Staff meeting agenda
I'm always interested in how other church's run their staff meetings, so I'd thought Id' share our meeting agenda just in case someone else has the same interest.
We meet on Tuesdays from 9am to 5pm. Mondays are a day off. The meeting is formatted around the three main "flywheels" GBCK is pushing on: 1)discipleship, 2)Weekend services, and 3)leadership development.
9am - 10am: Leadership discussion
We use this time to discuss a book we're reading together as a staff. Currently, we're listening to Breaking Growth Barriers by Nelson Searcy.
10am - 12pm: Administration, follow-up, discipleship
We use this time to follow-up on people and tasks. We talk about what needs to be done for upcoming events, classes, or services. We also focus on following-up with people who filled out a Connection card from this past Sunday.
12pm - 2pm: Weekend services
We discuss upcoming message series, specials, music, and anything else that involves the worship and preaching. We try to get as far ahead as possible. We're always trying to make our services more compelling and comfortable.
2pm - 5pm: more discipleship and leadership
We talk about our discipleship process. We gauge how many people are moving through the process. We look for ways to improve and tweak things. We also focus on small group leadership and ministry leadership. Currently, we're talking a lot about leadership seasons, and about developing a system for progress and feedback reports.
Breaking barriers
Yesterday Dane and I listened on CD to the first hour of Nelson Searcy's Breaking Growth Barriers workshop.
One of the first growth barriers a church will face is space. At some point your facility begins to feel full even when it isn't full. Searcy uses the "70% rule": when you are filling 70% of your seats your are full. Technically, the space isn't full, but people perceive that it is.
When this happens people
• stop inviting guests
• stop talking/connecting to others
• attend erratically
At GBCK we are facing this barrier in our 10am service. We are hovering right at 70% capacity. In order to create more space we will shift our service start times a half-hour later to 9am and 10:30am in order to give people more options to attend and to invite. The change happens on May 16.
I believe GBCK is poised to reach our next growth increment of 300, which means the Gospel is growing and bearing fruit (Col. 1:6) and that disciples are being made (Matt. 28:19).
As we heard on the CD, sometimes all it takes is one little tweak to bust through a growth barrier.
Speed Bumps
Yesterday we had our Christmas services at Grace Bible Church Kapolei. One element we always add to these "big" services is food. We do this for a couple of reasons: first, it adds a special-ness to the service because we don't serve food every week. Second - and more importantly - it creates a speed bump after the service. Food slows people down and prevents people from racing to their cars.
I think speed bumps are critical to the health of a church. Slowing people down creates an opportunity to connect with people. I love it after church when I see people praying for each other, trading phone numbers, or just having conversation. The reality is there will always be a percentage of people who don't connect with the church in any other way than attending on Sundays. Speed bumps help us to connect with those people too.
We have a hospitality tent set up weekly with coffee and snacks to encourage people to linger. Just another speed bump.
Yesterday I connected with a guy who's been checking us out over the last year or so. He walked in after not being in church for months. He's looking for hope and he knew to come to Jesus. So, over a plate of chow fun and manapua we decided to get together weekly for a season so we can walk though the "stuff" together. Thank God for the speed bump.
Why do I need to go to church?
For part 3 of our FAQ series we will answer the question, "Why do I need to go to church?"
If you think you need to go to church to be a good person, become more spiritual, or reserve your spot in heaven, then you don't need to go to church. There are lots of good people who don't go to church. Many people are in touch with their spirutality outside of church. And going to church will guarantee you a place in heaven no more than sitting on an airplane will make you a pilot, or going to McDonald's will make you into a Big Mac.
So, why go to church?
From my early teens to my early 20's I was pretty disengaged from church. I attended church, but I wasn't there, if you know what I mean. I mostly went out of obligation and because I liked a girl (she's my wife now). It wasn't until I turned 22 that I discovered I needed to go to church. When I think back, the need to go to church stemmed from a simple yet life-altering decision: I decided to follow Jesus.
It was this decision that caused me to need to go to church. I admit, I haven't always been happy with church, or I haven't always felt like going to church. Yet my commitment to follow Christ goes deeper than man's faults or how I'm feeling. In short, if I'm committed to following Jesus I need to go to church.
This Sunday we explore how following Jesus and going to church cannot be exclusive to each other.
Let me also say that at GBCK we try hard to make church a comfortable and compelling place for people to meet Jesus. This includes those who are discovering, or re-discovering, a relationship with Jesus.
There are many reasons not to go to church. Yet the ONE reason to go is found in the decision to follow Jesus who "loves us as if there's only one of us." (Augustine)
Life’s measure
Every few months I measure the height of my three boys. I do it the old school way. No fancy tools or cartoon wall charts. I make them stand ramrod straight against the door jamb of my office with a book on their heads and note their height with a pencil. Then we stand back and ooooh and ahhhhh at how much they've grown. They are growing fast.
Have you ever thought about how much we humans measure things?
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