Andy Stanley gave a talk in session 4 on “Creating a Culture Around and Through your Programming” that I know you’re going to find helpful. If you’re responsible for ministry environments (worship services, children’s ministry, small groups, student ministry, etc.) than this talk is pure gold for you!
- If everyone doesn’t have the same picture of a win you end up with chaos and nobody ends up winning
- Funny Andy Stanley moment: “If I could heal people at will to draw a crowd I would, but I can’t…so I have to hire a band”
- Every single ministry program (worship service, student ministry, small groups, children’s ministry) is being evaluated, not formally, but by participants. Wouldn’t it make sense for you as a staff to go ahead and have a plan to be on the same page and evaluate it together?
3 Irreducible Minimums for an Irresistible Ministry Environment
1. An Appealing Setting
- The physical environment
- Settings create first impressions (What does it appear to be at first pass?)
- An uncomfortable or distracting setting can derail ministry before it even begins
- Every physical environment communicates something; there are no neutral physical environments
- Design, décor, and attention to detail communicate what and who you value most
- Design, décor, and attention to detail communicates whether or not your expecting guests
- Periodically we all need fresh eyes on our ministry environments
- Are your ministry settings appealing to your target audience?
- Do the design, décor, and attention to detail in your environments reflect who is most important to you?
- What’s starting to look tired?
2. An Engaging Presentation
- Engaging presentations are essential to the success of our mission
- Presenting the Gospel
- Teaching them to “obey everything I’ve commanded you”
- To engage is to secure one’s attention
- Generally speaking it’s the presentation that makes information interesting
- An audience’s attention span is determined by the quality of the presentation
- Engaging presentations require engaging presenters
- Always sacrifice the one for the many not the many for the one
3. Helpful Content
- Helpful = useful
- It’s not enough for it to be true. It has to be helpful
- Helpful content is content that addresses helping people think and act differently
- Information that doesn’t address a felt need is perceived as irrelevant
- Is your content helpful?
- Do you content creators know the goal of content is to help people think and act differently?
- Is your content age and stage of life specific?
Want to grab more Catalyst Resources for yourself and your team? I’m giving away a brand new copy of “The Power of Momentum” a 4-part video teaching series from Andy and Craig. Just sign up here and I’ll let everyone know who the winner is next week!
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