Category Archives: church planting
Things We Tried That Didn’t Suck
A few weeks ago I did a series on things we tried that sucked. I talked about giving out hot coco on Black Friday, our failed iCampus attempt and also our horrible attempt at an August Rock Night event.
I truly believe we learn more from out losses than we do our wins. However, I also think it’s important to celebrate the things that have worked.
Over the course of the next several days I want to share a few things that have worked and didn’t suck. We’ve made some mistakes, but we’ve had a few wins along the way as well.
Tomorrow I’ll share in part 1 of things we tried that didn’t suck, the story behind Christmas Rock Night. (Which btw, is coming up Dec. 19th! Go HERE for more details!)
Things We Tried That Sucked: iCampus
Props to Gary Lamb for the idea behind Things We Tried That Sucked!
Internet Campus
Before we ever had our first official service as a church, we started playing with the technology and equipment that would allow us to broadcast our services and events live on our own internet channel. We called it an iCampus. We had NO idea what we were doing. So like anybody with passion and a dream, we just did what we knew and worked with what we had. That worked OK for a little while.
We started broadcasting our launch team gatherings and preview services. We never really garnered much attention online because we didn’t advertise at all at this point. The most we had online was about 15-20 at a time. It’s not a bad start, but here is why it sucked and why we ultimately pulled the plug on it.
- The quality was bad. We didn’t have good lighting in our venue to get a good enough quality video, even though we had a great camera. It doesn’t have to be perfect quality, but people at least want to see who is on stage.
- Sound quality was not very good. It wasn’t until the end that we figured out how to get good sound quality in the venue we were meeting in. That hurt worse than the video.
- Internet connection was iffy. What ultimately did us in was the venue we started out in, had an iffy connection. People would complain about freezing and such. We determined it wasn’t so much the connection, it was the broadcasting program we were using. It was new technology at the time and it wasn’t really tested yet.
- Our new venue had even worse connection problems. Our new and current venue is a hotel. Lots of people are using bandwidth every Sunday so to broadcast would be very difficult.
So after a few months of “testing” we decided to pull the plug until we figured some things out. We had the right people on board to make it work, but just had some things not working in our favor at the time. It was never a completely dead project. In fact, we are currently about to begin testing again with some newer technology, better equipment, and a better sense of what we’re doing. Just because something fails, doesn’t mean it’s dead. iCampus may very well live again soon.
The Shalom of the City
A few weeks ago, we launched thefeed.me to help people connect with the message and go just a step deeper in their personal bible study time. On thefeed.me you can listen to the previous week’s message, download a study guide, and every week see a new video that adds to the message.
This week, as I set the stage to make the vision more clear for our church, I preached through Jeremiah 29, and more specifically, vs 7…
Several months ago we partnered with Oak Ridge High School to set up the ORHS Threds Closet. A place that is available to students of Oak Ridge High School where school staff can equip them with the necessary items to feel comfortable, such as new pants, shirts, socks and school supplies. This is one of the many ways we can help bring welfare or shalom to the city of Oak Ridge.
Things I’ve Learned As A Church Planter One Year In: Final Chapter…For Now
Over the last month or so I’ve downloading all that I’ve learned one year into this church planting experience. I should say two plus years, as from revelation to inception, it’s been that long. All the details aside, so that I don’t bore everyone with these posts, I’ve decided to make this the last one of these until next year. I’ll end this series with just a brief list of things that do not need as much explanation as the others. I hope you’ve enjoyed these and hope that in some way, you’ve been able to take something with you in your own journey.
- Loyal staff is priceless (Find people to be on the team that have NO plan b)
- There’s no time for complacency
- Sometimes you have to punt…OR…If it sucks, stop it!
- Get ahead (the art of planning ahead in everything as much as you can is priceless)
- Find the voice God gave YOU (can’t copy and paste everything and think it will work)
- The holy hangover is for real
- There will be days when you want to quit, no matter how much you love it
- Never step down from pastoring to be the President of the United States
Hang Ten Ridge Church
Just in case you’re wondering, NO, the Ridge will not slow down to a crawl during the summer.
Some churches during the summer, really hit cruise and slow down to take vacations, time off for staff, and just to breathe a little. Nothing wrong with taking the time to catch your breath, but at the Ridge, we’re not going to hit cruise or slow down.
People however will go on vacation, to theme parks, etc, and that will give us time to really excel in other areas where as before we didn’t have as much time. We’ll take advantage of this time by setting up meetings with other church planters to learn from them, to work on the fall series planning, and to tidy up and create new systems that will allow us to be prepared for even more growth this fall.
Craig Groeschel says that seasons in ministry are like waves. They come and go, so when your in the dip of the wave, don’t give up and don’t stop, because the next wave isn’t far behind. So even as this wave dips for the summer, we’re still gonna surf it and ride it till we ride down the backside of it for the fall.
So be ready Ridge Church…hang ten.
