Just Because You Built it, They Won’t Come

For those of us who are into marketing, we know all too well that advertisers use any ‘day’ to draw people into their stores. It is very common to see them offering outstanding products at a discount as a result of a: Mother’s Day sale, Father’s Day sale, Christmas Day Sale, Labor Day Sale, Black Friday Sale, Spring Sale, New Year’s Day sale and so on… Why do they do this? Answer: Because it gets the people in the door. If we can get them through the door, we can get them to buy our stuff. It’s not complicated; it’s simple AND it works!

Everyone is doing it – staying ahead, but the church. The church contends that it doesn’t take all that. We are stuck in the ‘Build it and they will come’ phase. We can look forward to the same ole programs, the same type of music, the same style of preaching even on days we call, the C.M.E.days – Christmas, Mother’s Day and Easter. The same people come back year after year and say to themselves, “Yep, things haven’t changed since the last time I was here.” And away they go until the next year.

This year we did something special for Mother’s Day. We read a beautiful poem, followed by a hilarious job description for mothers; we saw a 2 minute film clip on the sacrifice of Ray Charles’s mother and followed it up with a beautiful gift given to each mother, grandmother, surrogate mother or any motherly types. It was a hit!! This of course was followed by great music and sermon relative to mothers. It was such a hit that the Fathers said to me “I sure hope you have something planned for us.”

We heard them and so we went off to find something for them too. Here’s what we did. We read a piece, “The Top 10 Things You Would Never Hear a Dad Say.” This was hilarious. We followed this up by running a clip entitled, “Dad’s Life.” As far as a gift was concerned, we wrapped up a bottle of Dad’s Root Beer with colorful paper, with decorative cloth ribbon we tied the Top 10 list rolled up and lastly we put each bottle in a see through plastic bag. This was a hit!! To top off things the music was hittin and stickin like Popeye’s chicken and the pastor’s sermon was about Samson’s dad.

Here’s the point if you want more than you getting, you gotta be willing to do more than your doing. Churches that are growing have caught onto more creative planning for that one or two hour Sunday morning service. In fact, they have moved beyond just preparing for C.M.E. days to making every Sunday the ‘best’ it can be.

Evaluate your service honestly next Sunday and ask yourself was this the ‘best’ I could have done.

Church Visitor Types

Pastor Ron Edmonson, wrote an article entitled, “ Embrace the 5 Types of Church Visitors.”  He made a point to mention that all visitors are NOT the same and they visit our churches with different motivations.

Take a look at the different types of visitors . . .

#1 Testers – These visitors are just looking around…perhaps for a new church…perhaps because they are dissatisfied where they currently attend church. They may feel they are not growing at their current church, or they aren’t completely satisfied with the leadership, the programs, etc.

#2 Pleasers – These visitors are usually coming to appease someone who asked them. They have less interest in attending church than they have in satisfying the request of a spouse or friend.

#3 Seekers– These are people who know they are missing something in life but aren’t sure what it is. Church may simply be another option, or it may be the only option, but these are the true unchurched.

#4 Jumpers – These visitors seldom stay long at one church. They get upset at something the church does or they simply grow bored.

#5 Investors – These visitors may be new to your community or have experienced some major issue.  However these visitors are looking for a new long-term home.

I would like to add that a #6 to this list is the Special Occasioners – Theses are visitors who come on special occasions like: funerals, marriages, confirmations, baptisms, plays, dances and of course, although it might go without having to be said, the C.M.E. visitors – Christmas, Mother’s Day and Easter.

Why is it a value to you as pastors to understand the different types of visitors?  The simple answer is to inform you that not everyone has the same motivation for visiting your church. This gives us some insight to the psyche of people; it also helps us to not take things so personal.  The other point to make here is that most of these visitor types have visited your church on their own account as compared to them responding to your church wide evangelistic effort.

I believe, we pastors need to help make every visit regardless of visitor type a welcoming and memorable experience.  In other words if the visitors remembers and values nothing else, they will value your hospitality in the way you made them feel welcomed.

Other articles of Interest . . .

Hospitality: Making Visitors Feel Welcome (Focus: Gifts)
Hospitality: 7 Ways to Close the Back Door
Hospitality: How to Recognize Your Visitors (Focus: What to Say)
Hospitality: How to Make a GREAT 1^st Impression
Hospitality: How to Make the Most Out of Your C.M.E. Visitors (Christmas, Mother’s Day & Easter Visitors)

Church Easter Ad – BANNED! Too Much Jesus

Here we go again – you can say the ‘F’-word, you can dress like a common street whore, you can promote wild sex orgies, drunkenness and drug binges and violence at any extreme, BUT I Double DOG Dare  you to say, “JESUS.”

I MEAN NO HARM TO YOU REALLY, BUT IF THIS VIDEO OFFENDS YOU – YOU NEED TO BE OFFENDED!

IF THE OFFENSE GETS YOU INTO HEAVEN
THEN EVERYBODY WINS!

Compass Bible Church in Aliso Viejo, Calif., created a 30-second ad to air for three weeks on 45 movie screens across Orange County starting April 1 to promote their Easter Service.  They paid more than $5,000 for their ad just like any other business would pay for an ad.  When the agency for the national theater learned of this ad, they were worried that their movie goers might get offended.   As a result, they banned the ad as it was and tried to get the church to edit the commercial taking JESUS’ Name out of the ad, stating then they would run it. The church REFUSED!  holding firm that, “Easter is our most Holiest time of the year.”

 If that weren’t enough, the agency suggested they run the ad with the event basics: What, Date, Time & Location and throw in some ‘Fun bunny and eggs.’  How patronizing is that!?  And you still want me to give you $5,000+ for the ad? I would like to tell you what you can do with your bunny and your eggs!  Okay, let me calm down for a moment and think this through logically.  The Bible does tell us to be as wise as a serpent and innocent as a dove.  That being said, it’s good to know that negative publicity can be just as effective in promoting programs as positive publicity in some cases – like this one.  The church got free publicity from: the media, newsprint, local and national news, the Internet, my blog, my Facebook AND it did not cost them one copper coin!  Hallelujah!  We still win.

EVANGELISM: Pastors, this church took time to invest into the kingdom.  They reserved $5,000+ to promote heavily their Easter program.  They took the time to come up with a topic that would be sure to get people’s interest – Conspiracy Theory – ‘Just what did happen to Jesus’ Body?’  hmmm…  This whole project was carefully thought out, planned and executed – making sure it wasn’t just another Easter Service.  Even though they couldn’t have predicted that things would have ended up this way; I believe they will enjoy much success and people will be drawn to Jesus making Him the Lord of their lives. 

Isn’t this the Great Commission – and really what it is all about WINNING SOULS?

When was the last time you took time to really invest in an evangelism project?  When were you ever willing to pull out all the stops to ensure a great service?

6 MegaThemes Of Churches in 2010 – Barna Group (Church Trends)

The Barna Research Group did a research project resulting in finding 6 patterns developing in the church in 2010. I think it is important for pastors to keep up on trends that affect our churches. This will help us in our planning efforts to meet the needs of the church.

1. Less theologically literate – this means that we have wandered from the basics of our faith and have become biblically illiterate. The report indicated that our young people, although they recognize that Easter is a Holy holiday, they do not associate it with the resurrection of Jesus. What the ….??? Every Christian should know facts about the Birth, Death & Resurrection. Without the Resurrection, there is no Christianity.

2. Grown more ingrown and less outreach-oriented – People are not impressed with the contributions of the average church. Less people are inviting people to their churches even on high recruitment Sundays like Easter. The report even states that many people are becoming Christians as a result of personal crisis or fear of death; not because people are inviting them. Pastors, if people are not happy with their individual churches, they will not invite others to attend. I know of many churches where the members are very happy and satisfied and as a result they are all about evangelizing.

3. More people less interested in spiritual principles and more interest in learning realistic solutions for life. People are more interested in education, friendship, comfort, success and personal achievement than their faith walk. In fact, many consider survival in the present much more significant than eternal life. This is not surprising to me. I think the church needs to demonstrate realistic solutions for life which can be found in the application of spiritual principles. The church needs to do a better job in illustrating that the Bible is relevant.

4. Increased interest in community service activities. The more that churches and believers can be recognized as people doing good deeds out of genuine love and compassion, the more appealing the Christian life will be to those who are on the sidelines watching.

5. Increased tolerance. Our biblical illiteracy and lack of spiritual confidence has caused Americans to avoid making discerning choices for fear of being labeled judgmental. The result is a Church that has become tolerant of a vast group of immoral behaviors. CHALLENGE: There is a place for tolerance in Christianity; knowing when and where to draw the line appears to perplex a growing proportion of Christians in this age of tolerance.

6. The influence of Christianity on culture and individual lives is largely invisible. Christianity has arguably added more value to American culture than any other religion, philosophy, ideology or community. Yet, contemporary Americans don’t really believe this. Partly due to the nature of today’s media, they have no problem identifying the faults of the churches and Christian people. The most influential aspect of Christianity in America is how believers do–or do not–implement their faith in public and private. Bad news about a thing always spread faster, deeper and wider than good news about a thing.

To read this article in its entirety, click here.

They’re Not Praying, They’re Texting . . . a Good Thing??

Texting in Church!

Two years ago I went to a pastor’s conference in South Carolina when a pastor posed the question, “How many of you have a cell phone?” About 90% of us raised our hands proudly pronouncing silently, that is, that we have entered the technological era and that we had a cell phone.  But then he posed the second question, “How many of you send text messages?” This question resulted in less than 25% favorable response.  Lastly, he addressed the ‘texters,’ “Do you ever text in church?” As expected no one raised their hands.  People whispered and grumbled in disagreement underneath their breath, “no way, disrespectful, blasphemy, that’s just too far over the top.”  But then the pastor began letting us know that he allows it and even encourages it.  We all stood by awaiting the next words that would comfort our fears, our anxiety and would keep us from running out of the sanctuary.  He told us about the ever changing culture and that it was up to us to keep up with each generation.  At times he admitted to us that he would say, “Young people what you just heard is worth Facebooking. That’s worth a “TWEET.” Take a second and share that with someone.” The kids immediately began to text sending that statement to other people’s phones, on Facebook, on Twitter, etc.  That message has now gone out to hundreds if not, thousands of people.  The results of which had been a favorable gain for this pastor, in terms of new members, as many have said, “Anytime a pastor is encouraging his members to text they must be doing church differently there.”

Although I do believe there are some benefits to this, I have to  admit, it is still a bit unsettling because not everyone will respect the boundaries of its usage.  For example playing games, talking to one another and simply not paying attention.  However, I must admit I saw someone asleep on the pulpit one Sunday so I got out my cell phone and typed in the words, “WAKE-UP!!!!!!” Another time I sent a message, “Cross Legs!” to a woman singing on the choir whose skirt was a little too short and was giving us all a birds-eye view of her charms.

I want to be fair and share six advantages to allowing members to use their phone and text during church:

1.  Captures the Moment! Share insight with family or friends.  Sometimes a pastor may say something so profound you want to share with someone who is not at church.
2.  Great Way to Entice Others to Attend Your Progressive Church! You can call it e-Evangelizing an alternative to the cold-calls or knocking on one’s door.
3.  Send Quick Useful Message Alerts.
4.  Can Use Phone to Review Scripture. Today, phones are so advanced they come with their own applications you can download.  My daughter has an Bible application downloaded on her Droid Phone.  Now when someone reads a Bible Passage and says this scripture is coming out of the New Living Translation or the Message Bible, she can select the version and read right along with the reader on her phone. Some times the pastor may ask, “Where does the scripture, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me come from?” And she can recall either key words or use her concordance and can inform the pastor of the Book, chapter and verse.  How’s that for versatility?
5.  Clarify Points. There is another pastor who allows members to text during service to address questions regarding his sermon.  Of course, in order to manage this, he needs help from pastoral ministers to assist with filtering.  The approved questions are displayed on screen and then pastor addresses the points and or question.
6.  Contests. This same pastor has embraced technology so that he often will pose a biblical question or trivia regarding his sermon to make sure people are paying attention and they will have to text the answers back using some new Bible application.  He then offers gifts to the winners.

Why Policies are Needed!

POLICIES. Of course with the implementation of any new thing, you need to establish clear policies and boundaries in which to operate.  For example: sound off so that it is not a distraction to others and when it is appropriate to text, as well as to indicate that there is to be no game playing or casually texting friends or long term use, etc.

Pastors:5 Suggestions for a More Successful Year

Pastors and senior leaders in ministry me this, why is it that every business worth their salt demonstrates evidence of planning and strategizing in order to improve their performance EXCEPT the church?    Here’s something you need to think about – – the concept, “Build it and they will come” is a myth.  And even if they do come  are your services interesting enough to convince them to STAY?  I hope this year (2011) we see more churches growing instead of closing.  We seem to begrudge the larger churches for their success but are bent on keeping things the same.  I always say to pastors, “Stop forcing the square pin into the round hole.”  Our culture is changing and if you don’t change with it, you will be left behind.  As long as the “Message” remains the same, the “Method” can change. I would like to leave you with five suggestions that will help you be more successful this year.

1. Get Exposed! Not everyone does church the same. Go visiting! A pastor friend of mine told me told me that he tells his wife to book their vacations anywhere she wants, but he always selects the church they will visit.  He then selects the largest church in that city.  He wants to see why the people are coming, what is attracting them and he wants to see how they do church.  He then gleans what he feels will work at his own church and of course leaves there what he feels will not be  a fit.
2. Learn from the ‘Big Boys.’ Don’t begrudge them, learn from them! Some of the authors of the mega churches have authored
   

   Pastor Ed Young, Jr.

   books which are loaded with valuable insight.  Believe me when I say they have studied the behavior of people.  They have made mistakes and often times their books will disclose their failures as well. Some of them even have YouTube channels and will speak to you on video.

3. Know facts about your own congregation. Have you taken the time to really know who you are preaching to every Sunday?  For example if I were to ask you right now what percentage of your congregation are between the ages of 8 – 16 or 20-35 or 40-65 would you be able to tell me with a reasonable degree of accuracy?  Why is this important?  Because it will tell you some areas that you will need to focus on.  If you have a large sized youth population, you may need to start planning for a youth pastor. If the majority of your people are between the ages of 20-35 you may want to explore communicating with them differently since this age group is very technically astute.  Do you get it?
4. Plan, Plan & Plan some more. Come on, do you really want your program to be successful or not? Do you really want to get a youth pastor on board or not? Name it, claim it very seldom works.  If you really want to make a difference in your church you have got to demonstrate to your leadership and members that you thought about a thing for more than just 5 seconds.  Shooting from the hip with limited church resources should be a thing of the past.  If you want buy in you got to demonstrate that you have done some due diligence.  Remember, the number one reason for resistance to any idea in a church setting is MONEY – how much is gonna cost?  You must demonstrate that you can show them a ROI (a return on investment).  For example, you want an experienced youth pastor.  You have recommended a salary of $12,000/year to start.  You need to be able to show the benefit to the leadership and membership, such as increasing your youth ministry by 25% in 12 months, which will yield at least five new families to the church.  The idea here is that the parents have to bring the kids to church, so they end up coming to church themselves. If the average contribution (tithes/offering) per family is $200/month and there are 5 families that’s $1000/month or $12,000/year which is equivalent to the proposed Youth Pastor’s salary. These figures may be on the high end, but you should get the picture.
5. Reward – Don’t Forget to Thank. If ever there were a subject that rubbed me the wrong way is when a pastor says, “Your rewards are heaven, God will take care of you.  You should be willing to do for the Lord without expecting a reward.”  Hey pastor if you think like this, then let me say this to you… “touche.” Instead of you getting a check we will just pay you with your own words – – “Your rewards are in heaven…” Again the world is so much further ahead than the church is in this area. Happy, well appreciated employees work better than unappreciated ones.  It is the same with the church more people will volunteer their time, if they felt appreciated and were rewarded from time to time. Sure not everyone can be on salary, but there are so many inexpensive or free ways to tell people you appreciate them.  I was told by a pastor that he doesn’t single out and thank people because he doesn’t want to miss anyone because the backlash for missing a person is far too stressful.  So what was he saying? He doesn’t thank anyone or he groups one big thank you and if it applied to you then that thank you was for you. Hmmmm selfish! How about being more intentional about knowing who is helping to serve?

Special Christmas Service in 3-D?

Pastor Ed Young of Fellowship Church is making headlines again as he has been promoting his 1st ever 3-D Christmas service.  Young has a church out of Texas with more than 20,000 weekend attendees and has built a reputation for creative worship services.  The plan is to hand out to each person attending a pair of 3-D Glasses in order to view the high tech service.

A few years ago he got the attention and appeared on ABC/CBS TV Network promoting his  “7-Day Sex Challenge” for all of his married folk in church.  He maintained that one of the main issues in the average marriage is that they are just not having enough sex. If you want to read more on that article click here.

The question here is  – – is the 3-D service with the glasses over the top? Some would argue that all of this creativity is diminishing the sacredness of  the church experience and that it is more about entertaining people.  What’s your thoughts? 

I have one of Ed Young’s books entitled, “The Creative Leader.” It is actually really good.  In a day where the average person is dealing with multiple distractions, the church has got to keep up and many innovative pastors believe that they must somewhat compete with those distractions.  The truth is people are leaving the church by the droves for a number of reasons.  Boredom and no relevance to individual needs are listed on the top of the list.  It is a challenge for every senior pastor to address these concerns head on.  Before I would dismiss Young’s initiative in addressing congregational needs, I would first have to ask myself, ‘is he addressing the basics of our faith:  Jesus is Lord, He died, He rose, is  He preaching Jesus, does he deal with sin, etc.??’  If the answer to these questions are ‘yes’ and ‘amen’ then I say let the creative juices flow!

That’s just my -cents.  What’s yours? Perhaps you can give me some more insight into the dangers of being too creative.

Just What is a MegaChurch Anyway?

You have heard the term MegaChurch.  When does a church become a megachurch? According to my research it’s when a church grows to a congregation of 2,000 or more people.  Another name for a megachurch is also known as a  “seeker church,” because they cater primarily to new Christians and seekers, rather than to Christians who are already attending services.

Megachurches tend to grow to their great size within a very short period of time, usually in less than ten years, and under the tenure of a single senior pastor. Nearly all megachurch pastors are male, and are viewed as having considerable personal charisma.

What makes a church turn into a megachurch? Answer. Aside from an effective charismatic leader/pastor who can preach well and who is highly motivational and persuasive, the existence of elaborate systems, the creation of relevant ministries, active outreach support and being staff supported.  This is just some of the characteristics of a megachurch.