It’s Kerrick Thomas here again, Executive Pastor and Teaching Pastor at The Journey and the co-author of Launch and Activate with Nelson. He asked me to share this recent answer to a question from Launch:

Q:You guys said in Launch that when launching Journey, looking back you would have rather launched in February instead of in Easter as you did.  What were the determining factors for that correction?

A:The reason that February is a more attractive launch date to us than Easter is because if you launch on Easter you only have a few weeks before summer roles around and attendance gets dicey. We found that out the hard way when we had some weeks down at 35 during our first summer.

There are two big advantages to launching in February (the week after the Super Bowl but before President’s Day is a good week):
1) February is a good month for attendance (people aren’t traveling and many are thinking about starting something healthy and new at the beginning of the year)
2) When you launch in February you have a natural “2nd launch” coming up at Easter. So – you launch big in February and then get a 2nd bounce on Easter Sunday. That helps before summer hits.

Hope that helps answer your question!

God bless…

Kerrick

P.S. If you’re thinking of or in the process of starting a new church (or know someone who is), check out The Launch Conference on CD:
https://nelsonsearcy.infusionsoft.com/cart/store.jsp?view=4&i=p83&navicat=45