Engagement Pathway: Greg Curtis & Tommy Carreras on Best Current Practices on Assimilating People at Your Church

Thanks for joining the unSeminary podcast. Today we’re talking with Greg Curtis and Tommy Carreras. Greg is the Pastor of Guest Engagement at Eastside Christian Church, a multisite church in California, Nevada, and Minnesota. He’s also founder of Climbing the Assimalayas, a website focused on helping churches design an engagement pathway that fosters connection, enables discipleship and accelerates church growth. Tommy is the Head Sherpa at Climbing the Assimilayas.

Since Covid, the majority of churches are struggling even more to live on mission. The breakdown of community over the last several decades translates to a lack of connection, without which we can’t make disciples. Greg and Tommy are here to offer free coaching around building an effective connection strategy for your church to combat the decline in volunteerism and other engagement issues.

* Connection precedes discipleship. // No one makes a disciple out of a disconnected person. Jesus told people to follow Him first and then developed disciples. Without connection, it is impossible to make disciples. Therefore, having a clear assimilation system or engagement pathway is crucial for churches. This pathway should help guests become connected serving church family members, involved in small groups or other community activities, and use their gifts to serve and grow.

* Volunteer drought. // There is a volunteer drought in many churches after COVID. Think about it and correctly understand the reasons for the volunteer shortage in your church. The four main reasons aren’t because of a fear of COVID now. Rather, people got out of the habit of going to church, they have switched churches, they have dual citizenship between online and in-person services, or a church’s leaders aren’t viewing volunteerism as part of discipleship.

* Addressing the volunteer shortage. // To address the deficit, Greg suggests taking a look at the volunteer positions and changing commitment levels. Combine and cross-train among teams such as greeters, first-time guest hosts, and guest central teams. Do an all church recruitment from the stage. Each staff can identify positions they need help with and set goals for recruitment. Develop a volunteer engagement cycle.

* Volunteer engagement cycle. // At Eastside they created a volunteer engagement cycle which addresses volunteers recruiting volunteers and volunteer retention as well. It starts with a huddle that includes a meal where staff can communicate vision and changes, plus do training. At the end is a call to action for the church’s leadership development program. After the five weeks of leadership training, participants either do something fun, like a potluck, or they receive a gift from the church. Creating a flywheel for volunteer engagement addresses the “how” questions around recruitment, retention, appreciation and vision casting.

* Resources for an engagement pathway. // Greg and Tommy offer a Climbing the Assimilayas online video course to walk church leaders through the process of creating an effective engagement pathway. This six-session program focuses on spiritual formation, assimilation, metrics, processes, and the essential 4 P’s (one place, one program, two placements, two processes). It’s full of downloadable resources and templates that users can plug in and use. And they have also created a community space where participants can ask questions, share ideas, and learn from each other.

Learn more about Eastside’s volunteer engagement cycle at eastside.com/people-development.