Video Transcript: Making Your Calling and Church Known

We're going to talk now about some nuts and bolts, approaches to getting your  calling your church known. Essentially, what you want to do is make sure people know what you're doing. You want to be word of mouth engine that drives the  new church, you don't want to be spending a lot of money to just spend on ads  or spend the internet ads and all that stuff, because that is a expense that goes  out of your budget quickly. So instead, you want to make your operating system, a word of mouth operating system. Let me talk about how the Word of God  spread early on how the early church word spread? Well, first of all, it was a very powerful, engaging story. And it's a truth. A perfect God, who became man lived  on this earth, a human born of a virgin, live on this earth, serve God, in perfect  obedience, went to a cross an innocent man. And God was put to death. That all of our sin is placed at the cross. This Jesus rose from the dead so that our  biggest problems of life, sin and death, through the resurrection are now dealt  with. That's an engaging story. And now we are redeemed to live forever  differently than before. And the story of the Bible, the story of the gospel is the  story of love, the story of salvation, the story of transformation. That's a great  story. It embodies a reality. And we want to share this story. And this story is so  remarkable that people will tell their friends, we see that in Acts 13:48, as the  Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified. The Word of God, as many  who are ordained to eternal life believe in the word of the Lord was spread  abroad throughout all the region. Notice the word of mouth. The Gentiles heard  this. They were happy. They were glad it made them happy. You mean, death is  defeated? My sin is covered. And what did they do they glorified the  communication, the Word of God to them. And if they had that, that spark in  them, they believed now here's the reality is not everyone will believe the Word  of Mouth campaign about you, the Church, about God or anything like that. But  this, this, Acts 13:48, is a beautiful way to see how the word of mouth spreads  and built the early church in the same principles will help your church spread  just the same. Let's talk about those times that word of mouth spreads in a  church planters life? Well, first thing to know about word of mouth is to be  transparent. In your life, in general, your walk in general. So if you sense the  calling, start telling people that you're sensing the call and to plant a church or  into ministry, Share it, let people talk about it. I don't want them to talk about our  note, Hey, it's okay. Talk about if people cannot talk about what's happening in  your life that are close to you. And you feel embarrassed about that. Ooh, to be  a church planter might not be your calling. Then as you're developing a vision  for what the church is going to look like, share that, let it go and word of mouth.  Again, not in a proud way, not in a vain way, not in a way that makes you look  better than anybody else, but in a transparent way. Then as your recruiting  leaders be promotional share how that's going. Ask leaders that you recruit if  they know someone that might be interested in a new church. Have your leaders write down the people they think that might be interested in maybe visit them 

with your leaders. When you develop small groups, have small group leaders  share what's happening. Develop a word of mouth transparency, leadership  style, all through your church. Then when you gather, see those things in your  gatherings that can be shared those stories, get get people from your  congregation or new church up there to share those remarkable things of the  work of God. And then when you're building your building of the church, have  your building of the church be around the word of mouth style of promotion?  Now let's talk about making known your calling. Let's go deeper on that. So if  you sense the calling is a ministry, who do you share that with? Share it with  your mentor, the pastor that's helping you share it right away. Now, some of you  are pastors who may be threatened if you say you might want to plant a church,  It's okay though, be careful about that. But still say, you know, someday my  dream is to plant a church, I sense that calling someday will help maybe disarm  that pastor at first, if that pastor was worried about being threatened about you,  but you still want to be transparent, in Be very careful and you're transparent, to  be the same person to everyone, even the people that are harder to be the  same person to, because you don't want to tell one person and then it gets back through the word of mouth chain. Oh, you never told me? Why didn't you tell me  you don't want to live like that. You just want to be the same person to everyone, your family, you'd be surprised how your family can share with others, your  calling, and that sets up the beginning of a very powerful word of mouth, place,  your friends, your church. Now, going back to your church, and pastor, again,  you have to be very sensitive to that. But there is a way I believe that most of  you can communicate to your pastor, maybe it's a daughter church, in your  pastor helps you get started. In a lot of ways this that sticky part, because a lot  of times churches are happy where they are and they don't necessarily want to  plant another church. And then you are called to do it. It's like the church is  pregnant with planting a daughter church and you're sensing that call. But there  is some dicey waters to go through. But transparency, care, generosity, love. All  of those things are important. Even when you make known you're calling your  acquaintances. After you've shared it with your friends, and your pastor and your mentor, if you do social media, share it there, you know, I'm thinking about  planting a church I am studying to possibly be a church planter. It but even when you're doing that, be very humble, and your prospect and as you're getting to  know people in your community, you're going to share that, you know, I'm  thinking down the road to plant a church. You know, even do it that way. That's  what I've learned is if you come into an area or you're talking to your pastor, you  know, someday I'd like to plant a new church. What do you think about that? And at first, if it's someday, the pastor and other people we have as a possibility, I  could see you could do that someday. And then you just keep talking about it is  the all of those things are better than just sort of like surprising everybody at the  last minute here. And you know what else it does? It's sort of vets your own 

motivation. If you can't talk about it, you're probably not ready to even articulate  it. But if you can share it, even in the calling process, that will help Now, in that  process. It will be tested, people go, No, you can't plant a church because you're not really this way. Or you know what your life is not like a church planters life.  See part of that? Also, vets you because of all of a sudden you say I want to  plant a church and everybody says, I wouldn't follow you no way, not you.  Maybe it's time to circle back and say who am I? Am I really called to plant a  church? If people feel that way, in my friends, my pastor, my acquaintances, that no way are, would I be able to plant a church, I wouldn't come that's for sure. If  that's the attitude that you get, then you really got to ask yourself, Who am I,  Lord, change me. Now there is the prophet is not honored his own town  syndrome and some church planters have that, where your past was just so not  for God. And now you become a believer, and things have changed your life so  much. And most people don't even acknowledge that. Well, you may be not  planting a church in that community. Maybe it's someone out somewhere else.  But can you convince one or two of your acquaintances, friends, family, your  pastor, that a new life is now being lived by you. If you can't even convince one  or two of they're not convinced, I should say, you know, you don't want to try to  convince them but you know what I'm trying to get in. If people look at you, and  they say No way, even people who once saw you and they see your  transformation into Christ, and they don't see another transformation and then  they don't affirm you again, maybe it's time just to prepare for more discipleship.  And you're not going to be a church planter, being a church planter is very  difficult. And this is where spiritual warfare and a test is first given to you. But  you want to make your church calling to plant a church known. And it's a  powerful way to set up a later word of mouth campaign. So let's talk about the  nuts and bolts of that, understand the importance of getting the word out.  According to Andy, Sernovitz, word of mouth marketing, how smart companies  get people talking, he's talking about these best practices of word of mouth.  Now, again, I want to say to all of you, this is from a general audience source.  So some of the words and some of the things he says here may not feel like,  hey, is this about church planting, and I'll try to translate that into a church  planting language. Anyway, he writes, I've been marketing for a long time. In  other words, I've been promoting for a long time. But I've never had a marketing  budget. Despite that, I have sold a lot of stuff. Any success I have had always  has been half creativity and half talking to a lot of people. I didn't know at the  time, but what I was doing then was what we call word of mouth marketing.  Joining me in the conversation that people are having every day with other  people. Now to translate that into church planting, it goes like this. As a church  planter, you know, we're called to get a plan. We're called to preach sermons.  So we got creativity. Okay. The other half of it is talking to a lot of people. I've  seen church planters have incredible creativity, anointed creativity, compelling 

messages and programs and ministries. And where I find is that they don't have  the budget to market with like mailings and all that. And they're not out there  talking to a lot of people. I've even noticed this, I've seen church planters that  really their creativity was so so. But they're talking to a lot of people. And I've  seen of those church planters are used by God to make a bigger impact in the  community because they're having conversations. But if you can combine  creativity, and conversations, that is a powerful way to get the word out for a  new church plant. Give people Andy says, a reason to talk. Do you have a  story? So what is word of mouth marketing, Andy says, in his book, I define it as  giving people a reason to talk about your stuff, and making it easy for that  conversation to take place. So we think about advertising, a lot of church  planters want to raise a large budget budget for promotions. But you don't we're  gonna save you all that money. And we're instead we're going to help you see  how word of mouth is going to be that promotional way that happened in the  early church, but will also happen for you. So here's the simple formula.  Remember, the early church discussion, engaging story, Embodied Reality,  sharing with others. That's a simple formula. Christianity engaged in story Christ  died on the cross, the Gospel, rose from the dead. We are now part of this  incredible plan for life ending death. Embodied reality is living it. We walk the  walk, we embody the story, sharing with others. Now you tell what God has done for me. Okay, so now in the end, marketing is pretty easy. If people like you,  your stuff, they trust you. They will tell their friends to do business with you  translate that into church plants. In the end, church planting is pretty easy. If  people see you as REAL, embodied the reality of the Gospel story and you're  telling the stories of that transformation and truth and others are telling them  they will trust you. They will want to hear and they will tell their friends to check  out your new church plant. That's the simple formula. Now trust is very  spreadable. When people trust you they're willing to put their words on the line  for you. Please them, inspire them. They'll bring their friends to you. What are  your other options for them be forced to spend millions in advertising to get them interested annoy them, watch customers walk away taking their friends with  them. You know in other words, it's like this If people trust you, they will be  compelled by your narratives, your conversations, you will not need to, in this  case, spend a $50,000 a year marketing budget, you will mobilize your troops to spread the word, the remarkable and he talks about that Seth Godin calls this  calls it being remarkable in his book, Purple Cow. Remarkable means worth  remarking on. worth saying something about it's the root concept of word of  mouth marketing. Think about the gospel, it's remarkable. Think about what  Christ has done it is what is remarkable. Resurrection is remarkable. Eternal life  is remarkable. In a world where people are dying, we're sadness is everywhere.  We have the best message, it's love, the love of God, to us, our love for others.  It's remarkable. That's the core of getting the word out about your church. And 

when you preach, preach the remarkable. Now what about the role of the  internet? Well, remember, it's only part of it, only 20% of word of mouth happens online. When it does play a role. It usually sparks the 80% of word of mouth  conversations that actually happen face to face. So understand, like with Twitter, and Facebook, and all that stuff, in a lot of ways how I use all those internet tool  is the discipline by which prompts my word of mouth conversations to go  forward. I don't depend upon the internet as my form of communication. It's like  the bulletin factor in I don't know if you've heard this before, but I've learned this. People would say, hey, I want to do a ministry and they say, I said, Great.  Pastor, can you make sure it gets in the bulletin? Well talk to the bulletin  secretary and it gets in the bulletin. But here's I have said, you know, what, don't depend on the bulletin. Why it's in the bulletin, because the bulletins is only  gonna be 20% of the word of mouth here. Go out there and talk to people in the  church about this ministry, talk to your friends about this ministry, then  someone's going to show up. I've also added where people put in the bulletin,  hardly anyone shows up or no one shows up. And then they say, This church is  dead, because I put it in the bulletin. Nobody cared about this ministry. But I'll go back and say, Have you talked to people about this ministry are starting? Well, I  put in the bulletin, you know, are sometimes I think, let's just drop the bulletin  completely. The Bulletin has been this sort of excuse that I don't have to talk to  my friends for many, many years. So if all of a sudden there was a movement in  the church to drop the bulletin, I would be all part of it. The four rules of word of  mouth marketing? Well, let's talk about them. Be interesting, is that remarkable.  Make it easy. Make People Happy. earn trust and respect. This is according to  Andy. And if you think about that, in the church, be interesting. Don't be  monotone. Don't be boring. Don't have 15 things that you're asking people to do. Be really clear about what you're asking. So even an announcement times, let's  say you're making an announcement in church, where you want to do is to say  do this one thing. We're asking everybody to participate this way. But don't do 15 Things narrow it down to simple things, that people can make their next step,  make people happy, don't do things. And again, this in some ways, I don't like  how that's put, make people happy. You know, that's not going to happen. You  know, I like more the biblical thing is, touch the soul. Connect to the Spirit, then  what will happen is earn trust and respect. So let's talk about them even in more detail. Be interesting. Before you run an ad before you launch a product before  you put something new on the menu, ask the magic question. Would anyone tell a friend about this? Okay, so whatever you do, is that remarkable? Will  somebody tell someone about this? Make it easy. You need to do two things.  Find a super simple message and help people share it. Okay, so let's say you  are going to have a concert and you want to promote a concert in your  community. Okay. What you want to do is to have a very A simple promotion of  what it is. And then maybe give everybody a card, inviting them, and give 

everybody five cards. And then ask everybody, will you pass out your five cards,  and maybe on each card, you have something simple, like, the phone number of the sharer of the card. So that, hey, I'm gonna give him his card, when you look  

at it, and I have my number written down, when you call me to confirm that  you're going to come. It's not call the church and tell people that you're going to  come? No, it's called me because you know, you've done that those individual  people out there that you've made it easy for, they're your word of mouth team.  So you want it as close as possible to those, Hey, call me, or call me if you can't  come. So they take a card having to be there. We'll call me if you can't come  because there's limited amounts here. Notice, you want to make it super simple.  Anyone help you help people, share it, make people happy. Thrill them, create  an amazing product, provide excellent service, go the extra mile, make the  experience remarkable fix problems, make sure the work you do gets people  energized, excited and eager to tell a friend. The point here is don't do  something that's just a blah. Now, people will say, well, the church isn't  supposed to be about Oregon. About entertainment. I agree with you. But the  church is not supposed to be about boring, either. We are part of that  remarkable message, the resurrection, love, new life, salvation. So if we can't  figure out ways to sort of create conversations, come on, we can do better than  that. So make people happy is how Andy puts it. But to me, it's compel people to want to hear more about the gospel. earn trust and respect. Always be an  honorable company, make ethics part of everything you do. Be good to your  customers talk to them fulfill their needs. Now, you know, what I have found is  church planters. And I did this, and I'm just confessing you my first church.  There were things in the 1980s, where we promise we have all these programs,  even though we didn't have the programs to get people in the door. And the idea was, in the future, we would have these programs. But we sort of lied, we did lie. We said we had these programs, we didn't have these programs. If I were to do  that all back I wouldn't do that canned marketing approach. There was this  telemarketing approach we did we just call these X amount of people we  promise we have these programs when we didn't today, I'll be much more to  always say the truth about what we have and don't exaggerate. And here's the  problem with promotions. We can exaggerate, you know, people like me and  others can be sellers. We're selling what we don't have. Don't do that. Always  promote what it is we do. And if we're a work in progress, you know what we're a work in progress. So we need helpers. So come on, we will you consider helping because we have a compelling message. And a lot of people get excited about  hey, I'm needed, I'm gonna come. But if you go the other way, we provide you  with this, we provide you with that. And then they come to you don't provide  them with that. They go like well, you something the expectation that you would  provide it and you don't, I don't trust you now. Word of mouth is an exciting form  of getting your the word out about your church, but it starts right with your own 

calling. It goes into the organization, you have sharers with you and you make it  easy for them to share a compelling message. You earn trust in your community. And in time what happens is God brings that word of mouth just like it did in the  book of Acts to more and more people