Conference hang-over

I always experience this “hango-over” from attending a conference.  The Sticky Church Conference was a bit different because it was at Suncrest and I had a few other things to do as well.

One thing I try to do is narrow down a list of take-aways.  That way I can at least point to a few specific things in which a conference helped me in.  I am not sure this is my final list, but it is a start:

(In no particular order.)

• The best date night is group. If you can only pay for baby sitting one night, make it go to group. The best mom and dad you can be is to be the best husband and wife. And your kids don’t need a mom and dad who’ve seen the latest movie.
• We don’t need a Christian version of community agencies we can partner with them to help instead of reinvent (Osborne).
• Going multi-site pushes the gas pedal of a church decentralizing.
• (Reminder) Smaller venues in a multi-site church create the “small church” feel that many people are looking for (Scott Chapman).  This reminded me of the Rick Warren-ism, “The only person that likes a big church is the pastor.”
• The stickiest thing you have in your church is close and tight relationships (Osborne).
• Everything Northcoast does is aimed at Christians but it is always done in a way that a seeker can understand (Osborne).
• Visitor retention – assimilation; Long-term retention – discipleship
• We get what we measure and celebrate. Retention seldom makes the list (Osborne).
• At Northcoast they try to velcro people to the Bible and a community

 

Larry Osborne session at the Sticky Church conference

The stickiest thing you have in your church is close and tight relationships.

Holding on to people is about fulfilling the 2nd half of the great commission.
-teaching them to obey all things I have taught them

They don’t do marketing.  all word of mouth.

4 new priorities:
1. A healthy leadership team

• in an effort to reach out to new people he ignored his existing leaders

2. Shepherd the flock I already had

• no one likes to be used.  It feels that way if you only care for outsiders.

3. Believer targeted and seeker sensitive

• user friendly
• seeker expectant
• everything they do is aimed at Christians but it is always done in a way that a seeker can understand
• practical:

• remove in house jargon
• don’t assume they will understand

• seeker expectant:

• way they do messages
• approaching the church
• talk about how you expect visitors

4. Foster long-term, Christ-centered relationships

Lessons I’ve learned:
1. stickiness starts with church health;
2. Stickiness has two important aspects

• Visitor retention – assimilation
• Long-term retention – discipleship
• In a word of mouth church everyone is coming on the arm of someone else and they are being assimilated naturally.  but by marketing, they don’t have a connection.
• those who come for the event come back expecting it again.
• weak ties – fun or task specific which has the result of being high intensive with an end point
• strong ties – frequent, long term and vulnerable
• people are like legos – once all the connectors are connected, you will be friendly but won’t connect; a church full of people like this feels friendly at first but you could hit a wall;
• answer is new groups for new people

3.  A fancy front door can hide a leaky back door.

• After 10 years  of a front door church you have more that used to go there than do go there.

4. Most of our programming is designed for casual and short-term relationships.

5. We get what we measure and celebrate. Retention seldom makes the list.

• retention is one of the best measurements for health

6. It’s increasingly difficult to reach and keep people with a one-size-fits-all approach to ministry.
7. Spiritual growth is seldom linear.

• velcroing to the Bible and community
• You then have what you need in a need to know or need to grow moment;

8. New relationships need easy on and off ramps

• if you don’t have an easy off ramp, they will try it and weasel out and not try it again