You can definitely see she’s my girl.
Look familiar?
Church planters, take note. This isn’t a good way to promote your service:
If you are seeking God, have backslidden & want to return or are looking for a Church family, you are very welcome to attend.
I saw this in local ad for a church here in my community.
What are some of the bad phrasings you’ve seen churches use?
It’s a conflict. You want to have quantity, but does quality come first? You want quality, but sometimes it means that quantity isn’t quick.
We have quality, just not the quantity… yet.
We are starting healthy just not with hundreds. But that is okay.
We have people far from God attending regularly, and that is exciting. We have people, whom we baptized after our second preview service, growing in discipleship. We have families, who joined us on Easter, coming back and have made us their church home.
We believe we have great quality services that everyone says they love to come to. But here lies the main problem we are trying to fix. How do we get more people in the building?
Is it location? Is it marketing? Is it we aren’t giving away a new iPad mini? hmmm… there’s an idea.
Attractional vs Missional
There has been a debate in the states over the last 2-3 years that the shift has been moving from attractional to missional. I am a big believer in the attractional model. We need to make this accessible to those outside the faith and far from God. We need to make the environment irresistible and be aware that they are coming to our services. And we need to engage them.
I also believe that attrational is missional by having the goal to introduce them to Jesus.
But there is a missional argument that has weight and is a strong argument for a post-Christian era. Where we have more de-churched than unchurched, they are less willing to step into a church due to baggage of a previous experience with a christian or church. Whatever their reason, their perspective is their reality and we have the call to make the gospel of Jesus relevant to them.
The debate now is that you have to be missional or attractional. I have never agreed on the either or, but have stood with the leaders who embrace a both/and model.
However, I have changed my mentality on this in the last month in a South African context. Where I was thinking that attractional would be the way to get people in our doors. Advertising a family driven service that is excellent and appeals to the consumer hasn’t been a draw here.
We have had more return from the individual relationships being built (missional) and it only makes sense in a dominantly relational culture.
Instead of thinking the attraction of a family driven church, targeting kids, is the pull, I’m approaching the key to getting people in the doors missionally (relationally) and seeing the attractional aspects of our service as what keeps them.
The feedback we have collected from guests, who have become regular attendees, is they love the experience. We are just trying to get their friends and our community to experience it too.
That being said, I’m grateful for the quality we have but I want more of it. I want more people to discover the life and joy that putting their trust in Jesus as their Savior will bring them.
All that to say, keep praying for us. We believe we are on the verge of seeing this explode, and we are praying and seeking God’s wisdom, direction, plan, purpose and timing – like crazy!
Hundreds of bottles of water.
One hundred seventy loaves of bread.
Hundreds of people served.
Why?
Because we are the church!
I love it when someone asks “What’s the catch?”
Like they are use to having a bait placed before their eyes expecting to find a hook inside.
“No catch,” we reply.
And to see their smile as they walk away is priceless.
We didn’t want them to listen to a teaching on the reasons why they are sinners.
We didn’t ask them to give a donation to a cause.
We only wanted them to know we care for them.
That’s why we left the building. That’s why we didn’t have church by having a service and why we were the Church by meeting the needs of a few people today.
A couple weeks ago we taught the big idea: We are never more like Jesus than when we serve.
Last Sunday, our big idea was: Jesus calls us to be disciples who are identified by our love.
Today, we loved on people by serving them. Why? Because Jesus served us and asked us to love one another.
I want people to see Westside Family Church and say “look at how they love!”
I want this showing of love to be the first introduction to Jesus’ love for those who don’t know about Jesus’ love and grace.
I want people to say they want to know Jesus because they have gotten to know the people of Westside Family Church.
It isn’t why we chose bread and water, but I like to think, by giving away bread, we were giving people a taste of the “bread of life.” By giving water, we were being a source of life, in the name of the Source that never runs dry. I want people to discover Jesus. Because He is the bread of Life and the water that will never run dry.
Today wasn’t a push to get people into a seat next Sunday. Today was a campaign just to let people know we love them.
I’m grateful for the people who made today a success! (Those pictured and those not pictured.)
Leadership without a clear and compelling vision will lead to “leaderslip”.
“Leaderslip” is the slippery slope of not continually communicating your vision.
Leaderslip will always lead to “leadershift.”
“Leadershift” occurs two ways:
1) Someone else’s vision takes the place of the organization’s vision.
2) People migrate to a more clear and compelling vision.
Let’s avoid leadshifting,
by not allowing leaderslipping,
which is eluded by exercising strong leadership
with a clear and compelling vision.
Westside Family Church in Port Elizabeth is a church who believes church isn’t a facility or a building. While that is a church by common definition, we believe the meaning of church is more dynamic than static. We believe the church is a movement of people who follow Jesus.
Right after Jesus resurrected, He gave His disciples the mandate to go and make disciples. The disciples had no facility. No governing body. No education on how a service should be held. They did have the Holy Spirit living in them & the greatest message this world has ever known, the good news that Jesus came and lived the perfect life, died to eliminate the curse for our sins, and He rose again to prove He was God. With Holy Spirit living inside them, the Gospel message and a new command from Jesus to Love One Another, the Church began.
Westside doesn’t want to merely exist in our community, we want our community to feel our impact. The Church’s presence will be felt when we leave the four walls of what is comfortable to us and engage our community by serving them.
So, this Sunday, we are not coming to church. Rather, Westside is going to BE the Church by serving our community during the Iron Man Race. We like to call it THE CHURCH HAS LEFT THE BUILDING… (make sure you say that with your “announcer” voice and have an echo at the end of it).
We would love to have you join as we are Loving Jesus, Becoming like Jesus, and Sharing Jesus with our community.
Here are some opportunities to serve:
- Giving away water bottles to those in attendance (NOT THE RUNNERS!)
- Handing out bread to those who are hungry and praying for them.
- Picking up garbage around the beachfront
- Preparing on Thursday night
On Sunday I get to teach on Easter. I’ve never done this and I can’t wait to do it! If you think of WFC South Africa or the Robinson’s on Easter Sunday, say a prayer for our First Easter Services.
We have been passing out invites like crazy. Yesterday, we gave out free water bottles with an invite attached to it. The response to receiving something free from a church created a buzz, so much, that when Cassie went to the gym this morning, people were talking about receiving the free bottle of water from the church up the road.
Love it. And I’ll love it more when people get to hear about the resurrection on Sunday!
When starting a church you obviously don’t have a congregation – that’s why you’re starting a church – so you have to figure out ways to invite people to check you out on a Sunday.
You see situations as opportunities to tell people about your church because you think it’s the best thing to hit your area since sliced bread.
So you see parking lots as marketing opportunities. Grocery stores are where you meet new friends. The goal isn’t really to invite people to your church to fill a seat, your goal is to build a relationship for people to discover the greatest news in the Universe: Jesus loves them and wants to have a relationship with them.
Would you believe I was able to transport all this water in one load with my 4 door Chrysler Neon?
My poor shocks.
I know you are thinking I have a drinking problem, so before the rumors spread let me tell you why we have a palette full of water in my entry way. It’s because Cassie likes me filling up our family room with church equipment! Just kidding. I’m so grateful she doesn’t mind. Well, she hasn’t told me she minds it. Hey baby! Are you okay with me keeping church stuff in the family room?
….
We will be attaching an Easter invite to each bottle to pass out at a several intersections near the location we are currently meeting.
Our goal… Give out water and if someone is looking for a church to attend on Easter, we hope they consider Westside.
