[00:00:00] I mean, like the Seattle Mariners, I mean, we're 13 games out. It was impossible. There's no way. It was 0.001% chance of making the play out. So whatever the things are and it was one win, one right step at a time, no guarantees but building some momentum that turn towards excitement. And that's kind of what I think we're getting to is how to create some sustained excitement by meeting needs and kind of creating a win streak so to speak that people can begin to get excited about it.
[00:00:27] Welcome to episode 357. Have you ever eaten at a restaurant and if it's such a great experience you told all your friends about it?
[00:00:35] Now, did you have to strategize and think about how to do that? No, it just came up in normal conversation because you're excited.
[00:00:42] What if that's exactly the key to sparking momentum in your ministry? That's what we're talking about today on the Reclaimed Leader.
[00:00:54] Welcome to the Reclaimed Leader Podcast on Jason Tucker, and I'm Jesse Skiffington.
[00:00:58] We're two pastors in the trenches. We're passionate about church health for greater gospel impact.
[00:01:04] We share the ups and downs of ministry strategies that work for us and some that didn't.
[00:01:09] Best practices and practical tools for church leadership. The goal to help all of our churches flourish. Let's get started.
[00:01:16] We're seeing the sunrise.
[00:01:19] Hey, Jesse. It's so good to be talking again. Talking about momentum or continuing our series on momentum and before we get started,
[00:01:28] want to ask our listeners if this podcast has been helpful for you and it's helping you to
[00:01:34] think of different things in ministry and as a valuable resource, we do us a favor and we use share this episode with a friend.
[00:01:41] Leave us a review on your platform of choice. It helps us continue to reach more people to help more pastors
[00:01:48] and that's what we're really passionate about. So thank you so much. Thanks so much for listening and for making this part of your routine.
[00:01:57] So we're excited to jump into this next chapter on momentum, but quickly before we do, I do want to tell you
[00:02:03] about an opportunity coming up because it's almost here. Want to make sure you have enough time to sign up for it.
[00:02:08] It's all about how to develop your discipleship strategy. As a church, we talked a couple episodes ago about this about
[00:02:16] a discipleship strategy and so what we're doing is let's see when this airs that will be next week on September 24th,
[00:02:25] we're starting a six week Zoom cohort where you will learn exactly how to create or refine your churches
[00:02:32] discipleship strategy. So how someone moves from guests to engaged follower of Jesus and as a bonus,
[00:02:41] we're going to talk about how to leverage Christmas as a catalyst for that. So most churches,
[00:02:47] as you know, they sort of cross their fingers and hope spiritual formation happens, but the truth is
[00:02:53] it's really easy for our folks to get lost and confused if the steps aren't clear. I know many
[00:02:59] endups slipping out the back door of the church. I we definitely have had that problem before
[00:03:04] and it's because they don't know what to do next. So let's create some clarity around our steps.
[00:03:10] By the end of six weeks, you're going to have a framework for your discipleship strategy
[00:03:14] and a plan for exactly how you're going to leverage Christmas. So this is what I've done in my church.
[00:03:20] I know Jesse has done it in his church and again, we get started September 24th that's next week.
[00:03:26] We're going to go for six weeks with three teaching modules and three workshop modules.
[00:03:31] So it's going to be we're going to work this thing out together in real time to help you come
[00:03:35] up with your plan. So I hope you'll sign up and be a part of it. It's reclaim later.com slash
[00:03:41] disciple. Reclamelead.com slash disciple for more information and to sign up and I hope to see you there.
[00:03:48] Yeah, I'm good. Yeah, I'm so good ahead. That's an honor. But I just I think it's awesome
[00:03:52] thing that you're going to be doing for us to think in terms of helping form allers of Jesus.
[00:03:58] And what's our strategy? And if we don't have something in place or maybe it's not what we
[00:04:03] would want it to be. Come talk shop with Jason here, here a little bit more about some things
[00:04:07] that are working in our churches and even if you have one takeaway that you can apply.
[00:04:11] And those those are just worthwhile kinds of conversations.
[00:04:14] Yeah, and I feel like I learned so much. We all learned so much from each other because
[00:04:18] we've all approached this a little differently. We have different ideas. So it's awesome. I hope
[00:04:23] hope folks will sign up for that. So talking about momentum, I love Jesse this story of
[00:04:29] momentum because it's going to lead into what we're talking about today. Go ahead and share a
[00:04:33] little bit about about your hometown team. Yeah, so this you know we're talking about momentum
[00:04:37] and just how it kind of begins to have a life of its own and it's something exciting to be a part
[00:04:42] of it. I was thinking back to my sophomore year in high school Jason way back a hundred years ago
[00:04:47] whenever it was. On time 1995 and Seattle Mariners in Seattle a team that was potentially on the
[00:04:54] way out of the city they were going to leave. They're going to be bought out and go live another
[00:04:58] town and that year, in the middle of the year by the time we got to August, the Seattle Mariners
[00:05:04] were 13 games out of first place behind the California Angels. Cangriffy Junior are big star
[00:05:09] have broken his arm and was out and it seemed like there's just no way. This is just right to season
[00:05:15] off and be done. But Lupinella, the Seattle Mariners manager he was not going to give up and
[00:05:20] something began to happen. The Mariners won a game that they won another game. People started to
[00:05:26] pay attention California the Angels started to lose and the gap began to shrink and what happened
[00:05:32] in our region was amazing. We started with a few thousand people going to Seattle Mariners games
[00:05:37] in the old kingdom. You might remember that building. Yeah, I'm just a sparse crowd on the
[00:05:45] turn into 5,000 then 10,000 and then the buzz started to happen as excitement built. The Mariners
[00:05:51] were winning without Griffey. His returns coming soon. Is it possible? Could they do it? And that's
[00:05:57] when the whole region came up with this slogan called Refused to Luz. Banner started to show up in
[00:06:03] the stadium. People were coming excited cheering the team on. Seattle fans, we're football fans first,
[00:06:09] you know, mostly Husky fans and Sioc fans. And so the baseball games sounded more like a football
[00:06:14] game than a baseball game. The crowd was shouting yelling, cheering, booing the other team and
[00:06:20] we created this environment. The excitement built and pretty soon the kingdom was full 50,000
[00:06:25] plus people out of Mariners baseball game. The team closed the gap in the final couple days of
[00:06:30] the season in a one game playoff beat the California Angels to make the Major League baseball playoffs
[00:06:36] for the very first time in their history. The whole region went wild. There were so much
[00:06:41] excitement. So many people becoming fans of a team that did kind of largely ignored before.
[00:06:48] The whole city, the region adopted Seattle Mariners as as it collective and began to think,
[00:06:54] you know what? This is something we should hang on to and be a part of. So the Seattle Mariners went
[00:06:58] into the playoffs and if you know the story than 95 Mariners, you know that Griffey was back,
[00:07:03] Edgar Martinez, some of the stars we had in those days, they beat the New York Yankees in a five-game
[00:07:10] having trailed two games as a zero. They won three straight games and they won in the fifth game
[00:07:16] on a double down the line by Edgar Martinez Griffey scored from first and the whole city went
[00:07:21] berserk. The kingdom was cheering for 20, 30 minutes of people stayed and cheered and it was this
[00:07:28] momentum that had created a genuine excitement that led to extraordinary outcomes that nobody
[00:07:34] back in August would have ever thought was possible. But there it was and kind of one of the
[00:07:40] pinnacle moments of my childhood I remember the Seattle Mariners announcers Rick Riz and Dave
[00:07:45] Neals, I can hear their voices. Griffey's Rounding Third, he's going to score the Mariners,
[00:07:50] the Mariners are heading to the American League Championship Series. It's amazing. So those iconic things
[00:07:57] love that story. Not momentum, that built excitement that caused people to lean in and want to be
[00:08:04] and that's what we're talking about today. How does excitement build a moment on that
[00:08:08] leads to invitation and a desire to belong in to be connected? Yeah, because listen momentum is a
[00:08:14] product of excitement and the truth is excited people invite others to come along for the ride.
[00:08:21] They sure do. Yeah. And I think that's one of the things it's very much
[00:08:25] undersold or undervalued when it comes to church health or outreach or evangelism,
[00:08:32] you know, if we dare use the E word anymore, is excited people invite other people. It's
[00:08:40] like if you go to a restaurant. We got a place down here that we love to go to. It's open
[00:08:44] in the summertime. It's right on the Marina. They have a lobster special. Here's this lobster
[00:08:50] special. You get two pound and a half lobsters and like you know corn, potatoes and they do it
[00:08:56] Tuesday nights and it's like you know super cheap or well cheapish. And we love it. We love the
[00:09:05] vibe. Our family. We go there a couple times a summer and I feel like I'm evangelizing for this
[00:09:10] restaurant every time, I see a friend. I'm just like, oh man have you been down to Boondox yet?
[00:09:15] You got to go. Oh man. Oh, you're not to the area. You got to go check it out right?
[00:09:20] And you don't think about what strategy am I going to use to invite them that it just happens
[00:09:26] organically because you're excited. This is exactly the same thing that happens at church. Yeah.
[00:09:32] When people are excited about church, they invite other people and it's just natural. It's just
[00:09:40] a natural instinct for them to do. And I think one of the reasons that churches aren't good at
[00:09:47] inviting. I think one of the factors is that largely people, especially Christians who've been in
[00:09:53] your building a long time aren't excited enough to really invite the people around them.
[00:10:02] Now I don't think that's necessarily an indictment of our churches. I just think they become so
[00:10:07] accustomed to doing church every single week in and out and faithfully and that's awesome. But the
[00:10:14] excitement factor isn't really a factor anymore. And so I mean, and then it's funny because
[00:10:21] then you'll do like a big concert or something and they'll invite. They'll invite people but not
[00:10:25] on a week to week basis. Not in a sustained way, right? Exactly. So excitement, momentum is
[00:10:35] how do we first of all, how are excited people excited into action?
[00:10:43] And again, I think it's when you're meeting people's needs. We talked about this last week as we
[00:10:48] set up the idea of momentum when you're meeting people's needs. There is something deeply exciting
[00:10:56] that those people experience, I won't say those people. I experienced it too. When I feel like
[00:11:01] I go to a conference and I am seen people understand what I'm going through. It's like we talk
[00:11:09] about that North Point conference all the time. When we went to the drive conference and they
[00:11:15] were applauding for us and we're all like moved to tears. I mean, it was so powerful for those who
[00:11:22] didn't hear us talk about it before, just real quick, it was on our way out. Well, they had
[00:11:27] both. Very first in the end. So North Point community church, anti-Sanley's church, they do a
[00:11:34] conference every other year where they sort of share what they've learned with pastors and
[00:11:40] they're there to encourage and equip. Anyway, when the pastors, when you walk into the church,
[00:11:44] we walked into the start of the conference, they had a huge line of volunteers. What do you say?
[00:11:48] 100 volunteers? Maybe I'll probably more. Yeah. And as each one of us walked through, they had
[00:11:54] like a gauntlet, like you're going on to a field and they were just applauding and cheering for us.
[00:12:01] Yeah. And I got to tell you, man, that was so moving. It's because they knew that our felt need
[00:12:12] was to be appreciated, to be seen for the work that we're doing and we're not all anti-standly
[00:12:18] on big platforms getting recognized. Yeah. And they did such a good job of that. It made me excited.
[00:12:25] So excited that I'm still talking about it how many years later and go valid. That was
[00:12:30] validating and empowering and life-giving because it hit right to a core need for us as pastors
[00:12:36] to think that the work we're doing matters and somebody knows that and is rooting for us.
[00:12:41] So that excitement that kind of builds when we're meeting those needs and then the word starts
[00:12:46] getting out, it's kind of like creating a win streak. You know, I don't know, a lot of our churches
[00:12:50] maybe your church, you feel stuck or you feel like man, I don't know what the future,
[00:12:56] you know, how are we going to get to momentum? Well, I mean like the Seattle Mariners, I mean we're
[00:13:01] 13 games out. It was impossible. There's no way. It was 0.001% chance of making the play-offs or
[00:13:06] whatever the things are and it was one win, one right step at a time, no guarantees but building
[00:13:13] some momentum that turn towards excitement. And that's kind of what I think we're getting to is
[00:13:18] how to create some sustained excitement by meeting needs and kind of creating a win streak. So to
[00:13:23] that people can begin to get excited about as they see the progress. Yeah and really the goal is
[00:13:31] is that excitement would lead to developing a culture in your church of invitation. How do you
[00:13:40] go from a church that doesn't do much in fighting to a church that inviting, it's just part of their
[00:13:45] DNA. So part of that's generating excitement and another part is training your congregation
[00:13:50] to do with that excitement. So the first part, let's talk a bit about the excitement again.
[00:13:55] It's when your meeting needs well. When people feel like you see them, you understand them,
[00:14:01] they respond and I know this. I feel there's always in the back of my head, Jesse. I've got
[00:14:08] like reformed, theologian guy in the back of my head, you know, I think from seven area and it's
[00:14:14] often times she's a good reminder but there's that piece that I'm always thinking what worship
[00:14:20] is for the Lord and for him alone. And I agree with that. So it's not we're not doing it
[00:14:27] for the sake of people being seen, but at the same time people feeling seen
[00:14:34] is part of their experience of God because how we love God and love one another are just
[00:14:39] completely intertwined and meshed and you can't really separate that too. So the way in which we love
[00:14:45] each other and enough to care what your pain points are is all part of our corporate experience
[00:14:52] of then worshiping God together. Yeah, I mean is there anything more exciting than knowing that
[00:14:57] the grace and love of God given and Christ meets our real needs in our real world as it actually
[00:15:02] is? Yeah. You know, like that's what people, that's what we need is what we are made for. So
[00:15:07] I do think yeah, that part of us that wants to just, you know, maybe not drill down as far
[00:15:12] as the application or the engagement part. We go, no, this is what the gospel's for to be understood
[00:15:19] and then apply to the context of our real life and that is a need that we have that people can
[00:15:23] rally around and get excited about it. I wonder what Jason is going to say today that might
[00:15:27] move me or challenge me or help me in some way because the Christian faith is not just an
[00:15:33] empty platitudes, it's what I Christ is who I need more than anyone. So I think that yeah,
[00:15:39] it's a valid point. How are we doing it presenting that in a way that's compelling and clear and good?
[00:15:46] So how do we help people feel like they're seeing, right? If so of generating a
[00:15:49] segment is about feeling like you're really meeting needs, you're connecting with who they are
[00:15:54] where they are and then bringing the gospel to bear in that connection? Well, I think it's
[00:16:02] it's a couple of things. So let's break it down. You know, what are the needs? How do we meet
[00:16:06] or what do we have to meet the need and then, you know, how do we do that? So so our need is,
[00:16:12] I'll just speak for our church. We want people to have a relationship with Jesus or to
[00:16:17] grow in their relationship with Jesus. Right. We have a weekly worship experience that will point
[00:16:22] to Jesus. We think that's probably the most likely landing place for people. So how do we invite
[00:16:29] people into that experience? We do it by acknowledging and anticipating barriers and offering a
[00:16:36] connection. So I'm going to think about out of love for the person I'm trying to reach. I'm thinking,
[00:16:43] what's going to be a barrier to them coming to Jesus unnecessarily? How do we make sure that doesn't
[00:16:49] happen? Make sure that they're cared for and and seeing and they just logistically know where
[00:16:54] the bathroom is, know where to take their kids to Sunday school. All those things like how we thought
[00:16:58] of them as our guests. And I think it's two things. It's well, it's more than two things. But two
[00:17:05] things I want to talk about today. I think it's both language, the words we use matter and it's posture.
[00:17:14] So let's start with language. There's there are right ways and wrong ways to invite. So
[00:17:23] if I'm going to someone on the soccer field then I'm inviting them to church. I'm probably not
[00:17:28] going to say join us Sunday to surrender your soul to the triune, all mighty king of kings and
[00:17:33] order of Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, everything I said was true and exactly what I hope people will do.
[00:17:41] But I'm probably going to say something more like come and see Jesus with what Jesus is all about.
[00:17:47] Come, hey, I know you've given up on church. You should give ours a try. It's a little different
[00:17:52] than what you've experienced before. Right, language matters, language matters. And that's why
[00:18:00] we spend a lot of time in our church really thinking about how do we talk about church,
[00:18:06] how do we invite people to church? How do we do it in a way without using mentioned baseball
[00:18:11] inside baseball language? Yeah, to our again Christian jargon that not everybody completely understands.
[00:18:20] How do we do that well? Language is something you guys think about language when you're inviting.
[00:18:25] Yeah, for sure. And we talk about with our people if you're finding this meaningful,
[00:18:29] you know, say that to someone. You know, I've really enjoyed it. I think you'd probably
[00:18:32] enjoy it too. You should come check it out. I'll take, you know, if you want to go we can go together.
[00:18:37] The things like that where you're making it about come and see and experience too.
[00:18:42] I love that. If you go to the beginning of the Gospel of John and how Andrew goes and finds Simon.
[00:18:47] It says come and see. Follow, you know, let's go fill up does it for Nathaniel. And there's this
[00:18:52] invitation just not to convince and convert in that moment but to bring someone towards Jesus to come and
[00:18:58] I think that that kind of messaging or language is is good. It's like your restaurant
[00:19:04] analogy. You should check it out. It's really good. I think you'd love it. Go back to the Seattle
[00:19:10] Mariners, the language they used in the refused to lose season. It was, you know, sort of this
[00:19:15] thank-you fans. You guys are making all the difference and if you haven't been down to the King
[00:19:19] Dome yet, you should come too. It's so exciting. This is what's going on down here with the Seattle
[00:19:23] Mariners. So it's a common see and be a part of the excitement with us rather than, you know,
[00:19:28] you're our project and we want you to come so we can fix you or whatever that or whatever other
[00:19:34] guilt factors we might kind of pile on to something. There's a genuineness if we're enjoying it and
[00:19:38] excited by it. That's going to be evident in our, their language you use with invitation.
[00:19:44] Exactly. And the examples I was used are my two examples when I was evangelized as a kid.
[00:19:50] The young person right the first eighth grade David Pardo got bless you wherever you are David.
[00:19:56] We're buddies. He gave me a gospel track about how rock and roll music and at the end of it,
[00:20:02] the devil was waiting to and snare me. It was terrifying and I never talked to him again. I was so
[00:20:08] freaked out by it. I never seen anything like that. I didn't, I'd never gone to church, you know,
[00:20:13] I just, it definitely pushed me way far away from anything close because it was trying to sort of
[00:20:22] convert me on the spot and that's not where I was. I didn't even know enough to care about being
[00:20:27] converted. But my second experience was at church. My mother worked in the preschool. We didn't
[00:20:36] attend but Agnes sales. Why thought was already 100 years old? I think she only recently died 10
[00:20:41] years ago. So she must have been probably like 60 and I thought she was, you know, ancient.
[00:20:48] She invited me to, she saw I was just kind of doing nothing and she said, you, will you help me
[00:20:55] be the VBS volunteer and help me make this snacks for the kids? Yeah. As she knew, I wasn't going to do
[00:21:00] VBS. I wasn't going to, but she knew she had to get me involved and I wasn't going to say no to her
[00:21:06] because, you know, here's this nice old lady and she needs my help. I'm okay. Cool. And that did more
[00:21:11] for me than anything but you see what that invite was. It was taking into account who I was,
[00:21:17] where I was, what was going on and trying to give me a right sized invite into an experience.
[00:21:26] And I just have a discerning invitation. What's the right way? What's the right approach? And
[00:21:30] I know we're going to get to posture in a minute, but this this language is really matters. And
[00:21:34] we taking into account who it is we're talking to, what's going on in their lives? Or should we be
[00:21:39] thinking in terms of our youth environments or our children's environments or our grief support
[00:21:43] group or whatever the things are. And I would say this, I'll just add this layer in there is,
[00:21:49] if you're going to encourage a culture of invitation, it's so good when it comes out of a genuine
[00:21:53] excitement of things that are actually going on that are good and worth inviting people to.
[00:21:58] And if you're going to encourage your people to invite and you're not ready to
[00:22:03] meet those that they invite with something that's going to be meaningful for them,
[00:22:08] you're going to find that your people not only won't invite anymore, but they'll be really
[00:22:12] scared to invite ever again. And so I think that's the moment in part. We need to think in terms of
[00:22:17] meeting needs, creating some things that are meaningful in our life together, that our meeting needs
[00:22:22] for our folks and potentially for our community that are worth someone getting excited enough about
[00:22:28] to invite their friend or neighbor to. And it's risky to invite someone. So let's let's meet that.
[00:22:34] Yeah, and so the language we use matters for how we talk to people about about church, about
[00:22:41] you know, coming, inviting them to church. And I think the glue that the glue between
[00:22:47] language and posture which we're going to have posture in a second. And then I have a list of sort
[00:22:52] of how do you develop a culture of invitation. But the glue between language and posture is
[00:22:57] relationship because if you're thinking about just being a good friend to the people you're trying
[00:23:06] to reach, you'll treat them as such. If you treat them as sort of an object of your spiritual agenda,
[00:23:15] they sniff that out and it's not going to go well. And it's not actually a very loving way of doing it.
[00:23:21] You mean well, you want to bring people to Jesus. But the glue and you see this, and this is all
[00:23:28] over Jesus's ministry is relationship. So we talk about the stages of faith from my once was lost,
[00:23:35] trusting a Christian. How do you build trust? You've been trusting me. Yeah, you show up for people
[00:23:42] and be in their life without an agenda, treat them as a friend and someone that you care about. And
[00:23:47] that genuineness will lead to something. So yeah, be trustworthy I think by not trying to do
[00:23:52] something to someone, just be there with them and for them. Yeah. And then your posture,
[00:23:58] and I would say this is your posture as a church is about developing an outward facing
[00:24:04] stance, an outward facing posture. In other words, reaching people where they are, not where
[00:24:08] church people think they should be. Yeah. Like what does it take for me to put myself in their shoes?
[00:24:18] And try to explain to them why they really ought to put my shoes on for size. Like they really
[00:24:26] ought to see what we're doing. And we're only telling them out of love for them.
[00:24:34] And I say this a lot, in fact, I said it on Sunday. I tell folks because we've had a lot of new
[00:24:40] people and I don't know where they are spiritually. And so I say on a pretty regular basis,
[00:24:45] it's okay to start right where you are. Yeah. It's okay to be right where you are,
[00:24:52] but I don't think God wants you to stay there. Yeah. Yeah. And it's just giving people permission.
[00:24:58] Whatever the expectation they think we have of them, I promise that's not it.
[00:25:04] Yeah, it's good to surprise people that way to say, hey, you have permission to be right where
[00:25:09] you are in your life and faith. And we hope that you'll grow and discover more. And we think
[00:25:12] you're going to find some amazing things. But it's okay to be where you are and we're glad that
[00:25:16] you're here. And no, so there's, yeah, they're sort of a permissionness around that invitation
[00:25:21] and meeting that on the other side. When they do have the courage to show up, they go, oh,
[00:25:26] good, I can be here. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, wow. It's okay if I don't know what's going on. Yeah.
[00:25:32] It's okay if I don't know all the things and, and you know what, they're going to take
[00:25:37] care of me and tell you what and tell me what the things are. Right? It's a feeling of safety.
[00:25:41] It's a feeling of welcome. It's, it's every bit as spiritual as, as the other things that we
[00:25:47] talk about when we're talking about Jesus. So all right. So how do you develop a culture of
[00:25:52] invitation? So again, infused in this is if your people are excited about what the Lord's doing in
[00:25:57] their life, they're going to be excited to invite everybody else. So it really is about spiritual
[00:26:01] formation. It's about how we helping people take a step toward Jesus. And then in the midst of all
[00:26:08] that you're helping them say, okay, how do we make sure that part of our DNA as a congregation
[00:26:18] is reaching out to where people are inviting them, finding ways to invite people into the life of faith
[00:26:26] into the our community. So here's a couple of ideas that I jot it down and we can sort of riff
[00:26:31] on each one a little bit. But the first one is, I think you have to ground this for your folks in
[00:26:38] the miso day. In the mission of God, you have to explain to them that God is the God who invites
[00:26:46] and asks us to do the same as we participate in our life with God. Our job is to invite. That's
[00:26:53] what disciples do. We invite people into relationship. Come and see. Totally. You know, I met Jesus.
[00:26:59] I think he's the one. Yeah. Come and see. I'm down for yourself. Yeah. And so I usually, I do that. You
[00:27:08] do that through preaching. I think that's the number one thing that you can do on a Sunday morning. But
[00:27:11] it's more than that. It's just talking about it a lot on every level of the church. How do you talk
[00:27:17] with your leadership? How do you talk with volunteers? You're always talking about we do this.
[00:27:22] We have an outward facing posture because we believe that's part of our DNA.
[00:27:29] Of being followers of Jesus. Yeah. I found a really helpful phrase. I don't know who we borrowed it from.
[00:27:36] But it was in your planning for the things that you're doing in the life of your church.
[00:27:41] Are you thinking in terms of the people who aren't there? And there's this great phrase,
[00:27:45] who's representing the voice of those who aren't here yet? So sometimes in our planning, we only see
[00:27:50] what's right in front of us and we plan for each other and want to look out for each other
[00:27:54] and do fun things together. And we forget that there are people that aren't there in the room
[00:27:58] that we're not considering. So who's speaking on their behalf and making sure that our
[00:28:04] we have an outward orientation towards the mission of God in our community and not just the fun
[00:28:10] things that we get to do together as a church family. It can be both of those things at once.
[00:28:16] And the next thing is have events that are easy to invite people to?
[00:28:22] Right? Yeah. I mean,
[00:28:26] find some things. It doesn't all have to be like this because it depends on what's going on someone's life.
[00:28:30] Somebody may really need a deep, like hard-hitting good Friday service.
[00:28:36] Should not might be exactly what they need. So it's not it's not that. But try to find things that are low risk.
[00:28:43] High fun sometimes. Sometimes people just want to know that it's not going to be too
[00:28:53] um this fall I'm going to be teaching alpha and taught it in a long time. And I'm excited and we have found
[00:29:00] a location for it. I think if it works out, we're going to be at at a local tavern.
[00:29:07] They have an upstairs available and I want it to be a non-churchy atmosphere. I want to be as
[00:29:12] easy a barrier to cross. It is a very popular tavern people will go their anyway.
[00:29:17] Yeah. And I feel like we're just having a conversation about God. I want I want a low risk
[00:29:23] and low intimidation factor, and something that feels kind of fun. Yeah.
[00:29:29] That's an easy invite. I think that's a lot easier to come to the pastor's house, you know?
[00:29:34] Yeah, right. I'm never doing that. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's good. So how do you guys think
[00:29:40] about events in the course of the year where you're like, let's let's pick some things that are
[00:29:45] easy to invite people to? Yeah. I think you think in terms of fun relational and one time we
[00:29:51] jot it down the phrase youth group for adults, you know, like you're doing things that people who are
[00:29:56] not just young people will love coming to because it's fun. And it maybe has a God moment of
[00:30:02] of that or something that draws our attention to our faith, but it's not usually the leading
[00:30:07] part of that. I mean, I've talked about our jazz lifestyle stuff that we do monthly here. Just a
[00:30:11] concert for our community that we think is fun and good, and we all enjoy going together and
[00:30:16] you know, our community comes people will never be in church, but then we go, you know what? We're
[00:30:20] going to pray for you and our community at the start of this. That's really the only church thing
[00:30:24] that happens. And then we'll kind of build relationships with you and remember your name as they
[00:30:30] get to know you and that kind of thing. And so we kind of think of those terms of some things
[00:30:35] that are fun just because they're fun and they're good. And so, you know, we've talked about the Christmas
[00:30:40] we call it Christmas campfire and carols and we build a big campfire in our amphitheater and
[00:30:46] sing Christmas carols and light art Christmas star. And those are just things and invite the
[00:30:51] community into that. Like you guys do with your tower hill Christmas and that can be easy
[00:30:57] invitation points where people go, okay, this is not getting right into the middle of church, but
[00:31:03] it's a step in. Before the pandemic, we used to call these things contagious community events.
[00:31:11] And then when the pandemic happened, we're like, well, we can't be a contagious community anymore.
[00:31:14] That's probably not good. So we had to take the word contagious out. We're like, okay,
[00:31:20] but that's the idea is like something that has an opportunity. Contagent community and
[00:31:24] all right, whoops, not good, not good. So we had to pull that from our promos, but the idea being,
[00:31:30] is this an exciting fun thing that you would be, you enjoy. And so would be willing to invite others
[00:31:36] to come and be a part of it too. And you don't need tons of those. You just need a handful of those
[00:31:40] things. And then others that go deeper, like you said with alpha or maybe a, you know,
[00:31:46] a grief supported that you found really meaningful. And you know, you have a neighbor that's going
[00:31:49] through that too and they just need a place. And so if you find it meaningful or if your people
[00:31:54] find something meaningful, then they're going to be more willing to invite. So yeah, that's kind of how
[00:31:58] we think. Yeah, and then the next thing I would say is not only having easy things to invite people to
[00:32:05] but easy ways where people can do the inviting. So we, I think we talked about this recently,
[00:32:13] but we do like a Christmas postcard with all of our events on it. And one of the reasons we do that
[00:32:18] and we ask our folks take a few with you and think about people to hand them to and make a
[00:32:23] fun. Because so much easier to hand something to like, hey, come check out our Christmas stuff.
[00:32:28] Christmas it's, it's, it's, Christmas stuff is easy and easy invite. And then here's a thing.
[00:32:33] So it gives me something to talk about. And it's, it's quick. You deliver it and you're kind of on your
[00:32:38] way. That's an easy way to invite. You will have to remember all the details and try and, you know,
[00:32:43] exactly right. Oh, I'm going to like think well, if you go to our website, yeah, exactly. If you
[00:32:51] anxious when they aren't used to inviting. Yeah. So it's nice to give them something to help them
[00:32:57] do that. So postcard, something like that is usually pretty good. Next is encourage your new attenders
[00:33:06] and or members to invite their friends. Why? It's because you're newest people or you're most excited.
[00:33:12] Yep. This is where excitement and momentum come in. Excited people bring other excited people.
[00:33:18] Encouraging them right from the bat, be like, hey, you know, if you, you seem to be really excited about it here.
[00:33:26] We love if you invite your friends to come and be a part of it. And usually I don't even have to say it. Honestly,
[00:33:30] they're already inviting their friends. Yeah. And it's awesome. So try to catch the fire of those new
[00:33:38] excited attenders and members encourage them invite their friends and do it very publicly.
[00:33:45] Uh, another one is challenge your insiders. So people maybe who've been there a minute.
[00:33:51] Challenge your insiders to take a risk in inviting an outsider. Yeah.
[00:33:57] I think our folks need need to be challenged directly on that because they won't move on their own
[00:34:02] because they're so used to not. Yeah. Well, and I think what happens and I've seen this multiple times
[00:34:08] is that when someone finally does take the step to be an inviter, it reinvigorates them too.
[00:34:13] Yeah. It builds excitement back in and they go, how it was so cool and they came and they start telling
[00:34:17] the story of their friends or guests experience when they came. And so it's actually some
[00:34:22] a way that we can challenge our people to serve others but also kind of experience some renewed
[00:34:27] excitement for themselves. Yeah. This is something I'll usually use like a sermon application point.
[00:34:35] Um, that's usually where it fits and then of course at Christmas when it's an easy invite or
[00:34:40] a special invite will do a standalone. Hey, folks, you know, there's that family member. There's
[00:34:48] that friend. There's that coworker and you've been thinking about inviting them for so long.
[00:34:53] If you're not going to do it now, when you're going to do it, let's do it. All right. And then
[00:34:56] do you guys provide those postcards just in the back and say, hey, because yeah, we have to
[00:35:00] live them in the back and say just take as many as you need. So take them, give them away. We love
[00:35:04] for you to be inviting is we're inviting our community. We want you to be inviting your friends and
[00:35:09] neighbors and invite everybody into the process. And I always try to help people see because everyone wants
[00:35:15] to think what's the worst possible thing that can happen if I invite and then they don't ever
[00:35:20] talk to me again. But I also want to say well, what's the best possible thing that can happen? Yeah.
[00:35:25] Um, and I think our folks need that reminder. Okay. And then I just got two more
[00:35:32] in your small groups. I think there's opportunity in small groups. Of course, you could do a
[00:35:37] of small group study that's about inviting about evangelism. There's one, I know Bill Hibels is
[00:35:45] not the most popular name anymore. But he did do a curriculum called Just Walk Across The Room.
[00:35:51] I thought was very good. And there's other curriculum out there to do that. That's one way. But
[00:35:57] also in your small groups, if they're small group, it's pretty comfortable with each other. I'd
[00:36:01] have a role play it. Yeah. Like, have them practice inviting somebody or or telling their
[00:36:07] faith story? I think there's so much value in that. If you ever do the program rooted, which is
[00:36:13] something that we are doing now, each person ends up telling their faith story, which is terrifying
[00:36:17] to them mostly. I think those things really help when they practice doing it, then their
[00:36:24] less nervous when it comes to inviting others. Yeah, I mean it makes sense. I mean we think about
[00:36:29] how many hours did we spend on sports fields growing up, practice and stuff? You know?
[00:36:33] Yeah. And we did that. We practiced preaching in seminary and we practiced and we practiced
[00:36:37] and we got better at it over time. And it's the same thing with invitation. It might be terrifying
[00:36:42] at first. But then when you get to do it more, you start to feel more natural and it comes
[00:36:47] across as more genuine and authentic. And you know, it's probably nothing worse than like
[00:36:53] letting it an anxiety build up to the point where when you invite someone, it's like you're almost
[00:36:57] shouting them that you know, it's better than that. I was like, no, let's let it be a natural
[00:37:01] thing that kind of comes out of our genuine assignment. You're really loving it. I covered your
[00:37:05] heart. No, come back hard. So careful with that. Right? But if you, yeah, if there's a place to practice
[00:37:11] or just to almost even name the awkwardness of it out loud and chuckle about it and go,
[00:37:18] you know what I'm going to try though. It's worth it and help people think about that. I think
[00:37:23] it's a good idea. I wonder if there be some, this is just like literally thought about this
[00:37:28] as we were talking about it is. And what if there's being a value? What if people would roll
[00:37:33] with the idea of, if you had a pretty good friendship with somebody who doesn't come in a church?
[00:37:38] What if you took the tag, hey, part of what we're doing at church is we're sharing our
[00:37:43] face stories? Could I practice on you and tell me what you think? I wonder how that would be received
[00:37:47] by a friend. I think that'd be an interesting experiment. I think it's good. I think kind of behind
[00:37:51] your point too is like there is a fear of losing relationships or something if we're not careful
[00:37:56] or we're perceived to be pushy about our faith or something but I think also the research,
[00:38:01] you know, people's openness to things of faith is almost like they're kind of waiting for you to say
[00:38:08] something maybe. Or not surprised, they know you're a Christian and you got a church and so if you
[00:38:12] say hey, you guys should come to the Christmas event. We'd love to have you in, you know,
[00:38:17] no agenda behind that other than we enjoy it and we think you guys might too. Like,
[00:38:21] you know, you don't have to say do you know that Jesus loves you cares about you as a
[00:38:24] wonderful plan for your life and if you die today where would you go? That's not when an invitation
[00:38:29] is an invitation is come with me. Let's go and see. Come check it out. We like it. I think you'd
[00:38:33] like it too. It's that kind of thing. Yeah. And then lastly, I'll just say celebrate,
[00:38:39] celebrate, celebrate it every turn when you see people inviting,
[00:38:43] acknowledge it, celebrate it, call it out. The things that get celebrated get repeated.
[00:38:48] Yep. There's 1,000% true Jason. Yeah. Yeah. So this builds momentum. When you have a congregation
[00:38:56] that loves to invite, it builds momentum. And again, the whole idea is how do we create a flywheel
[00:39:03] of momentum consistent enthusiasm over time that draws more and more people into a relationship with
[00:39:10] Jesus? Because once the momentum gets going, it's like it sort of has a life of its own. It really does.
[00:39:16] Eduating. I mean, that's what the flywheel is for. That's what momentum helps us do. And so
[00:39:20] sometimes getting the momentum going is the hard part to start that wind streak when you feel way
[00:39:25] behind. And we ever get a catch up, 13 games out. There's no way. But then it's one push and then
[00:39:31] two. And then you start to see something beginning to happen. And if you can get a handful of
[00:39:36] inviders being excited and inviting, that's going to have this catalyzing effect and other people
[00:39:42] are going to pick up on that and start inviting too. So let's maximize that. Let's go for it
[00:39:47] and create inviting culture in our communities and see what God does. Trust God with the outcomes.
[00:39:52] But let's put ourselves into position to be a part of what he's doing.
[00:39:56] Awesome, Jesse. Well, hey, everyone. Thanks so much for listening. Next week, we're going to
[00:40:01] finish our momentum series. We're going to talk about how do you fund it? How do you fund the momentum?
[00:40:06] Because that's an excursion. Okay. This ruined all of our fun. Now we're going to know. No,
[00:40:10] it's so important, right? Yeah. Yeah. So we're going to talk about that. And it's such an important
[00:40:15] part of it and something that like, well, we're nonprofit organizations. We've got to figure out
[00:40:20] how are we going to build a scaffolding around the momentum that's. And there's some really
[00:40:29] key things that we're going to get into our helpful toward that and in our lived experience
[00:40:34] of how that's gone well, and sometimes maybe when we didn't quite get it right. So really worth
[00:40:40] coming back and listening for that conversation because momentum is awesome. But if we want to
[00:40:50] figure out how to fund it. So looking forward to that conversation too. Well, thanks so much everyone
[00:40:54] for being with us. And if you're watching us on YouTube, by the way, we're on YouTube now and
[00:41:00] it's, you know, we got a new look here. Yeah. I promise my call my hair today. Our same
[00:41:05] our same boxes, but we're in a new container, which is pretty fancy. So let us know what you think.
[00:41:11] Anyway, thanks so much. Ministry is hard. It is so much better when we do it together.