The Church Has Changed…

• “I have a grave concern that church has become a building in America.”
• The consequence is that people drive by and they don’t see the Church.
• We need to open the blinds and let the world see the truth.
• How could Jesus tear down the curtain just for us to put them back up so no on could see our imperfections.
• “Shake us God, move us from the feeling of hamsters on wheels, instead remind us we are your kids chasing after your dreams”
• God’s call for us to come to the world… one that’s really not that excited to see us or welcome us.
• We must stay rooted deeply in God’s Kingdom.
• We need God’s people.
• God’s people need each of us.

5 Stages of Innovation

1. People deny innovation is required.
2. People deny that the innovation is effective.
3. People deny that the innovation is important.
4. People deny the innovation will justify the efford required to adopt it.
5. People accept and adopt the innovation, enjoy its benefit, attribute ti to people other than the innovator, and deny the existence of stages 1-4      - Alexander von Humboldst’s “Three Stage s of Scientific Discovery”

• It’s amazing what you can get done when you don’t care who gets the glory.

Methods Change

• We’ve got methods that need to be modified.
• We begin with the Scripture… that’s what we’ve always done.
• We exegete and apply… read, study, apply.
• We’re in a culture now that’s shifted so dramatically that our old method of teaching doesn’t work.
• You have to consider the culture you are bringing your message to.
• The value people used to place on Scripture has dropped, dramatically.
• The premise of the message is being questioned in our culture.
• Many see the Bible as a good work of fiction.
• It’s no longer the authoritative word of God in people’s eyes.
• People might not get the point at the end of your message because they don’t agree with your opening premise.

A New Method?

1 – Start with Real Life

• It’s worth considering starting with real life.
• What if we started with the human condition?
• Real life, real problems.
• What if we started there, then…

2 – Exegete Life

3 – What Does the Bible Say?

4 – Apply /Illustrate

• There’s only one place in the Bible where Jesus started teaching from the word and ended with application.
• Jesus met people were they were and talked to them where they were.
• He was effective because he listened to people.
• We need to answer questions people are asking.
• When Jesus comes no one will wonder who He is.
• We’ve got to figure out how to apply and illustrate how people are meant to live their lives in this broken world.
• We’ve got to live out for them.
• We’ve got to show them.

The Brand New Church Story

• God’s will for every pastor is to lead white collar people outside of a major city (sarcasm).
• God’s everywhere, go where the money is (sarcastic again).
• He knew God had called him to pioneer and blaze a trail by building a church in rural America.
• In ministry, pastors and ministers have turned certain churches into “Hollywood”… thinking, “if you make it there, you’ve made it…”
• God lead him to South Lead Hill, population of 88.
• They want to church of 31… which is now 2,000.
• 5 campuses and 3 house churches now.
• If God calls a man to rural America it looks like they don’t add up to other churches.
• Some churches get put on the pedestal for their size, instead of their seismology.
• God has called us to do great things wherever He’s called us.
• We are so concerned about our significance in eyes of others that we’ll give up success in eyes of God.
• Rural America is the most unchurched “churched” place in the world.
• God blesses people who are excited about seeing changed lives.
• In 2 years they were multisite in rural America!
• We have this idea that if you get to the “big church” that God is using you.
• Got their name from Colossians 3:10 – brand new…
• They have seen explosive growth, life change and record-breaking baptisms.

Church in the Sticks…

• None of their campuses have adequate internet services… so they got a Hummer equipped with a satellite.
• They have satellite house churches in other rural areas.
• Hundreds of people are showing up because they are desperate to hear the Gospel.
• There’s familiar soil, not just foreign soil, where people are desperate to hear the Good News.
• Why do we have to be church planters outside of metro areas?
• Why are there so few called to rural America?
• Why do people leave so quickly?
• God wants us to be effective wherever we are.
• The calling is clear: 1 Tim 3.
• God’s given us a prerequisite…

1 – You need to be called.

• There are so many people who are good Sunday school teachers but they are not called to be pastors.
• In rural America, a whisper is a roar.
• When you are called to ministry, you need to be certain that you are called.
• We have to know our calling.

2 – You must love your family.

• If you are married you a required by God to have a red-hot marriage.
• In rural America, your greatest evangelistic tool is your family.
• Your marriage is a picture of your salvation.
• You cannot have an average marriage and an excellent church.
• If you are single, you are called to maintain a level of holiness.

3 – It’s not the size of your church, it’s the seismic activity.

• What kind of ripple are you creating in your community?
• Everyone wants to be a part of greatness and Jesus Christ and His Church alive is just that.
• Instead of saying we have “1,500 people”… say, we’re a “6.5″
• The epicenter is your walk with God, your holiness.
• You can’t preach something you are not living.

4 – Make certain you have accurate structure.

• No one can stand without an excellent skeletal system.
• Make sure your by-laws and organizational structures do not limit the hand of God.
• It does not begin with deacons or committees, it begins with Jesus as the head of the Church.
• Get an accurate structure and fight for it to be biblical.
• We need theocratic churches, not churches that are democratic.

God is more concerned about growing congregants instead of congregations.

• Social networking helps you see connections that are hidden in the real world.
• Your network has hidden opportunities.

How Social Media Can Benefit You on a Personal Level

• When you are looking for help or inspiration, social media provides a great outlet.
• It can help you be better connected to people you know in real-time.
• Social media can enhance your personal and family relationships.
• Social media can build into your team and staff relationships and create better connection to them.
• “I block and ignore 100% of applications that are sent to me on Facebook…”
• Best way I can describe Twitter: It’s like a little FoxNews new ticker telling me what’s going on with my friends.
• Text is 1 to 1; Twitter is 1 to many.
• “Twitter is the Good Samaritan…”
• Social media can enhance your church and professional relationships.
• Social media cuts out the middleman, detours around corporate speak.
• Social media gives you direct access to people you could have never had direct access to before.
• They can help you critique, test out new ideas, give feedback, etc.
• Social media creates micro leads to macro information.

Social Media Practices for Ministry

• It’s risky… but it’s risker not to engage.
• The risk of not engaging is greater than not.
• The biggest challenge is for us to stop creating content – we need to create less.
• We need to let people talk.
• We need to drive conversation to where the conversation is already happening.
• People want the raw, real content… not the polished, professional speak.

Getting Started

• Decide who your audience is.
• Who do you want to open up to?
• Dedicate what you want to do.
• It’s an extension of your personality; you don’t want to look like someone else.
• Your church website does not have personality… social media gives expression.
• You have to meet people where they are. Your purpose should be to connect with people.
• Just do one thing at a time. It will expand.
• It’s something you experience and unique and personal to each individual.
• Start slow… don’t talk at first, just watch.
• Watch and follow.
• Avoid putting out too much information.
• Keep it simple.
• Keep the content in one place.
• Drive everyone (through Facebook, Twitter, etc) to one place.
• You can have have multiple entrances but drive people to one location.
• If you don’t do it, someone will.

• “I’m a recovering spin doctor who mistrusts advertising and is a fully devoted follower of Christ who feels out of place in the church.”
• I still believe the church is the hope of the world but I also believe it needs the most help.
• Against forced fed, insensitive, intimidating messages.
• I’m your “inside outsider.”

Puffy Coat Dude

• Kem shared the story of “puffy coat dude,” a guy she encountered at the airport and on a plane.
• This guy was puffed up with himself.
• We’ve all been around people like that.
• Too often we all fall into this trap… the underbelly of ministry.

The Underbelly of Ministry

• Under pressure to do “God’s work” and see results, we tend to shove our agenda on other people without regard for people.
• We create more clutter when we overestimate what we have to say and underestimate how it will effect others.
• It’s why people don’t respond to us or respond to our messages.
• We’re too puffed up.

1 – Check Your Ego

• Understanding a person’s values and passions, even if they are different than your own, is the first step in understanding them.
• It’s a prerequisite to your credibility.
• A question we forget to wrestle with is, “Do I care more about what I have to say more than the person I’m saying it to?”

The Million Dollar Question

• What is your biggest communication challenge in your church?
• Answer: People are unwilling to change, lack commitment and unwilling to listen.
• It’s not that our motives are wrong; but we are picking the wrong favorite.
• We’re picking and favoring what we are doing over who we are doing it for.
• Do you get frustrated when people don’t get it, or are you taking the time to understand what it would take for them to get it.
• We’re all in the business of persuasion.

Change

• Change we initiate is easier to manage than change that is forced upon us.
• Our job is not to release the right message but to release the right response.
• We’ve got to motivate people to change.
• The more choices you give, the more overwhelmed people get.
• The value we provide decreases in direct proportion to how hard we make it for people to do what they are trying to do.
• We need to be willing to work harder than the audience we are trying to reach.

2 – Get an Image Consultant

• When we check our ego we spend more energy thinking about how we are going to say is going to effect people than what we have to say.
• It’s easy for things to get lost in translation.
• Most of the time our picture isn’t telling the story we think it is.
• We’re always the last people to know how we come across to other people.
• All of talent, skills and intention don’t matter if you are handicapped in social skills.
• You have to take the time to get into people’s worlds.
• Spend time with people who have a different perspective.
• Sometimes change is good.
• Are you testing your theories against people who think differently than you?
• We all need people who can “save me from me.”
• Who do you trust in your day job to tell you that you come across as being defensive? Over complicated? Controlling? Out of touch? Desperate? Self-centered?
• If you don’t have people like that, you need to find them.
• Stop with the holy dialect.
• It takes a bigger brain to simplfy things and to make it easy for people to understand instead of complicating it.
• It’s not what we say, it’s what people hear.
• We can make dramatic improvements if we take the time to get an extra set of eyes.
• It starts with talking with people outside of your department.
• Before you program, print, produce, have that next conversation or hit send, get an extra set of eyes.

3 – Keep it Simple

• We have to face a changing culture.
• Today’s culture is overwhelmed, overcommitted and over extended.
• Are we, as a church, piling more on and adding to confusion?
• Are we part of the problem instead of the solution we claim to be.
• If we are just rambling then people will do what they have to do to survive the onslaught of information and only pay attention to what they are looking for.
• If want to maximize the response we have to minimize the options.
• Too much choice = paralysis.
• Pharisees overcomplicated things CONSTANTLY.
• Jesus gave them less clutter less noise all the time: LOVE GOD, LOVE OTHERS.
• We need to make it simple, too.
• We need to make it simple for every single audience we are trying to connect with.
• We need to do something practical that will prevent individual energy from compromising team synergy.
• Instead of complicating the solution, simplify the problem.

At the end of the day, if I do ______________  then I have done my job.

• What’s your answer to that question?
• If we can’t get it, internally, how can we expect people to get it externally?
• Sharpen your focus to the essential.
• Doing this will move your job from being a leading role to a supporting character.
• The real win is in how it benefits others.
• Put people first, task later.

Who is the person on the other end of the message?

• “A generation ago the question was, ‘what is truth?’ Today, the question is, ‘what’s the point?”" – Billy Graham
• Start with the end in mind.
• Think about the person on the other end of your email, letter, sermon, brochure, webpage, etc.
• Ask yourself, “what’s more important, getting the word out or getting through?”
• When we remember the real people with real problems, real pain and real life on the other end of our communication, it changes our MO.
• We’ll learn to check our ego, get an image consultant and to keep it simple.

• Our churches are filled with stories of irreligious people who “sample” what the church is about and eventually make a commitment to Christ.
• “Baby Christians” get excited and fanatical about their faith.
• From there, they become “walkers”… people who are close to Christ. The emotion and excitement might have worn off, but they begin to take their own steps in their spiritual journey.
• “Veterans” learn to be self-feeders… they don’t need church services to help them grow.
• They are outward focused.
• This pattern is exactly what the mission of most churches are striving for.
• Helping people in their spiritual journey.

Why are we so concerned if we “recycle” what other churches have done?

• We often have a desire to be trendy, cool, hip and original.
• Sometimes we’re more concerned about being original instead of being effective.

Who Gives a Rip?

• Who cares whether or not your idea is original?
• The people in your church do not care.
• We spend way too much time focusing on if things are original instead of being concerned about whether or not it’s going to be effective in helping people take their next steps towards Christ.

Recycling

• Granger often looks to other churches and culture to see what’s working and create their own spin on it.
• When it comes to finding elements for service the question isn’t,”is it original?” the question is, “is it’s effective?”
• The arts have amazing power.

4 Ways to Use the Arts

Tim shared 4 ways the church can use the arts and examples of how Granger took outside ideas, “recycled” them and made them their own.

• Use the arts to create buzz. Artistic elements can get people interested in what you’re doing so when they come you can present the truth and they can take a spiritual step.
• Use the arts to educate. You can use the arts to educate and illustrate points as teaching elements.
• Use the arts to create tension. In your services you need to present the tension and God’s solution. Often it’s quicker to use the arts to create tension.
• Use the arts to get people to laugh. Sometimes people just need to laugh. Humor can disarm people and prepare them to hear spiritual truth.

This Isn’t Anti-Original…

• It’s a celebration of the creative nature of God when people pursue God with their art and do something original.
• God’s creation didn’t stop on Day 6.
• When we elevate original over effective the focus moves off of our mission and onto the artist.
• That’s a dangerous place to be.
• If it’s effective, keep doing it!
• The only question we need to be asking is: is it’s effective?

2 Things to Remember…

• There’s a lot of pressure put on smaller churches… they feel the pressure to be original.
• If you focus first on being effecitve, God will bring the artists.
• A lot of our internal angst to be original comes from a place of pride.
• Pride runs on a stealth level.
• It doesn’t help the church.

• There is a new terrain we must nativage together.
• Today in the world everything you do is instant, global and permanent.
• Things are instantly captured and sent around the globe and forever there.
• It’s a new day with new challenges.
• We wonder what the role and place of the church is around the world and in our local communities.
• Is there any significance in it at all?
• Until this generation you needed teachers and masters to learn the craft and trade… today you don’t need a master, mentor or teacher, you’ve got google. You can get knowledge without human touch.
• That’s never been the case until now.
• We can get knowledge through the web, but can we get wisdom?
• The Church is going to have to face one of the great challenges on the horizon… the challenge of technology.
• We’re going to need a well-defined theology on the value of human touch, material world connection.
• We are moving into a virtual society.
• What is the value of incarnation?
• What is the value of community?
• It’s important that we leverage new technologies to seek it.
• Where does the material world weigh in on physical touch and community?
• If you don’t tweet, text, Facebook or blog, you need to… or you should maybe consider quitting your job.
• Our business is the people business, so we must connect with technologies that make friends with people we’ve never seen.
• If we’re going to have moral authority to speak into the lives of others, we need to be engaged and leveraging technologies they are using.
• If we are going to be relevant today we better figure out what “that” is, how “it” works and what God has to say about it.
• People today have friends they’ve never met, seen or touched. The definition of community is changing.
• If we apply good theology to technology we can leverage it for good.
• If we ignore it we might find ourselves without influence in culture because we can’t even communicate with culture.
• Our great challenge is to figure out a way to be able to bring people together in creative fashion to bring the love of God to the world.
• We should pray, regularly and continually.
• As our culture changes, we need to build teams to communicate and connect so that Christ is glorified and everyone knows who He is… that He is Lord and King.
• These innovations are so critical and we’re going to have to understand to get done what we need to get done, we need to collaborate and build teams.
• We need to bring different people together around different projects to bring God glory.

Exposed… How it Really Is.

• Exposed. Being exposed is threatening for many of us because we are in pain.
• There are moments of difficulty and pain that can grow you and stretch you like never before.
• In your valley, know we have all been there.
• Time have been tough and this has been a challenging season.
• You’re not alone.

Building Teams

• Every one of you who is trying to build a team… how do you make a team out of people that are so different?
• That’s what God is calling us to do.
• He calls us to take people He’s brought to us and bring them together.
• What do you do to build a team?
• There are things that weave teams together… our mission, vision, values that we share.
• Our mission weaves us together.
• Our vision holds us together.
• Our values bind us together.
• It all creates unity.
• Unity is not uniformity.
• Everyone has a past… what you see isn’t always what you get.
• Everyone has momentum. What’s behind it and what’s pushing people?
• The laws of physics apply to humanity as well.
• People need an outside force to change their course.
• Sometimes all people need is clarity. Clarity on the mission, vision and values.
• Specify the mission, vision and values of your local church.

2 Questions to Ask…

• WHY should people go to church?
• WHY do I think people should come to my church?
• If you can’t answer that, you might need to rethink why people need church at all.
• Is what we’re doing worth people changing their course for?

Teammates

• When we all agree on the mission, vision and values, it creates a team.
• We say, “I’d like to do this with you…”
• Most people spend more time interacting with their teammates than with you, the leader.
• If you have a bunch of knuckleheads around you that can’t play well with others… good luck finding people to join your team.
• There’s no value in collaborating with people who can’t collaborate.

We have to understand that every group is a free association or a covenant community.

• Free association society is something you are born into. You didn’t earn it.
• This culture, has been for the church, favorable.
• We’ve had people born in the culture that have had a bent toward the values we teach.
• You can’t enter into a covenant community until you commit to it.
• To get into the community you have to learn about it.
• The Church in America free association… it’s not a covenant community. That’s why it’s been decline.
• It’s become a free association culture in the church.
• The early church never knew this. They were required to keep a covenant.
• We’ve failed to insist on teaching covenant.
• Anything goes and community has been lost… it can only be recovered by people who will do covenant.

To a world where anything goes, we’re inviting people to covenant community. Where people are known and loved, valued and cherished, and know God’s purpose for their life. And then they are able to invite people into the fabric of God’s Kingdom.