Tag: church hospitality

2_05: Todd McMichen – Get ready to receive an alpaca: a generational look at generosity

2_05: Todd McMichen – Get ready to receive an alpaca: a generational look at generosity

Breakthrough ideas with Todd: 

  • 74% of churches have online giving, but they only receive about 15% of their income through digital avenues.
  • 90% of our personal wealth is contained in our assets not in liquid cash – what if your church had a way to enable generosity in this way?
  • What happens if you’ve got one alpaca too many?
  • What does a generous human being look like?
  • What would it be like to have a church filled with generous people?
  • Lifeway Generosity is turning every smartphone into an offering plate.
  • Your members are giving above and beyond dollars every single week to somebody… why not the church.
  • The outside the church around generosity has completely changed from 20 years ago.
  • So 20 years ago as leaders in the church we have been afraid to talk about money because that’s a personal private matter, that’s changed.
  • Millennials are very generous, and they are socially generous.
  • if the church is going to catch up, we have got to be more confident in socializing generosity.
  • If a millennial is in worship on Sunday morning and you’re welcoming them, and you go through the entire worship service, and you’ve not told them the power of a dollar given to your local church, the difference it’s making, you’re turning them off.
  • Any time we’re about to pass the plate, anchor the moment in what your people can become by giving and tell a story of what the giving is doing.
  • The millennial generation doesn’t see different types of generosity differently. So serving generosity is equal to financial generosity.
  • 84% of millennials, on average, are giving to nonprofits. And when they give, they give almost $500 annually, and they give to three different nonprofits.
  • The millennial generation is generous. They’re just not giving in ways the church has readily acknowledged and accepted easily.
  • Every generous church we find is led by a generous pastor
  • We didn’t learn how to raise money and disciple people in their generosity in seminary. Here’s what to do.
  • Sometimes exegeting somebody’s life situation and helping them understand how generosity affects their relationship with Christ is as important.
  • What would you do if you had to cut 25% out of your budget next year?
  • Every first time givers was at some time a first time guest. Hospitality impacts generosity.
  • You can’t turn on joy across the congregation 30 seconds before the offering plate passes, joy starts in the parking lot.
  • Those churches that really welcome people well, seem to be some of those churches that are overflowing with generosity
  • When a church raises this budget 5% in advance, they start the fiscal year out, it’s behind, but everybody’s spending.
  • Instead of creating a 105% budget, what if you did 98%? It changes the game for you. So you’re not actually spending less, it’s just a completely different way of thinking and feeling about it.
  • There is a massive problem that pastors are unaware of. Total giving has flat-lined or a little bit up, but the number of givers is on dramatic decline.
  • Attendance is going down, but giving is staying the same.
  • We are going to lose 10 million givers in the Boomer generation. You can’t stop that from happening. You don’t know it’s happening.
  • Should a pastor know how much someone gives or doesn’t give? And how do we disciple the key donor?
  • The number one missing ingredient in the budget process is a yearly goal.

Breakthrough resources in this episode: 

Generospitality eBook

LifeWay Generosity

The Genius of Generosity by Chip Ingram

Webinar: Your Most Welcoming, Generous Christmas Yet!

Todd McMichen has served local churches for over 30 years in a variety of roles from small rural congregations to church plants to mega-churches. His generosity roots rise from leading multiple capital campaigns for two churches where he served as a staff member, raising over $35,000,000 for their visionary projects. Since 2000, Todd has been a well-established stewardship coach, generosity leader, author, and conference speaker. He now serves as the Director of LifeWay Generosity & Digital Giving. Todd is a graduate of Palm Beach Atlantic College in West Palm Beach, Florida and Southwestern Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife, Theresa. Visit Todd’s blog at toddmcmichen.com or follow him on twitter @toddmcmichen.

 

12: Danny Franks – Summit Church, Durham NC

12: Danny Franks – Summit Church, Durham NC

Breakthrough ideas with Danny:

  • When God says “I am doing something…” words begin to create worlds.
  • Learn why nobody wants to give their life away to show up and help somebody find a parking space.
  • Why serving on a hospitality team is a lot of fun for about three weeks but becomes a lousy hobby if there is no substance.
  • If all we are calling people to do is show up to check off a box, they will only be excited for a short time. Train for this instead.
  • How vital is a welcoming ministry in a church where there is so much emphasis on the gospel and missions?
  • Is a First Impressions ministry essential? Answering this question with the Gospel is critical, here’s why.
  • Could it be that there roles in the church that we are presenting as family chores? Serving should never feel like taking out the garbage.
  • There are plenty of opportunities to offend people and make them uncomfortable when you see with first-time guest eyes.
  • We can do everything possible to make 60-75 minutes inside the worship service flawless, but if we are not thinking through what somebody sees first, it may not matter.
  • Do we need to ask – what do they see first?
  • Make sure that the messages from the stage hold up to the messages on the sidewalk.
  • The gospel is offensive but nothing else should be, especially your welcome.
  • Guests far from God may disagree with points of your sermon, but they cannot argue with the love of your people.
  • There are all kinds of offenses on a Sunday that we can fix… the gospel is one offense we shouldn’t try to fix.
  • If we make it feel like we love people, we planned for them, and we cannot wait for them to come back, people hostile to the gospel will eventually take hold.
  • Helping people understand the purpose behind needed changes is critical to keeping volunteer hearts engaged.
  • The why behind The Summit’s hospitality begins and ends with the gospel.
  • The big win of the weekend is that everyone hears the gospel communicated.
  • The Summit First Impressions Plumbline: The gospel is offensive, nothing else should be
  • The Summit First Impressions Plumbline: The why is more important than the what.
  • The Summit First Impressions Plumbline: Everything speaks.
  • The Summit First Impressions Plumbline: The first visit should set up the second visit
  • The Summit First Impressions Plumbline: Make it personal – every weekend is someone’s first weekend, meet people where they are
  • The why has to be more caught than taught. People should understand what matters most beyond just hearing words at a training meeting.
  • Leaders must be present and in conversation to ensure that culture is stewarded well from campus to campus.
  • Stories are the most significant indicator of cultural health.
  • Asking guests about their experience is a way to hear from guests and listen for systemic issues in your hospitality experience.
  • The first time guest experience is a health indicator for the entire church.
  • Stats don’t grab people’s hearts the way stories do… tell stories to motivate and to cultivate the results you want to see.
  • Gospel discipleship in every ministry means that people can move from parking cars to planting churches.
  • The majority of guest services conversations are transactional, but are your people available to connect beyond the welcome and into the relational?
  • The bare minimum number of volunteers result in the bare minimum number of gospel experiences.
  • You always need more volunteers – more people engaged in the mission creates more opportunities to engage people.
  • There has to be a passion for the guest experience… your volunteers need to see welcoming people as more than just family chores.
  • Nobody dreams of being a guest services pastor, but the reality is that Biblical hospitality is a critical component of following Jesus.
  • Guest Services are a biblical virtue expressed on an organizational level.
  • Essential Qualities of a Great Hospitality Leader: People person, Attention to detail, Dreamer not afraid to take measured risks
  • We don’t always need to learn something new; we need to revisit the truth over and over again.
  • Leaders sharpen their tools by reading – and not just leadership books.
  • You can engineer EPIC moments to engage First Time Guests.
  • Relax… let go of the perfect plan and the ideal event. Outside of salvation, there are very few things in ministry that are as life and death as we think they are.
  • We can sacrifice people on the altar of our idol the plan.
  • We are not here for the plans we are here for the people.

Breakthrough resources in this episode:

The Summit Church RDU

People Are The Mission by Danny Franks

Start with Why by Simon Sinek

A Praying Life by Paul Miller

Switch by Chip & Dan Heath

The Power of Moments by Chip & Dan Heath

Danny Franks is the Pastor of Guest Services at the Summit Church in Durham, North Carolina, where he’s served since 2003. In that role, he oversees guest services for ten campuses across the Triangle region of North Carolina, reaching over 11,000 people each weekend. He’s married to Merriem (out of his league), dad to three boys (cooler than he was at their age), and protector of one princess (cute as a button). Danny’s passion for the church is to help outsiders become insiders, and challenging insiders to reach outsiders. He is the author of People Are the Mission: How Churches Can Welcome Guests Without Compromising the Gospel, which released in March 2018. He’s a regular blogger at dannyfranks.org and a regular twit @LetMeBeFranks.