Get Your Strategy On
Innovative Church Conference | Session 4
Sep302005 Filed under: WiredChurches.com Author: Tony MorganMy good friend, partner in writing and the executive pastor at Granger, Tim Stevens, walked us through some of the highlights of Simply Strategic Growth in this session.
Are you asking lots of questions? Are you asking: why? Because that impacts "what" you do.
At Granger…
- Cool stage sets… but why?
- Great video… but why?
- Creative series… but why?
You can’t leave this conference doing the "what" without understanding the "why." Here’s why we do what we do at Granger.
#1 It’s all about the weekends — About 95% of our outreach to people who are unchurched happens in the weekend services. We’ve learned we need to focus…especially as the church grows. The weekend focus impacts everything we do. It impacts staffing, budgeting, building design, small groups, first impressions, volunteers. It takes over 400 volunteers to pull off our weekend services every weekend.
#2 We believe we must speak the language of the people. — We can use images from today’s culture to get people’s attention. To start a dialogue. To help them understand the longing and searching they’re doing in their heart. We shouldn’t condemn people for their icons. Giving up their cultural icons is not their next step. We, first, need to help people enter into a relationship with Jesus. We need to help people interpret their culture and point people to the Gospel message. You need to be a student of the culture to be able to have that conversation.
#3 We view the entire service as one package. — That raises the potential that you can use "secular" music and drama and video elements to raise questions and lower defenses so people are open to hearing the truth from God’s Word. If you look at the service as one package, every element of the service can be used to support and enhance the teaching. In the message, pastors frequently quote secular leaders and writers to help establish the challenges and longings of people’s hearts. Used appropriately, we can use other artistic elements in our services to communicate the same way.
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Tony Morgan is a pastor and the Chief Strategic Officer at NewSpring Church where he develops creative solutions for communications, technology and NewSpring Ministries--the church's ministry that equips other church leaders.
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September 30th, 2005 at 1:32 pm
Why Do We Do What We Do?
In life, there is not always a clear reason for WHY we do what we do. There is a reason. But it’s not always clear. Take your worship service. Take your music selection. Take the topics you choose for the