CPT 022 - Creating Momentum

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Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Equipping and encouraging church planters everywhere.This is the Church Planting Today podcast with
Steve Chagrin and Jeff Hoagland, usefulconversations for those aimed at winning others into
relationship with Christ. Hey everybody,I am Jeff Hoagland and I want to
welcome you to church plan Today,the podcast for Church Planting dot Com.

(00:26):
Church plan dot Com is for currentand future church planners, existing church leaders,
and those wanting to see renewal withinthe Body of Christ. And as
always, I'm joined by author,pastor awesome mister God, Steve Chagrin.
Hey, man, go to bewith you. Jeff. Hey, hey,
Steve. We're gonna jump right intoday because we have we have a

(00:49):
full lineup and we're gonna be talkingabout creating momentum. And that momentum is
key. If you don't have momentum, oh my lord, it's like pushing
a boulder, or trying to pusha boulder. I think I think it's
like pushing a car uphill by yourself. Sometimes. I love that you get

(01:10):
halfway up the hill and you realizethat somebody left the emergency break off.
Ah, that's perfect. Here's thegood news. You get to the top
of the hill and then you beginto get a little bit of a downward
momentum, and it's a good momentum. Yeah yeah, hopefully hopefully getting that
car uphill. That's that's key.And so so we're going to be talking

(01:32):
about maybe how we can steward bothor how we can get momentum going,
and then maybe how we can startit on the back end, because there's
nothing quite like you know, runningwith it and just just continuing that momentum
cycle. But let's talk about gettingit going initially. Like, if you

(01:53):
are in one of those churches thatwe hear so much about, those churches
that are have fallen flat, they'reat plateau, or they're in decline,
what are some things practically speaking thatthese church leaders can do to get the
get the car moving up? Heal, Yeah, yeah, jump in je

(02:15):
I'll add to your Okay, Okay, I have one here. The first
thing I have written down is,you know a lot of things, if
not everything comes down to communication.And there's some key words within the communication
realm that can help you start themomentum process. And one of those keywords

(02:38):
is the word new. So wheneveryou start announcing something. Hey, guys,
I got something new or another wordis starting starting on a certain date,
we're going to be doing this,you know. And there's just something
special about something that's new, somethingthat's fresh, something that's starting up.

(03:00):
You know, if your church hasbeen flat, oh my gosh, you
know, the surefire way to keepit flat is to do nothing, so
you know, something new. Weknow. The other thing, Jeff,
is that I think established churches thatare going they have some they've none momentum.

(03:21):
Put it that way, that clearlyit's not happening now and on it
goes. But to perpetuate something thatreally isn't happening, and that's where the
new thing comes in powerful where wesay, uh, you know, it
was really great. You know,there was a church in Indiana we helped
that had Accordian worship and they feltlike the Lord told him to do that.

(03:45):
Yeah. We pointed out that theyhad not had any kind of connection.
They were in a location geographically fantastic, but nobody was coming, no
young couples like they wanted. Youmight consider changing from the according Oh no,
God told us anyway. They twoweeks later they changed it over.
It was great, meant to beginto happen. There was a fantastic church,
except that it was Accordian accordion.And it's tough to argue with someone

(04:12):
who says that's saith the Lord.Oh yeah, that's a whole nother that's
a whole other podcast right there.Man, oh man. Yeah, once
once they tell you that, Imean, what can you coach them with?
You know, getting them accordians out, man, have a good time
and play is unto the Lord.You can't play tambourine at an accordion at

(04:39):
the same time. That's oh man, you know, I think we ought
to have tambourine tryouts. Uh forreal, I've been to some churches where
tambourines actually should be banned. Ohyeah, me too, Oh my god.

(05:00):
But anyways, so yeah, socommunication is the key, and another
thing I have down here is andit kind of goes hand in hand with
that. That newness is start anew sermon series. I know a lot
of pastors that they preach from weekto week. But again, if you
want the same result, you continueto doing the same thing you've been doing.

(05:23):
So maybe try to preach in seriesin that way you can advertise and
I know that might be a badword in some circles. But start promoting.
There we go, promoting that sermonseries that's coming up, and maybe
just making it so practical that it'sattractional in nature to the public at large,

(05:46):
and so that that way is evangelistic. There you go evangelistic and very
practical. Yeah, maybe something thathas to do with the family, or
maybe it has to do with somethingthat's going on within your context. Maybe
it addresses the drug situation in yourarea. You know, Jeff, to

(06:11):
do that, it helps sometimes tohave a model that not just for that
how to appreaching. And I knowthat if anybody's been doing it for a
while, has their own style.But to add on to what you said,
I think that we've got to dowhat it takes to get us there.
If you will, and momentum doesn'thappen on its own, chances are

(06:32):
good that you're not, actually,as your mom might have told you,
the world's best preacher right after BillyGrahama. And so you know, if
you're like the ninety nine point npastors, then very possibly you need to
find a model that you can relateto, and I'd recommend you start with
Rick Warren as one possibility. Hisstuff is online. It might cost a

(06:55):
little bit, but not much.And he likes to say, if my
bullet fits your gun, then youshoot it. Oh amen. Amen.
He gives everything that you need outthere. And again we've discussed this in
a previous podcast. But take hisstuff, take his outline, change the
stories the illustrations. Don't be tellinghis stories that you went to the beach

(07:21):
and how you live there in Californiawhen you live in Wisconsin or Maine.
My wife, Karen, I meanja, oh my gosh. Yeah,
you can get a lot of troublewith that. But you know, going
along with the sermons series talking aboutpromotion, kindness resources, actually they're great

(07:47):
with the invitation cards, you know. Actually so we actually give out what
do we call those, Steve Connectioncards, cars outreach outreach or connect cards.
Yeah, yeah, connect cards.You can also consider getting invitation cards
and getting your your your series logo, get a nice series graphic, whatever

(08:13):
you are led to preach on,get a get a graphic done on there.
And if you're a small church andyou don't have anyone that that can
do graphics for you, go onfive fiver dot com f I V E
R R dot com. Hire someoneto do your graphic for five bucks and
actually the five dollars one will actuallyend up costing you six dollars, but

(08:35):
I think you can you can swingsix and so amazing. Yeah, yeah,
and get that graphic and then putgo to Visa Print or or some
something similar to Visa Print and getyou some business cards made up with the
the graphic you know, imposed ontoyour card and then your church information on

(08:58):
the back. And then you're equippingyour your people to hand that card out.
And then which leads me to almosta sub point of that is begin
to cultivate a invitation culture. Soyour people are constantly inviting people. You

(09:20):
know, we that's one of thesesecrets to what happened with our church in
Ohio. Then, uh, wemade it fun to come to church.
We made a few little teeny tweaks. Doesn't take a lot, you know,
the message obviously is part of it. But you walk in the door
and you greet people, give themthe option that they want tea or coffee,

(09:43):
but we don't want that in ourfacility. Or you might call it
your sanctuary. And I'm going,oh my gosh, you know, you
know, getting new change the thethe cat, the carpeting every once in
a while, the carpeting every oncein a while. Yes, don't put
a lid on their coffee. Imean, there's so many ways you can

(10:03):
do that. It will change andrevolutionize your atmosphere. Oh, absolutely,
one little teeny thing. And uh, you know, we even had people
bringing pops in and going, youknow what, they don' open it up
in the middle of the message.And we said, that's probably going a
little too far. Because I canhear it, I'm sure other people can
hear it. Yeah. Yeah,I was actually yelled at one time.

(10:24):
We're off topic, but these aregood stories. But I walked into a
church one time, and I alwayshave one of these travel mugs. Yeah,
and I walked into the church andas I was about to go into
the sanctuary, someone said, hey, you can't bring that in there.

(10:46):
Go okay, I'm just gonna sitit down right here at the door.
And I said, it down rightoutside the door. And I walked in.
I saw the pastor of the place. He didn't know the guy who
he was. He yelled at mefrom across the foyer. I didn't realize

(11:07):
I was the guest speaker, andso he came and apologized. I mean,
I said, man, I said, you know, I totally get
that, but understand this. Whatif I was a guest, Well,
I thought it was the first time. Yes, and man, you're yelling
at me that I can't bring mycoffee in. I said, yeah,

(11:28):
that is so horrible. Anyway,that's that's great, that's a great illustration,
Jeff. I mean, we dothings that perpetuate. It goes back
to the first point. We dothings that perpetuated, and that got us
here that if we change them,it's going to irritate some people. And
that's a whole other podcast. Howdo you unplug things without losing every momentum
you've got, But you've got tobe willing to when you say new maybe

(11:52):
the new attitude is we can bringcoffee and with the yeah, put a
lid on it, you know,yeah, you know, Steve All this
actually equates to that our third point, which is, you know, being
outward focused. And when we sayoutward focus, you and I we typically
will go to the the outreach portionof being outward focused, but also outward

(12:16):
focus is also being attractional in away where you're and I know the word
seeker friendly is kind of overplayed thesedays or outplayed, have you, But
I mean it's still relevant. Youknow. Two, be at least seeker
sensitive. If we, as theChurch, the body of Christ, if

(12:39):
we're called to reach those who arefar from Christ, shouldn't we make it
less intimidating and by golly not yellingat them from across the foyer not to
bring in their coffee. Yeah,that's true, man, And you'll get
the excuse. This is God's house, You're going. Don't get me gone,

(13:03):
you know. I mean, it'sjust I mean, if you want
to call it that, that's fine. Yeah, it's a building, dude,
It's this is the sanctuary in theHoly of Holies in you know,
Jerusalem. I come on, it'sa building brick and ten and mortar and
who knows what all. But uh, that's exactly right, Jeff. You

(13:24):
know amen. Amen. Yeah,I view buildings as tools for discipleship,
tools to reach the loss, whichis part of the discipleship process. Can
I give I'm sorry, go ahead, go ahead. Can I give one
simple tool or very possibly changing thewhite people think about church at the end

(13:45):
of his service, say, ifyou're new today, Uh, somebody I
hope is going to take you outto lunch and uh and by the way,
they're going to pay for it.And I recommend you paul A Burritos.
They give you a burritos your headfor about eight bucks and uh,
that'll be about three days worth offood if you're normal. But I say

(14:07):
that, you know something. Isay that. I said that week after
week after week after week, andI began to, you know again,
just repeating it. Kind of alittle bit of a joke about a little
bit, but I'm totally serious.They know that part. And uh,
man, we saw some amazing stuffhappened. And no kidding, A new
Chapotle opened up about a mile fromwhere we were located, and they said

(14:28):
we had a line around our blockon Sunday after people buying buriedo. Yeah.
I didn't mean literally, but that'sfine. Yeah, yeah, I
want to go get a burrito.Amen. I love that that you were
sewing the season. You're setting upa culture for relationships to build. That's
right, man, Yeah, thatis wonderful. Yeah. Amen. You

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know Tony Morgan? Do you knowhim? By chance? See? Okay,
yeah, I saw that Tony Morgan. For those if you don't know
him. He runs a group calledthe Unstuck Group, and he did a
survey or he knows of a survey. I'm not sure if that started with
him or not, but anyways,the survey was of healthy churches versus churches

(15:16):
that were at plateau or in decline, and he found that one of the
main differentiators was that those that werehealthy and growing were outward focused. Yeah,
hands down, no, no needfor further discussion, go figure right,

(15:39):
Yeah, and yeah. The difficultyyet again Jeff is and again yet
another topic for another day is gettingthe lead goose game the correct direction.
If you're the lead leader, leadpastor, then you already are the lead
goose. And when he recognize itor not, what you do and the

(16:02):
way you spend money, the waythat you live, et cetera. There's
a spiritual anointing to it. Andyou can't just talk it won't have any
umphind it. But what you havebehind is you who you are. So
you change, they will change you. Go on, it will go out.
You serve people bottles of water atthe corner, they will serve people
with bottles of water at the corner. Yeah. Yeah, and you know,

(16:25):
going back to that communication piece whenyou start sharing about your experiences.
You know, Hey, guys,I was out at the local supermarket and
I saw this young lady in line, and I just saw that there was
something bothering her, and I struckup a conversation and I ended up just
giving her some advice and inviting herto church, you know, and just

(16:51):
kind of I'm just pulling that outof the air. But you know,
whatever it might be in your lifethat would encourage others to do likewise,
I think that's so healthy. Iprayed for a guy recently and he said,
what are you going to cherry?I said, can I pray you
for ten seconds? It's my youknow, one of my things I do.
Yeah, I have only had twopeople over the last about eight to

(17:14):
ten years. I've been doing thisvery regularly. It turned me down,
and he said, of course,yeah. I said, ten seconds,
what's the worst that could happen?I usually bless them. I bless you
in the name of the Father,Son, Holy Spirit. Am I get
an insight from the Lord? AndI prayed that but ten seconds the guy
says, of course, exact whatyou said, Jeff. How do I
get to your church for kids.That's the other question they always ask,

(17:36):
and how here's the big one,how long does it last? Over and
over and over. I get thosequestions. Oh my goodness, three questions
only, you know. Yeah,yeah, real quick, Steve, let's
let's kind of wind down the podcastwith just a couple of little maybe nuggets

(17:56):
for those who are looking to bemore outward folks. Yeah. Well,
you know a quote from Aristotle.He says, be kind to everyone because
everyone is fighting a hard battle.Amen. So there isn't a person that
you have ever run into, certainlynot this week. You'll run into that

(18:18):
is not fighting, as he calledit, a hard battle. And you
may not see the backpack burden ontheir backs or the whatever on their face
because they're pretty good at faking it. But every single person, even as
I'm saying that, I feel this. To me, that's like the most
important thing I've said today is beaware of that, and it will change
the momentum in your church. Everysingle person is an opportunity to I mean

(18:44):
everything in the whole spiritual mention comingto Christ and then planting seeds along the
way. Yeah yeah, amen.Amen. Now encourage people just to look
at your context and see what isthere, what is the need for your
context? And maybe you have asituation where the homeless, the homeless situation
is just running rampant. What canyou do to be part of the solution

(19:06):
to that problem. Maybe maybe youdon't have that going on, but you
have people that are are volunteer firemenwho are you know, they're taking time
out of their lives to go andserve. Maybe your outreach is to them.
Right right now, we have thisthing going on, the whole COVID

(19:29):
nineteen deal, and the rest homesare really prominent in the news. But
I bet after this passes, noone is going to be talking about those
people in the rest homes exactly.And so maybe that's a burden that you
have. So whatever your context is, whatever your burden is, whatever the

(19:51):
Lord has lay on your heart,man, make a point to get out
there and serve them, love onthem, and in doing so you'll be
outward focused gets ray. Amen.Amen. Well, guys, that's gonna
do it for us today on churchplanting today. And you know, from

(20:14):
my heart and I know Steve's heart, we want to thank you for listening.
You can get more information by goingto church planting dot com and for
outreach information go to kindness dot comas well as Kindness outreach dot com and
you can find a lot more resourcesthere. So until next time, we
encourage you to keep it simple andkeep on making a difference. God bless

(20:38):
you guys. Here bleuss, you'vebeen listening to the Church Planting Today podcast
with Steve Chagrin and Jeff Hookland.Be sure to share and subscribe wherever you
listen to podcasts. Connect for freeoutreach articles, ideas, and resources at
kindness dot com and church Planting dotcom. M