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.
Jun/090
Simple for Who
I am a big fan of Simple Church. The book, and also the principle. We don’t want to have a bunch of programs, so we can have good programs. We don’t want to do a hundred things decent…we want to do a few things really well.
But in the fight for simplicity, I think it’s important to consider the reason you’re keeping things simple. I’m not trying to keep things simple to have less to do or keep things off my plate. I’m not going to allow simplicity become an excuse for us to not do things well.
- I’m not going to make a simple website because it’s less work…it needs to be simple because that’s what is best for the user.
- I’m not going to make a theology class simple because I don’t want to wrestle with the trinity or the Image of God, I’m going to keep it simple so people can understand.
- I’m not going to not have a mid-week service because we don’t want to staff it…we’re going to focus on the weekend so we can make a greater impact.
Simplicity isn’t a ticket out of working hard. It’s not about you anyway. It’s about them.
Jun/090
Calendar Requests
As our church gets larger, we can’t just decide to throw things on the calendar. All events must go through the calendar process.
There’s a Word Doc form (included in the Docs&Forms package by the way), but the form is also online. This gets submitted to our office manager who checks for immediate problems and checks on availability (of the date, the room, the media tech if needed). All calendar requests are approved in our weekly lead team meeting.
By the way, we use Google Calendar for the master church calendar. Two or three people can add/delete things but every staff member can subscribe.
Mar/097
Multiple Services
I’m amazed when I hear about growing churches who are out of space and considering expanding, yet they only have one service on Sunday. If you’ve only got one service on Sunday morning, and your church has more than 100 people in it, you should move to two services right away. Here’s why.
1. Good stewardship. Don’t go spend money on expansion until you are having as many services as you can in your current facility. We do four services on Sunday morning, and though it wears me out, I can rest the next day. I’m not spending money on bigger facilities only to use them 2 hours a week.
2. It’s better for your volunteers. People say they don’t want multiple service because it’s hard on volunteers. Umm…just the opposite is true. When you have two services, your volunteers can serve one and work one. You can also do away with administering volunteer rotations.
3. It gives people options. People that don’t go to church like options. People in general like options, which is why restaurants serve different things and they make 734 kinds of toothpaste. Some people like an earlier service; some people like to sleep in. Some people would rather go on Saturday night. Give people options, don’t make them cater to your preferences.
EVERY time we have added a service time, we have grown. Multiple services are the way to go.
Jul/082
Sending Financial Statements
Nelson Searcy is a big advocate of sending out quarterly giving statements. We do this once a year, like the IRS requires, but we’re thinking about taking his suggestions. He says it’s a great opportunity to communicate vision and develop your givers. Do you have any thoughts on this?
Jun/080
Gettin' Organized
One of the things that helps the most in running a church or running any business is the ability to know how things are suppose to work. It doesn’t do any good to have a hamburger flipper at McDonalds that doesn’t know who to talk to if they run out of fries. Likewise, at Oak Leaf Church, we have spent a lot of time getting our ministries organized, so that our volunteers can contact the right person when they need something.
The absolute most important part of the organization (or org chart) is who needs to be shepherding a particular group of people. In other words, what Pastor really needs to be investing in these volunteers to make sure that they know how they can care for them, what their needs are, and if they are being discipled effectively.
The way we have chosen to get organized is to layer teams of volunteers into specific levels. At each level of volunteerism there is a specific level of investment by the pastor or the Lead Volunteer in that area.
We hope that this will really enable us to minister to people effectively (even if they aren’t in a Journey Group…which we hope they are) and help people feel connected no matter how large the Lord chooses to grow Oak Leaf. The program we used, because we are Mac lovers, was Omnigraffle. You can download it here.
If you want to see it by specific ministries you can download each of them by clicking on the following links.
- Anthony Gratto, Executive Pastor
May/080
Tough…
I have had many conversations with our staff over the last couple days about tenacity and follow-through. Basically, we have been discussing operating with our best practices and core values.
Excellence is one of our core values and often it is one of the hardest ones to consistently follow. It isn’t that we cannot determine the difference between good enough and going over the top, but it’s that its much tougher to do things the best way, impressive way, and a way that will make an impression on as consistent basis.
One of the other huge hurdles that people face when they take on the role of a pastor at a church plant is being able to seamlessly transition between looking at the big picture and specifics. They have to be able to see it from all angles then work inside their ministry areas. It’s actually more difficult then you think to think like a manager and then still pastor the volunteers in your area. Huge to-do-lists, overwhelming projects, and a constantly evolving ministry can be distracting.
Tenacity, follow-through, and mental toughness is the only way to be successful in this kind of ministry. I often reference my days as a landscaper to illustrate my point. My go to illustration is the day a dump truck dropped off 50+ yards of mulch at a house we had to landscape. I had to clear the driveway it was dumped into in one day with only one helper. We had two shovels, two rakes, and two wheelbarrows. We worked non-stop for 8 hours to clear the pile and have it done for the opening house the next morning.
That project and many others like it didn’t tempt me to quit because it was physically taxing. It was the mental gymnastics to keep shoveling instead of sitting down in front of the frightening pile of mulch built up my attitude to stick with it…even when it was overwhelming. Unfortunately, you can’t teach people mental toughness…it’s learned. The mental toughness necessary to stick with a church plant when lousy stuff happens, when hard decisions have to be made, when giving goes up and down and when people quit on your church is the only thing that will ensure long-term success.
What’s your mulch pile?
Anthony Gratto
Executive Pastor
Feb/081
On the same page…
I don’t know where this quote originated, but I’ve heard it said, “You will never be on the same page unless you have an actual page.” In other words if you have expectations, goals, and behavior you would like to see, you better put it in writing. Then you better make sure the person you are trying to lead can read your expectations for themselves.
At Oak Leaf Church, we desire to make Sunday morning a great experience from start to finish. If there is something we can do better we are probably going to find it. We never stop improving, so we are always drafting the next version of this policy or another.
A couple days ago our Connections Pastor and I sat down and worked for 3 hours making a few changes to our Host Teams. In case you are just curious, or you are one of our greeters, or you are church planter, I am going to provide a few of these lists for your review. I hope it helps you get everyone “on the same page.”
Anthony Gratto
Executive Pastor
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