Post Revisited: “They Know ‘Everything’ About You”

Published
by
Kerry Mackey
on June 26, 2009
in Communication
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I received and email in resent days asking that I re-post a March 9th posting on, “They Know ‘everything’ About You“.  It was a timely email as I had just finished a discussion with a friend in communications asking ourselves how have we been surveying those who attend church on their first impressions.

Are we asking the right questions?  Are we providing them the most useful communication tools?  OR  Are we providing persons only what we think they need with our limited knowledge base?  We are probably not as good as we think we are…

We would love to hear your comments… please join the discussion in the “comment” section with us to dialog in our learning community.
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Here is the lead in to the original post with a  link to the complete posting from March 9, 2009.

Or at least they think they know everything about you.  The truth is they only know the perception of you and your church.

For the most part the people I interview on the street use the following terms about the local church… hear them out.

READ ENTIRE POSTING: They Know “everything” About You

A week in review while vacationing at the Hyatt Coconut Plantation

Published
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Kerry Mackey
on June 15, 2009
in Communication, Community, Connection and Contribution
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This past week Stephanie, the boys and I, as well as Stephanie’s parents spent 5 days relaxing near Fort Myers, Florida.  I am continually impressed by how important Customer Relations are in the resort community.  It seems they do not miss a thing from the time you step on the premises until the moment you leave or at least they try.

Makes me ask the question why we do not take first impressions and customer relations more seriously in the local church.

Over the past 13 years in the local church several questions continue to surface in my mind, especially with my recent experience.

  • How can we help the church take a more significant role in customer relations with those who are our guests? (concierge at the condo)
  • What communication tools are we using and are they the correct ones to help meet their perceived needs? (oral, print, broadcast, digital media tools - quick reference guide at the condo)
  • What are we providing guests that creates connection within minutes of their arrival? (guest dessert with staff on evening of arrival, free breakfast in the foyer, etc…)
  • How do we help persons feel like they are making a contribution? (all guests were asked to hang their towels for multiple days to assist with being ‘green’, also asked to keep the grounds clean, etc…)
  • How are we helping persons feel like they are part of the community as quickly as possible? (the resort shared a listing of all the benefits available.)

Just a couple of thoughts I was having this week.

Thank you Hyatt Coconut Plantation for a GREAT experience while being your guest.  You made a GREAT first impression and provided GREAT customer relations.

Rockbridge Seminary - Just finishing up teaching “The Theology and Practice of Fellowship”

Published
by
Kerry Mackey
on April 28, 2009
in B.E.L.O.N.G. and Street to the Seat
. 3 Comments

You’ve heard me share with great passion about Rockbridge Seminary.   Well, here I go again.

I have just finished teaching another semester for Rockbridge and the learning environment it creates for men and women around the world who desire a seminary education when they can not or do not desire to leave their ministry position to attend a traditional seminary is phenomenal.

I wished that you could read the Learning Assessments that I just read about how these students ranging in age for 25 to 65 are now implementing their learnings in the context of their local congregation.

In addition, since each student is working alongside a mentor within their local church environment, how much more rich that is for them.  They are learning online with students from all over the world while being mentored by a local pastor/minister all the while having some of the most knowledgeable persons in the their specific field of ministry facilitating the entire learning community.

I know what you are thinking… It’s just to good to be true… I can get my seminary education fully online while collaborating with men/women around the world from the comfort of my own home while sitting in my pajamas sipping a hot cup of coffee…. BUT, you can!

Try it for yourself… Tell them I sent you!

The backside of Easter

Published
by
Kerry Mackey
on April 25, 2009
in Communication and Community
. 0 Comments

long time… no talk…

The backside of Easter is always a busy time for us first impression and assimilation guys/gals.  All the hard work that is put into making the experience one that will break down all the barriers of someone who only attends a church once to twice a year is crucial.

The back end of the experience is just as crucial.  This year was a great year where I serve.  We saw 1275 families engage one of our campuses with 312 persons choosing to follow Jesus and 204 persons saying they desire to return to the teachings of Jesus.  Wow… Praise God for such a wonderful Easter experience…27,000 on one of our 5 campuses and 16,000 joining us online.

We have spent the the past two weeks being very intentional about how we follow up with our guests.

Here are a few things we’ve done that you might find helpful:

NewComer:

  • FREE CD at the Welcome Centers with a coupon for a FREE coffee and/or meal on us.
  • Email response w/n 24 hours of them completing a response card
  • Automated phone call from our executive pastor w/n 48 hours
  • Personal phone call from a ministry partner and/or pastor from the campus they attended w/n 72 hours
  • Letter in the mail from Senior Pastor w/n 3 days - specifically asking them to join us for the next weekends launch of a new series

New to Jesus

  • Email w/n 24 hours
  • Personal phone call from a ministry partner and/or pastor from the campus they attended w/n 72 hours
  • Letter in the mail from Director of Adult Ministries w/n 3 days - specifically asking them to join us for the next weekends launch of a new series AND to invite them to “New Beginnings” a class specifically designed for them to answer their questions and give them next steps.

Coming back to Jesus

  • Email w/n 24 hours
  • Personal phone call from a ministry partner and/or pastor from the campus they attended w/n 72 hours
  • Letter in the mail from Director of Adult Ministries w/n 3 days - specifically asking them to join us for the next weekends launch of a new series AND to invite them to “Foundations” a class specifically designed for them address the basics doctrines of the faith and give them next steps.

In addition, we have asked each of our campus teams to personally call these folks weekly for the first month just to check on them, see how they are doing, answer any questions, they may have, and encourage them to connect with us each week on some level… weekend service, life group, life study, etc…

Hope these few suggestions are helpful…

iMAX tool launches at Christ Fellowship this weekend. GREAT next step tool for assimilating new folks into small group community leveraging the weekend experience and teaching time as a springboard for community/belonging.

Published
by
Kerry Mackey
on March 15, 2009
in Community
. 0 Comments

You want to talk about tools for building Community.  Check out the new tool we launched this weekend at Christ Fellowship.  The iMAX Guide is a great next step tool.

__________

Maximize the Message (iMax)

The IMAX Guide is designed to bring your faith to life! You can use it individually, as a family devotional, or in a group with your friends. It’s up to you! These guides will help you take the message to the max so you can Grow to Go!

Each week, there will be a new guide based on the most recent weekend message. You can download your copy or pick it up at Life Group Central right after the service you attend.

Ways you can use this tool:

  • Meet with friends after the service you attend to unpack the message together
  • Gather with a friend or family at a local café to talk about how the message impacted you
  • Use during your personal devotional times throughout the week • Initiate spiritual conversations with your family about the message
  • Use the guides as the curriculum in your life group
  • Ask a couple friends to go through a message series with you so you can discover, develop, and deploy God’s Word in your lives
  • Tips for Life Group Discussion

Share Your Story

How has God touched your life during your time spent using these guides? We’d love to know so that we can pray for you and encourage others in their faith. Let us know how has helped you in your group by using our online contact form.

Intentional Assimilation

Published
by
Kerry Mackey
on March 12, 2009
in Communication, Community, Connection and Contribution
. 0 Comments

I was dialoging several thoughts with my Rockbridge Seminary class in the past few days when someone asked if I’d give them a thirty thousand foot view of how I might see “intentional assimilation”.  I wrote this little ‘ditty’ in 10 minutes so I’m sure it has room for improvement; however, see what you might learn from it that will help your church.

___________________________

Intentional Assimilation begins long before the weekend experience and goes on for days, weeks, and months after the initial encounter.  Consider what it might mean to your church if you looked at the following areas of assimilation and how would it change what you currently do.

1.    Communication

Assimilation for new comers begins with a communication strategy that includes oral, print, broadcast, and digital media.  Rex Miller writes a great book on Millennium Matrix.  A must read for leverage every platform available to communicate who we are and how you can belong here.  This begins with members of the congregation engaging their community personally telling life-changing stories.

2.    Connection

Touch points are huge!  These are the “street to the seat” type issues from signage packages around your campuses to, traffic volunteers, greeters, Welcome Center hosts, ushers, EMS teams, Security, etc…  Leveraging every opportunity to take someone by the hand through his or her entire first impression experience.

This might also include welcome packets, new believer kits, brochures about ministries, coffees, luncheons, etc…

3.    Contribution

Although not talked about enough the key to retention of guests is retention of good volunteers (ministry partners) in strategic touch points.  John C. Maxwell reminded me the other day of one of his old sayings, “make sure you have people with the ‘gift of ush’… ushering”.  What he means is make sure you have your best people on the front lines of engaging your folks from the curb to the cushion, the parking lot to the pew, the street to the seat…

4.    Community

Building a “Grow to Go” discipleship platform will produce huge dividends in the long term.  Develop a plan to have crawl, walk, and run steps for people.  I call this “discover, develop, deploy”.  People need to see that you have a plan for them and their families.  More to come on “Grow to Go”… a life work in the making.

Here are some ideas:
•    Response Card – ‘guest card’
o    Ask persons to complete during every service
o    Provide cards at every Welcome Center
•    Next Step Process
o    Follow-up, say the same thing and direct consistently… if multi-site, be ALIGNED…
•    101 – 2 hr orientation on fellowship (membership class – HUGE)
•    201 – 2 hr orientation on becoming like Christ – “Grow to Go”
•    301 – 2 hr orientation on how God has SHAPEd you to serve the church (Only U Can B U)
•    401 – 2 hr orientation telling your story personally, locally, and globally
•    501 – 2 hr orientation on full life surrender.
•    Small Groups – intentional growth groups meeting throughout the week
o    Truly where long term care happens

“Single most influential change in my spiritual journey 12 years ago with Daryl Eldridge.”

•    Studies – centralized and decentralized discipleship classes (life studies) that meet one of the five purposes and meet one of the three levels of learning (discover, develop, deploy)

Toss some of these ideas around in discussion and see what else you can dream up.

They know “everything” about you…

Published
by
Kerry Mackey
on March 9, 2009
in Communication
. 0 Comments

Or at least they think they know everything about you.  The truth is they only know the perception of you and your church.

For the most part the people I interview on the street use the following terms about the local church… hear them out.

  • they are so closed minded, why would I go there
  • they are a bunch of stuck up people who think they have the answer to everyone’s problems
  • it’s all about what I can do for them
  • the church is always asking for my money
  • they think they know people like me, but they don’t
  • why do they need all those buildings anyway
  • they never ask me about me, only about what they want from me
  • I tried, but no one helped me when I showed up
  • I can’t find my way around that place
  • I wouldn’t know where to park even if I showed up
  • it’s too big
  • I have tattoos, and you know what church people think about those of us with tattoos
  • church is too corporate these days, what happen to the church I once knew when I was a kid
  • if I come they will hammer me with people coming to my door, phone calls, and emails

I know that none of us want to hear these things about ourselves nor our churches, but these are the things I am hearing on the street when I ask people if they have tried church and/or their experience with a church.

You and I know that this is not the expression of Christ that He would want those He misses most to have about His church… now would He !?

Just a thought!

They know nothing about you…

Published
by
Kerry Mackey
on February 26, 2009
in Communication
. 0 Comments

Let me recommend that the local church take the approach that, “they know nothing about you” as we prepared to engage persons during the Easter Celebration.  We are 45 days from one of the greatest Christian celebrations we know, so what are we communicating to the community.

Here are a few questions I ask myself as we prepare for guests at our Easter Celebration.  This is not an exhaustive list by any means… just 5 thoughts in the area of communications that came to mind.

1.  How do they know we are here? (What is our oral, print, broadcast, and digital communication tools?  How are we flooding the city with our information?  Be as created and simple as you have bandwidth, but leave nothing to chance.)

2.  What tools are we using to communicate where we are located? (Multi-site adds complexity to this; however, with proper planning it can be done with great effectiveness.  Don’t assume people know where you are… they don’t!  Just go down to your local hardware store and ask the clerk where to find your church and I am betting they will send you somewhere else.)

3.  What times are our services? (You may find that multiple services over multiple days just might give more persons an opportunity to spend time with you…of course you’ll have to assess what is best for you.  Sometimes sheer number of expected persons will help you make this determination as well.  I pray that is the case.  Staying within your advertised times is very important as well.  Tell persons what they can expect.  Failure to stay within your allotted times doesn’t communicate well with new persons.  Some will even see it as the bait and switch, and we all know that isn’t what we are trying to do…right!)

4.  What can they expect when they get here? (Give persons an idea of where to park, who will be there to greet them and direct them to the worship center, briefly describe what they can expect during a service, you might even consider letting persons know what the normal attire is with your congregation, and if you are planning an after service meet and greet with pastors then by all means let persons know that before they arrive.)

5.  What is available for Children and Youth?  (Give persons clarity about what is available for their kids.  The worst thing that can happen is for a family to arrive thinking one thing and find out it something completely different.  And if you do not allow children of a certain age in the adult worship service, please be clear about this up front.)

Just a couple of thoughts that were running through my head… Hope they help!

Please comment with your thoughts as well.

Remember… Street to the Seat is a learning Community!

What are you reading?

Published
by
Kerry Mackey
on February 23, 2009
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

In a recent interview I was asked, “What are you reading?”  I am actually reading several books; however, the one that makes most sense to mention is, “The Rest of God” by Mark Buchanan.  A must read!

Click on “STORE” at the top of my blog with direct link to amazon where you can see all the books on my shelf as well as recommended readings.

Widely-acclaimed author Mark Buchanan states that what we’ve really lost is “the rest of God-the rest God bestows and, with it, that part of Himself we can know only through stillness.” Stillness as a virtue is a foreign concept in our society, but there is wisdom in God’s own rhythm of work and rest. Jesus practiced Sabbath among those who had turned it into a dismal thing, a day for murmuring and finger-wagging, and He reminded them of the day’s true purpose: liberation-to heal, to feed, to rescue, to celebrate, to lavish and relish life abundant.

With this book, Buchanan reminds us of this and gives practical advice for restoring the sabbath in our lives.

Fish or Cut Bait - “Good News Fishing Ministry” chooses to fish

Published
by
Kerry Mackey
on February 21, 2009
in Community
. 0 Comments

You’ve heard the old saying, “fish or cut bait.  WELL, Good News Fishing Minisry chooses to fish.  My boys and I were treated today to 4 hours of pure joy on the water thanks to Captain Don and Captain Tony of Good News Fishing Ministry.

When I speak of the heart of Street to the Seat and helping persons choose Christ and the Church, well Good News Fishing Ministry gets it to the core.  These guys are all about breaking down the walks of Christianity and meeting persons where they are.  They engage persons at the point of need and use fishing as a way of allow persons to be who they are, where they are without brick and mortar.

Might you consider this type of ministry?  Let me challenge you to say YES.

DONATE to Good News Fishing Ministry

If you are in Florida you MUST get involved with these guys.  They are ministering out of Rivera Beach, Tampa, Key Largo, and the Bahamas.  Come join the ministry and show Jesus to the world through fishing.