RL 366: Multiplying Christmas Outreach with Nathan Teegarden

[00:00:00] My buddy out in California, he's got a church about 500. I helped him set this up years ago, but it was just basically a survey that his guests would get after they attend the church and they would fill it out. One of the questions on there is, what influenced your decision to come to his church? Almost two-thirds was a personal invitation from somebody.

[00:00:27] Welcome to episode 366. The department stores have all their Christmas stuff on display. Today we continue talking about strategic Christmas planning and we welcome guest Nathan Teegarden from ChurchFuel. We cover common mistakes that churches make with Christmas as well as key elements that effective churches share. That's today on The Reclaimed Leader.

[00:00:53] Welcome to The Reclaimed Leader Podcast. I'm Jason Tucker.

[00:00:57] And I'm Jesse Skiffington.

[00:00:58] We're two pastors in the trenches who are passionate about church health for greater gospel impact.

[00:01:04] We share the ups and downs of ministry, strategies that worked for us, and some that didn't.

[00:01:09] Best practices and practical tools for church leadership.

[00:01:12] The goal? To help all of our churches flourish. Let's get started.

[00:01:32] Well, you know, I had to fight the urge, Jesse, to put on a Santa hat as we're recording this real time. It's still way too far from Christmas.

[00:01:39] I couldn't bring myself to do it, even though we did play a little Christmas music in the intro just for fun.

[00:01:46] But this is part two, really, of our Christmas prep series that we usually tackle this every year and just talking about Christmas and how it's such an important time for outreach that it makes a lot of sense to spend a little time on it because culturally, almost everybody celebrates Christmas.

[00:02:06] So it's great to spend some time on this again, as we did last week.

[00:02:10] And we get to talk to someone else who is doing this with an organization called Church Fuel.

[00:02:15] Yeah, I really love our conversation with Nathan today and just some really good reminders, but also some just things I hadn't really stopped to think about in a while or some new ideas in there, too.

[00:02:26] So I know people are going to benefit from this and that Christmas.

[00:02:29] And as Nathan mentions, Easter, some other times of the year, there's unique opportunities that come along in the life of the church that we want to do our best to kind of help us be our best self in the midst of that, invite people into that and to find their place in our life together.

[00:02:45] If that's what God's calling him to and listen for this, if you're tuning in, what I appreciated most is that Nathan just said, you get to be yourself, be your version of the church that God made you to be.

[00:02:57] Let's just help you be more visible and more ready to welcome those guests when they come in.

[00:03:01] So really love the tone of the conversation and love talking Christmas and all those things.

[00:03:06] Absolutely.

[00:03:07] And again, everyone, thanks so much.

[00:03:09] I've actually several of you have you've shared our podcast with others and there are new people who are listening and finding it helpful.

[00:03:19] So thank you so much for doing that.

[00:03:20] And it's really is an honor to get to serve you in this way.

[00:03:23] And we appreciate every time you share this or share an episode with a friend or colleague or leave us a review on your platform of choice.

[00:03:30] This helps us continue to reach more and more pastors, which is our goal.

[00:03:34] We you know, we're not you know, it's a free podcast.

[00:03:38] We just want to get all this information out to help as many churches as we can.

[00:03:41] So we're really thankful for you for doing that.

[00:03:45] All right.

[00:03:45] Well, hey, let's get to it.

[00:03:46] This is Nathan T. Garden.

[00:03:48] He is the director of operations and create content creator for ChurchFuel, churchfuel.com.

[00:03:55] And we'll link to it certainly in our show notes.

[00:03:58] And he's going to talk to us about strategic planning for Christmas.

[00:04:02] Here's our interview with Nathan.

[00:04:05] Well, we are so excited to welcome to the podcast Nathan T. Garden from ChurchFuel.

[00:04:10] He is also a pastor as we teed up in the introduction.

[00:04:14] And Nathan, I'm so glad you're with us today.

[00:04:16] Thanks for joining us.

[00:04:17] Yes, Jason and Jesse.

[00:04:19] Thank you so much for having me.

[00:04:21] So Christmas.

[00:04:22] I know when this thing goes live by that time, I'm pretty sure all the stores are going to have all the Christmas.

[00:04:29] I said, Costco had Christmas trees up, dude, September.

[00:04:32] I was like, I just can't.

[00:04:34] I can't do it yet.

[00:04:36] But the good thing about strategic planning is it is good to get a jump on it.

[00:04:40] Maybe we should think a little bit more like the department stores because oftentimes Christmas, we sort of go to a little bit of autopilot because it's a lot of work.

[00:04:49] There's a lot of things.

[00:04:51] And what I know is on your heart and what ChurchFuel is passionate about is how do we be strategic about what I don't think I have to convince anybody.

[00:05:02] It's the biggest outreach opportunity of the year.

[00:05:05] Yeah.

[00:05:06] Yeah.

[00:05:07] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:05:08] Well, I do think getting a jump on things is very important.

[00:05:12] I mean, I think we could take a note from Costco and others that are eager to get those that are ready to buy items out there to sell.

[00:05:21] I think it's important to say, well, let's start thinking through Christmas as early as possible.

[00:05:27] But as many of you know, as you guys know, as I know, it's oftentimes the urgent that gets the most important things.

[00:05:34] It's like this Sunday.

[00:05:36] Okay, what are we going to do this Sunday?

[00:05:37] Or two weeks from now, we've got this outreach.

[00:05:39] We need to give attention to it.

[00:05:41] So I think something that's really important is, at least for me, is just I know oftentimes what to do or at least 50% to 75% of what I should do.

[00:05:52] It's just a matter of answering the question, when am I going to do it?

[00:05:55] And so getting that on the calendar and saying, okay, let's go ahead and get a planning meeting early.

[00:06:01] Let's do end of September, and it's going to be crazy early, but let's just do it.

[00:06:05] Get it on there to kind of get it in our mind.

[00:06:08] So we encourage churches to get something out there early.

[00:06:12] And so then you can start thinking that direction.

[00:06:15] And even if you don't do something immediately like, okay, the week after you're going to be in the trenches like you are the week before Christmas,

[00:06:22] at least everybody's starting to think that direction.

[00:06:25] And when you give more space to think about it, that's where the creativity happens.

[00:06:29] That's where the ideas come in.

[00:06:31] That's where you give space for God to start to speak to, hey, I want you to do this or think about this.

[00:06:37] But when it's last minute urgent, it's really hard to do all that.

[00:06:40] So we always encourage churches, man, earlier you can start, the better.

[00:06:44] Yeah.

[00:06:44] I think the more space you give, the more creative content that can kind of bubble to the surface and iterate and do all that kind of stuff.

[00:06:50] So getting out ahead of it.

[00:06:52] And there's something to me, I don't know if you guys have experienced this as pastors,

[00:06:55] but if we get it out on the table, it's a sense of relief to me that we've looked at it.

[00:07:02] We're moving in that direction.

[00:07:03] We know it's coming.

[00:07:05] And at least we brought it up for conversation and beginning to, you know.

[00:07:09] So there's the sense of like, oh, good.

[00:07:12] It's going to be okay.

[00:07:13] We're thinking about it.

[00:07:14] We got enough time for this to really turn into something good.

[00:07:17] Yeah.

[00:07:17] And I think something else that came to mind is it also communicates to your team members like, hey, this is a big deal.

[00:07:24] And the opposite can be true.

[00:07:25] Like if we wait till the last minute, even if it's unintentional, even if we know obviously Christmas is really important,

[00:07:31] these big events for opportunity for outreach are really important.

[00:07:34] At least when we're doing it early, we're communicating to our team like, hey, this is a big deal.

[00:07:39] Like we need to make sure that we're thinking through all these items.

[00:07:42] So whether volunteer, part-time, full-time staff, you're telling them like, hey, we're specifically talking about this early.

[00:07:48] And it sends a message to everybody like, man, this is a really important thing for our church.

[00:07:53] Before we jump in, Nathan, for those who aren't familiar with Church Fuel, give us a little soundbite on what they do

[00:08:00] and maybe a little bit how you got involved with them.

[00:08:03] Because I know you're a pastor.

[00:08:03] You continue to be a pastor.

[00:08:05] So give us, give our listeners a little bit more on Church Fuel.

[00:08:09] I think it's a wonderful resource.

[00:08:11] Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

[00:08:12] So you just boiled down our mission.

[00:08:14] Our mission is to help churches see more visitors on a weekend.

[00:08:18] So everything we do comes from that.

[00:08:22] We just, we love hearing stories, testimonies of how our resources have empowered and helped and equipped church leaders to see more visitors on a weekend.

[00:08:32] So from that, we built out a library of resources.

[00:08:37] So we have tons of resources.

[00:08:39] But more specifically, we help church leaders follow a pathway to make sure that they're digitally ready.

[00:08:47] Just on a lot of fronts that maybe they don't realize or don't know how to make sure that they're ready on the digital front.

[00:08:54] When the majority of people who are going to check out your church, check out your church before they ever step foot on your campus,

[00:09:00] they're going to find you online somewhere.

[00:09:02] And so just making sure that everything is on point, you know, on that front, we help churches do that.

[00:09:08] And then we also specifically help churches run their Google ads.

[00:09:12] So making sure that their marketing front is taken care of.

[00:09:15] So we run that actually for churches.

[00:09:18] So a variety of ways we help them.

[00:09:20] We also have a coaching side to where we help them through coaching and then they can book a call.

[00:09:25] And so it's really three different levels that you kind of, if you want to do it yourself, there's a library.

[00:09:32] You can kind of access the resources.

[00:09:34] If you want us to do it with you, we've got a coaching side.

[00:09:37] And then the next level is like, we do a lot for you, which would be like the Google ads and we help you with marketing.

[00:09:43] So that's a summation, but it really all comes back down to that mission where we help church leaders see more visitors on a weekend.

[00:09:51] That's awesome.

[00:09:52] And so were you recruited by them?

[00:09:57] Had you used ChurchFuel in your own ministry?

[00:09:59] How did that connection happen for you as a pastor?

[00:10:02] So the owner, Ryan Wakefield, we were actually on staff together.

[00:10:05] He was a creative director.

[00:10:07] I was a youth pastor at a church in Springfield, Missouri.

[00:10:10] And so that's where we started.

[00:10:13] And then we both left to go to Kansas City to help plant a church.

[00:10:16] And so we helped with that.

[00:10:18] From that, he started essentially church marketing university, which now is named ChurchFuel.

[00:10:24] And so we stayed in contact.

[00:10:25] We live near each other here in Kansas City.

[00:10:28] We're both at that church plant still 13 years later.

[00:10:32] And so it was just through a series of events.

[00:10:35] I was able to slip from full-time to part-time at the church to be in teaching pastor role.

[00:10:42] And it left this opportunity to help with ChurchFuel.

[00:10:45] And so that's kind of how it started.

[00:10:47] It started just me building some resources.

[00:10:50] So building what we call these kits and some of what we'll talk about, I'm sure, later with the Christmas kit.

[00:10:55] But I started building some of those and we put that into the library.

[00:10:58] I started building more and then I started helping with other things.

[00:11:00] And eventually it turned into full-time a couple years ago.

[00:11:03] And so I've been helping ChurchFuel for a total of about four years now.

[00:11:07] That's awesome.

[00:11:08] I think, Nathan, one of the things that ChurchFuel does, I know it's a real pain point for a lot of churches who are just like,

[00:11:15] okay, we have all of these programs, we have all these things, we have this wonderful community,

[00:11:20] and we don't know how to navigate all this stuff.

[00:11:23] You know, I thought I knew Facebook four years ago, and it's changed 15 times since then

[00:11:29] on what works and what doesn't work.

[00:11:31] And I'm just, I don't have anybody on staff that can pay to do that.

[00:11:35] So I guess one thing I want to ask, I'm going to ask it sort of jokingly, but this isn't all dependent.

[00:11:43] Getting more visitors to come to your church is not completely dependent on whether or not you're a quote-unquote

[00:11:48] attractional church, right?

[00:11:50] It doesn't mean necessarily, I wouldn't look great in skinny jeans, and we tried a fog machine for a concert,

[00:11:57] and the fire alarm went off.

[00:11:58] So we're not that level of church.

[00:12:02] But tell us why that doesn't matter.

[00:12:05] Well, because there are people out there that are looking for a church just like yours.

[00:12:10] And so the reality isn't, are there those people out there?

[00:12:14] It's just, are you visible to them?

[00:12:17] And so I think it's about making yourself visible to those people.

[00:12:22] There are going to be those attractional churches, and there are people out there that are really like that

[00:12:27] and want that, and they're going to go to those churches, and that's wonderful.

[00:12:30] But I would say, obviously, lean into the calling, whatever God's called you to be as a church,

[00:12:36] and He's called you to be that because there's people that need your church.

[00:12:41] And so it's, again, just a matter of getting in front of those people to help them see like,

[00:12:46] hey, this church is for you.

[00:12:49] And so that, again, that's what we help churches do is to be visible in their community.

[00:12:53] A lot of them are really the best-kept secret, and they just need to get out there in front of those people

[00:12:59] and realize that they have something to offer them.

[00:13:02] And if they were just visible, there'd be people that would come through their doors.

[00:13:05] Yeah. I think that's reassuring to hear because I think it's just being seen.

[00:13:11] You don't have to change who you are, your identity as a congregation.

[00:13:14] But I think a lot of us struggle to know how to be visible, how to, in a healthy way, market ourselves

[00:13:20] and put ourselves out there for people to be aware of.

[00:13:24] That's often a tricky thing, and I just appreciate you guys working on that with us

[00:13:30] because there's a lot of great churches out there that I think are those hidden treasures

[00:13:34] or those hidden gems that, like you were saying, that just people aren't aware of.

[00:13:38] And if they were more visible in a credible way, that would be a good thing.

[00:13:42] So we got to end the papyrus font.

[00:13:44] Jason, you guys want to go?

[00:13:46] How about precious moments, Cliff Bart?

[00:13:51] Yeah. And one thing I'll add to that, this is something that I learned as a youth pastor,

[00:13:56] a guy that mentored me said, Nathan, a student will go to a lame, uncool student ministry with

[00:14:03] a friend way longer than they'll go to a rock and cool student ministry alone.

[00:14:08] The thing that is the biggest advantage of helping people come to your church and to stick at your

[00:14:14] church is simply, I like to say, just help them make a friend.

[00:14:17] So if you can be friendly, which doesn't cost you anything other than a little bit of effort,

[00:14:23] a little bit of training, a little bit of culture change.

[00:14:26] I mean, it doesn't cost you a fog machine.

[00:14:28] You don't have to have a big digital screen.

[00:14:30] You don't have to have a multimillion dollar building.

[00:14:32] You can be friendly for free.

[00:14:35] And so doing that can really have a huge impact on making your church sticky and really help

[00:14:41] you get the results that you're looking for, which is to grow.

[00:14:43] So it's really a myth that you have to be this, you've got to have all those goods before

[00:14:48] you'll actually grow, which will be a negative reinforcing loop.

[00:14:52] You'll never get there.

[00:14:53] But if you could just be friendly, man, you'll see some huge results.

[00:14:57] And those people that are meant to go to your church because you're being you, what God's

[00:15:01] called you to be, man, they'll stick because you built relationships.

[00:15:06] And man, I mean, everybody knows that's what's so powerful about family.

[00:15:10] You know, it's like, man, going to hang out with the family.

[00:15:12] It doesn't have to be cool.

[00:15:14] It doesn't have to be, you know, things can be imperfect, but you're hanging with family

[00:15:18] because you know them, you have a relationship with them, those Thanksgiving dinners, those

[00:15:22] Christmas dinners, all those are so valuable and people looking forward to them.

[00:15:26] Oftentimes, sometimes I guess there's, there's striking things.

[00:15:30] So maybe not everybody, but oftentimes you can look forward to that because of the connection

[00:15:37] and there's some things that you can do that really help on that front.

[00:15:40] So that's a little bit different than marketing.

[00:15:42] It does overlap a little bit because you want to make sure your marketing communicates

[00:15:47] friendliness.

[00:15:47] And so we help churches with that as well.

[00:15:50] But in terms of being sticky, man, you just need to be friendly.

[00:15:55] And that, you know, that retention starts to play after a while.

[00:15:57] If you can just retain the people that you're getting, you'll grow up.

[00:16:01] You know, we teach churches that all the time.

[00:16:03] It's like, just be friendly, retain them and you'll continue to grow up.

[00:16:07] Yeah.

[00:16:08] So tell us, all right, Christmas, what are some things, I mean, every church has Christmas

[00:16:14] programming of some kind.

[00:16:17] What, what have you seen as far as like, where are people getting stuck?

[00:16:22] Where are churches getting stuck and they're not as effective reaching people at Christmas

[00:16:27] as they could be?

[00:16:28] Are there maybe some common pitfalls that they kind of unknowingly are committing?

[00:16:35] Yeah.

[00:16:36] Yeah.

[00:16:36] So, so one, one thing comes to mind is that oftentimes, and this would be true of Easter.

[00:16:41] This would be true of like any fall event that a church would do kind of getting back into

[00:16:47] church that season.

[00:16:48] And then also for Christmas is I think all of us can fall into the trap of just thinking

[00:16:54] of Christmas, Easter, fall event as just one Sunday and not thinking of it as in terms

[00:17:00] of four to six weeks after that.

[00:17:02] And, and saying, what, what can we do to, to get people not only to come to the event where

[00:17:09] oftentimes family members are going to invite those to come with them, to join them for

[00:17:13] church service.

[00:17:14] But what are we going to do to get them back the next Sunday?

[00:17:16] But not just that Sunday, like what are we doing over the next six weeks to get them to come

[00:17:20] back?

[00:17:20] And I don't know the exact stat, so don't quote me on this, but it's something like 90%

[00:17:25] or around there that if you can get somebody to come back four Sundays in a row, then 90%

[00:17:31] chance they're staying at your church.

[00:17:32] And so if you start to think in terms of, of not just the Christmas service itself, which

[00:17:39] is really important, but what are you going to do the next Sunday and the Sundays after

[00:17:43] that?

[00:17:43] And so a lot of times what we teach churches to do is to, is specifically with Christmas

[00:17:48] is to think of the new year series, start planning that, think through that, and then

[00:17:54] work your way back.

[00:17:55] And so depending on where you do your Christmas service, like we do it early in December,

[00:17:59] or you do a candlelight, or you do a sermon, you know, Christmas series, or you do a variety

[00:18:03] of those things, you may have to think through some churches will, will cancel the last, you

[00:18:07] know, Sunday of the year or whatever.

[00:18:09] So you obviously got to think through it, but it really helps whenever you can think

[00:18:13] through that, that series and work your way back.

[00:18:15] And then, and then see it from the vantage point here, I guess would be the second thing

[00:18:20] is oftentimes churches will build their programming and their church service solely on with a

[00:18:26] member in mind.

[00:18:27] Like the person that that's gone there for, you know, 30 years or forever.

[00:18:32] And, and that's great.

[00:18:34] And that's, and we should think in those terms.

[00:18:36] I mean, ultimately at the end of the day, it is a church.

[00:18:38] We are celebrating the birth of Jesus.

[00:18:41] Um, you know, so it should have those elements in it, but to also think about the, the mom who

[00:18:47] has, uh, her adult son in town, or maybe, uh, maybe he lives in town and said, Hey, don't

[00:18:55] give me anything for Christmas this year.

[00:18:56] Just come with me to church.

[00:18:58] And, you know, he doesn't want to go, but he's like, all right, fine.

[00:19:01] I'll go.

[00:19:02] He's not a believer.

[00:19:03] He comes to church.

[00:19:04] Like what, how is the service going to connect with him?

[00:19:08] How is he going to feel?

[00:19:10] How is, how is he going to connect with somebody else in the service?

[00:19:15] And then, and then thinking through like, okay, well, how, how can we speak to him at

[00:19:19] the beginning of the year?

[00:19:21] Like maybe, maybe in that, that series where oftentimes you do like spiritual disciplines,

[00:19:24] maybe you can frame it in such a way to speak to him.

[00:19:28] Like, man, don't you just want to win in life?

[00:19:31] Don't you just want to have some, some wins under your belt?

[00:19:34] Man, you know, we're going to kick off the year, brand new series.

[00:19:36] He's called what, you know, called whatever.

[00:19:39] And we're going to talk about how you could actually win in your life.

[00:19:42] I mean, real true principles to winning.

[00:19:45] So you can win in this area, this area, this area.

[00:19:47] And then you do that.

[00:19:48] You speak to that at the beginning of the message, maybe for the Christmas service.

[00:19:52] Maybe it's an announcement, but you highlight that and you're, you're saying it in such

[00:19:56] a way that speaks to that, that, that mom's son who doesn't know the Lord now that you've

[00:20:01] got something for him.

[00:20:02] So again, it's just, it's, it's just thinking through one, a season, six weeks of like, how

[00:20:07] are we going to connect people from Christmas on?

[00:20:10] And then thinking through, okay, what are we doing for our guests?

[00:20:13] How do we make them feel, you know, a welcome?

[00:20:16] And certainly that's, that's what we help churches do every single Sunday.

[00:20:19] You know, that it's great when it's clockwork, you know, but I think we're all, no one's

[00:20:23] got it perfect.

[00:20:24] We're, we're all trying to work at it, get better at it.

[00:20:27] Um, but when we, when we start building our programming around that and thinking with

[00:20:32] the guests in mind, I think it really influences, um, the experience of the guests.

[00:20:38] And again, that's, that's what they're going to walk away with.

[00:20:40] When you, when you go to a restaurant, you, you factor in everything to determine whether

[00:20:45] you're going to go back.

[00:20:46] You, you, you factor in the price, you factor in the, the friendliness of the, the, um, host,

[00:20:52] you, you factor in the food, you factor in the atmosphere, all of it's just baked in together.

[00:20:58] And then you come to some internal conclusion on whether you're going to come back.

[00:21:02] And that's what exactly what people do at church.

[00:21:03] They say, okay, how was my experience?

[00:21:06] I mean, they, they both don't probably mull it over in their head.

[00:21:09] They don't go down the list and ask the questions to themselves.

[00:21:11] You know, how was the hospitality?

[00:21:13] How was the, but they're just going to, but that's essentially what they're doing.

[00:21:16] They're going to just put it all together.

[00:21:18] How was this experience?

[00:21:19] And when we, when we plan, we prepare and we think about the guests and we build it around

[00:21:25] that, man, that's going to influence that very decision.

[00:21:29] Am I going to go back?

[00:21:30] And if we can help that decision be, yeah, I want to go back.

[00:21:35] And even if they can't explain exactly why that's okay.

[00:21:38] But we know that we've been friendly.

[00:21:42] We've, um, uh, helped them at every step of the stage from the parking lot to the platform

[00:21:47] to afterwards we followed up with them.

[00:21:50] We've, um, you know, we've given, we've spoken to them in the message.

[00:21:53] We made it, uh, you know, easy for them to understand.

[00:21:56] We helped them understand worship.

[00:21:58] All of those elements come together.

[00:22:00] So hopefully they come to the conclusion, you know what?

[00:22:02] I'm going to go back.

[00:22:03] And so that, that, um, mom's son says, you know what?

[00:22:07] I, I didn't, I just went originally because my mom wanted me to go.

[00:22:11] Now I want to go back because, man, that was a great experience.

[00:22:15] I want to go back.

[00:22:16] Even if they don't give their life to Jesus right there and then, and you know, they're

[00:22:19] completely transformed, called in ministry and ready to go on the mission field.

[00:22:22] I mean, even if that's not the case, you know, at least they've taken another step and hopefully

[00:22:27] we can help them to do that, to take another step.

[00:22:29] So get them back just another Sunday.

[00:22:30] And then there we get them back another Sunday and they start to build relationships, start

[00:22:35] to get sticky.

[00:22:36] It's like, man, they don't see any way else out.

[00:22:39] They're going to continue to come.

[00:22:40] So anyway, that, that's what I would say is, is, is, uh, make sure you think on the

[00:22:44] season, make sure you think about the guests in mind when you're preparing for your Christmas

[00:22:49] service.

[00:22:50] Yeah.

[00:22:50] And I know you guys use the same language.

[00:22:52] We talk all the time about pathways.

[00:22:53] You're really just trying to exercise that muscle of thinking about how am I creating a pathway

[00:22:59] for whoever I'm trying to reach.

[00:23:00] And, and you're thinking way beyond just one Sunday, you're thinking strategically about

[00:23:05] for Christmas, for example, the new year, which I think that that's great.

[00:23:08] You know, sermon series, um, all of that I think is, uh, is really helpful.

[00:23:14] It's a good reminder.

[00:23:15] Um, so what are some churches that you see that are just killing it with, with Christmas?

[00:23:23] Like, what are some things that you notice that they do exceptionally well?

[00:23:27] Is it just simply, Hey, we're really good at inviting them to the next thing or, or is it

[00:23:32] something more?

[00:23:33] Yeah.

[00:23:35] So, so I would say a couple of things on that, um, churches that are doing really well as

[00:23:41] it relates to big, uh, services like Christmas, Easter fall outreach, whatever, uh, big event

[00:23:47] they're doing two things really well.

[00:23:49] They're one there, they're helping their, their church invite.

[00:23:53] And then two, they're doing really well in digital marketing.

[00:23:56] So those are two areas.

[00:23:57] So the first one there helping their, their congregation to invite, uh, there's really

[00:24:01] two elements to that.

[00:24:03] And one is to equip.

[00:24:04] And the second is to inspire.

[00:24:07] So you want to be able to equip your congregation to invite, like you got to give them the tools.

[00:24:13] Uh, you know, if you told me to build a house, um, but you gave me no tools, then I'm probably

[00:24:18] not going to do a very good job.

[00:24:20] Honestly, even if you gave me tools, I'm not going to do a very good job, but if you give

[00:24:24] me tools, I got a chance.

[00:24:25] I got a chance.

[00:24:26] Uh, no, uh, uh, you know, I, I'm not, I'm not good with, you know, construction stuff,

[00:24:31] but, um, with, with inviting, you've got to be able to give them tools.

[00:24:34] So like an example of a tool would be like an invite card.

[00:24:38] Um, you know, very simple, you know, not anything new, not anything revolutionary, but,

[00:24:44] uh, just giving them something in their hands to be able to hand to somebody else

[00:24:49] is, is huge.

[00:24:50] Um, so that would be, that would be one thing is just giving them that tool.

[00:24:55] I would say also on the, on the digital front is giving them something to share.

[00:24:59] So that would be kind of like a digital, you know, invite card.

[00:25:04] Um, so just being able to help them, uh, have something along those, that, that front is going

[00:25:10] to be, is going to be huge.

[00:25:11] So, uh, so you want to, you want to be able to equip them with, with tools.

[00:25:16] The other thing is to be able to inspire them.

[00:25:19] So one thing that we encourage churches to do is, um, you know, we call it the invite

[00:25:24] strategy and it's basically get those, those printed cards and the first actually hand

[00:25:29] them out to your leadership.

[00:25:31] And so maybe six weeks out from, from Christmas, you hand them out to the leadership.

[00:25:35] So that would be, you know, your, your pastors, part-time key volunteers, you hand it out to

[00:25:41] them and you say, okay, for the next few weeks, we want you to go out and invite people to

[00:25:44] Christmas.

[00:25:45] And we want you to catalog the stories that you, the interactions that you have with people,

[00:25:50] the good ones, and even the bad ones.

[00:25:52] And so you get all those stories, you start to collect those.

[00:25:55] And then four weeks out from Christmas, you share it out to your congregation and say,

[00:25:59] Hey, we've actually already been, been inviting people.

[00:26:02] Our leadership team has been leading the way we've been inviting people.

[00:26:06] Here's some of the stories.

[00:26:07] And then it's, we also even encourage you to share, share stories that are ones that are like

[00:26:12] not as encouraging ones that might be a little discouraging.

[00:26:15] Like, man, the person took the card and threw it on the ground, stomped out.

[00:26:18] And like, I don't want to ever go to church, you know, because, because then you could share

[00:26:23] on the heels of that.

[00:26:24] You know what?

[00:26:24] I learned that I didn't die.

[00:26:26] You know, I oftentimes we're afraid to invite people because we're just worried of what

[00:26:31] they're going to think of as, it's like this huge fear that we have, like public speaking.

[00:26:36] Excuse me.

[00:26:37] So like, you know, but once you get over that fear, once, once you're past it, it's no,

[00:26:43] it's no big deal.

[00:26:44] And then on the heels of that, you could share like, well, but then the afternoon, I got

[00:26:47] the opportunity to invite somebody else and they were able to come.

[00:26:49] And I realized, man, I'm glad I didn't give up.

[00:26:52] And we want to encourage you.

[00:26:53] So you share this out to the church.

[00:26:55] Hey, we want to encourage you today as we put an invite card, just one on every seat.

[00:26:59] Once you take that and this week be praying, think about who can you invite?

[00:27:03] And maybe you're afraid just like all of us, even as pastors, we can be afraid to invite

[00:27:08] somebody, but you know what?

[00:27:09] It's actually not that scary.

[00:27:11] It's actually not, you know what?

[00:27:12] If they reject, that's okay.

[00:27:13] You know, maybe God's doing something in their heart in a different way, but you know,

[00:27:17] I'm going to invite somebody else.

[00:27:18] And so you collect those stories, you share it out, and then you only put one invite card

[00:27:23] on everybody's seat.

[00:27:24] And then you just inspire them with stories.

[00:27:26] So you equip them with the tool, which is on the seat, and then you inspire them with

[00:27:31] the stories.

[00:27:32] And so that combo is helping them invite.

[00:27:34] In fact, I saw my buddy out in California, he's got a church about 500.

[00:27:40] And I helped him set this up years ago, but it was just basically a survey that his guests

[00:27:46] would get after they attend the church, and they would fill it out.

[00:27:50] And one of the questions on there is, what influenced your decision to come to his church?

[00:27:57] And almost two-thirds was a personal invitation from somebody.

[00:28:01] So two-thirds.

[00:28:03] The other third was on the digital front.

[00:28:07] So it'd be like Facebook, Instagram, Google, those kinds of things.

[00:28:11] And so interesting that, man, that's so powerful.

[00:28:15] If you can mobilize your church to do that.

[00:28:18] Now, there's going to be some that aren't going to invite, obviously.

[00:28:20] And in fact, the longer someone's a Christian and kind of becomes around Christian friends,

[00:28:25] they're less likely to invite.

[00:28:27] Those that are new Christians are the ones that are most likely to invite their friends

[00:28:31] who don't know the Lord.

[00:28:32] So as you start gaining guests and people getting saved, it can kind of be this momentum that

[00:28:35] happens.

[00:28:36] But still, equipping your church is the best way to get people through the doors.

[00:28:41] The second way is the digital marketing front.

[00:28:43] And that would be on social media, running ads.

[00:28:47] That would be on Google, running ads there.

[00:28:50] You know, who's searching for a candlelight service?

[00:28:53] And making sure you've got those keywords all dialed in.

[00:28:56] That's something that we help with at ChurchFuel.

[00:28:58] But making sure all of that is dialed in so that people can find you on the digital side.

[00:29:04] And your church pops up as an option.

[00:29:07] They land on your website.

[00:29:08] They check it out and say, hey, there's lots of smiles, lots of friendly people.

[00:29:12] They see themselves in the pictures.

[00:29:14] In other words, they see older people, younger people, lots of different ethnicities.

[00:29:19] They see themselves in that.

[00:29:22] Now they're compelled to come, make it easy for them to plan their visit.

[00:29:25] So those are the people, the churches that are, back to your question, the churches that

[00:29:29] are crushing it are the ones that are equipping their church and inspiring them to invite,

[00:29:36] invite to get them out to their church.

[00:29:39] Because there's no better credibility for your church than someone saying, you should

[00:29:44] come to my church.

[00:29:44] Because when I say, you should come to my church, I'm saying a whole lot of things.

[00:29:48] I'm saying, hey, it's worth your time because it's worth my time.

[00:29:51] I think it's a great place.

[00:29:52] It's like recommending a restaurant.

[00:29:53] You'd never recommend a restaurant to somebody.

[00:29:55] Hey, you should come with me to this restaurant unless you liked it yourself.

[00:29:59] And so if there's some level of credibility and relationship there that someone already has,

[00:30:04] then when they say, you should come with me, man, they're saying a lot about the church.

[00:30:08] So again, inspire and equip.

[00:30:10] And then on the digital front, churches that are doing a good job of running ads.

[00:30:13] And when I say ads, and I know it's kind of a rabbit trail here, but just a quick lesson

[00:30:19] on social media is we teach churches that the more organic you can make it, the better

[00:30:26] because it works with the algorithm instead of against it.

[00:30:29] You know, if you have this really cool promotional video that you spent thousands of dollars on

[00:30:36] and you put it on Facebook and you dump all this money behind it, it's not going to do near as well

[00:30:42] as somebody just taking their phone and saying, hey, you should come to my Christmas service.

[00:30:47] It's going to be awesome.

[00:30:48] We're going to have this, this, and this for your kids.

[00:30:50] And that's going to do way better because the algorithm likes that.

[00:30:55] Because that's why people get on social media is they don't want to see advertisements,

[00:30:58] though that's how Facebook makes money.

[00:31:00] So if they can make, kind of blend those two in the algorithm, they like that the best.

[00:31:05] And so, you know, we teach churches and helping them know how to utilize social media to maximize

[00:31:10] those dollars so that they can get their service and the word about their church out to as many

[00:31:16] people as possible.

[00:31:17] So again, those two fronts, congregation, inviting, and then digital marketing.

[00:31:22] Those are the churches that are crushing it.

[00:31:24] Excellent.

[00:31:25] Excellent, Nathan.

[00:31:26] So, all right, speaking of equipping churches, ChurchFuel has a Christmas kit that can help

[00:31:32] do that and get folks dialed in.

[00:31:35] So tell us about that offer right now for pastors.

[00:31:37] Yeah, yeah.

[00:31:39] So this is something we offer for free and you can get into this kit.

[00:31:45] And what I love about this kit is it not only has all of your digital needs met, so like

[00:31:51] your graphics, it's got a cool look to it, you have all your in-service graphics, it's

[00:31:56] got videos for your service, all that stuff.

[00:31:58] But we decided long ago to not just build our kits with just graphics, but to build it

[00:32:05] for with the guests in mind.

[00:32:06] So we have resources in there like communication scripts, follow-up, a selfie video playbook

[00:32:13] like to teach you how to actually post on social media to promote your Christmas service.

[00:32:19] We wanted it to be a bundle of resources that really help you get more visitors at your Christmas

[00:32:24] service.

[00:32:24] So it has all the graphics and stuff, but it has way more than that.

[00:32:28] And then we also have an invite for November 12th.

[00:32:32] And so just an opportunity to go to this planning, just how to maximize your Christmas service.

[00:32:40] And so this is going to be a chance to really focus in on those ads front to make sure that

[00:32:45] you're digital ready for Christmas.

[00:32:47] And so we're going to teach churches how to do that.

[00:32:49] So that's in the kit as well.

[00:32:51] And you see all the information there.

[00:32:52] But yeah, it's got everything that you need on the digital front, but also on the making

[00:32:58] sure you're guests ready for your Christmas service.

[00:33:01] That's so cool.

[00:33:02] Well, I'm pumped, Jason.

[00:33:03] I don't know.

[00:33:03] I'm ready.

[00:33:04] Let's go.

[00:33:04] I know.

[00:33:05] Let's do this thing, right?

[00:33:06] You gave us a really great roadmap.

[00:33:08] And it's really helpful to think down into just what you guys have learned and discovered

[00:33:13] along the way and what's working and maybe some of the pieces that are missing.

[00:33:17] And so hopefully as we're talking, this is inspiring people to think for themselves about

[00:33:21] their strategy for their church and look at Church Fuel and check out some of how you can

[00:33:27] help them go further faster and get some of the things done that are frankly, sometimes

[00:33:31] really heavy lifting for us pastor types.

[00:33:33] We're not sure what to do.

[00:33:35] We have some ideas, but it feels like a lot.

[00:33:37] So appreciate you guys and your good work and how you're helping us succeed.

[00:33:41] Yeah.

[00:33:41] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:33:42] We love to, you know, we say this a lot at Church Fuel, like you're going to do the work

[00:33:46] anyway.

[00:33:47] Why not let us come alongside and help you do that work and do it even better?

[00:33:53] So that's what we love to do is be able to fill that need, especially for churches that,

[00:33:59] you know, aren't able to have a whole communications department.

[00:34:03] Like let us come alongside you and equip you and help you with that and give you a result

[00:34:08] as if you did have, you know, communications department, able to hire all those people.

[00:34:12] So that's what we love doing and it's super fun.

[00:34:16] Awesome.

[00:34:16] Well, Nathan, thanks so much for being with us.

[00:34:18] It was great talking to you.

[00:34:19] Great meeting you.

[00:34:20] You were definitely speaking our language.

[00:34:21] These are all things that we talk about all the time.

[00:34:23] So it was nice to hear somebody else say it.

[00:34:26] It was great.

[00:34:27] Yeah.

[00:34:27] Well, thank you for having me.

[00:34:29] It was great.

[00:34:29] Appreciate it.

[00:34:29] Thanks so much.

[00:34:31] Jason, so much fun to talk with Nathan today.

[00:34:33] He's a passionate guy.

[00:34:34] He loves what he does, obviously, very clearly.

[00:34:36] And so Nathan, if you're listening back to this, thank you for all your good work and

[00:34:40] helping us to think about how do we reach new guests and help people connect into our

[00:34:45] churches.

[00:34:46] And particularly when we want to steer you to go check out that Christmas resource.

[00:34:50] Maybe it inspires you or there's some element of it that you can apply this year or helps

[00:34:56] you to think more deeply about what you're doing.

[00:34:57] And maybe it helps you to establish something of a relationship with church fuel, if that's

[00:35:01] a good fit for you.

[00:35:02] But to get you thinking about, get all of us thinking about how are we reaching out

[00:35:07] to people?

[00:35:07] How do we mobilize our congregation to be inviters?

[00:35:10] And then what do we do once people show up and help them stick around?

[00:35:14] So really appreciated the conversation today.

[00:35:16] Yeah, it was great.

[00:35:17] And a lot of just great reminders.

[00:35:19] Again, I feel like we're speaking the same language or operating off the same sheet of

[00:35:23] music.

[00:35:23] I think, you know, definitely being reminded that, you know, personal evangelism or personal

[00:35:32] invitation is the number one strategy hands down.

[00:35:37] It's like not even close.

[00:35:38] That just that personal ask is everything.

[00:35:41] So even if you're a church that doesn't have any budget money to do anything else, that's

[00:35:46] free.

[00:35:47] Just getting your folks to invite.

[00:35:51] Make your postcard, get it in their hands.

[00:35:53] Yeah.

[00:35:54] Yeah, I love it.

[00:35:55] Such good stuff.

[00:35:55] So if people want to find Nathan and Church Fuel, where do they need to go?

[00:35:59] What do they need?

[00:35:59] Yeah, it says churchfuel.com.

[00:36:01] And you'll see also prompts to join on that free Christmas kit.

[00:36:07] You're going to get onto their mailing list and you'll be able to connect with them that

[00:36:10] way.

[00:36:11] So I hope you do it.

[00:36:12] I think it's good stuff.

[00:36:14] And hey, looking ahead now, we're getting close in real time.

[00:36:18] It's almost Thanksgiving and we're going to take a couple of weeks and do some dreaming,

[00:36:23] but I would call it practical dreaming.

[00:36:26] We're going to be talking about vision, mission, budget, strategy as we go into 2025.

[00:36:33] So I hope that's helpful.

[00:36:35] I still can't believe 2025.

[00:36:36] That's on 2025.

[00:36:37] Let's go.

[00:36:38] Big picture stuff, Jason.

[00:36:39] It's that time of year, though.

[00:36:40] It's helpful to really just kind of stop and give yourself some space in the midst of

[00:36:44] the Christmas run.

[00:36:45] I find that there is a little bit of that time to do some dreaming and looking ahead.

[00:36:49] So I can't wait.

[00:36:50] It's going to be fun to dive into that.

[00:36:51] All right, everyone.

[00:36:52] Thanks so much for listening.

[00:36:53] As we always say, ministry is hard.

[00:36:55] It is so much better when we do it together.