Life Point Blog

Crazy Excited Week

This is turning into a very crazy and exciting week. The buzz is really taking hold about the launch this Sunday. We got all our advertising in place and the Bonita Banner is all set to run 2 full page ads; one Wednesday and one Saturday. We are also doing the tab on sticky ad on the front of the paper on Saturday. This all goes to over 50,000 homes. On top of that the paper is running a feature story for Saturday interviewing us at the Muvico Theater. WOW!! Our banners are getting printed and invite cards are getting ready. We are blitzing the Muvico on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. In the mean time I am praying like crazy!! We got to shoot a video tomorrow and put some final touches on the volunteer training. But we are getting ready. Here is our new outside banner.

7 Days and Counting

One week from today... wow. Here are some pics of the invite cards and ad we are running.

One Week!

I can hardly believe its one week til launch. 11.11.07 Wow. Over 1 1/2 years and we are giving birth. I ask for your prayers for our team, musicians, volunteers, staff, the people who will be coming, the people whose lives are going to be changed. I ask you to pray for finances, equipment we need, all of the stuff yet to buy. I ask you to pray for me. To be the best servant I can so that everything I do will bring glory to Jesus. I ask that you invite someone and go the extra effort to bring them Sunday. Commit to bring at least 2 other people.

God has blessed us in so many ways. Darlene, Mark and I are grateful for all the prayers so far, the support and the opportunity to do Life Point...because every life DOES have a point.

12 Keys To Recruiting Launch Team Members

1. Remember: You are on a God Hunt. You are looking for the people God wants to partner with you.
Pray
Pray
Pray

2. Never say or do anything that will tarnish the “Image of the Desired Future.”
Vision can be very easily tarnished by what we say.
When people ask questions, always answer them with pictures of the desired future.

3. Always have two or three “next steps” for this person in your mind before you begin the conversation.

• The purpose of recruiting conversations is to recruit. Many people will “buy in” in steps. So you want to have several events that could act like steps to involvement. FYI – Attending a Bible Study may be much too risky a next step.

• Next steps revolve around the bottom line rather than the event. IE: “This person needs to be exposed to the vision rather than schedule follow up meeting.” Once you identify the bottom line, you can keep chipping away at the next step until you get it done.

• Identify next steps and write them down.
For someone you meet in line at McDonalds
For a Christian you have met
For someone who has attended 3 small group meetings.
Etc.

4. Always Listen for Agenda Harmony
• Develop 3 to 5 Napkin Drawings
• Develop simple drawings that you can draw upside down on a napkin or place mat that help you describe the desired future.
• One of these drawings should be done in such a way that you can ask the person to place an “X” where they think they are at in the picture.

5. Remember: You are in Sales
• Many pastors resist this idea.
• A salesperson’s job is to introduce people to products that can be useful in their lives.
• Our product is Christ
• 4 basics of product sales -- You must:
• Know your product
• Be able to communicate your product
• Believe in your product
• Use your product.
In America, our culture expects the salesperson to ask for the close of the sale. Have confidence in Christ and ASK people to join you.

6. Attempt to keep the conversation on “YES” rather than “NO” statements
• This is a way to build trust
• Do not be phony
• Work on identifying points of agreement between you. (sports, community, children, etc.)
• It will take 5 yes’s to overcome one NO statement.
• Work the yes’s to points of agreement concerning the vision of the new church.

7. Explore the level of commitment by moving from safe to unsafe territory. Once you have found the unsafe territory, retreat one step back into safety.
• Ask questions that move from safe common ground to more vision specific ground. At some point you will probably sense the person feeling a little unsafe. At this point, acknowledge the feeling of un-safety and step back on step to safe ground.

8. Ask meaningful questions that communicate you respect this person.
Prepare a list of 25 meaningful questions you might use in a recruiting conversation.
Ask: “Hypothetical Question:
What would a new church in this community need to do in order for you to WANT to regularly give money to support its ministry?”

Ask: “Hypothetical Question:
How significant would these ministries that we just talked about concerning you giving money -- need to be for you to want to volunteer 2 to 4 hours a week to see them happen?”

9. Always ask for the person to go the next step in commitment before leaving a conversation
• Americans are conditioned for you to initiate progression. Think about how every major purchase is handled. The salesman moves us forward. We do not want to be like salesmen, but must realize that the culture expects us to believe enough in what we are doing to invite them to “buy in” at a significant cost.

• The “next step” is never the final step. Give people small significant challenges.

• Ask for one thing that is doable rather than the whole boat load which will set them up for failure.

• Keep a stack of stamped post cards with you. After the meeting, immediately address a card and write a two sentence note thanking the person for the time and affirming their next step.

10. Always ask for the names of two or three other people before leaving a conversation
If the names are at a peer level with this person, they trust you
If the names are at a subordinate level with this person, they do not trust you
If the names are at a superior level with this person, they are promoting you

11. Use a contact management system – preferable index cards rather than computer
• Put every contact on an index card – include address and phone
• Identify if they are in the Gifted, Target, Core, or Community Leader category
• Identify and note “what is the next step with this person.”
• Write dates of contact on the note card
• Pray over these cards daily.

12: Remember it is a numbers game

• For every 10 people you ask only one will say yes
• The more you ask the more who will say YES!!!

The Dates Are Set

Life Point WILL have Life!! The dates are set:

Preview Service 1: September 30, 2007
Preview Service 2: October 21, 2007
LAUNCH: NOVEMBER 11, 2007 11/11/07

Wow, I can believe it is almost here. Man am I stoked!!! Pray for us PLEASE!

AWESOME 1st. Launch Team Meeting

I can not begin to tell you how stoked I am. We had our first launch team meeting and man was it awesome. There is now Life to the Life Point Vision. We had great pizza thanks to California Pizza at Coconut Point and then a time of worship while Smitty played. Our music is going to be so very COOL. We then jumped right into talking about the vision and the plan and all the things we must do before the first preview service.

As I sat and looked at all 8 of us, Jim, Jeannie, Smitty, Julie, and Mark, I can help but realize just how awesome our God is. How He has orchestrated all of our journeys to come together for this mission. EVERYONE GOT THE VISION. EVERYONE IS SO ON-BOARD. EVERYONE IS PUMPED.

Big shout out to Jeannie who led a girl at work to become a Christ-Follower. Then on top of that, I had the most incredible honor of having lunch yesterday with a mother and daughter who work at the Muvico Theater where we will be holding church. God opened up the door and I had the honor of leading both of them to become Christ Followers. MAN!!!

We have our next team meeting Tuesday and I can't wait. This Sunday Smitty, Jeannie, Mark and Julie will be doing Life Point's first mission trip to Central Florida to do worship at one of the prisons. Our prison ministry is so important in that the gospel is presented and the music is rockin and with Mark and Smitty and Julie and Jeannie and everyone else, lives will be changed. People will become Christ-Followers. This weekend. WOW!!!

So it looks like it will be my brother Jim going to a local church to visit tomorrow. I will keep you posted . Be in prayer for us, for the 3 new Christ - Followers and for the prison ministry this weekend.
Man is God moving.

First Launch Team Meeting

I am STOKED! Tomorrow night at 6:30 pm we will be having the FIRST meeting of the LIFE POINT LAUNCH TEAM! Man God is awesome. Over a year and a half of prayer and planning and worrying and laughing and crying and now we have feet to the vision. I can't wait. Our team is awesome!!!.

The Best Of Tadd Grandstaff

One of my friends in the blogging world is Tadd Grandstaff who is planting Pine Ridge Church in Burlington NC. His blog which you can read HERE is one of the best and most widely read blogs out there. Tadd has been a great resource for me personally as well as for Life Point. As we are now on site full time and putting our staff and launch team together, I went back and re-read all of Tadds posts. I have compiled them in this PDF doc which you can download Download tadds_best_stuff.pdf

They are holding their first community event and first preview service in the next few weeks. Pray for them and better yet go to Pine Ridges Site and give to their launch fund. You can get there HERE. Thanks Tadd for all the great stuff you have posted as you journey.

Launch Plans

I got an email from someone who had some questions on our launch plan. At Life Point have developed a detail launch plan and as I sent it to him I started wondering if we really had a productive plan or a plan that looked good on paper but was not true to the purposes of a true launch plan. We are using the Converge Program from Passion 4 Planting. The following is from their tutorial which is one of their resources. I can't recommend these guys enough. They have been Great! I would not think of planting Life Point without them on our team. I think our plan is close but I feel a great launch plan does the following:

• Causes a church planter to be disciplined in thinking and understanding before acting—Proverbs 13:16, 14:8, and 19:2, respectfully say, "Wise people think before they act;" "The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways;" "Zeal without knowledge is not good; a person who moves too quickly may go the wrong way."

• Keeps the planter focused on people—Many church planters become consumed by administrative details and don’t spend adequate time networking in the community, communicating vision, and developing a core group. Good intentions often fall victim to the reality of administrative details. A good plan helps the planter set priorities early and serves as a tool for delegating responsibilities to others.

• Helps the planter to discern God’s purpose and vision for the new church and to turn that vision into reality—The launch plan is a tool for understanding God’s vision and then cooperating with God to join Him in the work.

• Helps the planter establish a solid foundation that lasts beyond the plan—The culture and foundation that are laid during the pre-launch phase largely determines the health of the church after launch. Most church planters fail to spend adequate time during pre-launch establishing healthy teams and processes. They pay a heavy price later as these same weaknesses become growth barriers.
• Is a flexible guide embraces change—Discerning God’s will is an ongoing process that should not be constrained by a rigid plan.

• Starts with a clear picture or vision for the future—Throughout the Bible we see God working to define a picture of a preferable future for His people. All plans should start with an understanding of God’s vision for this preferable future.

• Does not require a detailed organizer—Planning is a process, not a science. Church planters should not be afraid of planning. Instead, they should seek the council of experiences organizers for assistance.

• Helps the planter to clarify expectations and to gain an understanding of what needs to be done—It’s been said that if you can’t articulate it in writing, you probably don’t understand it. A written plan helps solidify your thoughts.

• Is a great communication tool for getting others onboard—The plan helps communicate the vision for the new church and the plan for getting there. As people read your plan and discuss it with you, the people God is leading your way will get excited and want to join you.

• Helps church planters to accomplish more with their limited resources—A plan serves to focus your resources and helps you complete more than you otherwise could.

• Integrates wise counsel from other experienced people—In Proverbs 20:18 and 15:22 we read, "plans succeed through good counsel; don’t go to war without the advice of others." and "Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many counselors bring success."

• Helps church planters to focus/quantify their priorities—Some things are more important than others. Without a clear set of priorities, we tend to work on whatever is most urgent. Often in church planting, the most urgent is not the most important. A good plan helps the planter make wise choices in deciding what to work on, including identifying when specific tasks should be accomplished.

• Clearly defines responsibilities—In addition to defining what needs to be done, a good plan identifies who is responsible for each action. A wise planter knows that he/she needs to delegate tasks. The plan identifies who (i.e. the planter, spouse, friend, core group members, contractor, etc.) is responsible for each specific task.

• Clearly defines the sequence of tasks—A good plan identifies interdependencies between tasks, so as to promote the proper order of completing them.

• Clearly defines financial requirements—With this information, a solid budget can be developed. If necessary, individual tasks can be revised to increase or decrease the budget.

As I said, Life Point is close with our plan but not quite there. We will be working on it and I will post the “final” copy when we are done.

The 3 Keys To Launching LARGE

A friend of mine wrote this for his church plant. This will give you great insight on launching large.

Launching Large

“Commit your work to the Lord, and then your plans will succeed.” – Proverbs 16:3

1) Don’t just teach the vision, be the vision.

“Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you.” – Proverbs 4:25
It’s not enough to have a vision…you have to act on it. The vision has to become a reality. Vision isn’t enough. Execution is just as important. Don’t just tell people that you’re going to care about ministry…do some ministry.

One of our launch team people helped me understand this principle as it related to our second preview service. I was going to talk about the vision of the church, but she challenged me to let it be a normal service and speak for itself. Showing is always better than telling. We just decided to be who we were going to be.

If you want people to know you’re funny, you don’t tell them how funny you are, you just tell them a joke. In the first six months of our church, I haven’t taught a sole vision message. Because each week, we flesh out that vision, and I incorporate vision into just about every message.

2) A dozen eggs is better than a golden egg.

I’m talking about advertising and promotion. If you think advertising and promotion isn’t spiritual, you’re mistaken. It’s a form of evangelism. Why wouldn’t you want to do everything you can, short of sinning, to get people to come to your church? Doesn’t the greatest message deserve to be promoted? Before we launched, we did:
Doorhangers – worked pretty good, but not the most effective
Direct Mail – we’ve figured out some cost effective ways to get this done
Road Signs – these were the hightest impact thing we did for the dollar
Invite Cards - these went along with personal invitations

I think we market our church well. We spend some money here, but not as much as you might thing. We learned some things that we can do to save money on direct mail, and that has turned out to be effective for us.

All of our early marketing played to the fact that we meet in a church. You need to come up with an angle that is unique to your church. Do not send out stock postcards – get someone to design something that fits your personality as a church. Do not send out postcards with church buildings or pastel, girly colors on them. Remember that you’re sending out something that needs to appeal to men, not just women.

"So this isn't about having to bribe people into paying attention by sexing things up with graphics, sound, or shock. This is about helping the mind and the brain agree on what's worth paying attention to. And if you want it to be you, then you better be the most provocative and interesting thing in their environment." - Kathy Sierra

If you want to attract a crowd to your first service, I would suggest that you do some marketing. Read some marketing books. And not just Christian ones. I really suggest a book called Buzzmarketing. I’ve read about 7 or 8 really good books on marketing that have really helped us.

3) Don’t copy churches that aren’t growing.
“Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many counselors bring success.” – Proverbs 15:22
“Whoever walks with the wise will become wise.” – Proverbs 13:20

Everybody has a coaching network, and you need to be around people who are doing what you want to do. We looked and learned from Mountain Lake Church, Westridge Church and NorthPoint. I read a lot of church leader blogs. There are some very smart people out there. We’ve gotten advice about when to start a second service, what times those service should be, how to get people in small groups, how to raise money. Ask a lot of questions, and get advice. But don’t get advice from dead or dying churches. Who cares what they are doing if it is not working? Why are you going to copy something that stinks? And don’t just go do the opposite of what you hated in your last church. You need to get with God, and seek good advice from people you respect. And you need to make smart decisions.