Ever wonder why you must make the HOST ask several weeks in a row in order to maximize the response?  It has to do with two important understandings.

The first understanding you must have is the simple truth that the average attendee in your church doesn’t come every week.  At least…not in the average church.  Your results may vary, but in every church there are some folks who are there every week, some who are there 2 to 3 times a month, and still others who are only there once or twice a month.  There are some that only attend once or twice a year (think Easter and Christmas Eve).

Think about that for just a minute.  What that means is that unless you make the HOST ask several weeks in a row, you’ll limit the number of people who will hear it.

The second understanding you need to have is easily understood by looking at a bell curve that illustrates the adoption of innovation.  Introduced in 1962 by Everett Rogers and his book Diffusion of Innovation, the curve identifies innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards.

Can you see how it might apply to the way people in your congregation would respond to a HOST ask?  I’ve found over a number of years that the curve accurately predicts percentage responses over the course of a 3 to 5 week season (provided the rest of the factors are consistent).  In fact, I’ve also used the curve to illustrate anomalies when the other factors have been inconsistent (as was the case last fall when the response to the last minute grab-and-go strategy far exceeded the normal 5 to 10% uptick and there was mass hysteria at the grab-and-go table.

What do you think?  Does it make sense?  You can click here to jump into the conversation.

You know how when you’re watching certain shows on TV they tell you, “Don’t try this at home?”  I think you’re going to want to try what I’m about to tell you.

Now most of you will hear the idea, feel a strong pull to try it right away, and then listen to the other voice that says, “Wait until the beta is over and the after effects are known.”  But some of you will hear it and do it this fall.

If you’ve been along for much of this ride, you know that I love adapting ideas that are beginning to work somewhere else and testing them on our own system here at Parkview.  I tripped across a couple hints of how this could work back when I interviewed Steve Gladen about Saddleback’s Leadership Pathway.

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(I regularly post about the latest ground-breaking developments at churches that are working hard to connect more people into groups.  Don’t want to miss the news?  You can sign up for my updates right here.)

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A Few Concepts That Make a Change Inevitable:

There are several factors converging that make it obvious that a change is needed:

• People are busy and it is becoming increasingly more difficult to get new, toe-in-the-water hosts to make time for an orientation.
• It’s more and more common for people to come from further than 20 minutes away, making meeting times even more difficult to schedule.
• Mobility is a key to training and leader development.  If you’re not yet providing mobile options for training yet, you will have very little choice in the very near future.

Here is what we’re testing:

1. We’re still using a series of Host “asks” embedded in our weekend messages in August.
2. There will still be an insert in the bulletin and those who respond to the invitation to host will be asked to fill out a very simple form (Name, email, phone) and to exchange it at the door for an “orientation packet.” Note: This is a significant change.  Previously, those responding were encouraged to “drop the host sign-up form into the offering at the end of the service,” sent a letter the next day informing them of the orientation schedule, and asked to RSVP for one of several identical 75 minute orientations, conveniently offered after multiple services over several weekends.
3. At the doors, those interested hosting (or finding out how it works) will be given a packet that includes a DVD with 6 to 8 simple training videos.  They don’t have to be elaborate or academy award winning production values.  (Don’t believe me?  Here is the Saddleback version we were inspired by: http://www.smallgroups.net/Small-Group-Ministries-Host-Training-Videos.php).  The orientation content will also be available on our website.  The packet will also include an FAQ with a set of very common questions and a form to be completed and turned in at the GroupLife booth in the lobby in exchange for a host kit (with curriculum, a card with a listing of available coaches for each area and affinity, group launching resources and a set of 20 invitations).

It’s such a simple idea.  Not problem-free.  You’ve no doubt already picked up on a few issues that will have problems.  At the same time, there are a number of distinct advantages to the new format:

1. A  packet at the doors ensures that those who are spur-of-the-moment people will be handed a packet (instead of depending on them to make it to the small group booth in the lobby).
2. Offering host orientations in a format that can be completed anywhere, anytime, will encourage more people to be willing to do it (Steve Gladen noted more than once in the last year that a larger number completed training online than actually attended the centralized training the Saddleback was offering).
3. Since the training will also be offered online it will be possible for people completely outside our area to host a group where they live.

What do you think?  Got a question?  Want to argue?  You can click here to jump into the conversation.

There are church-wide campaigns and then there are church-wide campaigns.  That is, some campaigns are bare bones and only include a small group study for adults and outlines of the weekend message series.  Others (like 40 Days of Purpose) are very robust, providing the full range of curriculum (from Preschool Children all the way to the adult small group study) along with a book or devotional (like The Purpose Driven Life) and weekend service resources, as well as detailed implementation guidance.

The Story, a new church-wide campaign from Zondervan has a lot going for it.  There are a number of great aspects that deserve mention.  There are also a couple things that should be pointed out and taken into consideration.

Five Key Advantages

First, the premise for the study itself is a good one.  Taking its cue from Zondervan’s best-selling abridged chronological Bible, the vision and purpose of the campaign is to draw your congregation, your small group, and your family into the grand, unfolding story of the Bible as one sweeping narrative, arranged chronologically from Genesis to Revelation.  Just the idea of laying out the individual stories of the Bible in a way that allows God’s story to be understandable and memorable to whole congregations is very compelling.

Second, the DVD-driven adult curriculum is pitched very well for adult participants.  An engaging combination of interesting opening segments and short teaching overviews (10 to 12 minutes) by Randy Frazee (Senior Minister at Oak Hills Church) holds attention very well.  It feels very much like you’re listening to a story.  Very importantly, it’s a story told in a way that doesn’t assume prior knowledge.

Third, with fully available curriculum for children (preschool, early-elementary and elementary) and teens, The Story can be a church-wide campaign.  Each of the four developmental stages have age-appropriate, complete curriculum for the entire experience.  The Church Campaign Kit includes a CD-ROM for each of the three children’s stages with printable activity sheets, lesson plans and leader resources, kid skits or puppet scripts depending on age group.  A DVD-driven Teen experience is also included in the Church Campaign Kit.  Featuring stop-motion artist videos, teacher’s guide and student materials, there is everything you need to help children and teens experience God’s great love by bringing His story to life.

Fourth, there is an age-appropriate version of The Story (the abridged chronological Bible) for each age group; allowing entire families to engage in the same between weekend experience…in preparation for the next part of the story.

Fifth, everything you need to pull off this church-wide campaign is included on the Resource DVD (or available online in the Online Resource Library.  Although I’ve just begun poking around in the password protected Online Resource Library, I can tell you there is a LOT in there.  Campaign preparation, weekend service ideas, extra resources for kids, teens and adults, communication ideas and way more than I can describe here.  This is a fully loaded campaign.

Considerations to Note

There are a couple factors that should be noted up front.  First, while The Story can be done in three distinct sub-campaigns, it is ideally a 31 week experience.  In my view, there’s upside and downside to a 31 week campaign on this subject.  The upside is that you know where you’re going for the better part of a year.  The downside is exactly the same thing.  You are pretty committed to a predetermined direction.  Not a bad thing.  Just much longer than the normal 6 week ideal campaign length that I usually recommend.

Second, like 40 Days of Purpose, when you legitimately launch a church-wide campaign that has small group curriculum for adults and Sunday School curriculum for children and teens, as well as a book of some kind that participants need in order to participate…you know there’s an expense that will be born by someone (either the church or participants).  My experience is that a well-planned, well-executed church-wide campaign can have a powerful impact on both the church and the community and makes a very sensible budget item.  But…that is an item that will need to be addressed at the beginning of the journey.

Conclusion

The Story could deliver quite a church-wide experience.  Especially in a culture with very, very low biblical literacy…might just be a goldmine.

Take a moment and imagine your congregation.  Before you get too settled in, think about who comes to your church in the broadest sense.

There are the folks you know by name.  They’re there almost every time the doors are open.  Three or four times a month.

Now add in the folks that you know but not real well.  You might not know their names but you know they’ve got a teenager that they drop off on Tuesday night when you’re dropping off yours.

Then there are the folks that you think you’ve seen at church, but you have no idea who they are.

And finally, add in the people that you’ll swear you’ve never seen before but they seem to recognize you…especially if you’re the senior pastor.

I don’t know what your percentages are, but in many cases only 10 to 20% of attendees are there 3 out of 4.  The number who come twice a month might be 40 to 50% and the number that come once a month or fewer might be as high 40 to 50% as well.

Think about that math.  Admittedly, your math may be very different.  But…I want you to think about the fact that when you’re trying to move from 25% of your average adult worship attendance in groups to 50% or 80% or 130%…it will almost never happen incrementally.  Instead, it will almost always take some pretty big moves to become a church OF groups.

How will you do it?  I want to suggest that no other small group launching strategy even comes close to the exponential connecting impact of a church-wide campaign.  Whether you are in the catch a moving train scenario or you’ve been adding a few groups here and there over a number of years, the very best way to connect the largest number of unconnected people is with a well-timed, well-designed, church-wide campaign.

I’ve written about it extensively.  You’ll find plenty of information about how to do it in my Top 10 Articles on Church-Wide Campaigns (or, just take a look at the articles in the church-wide campaign category).  If you’re a figure it out on your own kind of person, you might want to just start there.

On the other hand…if you’d like to talk about how I can help your church launch a church-wide campaign and exponentially change the number of people connected at your church, I’d love to do that.  You can find out about my coaching and consulting offerings right here.  Or, if you’d rather start the conversation with an email, you can email me right here.

One of the most exciting aspects of a church-wide campaign using the HOST strategy is that they make it possible to start waves of new groups.  Almost every other strategy is addition (i.e., your apprentice is finally ready to leave the next, so you go from one group to two).  A church-wide campaign using the HOST strategy, on the other hand, allows you to start 30 new groups at a time (or 300…depending on the size of the church).

And that is a very good thing.  But like I often say, there’s an upside and a downside to everything.  In this case, you’re multiplying the number of leaders, the number of groups, and the number of people in groups.  That’s a big upside.  You’re also multiplying the number of leaders who really need to be cared for…right now.  And that brings us to the downside.  It means that instead of adding 1 coach this year, you might need to add 6 (or 60 depending on the size of the church and the span-of-care you’re comfortable with).

Then again…since there is no problem-free, that’s a very good problem to have.  Don’t you think?  Who would’t want the problem of having to recruit more coaches (or come up with other care strategies) because you were adding so many groups it was overextending the capacity of your current coaching team?

But how to find the number of coaches you need?  Where will they come from?  What will motivate them to say “yes?”  Can you find enough?  I think you can if you are looking in the right places and asking the right way.  We talked yesterday about how to find potential coaches.  Today, I want to talk about a special technique that makes it easier to recruit what I call launch-phase coaches for church-wide campaigns.

Recruiting Launch-Phase Coaches for Church-Wide Campaigns

There are three keys to this strategy:

First, make a list of 100-fold players that if they would say “yes” would provide a great experience for every new host in their care.  Don’t compromise on this.  If you take 30-fold players, you will be providing a 30-fold experience (and that is not the kind of thing that sustains new groups).

Second, develop a launch-phase job description that makes your expectations crystal clear and at the same time expertly addresses the big concerns of 100-fold players.  Here’s the one I used just this past fall when we did 40 Days of Purpose.  Go ahead and click to open it note a few things:

1. I’m recruiting them to a limited term (10 to 13 weeks) commitment.  That is really big.  When you recruit for a church-wide campaign, you need lots of help right away.  But…you really want to get them in the door with an easy first commitment (note the similarity to the way we think about recruiting hosts which is a 6 week commitment).
2. I’m recruiting them a specific time commitment that is significant (2 to 5 hours), but with explanation that “most weeks it really will be more like 1 to 2 hours.  Just imagine though, what might happen if as you’re making your calls you come across a really tough situation.  That might add to your commitment that week, but it’s for a limited duration (10 to 13 weeks).
3. I will be providing full training (see the second page of the job description).  This is a big thing.  Note that I’m providing 4 conference call training sessions.  They’re not driving in to do these centrally.  They’re in the evening after the kids are down.  They can even be in their pajamas.

Individually meet with the prospective coaches on your list for coffee, breakfast or lunch.  It will be tempting to call them.  It will be even more tempting to hold a centralized meeting and recruit them all at the same time.  That is much less effective.  Here is a script I’ve used to recruit launch-phase coaches.

You can do this.  You’ve got the people.  There are no exceptions to the rule that every church has untapped (or at least out of position 100-fold leaders) who will respond and make a huge difference if they’re just given an opportunity.

What’s next?  Be sure and read Life-Threatening Situations Call for Extreme Measures.  Did you miss yesterday’s post?  (Three Immediate Action Steps That Pay Off Big Time)

You probably know this…but the Twelve were not chosen from the usual suspects.  I know for some that line all by itself might cause you to lump me in with the riffraff.  Sorry about that.  But sometimes the truth hurts.

It’s true, though.  When Jesus selected the twelve apostles they were not first round material.  They were clearly the b team.  They were the riffraff.  They were the ‘am ha’ares; the people of the land.

I like what John MacArthur points out in Twelve Ordinary Men (there’s a first time for everything…I’ve never cited MacArthur before):

“When Jesus chose the Twelve to be His official representatives …He didn’t choose a single rabbi.  He didn’t choose a scribe.  He didn’t choose a Pharisee.  He didn’t choose a Sadducee.  He didn’t choose a pries t…He chose instead men who were not theologically trained–fishermen, a tax collector, and other common men (p. 7).”

Why am I telling you this?

One of the most significant missteps when planning a small group launch (church-wide campaign or otherwise) is to select leaders exclusively from the core…what I often refer to as “the usual suspects.”

Why is that a misstep?

There are several reasons but the first and most important is that in most cases the folks in the square (to refer to the diagram) will tell you that 8, 9, or even all 10 of their best friends…are also inside the square.  To use my friend Allen White’s favorite metaphor, just like a Lego block, there’s a limit to how many people they can connect to…and they’re full!  I explain this much more thoroughly in Clue #1 When Designing Your Small Group System.

Second, new leaders recruited from closer to crowd’s edge are more likely to have friends, family, neighbors and co-workers from the community.  They often have the exact opposite situation than members from the core and will tell you that 8, 9, or even all 10 of their best friends have never been to your church.

Third, once a church reaches a certain size (not average attendance, but total number of adults in the crowd) it is way too easy for some of the most qualified potential leaders to simply disappear into the shadows.  Where’s that number?  Hard to say exactly, but when you see people in the grocery store and know that you’ve seen them at church but don’t know their story…you’re there.

What do you think?  Want to argue?  You can click here to jump into the conversation.

Searching for ways to increase biblical literacy in your church?  A new church-wide campaign from Lifeway, Read the Bible for Life may be a solution.  Based on George Guthrie’s popular book by the same title, this study will be a valuable resource for many churches.

The Leader Kit for the whole church campaign includes three DVDs featuring nine teaching sessions, as well as a copy of the Read the Bible for Life Workbook and the Read the Bible for Life trade book.  A CD-ROM is also included with supplemental articles and study tools, a churchwide-initiative guide, and promotional tools.

George Guthrie is the Benjamin W. Perry Professor of Bible at Union University in Jackson, TN.  Although his previous books had more academic readership, Read the Bible for Life was written to help average church members “grasp the story of scripture and learn how the books of the Bible fit together to communicate God’s redemptive message.”

Guthrie’s love of scripture and skillful communication of the Bible’s major elements is very evident in the DVD sessions.  You’ll listen in as he gives a small group of students an overview of the following topics:

• Reading the Bible for Life
• Reading the Bible in Context
• Reading the Stories of the Old Testament
• Reading the Law and the Prophets
• Reading the Psalms
• Reading the Stories of the New Testament
• Reading the Teachings of Jesus
• Reading the New Testament Letters and Revelation
• Reading the Bible Today

In addition to Guthrie’s teaching on the nine themes, the DVDs also feature interviews with noted Bible scholars: Clint Arnold, Craig Blomberg, Darrell Bock, Michael Card, Scott Duvall, Daniel Hays, David Howard, Andreas Kostenberger, Douglas Moo, Gary Smith, Mark Strauss, and Bruce Waltke.

Along with the DVD, there is a participant workbook with five daily studies reinforcing each of the nine sessions.  Participants should anticipate a 30 minute assignment in order to get everything possible out of the study.

Using Read the Bible for Life

After working my way through the DVD segments and carefully examining the workbook, I think there are several ways Read the Bible for Life can be used.  First, it can be used as intended…as a whole church experience.  As you can imagine, adults (there is not currently student or children’s material) that completed the study could be expected to increase their understanding of the Bible.  Full Disclosure: the combination of a nine week study and a 30 minute daily assignment will limit participation for some.

Second, the study can easily be used by individual small groups who want to learn about the Bible and how to read the Bible.  At the same time, I believe the nine week time frame coupled with a daily 30 minute assignment will limit participation to groups with higher expectations.

Third, this material could be easily adapted to provide a nine week course on how to read the Bible.  I believe this will be a very popular curriculum for an on-campus elective course.

Recommendation

Will Read the Bible for Life be a great solution for your congregation?  It depends on a number of factors.  What do you hope to accomplish?  Who do you hope to connect?  When do you plan to use it?  Like any new small group curriculum, whether it is for a single group or for the whole congregation, questions like these will help determine whether a particular study will be a great fit.

I can tell you this: Anyone, any group, or any congregation, that invests the time and energy required to fully absorb Read the Bible for Life will never approach the Bible the same way again.  They’ll know how to read the Bible…for life!

Every small group ministry system comes with its own unique set of problems.  None of them are problem-free.

This is a huge realization and essential for you to come to grips with the fact that every system, every strategy, has a set of problems that come with it.

At some level, we’re all in a kind of denial.  I’ve come to expect that all of us secretly believe that our preferred system is problem-free or nearly problem-free, when the truth is, we’ve never really given the situation a thorough and passion-free examination.

Can I walk you through this important exercise?  Here’s an example of a thorough and passion-free examination.  If you’ve been a reader here for any length of time, you know that I am a huge fan of the church-wide campaign strategy for launching groups.  I believe it is the most effective way to launch.  But it’s not problem-free.  Let me show you my own assessment of the primary weaknesses (problems) of the church-wide campaign strategy.

Church-Wide Campaign Strategy Problems:

1. When you optimize the host ask, you will get some host volunteers that won’t meet even the lowest criteria.  You’ll have to actually talk with some of them and help them find another way to participate.
2. To maximize the response requires narrowing the focus during the 4 to 6 weeks just prior to the launch of the campaign message series.  Because late September/early October is the best window to run the series, it means asking the other ministries to promote their baby another way.
3. Your senior pastor is absolutely the best person to make the host ask.  Incorporating the ask into their sermon is the very best way to get a response.  Because not everyone attends every week, the ask must be made 2 or 3 weeks in a row.  It’s not unusual for senior pastors to resist being the one to ask.  It’s very common for them to not want to do it during their message.  If they haven’t resisted being the one to ask and they’ve been willing to incorporate it into their message…they will almost certainly frown on the idea of doing it 2 or 3 weeks in a row.
4. The message series with the broadest outreach appeal are sometimes on topics that your senior pastor is uncomfortable doing (i.e., Love at Last Sight, One Month to Live, etc.).
5. The message series your pastor may want to do aren’t on the easy end of the easy/hard continuum (i.e., they’re on a subject that is great for the usual suspects…but not for the folks that really need to get connected).

Disclosure: These are just the first 5 that came to my mind.  There are certainly others.  Many others.  But…and this is where you need to be sharp and pull in a team to play along…there are ways to mitigate every one of these problems.  I’ve chosen the church-wide campaign strategy as the primary way we launch new groups because I’d rather have these problems that any other set (here’s my top 10 articles on launching a church-wide campaign).

Wise leaders simply choose the set of problems they’d rather have.

(This is the 3rd post in this series.  You can read part four right here.  You can read the first part right here)

Yesterday I kicked off this series by suggesting that of all the ways to launch small groups, nothing compares to the power and potential of a well chosen, strategically timed and skillfully implemented church-wide campaign.

Are there other effective methods?  Absolutely.  Do they pack as big of a punch?  No.  Definitely…no.  But I need to qualify that answer.  Nothing compares to the power and potential of a church-wide campaign that is well chosen (we talked about that yesterday), strategically timed (we’ll talk about that today) and skillfully implemented.  As I’ve written in the past, missing the strategic window of optimum launch dates is one of the top 10 reasons that church-wide campaigns miss the mark.

Tell Me About Strategic Timing?

Ever heard that “timing is everything?”  Well…it is.  Pulling off a church-wide campaign takes a lot of energy.  In other words, it’s not an afterthought.  It will take commitment, planning, and hard work.  And whenever you give something a lot of energy, you want to reap where you’ve sown.  Here are several important factors:

• Late September/early October is the very best time for three reasons: (1) You can use August to recruit hosts and early September to train them, (2) When you start a new group in the early fall, your new groups can meet at least 6 times before Thanksgiving and maybe still meet another time or two before they break for the holidays.  Very big.  (3) In many communities, fall is the biggest time of the year for new residents to check out a church.  It’s also a time when folks returning from summer vacations to reengage in the rhythms of school and work…but be open to change.
• Late January/Early February is another good time for a campaign.  (1) Life’s natural rhythms and the desire to “turn over a new leaf” in January often inspire a willingness to take a spiritual next step, (2) With close to 5 months before summer, there’s plenty of time to establish a real sense of connection, (3)  While there isn’t as good of a window to recruit hosts (December usually has its own commitments), a small group connection can provide a very good alternative and doesn’t require such a lengthy ramp-up.
• Post Easter is a third option.  Although summer vacation is just around the corner, it presents a different set of upsides: (1) A well chosen topic can sometimes attract attendees from the crowd (Easter and Christmas Eve, 1 to 6 times a year), (2) A 4 to 6 week test-drive might be just the thing to help some of your attendees to finally take that baby-step.

These are the three best times/seasons to launch a church-wide campaign.  That doesn’t mean it’s the only time that will work.  It’s just the most likely.  Again, planning and implementing a church-wide campaign is an energy-intensive effort.  When you spend this kind of energy, you’d like to sustain as many groups as you can.

Tomorrow I’ll be talking about skillful implementation.  If you’re not signed up for my updates, you can do that right here.

What do you think? Make sense? Want to argue? Got a question? You can click here to jump into the conversation.

Of all the ways to launch small groups, nothing compares to the power and potential of a well chosen, strategically timed and skillfully implemented church-wide campaign.  All three elements are essential, but when you get all three right…no other strategy comes close.

In this article I want to point out three keys to choosing the right church-wide campaign.  Like a lot of things, you can get the timing right and skillfully pull the trigger…but if you choose the wrong campaign…it just won’t work.  And the worst part of it is, you’ll believe church-wide campaigns aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.

Here are three keys to choosing the right church-wide campaign:

1. Get crystal clear on who you want to connect.  This is really important.  Don’t miss this.  I included Saddleback’s concentric circles diagram so you’d be able to visualize this concept.  The topic absolutely determines who you can connect.  If you’re praying for a campaign that allows your hosts to invite friends, family and neighbors (the crowd and community or the widening 60%)…choose a topic that will appeal to them (i.e., Love at Last Sight or 40 Days of Purpose).  On the other hand, if you are looking for a way to help your congregation deepen their faith, choose a topic that will challenge them (i.e., Outlive Your Life or The Power of a Whisper).  You’ll find more information on this in my article, Does Your Topic Connect with Your True Customer?
2. Acknowledge that you can’t please everyone.  This is a huge concept!  Don’t miss it.  I often illustrate this by pointing out that In-N-Out Burger, Chili’s, Outback Steakhouse, and Ruth’s Chris each have a carefully selected market niche.  You’ll never see In-N-Out add a sizzling filet mignon to their menu.  And while a Ruth’s Chris regular might occasionally hit Chili’s…they’ll never expect Chili’s classic sirloin to really compare with their usual.
3. Design your annual calendar to provide next steps for everyone in your crowd (core, committed, congregation and crowd)…and first steps for their friends (community).  It’s important to see that wise leaders look ahead and plan next steps that provide growth opportunities for every segment of their church and community.

Wise leaders will also strategically time their church-wide campaigns to provide the maximum return.  And that’s the subject for my next article:  When Is the Best Time to launch a Church-Wide Campaign?

What do you think? Make sense? Want to argue? Got a question? You can click here to jump into the conversation.