“All the world’s a stage.”— William Shakespeare

Build a Platform in 5 Steps

• Start with the WoW

• Prepare to Launch

• Build your Home Base

• Expand your Reach

• Engage your Tribe

Bake in the WOW• Surprise

• Anticipation

• Resonance

• Transcendence

• Clarity

• Presence

• Universality

• Evangelism

• Longevity

• Privilege

You must exceed the customers current expectations.  what do people think they are going to experience when they walk into the church?  

Three Reactions

• Disappointing

• Good

• WoW

Questions• How do we create the experience from parking lot to

pew?

• How will the worshiper feel after the get back in their car after worship?

• What expectations do people bring with them when they come to worship?

• What does it look like to fail at a WoW experience?

• What does it look like to succeed at a WoW experience?

Obstacles• We run out of time

• We don’t have enough resources

• We don’t have enough experience

• We don’t take action (just give it to a committee)

• Fear

Don’t expect less than WoW !

Don’t settle for less than Great

Where there is no prophecy, the people cast off restraint,

but happy are those who keep the law.

Proverbs 29: 18

Style• Take time and money to get the church looking good.

• Know your Audience

• What make your church different?

• Why is your church special?

• Don’t limit your imagination

• Talk with the congregation and community.

Prepare to Launch

Who is in charge?• No one knows your church better than you.

• No one is more passionate than you.

• No one has more skin in the game than you.

• No one is likely to do it if you don’t

Think BIGGER

Your Mission• Get permission to dream

• Write down your dreams

• Consider what is at stake

• Outline what you would like to be true

• Decide what you can do to effect the outcome

• Write down when this will happen

• Keep the goals in front of you.

Why Should we write our Goals?

• Forces us to clarify what we what

• It will motivate us to take action

• It provides a filter for other opportunities

• It enables us to see progress

• It gives us a reason to celebrate

Create an Elevator Pitch

To create an elevator speech you will need

• Name your Church

• Name the problem you are going to solve

• Name the proposed solution

• The key benefit for your solution

• For what purpose does our church exist?

• What do we hope to accomplish each and every time we meet as a congregation?

• What are some of the “key” ministries that we offer/provide?

• What are some of the “key” ministries that we offer/provide BUT are not offered or provided by the other churches in our community?

• What are the demographics of the people that attend our church? (Are we a church composed primarily of elderly saints, young families, college-aged young adults, or do we have a diverse mixture of worshipers?)

• What type of person is our church hoping to attract each and every Sunday?

• Does our church exist to be primarily for our members, for those who are “churched” or the unchurched?

St. John’s Lutheran Church by the gas station exists to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to the world. We worship weekly at 10 am with Sunday School at 9:00 am. We have a dynamic youth ministry program that provides opportunities for our school-aged, junior high and senior high youth to have a deep and meaningful spirituality. We work hard to remove all barriers for people to experience a honest, unending, and authentic relationship with Jesus Christ through worship, education and small group ministries.

Set up Branding Tools

• Email address

• Church domain

• Website

• Social Media profile

Get the Word Out

• Testimonies

• Pictures

• Media Kit

Building your Home Base

Home Base = Website• Develop a Theme

• Use a service - wordpress.org, wordpress.com

• Set up a website

• Start a blog

• Consistant offline content

• Start a email list

• Publicize your site

Ideas for the Website• Personal Stories

• Describe Historical Event

• Post Pictures

• List Resources

• Explain Decisions made by Council

• Write a Devotional

• Video Interviews

• Sermons

• Call to Action

Expand your Reach

Not Marketing but Tribe-building

Marketing is about Building Relationships

!

Building your Tribe

What is a Tribe?• A group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader

and an idea

• Two Requirements

• Shared Interest

• A way to communicate

• Examples

• Apple Readers

• Evernote users

• Churches

How Do we Build a Tribe?

• Discover your Passion

• Volunteer to lead

• Be Generous

• Provide a way to communicate

• Tribe Leader to Tribe Member

• Tribe Member to Tribe Leader

• Tribe Member to Tribe Member

• Tribe Member to Outsiders

Create a Subscriber

Lister !

!

!

Email is NOT DEAD

Create it and they will subscribe

• Generate Content worth Reading

• Use a dedicated list subscription system

• Make signups highly visible

• Incentive for subscribing

• Branded Email templet

• Followup with subscribers

Track How you are Doing• Unique Visitors per Month

• Page Views per Month

• Percentage change in the last 12 months

• Comments per blog post

• Subscribers to your mail chimp

• Number of twitter followers and Facebook Fans

Engage Your Tribe

Got Comments?• End blog posts with an open ended question

• Use a threaded comment system

• Display your comment count

• Make it easy to comment

• Participate in the conversation

• Reward top commenters

• Don’t overreact to criticism

Keep conversations civil• Use an industrial-strength spam blocker

• Create a comments policy

• Participate in the conversation

• Make your own comments stand out

• Be consistent with enforcement

20 to 1 Rule

Monitor your Platform

Defend your Brand

What ifs?

• What if we make a mistake?

• What if we fail?

• What if they don’t like us?

• What if we look foolish?

The key is to start - Just do it. Once you take the first step, everything else will take care of

itself. You will make it to the other side.

!

Imagine what will be possible if we start building a platform now!?!?! What will be

possible in your church, your life your ministry.

Contact Me

Facebook facebook.com/pastorjoemc

Twitter twitter.com/pastorjoemc

Website www.pastorjoemcgarry.com

Content from this class pastorjoemcgarry.com/hartwick2014

Questions?