to help other leaders with the “big show” part of church world.

And I, Rich, have been involved with 14 different campus launches over the years and enjoy helping churches that are thinking about multisite.

We are here to answer your questions about running a multisite church and are excited to be here today with our fourth episode.

Open Question: What are you looking forward to this summer?  

Ben Stapley – The shore. Not the beach, but the shore. Family, and jumping back on my motorcycle after all the snow.
Greg Curtis – I’ll experience my first sabbatical this summer, so I’m excited about that.
Natalie Frisk – Our family is going to western Canada to visit family and then to eastern Canada to have a little vacation.

Q1: What do you think of a hybrid version of campus vs. central version of leadership?

It’s a tension to be managed and something which most leaders in multisite churches probably struggle with on some level. Tension can run really high in this area. Central leadership is better early on for fast launching of campuses, but strong campus leadership is needed as the campuses mature. In any case, it’s important to set the tone that this is not an “us versus them” mentality but a clear “we’re in this together” mindset. In a multisite context, especially as more campuses are added, there must be clarity about what the core values of the ministry are, and what aspects are open to being adapted to a local context, however both campus and central staff should be involved in the process.

The central staff can give clarity of strategy and systems to help things work well in a local context. Centrally they build and develop that supportive framework, and provide vision and direction. Then the campus staff can step in and be empowered to carry that baton, as they serve their local community.

Greg explains the central-campus leader relationship as being like a grandparent: you have all of the joys of coming alongside and supporting without the direct responsibility. You can help make the campus succeed by coaching the campus pastor or giving them advice, but the responsibility of assimilation, for example, lies with the campus staff. Create a close relationship between the central and campus leaders so that you can have someone to turn to for advice and support, or else just a friend to spend time with.

Be aware and sensitive to location and culture differences between campuses, especially if you have campuses in different states or countries. Differences between cultures, even if they’re as simple as the types of weather at different times of year that affect the lifestyle in that area, can mean changes in how things are done from one campus to another and need to be acknowledged and understood within hybrid leadership.

You can use the hybrid system as a bit of a reward method. If one campus is doing great, give them greater freedom and autonomy. But this can also become tough because you aren’t consistent. In other words, how much freedom and responsibility you give to one campus or department isn’t the same across the board. Be aware that it may start to create some unnecessary competition or complaining.

Q2: What do you “miss” about leading in a single site church? How is the multisite model limiting?

In a single site church you have the opportunity to really contextualize your message to that local community. For example, Ben’s multisite churches went through the issue of providing a message on parents wrestling with which extracurricular activities to put their kids into and how to get their kids into the best colleges. But at some of the locations, the parents at those communities couldn’t afford to put their kids into after-school activities, or they were focused on just getting their children to graduate high school and stay out of a gang.

It takes extra effort to build community within a multisite context. It can be easier to create that close community within a single site church, especially in a smaller one, but it takes a lot more effort to connect community across multiple locations.

Sometimes ideas can’t come to fruition due to costs in getting supplies across all locations in multisite churches. A multisite church that is still building their finances may not have enough money to buy the supplies for big children’s church projects. It could be much easier to buy supplies for projects in a single site church.

Contact us at our websites:

www.themeetinghouse.com

www.curriculum.church

www.gregcurtis-assimilation.com

www.liquidchurch.com

www.benstapley.info

Got a question for us? Record it and send it to rich@unseminary.com

Thank You for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!

Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live! 

Source: All About Multisite: Campus Driven? Central Drive? A Hybrid of Both? – unSeminary

The post All About Multisite: Campus Driven? Central Drive? A Hybrid of Both? appeared first on Passion for Planting.