Category Archives: Church Growth

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November 14, 2017

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Church Growth, Turnaround 2020

Turnaround 2020 – Four Key Steps in Turnaround

First Step in Turnaround—the most evangelistic task you can undertake

Identify your attendance baseline with a chart/graph of weekly worship attendance. Overlay 2-3 years with a different colored line for each year on the same graph to identify trends.

A General Observation—There will be Highs and Lows.  Not everyone attends every week so there will be fluctuations from week to week and from season to season.

Another Observation—Spring and Fall Spikes are likely.  This remains a tendency in most churches where Easter/Mother’s Day traditions likely generate a larger attendance.  In the same way often in the Fall there will be a higher attendance pattern prior to the Holidays.

When you establish your multi-year chart you will discover your church’s attendance culture indicated by the trend lines on the chart.

Second Step in Turnaround—making your record keeping more personal.

List all those people who attend worship at least once every 6-8 weeks.
Be sure to collect:  Name, Address, Cell phone, E-mail, Facebook

This identifies the crowd and prepares you to evangelize and disciple them.

  • COMMUNITY – A Community person is committed to NOT ATTENDING church.
  • CROWD – A Crowd person is committed to ATTENDING church—at least once in awhile.
  • CONGREGATION – A Congregation person is committed to a SMALL GROUP
  • COMMITTED – A Committed person is committed to HABITS necessary for spiritual growth.
  • CORE – A Core person is committed to MINISTRY

Third Step in Turnaround

Consider total weekly participation if you offer more than Sunday Morning Worship. Check Class Rosters, Program Attendance (Wednesday night, etc.) and Worship Attendance to compile an overall weekly attendance. This is not cumulative weekly where one person is counted for every event they attend.  Overall weekly attendance counts each person only one time only even if they attend 10-12 different events per week.

Fourth Step in Turnaround

Connecting with the Crowd — Everyone needs to be invited to some all-church entry point function frequently enough so that you stay on their radar but not so frequently as to become a nuisance.

The power of a generic post card.  They told me about it 5 years after I left the church.  A 30-something young lady came to the church traumatized by a cancer diagnosis that was grim.  She returned to the church because “they sent me a personal invitation”.  She explained that she had moved a couple of times in the previous few years but that she always returned that invitation to her refrigerator. The pastors lead her to faith in Christ and comforted her in her last months. They showed be that personal invitation.  It was a simple card stock post card invitation we had printed on our copier and mailed bulk rate but it was part of a plan that worked.

Crowd Connections by using a Communication Plan

  1. Develop a mailing list/contact list
  2. Use that mailing/contact list to connect with everyone on a regular schedule.
  3. Social Media Platforms assist here.
  4. Special Occasion Connections that can bolster high attendance trends need special attention.
  5. Make Guest Connections a priority by considering Nelson Searcy’s Fusion or Tyler Smith’s TextinChurch.

JUMPSTART YOUR MINISTRY:  Develop a Comprehensive List of all Attenders and Use it!

Jumpstart Turnaround 2020Phone Tree—my mother-in-law was part of the largest Sunday School class that weekly produced the largest offering for the church budget in a large Southern Baptist church.  Every Saturday class leaders took turns connecting with everyone by a simple phone call “Have you had a good week?”  “Will you be in class tomorrow?”  When will it be your turn next to help with refreshments?”

What if a monthly phone tree process was used so that 10 or 12 volunteers could make 6-8 calls each to encourage everyone to attend on a particular Sunday?

Turnaround 2020 - Invite, connect, disciple, send
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November 7, 2017

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Church Growth, Turnaround 2020

Turnaround 2020 – Invite, Connect, Disciple, Send!

Connecting with those who attend as guests is crucial for effective Turnaround.  These connections must be meaningful and personal but they must also be effective and institutional.

Meaningful and personal connections probably begin long before the guest arrives on the parking lot.  To reach unchurched people in the 21st century the first meaningful and personal connection they experience will generally be in the invitation they receive from a friend or family member.

This meaningful and personal connection will be reinforced on the parking lot if outdoor greeters are in place on a well-marked, properly maintained parking area.

Meaningful and personal connections extend to the interior greeters and hosts/hostesses who cheerfully welcome those who attend while also assisting guests to find essential features such as the nursery, children’s ministry, the elevator, the worship center, etc.

Meaningful and personal connections also extend to the atmosphere of the worship center.  This atmosphere will be enhanced by cleanliness, appropriate lighting and contemporary color schemes.  Many established churches have beautiful wood work, attractive stained glass and other architectural features that can enhance the worship setting.  Sometimes something as simple as the ministry of cords management can de-clutter the platform and thus give a more pleasant atmosphere.

Connections, however, must also be effective and institutional.  Three broad areas of connection involve the greeting time, church music and the sermon.

Many established churches thrive on a prolonged greeting time built into the worship experience.  It is not uncommon for this greeting time to last for several minutes.  In this time regular attenders carry on animated, friendly conversations with most everyone who attends.  Guests, however, are generally at a loss in this time frame since they have no history with the larger congregation.  This can leave them isolated and alone.  Many church guests find this prolonged greeting time one of the most awkward, even distasteful, parts of the worship experience.

Since most people who come to church wish to feel welcome it may be wise to use a greeting time approach of “Just say Hi!”  One pastor routinely uses this line, “Don’t sit down until you greet the folks around you.  Shake a hand and say ‘I’m glad you came today!’”  When the next feature of the worship service begins promptly the greeting time stays focused and guests feel welcomed not isolated.

Church music also provides a connecting point.  Music style is not nearly as important as singability of the songs selected.  Traditional music still works as do a number of contemporary music styles.  The key to effective music is not the style of music but the singability of the songs selected, the quality of the musicians who accompany and the absence of extended monologues by worship leaders.

Singability Questions

  • Will people go away singing to themselves one or more of the songs selected?
  • Are the songs in a lower key that is within range of most untrained voices?
  • Is the language in the songs understandable to the uninitiated?

Quality of Music Questions

  • Do musicians rehearse in advance of the service?
  • Do rehearsals include the folks running the projection system?
  • Can participants clearly follow the melody line of the music so the untrained singer can sing along with the instrument and the leader?

Absence of Monologues by Worship Leaders Questions

  • Does the worship leader give essential information to guide the worshippers?  This particularly includes standing and sitting instructions.  In a hymnal driven setting it may include announcing page numbers if those have not been printed in the worship guide.
  • Do the platform leaders lead worship or use their platform time to provide unnecessary detail about their personal lives or other current events?

Connecting to people with the sermon.  The average worship service in the United States last approximately 75 minutes.  In this time frame the largest portion of time is given to preaching.  A few questions may clarify how well the sermon connects to the sermon hearers, especially to the unchurched who attend as guests.

  • The preacher’s voice:  Is it so quiet and subdued that it becomes a monotone easily ignored?  Is it so loud and animated that it is unintelligible?  The voice of the preacher is controlled by the preacher according to I Corinthians 14:9-11.
  • References to the Bible:  Are key Bible passages identified by page number in the Pew Bible, printed in the sermon outline or included in the projected slides?
  • Clarity of Thought:  Is the main thought clearly demonstrated in the content of the message?  Can the preacher avoid rambling additions that do not advance the central thought?
  • Application to Life:  Does the message address real life issues with a clear call for a next step or follow-up actions?

 

JUMPSTART YOUR MINISTRY:  The Mystery Worshipper

Jumpstart Turnaround 2020One means to gain insight on how well worship connects to guests is to use a Mystery Worshipper.  This person is recruited in advance to attend a worship service and then to offer a reaction to the experience.  For more details see the Mystery Worshipper checklist found at www.Turnaround2020.net.

Turnaround 2020 A New Effort
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October 31, 2017

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Church Growth, Turnaround 2020

Turnaround 2020 – A New Kind of Effort

By it’s very definition, Turnaround requires a new kind of effort.  Turnaround implies a new direction and thus requires, at the very least, a new intensity of effort.  Most often, however, Turnaround will require new efforts that depart significantly from the plans and processes of the past.

Turnaround for a church, like assembling modular furniture, is easier if there is a plan to follow.  The old, old adage really applies well here:  Plan your work and work your plan.

  • What sort of plan is needed?
  • How can the faithful church leader evaluate current plans?
  • How can the innovative leader introduce new plans and programs?

What sort of plan is needed?  The plans for turnaround need to be those that work today rather than the plans we have always used because we have always used them.  This is not to say that Turnaround Leaders will automatically discard all past methods.  It is to say that plans must be evaluated based on effectiveness, ease of operation and the ability to be part of a system for consistent repetition.

Effectiveness must be a major criteria to evaluate all current plans for Turnaround.  Jesus, himself, advocated that kings who plan for battle evaluate the size of the defending force compared to the invading force before making their final battle plans (see Luke 14:31).

The core efforts toward Turnaround involve four essential processes of inviting, connecting, discipling and sending.  Plans that are developed must therefore address these essential processes as they relate to people not yet connected to the church.

If we start with inviting, answering these types of questions will go a long way toward formulating a plan.

  • Who will be invited?  How will they be invited?  What will they be invited to attend?
  • How will contact information be gathered when they do attend?
  • What next steps will lead to a second or third visit?
  • Are new member and new believer classes ready?
  • How will people, new and old, from my congregation be challenged, equipped and resourced to go out into the community?

Weekly Invitations

The larger church or the church at the height of its Turnaround will be able to encourage frequent, even weekly, invites.  A pastor in such a setting would be well served to include as part of his closing remarks at worship the challenge “Who will you invite to attend with you next week?”

Cautions and Conundrums

The law of diminishing returns cautions us to remember that frequency of exposure to a message may diminish responses to that message.  “There he goes again” may be the response from folks who have heard but not acted on the end-of-service-plea to invite people.

Opportunity To See has a residual impact.  In its early days of marketing McDonald’s was said to have had two week cycles in its advertising.  Ads ran for two weeks then disappeared for two weeks since the Opportunity To See had a residual impact.  This means that the preacher doesn’t have to say it every week for people to assume they hear it every week.

When we forget that people forget we fall prey to the conundrum that encouraging people to invite their friends must be done with enough scarcity that each motivating message is heard as fresh, new and important while being done with enough frequency that people have just enough Opportunity To See to prepare them act rather than to irritate them to point that they ignore both the message and the messenger.

Seasonal Invitations

The smaller church or the church not at the peak of its Turnaround will do well to identify two or three periods of focus in the course of the year to highlight invitations.  Many churches find that an emphasis on invitations in the Spring and again in the Fall work well.

These all-out efforts with a Big Day strategy allow intentional, high-energy invite efforts to be paired with a follow-up period of contact and discipleship.

For example, suppose a Fall date in October is determined to be an effective date for Big Day efforts.  Promotional materials, worship plans, sermon series prep, and volunteer training all have to be addressed in July and August to be implemented in September and October.  Then follow-up and assimilation of new attenders will require on-going efforts in November and December.  Efforts to prepare for the Fall Big Day must begin well in advance of the date and efforts to conserve the results must continue well after the Big Day.

For the church in need of Turnaround this activity level alone may stretch the volunteer base, the outreach budget and the ability to conserve the results.  Focused energies are necessary to accomplish these tasks so don’t try to do everything but do try to be effective.

JUMPSTART YOUR MINISTRY: Develop a Culture of Invitation

Jumpstart Turnaround 2020Include two invite cards in each worship folder.  At the conclusion of the service ask everyone to put one card in each hand.  As they hold up those cards in the right hand instruct them to pray “Lord place in my path this week one person with whom I can share this invitation.”

Repeat with the second card held in the left hand.