Thanks for joining us for this week’s unSeminary podcast. We have Jeremy Dager with us, from Mercy Hill Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. Mercy Hill just recently turned four years old and is on the precipice of becoming a multi-site church. Jeremy leads the age-based ministry, which includes the kids, student, and college ministries. Greensboro has […]

Welcome to this week’s unSeminary podcast and thank you so much for joining in. We have Lee Kricher with us.

Lee started preaching with Amplify Church in the suburbs of Pittsburgh in 2003, which was really at a moment of much needed revitalization. Amplify started in the late 70s and had very strong growth until about 1990 when it began to decline. In the last thirteen years, they’ve done everything they could do to turn the church around and connect with the younger generation.

One of the biggest indicators that a church is in decline is not only the average attendance, but the average age of the congregation. While the average age of the community where Amplify was located was mid-30s, the average age of Amplify’s congregation was mid-50s. They needed to find ways to connect with the community around them. Lee is with us today to talk about how they revitalized Amplify Church and how you can do the same.

* Make a change in mindset. // The apostle Paul writes about having our minds renewed. The church needed to renew themselves organizationally because their mindset was “if it’s good enough for me, it should be good enough for my kids.” It wasn’t the values or beliefs that were the problem, it was that the mindset of the church was stuck in the 80s. They needed to move forward from believing that what they had always done was good enough, to questioning what it would take to reach the younger generation. That change in mindset became the foundation for the revitalization of the rest of the church.

* Focus on the responsibilities of the church. // To prepare the congregation for the needed changes, Lee made it a focus of his sermons for the first few months. Lee emphasized how important it is to not only live a Godly life, but to also focus on the legacy that we leave for the next generation. In addition to the sermons, he also took the leadership team to North Point in Georgia to see a multi-generational church in action and how they are changing their city. This expanded the team’s horizon and gather inspiration and ideas. Within a few months, many members agreed that they could not stay the same and changes were necessary in order to reach that younger generation.

* Identify your essentials. // For Amplify Church, the essentials were the weekend service, small groups, and children/youth ministry. They committed that they would give up everything else and put 100% of their focus into those three things because they felt that those were the important factors that would lead others to Christ. As Lee notes: “Studies have shown that perhaps the highest-impact churches tend to have a smaller number of things that they try to focus on.” Determine what the essentials are in your church and put all of your energy into them.

* Make room for the younger generation. // One of the problems at Amplify was that there was no dedicated space for children and teens. Everything was focused on the adults and set up for their use. They had the attitude that the children could use that area when the adults weren’t using it. So one of the changes Lee instituted was setting aside a dedicated space for the children/youth. This was met with some criticism because there were no children attending the church at the time, but Lee explained that this was the whole reason change was needed. Once Amplify had this dedicated space and ministry for kids, the members began to reach out to family and friends to invite them to come and bring their children. This began a buzz around town that something was really happening at Amplify and new people started coming with their families. The church developed the reputation of being one that really cared about kids, something that they’d never had before. It’s critical to focus on children and student ministry in order to reach the younger generations and make a difference i...

Welcome to this week’s unSeminary podcast and thank you so much for joining in. We have Lee Kricher with us. Lee started preaching with Amplify Church in the suburbs of Pittsburgh in 2003, which was really at a moment of much needed revitalization. Amplify started in the late 70s and had very strong growth until […]

Hey, everybody, and thank you so much for tuning in with us on the unSeminary podcast. I’m honored to have Pastor Shell Osbon with us today from Life Church in Smyrna, Georgia.

Life Church of Smyrna started 63 years ago and Shell Osbon has been lead pastor for the past 13 years. If someone were to visit Life Church today, it would look a lot different than it did in earlier years. Whereas previously the church was mostly Caucasian, it has seen a change over recent years and become very multicultural, reflecting the culture and make up of the Atlanta area.

Today Shell is with us to talk about the intentional community partnerships Life Church has developed over the years and how it’s shaped the church.

* Get into the community. // Life Church is part of the Assemblies of God, which places a high value on mission work. When Shell came to Life Church, they were doing an exceptional job supporting missionaries around the world, but didn’t have as many relationships built in the local community. For example Shell reached out to a school next door and asked what the church could do for them. Reach out to your own community, forming relationships with other people and organizations in order to better serve them. By doing this, Shell said he recognized huge potential for outreach right in Life Church’s own backyard. “We just realized that’s the model God wants us to use to really impact our city more,” Shell says. Life Church began this partnership with a middle school next door and then spread to a Mexican restaurant where church members frequently dined. Today Life Church has about 35 community partners where they host events, volunteer, and provide funding on occasion, but the biggest value is the relationship built between the church and the community within these locations.

* Just say hello. // In scripture there is a big emphasis on relationships. Jesus is the groom and the church is the bride. We have a heavenly Father and we’re all brothers and sisters. Pastors can build relationships within the community by first looking at the places they frequent, such as restaurants or shops. Any business owner would be happy to have someone else pushing people toward their business and giving them more exposure. So Shell asked the Mexican restaurant where he and his wife dined if they would consider having one night a week in which they would give the members of the church a special, such as a free soft drink or 10% off their order. Through pushing business toward this restaurant, Shell made it clear that he wanted to also become a partner and serve the business and employees. The owner agreed to a partnership, and rather than just one night a week, the owner decided to put all of the church members’ receipts into a box and then give the church 10% of the total amount the members spent there. Through this first outreach to someone he didn’t know, Shell began work as the restaurant’s pastor to help employees deal with stresses in their lives and spread God’s Word.

* “How can we serve you and your organization?” // Most businesses are used to churches coming to them and asking the business to serve the church, such as free hot dogs for a church event. But when the church turns that around and asks how they can serve the business, sometimes it takes people by surprise and they don’t know how to respond right away. But as Shell and his wife began this mission of reaching out to the businesses within the community, the partnerships began to grow quickly and he soon had to assign staff to start helping with this partnership mission. When one of their partners asks if the church can do something for them, Shell has told his staff to always say yes. As they’ve done this, they haven’t had anyone ask for anything from the church that was unreasonable.

Hey, everybody, and thank you so much for tuning in with us on the unSeminary podcast. I’m honored to have Pastor Shell Osbon with us today from Life Church in Smyrna, Georgia. Life Church of Smyrna started 63 years ago and Shell Osbon has been lead pastor for the past 13 years. If someone were […]

Is it safe to talk about this yet?

It’s been 3 weeks since Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton in one of the most hotly contested elections in modern history.

Political scientists and historians will talk about this election for years to come … but what about church leaders? What difference does this election make to your church? What lessons could we pull from what happened? As we consider how we lead, what can we extract from what happened during the months leading up to the election and the final results?

This is not a political post. unSeminary’s goal is always to find lessons that we can all apply to our churches. In fact, some of our most popular posts include:

* 14 Leadership Principles from Amazon and How They Apply to Your Church

* 5 Walt Disney World Innovations to Apply at Your Church

* 6 Netflix Facts that Church Leaders Need to Consider

We’re asking: What difference does this most recent Presidential campaign make to our churches? What does it tell us about the culture we’re serving? How do we leverage these lessons to help us have more impact? What can you do to reach more people based on what we saw in the U.S. election? Here are a few reflections …

1) Social Change Happens Quickly

Look closely at this chart. For people like you and me in the “community change” business, it should be encouraging.

Social change happens quickly. This chart tracks a number of legislative matters that moved through the courts and what you can see is that once adoption of such change starts to happen, it dominoes quickly. [ref] Almost overnight, issues that seemed taboo become norms. It wasn’t that long ago that even the most liberal politicians were against same-sex marriage. Now it has swept across the globe as a social norm. We are on the front end of a similar issue with the legalization of recreational marijuana … it’s just a matter of few years before it’s widespread. Social change happens quickly. Whether these changes are “positive” or “negative” from your perspective they happened undeniably quickly. The path for quick social change is already worn in our broader culture and our prayer is that our culture that is used to fast change will turn back to God quickly.

The Trump victory points to what appears to be a quick social turnaround. All the polls and pundits pointed to a different result but things turned in a short time period. The seeds of change are built into culture. Things can change quickly and this election cycle is proof of that.

When was the last time you prayed about a huge change in your community? What “big dreams” do you have that God could do in our midst? That change is possible. Your church could be at the center of something amazing that transforms your community, county, state, country and world! Change is possible.

As a culture, we overestimate the pace of technological change but underestimate the pace of social change. Where were the same-sex couples in the Jetsons? Our culture is pliable and we have to believe that change can happen on a profound level. We live in shifting times … the gospel spreads in times like that!

2) Social Networks Beat Broadcast Networks

Clinton spent over twice as much as Trump on television advertising du...

Is it safe to talk about this yet? It’s been 3 weeks since Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton in one of the most hotly contested elections in modern history. Political scientists and historians will talk about this election for years to come … but what about church leaders? What difference does this election make to your […]

Hey, everybody, and welcome to this week’s unSeminary podcast. I’ve been excited about having our guest on today, Katie Allred from Brentwood Baptist in Tennessee.

Katie is the web content manager at Brentwood and is charge of web, email, and social media. Brentwood is an innovative contemporary church right on the edge of Nashville and they work to use social media in an intentional way to engage their community.

Katie is here today to talk to us about getting a church into social media and using it to further the outreach of the church.

* Use social media to spread the gospel. // Social media is a huge part of how we interact in the world today, so why not use it for the gospel? Katie encourages all pastors to use social media as a way to reach out to their congregation and other people across the world. “The gospel is so important—it’s the best news we can give people. If we’re not sharing it on social media, then why are we on it at all?” Katie asks. Just as Paul wrote letters to churches, so we can share the good news in our social media posts. The key is to be authentic, to interact with your community and share your heart because your community is sharing with you.

* Don’t try to be perfect on social media. // Over the summer, Katie did a Facebook Live video series on Proverbs. Each day she read a Proverb live on Facebook and then prayed, also asking people to submit their prayer requests. While it felt awkward, she encourages others not to be afraid to let people see their imperfectness online. For example, other people feel awkward about praying in front of others too. Doing it live can demonstrate to your community that it’s ok if they aren’t “perfect” in knowing how to pray. As Katie says, “I think it’s so important to let people see you pray. I think there’s an important part of being authentic and admitting ‘I am not perfect at this.'”

* Use personal accounts to reach further than a church page. // Facebook’s algorithm is such that people’s personal profiles will always have a farther reach than “corporate” Facebook pages. As a leader in the church, use your personal profiles as a ministry platform to reach out to people who are hurting, offer to pray for others, as well as share the happenings at your church and repost items from the church’s Facebook page. You may run into people who are resistant to using social media because they don’t understand it or are worried about the bad things they’ve heard about it, but you can encourage them to use their social media experience for good and to spread God’s Word. Katie sums up the importance of using social media by saying, “We’re on the cusp of some really cool things that could happen if we’re just willing and listening. I think the next revival is going to happen because of the internet.”

You can learn more about Brentwood Baptist at www.brentwoodbaptist.com and find them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can also find Katie on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat by searching for Katie J. Allred or visit her website at www.katieallred.com.

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Hey, everybody, and welcome to this week’s unSeminary podcast. I’ve been excited about having our guest on today, Katie Allred from Brentwood Baptist in Tennessee. Katie is the web content manager at Brentwood and is charge of web, email, and social media. Brentwood is an innovative contemporary church right on the edge of Nashville and they work […]

Healthy things grow and multiply. It’s a fact in the natural world but it’s also a fact when it comes to churches. Many church leaders want their churches to grow but they feel stuck. In fact, your church may have plateaued or be in decline while you seek to understand what other churches are doing to grow.

In my book, UNREASONABLE CHURCHES, I explore the fact that 94% of churches are losing ground against the growth of the communities they serve. I believe it’s more important than ever for us to study the churches that buck that trend and find transferable lessons for all of our churches. Every week on the unSeminary Podcast, we talk to the leaders on the inside of some of the fastest-growing churches in the country and dive deep into what they are learning. Many of the churches are listed on Outreach Magazine‘s “100 Fastest-Growing Churches in America” … the definitive guide to the churches we should be looking at.

I’ve pulled together 5 growth hacks from the last few years of lessons from these churches. Your church should think about the following if you want to reach more people in your community:

1) Aggressively Engage People into Community

Contrary to the popular notion that large and fast-growing churches are shallow and lack community, they are actually obsessed with plugging people into smaller sub-communities. These churches understand that the way a church scales to reach lots of people is by ensuring they have a quality small group experience. The path to growing large is getting small.

As an example, Layne Schranz from Church of the Highlands talks about the “free market” approach to small groups. His church worked hard to create a system that quickly connects everyone to a group.

* Connect people in relationships. // Most people would look at Church of the Highlands and think that 31,000 is a massive number of people to get plugged in beyond weekend services. Layne explains that they work very hard to connect people in relationships outside of Sunday because that is where real life change happens. The beauty of the system that Church of the Highlands developed for their small groups is that it’s effective (they have more people coming to small groups than the weekend services!), completely scalable and can be used by other churches — whether they have an attendance of 80, 800 or 8000.

* Ask your members to turn their lives into ministry. // Human beings naturally group, Layne points out, within work and all areas of life. It makes sense to use small groups in ministry as well. But don’t ask your members to stop their lives to join a small group; instead, help them strategically turn their lives into ministry using small groups. Church of the Highlands uses what they call a “free market” system for groups, where they allow small groups to reflect people’s passions and interests. For example, people who have a passion for working with the elderly can use that focus to minister in nursing homes. Let your members determine what their group looks like and when and where they meet instead of dictating what you think it should be.

* Spiritually identify and move one step. // The overriding expectation of every small group at Church of the Highlands is that the leader spiritually identifies every member. In other words, where is that person with God? As Layne says, a small group may have someone who has come to church all their life but doesn’t have a relationship with God as well as a seasoned believer. Once the small group leader has spiritually identified where each person is at the moment,