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When it comes to reaching the contemporary heart of those that attend our churches our approach probably should be more like YouTube and less like a phonebook.  Kem Meyer posted the Indexed card below which made me think of how phonebooks can help us learn about and reach our culture. Here’s what Kem said about her phonebooks: “I got three new phone books, each weighing 7-10 pounds, dropped at my doorstep this week. I picked each one up and promptly deposited them right in the trash.” I have done the same thing, and I bet many of you have as well.

Heavy printed phone books represent more than telephone numbers and ads. They represent the past, communication forms that used to work the best, and a dog-eared determination to hang on to the past no matter what.

I can’t help but draw a few comparisons to the way today’s church does outreach and communicates the world’s most important message from the 7 pound phone book:

• Media vs. Lecture – As the way our culture communicates changes in drastic ways (2 ‘billion’ YouTube video views a month in the U.S.), the way we communicate in church has remained pretty much the same. Most church services still use lecture based sermons that average 30+ minutes in length. As a pastor who has preached many of these types of sermons, I totally get all of the reasons they are used. But here’s the deal (and what keeps me up at night). There is a reason why 80% of people believe in God and yet 70% of the people in our community choose every week not to attend a church. Can you say “communication gap?” People will not go to the trouble to attend a church if they cannot relate to how we communicate at that church. If I was honest enough to say to my unchurched neighbor, “Would you like to come to a lecture with me Sunday?” their answer would be pretty predictable.
• Past vs. Present – The whole world knows-pretty much at the same time-what is happening in the world, and so it’s not hard to figure out what the people that attend our church services are thinking about on any given week. As someone wisely said about preaching, “Figure out what people are already thinking about and preach on that.”  Example: Michael Jackson died on a Thursday, but how many churches spoke about that on Sunday? That global event, much like 9/11, softened hearts all over the world like few things have, and may have represented the church’s best shot at reaching the not yet reached in a long time. News and life happens fast, and the church must adapt the way it communicates in order to reach today’s culture.
• Acquaintance vs. Good Friend (Visitor vs. Regular Attendee) – Creating a drop in casual experience is more important than ever in today’s culture. Consumers (which we all are) want to check things out before they commit. When it comes to reaching the70% it’s important that we create a casual starting point that leads to Christ.

I know some will argue that phonebooks still have a use in today’s contemporary society. I agree. Two are holding down a stack of papers in my home right now.

QUESTION: What do YOU think? What ideas do you have on how the church could better communicate and reach today’s contemporary culture?

Our family has grown up inserting WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) into all sorts of situations and have always tried to run our decisions through the filter of God’s Word.  Now we’re up to our eyelids in dreaming, learning, and strategizing how to reach our community through a new church we are planting.

The crazy thing is that our culture is changing and the target is moving. People are choosing not to attend church in greater numbers every year. Bests estimates say that in our area (greater Nashville, TN) the number of people choosing not to attend church on Sunday is approaching 70%. 70%!! Every time I say that number it sends an arrow through my heart. I find myself asking over and over not only how can that be, but what the heck are we going to do about it?

Back to Jack. My wife loves the show 24. Maybe love is not the right way to say it. My wife is totally addicted to 24 and needs help! She is a genuine 24 nut, and each week I choose to be her companion nut and watch it too.

The other day I had an interesting thought. If Jack Bauer was given the assignment to reach the 70% of people in our community who attend no church, WWJD (What Would Jack Do)?

Here’s what I think.

Jack would:

• Go after those far from God with a zeal and passion.
• Live life like time was very short.
• Try different ways to reach these dear people, and when one way didn’t work, he would try another.
• Not listen to his critics, even a little.
• Ask people over and over to step up and do really hard stuff.
• Say “thank you” a lot.
• Do more. Discuss less.
• Say “fine” a lot.
• Bounce back quickly.
• Keep his sights on the main target and his eyes on the goal.
• Not let someone who bailed stop forward progress. He would learn, adjust, and keep moving.
• Never sit down to eat or go to the bathroom.

Okay maybe the last one is a stretch, but if we are going to reach people who don’t yet care, maybe asking what would Jack do is not such a bad idea.

Question: What do you think?  What would it take to get people who don’t care about attending church on Sunday to attend?

All right, this post is getting out a little later than expected because I hit yet another snag in my quest to find the right online giving option for our new church plant. But I regress, now back to the story…

I have spent two, make that three, weeks researching the right online giving solution for our new church.

I never imagined 1) there would be so many options, 2) that it would take so stinkin’ long to sort through all of them!

I’ve included below a list with a few notes of the online giving solutions I discovered and considered. The purpose of the list is not to offer an in depth analysis, but to present a general overview with a few details that may assist if you have yet to go through this process – and you should go through this process. But before the list, a couple of things:

It’s my belief that online giving is a critical, non-optional, piece to church planting success. But not just any solution will do.

Here’s why:

• The interface must be friendly/easy to use both for the giver and the new understaffed church.
• It must look reputable. Of course it must be reputable, but people will not trust it and use it if the company does not look good online.

A couple of things to keep in mind:

• Although I’m not a finance guy and don’t want to be a finance guy, I do care, a lot, about finances as it relates to church planting.
• For those of you who have made online giving your ministry and/or business – THANK YOU! I put the miracle of online giving right up there with the calculator. You provide an incredible service that is making a huge difference.

Here’s the online giving options I discovered during my research along with a few notes.

I’ll start with the ones we liked the most:

1. eGive (www.egive-usa.com)  This is the company/ministry that overall we liked the most if we are just considering the online giving piece.  Here’s why:

• They gave us the best response from my initial inquiry email.
• Customer service is way above normal. They have a marketing edge like a company hungry for new business, yet they are relaxed in tone and courteous in responses.
• Dialog was not overly business, but was friendly.
• Although we are a just starting church with a limited budget, we were not treated small.
• We were sent an extra email with very well explained details + the forms to sign to get going right away.
• During our research we found several other churches we greatly respect that were also using eGive.

2. Fellowship One (www.fellowshiptech.com). In the movie Open Range, Boss Spearman (played by Robert Duvall) talks about what type of gun he prefers and says “I like a pistol with some heft.” Fellowship One has a lot of heft. This all-in-one church managment system includes a great online giving component. The backend of this technology is extremley effective and deep. Although it requires a good amount of time to learn, from what I’ve heard its well worth it. Hope we can use these folks one day. **Special note: They offer a special price to church planters/new churches.

3. Church Community Builder (www.churchcommunitybuilder.com). Another church management system that also includes online giving. I really liked the look and interface of this solution. Could end up using them one day. **Special note: They offer a special price to church planters/new churches.

Here’s the others that we looked at. They may be great solutions, but we choose to not go very deep in researching them for a variety of options.

4. Ministry Give (www.ministrygive.com). Mobile giving, kiosks, the works.

5. MyTithe (www.givemytithes.com).  Mobile giving, iPhone app, and more.

6. Qgiv (www.qgiv.com).

QUESTION: Are you using online giving? Which online giving solution do you like?

I love Seth Godin. The content of his brain is always pushing me and challenging me to view life from a different angle.

His new book (movement?) is titled  Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

Seth is adding videos from Linchpins that he features on his Vimeo page.

I love this Linchpin video from Gary Vaynerchuk (Gary Vee).  He says that to be indispensable you have to “crush it.” I like that. Our passion and dream for Studio Church the church we are starting in greater Nashville is that in our community Studio will become a Linchpin, an indispensable part of our city.

Here’s Gary’s video:

QUESTION: Are you indispensable? Want to be? How?

The role of parents is important to kids and to church planters.

My childhood was anything but normal and healthy is not a word I use to describe it. My parents split up (the term used back then) when I was five years old. Even though I was so young, I vividly remember three things from the day my parents split up. 1. My mom throwing breakable items across the room, 2. My dad putting my brother and I into his Ford Galaxie and saying as we were pulling out of the driveway “You are coming to live with me.” 3. As we were driving away from the home I knew, standing up on the back seat of the car and leaning over the front bench seat  (back when seat belts were not required).

My church planting experience thus far has faced similar parental challenges. To be a healthy church plant you need healthy adoptive parents that come in the form of an existing church that provides the nurture needed for the new church to start well . So far our plant has not found a parent church. Blame it on the economy, or that I don’t fit the normal criteria for a church planter (and never will as our mission is to reach the non-normal people that choose not to attend any church). Whatever the reason we have yet to find a parent for our church plant, but as with any child waiting for adoption we hope one day soon we will.

Parents are important to a church plant because they help provide the right nutrients for growth including one or more of the following:

• Coaching – The #1 thing a new church planter needs is knowledge. A church planter needs to know what others know who have traveled that way before. They need their parent church to share their worn and tattered map with them which will help navigate the new church to its desired mission destination.
• People – One of the things that has been a surprise to me as an FTP (first time planter) is how many churches are not willing to share their people with a new church plant. In reality church planters are signing up to become new parents, and new parents need kids that can help get the new family started. Believe it or not, if a church leader called me and said “We heard you’re starting and new church and would like to let our people know so they can pray about being a part” I would probably fall face forward into the mud. Listen, I get all of the reasons why a church might not become a parent to a church plant, but maybe it’s time we quit being so protective of “our” people and take a risk for the sake of the gospel and the lost. The REALity is that I’ve never heard of a church that sowed people into a new church plant that did not reap a harvest of people and money that far exceeded their investment. The Spirit of God is well able to replace the people a church sows into a new church plant, and we all know that God never gives us less than we give, always better.
• Facilitiess – Man, it is tough to find an affordable  place where a new church launch team can start meeting and grow to 30-50. The ideal place for a new baby church to start is within an existing church that is serving as their parent. But if the parent church is not willing to sow people into that new church that relationship will become an awkward impossible situation for the planter. As a church planter you have to find people who are willing to help and cannot afford to be walking on your tip-toes wondering if someone in the parent church will be offended if you share your vision with someone in their church. It is better not to have a parent church than one that is not fully supportive.
• Money – For a planter, a little money can go a long ways. But money to a planter is more than money. It’s a personal telegram that says we care. It’s amazing how even a small amount of money can bring the courage a planter needs to keep going.

Church plants, like kids, need parents. Being a church planter is not only one of the greatest jobs on the planet, but it is also one of the most important. The local church is truly the hope of the world because it is the catalyst that pushes the hope of the Gospel into new places. Stat’s prove that new churches reach new people and I believe just as with human parents, God’s intended church planting model is for older existing churches to become parents that help new church plants get a healthy start.

QUESTION: What experiences do you have with church planting? What have you seen work?

I love my wife.

Recently one of my kids friends was locked out of her house after school and my beautiful “always willing to go for it” 40-something wife went down to her house, climbed through the window, and got her in. I’m very glad I was away at the time and did not know about it, or that I did not drive by and see her dangling from the window!

This episode of the Whitlow Family Show reminds me of a few things that I love about my wife Dana:

• Dana loves to dangle. She loves adventure and is not afraid to go for it or to risk it all. I love that about her. She is more future minded than past or present minded.  As a teammate she helps me to be free, focused, and not bogged down with past regrets.
• Dana gives. She is one of the most giving human beings I have ever known. She will literally give you the food off of her plate (and has many times), and gives with no strings attached.
• Dana loves God’s Word. She keeps eternity in clear view. You can’t be around her very long without hearing about her faith. She stamps God’s truths into every area of her life. I love that about her.
• Dana makes life fun. She loves to laugh, and laugh, and laugh. Laughing until we cry is commonplace. Because she loves to laugh one of my main goals in life is to give her lots of stuff to laugh about. As the years role forward Dana is laughing more and more. As her husband that really turns me on! So often as people grow older they laugh less, get bitter, and their personalities dry up. Not hers!

Dana is the greatest earthly gift God has ever given to me. Her life counts. To me. Our kids. And to others.

My wife of 26 years, who is more beautiful today inside and out than she ever has been, is 47 years old today.

I cannot even begin to say how awesome she is and how so very blessed I am to be called by her husband, boyfriend, lover, best friend, and “my man.”

Dana is a woman of virtue. She has incredible wisdom because she keeps her nose in the Book (God’s Word) every day. She speaks words of courage into my life, constantly. She makes me and the kids laugh, a lot. She loves, I mean loves, to aggravate us. She lives to cook great food, and along the way keeps us all pointed towards the positive.

If you sense that I love my wife, I do. Passionately. But to say that “I love her” is a HUGE understatement. I love her yes, more than any other human on this earth, but down the road from that I respect her. I know what she has endured, and overcome in life. We have overcome much together and managed by God’s love and grace to stay focused on each other, our six great kids and the vision that God has given to us.

Dana is the greatest gift God has ever given to me -and I am so SO blessed. She lifts me, challenges me, and distributes lots of fun along the way.

I LOVE YOU BABY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Michael Lukaszewski, lead pastor of Oak Leaf Church and initiator of  Launch And Lead has been helping church planters for some time. Michael helps churches by sharing information. He puts out in other words. He puts out the knowledge he has gained so that others can learn from him and his team. He has been one of my long distance coaches for a long time.

Recently I asked him via a comment posted on Launch And Lead: “How can a church plant get the word out about their church when 1) advertising dollars are very tight and we can’t do postcard mailings, 2) when the community you live in has sign laws that prevent you from using yard signs.”

I thought others might be interested in Michael’s 7 Steps (below).

1. Make road signs and have people put them in their own yards.

2. Print simple flyers (you can get nice full-color ones online for cheap) and get a group of your people to put them on doors personally. The most expensive part of postcards is the postage.

3. Print up some t-shirts and ask your people to them around town on a certain day or give your people bumper stickers for their cars. Or have them write with shoe polish on their windows.

4. Print business card size invites to a series (less than $50) and teach your people how to use them. Personal invitations are the absolute best way to invite people to church. About 75% of our first time guests come because they are personally invited.

5. Go through your budget and cut some internal stuff and use it on getting people there. My guess is that you could cut somewhere. You may need to sacrifice something you think is necessary to free up some money to get people to church.

6. Hire The Change Group to help you generate more operational revenue.

7. Make sure your church service is amazing. Somehow, people show up at what is good.

QUESTION: How do you get the word out about your church?

Amazing thought… a new “decade” is upon us.

Question: Where were you, and what were you doing, ten years ago?