Why Two Part 2

D-Plum had a great question that he left as a comment on "Why Two" a post I wrote on why we went to two experience on our 6th week.

His question was:

1) How in the world did you get your people to buy in to 2 gatherings so soon?? :-)

2) Do you have enough volunteers at this point for them to "serve one, enjoy the other"? In other words, are your people serving for both services or are they able to fully experience during one without having to serve?

Thanks for the question Darren...let's see if I can give you and everyone a great answer.

1) Honestly...I'm not exactly sure how I did this. Frankly, I really believe it was casting a lot of vision to our key leaders/volunteers over so many months prior to starting. I really had faith that we were going to grow and just kept that out in front of everyone. I also believe I have some great people who want to see our campus explode with growth.

2) I would love to say that we have it perfect but I think there is a little over lap especially in the adult experience. But we have just enough of our Guest Relations Team to pull off their area. Our children's/nursery area's were covered. In fact the exact breakdown for the Sunday of 8-24 was 168 of which 62 were volunteers. The first experience was 113 of which 36 were volunteers. Since our original Corpus Campus is about 25 miles away and does a Saturday night....many of our volunteers can even go in there for their church experience. So there are many opportunities.

I guess for me it came down to saying...we could grow one and eventually fill it up and then "split" or we could just go ahead and grow two.

It also is a going to be a necessity for us to be at two. In fact, I'm figuring on three by around January. In about a week, we will be sending out a mailer on our grand opening which is the 14th of September. I actually feel we should do three that day....but I'm hesitating cause I'm not sure I could pull the volunteers just yet.

Volunteers are key....we are working hard to make sure that our volunteers don't have to work both experiences...we're pretty close.

Why Two

Question is...

Why did we go to two services on Sunday morning so soon??? We aren't even using all the seats.

That is a true fact. In our main adult seating area we have 143 chairs. The past two Sunday's in our 10:00 a.m. experience we are seating about 50% of those. So if we aren't filling those up why go to two?

1. More Opportunities To Serve - Having two experiences allows more people to serve. It also allows them to serve and be able to attend one as well.
2. Provides Choices - Having the two experiences gives people an opportunity to choose which time to come that best fits their schedule.
3. More Chances To Reach Out - The two gives our people two opportunities to invite people to church.
4. Two Times To Experience God - We want people not to just come to church....we want people to come to experience God.

I almost think of it in terms of a WHY NOT....

Did people come when the building wasn't full for one? If they did then...then why not just do two and grow them both at the same time. You don't have to fill one to start a second.

Obviously the same could be said with a third....but I would say fill up the two before starting a third option.

Preaching Calendar - Your Time

I'm not sure I have done this with a post but with this one I want to give you, the readers and ministry leaders across the world, the stage.

This post is about your tips, your strategies, your time to shine with comments geared around Developing a Preaching Calendar.

Don't be shy click on the post a comment and give some wisdom and strategy for everyone. Write it like you shine.

Make Sure You Read Every Post In This Series

• Part 1 - Introduction
• Part 2 - God Can Speak To You In Advance
• Part 3 - Planning For Greater Impact
  
• Part 4 - Look Back Before You Look Ahead
• Part 5 - Schedule Before You Schedule: Major Holidays, Personal Time Off
• Part 6 - Branding Your Messages
  
• Part 7 - Create Momentum Before Your Major Events
• Part 8 - Creating With Your Team
• Preaching Calendar - Your Time (Reader Tips)
  

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Bringing Change

Often times we make little or no progress because the task ahead is to great. When it comes to turning around an organization whether that is a church or a ministry department it can be turned around by making little changes day after day and week after week.

When you know change is needed there is no point in delaying.

What you can begin to do to see massive change over the long haul is to initiate smaller micro changes that will add up over time.

Small Daily/Weekly Changes + Consistency = Massive Organizational Change Over Time

Let's say your organization if really weak from a leadership development standpoint. Having this problem could be a reason that your growth has flat-lined or you never had growth from the beginning. Don't feel that you have to make the change overnight. Start this week with something small. Spend time with your staff going through a leadership book. Better yet you start with a leadership book. Another idea would be having your staff with you go visit a larger church to expand their thinking.

There are lots of ways and things you could do...the point is start and do something small each week. As you do that you will see over time the massive organizational change you are looking for.

What are some things you need to do to see change?

Remember It's A Journey

I sent this to one of my leaders today as an email.

Remember in the future this is why you need to begin forming a team. Hard part for me is I enjoy everything we do as well but I can't do it all myself. But I love it when I see others excelling and getting involved. Remember it is about the journey we are taking with others that makes it all so fun. Bring someone along with you.

Right now we are doing so many things in our ministry that relate to technology. Which is probably why I have written several posts on technology in ministry.

I really enjoy working with all kinds of tech stuff and it would be so easy for me to do it all myself. But the truth is if I do that I would be robbing others of the joy in serving.

There is a great joy I get when I see others excited. That is what this whole journey is about. One of my greatest joys is seeing the excitement in our leaders and team members when they serve and realize they are making a difference.

In the first two meetings so far of May we have had seven first time guests in which three committed their lives to God for the first time.

That happens not because I'm this awesome communicator. It happens because of people like Rachel and Shelly who are awesome team leaders and directors. It happens because of teens like Jordyn who brought one of her friends to Elevate seven weeks in row. The guys and gals who are giving their lives on our team are my heroes.

As you are going along in this journey remember to take people along with you. And give them as much hype as you can. This whole thing happens only because of a team. It happens when the "body" of Christ is functioning together. Total impact will only happen when two things are in place: 1) a culture of serving has been developed and 2) an infectious spirit of reaching out is formed.

There are of course other factors that go along with these but these two have to be in place.

Remember ministry and church are a journey. Take as many along with you that you can.

Ways To Use Video In Ministry

One of the things I decided on this past year was that I was not going to let money (or lack thereof) stand in the way of using technology in ministry.

One key principle we do ministry by is using technology to enhance ministry. And I mean enhance. Technology is just a tool and should never replace but should enhance your ministry time.

Several ways we use video in our meetings are:

• Video clips from movies that introduce concepts or aha moments.
• Video promos for series.
• Video Announcements.
• Countdown Videos for the night.
• Monthly Ministry Promo video's
• Creative video's for meetings.

When I started, I didn't have a fancy camera with fancy editing software. (Of course I still don't have that either.) But again, I did not let that get in the way. Our videos have gotten everything from laughs to tears and all in between. They are ways to bring creativity into your ministry and meetings.

You can check out many of the videos we have used in our meetings at my Youtube site.

Ministry Planning

There are many ways that your department or ministry can plan. Even though it is January it is not too late to plan the rest of the year if you haven't already.

Some of the items that we use in our ministry plans are as follows:

1. Professional Job Description
2. Departmental Mission Statements
3. Departmental Core Values
4. Departmental BHAG’s (Big Holy Anointed Goals)
5. Departmental CSF’s (Critical Success Factors)
6. Departmental Organizational Chart
7. Event Schedule -
8. Event Timelines -
9. Departmental Budget
10. Feeding Schedule – Be three months ahead
11. Policy and Procedure Manual
12. Vacation Schedule

In future posts for this Plan Your Ministry Series. I will describe each of these and how to put them in effect.

Departmental Planning

This week we are meeting with our leadership team to develop our next three months in detail. If you are a staff pastor or department head, I suggest two things you can do with your team.

1. Meet with them once a month to pour into their lives. Cast vision, feed them mentally and even feed them physically. Teach them principles of teamwork and leadership that they can use in their lives and departments. Also tell stories...stories develop trust which is the foundation of leadership. Tell testimonies, how they got in ministry, praise reports, etc... And oh yeah, above all have fun. Ministry is about the journey. It is taking a journey with a group of people and having fun.

2. Meet quarterly to plan in detail the next three months. This will bring cohesiveness to everyone's schedule. Plan out your meeting teaching schedules, Sunday School, small groups, and events. This will put everyone on your team on the same page. There was nothing like running a play when I was in high school only to find your quarterback or running back going the opposite way they should be going. Those plays are usually busts.

Do Ministry of Purpose

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog on The Principles of Our Youth Ministry. The first principal that I wrote down was that we "Do Ministry On Purpose."

There are many churches and people that "do ministry." There is a huge difference in doing ministry "on purpose."

I first learned this principle when I read about Saddleback and Rick Warren. Saddleback was one of the first proponents of a "The Purpose-Driven Church."

Pastor Warren writes in his book, "Strong churches are built on purpose! By focusing equally on all five of the New Testament purposes of the church, your church will develop the healthy balance that makes lasting growth possible."

Probably one of the best books I have read on youth ministry which I account to much of the growth we have had was "Purpose Driven Youth Ministry" by Doug Fields. This book is one of the books that has developed our ministry "DNA."

Drawing on two scriptures, "The Great Commission" and "The Great Commandment" Pastor Warren developed what he believed were the five purposes of a church. Even coining the phrase, "A Great Commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will grow a Great Church." The five purposes are evangelism, discipleship, fellowship, ministry, and worship. Much could be written on these purposes and I will try to bring them out in greater detail in further blogs. I will also show how our planning process, which is another great component of our ministry, is tied into fulfilling those purposes.

As we sat down and developed the purpose of our youth ministry we looked at crafting a purpose or mission statement that embodied those five purposes. For us it came down to merging the vision of our church into those purposes. Our youth ministry, Elevate, has the following mission statement: "We exist to RAISE up teens to REACH the world RESTORING them to SERVE others and OFFER their lives to God.

RAISE - Discipleship
REACH - Evangelism
RESTORE - Fellowship
SERVE - Ministry
OFFER - Worship

These five purposes have helped us to have a balanced approach to our ministry. They keep us on a biblical track and allow us to build a healthy ministry. Too often youth ministries and churches implement programs and events that don't truly further the growth of their church. They will even blame God to an extent saying that "God just hasn't called them to be a large church." (Too that extent I'm not saying God has called us to that either as their are many models out there of successful churches.) Anyone that reads those two scriptures though has to agree that God has called us to more and it is time to make sure we are "purposeful" about what we are doing.

Principles of our Youth Ministry

It has been so fun to do youth ministry over the years. I have assimilated lots of things from lots of other ministries that I believe form the Ministry DNA of Elevate. I am in deep thinking about putting them in book form...probably will be like an internet book...I would like to know if it would be something others would get and possibly read...

Anyway here they are:

1. Do ministry on PURPOSE.
2. PLAN for success
3. Create USER-FRIENDLY environments
4. Foster a spirit of EXCELLENCE
5. TEACH for change
6. Add the WOW FACTOR
7. Develop highly productive TEAMS

These are what I believe we do a great job at...some better than others. They are principals that we have put in effect to see our youth ministry double in 6 months since we have been here at Church of Hope.