The Preaching Proposition, Part 1

Hi All,
One thing that continues to surprise me is the number of preachers who do not use, or do not understand the significance of the preaching proposition. By 'proposition', I mean it in the classical homiletical definition; that is, to put more colloquially, the proposition is the "sermon in a sentence".

How is the Proposition different from other parts of the sermon? If someone asks you, "What are you preaching on?" And you reply with a one or two word response, that is the Topic of the Sermon. If they ask you, "What passage are you preaching on?" And you reply with a book, or verse(s) of Scripture, that is the Text of the Sermon. If someone asks you, "What are you trying to achieve in your sermon?" And you reply with something you want the people to know or do, that is the Goal of the sermon. But if someone asks you, "What are you trying to say in your sermon?" If you then reply with a single sentence that summarizes your sermon fully, THAT is the Proposition.

The Proposition is the "sermon in a sentence". This single sentence should get at the heart of both the topic and the goal of the sermon. In one sense, the Proposition is the entire sermon; everything else you have to say comes out of that single sentence. That sentence is a seed; and inside of that seed is the entire sermon. As you preach, you are unpacking the meaning and depth and significance of every word in the proposition. In fact, the content of the sermon should not veer too far off from the initial proposition which you present to the congregation. It should have some emotional, or logical, or close theological connection to what you have to say in the proposition.

For example, in a series about Faith & Fear (the Topic), on a series through Joshua (the text), I had the following Proposition (sermon in a sentence) for the message on Joshua 1:6-9, called "How to Develop a Courageous Faith". The proposition was: "Your faith focus determines your future". The three points of the sermon, then, each unpacked with Biblical exposition and verses, each of those three elements: Faith, Focus, and Future. The entire thrust of the sermon was contained in that single sentence, but it took a half-hour or more to unpack the meaning and intent behind those words.

A well-crafted proposition is the foundation to a well-crafted sermon. If you know what you want to say, and where you are trying to take the congregation, you are on your way to a good sermon. On the other hand, if you cannot formulate what you are trying to say in a single moderate-length sentence, then you do not yet know what you are trying to say. PLEASE, for the sake of your listeners, know what you are trying to say before you start speaking!

One of the most important tasks, then, which you must do as you begin your message preparation work is to formulate that proposition. That is the key to everything else you have to say. It takes some time to develop a good propositional statement. Before you begin extensive work on the rest of the content of your sermon, you must develop a clear, relatively concise propositional statement. You must be able to state the sermon in a sentence.

But how do you get to that point?
In the next blog, I will share with you about the sermon funnel process; also about the significance of goal statement before you begin the sermon preparation process.

For the Kingdom of Heaven,
Dr. Bill

"Angels & Demons" Review

Hi All,

Just went to see Angels & Demons with a friend this week.  This movie is the second one by the author of The DaVinci Code.  It starred Tom Hanks as symbologist Robert Langdon of Harvard who is called to the Vatican to uncover some clues to a mystery when four cardinals are kidnapped.  This all happens during the interim when one Pope has died and they are in enclave selecting the next Pope.  At the same time, some scientists have developed a quantity of anti-matter which has been stolen and is possibly going to be used to blow up the Vatican and much of Rome.

So the show makes for a pretty good ride.  The movie was not bad; it was much better than the boring DaVinci Code.  It was the usual Dan Brown fare with a series of esoteric clues being followed, and a number of gruesome deaths.

But my main concern in going to the show was to see if it would be filled with the same amount of heretical lies, conspiracy theories, and unprovable ridiculous hypotheses like the DaVinci Code.  I went to the movie with Ed Komoszewski, author of "Reinventing Jesus" and "Putting Jesus in His Place".  "Reinventing Jesus" helps to answer some of the questions raised by The DaVinci Code, and the Jesus Seminar.  It is a very Biblical and theological defense of the real Jesus.    So we attended the movie, and I have to say that unlike the DaVinci Code, this movie was not filled with the lies, heresy and inventive history of the previous movie.  There is one point in the movie where he takes one dig at the church through the mouth of an assassin who says that he is always hired by people "in the name of God, or in the name of Allah" to kill somebody.  He warns Robert Langdon to watch out for men of God, because they are dangerous.  But other than that, this movie did not make the same sort of attacks upon the deity of Jesus which DaVinci Code did.

If you want something good to read, check this out.

All for now,
In Christ,
Dr. Bill

Church Growth & Assimilation, Part 4

This is our final installment (for now) on the topic of assimilation.  We've already examined in the previous posts the topics of how to know if assimilation is happening, how to identify people who don't identify themselves as guests, and who you should really focus your assimilation efforts upon.  

Now we have to address this tricky and difficult subject of 'churn'.  Churches don't make a lot of reference to this topic, but businesses do, especially subscription-based businesses like Netflix, for example.  Customer churn in the business world is also referred to as attrition or turnover.  It is the recognition that it is much easier to keep an existing customer than to acquire a new customer, which makes this an important concept in the business world.

How does that relate to the church?  In the church it is not about customer acquisition, or retention, it is about loving people in such a way that they feel they are cared for and a part of the family.  If they feel like they are both loved, and they have a purpose in this new-found family, then they will stick around. If either one of those two factors are not realities for them, then they will leave.   

"Churn", to use the business term, occurs after assimilation has been successful.  You can't lose them if you never had them, so churn as a concept can only occur if you have been successful at your mission to win them over to be part of your church family.  Once having done that, you might be tempted to sit back and relax and say, 'Mission accomplished.'  But such is not the case.

Let's say that you define assimilation in your church as successfully welcoming a guest into your church family, so that six months after their first visit, they are now a member of your church.  That is successful assimilation.  But the next period of time of maybe six-months to a year, are also important that you continue to help them in two areas.  They need to continue to feel cared for, and they need to have a sense of purpose in your church.  They need to know how they are an important and contributing member of the body.

This is important because sometimes churches make guests feel really welcome and in the excitement of joining a new group of people and finding out all the things your church has to offer, they jump on board with both feet, and sign up as members, and start attending regularly, and bring their kids to children's or youth events.  But once that initial warm glow wears off, they need something sustainable for the long haul.  They need to have real friends, and they need to have meaningful ministry jobs.  If either of these two are not solidly true for them, they may become your next 'churn' statistic.

So it comes down to this: church health includes having the sort of relationships and ministry in your church that are actually healthy!  That is, there must be more there for the long haul than just the initial excitement.  Your church needs to be able to have the sort of environment that helps new people to develop long-term sustainable relationships, and long-term meaningful ministry.  

Some churches have great assimilation rates, 20%, but also really high churn rates.  They keep a large percentage of guests, who join the church, but then 12 - 18 months later, the people have become inactives, or have left to go elsewhere.  Other churches may have a modest assimilation rate, like 10%, but then they seem to keep their people forever.  Which would you rather have?

Experienced people in both the business and the church world will tell us that it is much easier, and satisfying, to keep people for the long haul.  In the church world, this means that people have found their home with you, and you are becoming increasingly the family of God that Jesus wants you to be.  And that is what it is all about.

Yours for the Kingdom,

Dr. Bill

Small Groups vs. Sunday School - The Main Event

Hey All,

Just heard about this debate between Rick Howerton, Small Groups Expert & David Francis, National Sunday School Director.  You can find it here:  http://www.lifeway.com/sundayschoolvssmallgroups/?CID=SSVSSG-LWCMain-UpcomingEvent-20090502 .

Rick recently sent me an email asking for my thoughts on the subject.  Here is the email interview:

HI Rick,

Thanks for contacting me.

I'll be happy to give you my answers to your questions, but I do need to say that some of these decisions took place before I got here three years ago, so I'll give you my best guess for those that preceded me, as well as our current thinking.  Since I've served in several churches (Wheaton EFC, church plant, old traditional church, etc.), some of these comments are based on combined experiences...

1) What brought you to the point of deciding to switch from Sunday School to Small Groups? 

Crossroads is 13 years old and from day one made the decision to only do small groups.  Part of that was necessity, because for the first 8 years they had no building.  After it was built they decided to continue their small groups focus by hiring a small groups director.

2) Has your church grown since you made the change? Do you think switching from Sunday School to Small Groups was key in the growth of your church? If so, why? 

Since we didn't switch it's a little tough to answer this, but I will say that participation in a small group is definitely a major factor in our retention rate.  Those who join a group (small group, Ministry Team, men's/women's group) stick around.  Most of those who do not, don't stay.  

My guess is that participation in a sunday school, or ABF, would also help retention, but not as much.  And the reason for this is two-fold, which are the two problems I have with SS/ABF's.  First, they are often large enough that if someone is missing they are not noticed, or it is not perceived as a big deal.  Whereas if someone misses a small group, the question is always asked, 'Where are they?' and 'Why are they missing?'  

Second problem with SS/ABFs is that the DNA or prime purpose of those groups is in most cases just content dumping; learn more.  Unless you have a very focused outreach/group/assimilation orientation which is constantly taught to all SS/ABF leaders, they are just there to teach, so if someone is missing, it doesn't interfere the with true purpose of the group.  Whereas in a small group a key purpose is fellowship, so if someone is missing, it impinges upon your very reason for being.

So that's my case for why participation in small groups is going to have a better impact on growth than participation in a SS/ABF.

3) How has the environment at your church changed since you have become a Small Group church? 

We have always been a small group church, but what I think is interesting and a little scary is the constant gravitational pull to become a SS/ABF church.  We constantly have people who want to teach in a SS/ABF context.  And their motivation for this is not so that we can grow the church; it is so that they can teach something.   We will have the occasional Sunday morning or Saturday night class, but we make sure that they are always short-lived, and focused on a key subject.  We don't want people to replace their small group with a  class.

4) What would you tell other churches who were considering switching from Sunday School to Small Groups? 

It is a major cultural shift, not to be under-estimated if you make such a change.  Besides the good reasons people have for wanting to be in a medium to large SS/ABF, you must also be aware of darker motives such as people who would rather sit semi-autonomously in a SS/ABF and absorb, than do the hard work of being in a small group which will hold them accountable for attendance and personal growth.  

God's best to you Rick.  Hope you win the big boxing match!

FYI, I'm currently working on a piece of software to help churches track people in both small groups and discipleship classes.  It's called "Shepherd Care" and I hope to release it soon.

God bless,

b

Church Growth & Assimilation, Part 3

Hi All,

Assimilation is one of those difficult to track tasks that absolutely must happen if your church is going to grow.  Moving people from being 'guests' or 'visitors' to becoming 'regulars' and then 'members' is what assimilation is all about.  Every successful church finds a way to do this well.

We've talked about how to know if assimilation is happening, and how to track people who don't announce their presence to you, in the previous two blogs on this subject.  Now we need to ask the question, 'Which visitors should I pay attention to?  Are some guests more important than others?'  (Yes, we know that everybody is important; but where should we focus our assimilation energies?) 

In this case, we must say that the second visit is the most important visit (not the first).

Now some may say that if we do a poor job on the first visit, then they will never show up for the second visit, and that is true.  No one here is suggesting that you perform a slouch job on the first visit.  But what I am suggesting is that all other things being equal, and assuming that you lovingly welcome everybody who steps through the doors of your church, visitor or not, the one you should really keep your eyes on is the person who has come back for a second look-see.  They are key to your growth.

Second-time guests are more important than first-timers for several reasons:

• First-timers can be just casual visits for any number of reasons, but a second-visit reveals a serious interest in your church.  Think of it like dating.  You might go out with him or her once, but you'll only go a second-time if you really like something about them.  
  
• Especially key is if the second visit is in the next week or two following the first visit  (of course, you won't know that unless you follow the steps outlined in part 2 of this blog)
• Second-timers are where your growth as a church will come from.  In my readings on this subject, stats show that 5-20% is good assimilation for a first visit, but if someone comes back a second time, there is more like an 80% chance they will become a regular at your church.

So, the natural question is, 'What is your plan for second-time visitors?'  You might be sending them a letter, email, or phone call for first visit.  But what about the second one?  Are you doing anything differently?  

If it is true that a second-visit indicates a more serious interest in your church, then your response should be ramped up a bit as well.  Maybe just a letter or email isn't sufficient.  It may be time for a personal phone call, or a FaceBook visit.

We have a guest card that allows indications if they are a 1st, 2nd, 3rd visitor and we have a separate response for each of those.  What's your action plan?

Next blog, we will address the final topic related to assimilation, which concerns the dark side of the assimilation problem:

• What's your "churn rate"?

Until then, God's best to you and your ministry,

Dr. Bill

Church Growth & Assimilation, Part 2

How do you track people you never see?

Here's the problem I face; I'm wondering if you have a similar problem.  A number of people who visit our church never sign the guest register; never shake the pastor's hand; never indicate their presence, because they want to be anonymous.  Now, I have no problem with this, as that is exactly how I feel when I visit a new church.  I want to check things out first, get a lay of the land, before I step forward and introduce myself.  So I understand this from a visitor perspective; but as a pastor, it's a bit of a different story.  I want to meet the new people and make them feel welcome, and greet them.  I also want to know how many guests we have each week, and how many of them come back.  But how can I track people that I never see?

Here's a few ideas, of varying success.  But put them together, and you may have a pretty good network for identifying newcomer's.

1. Guest Parking 
2. Parking Lot Attendants
3. Consistent Greeters
4. An Awesome Guest Bag
5. Mid-service Meet & Greet Time
6. Pastor at the Door

1.  Guest Parking -- Get some guest parking with reserved signs just for guests.  Want to know how many guests?  If you don't actually see them park and get out of their car, then count the cars in those spots, & multiply by 3  (2.5 is national average for church attenders per car).  Of course, this won't work for guests who don't park in those spots.  

2.  Parking Lot Attendants -- Put some guys out there with walkie-talkies, and when a guest pulls into the spot, have them notify the greeters, so they can give them a warm welcome.

3.  Consistent Greeters -- don't rotate your greeters!  Get one or two people who do it every week, so they can identify newcomers.  If you rotate a different couple every week, they will not be able to see when a guest returns the following week.  Get some consistency.  Find some people who truly have the spiritual gift of hospitality and put them at the door.  Watch out who your greeters are!  Not everybody is qualified to do this job.  Put your best faces out there. Train them not to be Nosey Nellies, and pummel guests with questions.  Give a loving warm greeting, let them move on, but remember them for next week.

4.  An Awesome Guest Bag - We can identify the guests in our church, because they are carrying lovely pastel-colored gift bags.  Put some real goodies in there; not a just a bunch of church brochures.  We've got CD's, certificates for coffee, a "First Impressions" guest card (I talked about this in a previous blog  ("Your Church's Image in the Community, Part 2") and some brochures.  You can add candy, or whatever. Make it good, and then put a notice in your bulletin of all the goodies you have for guests so they pick one up.

5.  MidService Meet & Greet -- It's never a bad idea to be friendly.  So take some time between one of the songs, and let people say hi to each other.  Great way to break the ice with guests.

6.  Pastor at the Door -- It may seem old-fashioned to some, but it works.  People like to say hi to the Pastor.  It gives him a chance to meet potential guests, who would not otherwise introduce themselves to anyone else.

So there you have it, six ideas to identify guests.  We need to respect their desires to be anonymous if they want to be, but we also need to make it very easy for those who are just shy to feel welcomed by the church.  Take these steps, and then enter their names in some good church management or shepherding software, and you will be on your way to increasing your assimilation rate as a church.

Next blog post we will talk about some more insights about assimilation.

Next topics:

• Which visit is most important?
• What's your "churn rate"?

Yours for the Kingdom of Heaven,

Dr. Bill

Church Growth & Assimilation, Part 1

I've been thinking about assimilation...

Assimilation is the process of moving people from being guests or visitors in your church to becoming regular attenders at your church. How do you know when someone has been assimilated as a regular at your church?

• First, when they start saying, "My/our church" instead of "your church"
• Second, when they start attending the weekend services more than twice a month
• Third, when they start getting recognized by non-staff members

What's a great assimilation rate? In a conversation with one of the pastors at Kensington Community Church, up in Troy, Michigan, he indicated that they had a 20% assimilation rate. (Note that 'assimilation rate' is not the same as 'growth rate'. See the April 19th, 2009 post on "Church Growth Math" for the difference.) If you can keep 20% you are doing great. When I was Pastor of Disciple Making at Wheaton Evangelical Free Church, the best guess I could make of the assimilation rate was 5%. Now that was a church of 1,000 people, near Wheaton College. We had tons of visitors who would come and go, especially students, so the assimilation process was a little tricky. Your church may not have as many guests come through the door, and so finding out your assimilation rate may be a bit easier.

This is a really hard stat to get your hands on. In order to measure it, you need to do two things:

• First, track the date your guests first came to your church.
  
• Second, select a consistent length of time after that first visit, that you do the measurement, like six months later.
  

You'll need some good membership software for this, unless you are small enough to "eye-ball" this. But you have to make some assumptions to do this right. First assumption, that all your guests register on their first weekend with you. And we know this is not true, so you are going to have to make some guesses, like maybe 50% your guests register their presence. We then run a report called the 'newcomer's report', which tracks all people in the last six months. This gives us a better idea of who is new, and a rough guess at our assimilation rate, based on our weekly guest rate. (Total guests per weekend x 26 weeks divided by how many new regulars are on the six month newcomer's report.) But it is at best an educated guess.

Some people never register until they decide this is home. Or if your church doesn't use any form of registration cards, you need to find other means.

Another way to track your assimilation process is at the membership class time. Have each person answer this question: When did you first attend our church? Compare this to the current date, and you will have a chronological assimilation rate; for example, six months from guest to member; or 9 months, etc. (By the way, the next chronological stat you will want to have is how long from first visit to ministry involvement? And then, how long from first visit, to church leadership?)

What this doesn't tell you is how many people you are losing, whom you never see because they don't come back, they don't sign up, and you never knew they attended your church at all. How do you track them?

Next blog post we will talk about that, and some more insights about assimilation.

Next topics:

• How do you track people you never see?
• Which visit is most important?
• What's your "churn rate"?

God's best to you,

Dr. Bill