Purpose Driven Planting

On any given day, we wake up and watch the traffic report on 3D HDTV and listen to stereo music or even watch sports highlights on our iPods while dressing. We skip the stack of brightly colored cereal boxes in the cupboard for the “#2 Special” at the donut shop (we know what the #2 Special is because it’s pictured on the board – coffee with two donuts!). And while we try to follow our diet, the smell of cinnamon buns is just too much – we buy some, but it’s only for “the office!” We drive to our first appointment with help from a full color GPS and while waiting to start the meeting, we download pictures and video of our vacation. And that’s all before 8:30 a.m.

We live in a world where we can view music videos made with the latest technology, get online news as it happens, see full color ads everywhere we go, and basically experience a world full of visual, emotional, and thousands of other stimuli. This happens every Monday through Saturday.

Then comes Sunday.

On Sundays we go to church and, in most cases, we sit in one seat and stare at one teacher or pastor using only one method of communication – the spoken word. Sometimes he doesn’t even move one inch.

It’s time we admit it – to keep the attention of today’s “hi-tech, low attention span” world we must communicate with more than just words. This is especially true for those of us planting churches that target the unchurched and the dechurched – people that say they avoid church because it’s boring!  Don’t give those who are looking for a reason not to attend church an excuse to avoid Sunday mornings. Never let it be said that our services were boring.

I believe the message of God’s love is more important than any newscast or advertising blitz. Our message has more to say than any TV talk show host and it certainly is more important than a music video. It deserves to be communicated and celebrated in the most creative ways available. It doesn’t matter where you meet or if your team is big or small, rich or poor. We must be creative in the ways we present the greatest message ever given. That value should be a part of your church’s DNA from day one.

Now most people’s reaction to that challenge is to excuse our lack of creativity by focusing on what we don’t have. Maybe you don’t have a budget, maybe you don’t have a workroom, maybe you don’t have a large team of people yet or you more than likely don’t have your own building. Well, join the crowd! My home church has none of the above. We planted with no financial support and meet in a gym and a theater. We have a very limited creative budget, a small number of volunteers, and less workspace than your basement. But each week Discovery Church’s creative team goes above and beyond their natural capabilities and capacity to creatively communicate that week’s topic. Here’s how they do it!

First, we plan well in advance. Our pastors, weekend communicators, and some handpicked volunteers work together as a team to develop each message (That’s another article for another time). We start that process 12 weeks out. Let me say it again so the pastors that just fainted get it – we start 12 weeks ahead of time! A rough draft or “skeleton” with the main points and key verses then goes to the creative team two weeks later (10 weeks before the message is given). In other words, they get up to eight weeks to create, delegate, and consummate the creative elements of any particular message. My point here is simple: If you want your team to be creative you have to give your team time! The days of completing your message on the Thursday before delivery are over! So as you dream about what your church will look like, plan now to plan well in advance.

Second, not only do you need to plan in advance,but you also need a plan. There’s nothing worse than throwing a group of creative types in a room without some direction. While the creative road admittedly should be large, wide, and winding, you still have to give creative people some guidance. If not, they’ll just go in circles, spin their wheels, or come up with things like “sharing times.” At Discovery our creative guide is comprised of what author Bernd Schmitt calls the five experiences: feeling, thinking, the five senses, action, and relating.

The first experience is feelings – we want to create emotional responses. We want to make people feel in their heart what we’re communicating.

Then, we want to stimulate thinking. What we communicate should percolate in the minds for more than just 30 to 40 minutes on Sunday morning.

The third experience is sense. We have five of them. They are sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. By the way, when it comes to the senses I encourage you to not limit yourself to just one when you communicate. Len Wilson in his book, Digital Storytellers, The Art of Communicating the Gospel says, “The best senses are integrated – that is, they appeal to more than one sense at a time.” 

The fourth experience is action. We want then to do something that in effect teaches truth as effectively as the spoken or written word.

Finally, the fifth experience is relating. We want people to relate to what’s being taught. Our goal is to get them to say, “Been there, need to do that!”

Let me give you an example of how that all works:

Our topic a few months ago was suffering. I wanted to show that while some questions will never be answered until we get to Heaven there are some great scriptural truths that will help us get through the tough times. The way I wanted to communicate this was to convey the idea of someone being lost in a car on a foggy night. You can’t stop because you’ll get rear ended. You can’t pull off the road because you don’t know if there is a ditch or maybe even a cliff along the side. So you’re just creeping down the highway and it’s a very scary experience.

But then a truck pulls up on the highway in front of you going in the same direction. You can see the truck’s taillights through the fog and he seems to know where he is going. All you have to do is keep those points of light in your view and follow those points and if you do that you just know it would come out all right.

In a similar way, that’s how our understanding of why there’s pain and suffering in this world works. We may not be able to make out all the peripheral answers in terms of why. They still may be enshrouded by our limited ability to understand. But there are some key biblical truths that are illuminated to us through Scripture. And if we keep our eyes on those points of light – just like the taillights of that truck – I believe they will take us to a place of understanding where our hearts and our minds can be satisfied.

That was the creative scenario I set up. Our creative team used the “five experiences” as a starting point in their creative process and here are just some of the ideas they came up with.

Senses:

• Sight:  The stage was designed to look like a highway with a rear view of a tractor-trailer. The Café would be changed to look like a truck stop.
NOTE: Another effective creative idea we’ve been using is to video part of the message – as much as a whole point – on location. In this case, we could shoot a video at a truck stop. They actually would see and hear the trucks as I speak.
• Sound: truck and traffic sounds played pre- and post-service
• Smell:  gas (don’t try it – it’s not worth the nausea!)
• Taste:   special food items in the Café (cellophane wrapped buns, hot dogs, and other tasty truck stop menu items)
• Touch:  a tractor-trailer in parking lot, kids (and some adults with social issues) could sit in the driver’s seat and blow the horn.

Feelings (creating emotional responses):

• One suggestion was that we sing that country western hit, “My woman and my dawg left me and all I have left is my gun and this truck!” Just kidding – actually, we started with a spiritual direction that gave the scenario I just described, “Close your eyes and imagine you are on a foggy road. You’re lost and scared ... ” This actually ended up being a monologue performed by one of our drama team turned truck driver.

Relating:

• This was a “My Story.” One of the women at Discovery told the story of her advanced MS and how she deals with it with God’s help and direction.

Action:

• We weren’t at our best here. We settled for the tractor-trailer in parking lot, sitting in the driver’s seat, blowing the horn. I admit it - we missed the boat on this one.

• One good idea we recently used when we were talking about spiritual growth was having everyone write a characteristic of God on dressing mirrors we placed in the entrance ways. During the spiritual direction, we brought the mirrors on stage and said, “Spiritual growth is seeing the characteristics of God when you look in the mirror. What you wrote about God you see in your own life.”

Stimulate Thinking:

• We gave the illustration of being lost in the fog in the spiritual direction and used the trucking motive throughout the service. Our goal was to remind them of how God wants to lead them through hard times every time they see a taillight in the real world.
• A second suggestion was to give out 3x5 cards with the numbers 293 printed on them. This is a reference to Job 29:3 which says, “ ... by his light I walked through the darkness!” These cards can be taped to a workstation or the bathroom mirror as a constant reminder of God’s love and promise of guidance.

See how it works? With time for planning and a plan you can be creative. And by the way, the total cost of that whole Sunday was about $40 for the wood for the backdrop. Everything else was donated.

There’s one last point I need to make. To be creative you need to plan, you need a plan and, last but certainly not least, you need people. Enlisting the help of others is critical to the creative process. This is especially true in the early days of a new church. You working alone means the creativity of your message is limited to just your energy level and your creativity. No offense, but that’s not enough.

I know from experience that it’s a great temptation for ministry leaders just to do it all ourselves – that’s a recipe for forgetfulness and mistakes and burnout. More importantly, that’s also probably a real reason why many churches have slipped into what I call “well-intentioned mediocrity.” It’s not that we want to do things halfway, it’s just simple vocational math – no one can do a good job at everything.

The solution is simple – get a team!
Write this down: The most important thing you can do is to get help planning and implementing the creative worship experience. Actually, you can expand that statement to encompass the whole church planting process. It's all about the team. That should be the case no matter what a church’s size or budget but it’s even more necessary when you have nothing. You can’t do it all alone!

So how do you get help? Well, finding creative types and then molding them into a team is not an easy task but it certainly beats working alone! Here are some closing hints:

Remember that “less is more.” I stress that as leaders we can accomplish more by doing less. We need to enlist people to use their gifts in ministries where they are impassioned. There’s just nothing like having people function in their “zone” or “sweet spot” – the area where they can do that one thing they do the best. Creative, talented leaders have to get past the thinking that they are the only ones who can do all the jobs necessary to do the arts.

Give them ownership. I rely 100 percent on the creative team to plan and execute the first half of the service as well as suggest creative ideas for the message. While I get advance notice and “right of refusal” for every aspect of the service, the creative team at Discovery has taken ownership of the arts portion of the service and they do spectacular. They strive for an even greater excellence because they “own” the first 30 to 40 minutes and have great influence in the creativity of the message. Plus, there is another advantage, they judge themselves far greater than I could ever do.

Learn how to make the “big ask.” At Purpose Driven Church Planting we say you have to make the “big ask.” Learn to ask! There are people out there who can sing and dance and draw and are great with a hammer and saw. There are people out there that are creative and administrative and you don’t know it because you haven’t asked. 

Cast a vision of what God’s called you to do with your ministry and describe the kind of people, expertise, and skill level you are looking for. People are more than happy to be a part of that kind of ministry and to really serve in that because it’s an exciting thing. Especially if somebody sees their work on the stage and being used for the glory of God. I think you can get a lot of people involved in that. Here’s a hint, when you ask, buy them lunch. It’s harder for them to say no after you just paid for their meal.

NOTE: Get your launch team into a C.L.A.S.S. 301. Search for people with a S.H.A.P.E. that would benefit your team.

Look in your seats and beyond your walls. At Discovery we have a “Randy’s Researchers” team. Every so often we list the upcoming sermons in the weekly program or newsletter and ask people to suggest film clips or songs. We communicate with the congregation. We survey the congregation. You should do the same. While most future church planters don’t have a congregation you do have a launch team and a list of prayer partners. Get their opinion and build interest in the creative process. By the way, if you see one or two of those people constantly offering suggestions – rope them in, they’re probably creative!

You can also enlist (at little or no cost) the graphics or music students from local high schools and colleges. Some probably attend your current church. Dance studios can help you with dancers (Here’s a free, no obligation idea for a teaching series – call it “Soul Dance” and enlist the help of local dance studios to perform the opening number of each service.) Drama students from colleges or local drama clubs can be a source of actors. And don’t forget the college intern – they pay some college or seminary to work for you!

Speaking of colleges, introduce yourself to the music, arts, and graphic design professors at your local colleges. They can put you in touch with students who need projects – so what if it’s drawing for your children’s program or building sets for your new series? The key to enlistment is asking. I’ve also enlisted the help of a friend who has a banner printing company and you would not believe what a 10th grader with a digital camera, a PC, and $99 editing software can do if you just ask!

Let me close by repeating the point I started with. To communicate God’s love to a “hi-tech, low attention span” world, we need to communicate with more than just words. Don’t give those who are looking for a reason not to attend church an excuse to avoid Sunday mornings. Never let it be said that our services were boring. The greatest message of all deserves to be communicated in the most creative ways available. Do that and we can change our world!

This article is adapted from “Creativity With A Few People and Less Money,” a seminar by Randy Smith, lead pastor of Discovery Church (www.discoverychurchnj.com). Discovery is a 3- year-old multi-campus church located in southern New Jersey. Randy also serves a coach with the Purpose Driven Church Planting Network, a network of church planters that teaches and encourages church planters nationwide.