by Patrick Bradley: Before your new church makes a splash with its Grand Opening, you need to run at least 3 church plant preview services.

I started learning about preview services before I even got into church planting ministry.

Many years ago, I was on staff at a bank as we opened a brand-new branch on the other side of town. We hung out a big banner that said something like, “Grand Opening on Feb 15!” But 2 weeks before the grand opening, we quietly unlocked the doors and our (very nearly) fully-trained staff served anyone brave enough to wander in.

There are lots of complex systems at a bank, and they have to work every time. The stakes are pretty high. So we practiced in a low-pressure environment with real customers and real money.

In the same way, a church plant preview service is a real worship gathering. Nelson Searcy writes, “[Preview] services give you the invaluable opportunity to test-drive your systems, your staff, and even your service style. At the same time, you are doing real ministry with the people who attend. These services should look as much like your weekly services will look as possible.”1

You generally don’t advertise the Preview Services to the general public. At least not with the same kind of dollars you’ll spend announcing the Grand Opening. But they are open the public, so encourage your Launch Team to invite everyone they know.

What a Church Plant Preview Service Accomplishes

There are lots of benefits to holding preview services:

ministry teams get to practicetests your systems to see what breaks or is missingyour people get to taste what it’s going to be like (and get excited)it’s a handy reason/event for your Launch Team to invite people tobuilds momentum and spreads word-of-mouth

Strategic Timing for Church Plant Preview Services

I’m not sure there’s a magic formula for how many and how frequently to hold your church plant preview services. But you need to plan several.

Searcy recommends 4 to 6 monthly preview services2. Stephen Gray’s research from 2007 showed that, “Almost 70 percent of struggling church plants held three or fewer preview services prior to public launch.”3

Here are some some common approaches leading up to the Grand Opening Sunday:

Monthly Every 3 weeksEvery-other week

Doing your church plant preview services every 2 weeks gives almost no time for comeback events. You have to simultaneously plan and make changes for the next preview. But sometimes a facility issue or other difficulty forces your hand.

Landmine Dates

There are some dates that pepper your pre-launch calendar that have to be navigated.

If you’re launching in the spring, watch out for:

your local schools’ spring break2nd Sunday in March (daylight savings, the one where people come late)Super Bowl Sunday (though some argue this is a great day to preview or even launch a church gathering)3-day weekends like President’s Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

If you’re launching in the fall, watch out for:

your local school calendar if it’s year-round or modified traditional (there may be a week-long break in early October)Labor DayIndependence DayFather’s Daylocal high school graduations and onset of vacation season

Fall 2019 Church Plant Preview Service Dates

If you’ve already decided on a fall launch, let’s get super-practical and look at real calendar dates based on the 2 most common Launch Sundays:

September 8 Grand Opening

Monthly previews might look like: Aug 11, July 14, June 23, May 19

Tri-weekly previews might look like: Aug 18, July 28, July 7 (caution!), June 16 (caution!)

Bi-weekly previews (caution!) might look like: Aug 25, Aug 11, July 28, July 14

October 6 Grand Opening

Monthly previews might look like: Sep 8, Aug 11, July 14, June 23

Tri-weekly previews might look like: Sep 15, Aug 25, Aug 4, July 14

Bi-weekly previews (caution!) might look like: Sep 22, Sep 8, Aug 25, Aug 11

1 Searcy, Nelson. Launch: Starting a New Church from Scratch (p. 128). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.2 Searcy, Nelson. Launch: Starting a New Church from Scratch (p. 127). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.3 Gray, Stephen. Planting Fast-Growing Churches (p. 114). ChurchSmart Resources, 2007.

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Source: What is a Church Plant Preview Service?

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by Patrick Bradley: Children’s ministry safety in your church plant is serious business. But it doesn’t have to be mysterious. Here are 20 practical steps to stellar children’s ministry safety:

No question, Jesus holds children in high regard. I’d say that churches in the US do, too, though we haven’t historically done the best collective job at protecting kids in our churches.

I pray that never happens in your church. To that end, here are some things you can do that aren’t terribly expensive (many are free) that can significantly reduce the chance that abuse will occur. It’s our job as church leaders to do everything we can to create safe environments for kids in our churches.

Children’s Ministry Safety for Your Workers

Staff and ministry workers are the first line of defense in keeping our kids safe. Make sure to get trusted people into those roles and get them trained:

Create a volunteer application form that includes a consent to run a background check – make sure every applicant fills it out & signs it
Run background checks for every adult that will be with the kids, and rerun background checks annually
Train volunteers in abuse awareness (your insurance company and/or background check provider can help with this)
Know whether your volunteers are mandatory reporters and train leaders in reporting procedures
Train volunteers in all of these security procedures
Do something to identify your children’s workers (ID badges, T-Shirts, etc.)
Get at least one person trained in first aid and have a basic first aid kit in the children’s area
Have a children’s ministry floater (or several) that can bounce between classrooms and generally be available to help

Children’s Ministry Safety for the Parents and Guardians

Parents should be in the loop and feel good about their child’s safety:

Create a brief handout that explains your children’s ministry practices & policies to parents – make this available at your check-in table especially for parents who bring their kids for the first time
Create a plan for giving new parents an escorted tour of the classroom their kid(s) will be in
Create a check-in and check-out process to make sure kids leave with the right adult(s) – also coach your classroom workers with a polite but firm script for when the process needs to be enforced
Work out a system to notify parents during the service – considering texting them since pretty much everyone has a mobile phone these days

Children’s Ministry Safety and Your Facility

Chances are good you’re meeting in a rented facility, which often presents unique security challenges:

Work out how to keep kids corralled in their “rooms”, especially if that’s a hallway or the flat area in front of the movie theater screen
Figure out how to secure any exits or potential hiding places from both unauthorized entry and from kids sneaking out – while not blocking fire escapes
Make a plan for keeping unauthorized adults out of the rooms (including parents) – again, coach your people with a polite but firm script
Decide ahead how you’re going to accommodate a kid needing to go potty – the classroom teacher shouldn’t be alone with the rest of the kids and the kid going potty shouldn’t be alone with an adult
Determine how to manage teacher-to-student ratios for different age levels – when is each classroom too full to take more kids and when is a classroom shut down for lack of supervision
Create an emergency/fire escape plan and train your teachers and workers in what to do

Children’s Ministry Safety for the Church

Should an incident occur, you need to have a plan in place for what to do:

Create reporting procedures for everything from kids needing a band-aid to kids going fisticuffs to alleged abuse
Know how to contact your church insurance carrier for help handling a crisis

Wow, that’s a whole lotta stuff to get in place for your church plant child security procedures! But when it saves one kid from being abused or helps one kid escape an abusive situation, it will be worth it. Don’t you think?

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Source: 20 Steps to Children’s Ministry Safety for Your Church Plant

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by Patrick Bradley: The time just before your church plant launch can be an exciting but stressful time. So why would you want to pile up more stress on top?

I’ve seen church planters weather some tough life events in the first few years of a church plant. I think some of the hardest are those less than about 30 days before (or after) a church plant launch.

Some life events, of course, can’t be avoided. You gotta do what you gotta do. But some are self-inflicted.

Ever seen one of those stress inventories where you add up points for different life events? To see if you’re at risk of a health breakdown? By my quick review of the list, planting a church gets you halfway to ‘at risk’ even if everything goes perfectly.

So I offer you here my top pre-church-plant-launch no-nos:

…

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by Patrick Bradley: Your Launch Sunday attendance will be inflated by grand opening well-wishers. That can be good and bad at the same time. Here are some ideas to maximize the good and minimize the bad.

Many churches experience a spike in attendance at their inaugural public worship gathering. Which can be exciting! But then the following Sunday, attendance goes down. Way down. It’s pretty typical to see attendance drop by a quarter to a third the very next week.

Some real-world math here: if there were 150 at Launch, it shouldn’t shock you that there’s only 100 the next week. Or if you have 350 on the first Sunday to have 235 the next.

What in the world is going on?

There are several factors that lead to an attendance spike at a church’s grand opening:

Well-wishers come to celebrate
A marketing push brings higher than usual numbers of new families from your community
All of your regulars come on a single, historic Sunday

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Source: 3 Ways to Help Your Grand Opening Well-Wishers Help You

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