Pastor’s Blog

Recently, I had an opportunity to attend a Sticky Church Conference in Atlanta, GA. One of the keynote speakers, Pastor Larry Oborne from North Coast Church in San Diego, CA, talked about something that is very near and dear to my heart as a church leader. The topic was about going from “leaky” to “sticky”. So how do we do this? How do we close the back door? What steps do we take to get a new attender or guest to “stick.” Let’s look at a few:

First, we work to develop and cultivate a healthy leadership team. This is critical. We can’t be sticky without health.

· This happens through individual bible study and prayer, as well as through training provided by the church.

· Another critical piece to this is vision buy in. We are a TEAM. We must come in line with and support the vision and mission of the church. This vision comes from God to the Lead Pastor. Without full support of the vision, the team won’t know success.

Second, we must become believer targeted and seeker sensitive. What do I mean? We must be a “user friendly” church.

· A person who comes to Whitley/The Bridge should be able to understand what is going on in the service.

· If a person that comes to our church is offended, we want them to be offended by Jesus, not by anything we are doing.  If we are preaching the uncompromising message of the gospel and that offends, then that’s o.k.

· We must not use “in house language”. Don’t speak “christianese”.  i.e. – When giving a scripture reference, tell them where in the bible the verse is located. For instance, if you were speaking from Malachi, you would say turn just passed mid-way in the bible. If you can find the page that says, “New Testament” take a left and you’ll be in Malachi. Then use some humor by saying, “God put an index in the very front of their bible to assist them in finding the very page # that book is on.” The way we speak let’s others know that non-Christians are here and we are happy about that.

We’re here to reach the “hell-of-a-talk” guy. The person who has never been in church. The person who at the end of the pastor’s message comes up to him and says, “Hey Pastor, that was a hell-of-a -talk”. We should plan and expect that people who haven’t accepted Christ are going to be in our pew this week.

Third, we must foster long-term, Christ-centered relationships.

· The greatest way for us to do this is through small groups.

· We also get here by helping people get connected in “body ministry” in the church. Serving on the hospitality team, serving on the nursery team, serving on the children’s ministry team, etc.

Let’s work together to plug the holes. As Assimilation Pastor, my passion is to see our local church evolve from leaky to sticky because we are sharing the greatest truth known to mankind. Let’s work together to see God revolutionize lives. Isn’t what what it’s really all about?