As I have been getting around church ministers, I have been hearing many people voice this similar statement ‘Sunday church service is just too hard to get unsaved people to attend.’ I am beginning to think that it is not so much what the Sunday church product looks like but the fact that people don’t go to activities they know little about.
An increasingly greater percentage of 96five’s audience rarely if ever attend church yet they are increasing their engagement with the radio station. Obviously they are not negatively affected by the Christian message in the programming. Attending church though on a Sunday isn’t an option for them. I actually think it is unfamiliarity with church which could be the problem.
Let me use the Bronco’s as an example. Very few people would go to a Bronco’s NRL match not knowing anything about rugby league. Virtually the whole crowd has at least some passing knowledge of the rules and format of the game and the Bronco’s. If there are any who go with no knowledge at least they go with someone who does and invited them to go.
Why are we surprised that strangers don’t suddenly start turning up at our services. What we do know is that strangers will come if they are invited by a friend. And most church ministers do encourage their congregation members to invite a friend to church.
What I have been seeing are ministers who are starting to think out of the box. What if I kept my congregation members less busy and gave them more opportunities to form relationships in the community. What would it take to resource Mary Smith to help her be Jesus in the school tuckshops? How could I help Rob at his kids sporting club be Jesus to the parents on the sideline. Historically church has been about keeping its members busy so they don’t get caught up in the world. Suddenly we have lost our influence in the world. What if your church businessmen were members of their chamber of commerce? Congregation members joined political parties on both sides of politics. Then we start being an influence, making friends and creating opportunities to invite people to a relationship with Christ and church.
I think as more Christians are released to be Christians in the marketplace not just in the pews we will begin to see our influence spread further and perhaps over time our attendances rise. Maybe the principal of less is more might work. Less work in church programs and more work out in the community might just work.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
The Church in action - a powerful force
The disaster of the floods which has swallowed up large sections of Queensland has certainly seen some unprecedented examples of people doing whatever they can to help their fellow Australians in time of need. Some people have been saying for a while that the church is starting to become an irrelevant force in Australia. Over the last 2 weeks in South East Queensland I have seen the opposite.
When the floods started wreaking their havoc over the SE corner of the State the first organisation the Govt contacted to set up evacuation centres were local churches. Across Brisbane and Ipswich churches with only a few hours notice became evacuation centres. Congregational member were quickly mobilised to provide bedding food and importantly comfort to the fleeing residents from flood affected homes. The Salvos were asked to provide catering and comfort to the big evacuation centres at RNA Showgrounds and the QE 2 sports centre at Nathan. All over the region local churches were rolling up their sleeves and serving people who thought they would never visit that church in their lifetime.
Then in areas that weren’t flood affected I saw churches begin to organise clean up teams to go and clean up flood affected communities on the other side of town. This happened well before Campbell Newman was able to organise his large volunteer army. The church was able to organise itself into teams and with help then connect with churches in the middle of the crisis and find the places in most need of assistance.
Other churches mobilised themselves into catering teams and organised sausage sizzles and tins of cakes for the volunteers.
Other churches started organising Baskets of Hope for families who were flood affected to help them restart lives in their damaged homes. Some two weeks after the floods we are still seeing churches spearheading the community recovery teams in many parts of Brisbane, Ipswich and the Lockyer Valley. In fact while sporting teams got plenty of publicity for their good works churches have continued to quietly go about helping people rebuild their lives with dignity.
I saw in these floods people from different parts of town, different congregations and styles of worship come together around their common love of Jesus and serve with out any agenda. By agenda I mean a desire to see these people come to their church. They served because that is what Jesus would do to people in a time of need.
So while the stats of bottoms on seats may show the church in decline and perhaps irrelevant to its community; in a time of crisis it was a powerful resource of buildings and people who can quickly be organised into service without asking questions. As some one asked earlier where was God in the middle of this disaster? He was right in the middle in the faces of the volunteers serving the people.
When the floods started wreaking their havoc over the SE corner of the State the first organisation the Govt contacted to set up evacuation centres were local churches. Across Brisbane and Ipswich churches with only a few hours notice became evacuation centres. Congregational member were quickly mobilised to provide bedding food and importantly comfort to the fleeing residents from flood affected homes. The Salvos were asked to provide catering and comfort to the big evacuation centres at RNA Showgrounds and the QE 2 sports centre at Nathan. All over the region local churches were rolling up their sleeves and serving people who thought they would never visit that church in their lifetime.
Then in areas that weren’t flood affected I saw churches begin to organise clean up teams to go and clean up flood affected communities on the other side of town. This happened well before Campbell Newman was able to organise his large volunteer army. The church was able to organise itself into teams and with help then connect with churches in the middle of the crisis and find the places in most need of assistance.
Other churches mobilised themselves into catering teams and organised sausage sizzles and tins of cakes for the volunteers.
Other churches started organising Baskets of Hope for families who were flood affected to help them restart lives in their damaged homes. Some two weeks after the floods we are still seeing churches spearheading the community recovery teams in many parts of Brisbane, Ipswich and the Lockyer Valley. In fact while sporting teams got plenty of publicity for their good works churches have continued to quietly go about helping people rebuild their lives with dignity.
I saw in these floods people from different parts of town, different congregations and styles of worship come together around their common love of Jesus and serve with out any agenda. By agenda I mean a desire to see these people come to their church. They served because that is what Jesus would do to people in a time of need.
So while the stats of bottoms on seats may show the church in decline and perhaps irrelevant to its community; in a time of crisis it was a powerful resource of buildings and people who can quickly be organised into service without asking questions. As some one asked earlier where was God in the middle of this disaster? He was right in the middle in the faces of the volunteers serving the people.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Some observations on power of social media
The floods crisis affecting Queensland over the last few weeks has shown me how valuable social media can be in informing the public and also mobilising people to a response. For us at 96five it showed again that radio is a great broadcast platform for flood information and that twitter and facebook are useful tools to compliment what we as a radio station can do. This blog is some thoughts on how I see twitter and facebook as useful and perhaps how you maybe able to harness these platforms to your ministry.
Facebook
To me facebook is like a giant noticeboard. It is a great way to paste up information with some limited response from people who are part of your network. It is a notice board that also allows instant sharing of information and comments which is where it differs from a website. While anyone can view a website only ‘friends’ can view your facebook page but facebook is a lot easier to quickly up date information.
Twitter
I think twitter is a valuable social tool for getting out short succinct messages or information. It is not designed for feedback or conversation but to just make statements. The lack of feedback means that unless it is from a reliable source the information can be wrong or at least misleading. This is where it differs from facebook which at least allows people the opportunity to see if a message sent has been shown to be wrong or it has been confirmed by other sources.
Pros and Cons
In my experiences Facebook and twitter are forms of social communication. What they aren’t are advertising platforms. I have yet to see any one company or church use them in a successful advertising or marketing way. They are platforms for ‘followers’ to post their thoughts but invariably those following are already consumers who are passionate at some level to your organisation. So no I don’t think they are helpful to get people to come to your church service on Sunday but they will at least let your congregation know what is happening much like a church bulletin.
Facebook is an invaluable pastoral care tool though because you do see what your congregation is ‘doing’. They may not tell you to your face but they will tell all their facebook friends. Where twitter or facebook is helpful is quick call to action stuff
Eg Mary Smith is ill and needs some help with meals for kids, or looking for some information on a topic xyz can anyone help me.
They are more flexible platforms than websites are, but again I don’t think either will replace a good website. Twitter and facebook are noticeboards not relationships either. Use them for call to actions not friendships.
Love to get your thoughts or experiences and feel free to find me on twitter and facebook too.
To me facebook is like a giant noticeboard. It is a great way to paste up information with some limited response from people who are part of your network. It is a notice board that also allows instant sharing of information and comments which is where it differs from a website. While anyone can view a website only ‘friends’ can view your facebook page but facebook is a lot easier to quickly up date information.
I think twitter is a valuable social tool for getting out short succinct messages or information. It is not designed for feedback or conversation but to just make statements. The lack of feedback means that unless it is from a reliable source the information can be wrong or at least misleading. This is where it differs from facebook which at least allows people the opportunity to see if a message sent has been shown to be wrong or it has been confirmed by other sources.
Pros and Cons
In my experiences Facebook and twitter are forms of social communication. What they aren’t are advertising platforms. I have yet to see any one company or church use them in a successful advertising or marketing way. They are platforms for ‘followers’ to post their thoughts but invariably those following are already consumers who are passionate at some level to your organisation. So no I don’t think they are helpful to get people to come to your church service on Sunday but they will at least let your congregation know what is happening much like a church bulletin.
Facebook is an invaluable pastoral care tool though because you do see what your congregation is ‘doing’. They may not tell you to your face but they will tell all their facebook friends. Where twitter or facebook is helpful is quick call to action stuff
Eg Mary Smith is ill and needs some help with meals for kids, or looking for some information on a topic xyz can anyone help me.
They are more flexible platforms than websites are, but again I don’t think either will replace a good website. Twitter and facebook are noticeboards not relationships either. Use them for call to actions not friendships.
Love to get your thoughts or experiences and feel free to find me on twitter and facebook too.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Managing Change in your Church
What is the biggest fear most people have in their life? Is it death, public speaking, sharks? I think the most common fear for people is the fear of change. People are scared of it. They don’t like it and sometimes will do extraordinary things to avoid it.
But in reality change is inevitable and in fact we face it daily. Just by growing old we face change. I think it is in fact not change we are scared of. People may articulate it as change but it’s not change but loss that people are actually fearful of. Loss of something they once had. It’s not the change of body shape we actually fear as we get older but the loss of our youthful energy, the loss of hair colour or even hair. The loss of normal slimness of youth replaced by middle-aged spread.
Church ministers are people who are constantly challenged with leading congregations through change. Recently I have spoken with several ministers who are currently taking their congregations through the difficult process of change. In these cases it is changing the format of their Sunday service. One of the things that will make it easy for these minsters is the recognition that is not change but loss that these congregation members actually fear. Loss of a familiar worship style, loss of predictability, loss of routine.
Now to some of us these may seem trivial things but to those people they are real losses and they will have real feelings of grief. For most of then they will in fact go through the 7 stages of grief over the loss of service style.
A smart minister will recognise this as loss and they work with those people in a more appropriate manner rather than thinking they are opponents of change. I actually think the oldies in our congregations are some of the biggest accepters of change because in their lifetime they have witnessed huge changes in society and technology. More and bigger changes than our kids have seen.
Why is it then that they seem to struggle then with a change in the church service?
I think Bill Hybels summed it up very well at the recent Global Leadership Summit when he said a good leader moves people from here to there. How does he do it? By making the ‘there’ more attractive than the ‘here’. Help them want to embrace the there by having the current here so unbearable that they will want to run to the there.
The three keys points for us as leaders to recognise in bringing in change is
• Recognise loss is the biggest part of change
• The need to make the end point more exciting than the start point
• Allow open two way communication through the change process
These are just some random thoughts. I would love to get some feedback on your experiences on implementing change in your church.
But in reality change is inevitable and in fact we face it daily. Just by growing old we face change. I think it is in fact not change we are scared of. People may articulate it as change but it’s not change but loss that people are actually fearful of. Loss of something they once had. It’s not the change of body shape we actually fear as we get older but the loss of our youthful energy, the loss of hair colour or even hair. The loss of normal slimness of youth replaced by middle-aged spread.
Church ministers are people who are constantly challenged with leading congregations through change. Recently I have spoken with several ministers who are currently taking their congregations through the difficult process of change. In these cases it is changing the format of their Sunday service. One of the things that will make it easy for these minsters is the recognition that is not change but loss that these congregation members actually fear. Loss of a familiar worship style, loss of predictability, loss of routine.
Now to some of us these may seem trivial things but to those people they are real losses and they will have real feelings of grief. For most of then they will in fact go through the 7 stages of grief over the loss of service style.
A smart minister will recognise this as loss and they work with those people in a more appropriate manner rather than thinking they are opponents of change. I actually think the oldies in our congregations are some of the biggest accepters of change because in their lifetime they have witnessed huge changes in society and technology. More and bigger changes than our kids have seen.
Why is it then that they seem to struggle then with a change in the church service?
I think Bill Hybels summed it up very well at the recent Global Leadership Summit when he said a good leader moves people from here to there. How does he do it? By making the ‘there’ more attractive than the ‘here’. Help them want to embrace the there by having the current here so unbearable that they will want to run to the there.
The three keys points for us as leaders to recognise in bringing in change is
• Recognise loss is the biggest part of change
• The need to make the end point more exciting than the start point
• Allow open two way communication through the change process
These are just some random thoughts. I would love to get some feedback on your experiences on implementing change in your church.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
More Christmas promotion ideas part 2
Thanks for your comments and thoughts on part 1 on creating a good Christmas carol concert. Further to my first post here are some more things to consider.
Free media exposure
There are some good free strategic media opportunities your church can harness to promote your Christmas carols. Obviously 96five is a good way of getting some free publicity via the 96five Events Calendar and their community service announcements.
The other good free media you can access is the free suburban newspaper delivered to letterboxes around your neighbourhood. These newspapers are a great resource for a church to promote not just your Christmas events but other events you might be running across the year. For your Carol publicity you need to create a simple media release highlighting the important details of where, when and what is on. In the media release you need to have a simple hook like a ‘Christmas carol concert where the whole family can come and sing their favourite Christmas carols.’ I would keep the media release to one paragraph detailing the vent and then in bullet points the details of where and when. Also list the photo opportunity available prior to the event.
This is important because what you actually want in the paper is a big photo with small copy. That will get readers interest. I think your photo opportunity needs to include a couple of kids and maybe a candle with a song sheet. Make sure you include your contact details especially your mobile number.
Using outside groups
Another way of attracting an audience who don’t normally attend your church is to have other community groups part of your onstage audience. Virtually every primary school has a choir and I suggest you contact them 3 months or even 6 months out and invite them to be part of your event. Allow that choir to do 2 items as a group and even include them as a backing choir to other singers. Every choir member will mean at least another two adults plus siblings and maybe even grandparents. It costs you nothing to have them there and will add to the success of your community event.
Even think laterally about this. Why not host a Christmas carol idol at your local school or schools for solo or small groups to be part of the on the night performance. Heats and semi finals can be held at the school to see who wins. This starts to create a free buzz in the school community about your events.
What can you do out of the norm to get some community involvement and publicity for your Christmas Carol event.
Free media exposure
There are some good free strategic media opportunities your church can harness to promote your Christmas carols. Obviously 96five is a good way of getting some free publicity via the 96five Events Calendar and their community service announcements.
The other good free media you can access is the free suburban newspaper delivered to letterboxes around your neighbourhood. These newspapers are a great resource for a church to promote not just your Christmas events but other events you might be running across the year. For your Carol publicity you need to create a simple media release highlighting the important details of where, when and what is on. In the media release you need to have a simple hook like a ‘Christmas carol concert where the whole family can come and sing their favourite Christmas carols.’ I would keep the media release to one paragraph detailing the vent and then in bullet points the details of where and when. Also list the photo opportunity available prior to the event.
This is important because what you actually want in the paper is a big photo with small copy. That will get readers interest. I think your photo opportunity needs to include a couple of kids and maybe a candle with a song sheet. Make sure you include your contact details especially your mobile number.
Using outside groups
Another way of attracting an audience who don’t normally attend your church is to have other community groups part of your onstage audience. Virtually every primary school has a choir and I suggest you contact them 3 months or even 6 months out and invite them to be part of your event. Allow that choir to do 2 items as a group and even include them as a backing choir to other singers. Every choir member will mean at least another two adults plus siblings and maybe even grandparents. It costs you nothing to have them there and will add to the success of your community event.
Even think laterally about this. Why not host a Christmas carol idol at your local school or schools for solo or small groups to be part of the on the night performance. Heats and semi finals can be held at the school to see who wins. This starts to create a free buzz in the school community about your events.
What can you do out of the norm to get some community involvement and publicity for your Christmas Carol event.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Making your Christmas Carols a winner
As I am writing this blog some 6 weeks out from Christmas I am having also sorts of thoughts about Christmas music, Christmas traditions and just quietly Christmas food.
None of these are reasons why I am writing this blog. The intent is to provide some thought, inspiration to those church ministers who are planning their annual Christmas carols concert.
These are my observations from being part of heaps of carol events as a participant in the audience, as an MC, or part of a promotions team. Read this with an open mind. It isn’t a to do list but something to think about in your planning for your event.
You are not Hillsong or Citipointe or a church with a major music team so don’t try and over achieve with your event.
There seems to be a trend for large numbers of unchurched families to attend local community Christmas carols. Why? I think it is because most parents want to have their children experience something they experienced when they were children growing up. Call it nostalgia if you like but I think it is a powerful motivation for going to a church Christmas carol concert. Adults remember what it was like as a child with a candle (or torch) singing traditional Christmas carols on a warm balmy night.
They see a local Christmas carol concert as an opportunity to bring the family together around a candle or glow stick and have a bit of a family sing-along. In fact for some families it is the only time they have a sing-along. So my suggestion is don’t complicate the traditional songs by making them fancy with huge production values. Maybe leave that to the big churches and you concentrate on being traditional. Include the opportunities for candles or glow sticks or torches. Have it outdoors if you trust the weather or indoor at your church.
Nostalgia is a powerful driver in today’s society which is looking for some old fashion values. I also believe it is the thing that will allow their kids to attend Sunday school and youth group as they look for programs with old fashion values they grew up with.
My final couple of points to make your event meaningful.
Make sure everyone leaves your event with an invite brochure/card to your Christmas Eve or Day service. This card should contain the service times (including how long it lasts eg 8am for 1 hour Christmas morning), your church website address and physical address, phone number and church email address plus if you have a Facebook page or twitter account put it on. People love social media and any way you connect them to your church the better. Keep the invite to a size suitable to be stuck on the fridge.
The key is to try and keep your event simple and appropriate to the strengths of your church and engaging to your community. Plenty of community singing to traditional tunes, the odd special item and a short punchy message with an invitation to church on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
Over to you for your thoughts.
None of these are reasons why I am writing this blog. The intent is to provide some thought, inspiration to those church ministers who are planning their annual Christmas carols concert.
These are my observations from being part of heaps of carol events as a participant in the audience, as an MC, or part of a promotions team. Read this with an open mind. It isn’t a to do list but something to think about in your planning for your event.
You are not Hillsong or Citipointe or a church with a major music team so don’t try and over achieve with your event.
There seems to be a trend for large numbers of unchurched families to attend local community Christmas carols. Why? I think it is because most parents want to have their children experience something they experienced when they were children growing up. Call it nostalgia if you like but I think it is a powerful motivation for going to a church Christmas carol concert. Adults remember what it was like as a child with a candle (or torch) singing traditional Christmas carols on a warm balmy night.
They see a local Christmas carol concert as an opportunity to bring the family together around a candle or glow stick and have a bit of a family sing-along. In fact for some families it is the only time they have a sing-along. So my suggestion is don’t complicate the traditional songs by making them fancy with huge production values. Maybe leave that to the big churches and you concentrate on being traditional. Include the opportunities for candles or glow sticks or torches. Have it outdoors if you trust the weather or indoor at your church.
Nostalgia is a powerful driver in today’s society which is looking for some old fashion values. I also believe it is the thing that will allow their kids to attend Sunday school and youth group as they look for programs with old fashion values they grew up with.
My final couple of points to make your event meaningful.
Make sure everyone leaves your event with an invite brochure/card to your Christmas Eve or Day service. This card should contain the service times (including how long it lasts eg 8am for 1 hour Christmas morning), your church website address and physical address, phone number and church email address plus if you have a Facebook page or twitter account put it on. People love social media and any way you connect them to your church the better. Keep the invite to a size suitable to be stuck on the fridge.
The key is to try and keep your event simple and appropriate to the strengths of your church and engaging to your community. Plenty of community singing to traditional tunes, the odd special item and a short punchy message with an invitation to church on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
Over to you for your thoughts.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Research is King
When I was an announcer on 96five my Program Director Malcolm Pollard used to drum into me all the time Research is King. What is your audience doing when listening to your show; what did they watch on TV last night; what did they do on the weekend; what sports do their kids play?
It was vital to me as an announcer to be able to connect with my audience. If I didn’t they would turn off. I didn’t need to live their life but I did need to have an understanding of what they did and why. Radio has taught me the ability to walk in someone else’s shoes and be able to ‘connect’ with them in their life.
I believe the same statement Research is King is important for ministers. Ministers need to know what their congregation is doing, watching, reading,. You might like reading the Financial Review or Weekend Australian but the majority of your ‘audience’ is probably reading the free weekly newspaper. You might watch 4 Corners but your ‘audience’ is watching Master Chef.
I am not saying that you need to live their lifestyle or lose your interests but you need to communicate in their lifestyle not yours.
As a coach of a sporting team I have learnt that to get the best out of my kids I need to understand how they think and why they react or respond to my directions. I don’t dress like them or act like them but I know their culture and connect with them on their communication style not mine as an adult.
We know as Christians and especially in church we speak a different language. We know what redemption means to us as Christians, talk to an unchurched person and redemption means getting even for a past wrong.
This week take some time out and hang around a shopping centre, sports field or even read the weekly free newspaper and get a true snapshot of your unchurched audience and see what are the issues in the lives of the ‘lost’.
It was vital to me as an announcer to be able to connect with my audience. If I didn’t they would turn off. I didn’t need to live their life but I did need to have an understanding of what they did and why. Radio has taught me the ability to walk in someone else’s shoes and be able to ‘connect’ with them in their life.
I believe the same statement Research is King is important for ministers. Ministers need to know what their congregation is doing, watching, reading,. You might like reading the Financial Review or Weekend Australian but the majority of your ‘audience’ is probably reading the free weekly newspaper. You might watch 4 Corners but your ‘audience’ is watching Master Chef.
I am not saying that you need to live their lifestyle or lose your interests but you need to communicate in their lifestyle not yours.
As a coach of a sporting team I have learnt that to get the best out of my kids I need to understand how they think and why they react or respond to my directions. I don’t dress like them or act like them but I know their culture and connect with them on their communication style not mine as an adult.
We know as Christians and especially in church we speak a different language. We know what redemption means to us as Christians, talk to an unchurched person and redemption means getting even for a past wrong.
This week take some time out and hang around a shopping centre, sports field or even read the weekly free newspaper and get a true snapshot of your unchurched audience and see what are the issues in the lives of the ‘lost’.
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