How To Host Church Culture Change Conference Just to refresh, the conference aim is to encourage as many Christians as possible to learn about: The mission of Jesus for His Church - to evangelise the world. Jesus original church growth strategy - mobilise 100% of Christians into evangelism. The gospel and what this phrase means - clearing away the confusion. Evangelism : what it is and isn t, and how to do it - communicating our faith with grace and love, yet without compromise. The Great Commission: what it is and isn t. This conference is just the start of a journey. For the next x number of months, your church will be implementing 28 key strategies. When these strategies are carefully and completely executed, your church will develop a culture of evangelism. That is to say, everyone in your church will be doing evangelism naturally and graciously as they go about their normal life, day in day out, week in week out. By hosting this conference you are saying I care. I want to help motivate and equip everyone in our church for evangelism. I want our church to take the Great Commission seriously. Thank you (Hebrews 6:10) (1)
Contents What s it cost? 3 The importance of leadership 4 Understanding what is going to happen 4 Setting a conference date 4 Conference venue and set up 5 Prayer and intercession 6 Responsibilities 6 Hospitality 7 Ushers 7 Trees and shrubs 7 Conference organisation chart - key people 8 Larger conference organisational chart 9 ADVERTISING How to advertise in your own church 10 The first Sunday morning 10 flyers power point slide brochures testimony leadership endorsement brochures Future Sunday mornings 11 Phoning people inside your church 12 Other ideas for advertising 12 How to advertise in the churches of others 13 Managing the campaign 14 Two types of promo video 14 Critical time line the week before the conference 15 Churches in your area diagram 16 Frequently asked questions 17 Contact information 19 (2)
So, you put your hand up to host a Church culture change conference? Thanks! We really appreciate this and want to support you in any way we can. One of the first questions leaders ask is how much is it going to cost our church to stage this event, right? The following is a breakdown of the costs. YOUR COSTS 1. Travel 1: Julian Batchelor will be your presenter. He lives in Auckland so you ll pay for his air tickets to and from the event. If he drives, we ask you to pay 35 cents/km. 2. Travel 2: Eleanor Goodall (late 60 s in age), the ESI treasurer and board member helps Julian with his seminars if the event is in the North Island. Eleanor usually drives from Hamilton (where she lives with her husband Russ) in her station wagon and will bring all the resources with her. We ask you to pay 35 cents/km for her travel costs. If the conference is on the South Island, we will courier the resources to you at your expense and Julian will do the seminar on his own. 3. Accommodation, meals, and transport: Julian and Eleanor ask that you to billet them over the weekend, and provide for their meals. 4. Food and drinks at the conference: We ask you to provide morning and afternoon teas (usually tea and coffee and something to eat) for conference delegates plus lunch. Usually lunch consists of soup and buns. You don t need too fancy or go to too much trouble unless you want to (for more details, see HOSPITALITY below). 5. Scroggin: Scroggin is just dried fruit and nuts which you can buy at the supermarket. This is provided for people to eat at their tables during the conference. Don t get chocolate. It makes people sleepy. 6. Ice: So delegates can drink cold water during the conference. 7. Offering: We ask you to take up and offering at the end of the conference to help us as a ministry. 8. Registration fees: $75 for couple, $60 for a working single, $45 students and senior citizens. WHAT YOU RECEIVE AT THE CONFERENCE: Each person / couple receives: a manual with notes of all the power point slides. some evangelism resources to get them going in evangelism on the day. A digital copy of the latest edition of Julian Batchelor s best selling book Evangelism: Strategies from Heaven In The War For Souls. Hard copies of this book retail for $49. Julian will bring his own data projector and lap top. How much does it cost? (3)
The importance of leadership... Realise that the leadership of your church needs to passionately drive this event by leading by example in evangelism. When this happens, your people will embrace it with vigour and you ll maintain momentum. Remember, the leaders are trained / equipped / inspired first. Then six weeks later, the people are trained / equipped / inspired. i.e. you ll be hosting two identical conference, six weeks apart. As you host/promote/advertise this event, you are going to need resources to help you do the job. Most of these will be found on the resources section of www.churchdnachange.com. You ll need a password to get into this section of the site. The password is mark1615 UNDERSTAND WHAT S GOING TO HAPPEN AT THE CONFERENCE. When you and your people attend, they will have their eyes opened to what is supposed to be THE mission of the Christian Church - the evangelisation of the world i.e. the Great Commission. It was always God s intention to have 100% of His Church active in evangelism. As a ministry, we are asking the Holy Spirit to give people who attend the conference a revelation of the heart and mind of Jesus for the lost. As people receive this revelation, the culture of your church will change to become evangelistic. Leaders in a church lead by example. If we attempt to mobilise our people for evangelism without having laid this foundation, we ll fail. In His High Priestly prayer in John 17, He prayed we d be one with Him in mission. This conference seeks to bring a church back into unity with Jesus and His mission. 1. Set a conference date: A Saturday, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. Contact Julian Batchelor and negotiate a date that suits you both. julian@esisite.com 0274 76 44 30 (mobile) (4)
2. Choose a Conference venue The venue needs to be nice. By nice I mean clean, tasteful, and pleasant. Somewhere where people can feel good about being there. This could be your church. We have chosen to do the event café style, so the venue needs to lend itself to this. The venue also needs to be ideal for a data projector and a big screen. If we can t protect the screen from being flooded with light, you might have to look for another venue. * Table Set Up - this picture gives some idea of what each table will look like* When people come to this event we want them to feel loved, accepted, and special. So, ideally we are looking to create a bit of a wow factor. Is the venue beside a main road? This may not be ideal because the speaker at the front will be competing with other noise for the attention of the attendees. * Creating the wow factor* Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning are other considerations. In winter, we want to keep people warm. In summer, keep people cool. Nothing detracts from the learning experience than being uncomfortable about the temperature of the conference room, or its look and feel. * A nice place to eat* A Conference Room Set Up: Please have all the tables ready by 3pm on the Friday. The team from ESI will arrive on the Friday at around 3pm to dress the tables. This usually takes one hour. If you could provide two or more people to help with this, this would be very helpful. * Conference Room Set Up helpers* (5)
3. PRAYER AND INTERCESSION Please ask your prayer people to pray for this event. This is the most crucial aspect of preparation. 4. RESPONSIBILITIES Evangelism Strategies International - ESI will provide: Table cloths Glasses Trail mix (scroggin) dishes Dishes for floating flower arrangement Carafes for water CHECKLIST FOR THE THINGS YOU NEED TO SUPPLY/DO Please can you, the host church, provide the following: Plenty of smiles and friendliness Tables and chairs A spoon for people to use to get the Scroggin from the dish Trail mix (Scroggin) enough to fill a dish at each table twice Big screen for data projector Large pot plants to decorate the stage area (About 2 metres high if possible) Mobile white board White board pens and duster Round tables (about 1.2m diameter) or tables about 1.2 m square 2 ushers greet people, offer refreshments and lead them to tables A hospitality team to provide tea and coffee during the day a bag of ice to cool the water people drink at their tables One flower per table for the floating flower centre piece at each table. A hands free mic for Julian. One or two roving, hand held microphones for people who ask questions. A sound cable from a lap top at the front of the venue into the sound system. Background upbeat music to play as people are arriving and during the breaks. Host pastor takes up an offering between 4 and 4:30 on the day for Evangelism Strategies International Provide a person who can handle registrations at the start of the day if Julian doesn t bring someone. (6)
HOSPITALITY A small team who provide: A muffin(if possible) tea or coffee for people Saturday when people arrive. Lunch, plus morning and afternoon tea. There are three official breaks on Saturday: morning and afternoon tea, and lunch time. Please can you organise a team of people to bake some nice things to have at each of these breaks? Re: lunch. Two or three pots of different soups served in mugs with fresh bread rolls and butter works well. Some venues have charged $1 for a mug of soup and a bun, and this covers the cost of ingredients. You don t have to charge anything. It s up to you whether you do or not. USHERS Two people people who can welcome the guests as they enter the building, offering tea, coffee and a muffin to them. They would then help to get everyone seated. We want the event to be friendly, loving, and caring to our guests. TREES & SHRUBS Get some nice, large trees or shrubs on the day to make the room look lovely and warm and inviting. Borrow these from a local garden centre if you have to. They need to be 2/3 m high. THE OFFERING AT THE END OF THE CONFERENCE Please can you ask the host pastor to take up an offering at the end of the conference. This usually happens between 4 and 4:30 pm. (7)
LEADER ENGAGING PEOPLE TO PRAY ENGAGING VOLUNTEERS TO HELP PHONE, ADVERTISING THE CONFERENCE A SMALL TEAM TO LOOK AFTER LUNCH, AM AND PM TEAS ON SATURDAY THE SOUND PERSON SOME PEOPLE TO HELP SET UP THE CONFERENCE ROOM CONFERENCE ORGANISATIONAL CHART- KEY PEOPLE (8)
IF YOU THINK YOUR EVENT IS GOING TO BE LARGE (E.G. OVER 200 PEOPLE), you might want to consider creating extra positions on the team, as per the diagram below Team Leader Administrator Accounts/Finance Registrations Manager Church Liaison Person Meal Coordinator Sound Person Prayer & Intercession Coordinator Telephone Marketing Manager Conference Room Set up Coordinator Marketing & Promotions Person CONFERENCE LEADERSHIP TEAM ORGANISATIONAL CHART NOTES: In some cases, two or three positions can be rolled into one. For example, the accounts and finance person might also be the registrations manager. These two roles fit nicely together since the only money coming in is through registrations. The two roles fit together naturally. Another two which fit nicely together are the registrations manager (RM) and the telephone marketing manager (TMM). Why? Because the TMM s job description is to register people. Hence, there is natural synergy here. (9)
5. Advertising In Your Own Church We ask for your assistance in advertising your conference. How much you can contribute will depend on the size of your church and how many people are available to do the advertising. Below are a number of strategies for encouraging people in your own and other churches to register. We think 6 weeks is enough to advertise this conference. If your campaign is longer or shorter than this, that s OK. Just follow this plan. ON THE FIRST SUNDAY MORNING - ADVERTISE THE CONFERENCE: Flyers: Insert a flyer in the church bulletin which people receive as they come in the door. To receive your flyer template which you can then photocopy at your church, please just email julian at : Julian@esisite.com or phone 0274 76 44 30. Announcement: When the time comes to announce the conference from the front, have a power point slide come up on the screen which gives details of the conference. Download this at: Go to www.churchdnachange.com then resources then hosting a dna conference then one off promo slide. Introduce the video and conference. To know what to say, go to the same place you downloaded the one off promo slide. Then download How to promote the conference document. Promo videos: To locate the promo videos, go to: www.churchdnachange.com and go to promo material. You ll see 3 short professional promo videos to show on Sunday mornings. To find out a bit more about videos on Sunday mornings, go to page 13. Give a testimony: Have someone who has been to the conference before give a quick testimony from the pulpit. Strong leadership endorsement: From the pulpit, ask the leader of your church to strongly endorse and encourage people to attend. If the leader can say that he/ she wants the whole church to attend, that would be excellent. Then ask him/her to personally invite people by shoulder tapping them after the service and at other times. This is most effective. Brochures: Hold up a brochure and tell people a little about it i.e. that it explains in detail what the conference is all about, contains a registration form etc etc. Go to: www.churchdnachange.com and go to promo material. When it opens, at the bottom of the page you will find the brochures. Look for the conference you are hosting and click on Download a free Brochure. Print the first 3 pages of the brochure. These can be used on church notice boards, along with a registration form. Copy enough registration forms for your congregation. Your minister and (10)
the conference organising team should have a small supply of these each ready to shoulder tap people after the first service. Shoulder tapping is most effective. Ask for phone helpers: Again, the personal touch is very effective. A great way to advertise this event is to phone people. On the first Sunday, request assistance from your congregation for people who can phone people during the week. Explain that you ll train them and they can work from their home and do the phoning in their spare time. FUTURE SUNDAY MORNINGS: Encourage people to reach out to other Christians with the advertising material. Reiterate your vision - you want everyone at this event. Have one off promo slide on the screen as you talk about the conference. keep supply of promo flyers, brochures and rego forms on a resource table at the back of the church. continue to shoulder tap people after the services on Sundays have someone who has been to the conference before give a quick testimony from the pulpit. continue with strong leadership endorsement. continue to have people who have registered give testimonies. continue to show promo videos have someone who has registered for the conference get up and say why they have registered. You can use quiz questions as a teaser. These are power point slides. Use one a week. Put slips of paper in the Sunday newsletter with the words Quiz Question and date. Get people to write the answers on the paper, and put them into the offering bag. Winners will be will be announced the following week and a prize given. Repeat each Sunday of your campaign. Quiz questions can be found at: www.churchdnachange.com then resources then Strategy 1: hosting a dna conference then Quiz Slides. Change the quiz questions if you like! You probably won t be able to do all of the above every week. So mix and match each week, doing as much as your pastor will allow. Now you have all your Sunday mornings sorted. What do you do between Sundays? PHONING PEOPLE IN YOUR CHURCH Phoning: You would have got some people to help you with phoning after your advert on Sunday. If you didn t get anyone, think of some people who would be suitable, and phone them to ask them if they would help. Then start training them. The personal touch is extremely effective so phoning people is an effective way of advertising. To know what to say when your phone helpers phone people go to: www.churchdnachange.com then resources then strategy 1: hosting a dna conference then Telephone script/letters for people inside your church. You will see in this document a number of email/letter templates to suit different situations. Keep records of who you have phoned and their response and send the appropriate email. (11)
All phone helpers need is some spare time is some spare time, a good telephone manner, very basic computer skills, and access to the internet. They can work from home in their spare time. Continue phoning for the length of your campaign. OTHER IDEAS FOR ADVERTISING: There maybe people who you can t get hold of on the phone and they don t have internet. Send letters out by post to them AND to key people in your church i.e. the leaders. When key people are singled out to receive get a warm official letter, they ll take is seriously. Fridge magnets with Getting back to the DNA of Jesus written on them. Get these from: www. vistaprint.co.nz or www.pdf2print.co.nz. 500 from $135.00 plus gst/freight great quality, fast turnaround. Having someone who has already registered for the conference at your church coming to the front on Sunday and testifying as to why they have registered. These can be very powerful. If the registration numbers are gradually climbing, give the people in your church updates on Sunday morning as to how many people have registered. Make it fun and exciting! Have a prize drawn out of the hat each Sunday for someone who has registered e.g. A coffee voucher from a local cafe. Again, make it fun. The next section of this document is only for those who want to run a combined church event. (12)
HOW TO ADVERTISE IN THE CHURCHES OF OTHERS: If your church wants the event to be a combined church event, encourage church ministers in your vicinity (i.e. the ones in your ministers association) to advertise and promote the event in their churches. Find out from your pastor who the chairperson of the Association is. Phone them and ask permission to do a promo at their next meeting. Take your pastor to the meeting if he/she can come. Tell the ministers your goal to have Christians from many churches attend the event. Tell them this conference is about a strategy to grow their churches. It s helping churches return to the mandate of Jesus and His original church growth strategy. If they want to know what you mean by this go to: www.churchdnachange.com then resources then Step 1: What s the vision of Evangelism Strategies International? Watch two videos and download a one page document. Then watch the video called How to mobilise 100% of your people into evangelism (24 minute video) Give all the ministers a brochure and a flyer. Show them one of the professionally produced promo DVDs. Send them a link to the 24 minutes video. Say you will phone them in a few days to see if they have decided to join in or not. If they say yes ask them for the name of one person you could liaise with. Teach that person to follow the promotion plan you are following in your own church Keep in weekly contact with them to make sure it s happening. If you can t speak at the minister s association, you could: ask your minister for their names and emails addresses. Go and visit them in person or phone them and tell them about the conference. If phoning: email a pdf file of a brochure direct them to the home page of the www.churchdnachange.com web site to watch other pastor endorsing the conferences. Ask them to watch the video called How to mobilise 100% of your people into evangelism (24 minute video) To know what to say when phoning, go to: www.churchdnachange.com then resources then hosting a dna conference then Phone Marketing Strategy people outside your church. If you go and see them in person, take the docs above, and take them on a tour of the www.churchdnachange.com web site in their office. If they decide to join in, ask the minister to give you the name and contact details of one person in their church who you could work with to do the promotion in their church. Have them follow the promo plan you are working with in your church. REALITY CHECK: We have found that some churches in your vicinity/town/city forget to phone people in their own church. So, never presume something has been done. Please phone and check. Your church needs to be prepared to phone people in other churches. (13)
MANAGING THE CAMPAIGN: Regularly review progress. Ask hard questions: What are we doing well? Where could we improve? What must we do to improve? Etc Celebrate victories and breakthroughs e.g. pastors registering, or groups of people from other churches registering. The final week of the campaign is a bit unique. To find out what to do, please go to the next page. TWO TYPES OF PROMO VIDEOS Most weeks during your promo campaign, show a video on Sunday in the church service. There are two types of videos: 1. Professionally produced videos using a well known TV personality. 2. Handy cam videos of church leaders endorsing the DNA change conference. PROFESSIONAL VIDEOS Go to www.churchdnachange.com then promo material HANDY CAM VIDEOS Go to www.churchdnachange.com and look on the home page (14)
CRITICAL TIME LINE THE WEEK BEFORE THE CONFERENCE SUNDAY MONDAY to THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY 1Final promotion for the conference from the front on Sunday morning. 1Monday to Thursday, go all out with telephone marketing. An awful lot of people think about coming and sign up at the last minute. All the people you have phoned in the previous 2 months and said I ll think about it will be on the verge of making a decision. So go for it! 2Phone the team during the week to make sure everyone is ready to do what they have been asked to do. 3You should purchasing things for the conference at this stage: scroggin for the tables (make sure the scroggin doesn t have chocolate in it - this puts people to sleep), ice for the carafes of water. Are the fresh flowers ready for Friday? 4By 5pm on Wednesday, the team leader should let the caterers know approximate numbers for meals on Saturday. Get numbers from Eleanor Goodall 07 8461160 or 021 10 10 150. 1Liaise with caterers to update numbers 2Bring trees or shrubs in. 3Have tables and chairs arranged by 4pm. 4Julian and team will arrive at the venue at around 3pm. 5 The sound and data projector tested at 5 pm. 6Check everything is ready for Saturday. 7Pray together as a team for the conference. 1Be at the venue by 7 am to double check everything and to pray as a team. Make sure the whole team is there for prayer and final instructions. 2Have upbeat background music playing. 3Make sure your greeters,ushers, and tea/coffee makers who are going to welcome people at the door are prayed up and pumped. Remember, this day is also about making people feel valued and special. We want it to be an experience, as well as an event. (15)
ASK ALL THE CHURCHES NEAR YOUR CHURCH TO PROMOTE THIS EVENT THE SAME WAY YOU WILL BE PROMOTING IT IN YOUR CHURCH YOUR CHURCH The goal is to have every person inside all of these churches receive a personal invitation to the conference. (16)
1) The content - what will individual Christians / churches gain from being part of it? The conference aims to: Provide specific plans and strategies to show churches how to evangelise their world. motivate and equip churches to be more effective/obedient/fruitful with the Great Commission in their town/city/suburb/work place/neighbourhood/school. change the heart of those who attend by asking the Holy Spirit to give them a revelation about God's heart and plan for His lost world i.e. they ll realise their purpose in Christ. Those who attend report through their evaluation sheets that this conference is very liberating and empowering. show church leaders how they can create in their people a strong desire to be externally focussed, from a powerful internal motivation. Teach people how to actually do evangelism, lead someone to Christ, disciple them etc By the end of the conference, those who attend will: Understand why it s critically important for everyone in a church to be united with respect to the direction and purpose of their church. Understand why it s critically important for the direction and purpose of a church to be united with direction and purpose of Jesus and His Father (John 17). know what evangelism is and isn't, and why it s crucially important to know. know what the gospel is and isn't, and why it s crucially important to know. know what The Mission s task of the church is and isn't, and why a church will be lost without this knowledge. know exactly how their particular gifts and talents, no matter what they are, are vital for the completion of the Great Commission i.e. people who come will find their purpose in Christ as that purpose relates to the Great Commission. understand how non-christians are won to Jesus (a six step process). know exactly what they need to do to win their neighbours, friends, workmates, family, and even strangers to the Lord. know what the purpose of the Church is and isn't. know what should be the chief motive of a disciple. know how pastors and leaders can best utilise those with the gift of evangelism in their churches. know how pastors and evangelists can sychronise together to grow the church. know the heart of the DNA of Jesus, and they will know how to bring their church back to His DNA. know precisely what needs to be done in their church to create a church with a DNA of evangelism. Know why it is the responsibility of all believers to evangelise the world. know how to maintain evangelistic momentum. Learn how to do evangelism and get an opportunity at conference to go out and do it. 2) The format - how much is it sitting and listening / how much is it interactive? The conference is set out cafe style (making it more informal) so that from time to time registrants enter into small group discussion with those at their table. In this sense the conference is designed to be very interactive. Furthermore, people can ask questions at any time so there is open/general discussion as well as small group discussion. (17)
3) The purpose - is it primarily to motivate and inspire Christians to action/ or is it more about techniques and methods of engaging with non-church people / or is it both? It is both. 75% of the conference relates to the bullet points detailed above in question (1) 25% of the conference is about techniques, methods, and tools. At the conference, you ll learn how to do evangelism and you ll go out and do evangelism on the day. If people want more about tools, techniques and methods, we give them directions as to where they can go to find this. The conference is more about laying a solid and thoroughly biblical foundation on which to build tools, techniques and methods. We believe strongly that unless this foundation is laid first, any attempt to mobilise people for evangelism will only result in a FAD and disappointment. No church can truly move forwards into the deeper purposes of God without first laying this foundation. 4) Is the conference generally relevant for all Christians, or is it pitched to be more suitable for new Christians, or for those who have been on the path a long time? The conference is for ALL Christians, both new and mature believers. While it is highly desirable that every person in a local church attend, we are particularly interested in anyone with any leadership role. 5) Does it presuppose a certain level of Bible knowledge and Christian experience? This is answered in (4) above. Brand new Christians will get as much from this conference as seasoned and mature pastors and leaders. All that's needed is a soft, tender, teachable heart and a love for Jesus. 6) Is there some preliminary reading or preparation that people should do? There is no compulsory preliminary reading to do. However, we do provide some reading for those who would like it. They can start reading Julian s book in the resource library. 7) Would there be opportunities for people to share their experiences of evangelism? Yes. We value and encourage people to share their experiences in the conference. Everyone is enriched by hearing the evangelism experiences of others and so much can be learnt from sharing these. 8) Will the conference consider different approaches which may be needed for evangelising people - e.g. of different cultures / religious backgrounds / age groups / backsliders etc? The conference does not go into detail about how to reach these different groups. There is a lot of good information and teaching out there which can be easily accessed on these topics. What s NOT out there is what we are presenting at this conference. That is, the absolutely crucial and universal Biblical keys and principles for mobilising a church to reach any group with the gospel. As I have said above, the conference seeks to be more about revelation and impartation than information. Information will engage people, and we give vital information. But revelation will change them. As a team, we are asking the Holy Spirit to work through this conference to effect a DNA change in the heart of everyone who attends. We want registrants to walk out of this conference with a transformed heart (i.e. the heart of Jesus for the lost) and a renewed mind (i.e. the mind of Christ for His mission to the world). They ll be able to actually do evangelism. We want them to be united with Jesus and His purposes. Only the Holy Spirit can do this. The good news is, many many people report after the conference that this is precisely what happened to them. One second of revelation is worth more than a lifetime of information. (18)
9) Does the conference start with worship? No, the conference does not start with worship. We pray and then begin the conference. 10) Do you want our church to support you financially and in prayer? We ask churches who engage with us on a long term basis to support Julian $100 a month, and to pray for this ministry. In return with provide free coaching and on-going support and resources. NEED MORE INFORMATION? Testimonies of pastors and leaders who have been to the event? Free material to promote the event in your church (flyers, brochures, short videos that can be played on Sunday mornings in church etc)? More detail on the concept of changing the culture of your church? Please visit www.mobilisethechurch.com Can t find the answer to a question you have? Please contact Julian Batchelor directly. julian@esisite.com or phone or text 0274 76 44 30. (19)