This is a post written by Rich Birch. Rich is the founder of Unseminary and is a member of my Speaking Team. You can book Rich to consult with your team or speak at your next event here.

By Rich Birch

If you’re not familiar with YouTube culture, you might not have heard of MrBeast.

Jimmy Donaldson (aka MrBeast) is the top content creator on the platform for 2020, and he’s super engaging. Over the years, he’s produced some amazingly creative content that has earned him over 54 million subscribers and all kinds of awards. He struck viral gold in January 2017 when he posted a video of himself counting to 100,000 that was viewed tens of thousands of times in just a few days. That might seem like a strange start, but it gained him a lot of notoriety and launched him into the stratosphere of YouTubers.

In December 2020, MrBeast launched MrBeast Burger, a restaurant chain with 300 locations, and he did it all in one day. To put that in context, his restaurant chain is similar in size to Shake Shack, Smashburger, or In-N-Out Burger. However, those burger chains took years to achieve the size and clout that MrBeast Burger accomplished in a single day.

The unique spin that MrBeast brings to the burger business is that his 300 locations are completely virtual. The food is prepared by existing restaurants, ordered online, and delivered by third-party delivery services. MrBeast launched a MrBeast Burger app that provides relatively seamless ordering, payment, and delivery options. This is an astonishing achievement for any organization, and it provides all kinds of lessons for your church and my church as we think about what comes next in the life of our communities.

Obviously, MrBeast, being a YouTuber, launched his new burger restaurant with an amazing video. Jimmy and his team rented an actual restaurant for just a single day and gave away burgers, fries, and drinks. They gave away more than just their new, delectable food, however. On opening day, they gave away cash, computers, and even a car! This launch video has become a viral hit, and it is well worth your time to watch it and get a sense of the enormous scale of what MrBeast is doing. 

On launch day, the line of cars trying to get to the restaurant was 20 miles long. In fact, the line was so long that police eventually had to close down the restaurant because of all of the traffic problems it was creating in this North Carolina town.

MrBeast Burger is more than just an interesting fad or a YouTube story that came and went. It provides some lessons for our churches as we look to the future and think about the development of our ministries. Here are six lessons from the launch of MrBeast Burger that you can apply to your church.

Online and In Person // Leveraging the Best of The One to Make the Other Better!

It’s fascinating to watch these online celebrities and digital businesses push into the in-person world.

MrBeast Burger represents an interesting hybrid because it is clearly an online digital platform but it delivers an actual in-person experience.

Although I’m excited about all the digital innovation that’s happened over the last year or so, as we look to the future, we also need to consider how our in-person experience is going to be impacted by all that we’ve been learning online.

Rather than trapping ourselves in a false dichotomy of online versus in-person, how can we recognize the hybrid nature of our experiences? We obviously don’t live in a purely online world, and our offline world is increasingly injected with digitally connected technology. How can we find a unique combination of the two that acknowledges the world we live in?

I’m struck by Peloton when I think about this question. Earlier this year, Peloton commented in an investor call that, even though they’ve seen such strong sales online due to the pandemic, they have continued to be committed to their in-person locations. [ref] They recognize that the need to connect in person is not going away any time soon.

Rather than trapping ourselves in a false dichotomy of online versus in-person, how can we recognize the hybrid nature of our experiences? – @richbirchClick To Tweet

Audience Building // Who is Following Along With Your Church’s Story?

MrBeast didn’t spend any money on Facebook ads, direct mail, or any other paid media. Think about that for a minute. It’s astonishing, really.

He turned his sizeable audiences on to his concept, and it launched rapidly. This is an important lesson for our churches. Audience building is core to MrBeast Burger’s business. In their case, that means building YouTube subscribers, Instagram followers, and an email list that they can reconnect with over time to keep drawing fans into their business. Even the decision to launch their own app rather than rely on third-party delivery apps indicates their interest in connecting and communicating with their audience.

Our churches need to be thinking about the ever-increasing audience around our ministries.

Years ago, Rick Warren explained that churches have five “circles of commitment”—community, crowd, congregation, committed, and core. As church leaders, we are aiming to move people from the community to the core. However, there is a larger halo of people outside of the “community” that we need to build strategies to stay connected with. These are people who are aware of us but maybe attended only a service or two in the last year. Or maybe they downloaded content that they found helpful from the church’s website.

How can we capture this group of people’s contact information so that we can keep them connected over time and eventually move them closer and closer to our ministries?

Audience building needs to be part of our strategy as we look into the future. Effective ministries have always made space for people to belong to the community first without requiring them to behave in a certain way. Audience building allows us to do that at scale—to have a wide variety of people in the general orbit of our ministry who we hope will eventually connect in a more substantial way.

Effective ministries have always made space for people to belong to the community first without requiring them to behave in a certain way. – @richbirchClick To Tweet

Partnership Potentials // Working Together For a Better Future.

It’s fascinating to me that a YouTuber struck up relationships with hundreds of restaurants all across the country to make his food and that third-party companies he’s never met will deliver for him. Talk about effective partnership building!

A partnering restaurant might be a local Italian place or a hometown burger joint. MrBeast Burger is focusing their efforts on marketing while relying on third-party organizations to ultimately deliver the food, meaning online delivery services cover the last mile to connect the restaurant and its customers.

It’s a fairly seamless experience that creates all kinds of value along the chain. Restaurants all across the country have seen a boost in business because of their connection with MrBeast Burger.

In the future, there may be new opportunities for us to work together as churches across the country in a similar way.

We’ve often drawn strong lines between our churches. However, one thing that we’ve seen pretty clearly during COVID is that churchgoers don’t necessarily hold to those lines. A person may attend Sunday morning services at one church, engage in weekly Bible study at another, listen to worship music from a third, and maybe even reach out to a fourth for some other kind of assistance.

As we look to the future, can we dream up creative new approaches to partnership that will ultimately propel our ministries forward, reach more people, and connect them with the teachings of Jesus?

As we look to the future, can we dream up creative new approaches to partnership that will ultimately propel our ministries forward, reach more people, and connect them with the teachings of Jesus? – @richbirchClick To Tweet

Authenticity Keeps Winning // Is There a Higher Cultural Value Than Excellence?

If you don’t normally spend time on YouTube or engage with vloggers, you might be slightly put off by how much authenticity these personalities exhibit.

So much of this content is behind the scenes and isn’t pretty or polished. This authenticity draws the community in even more. People want to engage when they see folks who are doing something online that is real and maybe just a little bit gritty.

This was exhibited in the early days of MrBeast Burger, when there were, understandably, a few complaints about some of the burgers. Rather than hiding behind corporate statements, MrBeast himself took to the airwaves and spoke publicly about the challenges of opening a restaurant chain overnight, committing to improving the warmth of the burgers and the crispiness of the crinkle cut fries.

This has spawned an incredible amount of community content. In response to the complaints, people are now posting videos and photos to show off their freshly delivered burgers and celebrate an amazing meal.

All of this authenticity, ultimately, is more endearing to MrBeast’s fans.

We’ve said it before, and we will definitely say it again. Behind-the-scenes content that draws your community into the production is key when it comes to creating great social media content for your church today. If you’re launching new projects in the weeks and months ahead, how can you show people the process behind the scenes? How can you let them in on what you’re doing?

Don’t hide behind a fake “quality” veneer. Show some authenticity. Let people know what it actually takes to do what you do as a church.

Don’t hide behind a fake “quality” veneer. Show some authenticity. Let people know what it actually takes to do what you do as a church. – @richbirchClick To Tweet

Community Service as a Growth Strategy // They Think It’s a “Good Thing” … We Know It’s a God Thing!

A core part of MrBeast Burger’s offering is a “buy one, give one” strategy.

We’ve seen this with TOMS Shoes and many other brands over the years. The idea is that a portion of sales will actually go to feeding people in the communities where orders are placed. Based on comments online and the way people talk about MrBeast Burger, this is clearly an important part of the appeal of this new restaurant. It doesn’t just make great burgers—it actually helps other people.

Our churches are called to make a difference in the lives of our community. Rather than hiding this away in some committee or as a sub-point on a strategic plan, community service needs to be seen as a part of your growth strategy. Time and again we’ve seen the draw of churches that focus on getting their people out of their seats and into the streets. And obviously, this kind of community service is not just good for your image in the community—it’s a God thing.

Narrow the Focus for a Bigger Impact // Simple Church is Still The Best Path Forward.

Take a look at the MrBeast Burger menu. It has just a few items. In comparison to the McDonald’s around the corner from you, MrBeast Burger has a much narrower focus, and it’s hard at work improving the quality of what it delivers.

This small menu gives them the ability to focus on a few items and do them well.

Remember Simple Church? The idea is that churches should do only a few things and do them well in order to have more impact. Clarity. Movement. Alignment. Focus. Work on those things that move people closer to the mission and strip everything else away.

There was a time when churches would actually brag about how many services or ministries they had. “We have 102 services at our church!” However, we’ve seen all kinds of evidence that simple church is the way for our churches to grow and reach the people in our communities.

One of my fears as we come out of COVID and its impact on our churches with the addition of a robust online ministry is that our churches will become increasingly complex and we will lose this power of being a simple church.

What can we remove from our church today to make us more effective tomorrow?

We need to cut back on things that don’t push the mission forward. What areas of our ministry are not effective? What projects are holding us back and siphoning resources? Now would be a perfect time for us to trim those things away so that we can focus our effort and energy on the aspects of our ministry that push us closer to our mission.

What can we remove from our church today to make us more effective tomorrow? – @richbirchClick To Tweet

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A Framework for Change: Get More People On Board (Free Resource)n

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Yes, there’s a ton of change happening right now. And it’s exhausting. n

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A Framework for Change: Get More People On Board (Free Resource)n

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Yes, there’s a ton of change happening right now. And it’s exhausting. n

There are 5 different ways a leader can respond to change, and each means a different outcome for their organization. With the free Pivot-Ready Cheat Sheet, you’ll find out: nnWhich kind of leader you arenWhat it means for your organization; andnThe mindset that will propel you into a new (and better) futurenn

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Looking for more information about MrBeast Burger?

Here are a few links:

The Untold Truth of MrBeast Burger
The North Carolina Kid Who Cracked YouTube’s Secret Code
MrBeast Burger Crashes the Virtual Dining Scene

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the model down below!

The post How to Launch 300 locations in a single day. What MrBeast, YouTube, Ghost Kitchens can teach your church appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: How to Launch 300 locations in a single day. What MrBeast, YouTube, Ghost Kitchens can teach your church

The post How to Launch 300 locations in a single day. What MrBeast, YouTube, Ghost Kitchens can teach your church appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Carey Nieuwhof: Sean Cannell started at almost nothing on YouTube a few years ago. Today his channel has over 750 thousand subscribers and his videos have been viewed over 40 million times.

Sean shares his YouTube secrets, talks about how to get started on YouTube even if you don’t have money or staff, and why the future online has to include video.

Welcome to Episode 264 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.

Guest Links

Sean Cannell | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

 YouTube Secrets | YouTube for Churches

Think Media | Video Influencers | Sean Thinks

Episode Links

94% of churches today are either not growing or not growing at the same rate as their community. Head over to churchgrowthmasterclass.com today and discover why. Whether your church isn’t growing or your seeing growth, but hitting barriers, this new course can help. Take advantage of introductory pricing before it’s too late.

Get your volunteers ready to serve with simple online training. Try TrainedUp free for 14 days at servehq.church.

Prairie College

Clear Vision Media

Amazon Associates

Pro Church Tools

Financial Peace University

Trey Van Camp – YouTube

Smartcuts: The Breakthrough Power of Lateral Thinking by Shane Snow

That Christian Vlogger

Think International – YouTube

Will Smith – YouTube

Leadershift by John Maxwell

3 Insights from Sean

1. If you want to succeed in the long term, you must be willing to fail in the short term

People often ask Sean how he got to be so successful on YouTube. Sean’s answer is that he has failed more times than he has succeeded. He has just learned from those failures and become better as a result. He has six YouTube channels, but only 2 of them are successful.

Failure can be an invaluable teacher. Sean says that “the master has failed more times than the amateur has even tried.” If you want to have a successful company, church, or organization, you have to be willing to push through the failures to get to the successes that you dream about.

2. There is massive growth and outreach potential in video

One of the beautiful parts of video content is that it is another way that we can get the message out to our people. It allows us to give our people options for how they consume our content. We may already be producing a mid-week email or podcast. Adding video might allow us to reach a whole other audience that would have never found your church or business in those other formats.

We need to give our people options because we can not try and predetermine what our audience wants (which is what we do when we give out our content in only one format.) Our online presence is a chance to “become all things to all people.” It’s meeting people where they are, dressed in the format that they would prefer. We can’t miss video.

3. There are 5 major aspects of getting noticed online

Leverage – YouTube is a search engine. As a content producer, you can leverage the people already on YouTube by having quality titles and descriptions of your videos.

Collaborations – Working with already existing platforms to get the word out about your content is an effective way to get noticed by more people.

Current Social Media or Email Lists – Using your present influence on other social media platforms or an existing email list is a way to get the word out about your content.

Paid Traffic – Paid traffic online is now the most effective way to get the word out about your product or service to massive amounts of people. A note of warning; paid traffic only works if you are directing people to quality content. Paid ads are like gasoline for a fire that’s already going.

Shareability- Is your content high enough quality and created in a way where it can be easily shared?

Quotes from Episode 264

The master has failed more times than the amateur has even tried. @seancannellClick To Tweet

Success is moving from failure, to failure without loss of enthusiasm. -Winston ChurchillClick To Tweet

If a picture speaks a thousand words, a video can communicate a million. @seancannellClick To Tweet

Begin with the end in mind. Stephen Covey via @seancannellClick To Tweet

You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. -Zig ZiglarClick To Tweet

Paid ads are like gasoline for a fire that’s already going. @seancannellClick To Tweet

Great marketing makes a bad product fail faster. -David OgilvyClick To Tweet

If you stop at a place where your needs are met, you’re being selfish. @seancannellClick To Tweet

Read or Download the Transcript for Episode 264

Looking for a key quote? More of a reader?

Read or download a free PDF transcript of this episode here.

Get Your Church Growing

Did you know that 9 out of 10 churches don’t grow? Are you one of them?

You likely didn’t get into ministry to watch your church plateau or, worse yet, decline. You wanted God to use you to reach new people with the good news. You wanted to see your church grow. You wanted to make an impact on your community that would outlast you.

But the odds are, it’s not happening. And the thing is, you’re not alone. We live in an era where 94% of churches aren’t growing or aren’t growing as fast as their communities. Barely 1 out of 20 churches are effectively reaching their neighbors for Jesus. Despite how desperately our communities need to hear and engage with the good news about Jesus, many churches are lost when it comes to reaching a postmodern culture.

That’s why I put together the Church Growth Masterclass. It’s everything I wish I knew about church growth when I got into ministry more than 20 years ago.

I can’t make a church grow. You can’t make a church grow. Only God can do that. But I believe you can position your church to grow. You can knock down the barriers that keep you from growing. You can eliminate the things that keep your church from growing and implement some strategies that will help you reach far more people. That’s what I’d love to help you do in the Church Growth Masterclass.

In the Church Growth Masterclass I’ll show you:

The 10 reasons your church isn’t growing
Why even committed church-goers aren’t attending as often as before
How to tell if your church leaders are getting burned out
The five keys to your church better impacting millennials.
What to do when a church wants to grow … but not change

You can learn more and gain instant access to the course today.

Subscribed Yet? 

Subscribe for free and never miss out on wisdom from world-class leaders like Brian Houston, Andy Stanley, Craig Groeschel, Nancy Duarte, Henry Cloud, Patrick Lencioni, Francis Chan, Ann Voskamp, Erwin McManus and many others.

Subscribe using your favorite podcast app via

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

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TuneIn

Spread the Word. Leave a Rating and Review

Hopefully, this episode has helped you lead like never before. That’s my goal. If you appreciated it, could you share the love?

The best way to do that is to rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review! You can do the same on Stitcher and on TuneIn as well.

Your ratings and reviews help us place the podcast in front of new leaders and listeners. Your feedback also lets me know how I can better serve you.

Thank you for being so awesome.

Next Episode: Les McKeown

Les McKeown is back on the podcast, this time talking about the difference between growing organizations and organizations that are ready for scale. The two often get confused, and just because you’re growing doesn’t mean you’re ready to scale. Les shares the keys to scale, which, coincidentally, also reduce the stress the senior leader and entire team feel. Getting bigger doesn’t mean getting more frenzied. Often, it’s the opposite.

Subscribe for free now and you won’t miss Episode 265.

The post CNLP 264: Sean Cannell Shares YouTube Secrets, Why The Future Online is Video, and How to Get Started on YouTube (Even From Scratch) appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: CNLP 264: Sean Cannell Shares YouTube Secrets, Why The Future Online is Video, and How to Get Started on YouTube (Even From Scratch)

The post CNLP 264: Sean Cannell Shares YouTube Secrets, Why The Future Online is Video, and How to Get Started on YouTube (Even From Scratch) appeared first on Passion for Planting.

Source: Social Media Trends and the Next Generation: Podcast 252

The post Social Media Trends and the Next Generation: Podcast 252 appeared first on Passion for Planting.

Source: How to Use Social Media in Your Church

The post How to Use Social Media in Your Church appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Patrick Bradley: Google has plenty of free* products generally, but there are a few premium services they offer only to qualifying nonprofits. Check out these 3 free things you get from Google for Nonprofits:

Unfortunately, the first thing they do in your application process is ping the IRS’s online database of registered nonprofits (more below). Your church will only show on that list if you’ve applied for your own 501c3 Determination Letter. If you’re relying on your automatic blanket exemption as a church, or if you’re using your denomination’s umbrella exemption, you won’t get past this first step.

And even once you’ve received your 501c3 Determination Letter back in writing, you may have to wait a few weeks for the IRS to update their database. Google’s ping is automated and, in my experience, they’re not open to exceptions.

Once you’ve made it on the list, there are several free products they offer. Here are the 3 that are the best match for new churches:

G Suite for Nonprofits

If you’ve ever had a Gmail account, you’ll be familiar with this suite of products. But instead of your email address being @gmail.com, you get to use your church’s domain name. They include:

Gmail
Google calendar
Google Drive
Google docs, sheets, slides & forms
Google Hangouts
…and more

Businesses can buy this service for $50/user/year, but nonprofits get it free.

Google Ad Grants

You know those ads that show up across the top and down the side of your search results when you google something? Google Ad Grants would allow our church to place up to $10,000 a month worth of ads there. For real.

Google Ad Basics

You’ll need to do a couple hours’ planning to get the ads up and running. Here are the basic steps:

Create a properly configured Adwords account (including NOT entering any billing info)
Create your first ad campaign
Enroll in the Adwords Grant program
Publish the ad(s)
Wait for ad review/approval
Monitor them at least once a month and adjust your settings to improve their performance

YouTube Nonprofit Program

Get a nonprofit YouTube channel with premium features, like:

“Donation cards” (collect donations and Google covers processing fees)
“Link anywhere cards” (allow viewers to click through to your website, etc)
Tech support

Be Prepared for Social Engineering

Google for Nonprofits pioneered social engineering clauses: in the application process, they will ask you to certify several things about how your church conducts itself as a nonprofit, particularly around hot-button cultural issues. Follow your conscience and only proceed with your application if you can support those certifications.

Apply Now

Check the IRS database. If your church shows, then you’re ready to apply to get these free products from Google for Nonprofits.

* while monetarily free, you ‘pay’ for many google products by allowing their algorithms to monitor how you use those products so they can put more targeted ads in front of you

The post Get These 3 Free Products from Google for Nonprofits appeared first on Church Planting Tactics.

Source: Get These 3 Free Products from Google for Nonprofits

The post Get These 3 Free Products from Google for Nonprofits appeared first on Passion for Planting.