CREATING A NEW MINISTRY

BY STEVE DUNN

Some churches start new ministries by purchasing a prepackaged program that has been used successfully.  Such an approach is fraught with challenges and difficulties.  Every ministry designed from scratch is created in a specific context.  That means in a particular ministry setting with very specific resources, dynamics, experience and mission.  Unless the next group using this ministry has a context that mirrors the first, there is no guarantee that it success in the first setting will be replicated in the next.

Far better in almost every case is a ministry designed from the beginning for a specific setting.  We often resist doing that, however, because we believe we lack the creativity and leadership necessary.  Better to borrow and tweak.

Most churches, however, can create a new ministry uniquely suited to its setting and capable by the Spirit’s empowerment to be fruitful.

There are some simple planning questions that can guide this creative process.

1. What is the purpose of the ministry you are attempting to create?  Be specific.

2. Who is the specific target (or beneficiary of this ministry)?  Name names of real people.

3. What kind of leadership gifts and passions will be needed to accomplish this?  Again, be specific.

4. What other resources will this require? Space, time, money, workers.

5. How will we know this ministry is successful? By what fruit will you measure it?

6. Is this the right time?

And, of course, all of this needs to be pervaded with prayer.

(c) 2014 BY STEPHEN L DUNN

This post originally appeared in another of my blogs BEING THE BEST CHURCH FOR THE COMMUNITY.-May 2014

SEVEN WAYS TO GROW YOUR CHURCH BY LEVERAGING SOCIAL MEDIA

Some straightforward counsel to outward focused churches from Perry Noble.

 BY PERRY NOBLE

Information is advancing daily on a global stage through the connectivity of the Internet. Email, blogs and social platforms contribute to the viral spread of content in real-time to shape culture, capture polarized opinions and broadcast the news of "right now" to the ends of the earth.

On Facebook alone, there are 1.3 billion active users who log in monthly to read news, connect with friends and share relevant content. People are not only getting information online but they are living their lives there as well and the church can be a part of the conversation.

Here are 7 ways you can leverage social media this week to help your church grow!

1. Be an active part of the conversation on social media platforms.
Before stepping foot into your building, people get their first impression of your church online. If your social media platforms are empty or haven’t posted anything new for months, people will think your message is out of date too!

2. Contribute content worth sharing.
We're all strolling around the Internet asking, "What's in it for me?" while hunting the funniest video, the latest controversial article or the cutest picture of puppies we can find. Once we do, what's next?

We share it! People share content that moves them, and creating content that stirs emotion takes effort.

Social content is often visual so think about how you can leverage what you’re creating for Sundays or midweek services that will empower and encourage your fans to continue conversations around what Jesus is doing in your church in their social circles. Short tweets, sermon recap videos and content formatted for phones can be great content that’s easy to share.

3. Answer questions people are asking.
Everyone is asking three questions: What happened? What’s happening? What's next? If you're not answering one of these three basic questions about your church on a daily basis, you're missing a great opportunity to contribute to the conversation online and in the workplace.

4. Know your audience and the platform.
All social media platforms are not created equal. Posting the same message on all the different social media outlets is like using a hammer to put screws in the wall or painting with a fork--it may get the job done, but it’s not the best way. Know who’s there and why they are there. Then, craft your message and communication specifically for them.

5. Listen to the conversation.
Broadcasting information but not engaging in conversation is like holding up protest signs in a public place but never speaking to the people around you...it’s just stupid! Similarly, hijacking conversations instead of participating in them is rude in real life and the internet too.

6. Provide excellent customer service.
Excellent customer service lets your audience know that you’re listening. And, when they know you’re listening to them, they’ll listen to you. You are the expert for your organization. If someone asks a question on your Facebook page or tweets it @you, let them know they matter by answering it in a timely manner.

7. Empower your staff and volunteers.
One of the greatest ways your church can reach people in your community is by empowering staff and volunteers to share their stories and connect with others. Gather your church’s leaders and volunteers and teach them to share their story. Then as they live their life and faith online it will naturally point people to Jesus and let your area know that your church is a place where people can grow in a community.

(This post was put together by our AMAZING social media team. This year at our Double Conference they will be doing breakouts on how to do promotion for your church that is VERY inexpensive…but more effective than television commercials!! To learn more about using social media to advance the Gospel and help your church grow, make plans to join us for the Double Conference on August 28th and 29th. It's going to be AWESOME!!!)

From Marty Duren comes a timely and insightful look at keeping our focus on our mission and our strategies realistically capable of supporting that mission.  Thanks to Justin Meier, the Church Expansion Specialist for the Churches of God, General Conference for bringing this to my attention. - STEVE

Sports Illustrated, Blockbuster, and Your Church

 By Marty Duren

Years ago there was a world-beating sports magazine called Sports Illustrated. It was the one thing that every football, baseball, basketball loving person could not wait to see weekly in the mailbox or on the newsstand.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the throne crumbled. An upstart cable TV network called ESPN became the must-watch channel for sports fans. ESPN provided sports updates all morning so people getting ready for work could catch up on the scores and highlights from the previous night. No more having to wait a week for Sports Illustrated. Fans did not even have to wait until the sports segment on the evening news.

Now ESPN boasts multiple cable channels, a partnership with ABC Sports (via parent company, Disney), its own Olympics (the X-Games), its own magazine, and a host of other properties. ESPN is now THE undisputed leader in sports. Sports Illustrated still exists, but its once dominant foothold is long gone.

What is the difference? Sports Illustrated mistakenly thought it was in the magazine business. ESPN correctly understood itself to be in the sports information business. If Sports Illustrated had understood its true position and leveraged its talent base, reach and influence, ESPN might still be a channel.

Remember when there were Blockbuster stores? People got into their cars, drove miles to a brick building (or strip mall) to rent movies on VHS, and later on DVD. Remember when Blockbuster dropped their late fees even though it made up a large portion of its revenue? Why would a company willfully drop revenue?

This other out-of-nowhere company called Netflix had arrived. A Netflix membership allowed you to order DVDs online and have them sent directly to your mailbox! There were no late fees. Instead, you simply had to return the movies you had rented before ordering more. No driving in the snow or rain, no penalty for being forgetful—and no need to rewind. Netflix was a game changer.

As if that were not enough, Netflix was an early provider of online streaming movies and TV shows enabling subscribers to watch on their desktop, laptop or tablet. Now Netflix produces its own shows and movies.

What is the difference? Blockbuster mistakenly thought it was in the movie rental business. Netflix correctly understood itself to be in the entertainment content delivery business. Blockbuster had both the market share and the leverage to do everything Netflix did. They simply did not have the understanding of the times or vision of the future.

Unfortunately many churches are like Sports Illustrated and Blockbuster. They rightly see themselves are repositories of truth with a responsibility to get truth to others. Unfortunately, they hold to a singular content delivery system—the Sunday morning service—as ultimate. This is a time when people expect multiple delivery systems as the norm. For churches, the content will not change; the gospel is the same. But our delivery systems and touchpoints with “customers” must change both for the sake of our members and those who need Jesus.

One way to make our content (the gospel) more readily available is for churches to re-evaluate everything about their online presence from the website to use of social media. People who live in your area do not reach for the Yellow Pages or the church directory of the county newspaper. If they are looking for a church at all, they will use a search engine or the search bar on Facebook. If you have a website that looks like a template from Geocities or a middle schooler’s 2006 Myspace page, you have blown it.

Websites need not have elaborate image sliders and be covered in HTML5 moving parts. They simply need to be clean and easy to navigate. Remember: the landing page needs to be friendly to non-attendees, so service times and contact information need to be prominent. Members—those who visit the website regularly—know where to look for other information. Ease of use is for non-members, not for members. Additionally, make sure your social media is just that: social. Do not make announcements on your Facebook page then neglect to answer related questions. Social media is a conversation, not an info dump.

So much content can be provided via a church website it is hard to cover it all in such a short article. Podcasts of the sermon, videos of the entire service, new member training, a pastor’s welcome, bulletin downloads, student ministry permission forms, and so much more are all content pieces just waiting to be added to your church website.

Churches should learn from Sports Illustrated’s missed opportunity and Blockbuster’s failure. Do not isolate yourself into a single content delivery system. Put the Internet to work for you and your church for the sake of the gospel.

THIS POST IS REBLOGGED FROM PASTORS TODAY

RETHINK - MAKING A CULTURE SHIFT

 BY STEVE DUNN

The move from being a traditional and inward-focused church to an outward focused one requires a culture shift. As this is played out in the first decades of the 21st century it is done so against the backdrop of the shift in our nation from a churched culture to what some have called a post-Christian one. In particular, within the church you find yourself moving from a membership culture to a discipleship one. In a recent church council training session, I spoke of it in this way:

Rethink

Rethink who you are as a Christ-follower and as a leader

Don’t go to church - BE the Church

DISCIPLES not members

EXPECT something from God

REINVEST in ministry

ACT intergenerationally

ADVOCATE the Vision

GIVE to God first and give more

STOP pleasing people and please God

EMBRACE excellence and reject perfectionism

STOP saying me and proclaim we

(c) 2013 by Stephen L Dunn

I want to introduce you today to a fresh new blog by Bill Shoemaker called THE HUB.  Bill is the Church Planting Director for the Great Lakes Regional Conference of the Churches of God, General Conference. His wit and insight are refreshing. - I encourage to visit his site. - STEVE

The Ouch Factor

10 Aug

Have you ever noticed how you can walk barefooted on pebbles intentionally and lower the ouch-factor to just the different sensations of pressure?  But if you are walking through grass barefooted and you step on a pebble, the ouch-factor takes over because it hurts like the dickens (whatever a dickens is -ha) and you hop around like a person on a pogo stick.  I read somewhere there is a scientific explanation for this phenomenon.  It has to do with preparing the mind for what the body is about to encounter.  It prevents the mind from over-reacting to the stimulus.

Well I was reading through several blogs the other day, grazing along barefooted, enjoying the green grass as I read.  I picked up some tender morsels from several writers.  Then I skipped over to Seth Godin’s grassy blog to graze my way through his field.  Wow!  I was just walking through his musings when I encountered the “OUCH-FACTOR”.  It was buried just below the surface waiting for me to step on it in my bare-feet.  I should have known better.  Seth is known for well-placed pebbles (maybe land mines is a better description) in gassy areas.  Needless to say, I stepped squarely on a hard surface that had no ‘give’ in it.  Therefore the ‘give’ had to be on my part.  I will share a portion of what caused my ‘ouch factor’ below:

“Innovation is often the act of taking something that worked over there and using it over here.  Your problem, whatever it might be, probably has a solution somewhere in the world. And your organization is probably stuck because they don’t know what to do, and more important, don’t have the guts to do it…  If you’re waiting for a proven case study, directly on point, you’re going to wait too long.  The skill, it seems, is having the desire and the guts to seek out examples by analogy instead of insisting on being a follower of someone with guts.”

Seth is big on innovation with guts.  Going to conferences and taking notes from successful people and copying them is not what he recommends.  But learn courage from them that you can step out and accomplish the very things God has called you to do.  You certainly can learn different principles and new ways to look at both old and new problems to bring about different results from what you are presently reaping.  And you certainly don’t have to re-invent the wheel.

Where and what have been your Ouch Factors lately?  Find someone to discuss them and have the guts to do something about it.

Bill

CREATING THIRD SPACES

Mark Batterson has an excellent article that speaks to a principle we are using in our Bridgebuilder Seminars.  I'd be interested in your feedback. - Steve

   

6

Cities

Postmodern Wells: Creating A Third Place

by Mark Batterson

The cross must be raised again at the center of the marketplace as well as on the steeple of the church. I am claiming that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves; on the town garbage heap, at a crossroads so cosmopolitan they had to write His title in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. At the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble, because that is where He died and that is what he died about and that is where churchmen ought to be and what churchmen should be about.

- George McLeod

A few years ago I had a Starbucks moment. I was studying for a sermon at a Starbucks on Capitol Hill, and I usually tune out the mood music, but one line of lyrics slipped through my reticular activating system. I’d never heard the song before and I didn’t know who the artist was. And maybe I just had too much caffeine in my system, but the juxtaposition of words struck me:

There’s a church on the periphery, Lady of our Epiphany.

And I had a thought as I sipped my vanilla latte: as long as the church stays on the periphery, our culture will never experience an epiphany.

Over the last few decades, the church has been pushed further and further onto the periphery of culture. Or in many instances, the church has retreated to the comfortable confines of its Christian subculture. So we are inside our churches looking out, but we really find ourselves on the outside looking in. God is calling the church out of the church and back into the middle of the marketplace.

I realize that I pastor one church in one small corner of the kingdom. And I don’t want to project my passions onto others. But if we are going to influence the spiritual tide in America, the church needs to stop retreating and start redeeming. The church needs to stop criticizing and start creating. The church needs to stop seeking shelter and start competing for the truth.

Paul didn’t boycott the Aeropagus.¹ He didn’t stand outside in a picket line arguing against idolatry. Paul marched into the marketplace of ideas and went toe-to-toe with the most brilliant minds in ancient Athens competing for the truth. Staying on the periphery is one thing the Apostle Paul could never be accused of.

CHURCH STEEPLES

There was a time, just a few centuries ago, when nautical maps of Europe had legends that included the location of churches on land. Church steeples doubled as navigational tools for ship captains. Churches were typically built on choice real estate in the center of town or atop the highest hill. And in some places, there were ordinances against building anything taller than the church steeple so it would occupy the place closest to heaven.² Nothing was more visible on the pre-modern skyline than church steeples. And in a sense, church steeples symbolized the place of the church in culture. There was a day, in the not too distant past, when church was the center of culture. Church was the place to go. Church was the thing to do. Nothing was more visible than the church steeple. Nothing was more audible than the church bells. And it might be a slight exaggeration, but all the pre-modern church had to do was raise a steeple and ring a bell.

Is it safe to say that things have changed?

The church no longer enjoys a cultural monopoly! We are the minority in post-Christian America. And the significance of that is this: we can’t afford to do church the way it’s always been done. Our incarnational tactics must change.

Don’t get me wrong: the message is sacred. But methods are not. And the moment we anoint our methods as sacred, we stop creating the future and start repeating the past. We stop doing ministry out of imagination and start doing ministry out of memory. And if we think that raising the steeple or ringing the bells will get the job done; the church in America will end up right where the Israelites found themselves in Judges 2:10:

After that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the Lord or remember the mighty things he had done for Israel.

According to George Barna, 61% of twenty-somethings who grew up going to church stop going to church at some point during their twenties. They become dechurched. They still feel connected to God in some form or fashion, but there is a disconnect with organized religion and the institutional church. And for one reason or another, they are checking out of the church at an alarming rate.

I love the church. I believe in the church. And I’ve poured ten years of blood, sweat, and tears into the church I have the privilege of pastoring — National Community Church in Washington, DC. But the church needs to change! And change always starts with some honest self-reflection.

Some people hear statistics like the one just cited — 61% of twentysomethings that grew up in church leave the church — and they wonder what’s wrong with this generation. I think that’s the wrong reaction. I can’t help but wonder what’s wrong with the church.

In the words of Pogo: we have seen the enemy and he is us. 

Continue reading at this article

 

From The Leadership Network comes this great information from Rick Warren.

The 8 ‘ations’ of Innovation

Posted on 7/13/2011 by Sherry Surratt in the Learnings Blog

 

I recently heard a talk by Pastor Rick Warren at a TedX Conference. He challenged everyone in the room with his words, 'All leaders are learners. Never stop learning!'. He then went on to share 8 Questions he constantly asks himself (The 8 'ations' of Innovation) to keep creative thinking going:

1. Termination: What do we first need to stop, before we can have room for new ideas? Sometimes termination is the beginning of innovation.
2. Collaboration: How can we do what we are already doing faster and on a larger scale by incorporating a team?
3. Combination: What great ideas or programs do we already have that we could mix together to make something new?
4. Elimination: What part could we take out to make an idea or process simpler?
5. Reincarnation: What has died that we could resurrect in a new form?
6. Rejuvenation: How could we change the purpose or motivation for what we do to bring new energy and new life to an idea?
7. Illumination: How can we look at this idea in a new light, from a different angle?
8. Fascination: How can we make this idea more appealing and fun?
These are great questions to bring new life to stale thinking. Have you put any of these to work in a creative meeting or planning session? Which ones do you need to ask yourself today?
Is your team wresting with ways to innovate in a ministry area? Don't miss our Upcoming Fall Innovation Labs including Dream Centers, Internet Ministries, Campus Pastor Development for Multisite Churches, Externally Focused Small Groups and Church Mergers. Questions?
For more information, contact Sherry