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Using Direct Mail For Your Church

by Don.h on September 27, 2012 in Church Operations, Leadership

Have you ever had a major ministry launch or event that needed to get out into your community? You may have printed thousands of invite cards, hung posters all over town or even used radio advertising. In very specific situations you may want to consider the very powerful tool of direct mail.

A couple of years ago a colleague – Alex Mclean and I began experimenting with direct mail for our k-12 school. Since then Alex does all the creative design and I do the metrics/list building/financial side of our marketing. I had recently attended a direct marketing luncheon for businesses and was introduced to a 3rd party direct mail partner – Modern Postcard. We now had everything we needed to begin experimenting.

Today you can work with a 3rd party company like Modern Postcard and drill down on just about any metric you desire. For our school we work with households with specific ages of children. With private school tuition being pretty significant, we only need our direct mail to produce a couple enrollments and the program is profitable for us. A typical 8000 piece oversize full color postcard would run us around 4500.00 (including list, printing and mail distribution).

But what about church? We wanted to do more with church via direct mail but found it hard to justify the expense being you couldn’t see a direct correlation on how it would get paid for. We all want to invest in kingdom building work and are willing to spend to do that, but sometimes cutting a check for 4,000.00 in the name of “kingdom building” gets a little tough when you come right down to it.

But then……we had a unique request. Our Celebrate Recovery program had an open house coming and had 1000.00 they were willing to spend to do community promotion. We set out to design a smaller, full color postcard and narrowed our list by limiting to one zip code. We chose to stick with our basic “families with children” list and ended up with a 4000 piece mailer. All in – printing, preparation and mailing cost us just over our 1000.00 budget.

Normally our CR program runs about 100 people, but that particularly night they had a 50% increase in visitors. Many of the visitors had their card in their hand when they arrived. Although, financially there is no payback from a ministry, we felt that 50 new people finding this free program as an introduction to the healing work of Jesus Christ was money well spent.

After this very successful scaled down direct mail promotion, we anticipate doing more of these kinds of highly targeted campaigns. Below is the front and back of the post cards we sent.

Click on images to enlarge for detail

What have you tried via direct mail?

5 Reasons You Must Live-Scan Volunteers That Work With Minors

by Don.h on September 4, 2012 in Church Operations

Doing some form of background check in churches has become pretty common now, but I’m continually amazed at how many churches still do nothing. The facts are clear from convicted predators, churches are easy targets because have an inordinate trust level of people and an unquenchable need for volunteers. Put those together and a church is very vulnerable to being targeted.

Child molesters are very professional at what they do and they do a good job at it – convicted child molester

You must do background checks in your church ministries, it is essential. A church whom I’m closely acquainted with recently had to suffer through the aftermath of one of their hired youth leaders being caught molesting a young person in their youth group. If that wasn’t bad enough, he had a previous record. That means a simple back ground check would have revealed he had no business working with kids. That particular church is facing significant legal costs and a loss of confidence by the congregation. This is tragic for the victim, their family and the entire church family. This particular church may not financially survive this miss-step in operational procedure.

Here are 5 reasons you must not just background check, but institute a live-scan approach to your volunteers who work with minors:

1. Offenders have many victims

It has been shown over and over again, those who molest children are chronic in their behavior and are always looking for new victims. How many times have we seen in legal cases that once the story unfolds, multiple victims come forward sometimes over multiple decades.

2. Offenders can be the most unsuspecting people

The movies have given us a completely incorrect perspective on predators. They are rarely dark characters that whisk children away from a park or playground. Instead, they are highly trusted individuals who have built trust over a long period of time.

3. Offenders are rarely strangers

To the previous point, offenders are patient and are willing to build trust over a long period of time. They are almost never strangers, they need high levels of trust to ensure their ability to molest over and over again.

4. Offenders often prey upon trusting and vulnerable young people

Because of their desire to have ongoing sexual relationships with children, they know that well adjusted kids with a healthy relationship with a mom and dad, will not be vulnverable to a molester. Instead, they seek relationships with young children who often don’t have a father figure in their life, or have trouble making friends. They pray on this weakness by trying to give something to the child they are not receiving at home.

5. Offenders are often attracted to the faith community

Churches are vulnerable to predators because we naturally believe the redemptive work of God is at work in everyone in our midst. We believe the best in those who are part of our church. Equal to that belief…..we have an insatiable need for volunteers. When you put those two together, we have a perfect environment for putting a predator in right smack in the middle of our children’s ministry, potentially unsupervised.

What we do at Rancho…..

About 10 years ago we began doing background checks on any volunteers who work with our kids at Rancho Community Church. The decision was simple, and we found a company who would do the checks. The problem we found over time, is that most background checks just look at the history up until the moment of the scan. That means that anything that happens even just one day after the scan is not going to show up. The solution ultimately meant doing livescans through the department of justice. The problem is that most providers of livescans charge about $75.00 per scan…..that would mean 10’s of thousands of dollars for our church every year. So ultimately we took the difficult route of placing an application directly (quarter inch thick) with the DOJ and going through the 3 month process.

Now when we scan a volunteer we get a report that does an FBI level background check in 50 states. After the scan it remains active or “live” as long as you keep the volunteer active. This means that if one of your drivers for youth events gets a DUI over the weekend you’ll have an email the following week letting you know.

I can’t recommend enough taking the full live scan approach for your church. The application process is tedious and time consuming, but well worth the effort. This has been the single best safety decision we’ve made to protect our children and youth.

5 Steps Toward Your Goals Using A Weekly Review – Pt. 2

by Don.h on June 27, 2012 in Church Operations, Leadership

In my last post I gave the first 3 steps to my weekly review:

1. Review notes from previous week
2. Review previous weeks tasks and projects
3. Look at my week ahead – meetings, appointments and projects

The next two steps are the crucial planning for your week. Without absolute clarity on how you will tackle your week, you will be a victim of your schedule rather than a captain of your vision moving forward.

4. The action sheet – this is a list of what I want to move forward this week broken down by roles I fulfill in life and ministry. I want to emphasize that this is not just work stuff, these are genuinely my roles in my life, family and ministry. This concept I’ve borrowed from Steven Covey again and like how his approach acts as a compass for what I value. In each category I am looking at how I will move forward in each role based on goals I’ve set for the year.

Disciple – what will I being do this week to continue growing in my appreciation for the Gospel. This is a “not urgent – important” category that if I’m not staying focused on, will be crowded out. This could include a goal to memorize a verse, study time through a book in the Bible etc..

Blogger – I record my action list for what I want to move forward with my blog, I review my blog post drafts and when I will complete and post the next updates.

Husband – What intentional things will I do in my marriage this week – write a note, words of affirmation, quality time, encouraging my wife’s gifting?

Father – what intentional things will I do to encourage my children? Again…quality time, activities, intentional teaching/training.

Pastor – How will I grow my pastoral shepherding ministry? Who will I encourage this week? Who do I need to speak with, call or send a note?

Ministry Overseer – Core role in my career – a review of my projects I’m involved in and collaborating on.
Operations Overseer – Another core role in my career – review of departmental direction and projects I’m moving forward with the team.

5. Plug the Action List into Google Calendar – In a previous post I discussed how I use my morning review to tackle a tough day. My daily review is really a “tweaking” of what I’ve laid out for the week. I Recognize that as the week unfolds we have to be flexible to the crisis that hit our desk. However, by reviewing my goals and planning what I want to move forward this week, I am able to make tweaks on a daily basis that give me just enough latitude to stay on track and not abandon my goals.

After I’ve done all of this I give a last look to make sure that I’m being bold – but not unrealistic. There is nothing more deflating that moving most of what you were going to do this week to next week….trust me I’ve done that. By have a bold agenda I find that it breaths life into my busy life and provides passion to what could at times just be a list of tasks.

How do you move goals forward with your busy schedule?

5 Steps To Help Reach Your Goals Using A Weekly Review – Pt. 1

by Don.h on June 20, 2012 in Church Operations, Leadership

I use a weekly review to ensure success with accomplishing my goals. And when I speak of goals I mean even moving toward those “things I’ve always wanted to do.” Those are typically quadrant 2 activities that are not urgent and therefore rarely get done. Trust me, my success is not based on talent, but instead by using a system and sticking to it. Additionally, I now have a hard time kidding myself, and that realism is a good tension to the optimism of the goal setting process.

The idea of weekly review is not unique to me, I’ve borrowed from David Allen and Michael Hyatt. I’m also used some of Steven Covey’s teaching that the rhythm of accomplishment is looking at your goals in weekly chunks as opposed to days, months etc.

So what’s my weekly review look like…..let me give it to you in 5 easy steps

1. Review Notes From Previous Week – Every Sunday evening I have programed in my calendar that at 8pm I sit down and do my weekly review. By then I’m starting to wind down from the weekend and am ready to to put my head into the week ahead. A critical tool to that review is my handy notebook…..let me explain.

As I go about my week I carry a black Moleskine notebook which I take notes in from every meeting or idea that I have during the week. I use a marking system that I also borrowed from Mike Hyatt that goes like this:

Square box – this means this task I am responsible to accomplish
Circle – someone else is responsible after a dash I write that persons name for followup
Asterisk for important and noteworthy points made in the meeting or that I was struck by during a meeting.

Many of you jot notes on Ipads, or your Iphone etc….and all of that works just great with my system. I just firmly believe note-taking in meetings is critical.

With my notebook in hand I start my review by looking back through my previous week to see how I’ve progressed on all those tasks. By now I should have them all put into projects, my to do list etc so this portion of the review is to catch any loose ends. Many times I find an important task that just somehow got lost in all the excitement…..I now plug that in to my week ahead.

2. Review Previous Week’s Tasks/Projects – I review what I had set to accomplish the previous week, what I did do and what now needs to moved into this upcoming week. There is always some tasks that must be reloaded, but usually this system gives me the satisfaction of being able to see how much moved forward last week. I then open my Gantt chart software and review the projects I’m working on to see where I’m at in each timeline and transfer the critical tasks to be performed to my weekly action sheet.

3. Meeting/Appointment Look Ahead – Actually looking at the the appointments/meetings for the week ahead. I open Google calendar to get my head around what kind of a week I’m going to be navigating. I always have certain times block for actual project work, I review what I have scheduled around those chunks of time so that I have a realistic look at what I have to work with.

Do you use weekly review? If so…what does yours look like?

Next post I’ll get to the critical action side of the review that gets things done.
Don

How Do We Teach Our Son’s To Be Men

by Don.h on June 6, 2012 in Family Life, Gospel Community

I just returned from a 3 day retreat with 7 other dads and their sons. This was the second year we’ve done this retreat with one clear intention – entrusting what it means to be a “man who follows Christ” into the hearts of our boys.

It all began 2 years ago in my living room over a pretty casual conversation with 3 other families. Our wives had encouraged us to all get together to explore how our families could have an impact on young people in our valley. What came out of it was very different. Although the outreach piece was an awesome vision, the dads realized that much of the problem was a failure of fathers in their home. We additionally knew that any vision we had for others needed to overflow from our own relationships with our kids…..especially our sons.

Within two weeks we were meeting once a month and going through Robert Lewis’ curriculum entitled “Raising a Modern Day Knight.” What emerged was a vision for 4 fathers not only raising their sons….but actually participating with one another’s sons as a community of men.

Last week we returned from Pine Summit Camp in Big Bear California. As a group of now 7 dads we spent 3 days pouring our lives into the hearts of our boys…..it was awesome. Our teaching content centered around one of the acronym’s from the RMDK program…SWORD.

S – Sin and confession
W – Wisdom he must live by
O – Offenses he must forgive
R – Requirements to Obey
D – Deceptions to Avoid

We each took a turn at one of the teaching sessions – 30 minutes of discussion and 20 minutes of father/son time. It was amazing to see what each dad brought to the weekend, how our different gifts were used to strengthen each of our boys. We used media, Swords, large posters, music…..all to help our sons understand the importance of anchoring our lives to Christ as we navigate a world that longs to steal our affections.

The schedule for the weekend was maybe a tad busy….but with young boys….I think it may have still been the right pace.

FRIDAY
11:30 Depart My House (stop for quick lunch on way)
1:00 – Arrive / Unpack 3:00 – 1st Recreation Session – Sins Must Confess theme (run by staff)
5:00pm – Dinner
 6:00pm – Session 1 – Sins Must Confess (Don)
8:00pm – Campfire
9:00pm – Flashlight Game  

SATURDAY 
8:00am – Breakfast
 9:00am – Session 2 – Wisdom – Mike
10:00AM – Rec Session 2-Wisdom & Offenses to Forgive
 11:00am – Session 3 – Offenses to Forgive – Garrett  
12:00pm – Lunch
 1:00pm – High Ropes/Activities/Free Time 

5:00pm – Dinner 
6:00pm – Rec Session 3 – Requirements to Obey & Deceptions to Avoid
7:15 -Session 4 – Requirements to Obey – Brian  
Ceremony at Campfire 
8:30pm – Snacks, Campfire, Flashlight Game 

SUNDAY 
8:00am – Breakfast 
9:00am – Session 5 – Deceptions to Avoid – Tim
10:30am – Depart

The teaching sessions and activities were an amazing time together. On Saturday night we held a ceremony with our sons that far exceeding any of our expectations. We had purchased these beautiful “Armor of God” coins for each son with the idea of presenting them at the campfire ceremony. I had this brainstorm that we need to involve all of the dads in each of the son’s experience receiving their coin. I felt that we needed to help our sons understand how the community of faith should involve receiving guidance, wisdom and encouragement from the larger community of men in their lives. Men have a tendency to try to “go it alone” and we wanted to send a clear message that Christianity involves a life of “one anothers” not just “me & God.”

So for the ceremony we had each son walk down, holding a candle which he placed next to the fire. He would then receive his coin from his father, and then one by one each man would speak affirmation, challenge and encouragement into the boys life. That was the theory…..what unfolded was a work of God. What came out of my mouth and these other dads was truly powerful….we could never have scripted it. The best part was watching these boys stand up straight and hear what each dad had to say to them.

I think it is amazing to see how some very “imperfect” fathers can decide something noble for our sons, wondering if we can even pull it off. And then in that place of humility God meets us and makes His name great. What happened Saturday night and the entire weekend was a work of God in spite of us. We were obedient to the responsibility placed on us in Deuteronomy 6 and Ephesians 6, but God touched the hearts of our sons. The part we also weren’t prepared for was the close friendship and community we have as dads. When one is down, we rally around him with truth and encouragement.

I hope this post will encourage other men to take some risks as they pursue the hearts of their sons.

Here’s the highlight video I showed on our first night from the first year we did this.

I’m already looking forward to next year
Don

8 Tips To Realigning An Inherited Leadership Team – Part 2

by Don.h on May 30, 2012 in Church Operations, Leadership

Last week I gave you the first 4 strategies I have used to realign a team that is not on mission together and most likely you’ve inherited. They were:

1. Lead through teaching
2. Assess each team member’s strengths and weaknesses.
3. Cast the vision and direction of the team and ministry
4. Be transparent as a leader and empower out of your open leadership.

This week we’ll focus on the “final four” and they are truly the 4 that are crucial to regaining alignment. You can teach, assess, cast vision and be transparent….but at some time there needs to be a call to action.
With that said, lets take a look at part 2.

5. This train is movin on – You’ve taught, assessed, cast vision and let your team see who you really are – its time to send a clear message to everyone that this train is moving on. In other words, you mean what you say. You expect this team to work well together, think beyond themselves, work as team and respond to your direction. Make it clear that the course is set and that’s where the team is going.

6. Deal with disrupters – Inevitably you may have a disrupter. This is someone who is either unhappy with their job, the ministry, their life or all of the above. Don’t mess around – let them know they are not an exception. Be gracious but firm. I had an incredibly talented person on my staff that was a mega disrupter for me. She resented my position and had an inflated view of her role and value on the team. I made it clear to her that I thought she was in many ways a superstar, but even superstars can and should be fired when they aren’t a team player….period! She ignored me….and I fired her. This was sad, but it absolutely set the team on a course for success. Several people who were on the fence made their decisions to get on board and thanked me for it at a later time. You must shepherd your sheep, and sometimes their discipleship will come through the hardship of being let go.

7. Re-align – there may also be some that are genuinely good team members helping in the wrong place. Take the time to really understand their strengths and fight to keep them. When you take someone that everyone knows is struggling and absolutely “go to bat” to find their sweet spot and get them serving in that capacity, you will demonstrate to everyone your integrity as a boss. You took the hard path and spent some sleepless nights trying to figure how to keep someone. Loyalty and hard work should be rewarded – sometimes average or low performance isn’t based on a lack of hard work, but instead we may have them serving in their weakness.

8. Celebrate and collaborate – Celebrate milestones with the team. Look for things to affirm. Don’t cheapen this with trivial praise, but instead genuinely look for big wins that your new energized and aligned team is achieving. Also, take risks on your new team. Don’t shy away from letting them get out front and dream a bit on their own. If you let them run you’ll be amazed at what comes out of this new team.

What have been some of your experiences realigning a team?
Don

8 Tips to Realigning an Inherited Leadership Team – Part 1

by Don.h on May 22, 2012 in Church Operations, Leadership

As an executive pastor I’ve had the experience more than once of inheriting a team and realizing they were not unified together on mission. When people serve on a team like that, they typically are not having fun. Additionally, work is usually being done in silos and leaders view the ministries they oversee as personal possessions. This is not a healthy situation and as the leader of that team, you are going to need to fix it. The temptation will be to blame others for your “inherited” team, and although that is technically true, it is now your responsibility to fix. Besides, most likely (although maybe it wasn’t made clear) you’ve been brought in to fix this misaligned team.
So what do you do? I’ve outlined 8 crucial steps that (in my humble opinion) are essential to move forward as a unified team.

1. Lead through teaching
I’ve held for some time that in a ministry context you must teach your team through scripture in order to move them where they need to go. This needs to be genuine, not a couple random verses that you manipulate to make a point. Take a long view of how you will use teaching to lead your team. In other words, this will take time, but as you teach you will see God use scripture to change hearts. That is why this is first, because there are some things (as good as you are) that only God can change in your team. Take time also to open in prayer to set the tone for your meeting. Again, don’t manipulate through prayer but instead lift up some of the challenges and frustrations that you are observing are genuinely faced by your group.

2. Assess each team member’s strengths and weaknesses.
You must get a clear picture of who your team members are and what they’re good at. Frequently, you’ve got someone good who is not in the right spot and therefore may be a bit of a disrupter. Get a clear picture of what the ministry/operation needs and then honestly assess if you have the right person leading the charge. You will also have to be open to recognizing that in some cases you may have the wrong person all together.

3. Cast the vision and direction of the team and ministry
This actually ties in with point number 1, you must cast a clear vision for the department and consistently move the team in that direction. As people disrupt or veer from that vision, consistently point them back, demonstrating your clarity regarding the road forward. Some of the team may not agree or desire to participate in the new vision and that will need to be addressed immediately. Make it very clear which aspects of the vision are open to refining and what aspects are set. Clarity and consistency are critical. Often this very team may have heard lots of grand ideas that were never implemented. They may be waiting for you to just drop the subject in a few weeks. It is essential that you keep the vision clear and in focus on a regular basis.

4. Be transparent as a leader and empower out of your open leadership
Transparency is one of my highest leadership values. I believe you will garner the trust of this inherited team as you begin to let them see who you really are a leader and person. Transparency means that you are willing to show your “cracks” and don’t have an inordinate need to be right or have all the answers. As your team begins to see your strengths and weaknesses they will actually trust your more. This will take real courage when you know that some of these folks don’t necessarily respect you yet. Be wise in this, but do show them you are human and that is why you value leadership based on a collaborative style.

In part #2 I’ll discuss how to make needed shifts once the vision is established and clear.

The Gospel at Work in our Family Life

by Don.h on May 9, 2012 in Family Life, Gospel Community

I believe that my ministry credibility is anchored in my commitment to the Gospel at work FIRST in my marriage and home life. The qualifications Paul gives for elders in Titus 1 and 1 Timothy 3 emphasize this point. Ted Tripp’s book “shepherding a Child’s Heart” has been the most influential book in my parenting life. I thought my opening post would be a brief review of this book as an emphasis of where my priorities start in leadership and ministry.

I don’t think there is anything quite as daunting as being a parent. We have moments of confidence but more frequently we feel completely unprepared for the task. Tedd Tripp has brought an outstanding resource for your home with “Shepherding a Child’s Heart.” So often we find ourselves dealing over and over again with the same behaviors. We know we need to correct poor behavior but due to frustration and out right fatigue, we may never get past just trying to control our kids. Tripp’s book helps us understand how to move our correction beyond the behavior and understand the sin at work in our kid’s heart when they act out.

The book is divided into two parts. The first section lays the foundation for biblical child-rearing. Tripp shows that the root of behavior is a sinful heart and a parents primary job is to help a child to have a Godward orientation. An older boy selfishly takes something away from their younger brother and defiantly refuses to give it back……we say “I can’t believe you would do something so selfish.” REALLY? We have NO IDEA how a child could act out selfishly? We never struggle with being selfish…right? In that moment this book helps equip us to move the conversation to our need for a Savior. We bring the Gospel to the situation as we help our children understand that what they say and do flows from the heart. Luke 6:45 says…”out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” Chapter thirteen summarizes the first part of this book by saying it this way….”your children are the product of two things. The first-shaping influence-is their physical makeup and their life experience. The second-Godward orientation-determines how they interact with that experience. Parenting involves (1) providing the best shaping influences you can and (2) the careful shepherding of your children’s responses to those influences.” (p122)

Part two of the book brings wisdom to applying a Godward orientation to the three stages of child development, infancy, childhood and the teen years. The second section is particularly helpful with action steps to implement what is being taught in the book.

As you walk through and apply “shepherding” to your children’s lives you’ll find over and over how God is using your children to address sin at work in your own heart. As we are humbled by that, we build a relationship with our children that is way beyond just controlling behavior, but instead a reflection of Christ’s ongoing work in our own lives. Parenting that has been anchored in the Gospel builds a foundation in our relationship with our kids that will weather the seasons and storms of life.