Five years ago, I put together a prospectus for Oak Leaf Church (PDF of original document) – a document that described the kind of church we were starting – a sort of spiritual business plan. This document helped answer the questions of people praying about jumping in or churches thinking about financially supporting us. A few things have changed, but our core mission has remained the same.
With new staff, new people, and new volunteers, we thought it was a good thing to create a similar document to just let everyone know who we are, what we’re doing, how we do it and where we’re going. The result was a four-page document called “Oak Leaf Church at a Glance.” It’s a quick overview of our whole church.
If you’re interested, you can download a PDF of Oak Leaf Church at a Glance.
Watch the embedded video and learn about how the address system in the United States differs from the same system in Japan.
Unless you understand the cultural difference, you may think you’re being clear, when the reality is that you are not. In leadership, we’re often not as clear as we think we are. Here’s why.
1. We use abstract language. Instead of saying to your staff, “We’re in trouble financially,” we need to be much more concrete. How far are we off and what to the projections look like. Instead of saying “we need some kids workers,” say “We need someone who is pretty good with computers to work with kids check in from 9:30 – 10:15 on Sunday mornings.” The first statement won’t get you results…the second one will.
2. We sometimes use language that is clear to us, but not clear to others. Remember, we’re in the middle of it and we’re discussing it from all angles. But the people hearing the information are not. When we decided to create a one hour environment for guests to ask questions and meet staff and learn about the mission of the church, we called it ORIENTATION. We chose clear over creative on purpose. It’s trendy to call church services gatherings (because of your theological belief) or experiences (because it’s a cooler word), but here in Georgia, everyone knows what a church service is.
3. We’re not specific. Ever been to a church with 13 printed pieces of paper in the pew pocket? If we want people to fill out the connection card and put it in the offering bucket, we need to say exactly those words. We need to give people the basic info and be very specific with what we want them to do. Avoid muddy language like “this experience will help you find your story in the midst of God’s story” and say things like, “If you’re a new Christian, you need to take this class.”
Here’s some of what we did on the weeks leading up to Easter.
We promoted Easter services at the Egg Drop. Easter information was printed in the instructions given to everyone at the park, and it was mentioned from the speakers and on signs throughout the park. We knew if we got people to the Egg Drop, they would hear about Easter services. About 6,500 people attended the event, so that’s a lot of invitations.
We sent a follow up email to the 5,000 people who gave us their email addresses at the Egg Drop. That email included a 3-question feedback survey and information on Easter services.
We worked with Inbox Promotions to send out a mass email about the Egg Drop and followed it up with a mass email about Easter. That went to about 40,000 people.
Our people put out about 25,000 door hangers. One side focused on the Egg Drop and the other side focused on Easter. We decided to do door hangers instead of postcards this year.
We used calling post to call our database. We do this about 5-6 times a year to remind our people about big days or big changes.
We ran Facebook ads in Cartersville and in the 10 miles surrounding Cartersville. Here’s a screen shot of the actual ad. We actually got more traffic off our Egg Drop Facebook ad, but both were effective.
And of course, we encouraged our people to invite everyone, and armed them with several styles of invite cards.
That’s a picture of what Jeff Kapusta has in front of him as he’s teaching the people of Lifepoint Church. I asked a few of my friends what they took on stage with them to teach. Here’s what they do:
Tadd Grandstaff recently mixed things up and uses mind-mapping, though it’s usually memorized and the notes are just for emergency.
Josh Roberts pastes notes in his Moleskin…usually scripture on half and notes on the other half.
J.R. Lee says his notes might not make sense to anyone but him.
Jeff Henderson tries to memorize this, which is also what he gives to the production team.
Perry Noble usually doesn’t teach with notes, but uses this to study and prepare. When he’s got a lot of various Scripture references, he uses notes to cut down on page-turning.
Tony McCollum usually has his stuff memorized, but puts this into a little leather 3-ring binder in case his mind goes blank.
Jeff Kapusta prints his notes on double sided card stock and puts them in a leather binder. Bold phrases are main points or something for the screen. Scripture is in red and also on the screen. Blue and green is an illustration or story. He got his notebook from right here.
Devin Hudson gathers all his content into a couple of pages and then takes an outline to the stage.
I usually make hand-written notes as I study and prepare and then create a 2-page document that serves as an outline that’s done on Monday morning. On Saturday afternoon, I copy those notes into a notebook and teach from that. The copying process is a final review.
If you’re a preacher or teacher, how do you prepare? What do you have in front of you as you teach?
I know a lot of pastor friends follow this blog, so I wanted to toss out a recommendation.
About a year ago, I asked Suzy to teach our students, and she had a room full of middle and high schoolers on the edge of their seats. She’s taught for me before on the weekends, and I’m planning on her teaching several more times in 2010.
If you need someone to fill in (and not just girly events) you should get in touch with Suzy. Here’s a video from the last time she spoke at Oak Leaf Church.
I don’t know if you see a similar trend, but it seems that a lot of church leaders and pastors follow me/us on twitter, while most of my church members and attenders connect through Facebook. I’m not really a fan of Facebook, partly because I don’t own any Farmville property and have to continually rebuff the Sith Lords as they battle the Jedi Knights, but I do like interacting with the people of Oak Leaf Church.
Two thoughts here…
Sometimes, church leaders adopt things and run full steam ahead and leave their people behind. Though Twitter is growing, Facebook still has FAR more users (+350 Million, with 50% of them logging in every day. By comparison, Twitter has about 20 million users, but stats say that 60% of the people who sign up quit using it within a month.)
I use Tweet Deck from my computer to post updates to Facebook AND Twitter. That seems to be a simple solution for blending and managing the two, without getting lost in technological mediums. I do not automatically post to Facebook everything I post to Twitter, because the audiences are not the same.
I love preachers that quote history, and I love listening to the master story teller. Some speakers rely on facts and figures while others blend popular culture with Biblical truth. Some preachers read from a manuscript; others improvise. But a common denominator among great preachers is that they have all discovered and mastered their own voice.
There’s nothing more irritating than listening to a preacher that’s trying to channel Brian Regan or T.D. Jakes. Speaking with a voice that’s not your own will make you sound fake.
For what it’s worth, part of my style is making fun of people and things. I’ve been known to make fun of cheerleaders, the state of Tennessee, NASCAR, teenagers, Wal-Mart and Will Goodwin.
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.
A few weeks ago, we talked about what we wanted people to experience when they come to church on the weekend at Oak Leaf Church. Here’s what we hope for.
1. A welcoming environment. We want people to feel welcome when they come to Oak Leaf Church. This is influenced by the parking team, signs, greeters, and the overall mood. Practically speaking, I would love for a first time guest to have five quick conversations with people. We also make sure that during every service, someone welcomes everyone from the stage. Finally, the most important thing to creating a welcoming environment is the people in the church itself. We have to teach our entire congregation to be friendly and welcoming. Personally, I would like to see us push even harder in this area.
2. Personality and fun. I’m not going to apologize for wanting to create a fun environment. People like fun. And while a service focused on the cross or about the crucifixion isn’t the place for jokes, I want us to work hard to bring personality to our services. I teach conversationally and our service isn’t too formal. This same thing goes for kids as well…we want them to have a good time when they come to church.
3. God. Most of all, I want people to experience God when they come to Oak Leaf Church. I want the content to be engaging and I want them to hear a Biblical and inspiring message. Even unchurched people expect to hear from God when they come to church. It’s funny to me when I hear people say that Oak Leaf Church doesn’t teach the Bible, because that’s so far from the truth. Whether it’s in a sermon, or through the worship, or through people, I want people to hear from God, understand His character, and leave with more hope than when they walked in the door.
At last months coaching network, we did a little project. I asked the guys to take 2 minutes and write down the key points or illustrations from any sermon they could ever remember. Then we wrote the points or stories up on the board.
The list was pretty evenly divided between memorable statements (a lot of them from Andy Stanley, who creates memorable message statements better than anyone else) and stories or illustrations. I think this is important, because some people connect better with information and other people connect better with stories or props.
I believe a good message needs to either have a memorable statement or a compelling story. Great messages have both. Work hard to make the main point memorable…agonize over your word choice and see if it passes the memory test. Search hard to develop a story, illustration or prop that will drive that point home. Make sure you at least have one of the two in every sermon.
Here’s a little chart of some messages we’ve heard or done.
