Welcome back to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. I’m so excited to talk today with Kent Richardson, the Communications Director of New Life Community Church.

Kent is part of the central services team at New Life and his role includes trying to resource, support, and equip New Life’s twenty-six locations, as well as overseeing the websites and social media presence and internal communications between the staff.

Kent is with us today to talk about how his role as the Communications Director works within New Life Community Church across so many locations.

* Listen to what each of the locations need. // When Kent first came into his role three years ago, one of the first things he did was meet individually with each of the location pastors. While familiar with the location where he was, Kent did not have that same insight everywhere. So he began asking questions about what the broader church looked like. What are the values? What are the pastors talking about, concerned about, needing? That helped Kent discover internally who New Life was, what they value, and what they were doing from a ministry standpoint. As a result, Kent knew his audience better and what communications would resonate with them.

* Get to know the differences at each campus. // Kent also learned that each location had their own style of communication. Some used more formal written communication, while others tended toward oral communication, such as storytelling. It can be chaotic at first, but try to learn to work within those differences and discover a method that works well for everyone. Kent also learned about the strengths and weaknesses of each campus. If one location was struggling in one area, and there was another location that was excelling in that same area, Kent worked to discover good ideas and best practices from the different locations, tapping into the skills of each pastor and sharing resources.

* Develop a central place to disseminate information. // Consider the idea of using a WordPress site to share with your pastors in order to offer ideas for sermons, freebie resources, videos, and other items they could use in prepping for weekend services. Kent originally sent out files through email to his pastors, but there were always files that were too big and it cluttered up people’s inboxes. Deciding there could be a more fun and efficient way to share resources and communicate to the many campuses, Kent built a WordPress site where he made everything easily available for download. Now he updates the site on Mondays to allow the team to have the week to work through the resources. Also, consider offering tips on how to use the available tools in sermons. The tools are great, but having tips on how to use them is beyond valuable.

* Develop communication tools easily. // Previously if various ministries needed a postcard, flyer or other communication tool, they would send Kent an email and let him know. But this always created a lot of back and forth as Kent tracked down all of the necessary information for the marketing piece. As a result, Kent developed a Communication Request Form where people were able to submit information for a creative project all in one place, which helped streamline the process. As part of this process, Kent created the “ABC” system to help people understand the information they needed to provide: A – Attention-Grabbing Headline. B – Brief Paragraph. C – Call to Action.

You can learn more about New Life Community Church at newlifecommunity.church.

Thank You for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also,

Welcome back to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. I’m so excited to talk today with Kent Richardson, the Communications Director of New Life Community Church.

Kent is part of the central services team at New Life and his role includes trying to resource, support, and equip New Life’s twenty-six locations, as well as overseeing the websites and social media presence and internal communications between the staff.

Kent is with us today to talk about how his role as the Communications Director works within New Life Community Church across so many locations.

* Listen to what each of the locations need. // When Kent first came into his role three years ago, one of the first things he did was meet individually with each of the location pastors. While familiar with the location where he was, Kent did not have that same insight everywhere. So he began asking questions about what the broader church looked like. What are the values? What are the pastors talking about, concerned about, needing? That helped Kent discover internally who New Life was, what they value, and what they were doing from a ministry standpoint. As a result, Kent knew his audience better and what communications would resonate with them.

* Get to know the differences at each campus. // Kent also learned that each location had their own style of communication. Some used more formal written communication, while others tended toward oral communication, such as storytelling. It can be chaotic at first, but try to learn to work within those differences and discover a method that works well for everyone. Kent also learned about the strengths and weaknesses of each campus. If one location was struggling in one area, and there was another location that was excelling in that same area, Kent worked to discover good ideas and best practices from the different locations, tapping into the skills of each pastor and sharing resources.

* Develop a central place to disseminate information. // Consider the idea of using a WordPress site to share with your pastors in order to offer ideas for sermons, freebie resources, videos, and other items they could use in prepping for weekend services. Kent originally sent out files through email to his pastors, but there were always files that were too big and it cluttered up people’s inboxes. Deciding there could be a more fun and efficient way to share resources and communicate to the many campuses, Kent built a WordPress site where he made everything easily available for download. Now he updates the site on Mondays to allow the team to have the week to work through the resources. Also, consider offering tips on how to use the available tools in sermons. The tools are great, but having tips on how to use them is beyond valuable.

* Develop communication tools easily. // Previously if various ministries needed a postcard, flyer or other communication tool, they would send Kent an email and let him know. But this always created a lot of back and forth as Kent tracked down all of the necessary information for the marketing piece. As a result, Kent developed a Communication Request Form where people were able to submit information for a creative project all in one place, which helped streamline the process. As part of this process, Kent created the “ABC” system to help people understand the information they needed to provide: A – Attention-Grabbing Headline. B – Brief Paragraph. C – Call to Action.

You can learn more about New Life Community Church at newlifecommunity.church.

Thank You for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also,

Welcome back to our new podcast all about multisite! I’m chatting with a group of multisite ninjas and answering your questions about the ins and outs of launching new campuses. Our group is as follows:

Natalie Frisk is our family ministry expert. She is a key leader from The Meeting House. This church has 19 (!) locations and is doing all kinds of great stuff, including a killer kids’ & youth curriculum that they give away for free. Natalie’s a lot of fun and will have so many great insights around leading in a thriving multisite church.

Greg Curtis is our guest connections and assimilation expert. He leads at Eastside Christian Church, one of the fastest growing churches in the country, and literally, is the “go to” source for getting people to stick and stay in the church. (Eastside has assimilated something like 1,500 people in the last 18 months!) His coaching practice around assimilation is amazing.

Ben Stapley is our communications and service programming expert. Ben is one of the most helpful leaders I know. His day job is at Liquid Church in NJ, but he does so much to help other leaders with the “big show” part of church world.

And I, Rich, have been involved with 14 different campus launches over the years and enjoy helping churches that are thinking about multisite.

We are here to answer your questions about running a multisite church and are excited to be here today with our fifth episode.

Opening Question: Who are some other multisite churches that you are learning from?

* Greg Curtis – There isn’t one or two specific ones I have personally invested in, but I would say in general Church of the Highlands and Central Christian in Mesa, Arizona.

* Natalie Frisk – To be honest with you and without even building into their egos at all, I have been learning a lot from Liquid Church and Eastside, both Greg and Ben. But not just those guys, different people on their teams. Aside from those two, I would also say Crossroads Church in Ohio has been an incredible church to tune into.

* Ben Stapley – I know one that I’ve given a lot of shout outs to in the past is LCBC Church in Pennsylvania. They’ve been super helpful with their time and have systemized things really well. In terms of following churches from afar, on my radar right now would be Christ Church of the Valley. They do a great job of sharing their resources.

Q1: What are some effective systems and practices churches are using for developing leaders in multisite churches?

Raising up leaders is critically important for both staff and volunteers. 87% of all campus pastors are found from within the existing church and 2/3 of volunteers in all locations are new to volunteering.

Within Eastside Church, when a new campus is started they invite people to come to interest meetings where they can meet the campus pastor and key leaders that have already been recruited for a few major areas. There is a short presentation to let everyone know where the church is in the launch process, and then the leaders are introduced by area. People are invited to sit at the various tables with area leaders based on where they are interested in serving. This process is the beginning of the pipeline, whether they are new to volunteering or experienced, and can lead to key leadership positions. Eastside has learned a lot from watching other organizations and works to adapt and implement what works for them. When they went to Auxano, they designed a three-year process for implementation that would go through the entire staff and department to develop leaders. They use a three-wing environment to develop leaders: Prep Modules, which are comprised of five competencies that help move someone from a team member up to the highest levels of leadership; Inspirational Events to encourage and offer new events for the team members; and Ongoing Equipping Huddles to invite staff...

Welcome back to our new podcast all about multisite! I’m chatting with a group of multisite ninjas and answering your questions about the ins and outs of launching new campuses. Our group is as follows:

Natalie Frisk is our family ministry expert. She is a key leader from The Meeting House. This church has 19 (!) locations and is doing all kinds of great stuff, including a killer kids’ & youth curriculum that they give away for free. Natalie’s a lot of fun and will have so many great insights around leading in a thriving multisite church.

Greg Curtis is our guest connections and assimilation expert. He leads at Eastside Christian Church, one of the fastest growing churches in the country, and literally, is the “go to” source for getting people to stick and stay in the church. (Eastside has assimilated something like 1,500 people in the last 18 months!) His coaching practice around assimilation is amazing.

Ben Stapley is our communications and service programming expert. Ben is one of the most helpful leaders I know. His day job is at Liquid Church in NJ, but he does so much to help other leaders with the “big show” part of church world.

And I, Rich, have been involved with 14 different campus launches over the years and enjoy helping churches that are thinking about multisite.

We are here to answer your questions about running a multisite church and are excited to be here today with our fifth episode.

Opening Question: Who are some other multisite churches that you are learning from?

* Greg Curtis – There isn’t one or two specific ones I have personally invested in, but I would say in general Church of the Highlands and Central Christian in Mesa, Arizona.

* Natalie Frisk – To be honest with you and without even building into their egos at all, I have been learning a lot from Liquid Church and Eastside, both Greg and Ben. But not just those guys, different people on their teams. Aside from those two, I would also say Crossroads Church in Ohio has been an incredible church to tune into.

* Ben Stapley – I know one that I’ve given a lot of shout outs to in the past is LCBC Church in Pennsylvania. They’ve been super helpful with their time and have systemized things really well. In terms of following churches from afar, on my radar right now would be Christ Church of the Valley. They do a great job of sharing their resources.

Q1: What are some effective systems and practices churches are using for developing leaders in multisite churches?

Raising up leaders is critically important for both staff and volunteers. 87% of all campus pastors are found from within the existing church and 2/3 of volunteers in all locations are new to volunteering.

Within Eastside Church, when a new campus is started they invite people to come to interest meetings where they can meet the campus pastor and key leaders that have already been recruited for a few major areas. There is a short presentation to let everyone know where the church is in the launch process, and then the leaders are introduced by area. People are invited to sit at the various tables with area leaders based on where they are interested in serving. This process is the beginning of the pipeline, whether they are new to volunteering or experienced, and can lead to key leadership positions. Eastside has learned a lot from watching other organizations and works to adapt and implement what works for them. When they went to Auxano, they designed a three-year process for implementation that would go through the entire staff and department to develop leaders. They use a three-wing environment to develop leaders: Prep Modules, which are comprised of five competencies that help move someone from a team member up to the highest levels of leadership; Inspirational Events to encourage and offer new events for the team members; and Ongoing Equipping Huddles to invite staff...

Thanks so much for joining in for another episode of the unSeminary podcast. We have a great conversation today with Jon Usborne, the Creative Arts Director with 2|42 Community Church in Michigan.

2|42 Community Church’s heart beats for its community, whether it’s the neighborhoods where they are located or building community on their teams. Today Jon is with us to talk about what that looks like in the worship ministry and how to build teams of depth that help people to develop more than just their technical skills.

* Less technique and more depth. // When you’re leading the worship ministry, the focus tends to primarily be on getting team schedules correct, being intentional about choosing songs, and ultimately leading the community to Jesus so they are impacted during the worship time. Those are good things, but as a result the focus can shift to technique rather than depth, and it can be tempting to skip parts of the whole process during those times when you’re tired. There’s a lot more that we can do to build the worship team community, putting systems and structures of discipleship in place so our team understands the value of not just working on skills training. Rather they need to be leading out of a place of what they’ve discovered worshiping is in their personal lives.

* Don’t just develop musical skill. // As one who oversees the worship ministry, Jon doesn’t just want team members to develop their skills. Jon explains, “Your skill isn’t what identifies you in this community – being a worshiper of Jesus is what identifies you.” 2|42 Community Church is strategic about how they develop those qualities and characteristics in the members of their worship team – it breaks down to small groups within their worship community. Their focus is now to create a spiritual development pathway for the people on their teams.

* Audition for the community. // Let newcomers know that when they come in for auditions, they’re auditioning for the community and not for the stage. Choose musicians who are willing to serve in other areas besides just on stage. Encourage them to go out into community events, play music, reach out to others, and be a part of serving wholeheartedly off the stage. These events can be part of the audition process early on.

* Team leaders have a pastor’s heart. // At 2|42 the worship ministry is broken into teams based on the area of musical skill. For example, vocalists are on a team together, and each team has a leader. The team will get together over three months to help each other develop harmony and skills, and read the bible together. The team leader also meets with each member of their team over coffee with a goal of discipleship and just being present in someone’s life. The team leader is not the person who has been there the longest or is the most skilled in their craft, but rather it’s the people with the pastor’s heart. These individuals feel like they’re meant to lead people, and not just lead moments of worship on stage.

You can learn more about 2|42 Community Church at 242community.com.

Thank You for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!

Lastly, don’t forget to 

Thanks so much for joining in for another episode of the unSeminary podcast. We have a great conversation today with Jon Usborne, the Creative Arts Director with 2|42 Community Church in Michigan.

2|42 Community Church’s heart beats for its community, whether it’s the neighborhoods where they are located or building community on their teams. Today Jon is with us to talk about what that looks like in the worship ministry and how to build teams of depth that help people to develop more than just their technical skills.

* Less technique and more depth. // When you’re leading the worship ministry, the focus tends to primarily be on getting team schedules correct, being intentional about choosing songs, and ultimately leading the community to Jesus so they are impacted during the worship time. Those are good things, but as a result the focus can shift to technique rather than depth, and it can be tempting to skip parts of the whole process during those times when you’re tired. There’s a lot more that we can do to build the worship team community, putting systems and structures of discipleship in place so our team understands the value of not just working on skills training. Rather they need to be leading out of a place of what they’ve discovered worshiping is in their personal lives.

* Don’t just develop musical skill. // As one who oversees the worship ministry, Jon doesn’t just want team members to develop their skills. Jon explains, “Your skill isn’t what identifies you in this community – being a worshiper of Jesus is what identifies you.” 2|42 Community Church is strategic about how they develop those qualities and characteristics in the members of their worship team – it breaks down to small groups within their worship community. Their focus is now to create a spiritual development pathway for the people on their teams.

* Audition for the community. // Let newcomers know that when they come in for auditions, they’re auditioning for the community and not for the stage. Choose musicians who are willing to serve in other areas besides just on stage. Encourage them to go out into community events, play music, reach out to others, and be a part of serving wholeheartedly off the stage. These events can be part of the audition process early on.

* Team leaders have a pastor’s heart. // At 2|42 the worship ministry is broken into teams based on the area of musical skill. For example, vocalists are on a team together, and each team has a leader. The team will get together over three months to help each other develop harmony and skills, and read the bible together. The team leader also meets with each member of their team over coffee with a goal of discipleship and just being present in someone’s life. The team leader is not the person who has been there the longest or is the most skilled in their craft, but rather it’s the people with the pastor’s heart. These individuals feel like they’re meant to lead people, and not just lead moments of worship on stage.

You can learn more about 2|42 Community Church at 242community.com.

Thank You for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!

Lastly, don’t forget to 

Welcome back, friends, for a unique conversation today with Brian Dodd, author at the Brian Dodd on Leadership blog and Director of New Ministry Partnerships at INJOY Leadership Solutions.

Brian is with us today to talk about leadership and leader development and how he used his research of both to write his book Timeless.

* 10 most common practices. // On his blog, Brian coined the phrase “Apex Leaders”—leaders at the top of their professions. When it comes to leadership, there are also Apex Organizations and Apex Churches. Over the years, Brian has done over 185 profiles of Apex Leaders, Churches, and Organizations on his blog. In profiling so many exemplary leaders, he wondered if there was a common thread among the Apex groups, so Brian began an Excel spreadsheet and started going through all of those blog posts. He identified 309 things that those Apex leaders, churches, and organizations do and narrowed it down to the ten most common. With each of those ten practices, he builds a biblical framework within the chapters of the book Timeless and then ties each of those back to modern day examples.

* Build leadership culture. // With every book he writes, Brian sets out to create something that can be used to build a leadership culture. Timeless can be used as a personal study, but pastors can also read through it with their staffs, staffs can do it with their primary lay leaders, and lay leaders can do it with their spheres of influence. A faith-based organization or business group can go through the book together. There are discussion questions at the end of each chapter that you can go through on your own or with a group.

* Character comes in later. // The most shocking discovery Brian had during his research was what did not make the top ten most common practices. It was so shocking he wrote about it in the introduction of the book. You have expected steps that leaders would take—build great teams and deliver results—but Brian thought character would be number two or three in most common practices. To his surprise it didn’t even make it into the top fifteen. The fact is while you don’t need character to reach the top, you need character to stay at the top as a leader or organization. You see it in entertainment, sports, business, and even ministry—people who shoot to the top, but fizzle out because they don’t spend time on character development.

* Leader development versus leadership development. // Brian explains that leader development and leadership development are two different things. Leadership development is developing the skills, talents, and abilities to accomplish a task or assignment given to you by God. Meanwhile, leader development is becoming the type of man or woman who can accomplish a skill, task, or assignment given to you by God. We spend time an inordinate amount of time on leadership development, but not enough time on leader development in order to sustain the  positions we’re placed in.

* How is your mission and vision becoming a reality? // Some may say blogging is dead, but Brian encourages pastors to have blogs. God has given you a unique word to say on His behalf, so what do you need to be sharing with your community and church? How is the mission and vision at your church actually becoming a reality? If pastors are feeling stuck on what to write about, Brian gives a couple quick ideas. On Monday: 10 Things I Saw, Felt, and Heard on Sunday. On Tuesday: 10 Things My Staff Saw, Felt, and Heard. On Wednesday: Invite Your Friend this Weekend and Here’s What We’ll Be Talking About and Doing. On Thursday: Here’s What We’re Doing in the Community Over the Weekend. Take a break from writing on Friday and enjoy your Sabbath! On Saturday: Quick Reminder, Invite Your Friend. Make these posts short – about 300-500 words – with Saturday&#...

Welcome back, friends, for a unique conversation today with Brian Dodd, author at the Brian Dodd on Leadership blog and Director of New Ministry Partnerships at INJOY Leadership Solutions.

Brian is with us today to talk about leadership and leader development and how he used his research of both to write his book Timeless.

* 10 most common practices. // On his blog, Brian coined the phrase “Apex Leaders”—leaders at the top of their professions. When it comes to leadership, there are also Apex Organizations and Apex Churches. Over the years, Brian has done over 185 profiles of Apex Leaders, Churches, and Organizations on his blog. In profiling so many exemplary leaders, he wondered if there was a common thread among the Apex groups, so Brian began an Excel spreadsheet and started going through all of those blog posts. He identified 309 things that those Apex leaders, churches, and organizations do and narrowed it down to the ten most common. With each of those ten practices, he builds a biblical framework within the chapters of the book Timeless and then ties each of those back to modern day examples.

* Build leadership culture. // With every book he writes, Brian sets out to create something that can be used to build a leadership culture. Timeless can be used as a personal study, but pastors can also read through it with their staffs, staffs can do it with their primary lay leaders, and lay leaders can do it with their spheres of influence. A faith-based organization or business group can go through the book together. There are discussion questions at the end of each chapter that you can go through on your own or with a group.

* Character comes in later. // The most shocking discovery Brian had during his research was what did not make the top ten most common practices. It was so shocking he wrote about it in the introduction of the book. You have expected steps that leaders would take—build great teams and deliver results—but Brian thought character would be number two or three in most common practices. To his surprise it didn’t even make it into the top fifteen. The fact is while you don’t need character to reach the top, you need character to stay at the top as a leader or organization. You see it in entertainment, sports, business, and even ministry—people who shoot to the top, but fizzle out because they don’t spend time on character development.

* Leader development versus leadership development. // Brian explains that leader development and leadership development are two different things. Leadership development is developing the skills, talents, and abilities to accomplish a task or assignment given to you by God. Meanwhile, leader development is becoming the type of man or woman who can accomplish a skill, task, or assignment given to you by God. We spend time an inordinate amount of time on leadership development, but not enough time on leader development in order to sustain the  positions we’re placed in.

* How is your mission and vision becoming a reality? // Some may say blogging is dead, but Brian encourages pastors to have blogs. God has given you a unique word to say on His behalf, so what do you need to be sharing with your community and church? How is the mission and vision at your church actually becoming a reality? If pastors are feeling stuck on what to write about, Brian gives a couple quick ideas. On Monday: 10 Things I Saw, Felt, and Heard on Sunday. On Tuesday: 10 Things My Staff Saw, Felt, and Heard. On Wednesday: Invite Your Friend this Weekend and Here’s What We’ll Be Talking About and Doing. On Thursday: Here’s What We’re Doing in the Community Over the Weekend. Take a break from writing on Friday and enjoy your Sabbath! On Saturday: Quick Reminder, Invite Your Friend. Make these posts short – about 300-500 words – with Saturday&#...

I’m so glad you tuned in to today’s unSeminary podcast. Today I’m chatting with McKenzie Schreck, the executive pastor at Capital Church in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Capital Church just celebrated their twentieth anniversary this past fall. They began from a group of college kids who followed their professor to Salt Lake City to plant a church, and they now have a couple of locations in Utah.

Salt Lake City may be thought of as a difficult place to begin a Christian church and expect it to thrive, but McKenzie is with us today to talk about what they’ve done at Capital over the past 20 years and what you can do in your church too.

* Be intentional. // At Capital they make it a point to be very intentional about knowing who is in the room. In order to do that, recognize that everyone is at a different place on their spiritual journey. Capital presents the truth of the Gospel and demonstrates that it’s applicable to all of life, but they do that with grace for wherever people are at. If you do that in a safe and intentional way, it will encourage people to bring others with them to church because they know it won’t be shaming or hostile to those raised with a different faith.

* Make shifts when needed. // Capital Church started a class called Conversations on Christianity, which aren’t targeted toward Mormons in particular, but rather are geared toward individuals with any faith or non-faith background who can come to find out what Christianity is all about. People can sort through what they believe Christianity may be and what it really is. For a long time, the Conversations on Christianity was held in a classroom setting with everyone in one large group. But over time, they began to see the attendance of the class taper. During that time, the church shifted into more of a focus on small groups which was well received all around. So they decided to take a cue from that decision and incorporated the Conversations on Christianity class within the small groups setting.

* Small groups open conversations. // Capital Church has many people with Mormon backgrounds exploring their church and dealing with a variety of emotions, from anger about what they had been taught, to fear of leaving their family with their Mormon faith, to excitement at discovering who Jesus really is. Capital has learned that placing these people in a small group environment to process their emotions while working through Conversations on Christianity provides a safe community where they can also build relationships with others experiencing the same things.

* Live out the joy of journeying with Jesus. // As your life transforms, people you come in contact with will see that change within you. Create a safe space within your church so that when someone is curious, you can lead them to check it out for themselves and explore what it means to follow Jesus.

You can learn more about Capital Church at www.capitalchurch.com.

Thank You for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!

Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live! 

I’m so glad you tuned in to today’s unSeminary podcast. Today I’m chatting with McKenzie Schreck, the executive pastor at Capital Church in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Capital Church just celebrated their twentieth anniversary this past fall. They began from a group of college kids who followed their professor to Salt Lake City to plant a church, and they now have a couple of locations in Utah.

Salt Lake City may be thought of as a difficult place to begin a Christian church and expect it to thrive, but McKenzie is with us today to talk about what they’ve done at Capital over the past 20 years and what you can do in your church too.

* Be intentional. // At Capital they make it a point to be very intentional about knowing who is in the room. In order to do that, recognize that everyone is at a different place on their spiritual journey. Capital presents the truth of the Gospel and demonstrates that it’s applicable to all of life, but they do that with grace for wherever people are at. If you do that in a safe and intentional way, it will encourage people to bring others with them to church because they know it won’t be shaming or hostile to those raised with a different faith.

* Make shifts when needed. // Capital Church started a class called Conversations on Christianity, which aren’t targeted toward Mormons in particular, but rather are geared toward individuals with any faith or non-faith background who can come to find out what Christianity is all about. People can sort through what they believe Christianity may be and what it really is. For a long time, the Conversations on Christianity was held in a classroom setting with everyone in one large group. But over time, they began to see the attendance of the class taper. During that time, the church shifted into more of a focus on small groups which was well received all around. So they decided to take a cue from that decision and incorporated the Conversations on Christianity class within the small groups setting.

* Small groups open conversations. // Capital Church has many people with Mormon backgrounds exploring their church and dealing with a variety of emotions, from anger about what they had been taught, to fear of leaving their family with their Mormon faith, to excitement at discovering who Jesus really is. Capital has learned that placing these people in a small group environment to process their emotions while working through Conversations on Christianity provides a safe community where they can also build relationships with others experiencing the same things.

* Live out the joy of journeying with Jesus. // As your life transforms, people you come in contact with will see that change within you. Create a safe space within your church so that when someone is curious, you can lead them to check it out for themselves and explore what it means to follow Jesus.

You can learn more about Capital Church at www.capitalchurch.com.

Thank You for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!

Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live!