How We Plan Services at Granger

May 23, 2006 in Inside GCC with 8 Comments

BrainstormingBuildingChurchLeaders.com has reprinted portions of Mark Beeson’s session from last year’s Innovative Church Conference highlighting how we plan weekend services at Granger Community Church. The article includes five different video segments including a sample brainstorming session and a few PDF files including one that outlines our planning process. Wanting specific and practical insights on how we do series planning at Granger? Here’s your chance to get an inside look. (By the way, I’m the guy on the right closest to the camera with the reflective and contemplative look on his face.)

8 Responses to “How We Plan Services at Granger”

  1. greg oraham May 24, 2006 at 9:02 am #

    Tony,

    Reflective and contemplative?
    Looks more like you’re either catching a nap or praying for the meeting to hurry up and get through!

  2. ME May 24, 2006 at 3:42 pm #

    Tony,

    When the SMT plans out the series for the year…

    1) Do you select only general topics, Scriptures, and/or biblical themes?

    2) Do you estimate how many weeks you will spend on a selected series?

    3) Do you plan more series than you actually use?

    4) When do you identify who will speak for a given series?

    5) With the “Lost” series, for example, did you already have the emotions topics on the list of possible series and found that the tie to the TV series fit? or did the TV series seem like a hot item and thus you picked topics that related to the feel of the show?

    Thanks!
    Mark

  3. greg oraham May 24, 2006 at 6:06 pm #

    Tony,
    By the way, it was a great article. What impresses me the most about Granger is the long -range sermon planning you all are doing. I found it interesting that when I watched the videos, I didn’t see any of the same people that were in the Sr. management team, at the meeting with the creative team. How do you describe the “feel” of what the topics you discussed were, to them?
    Thanks for inspiring us and making your stuff available to everyone

  4. sarge May 24, 2006 at 6:07 pm #

    Great stuff, Tony! Thanks.

  5. tony morgan May 25, 2006 at 12:26 am #

    ME,

    1&2. When we plan the schedule for the year, we’re essentially just blocking out when the series will occur and sometimes general topics. We don’t select specific topics and themes until about 2 to 3 months out.

    3. Nope. We only plan the series that we are planning on doing.

    4. The speaking schedule for the entire year is usually developed around November for the entire year.

    5. Sometimes we start with a topic we want to cover and then we try to find a cultural connection to use has a theme. Other times we start with something that’s hot in the culture, and we try to determine: What spiritual issues are being raised and what does the Bible have to say about this?

    tony

  6. tony morgan May 25, 2006 at 12:27 am #

    Greg, our Pastor of Creative Arts is on the Senior Management Team and he’s the one that leads the brainstorming with the arts team. He’s the connection between both teams.

    tony

  7. jeff Petersen May 26, 2006 at 7:13 pm #

    I have a very specific chart of what happens to the “Big Picture” once it leaves the SMT, Tony, and then gets out and actually made into something that is no longer “VaporWare” (as far as the Arts Dept). Tim has seen it, you’ll have to ask him if it is worth viewing. Butch has one that he has done too. it is at least interesting to see the “other steps”. I’ll bet Mark Waltz probably has one for his Dept. as well.
    Jeff

  8. tony morgan June 1, 2006 at 8:34 pm #

    Jeff, I’d love to see a copy.

    tony