Jan/100
New Blog
I started blogging several years ago, and it’s been a great journey. But it’s time for a change for the simple. I’m merging this blog and my personal blog under a new domain name. Here’s the formula.
launchandlead.net (this blog) + youcanknowgod.com (my blog) = heretolead.com
Visit the site and subscribe to the RSS feed. All the content has been imported there, domain names have been redirected, and so forth.
Dec/090
First Time Guest Follow Up
Every weekend is someone’s first time at Oak Leaf Church, and we’re serious about creating a welcoming environment for guests. Here’s what we do to follow up with those who visit for the first time
- On Monday morning, they receive an email thanking for their visit. The email contains links to relevant info on our website and a guest survey. If they request information on the connection card or would like to talk to a pastor, our staff follows up with a phone call immediately.
- The week after that, they get a hand written note, with a card for a free drink from our coffee shop.
- Four weeks after their first visit, they receive a letter from the pastor.
- Six months after their visit, we send a final letter to everyone who has visited over the last six months who hasn’t connected.
Below is a chart showing how all this works. The email and letters are included in Docs & Forms by the way.
Dec/090
Docs & Forms Special
If you haven’t purchased Docs & Forms yet, then now is a great time to do so. You can get every document, spreadsheet, and file we use at Oak Leaf Church for $49. That’s $30 off. Our budget, our bylaws, our follow up systems. Employee evaluations and planning documents. Letters we send to guests and givers. And everything else you could imagine. If you’re a church planter, or if you lead a church…there’s some helpful stuff in here.
I’m also releasing an e-book on making decisions. I think it’s a practical and helpful system for making decisions and it will really help you. It’s just $5.
Both of these are instant downloads…use the links to the right.
Dec/093
Advertising When Money is Tight
Barry asks how he can get the word out about his church plant when he doesn’t have money to pay for postcards and his city won’t allow him to put out road signs. Here’s some thoughts, and I would love for you to chime in.
1. Make road signs and have people put them in their own yards.
2. Print simple flyers (you can get nice full-color ones online for cheap) and get a group of your people to put them on doors personally. The most expensive part of postcards is the postage.
3. Print up some t-shirts and ask your people to them around town on a certain day or give your people bumper stickers for their cars. Or have them write with shoe polish on their windows.
4. Print business card size invites to a series (less than $50) and teach your people how to use them. Personal invitations are the absolute best way to invite people to church. About 75% of our first time guests come because they are personally invited.
5. Go through your budget and cut some internal stuff and use it on getting people there. My guess is that you could cut somewhere. You may need to sacrifice something you think is necessary to free up some money to get people to church.
6. Hire The Change Group to help you generate more operational revenue.
7. Make sure your church service is amazing. Somehow, people show up at what is good.
What would you add to this list?
Dec/090
The Giving Talk
Whenever we receive an offering at Oak Leaf Church (which is every weekend), we always do a giving talk to explain what is happening. This giving talk might be a Biblical challenge, a video showing where the money goes, a thank you, or something vision related. We let guests know that they are encouraged to give, but not expected to give. And we pray over the offering. Here’s a recent giving talk from one of our services.
We take this time seriously and we plan it out just like we would plan any other service element. What do you do when it comes to receiving the offering in your church?
Dec/092
Preaching Tips and Tricks
Here’s three quick preaching tips.
1. Mention something early in the message, and bring it back towards the end. Comedians are masters of this.
2. A random fact every now and then will make you seem more believable to your audience. Quote a statistic reference something odd from history, even in passing. Don’t do this too much, or you’ll just come across as a know-it-all.
3. When make you make a serious point, pause and let it sink in. The pause is a powerful tool. Too many times, speakers move on to the next thing, when a pause would drive the point home better.
What would you add? Share some of your helpful tips in the comments.
Dec/092
It’s Not Rocket Surgery
I wonder if we sometimes make it too complex. Seems like to have a growing church, we should…
- Get people there
- Make sure they have a good/God experience
- Connect them
Dec/091
Names and Domains
Oak Leaf Church’s first service happened in a movie theater, and early on, our identity was somewhat tied to that theater. We played up movie theater elements in our branding.
But we moved. And then we moved again. Now we meet in a renovated bar, and this may not be our final destination.
So I’m glad that we decided to use oakleafchurch.com as our web domain, say, instead of churchinatheater.com. If your web domain is tied to a location, when you move, you’re toast. And the name of your church should evoke the strongest emotions and brand recognition, not your location or your slogan.
I know domains are hard to come by, but choose something that has longevity over something that is cute.
Dec/091
Reaching Students, Part 2
Yesterday we talked about creating a church where students feel at home. At Oak Leaf Church ,we’re not trying to create a student sub-culture, where students have a youth room but never attend church. We’re not trying to entertain students in their own laser-light show driven service. Our strategy for reaching students is intentionally similar to our strategy for reaching adults.
So, we have adult leaders who lead student small groups, just like we have adults who lead adult small groups. We invite students to volunteer on the weekends, just like we ask volunteers to serve on the weekend. We invite students to serve the community through Second Saturday, just like we encourage adults to serve at Second Saturday.
I believe that teenagers should be volunteering with production, parking and with kids. Teenagers who love Jesus should be challenging elementary children to love Jesus. In fact, nearly every volunteer team in our church is open to students. We don’t just want to have a successful youth group; we want to connect students to Jesus and to the church.
Dec/090
Reaching Students
I had a great conversation with a local pastor in Starbucks the other day. He actually visited our church once because he wanted to see what we were doing to reach so many teachers. So he asked me how we went about reaching young people.
One of the things I’ve been committed to since day one was creating a church service where teenagers would actually want to attend. I think this is HANDS DOWN the most effective thing your church can do to reach students.
For years, I worked in youth ministries that were solid, but that felt WAY DIFFERENT from the adult service. In fact, the adult service was often called “big church.” Students loved the youth group, but not so much when it came to the church. So when we started Oak Leaf Church, we decided not to have a student service, but to create a service that was appropriate for students.
Of course the music is one of those things. But there are are also subtle things that we try to do. I’ll talk to students during the message, use student culture as examples in teaching, and reference songs that I know only students listen to. Every sermon example can’t be about work or adult-related issues. We want teenagers to know that our weekend services are appropriate for them.
Trust me…it’s FAR MORE HEALTHY for a teenager to attend “big church” than to attend special, segregated services that won’t be there when they turn 19. One of the reasons that teenagers leave the church after graduation is because they were never committed to the church in the first place…they were committed to a youth group but not a church.
We found that a lot of parents ended up coming to Oak Leaf Church because this is the only church that they could get their teenager to attend. And over time…they started enjoying it too.
So we don’t do a lot of lock-ins, youth camps and car washes. We try to have the kind of church service where teenagers want to attend, will bring their friends, and can connect to God.
There’s a second key to this, and I’ll talk about this tomorrow.
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