Attracting a Crowd to Monthly Services – Part 4

Attracting a Crowd To Monthly Services- Part 4
(Click here for Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3)

“Knocking On Heaven’s Door”
by Andy Wood, Guest Blogger

It’s possible to make all of right strategic moves and not have the kind of launch for your church that God desires. We’ve got to remind ourselves constantly that kingdom leadership is a spiritual endeavor. We are helpless without the Supernatural blessing of God on our church.

When we moved to the Silicon Valley during our Pre-Launch phase I was consistently spending close to one hour each day interceding, begging God to help us get this church off the ground. I made this a top priority in my calendar; I scheduled it in and asked our team and my wife to hold me accountable.

There are so many “only God” stories along the way that came out of my personal prayer life.

As we were raising support, every day I asked God for a very large specific amount of money for our first year of the church. When I looked at our income statement after twelve months it was close to double what I had prayed for!

Before we approached the school where we currently meet, our whole team fasted and prayed for three days asking God to move in the heart of the principle. In addition, we prayed for specific numbers of people for both our Monthly Services and our Launch Team.

God exceeded expectations on those prayers as well.

We’ve also continued to see many people come to faith as we kept begging God for their salvation. Prayer really does change things.

Many leaders have a hard time bringing together the strategic and the spiritual. At South Bay Church we often use the illustration of a lattice and a vine. Our systems and strategies work like a lattice on which the church grows.

Strategic and spiritual is not an “either/or” it is a “both/and” issue.

Your diligence and hard work is evidence of your faith in God’s ability to launch the church! If I didn’t believe God was going to get this church off the ground I wouldn’t have moved my family across the country and staked the future of my life on this vision.

So, be creative and model the way. We did prayer walks once a week with our team, we created Google calendars asking people to pray in 30 minute time slots for 48 hours leading up to our Monthly Services, we sent out short email blasts to all of our partners about once a week and we stayed on our knees as a team.

The spiritual side of leadership requires us to constantly seek the hand of God on our lives and our churches. A healthy church launch comes out of your personal times of prayer and communion with God. He is the author of our faith. He is able to do exceedingly and abundantly beyond anything you can ask or imagine. Now, go, get on your knees and beg Him to move in your community.

Remember, God can accomplish more with one spoken word than you can build in one thousand years!

P.S. Are you Planting a New Church?  Nelson would like to give you Over $115.00 in Free Church Planting Resources to help.  Click Here for Your Free Resources.

Attracting a Crowd to Monthly Services – Part 3

Attracting a Crowd To Monthly Services- Part 3
(Click here for Part 1, Part 2 and Part 4)

“Paint The Town”
by Andy Wood, Guest Blogger

When starting your Monthly Services, it should be your goal that everyone in the immediate area knows about your church and has the opportunity to respond. Don’t be the biggest secret in town!

So let’s be creative and think about how to make this happen!

1) Start Brainstorming…
Ask your team to help you come up with 50 ways you can let every person in your target area know about your Monthly Services.

Call church planters and local businesses that’ve been successful, ask them what worked and how they reached their local community. Then prioritize and pick some of the best ideas that fit within your budget.

Warning: be careful that you don’t stake your future on some grandiose idea that is only working in a textbook!

2) Utilize Direct Marketing Tools…
For each of our Monthly Services we sent 33,000 mail pieces to our community, and then for our grand opening we ended up sending 60,000 mail pieces.

I often talk to church planters who send 5,000 pieces one time and they tell me that direct marketing didn’t work for them. You’ve got to “GO BIG” with consistency. Some people won’t respond until they receive 8-10 mailers.

I went back one year after we launched and looked at the giving of everyone who we reached through mailers – we more than doubled the cost of our investment!

3) Promote Through The Web…
At South Bay Church we’ve seen a great response from Google Adwords. In addition, we created a Yelp page that gives info about South Bay. We have also utilized advertising on Facebook as just another way to get the word out.

Several cost free options include: creating a Facebook fan page for your church and creating a twitter account. As people get your mailers and door hangers they will check you out on the web. Make sure that your site that looks sharp and is easy to explore.

Link your website to Twitter and Facebook so that people can get involved in your online community.

4) Serve at Community Events…
Close to 1/3 of the people who came to our first Monthly Service we first connected with at a local Art and Wine Festival.

Identify local community events throughout the year and contact the city or the person in charge of the event. Ask them if you can serve by picking up trash, and helping with set-up and tear down of the event.

Most cities will also let you sponsor a booth where you can publicize your church. This is a great way to establish a positive relationship with your community and spread the word about your Monthly Services.

You’ve got the Holy Spirit in you. God has a big vision for your church. He wants to use you to make a huge difference.

Rely on Him to give a strategy to let the whole community know about your Launch!

Next week we’ll take a look at what I believe to be the most important part of getting a strong launch and that is PRAYER!

P.S. To learn this same proven process to launch your new church, check out The Launch Conference on CD.

Attracting a Crowd to Monthly Services – Part 2

Attracting a Crowd To Monthly Services- Part 2
(Click here for Part 1, Part 3 and Part 4)
“Mobilizing Your Launch Team To Invite Their Friends”
by Andy Wood, Guest Blogger

As you are planning your Monthly Services and your Launch Team is growing your next goal is to spread the word about your services through word of mouth marketing and personal evangelism.

If you are going to attract a crowd to your Monthly Services you must get the troops moving in the right direction.

Here are several keys to making this happen:

1) Constantly teach on the importance of personal evangelism…

Every time your Launch Team gathers, you should be putting heat under the value of personal evangelism.

You can do this through sharing stories of people you are meeting (pretty important!!), teaching key passages that focus on God’s heart for the lost, and casting the vision of what it will look like when the whole group is focused on people who are far from God.

2) Give the team tools and train them…

We created what we called, “Impact Cards.” They were the size of a bookmark and each card had 10 empty slots for the names of people who individual Launch Team members would invest in and invite to the Monthly Services.

We asked our Launch Team to write these names down on two different cards, one to remind them to pray and one for our staff to pray. It was amazing to eventually meet some of the people I prayed for at our Monthly Services.

We also gave our Launch Team 10-4×6 invite cards with all the info about our services, a list of 10 creative ways to spread the message and invite their friends, and a “life saver” candy to remind them that God was using them to impact eternity.

3) Refuse to cater to inwardly-focused Christians…

It seems like this is a no brainer, but every church planter I know faces this temptation.

You will have people who want to be a part of your Launch Team that have previous church experience. Some will have selfish expectations that you will acquiesce your vision to meet their needs.

Don’t do it! Stay focused on reaching those who are far from God. Move with the movers. Spend your time on those who want to make an impact and those who are far from God. Your launch will be much healthier. I promise!

Remember, during these earlier days your job is that of a team leader. You are a quarterback trying to get the ball in the end zone.

You get a touchdown when you successfully launch the church.

You’ve got to get your team moving in the right direction.

Show them the end zone and get everybody focused on the goal: LAUNCH!

Tune in next week, when I’ll be sharing about how to get the word out in your community about your brand new church!

P.S. To learn all about how to go about launching your brand new church, check out The Launch Conference on CD.

Attracting a Crowd to Monthly Services – Part 1

I’m always on the lookout for pastors and church planters who are doing great things for God.  One of my Coaching Alumni that fits that description is a church planter that I’ve had my eye on for a while and I’d like to introduce him to you today.

Andy Wood is the Founding and Lead Pastor of South Bay Church in Santa Clara, California, and I’ve asked him to write a series of posts on “Attracting a Crowd to Monthly Services,” since they did such a good job with the Launch Process.

Here’s the first post in this series:

Attracting a Crowd To Monthly Services- Part 1
(Click here for Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4)
“Building a Launch Team”
by Andy Wood

My wife Stacie and I, and two other couples moved from Dallas and South Carolina to the Silicon Valley in August of 2008. Our goal was to successfully launch South Bay Church by February of 2009. The Silicon Valley has seen many failed church plants, so we knew a healthy launch would require a miracle from God and a lot of hard work! Our daily prayer was, “God please give us at least 150 people at our Grand Opening Service.”

Given the fact that we had 10 on our team (including dogs and kids) we were just 140 shy of that goal. We quickly discovered that the development of a healthy externally focused Launch Team would be one of the keys to reaching our prayer goal. Many days I would prayer walk through our community with such a heavy heart as I realized that 95% of these people were heading towards eternity apart from Christ.

As we sought God for a healthy launch, I was challenged to pray, “Father just give us 50 people from this community for our Launch Team, you raised Jesus from the dead in three days and this is nothing for you!”

Over the next 6 months we coupled our prayers with hard work and execution. We got moving… serving at local city events, going door to door in our apartments, and hosting neighborhood cookouts (just about every weekend).

Everyone on our original team had a note card with names of people we were praying for and intentionally inviting to be a part of our Launch Team. We eventually ended up with unchurched, de-churched, and churched from all various walks of life and each had a common thread: a desire to serve and make an impact in our community.

Many planters underestimate the significance of a healthy Launch Team and its correlation to having successful Monthly Services. I thought many times, “If I can’t build a team of 50 people that believe in our vision, how can I lead a church that reaches thousands?”

As our Launch Team grew from 8 people to close to 50 by our Grand Opening, our sphere of relationships increased exponentially. Each Sunday night we gathered for one hour, I cast vision and encouraged people to begin thinking about what friends they would invite to our Monthly Services.

This Launch Team proved to be building block #1 of attracting a crowd to our Monthly Services.

Here are Some Action Steps:

• Come up with 3 creative ways to meet people in your community.
• Challenge everyone on your team to build a list of 10 people they are investing in and inviting to be a part of your Launch Team.
• Pray that God would give you 50 people to be a part of your Launch Team.

In next week’s post I’ll write about how to mobilize your Launch Team to bring their friends to your Monthly Services.

P.S. If you’re starting a new church, I’d like to give you over $115.00 in Free Church Planting Resources – Click Here to Secure Yours Now

What it Takes to Launch a Multi-Site Campus…

From its earliest days, The Journey has been a multi-site church and we’ve found it to be a highly effective way to multiply our impact (in New York City and beyond).  However, launching multiple campuses is neither easy nor foolproof.  To that end, I’m always on the lookout for sound advice on the subject.

Here’s a great article from Jim Tomberlin at MultiSite Solutions:

The 5 Ps of Launching a MultiSite Campus
by Jim Tomberlin

Multi-site congregations have a high success rate because of the support and leverage of the sending church. So what does it take to launch a multi-site campus? You need:

• prayer to precede
• provision to start
• a pastor to lead
• people to follow
• and a place to meet

Prayer to Precede
Have you prayed about going multi-site?There are many logical and compelling reasons to go multi-site, but the only one that really matters is God’s call. Is this something God is leading your church to do? Is there a profound sense that God is in this initiative? Is there an overwhelming conviction “we have to do this to be obedient and faithful stewards of our resources in order to fulfill God’s purpose for our church?” This conviction primarily comes as God confirms through prayer.

As you begin to wrap your arms around your community through a multiple campus strategy, Pray4YourBlock is a wonderful resource to help mobilize your prayer champions and congregation to pray for the neighborhoods where they already live. Imagine what could happen if the communities you are trying to reach were covered and saturated with prayer!

Provision to Start
Any endeavor takes seed money to get launched. Though multi-siting creates more seats at the optimal inviting hours for a fraction of the cost and in less time than building on to an existing church facility, it does cost money.

The average start-up cost nationwide for launching a campus is $250,000. Typically, churches will start by adding a multi-site line item to their operating budget and have a special fund-raising campaign to launch a multi-site campus. The Bible wisely reminds to sit down and “count the cost”  to make sure we have enough money to finish before we begin an ambitious project. (Luke 14:28)

A Pastor to Lead
The multi-site pastor, often called the “campus pastor” is the most important component in going multi-site. As in every endeavor, everything rises or falls on leadership. The best place to find a campus pastor is usually within the sending congregation. They are the “face with the place” who need to be high-capacity leaders, team players, and DNA carriers of the church.

People to Follow
The strength of a multi-site launch is the core of followers who come out of the sending congregation. They typically already live in the targeted area of the new launch. Figure out how many people it takes to have a fully functioning congregational expression of your church in a new location and enlist at least that many to serve for a one-year commitment. The larger this launch core, the sooner the campus becomes self-sustaining functionally and financially.

A Place to Meet
Since the majority of church-going Americans live within a 15 minute drive of their church, the ideal place for a multi-site campus is within the 15-30 minute perimeter of the sending campus. Find out where your church has concentrations of attenders at the 15-30 perimeter and launch there. This puts a new congregation in fresh “mission” territory, yet builds on the good reputation of the sending church with a core of people who have the church’s DNA.

Some 50% of multi-campus churches start out utilizing space in a school building for their first remote sites. Schools, along with theaters, are typically low-risk, low-cost alternatives for going multi-site. A school is typically good for a one-to-three year run in terms of energy and volunteer commitment to helping with a portable church on wheels that gets set-up and torn-down every week.

Leasing a commercial facility provides a 24-7 presence, but is more expensive because of the renovation required for a church.
There is also an increasing trend where existing churches merge or become adopted and absorbed by a healthy, growing multi-campus church.

When you have preceded with prayer, provision to start, a pastor to lead, people who will follow, and a place to meet–you are ready to launch a multi-site campus!

Go forth and multiply!

Jim

That’s solid, proven wisdom – lining up the 5 P’s will put you a long way down the road to launching a thriving and successful multi-site campus!

P.S. For a proven strategy to Launch a new church (or a new campus), check out The Launch Conference on CD.

10 Lessons in Bootstrapping a Church Plant (Part 5)

by Nelson Searcy and Tommy Duke

Today we’re sharing the final post in a series on “Bootstrapping” a new church, or starting with very little (or no) outside funding.  While this isn’t the ideal way to plant a church, there are a number of lessons to be learned through the process.  You can read the rest of this series of posts here: 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Here are the final two lessons:

2. APPRECIATE: YOU’LL BETTER APPRECIATE RESOURCES WHEN GOD DOES SEND THEM
The above lessons (if you apply them well) will place you in the rare position of truly being a good and faithful servant. Each one will guide you as you grow in your stewardship of the resources God does send. As you prove yourself faithful with a little – both in the way of financial support and newfound wisdom – God will entrust you with more (Matt 25).

1. DEPEND: YOU’LL CONSTANTLY BE REMINDED OF WHOSE CHURCH IT IS
Your church is not yours. Bootstrapping will re-teach you this truth day in and day out. Each time things are uncertain, each time the bills are coming due and you don’t see any way to pay them, you’ll be driven back to a complete awareness of the one who owns your church in the first place. Let your financial dependence on Christ remind you of his words from Matthew 16:18: “I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.”

As we wrap up, let me reiterate: A fully resourced church plant has a greater chance of reaching health and stability than one that’s underfunded.

However, to all of you out there who are struggling to make ends meet, don’t lose hope! Strewn along the difficult road you are traveling there are valuable lessons waiting to be uncovered – lessons that will help you grow your new church plant right now and that will serve you well for the rest of your ministry.

Don’t miss what God wants to teach you along the way!

P.S. You can find this article (and more than a dozen others) in the Free Articles section of the Church Leader Insights website.  Click Here to view the articles now.

P.S. And don’t forget — If you’re starting a new church, I’d like to give you over $115.00 in FREE Church Planting Resources – Click Here for More Info and to Sign Up

10 Lessons in Bootstrapping a Church Plant (Part 4)

by Nelson Searcy and Tommy Duke

We’re looking at the lessons that can be learned in “Bootstrapping” a Church Plant (starting with little or no outside financial support).  Click here to read the first,  second, and third posts in this series.

Here are today’s lessons:

4. FOCUS: YOU’LL STAY FOCUSED ON YOUR CHURCH’S VISION
Bootstrapping will force you to drill down on the two or three things you feel called to do in order to fulfill your God-inspired vision. You won’t have time or money for rabbit chasing. For example, at The Journey we’ve chosen to focus on the weekend worship services and small groups. Anything that doesn’t support or flow through those two activities is a distraction from God’s vision for our church. We can attest that not having that pesky funding floating around will keep you from heading off in too many different directions.

3. BE BOLD: YOU’LL LEARN TO TEACH WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT GIVING
God isn’t shocked by the fact that your church needs resources to fulfill its purpose. He set the church up to be supported in a specific way, and he lays out the plan for that support in his word. During this bootstrapping process, take time to dig in and confirm your understanding of what the Bible says about money, on both a personal and corporate level.

One of the primary reasons pastors don’t teach on finances is that they’re not sure what they really believe. But once you have settled your theology of money (and are modeling the way of biblical generosity), you’ll have the confidence to teach your people about giving boldly, passionately and in a way that resources the church as God intends (Mal 3:10). Stewardship is discipleship. If you shy away from teaching on money, you are doing both your people and your new church a disservice. (For more on this topic, be on the outlook for Maximize: How To Develop Extravagant Givers In Your Church, coming in October.)

Tune in tomorrow for the final two lessons from bootstrapping a new church!

P.S. If you’re starting a new church, I’d like to give you over $115.00 in FREE Church Planting Resources – Click Here for More Info and to Sign Up

10 Lessons in Bootstrapping a Church Plant (Part 3)

by Nelson Searcy and Tommy Duke

We’re about halfway through a new series of posts about “Bootstrapping” a Church Plant (starting with little or no outside financial support) and 10 of the lessons learned in doing so.  Click here to read the first post and the second one.

Here are the next two lessons:

6. MOBILIZE: YOU’LL RAISE THE VALUE OF PERSONAL EVANGELISM
If you want to reach more people for Jesus (and if not, don’t plant a church), you have to tell them about him, right? While the well-funded church plant may be tempted to lean too heavily on paid promotion (direct mail, billboards, radio and TV ads, etc.), the bootstrapping church planter knows that his best asset to connect with more people is the people who are already attending his church. Click here to read an excerpt from Ignite: How To Spark Immediate Growth In Your Church on the formula for fostering effective personal evangelism.

5. LEAD: YOU’LL AFFIRM YOUR ABILITY TO LEAD YOUR CHURCH
If you’re not clear about mutual expectations on the front-end, financial support often comes with strings attached. A few months in to your new church, you may find yourself getting more and more heavy-handed “suggestions” about how you should lead, what you should be preaching, what your worship style should be and even how the congregation should be dressing (yes, some people still make a big deal about this).

As a bootstrapper, you won’t have to deal with the noise of too many opinions, which means you’ll be able to listen more closely to God’s unique vision for your new church… and then lead in that direction.

Check back throughout the week, as we’ll be wrapping up the countdown!

P.S. If you’re starting a new church, I’d like to give you over $115.00 in FREE Church Planting Resources – Click Here for More Info and to Sign Up

10 Lessons in Bootstrapping a Church Plant (Part 2)

by Nelson Searcy and Tommy Duke

We began a new series of posts earlier this week about “Bootstrapping” a Church Plant, and the lessons learned in doing so (click here for the first post).

Here are the next two lessons:

8. EXCEL: YOU’LL BE FORCED TO STRIVE FOR EXCELLENCE, BUT NOT PERFECTION
If the bank account was overflowing and the monthly support checks were rolling in, you might be tempted to spend three times as much on a projector or sound system for a negligible increase in quality.

After all, you want your service to be perfect, right? Wrong.

As a bootstrapping church planter, you’re going to learn that getting everything perfect for Sunday is not your goal. (Even the attempt will drive you insane.) You’ll learn instead to strive for excellence by always doing the very best you can with what you have.

For example, if by chance Chris Tomlin isn’t available to lead your worship this week, don’t fret. Help your worship leader do his best; help him develop his abilities as he strives to become more like Christ. In every area, always be on the lookout for areas of improvement, but don’t let perfectionism sidetrack God’s calling for you and your church.

7. SYSTEMATIZE: YOU’LL DEVELOP EFFICIENT SYSTEMS
Sadly, some of the sloppiest church systems exist in some of the best funded church plants.

Why? Because no amount of money can make a system that is inherently bad any better. Money may mask the effects of a bad system for a while. After all, if you’ve got the funds available to hire a staff member to handle a broken assimilation or small groups system, those areas may appear healthy in the short term. But without a well-developed, scalable system in place, the cracks will begin showing soon enough.

Thankfully, as a bootstrapper, you’ll be forced to hone in on making your systems highly efficient so you can maximize every ounce of ministry effort.

Tune in later this week as the series continues!

P.S. If you’re starting a new church, I’d like to give you over $115.00 in FREE Church Planting Resources – Click Here for More Info and to Sign Up

10 Lessons in Bootstrapping a Church Plant (Part 1)

by Nelson Searcy and Tommy Duke

You’ve probably heard the old saying, “Money makes the world go ‘round.” While those of us in ministry understand the skewed nature of this adage, one thing is for sure: Money is critical to the work we do – especially when that work involves launching a new church.

Every idealistic, would-be church planter must come face to face early on with the reality that starting a church takes a lot of financial resources. In fact, if you are preparing to launch a new church and have been trying to ignore the importance of money to its success, I suggest you do one of two things:

1) Get over your hang-ups and start asking.
If God has called you to start a church, then he has people out there ready and waiting to support it… but you have to ask!

or

2) Find a safe, comfortable job on an existing church’s staff.
At least there you know you’ll have a guaranteed paycheck.

If you’d prefer to go with Option 1, keep reading….

Starting your church plant with healthy financial support is a tremendous indicator of how successful your new church will ultimately be. Make sure you get as much information as possible on how to raise the resources you need to fulfill the God-given vision you have for your church. (Click here for more information and resources.)

That said, there are times in launching a new church when money is nowhere to be found. Whether this dearth of funding is due to the lack of a strong network, poor asking skills, or to just not knowing any better, the fact is that many (if not most) new churches launch painfully underfunded.

If you find yourself in this position – i.e. if you have already launched without adequate resources – don’t get discouraged. You can still raise support. In fact, there are some potential partners out there who will equate the fact that you are already meeting with more reason that your church is a “viable investment” of their missions budget. So, don’t give up. Keep asking.

But here’s the best news for those of you in the midst of the “rolling but under-resourced” struggle: Valuable lessons can be learned as you go through the tough process of post-launch fundraising.

In the business world, starting with little to no outside assistance is known as “bootstrapping,” so borrowing from this bit of lingo, here are:

The Top 10 Lessons Learned from Bootstrapping a Church Plant:

10. HAVE FAITH: YOU’LL LEARN TO BE THANKFUL FOR GOD’S PROVISION
Where God guides, he provides. Nothing is a better reminder of this truth than looking at your bank statement at the end of the month and wondering how everything got paid. Fair warning: when bootstrapping your church plant there will be dark days, financially speaking and otherwise. But God’s light shines brightest in the darkest situations. You’ll learn to recognize and give thanks for all those times when God shows up in just the nick of time.

9. PRIORITIZE: YOU’LL LEARN WHERE YOU SHOULD AND SHOULDN’T CUT CORNERS
When your young church’s cash flow is more like a drip and the outlook seems bleak, you may be tempted to shut down as much as possible and wait for brighter days. But if your church is to survive long enough to thrive, zeroing out critical areas is never the right solution.

Evangelism is one area where you should never cut corners, for the sake of your church’s long-term health. Skimping on your missions giving (yes, even in a brand new church) will not make you a better steward either. Save money on office supplies? Sure. Negotiate a better rental rate for your meeting place? Definitely. Carve money away from activities that directly relate to fulfilling the Great Commission? Don’t do it!

To Be Continued (later this week) . . .

P.S. If you’re looking for some help in starting a new church, I’d like to give you over $115.00 in FREE Church Planting Resources – Click Here for More Info and to Sign Up