Here’s our invitations for our next young adult service in March.

Here’s a shot of our newly renovated stage during our Christmas series. This picture actually doesn’t do the set justice. We had 19 lighted trees on stage with no ornaments. It looked like the Narnia forest.

I attended another funeral this week. That’s been 7 deaths in the last 5 months. All were friends or family of people I am close with. This last one was the father of some of our church members. It was sudden and unexpected. Five out of the seven were like that. Those are always the toughest.

I’ve attended 4 of the funerals. Here’s two quick thoughts:

1. Funerals are mandatory. Weddings are really discretionary. You don’t have to go to them all. Just send a gift and a little money and all is forgiven. Funerals are the opposite. You don’t have to do anything or say anything or try to help in anyway. Just be there. That family will always remember that you were “there for them.” That’s the best thing you can do. Just be there.

2. Life is measured by relationships. Nobody talks about your career or your bank account or how talented you were at your funeral. It’s all about people. Friends, family, all the people your life touched. All four of the funerals I attended packed the place out and in a few instances, had to bring out more chairs. That’s the stuff life is made of.

I’m definitely hoping this season is over.

I am putting a message together for our young adult service this Thursday. I’m thinking about the theme of brokenness and how “everything is made to be broken.”

I got some clips from Garden State. Large (the main character) grows up highly medicated because he is told that he is broken. Through the course of the movie, he decides to get off his meds and for the first time really begins to feel and experience life.

Matt and his guys are also going to pull off “Iris” by Goo Goo Dolls. It’s an old one, I know, but still really good.

I think I may just purposefully break some stuff too. Like a vase or something. Let me know if you have any ideas.

I am preparing a message for this Sunday. I have a few components that have really caught my attention lately. I thinking about stringing them together into some kind of talk about small groups of people changing the world.

// Al Qaeda spent roughly $500,000 for the September 11th attacks which have caused an estimated $500 Billion in total economic damage. All from an organization run from caves in remote parts of the world.

// The Berlin Wall falling on November 9, 1989 was actually preceded by small protests that were never stopped by the police in the months preceding. The protesst grew and grew until eventually government officials resigned and the wall fell.

// Matthew Chapter 16 tells us that Jesus took His disciples to a region known as Caesarea Philippi. There He showed them the giant rock known as “The Gates of Death.” He told them that there would be a community of believers that would become so compelling that nothing, including “The Gates of Death,” would be able to stop it. Jesus seemed to think that the way we live can actually effect history.

So the question is, “Is church just this random, freak thing that we do just to prioritize our spirituality and feel better about everything? Or do we really believe that we are together to effect human history?”

Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

I don’t know. That’s what I’m thinking about.

All I can say about the “Everything Is Spiritual” tour is that Rob Bell is insane. I don’t know of anyone that thinks like that and I definitely don’t know anyone who can keep your attention fixed for 2 hours with just a whiteboard and black marker.

He walked onto the stage and started. “In the beginning….” No introduction. No lights. No video. Minimal and to the point. He started in Genesis 1.1, got into all kinds of macro and micro physics and in the end brought it all together in one of those “ah-ha” moments where you somehow understood everything he had just said. But don’t ask me to repeat it.

The best line of the night: “Dude, you can’t smoke a rectangle.” You had to be there.

2 weeks ago today I lost a mentor and a great friend in a motorcycle accident.

Mark was an Assistant Pastor at our church and a member of our Board. He had been with us the last 3 years and had become a huge part of our team.

Mark was one of the most inspirational people in my life and I miss him tremendously. He specifically worked on my last 4 messages with me; helping me to think through, write, adjust and then deliver. In fact, the Sunday before he passed away, I spoke at our church and he had helped me work through it the week before. He waited for me by the back door after church and gave me a huge hug and told me that the message was very clear and well delivered. It was the best that I had done.

Mark was the first one to leave me a voice mail when Caden was born.

I roomed with Mark and played golf with him last September at a conference we were at in Detroit. I kept him up late at night talking because I was taking Vicadin for some oral surgery and it made me talkative.

I had lunch with him on a consistent basis at Smoky Bones.

Mark talked me through some tough times last fall.

He believed in me tremendously and I knew it.

I thought he was supposed to play a major role in my life and the life of my son…. So, it’s confusing.

But even if I knew why, it wouldn’t change anything. The hurt would still be there because he’s in a different place and I would still miss him.

One of the cool parts of camp this year was pulling off a spontaneous visit from America’s youngest mayor Michael Sessions. Michael was elected as Hillsdale, Michigan’s mayor last November at the age of 18 after a write-in campaign and going door-to-door. He has since appeared on David Letterman, Jay Leno, The Today Show, Ellen and a whole bunch of other news programs.

We found a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy who knew someone that had worked with Michael. A few emails later and he was at our Wednesday night service.

I did a brief interview with him at the start of the service. He was a great sport and spoke well in front of the large group. He encouraged them to believe in themselves and to have the courage to take initiative.

The walrus wasn’t really part of the service… in case you were wondering… or confused.

We got back from summer camp last Friday afternoon. It was good.

This is not my photography or photoshop work. Emily and Matt get the credit.

Jered wrote this as the last answer to a test he took Wednesday.  It was hours before he slipped away.

We lost one of our teenagers yesterday.

Jered Pyles and his best friend, Paul Smith (our Senior Pastor’s son) were swimming in Alum Creek and Jared drowned after being pulled under by a current.

Jared was in our youth group every week, attended our Global Impact mission trip to Peru last year and played a big part in our Upward Sports program as ref and coach this year.

You can read the news story.

In all my years of youth ministry this is the first time I have experienced the loss of a teenager.

It’s not… right…

The numbers are in. We had 406 people yesterday which makes it our biggest service of the year… and last year… It may have been our biggest service ever in the last 3 years with our new leadership and staff.

What was even more important than the numbers was the atmosphere. It felt good. This was definitely the first Easter service that has felt good.

So we’re moving in the right direction. Finally.

One of the teenagers at our church did a search on Google last week for The Church At Polaris. Guess what the number one site was?

She came to me and said, “I searched for ‘The Church At Polaris’ at I found pictures of you and Joanna in bathing suits!”

Cool.

It seems I’ve fallen to number 3 this week.

The guys over at Studio 8e8 recently did a complete redesign of our school identity.

Mark Tracey of Illustrated Alaskan Moose did the new lion logo for us.

Check out the new brochure….. yes, that is a die cut.

I know… it’s swanky.

Last on my list is Branding.

Branding is your lowest form of marketing because there is no relational connection associated. It’s purpose is to expose people to your name/logo and increase awareness and comfort.

Branding is also asking the question, “What story are we telling?” If you have 3 seconds of a person’s attention as they’re driving by your billboard or sign, what do you want them to know about you?

So this is your external signage, your building, billboards, unsolicited direct mail, your web site, tv and radio ads.

On average, 15% of our guests attend a service because of our location and sign at our main entrance. But we have a great location. We are directly across from the biggest mall in Ohio. We are right in the middle of the Polaris Centers of Commerce. So we realize that our sign and our building is vitally important. It’s all marketing dollars. We have to reflect the standards of the commercial community around us. People have to drive by in 3 seconds and know that we are not a church that is 30 years out-dated.

We get a lot of people that see our building and huge 9′ x 21′ sign and after driving by it every day for 18 months, decide to check us out.

Because of this, we don’t do a lot of direct mail or billboards because we feel like our money is better spent in our sign and building design.

Where is your best exposure happening?

One of the things that is unique to our church is what I call Feeders.

We have a sports program (UPWARD) and a soon coming child-care center (The Gathering Place) that actually feed our Sunday morning attendance. They are entry points. Places where parents can get their kids involved in programs without the threat of having to “go to church.” And more and more parents are turning to Christian run sports and child-care programs because of the character building and morality… things they think are important for their child to grow up learning. The great thing is they don’t have to be a Christian to get involved in, unlike our Christian school (Polaris Christian Academy). So it becomes a non-threatening environment. And it gives us a chance to prioritize their child and really do a great job taking care of them. It builds trust and confidence.

These are places where we don’t hesitate to spend money because we know we are reaching our community.

So a good question to ask is, “If people will not come to a church service first, where else would they come in at?”

We have a member in our church who is a marketing consultant. She travels around and advises companies on where to spend their marketing money. I asked her where she thought our money was best spent. It was real easy: events.

If we are going to spend money, spend it on something that impacts and makes a difference in the community.

Since children and youth are our number one priority, this becomes a simple strategy. Here are some examples:

Our quarterly KidStuf events. We buy dinner and put on a 90 minute show geared towards both parents and kids.

We have a great VBS program that draws hundreds of kids every year.

We have found that a lot of people will not set foot in a church for a Sunday service, but they will attend a family-oriented event. Our events give them a chance to get accustomed to our church and hopefully a little more comfortable thinking about attending a service.

The second marketing thought is First Impressions.

This is the guts of it all.

You can have the best marketing plan in the world and have hundreds of people walking through your doors each month, but if you do not create a great first impression, you will lose every single one of them.

We ran some reports at the end of 2005 and realized that we had somewhere around 500 people enter our church for the first time in the last 6 months.

Have all those people become members? No.

Can we account for the majority of those people? No.

Did they not come back because of our first impression? We don’t know.

We’re trying to figure it out and make sure we don’t repeat our mistakes.

First impressions are your buildings and facilities (cafe, childrens’ rooms, signage) and parking lot, your guest services (greeter, hosts, check-in, ushers), childrens’ ministry, audio, video and lighting. It’s everything that creates your environment and atmosphere during that service. It’s kind of everything else other than the music and preaching. Because a first impression has already been formed by that point. Some say it takes 12 minutes, others say 2 minutes. It’s probably somewhere in between that. But we know that by the time the pastor takes the stage, people have already made their decision.

I think a guiding principle in this is to “Be Remarkable.” Are you a beach front property or a cookie-cutter, suburban house? Are we a Four Seasons hotel or the Holiday Inn down the street? There are churches all across this country that are predictable and franchised. The question is are we committed to being something remarkable?

I’ve been thinking through a marketing approach lately and reading a lot of books on the subject.

I’ve kind of narrowed it down to 5 different thoughts:

1. Word of Mouth
2. First Impression
3. Events
4. Feeders
5. Branding

The number one marketing focus of our church is Word of Mouth. Plain and simple. 85% of people attend church because of a friend or family member. It’s your strongest tool.

So in order to really use this well I think that you have to be focused on creating an unforgettable experience that is worth telling others about. You have to have some “buzz.” The little extra things that create big energy. What are you doing that makes people leave and want to tell other people about the church service they just attended?

We have a Sunday coming up soon where we are promoting our Life Groups. We decided to serve “Texas-style” chili after the service. I don’t even know what “Texas-style” chili is, but I know that people are more likely to talk about it.

We had a Catholic couple with a 20-month old daughter attend our service this last week. They left St. Michael’s because they wanted to attend a church that was “different.” I said, “We’re probably a little bit different than St. Michael’s.” He said, “You’re a lot different!” They loved the music, the message spoke directly to some things they had been thinking about and their daughter loved her nursery class. They will leave talking about this “different” experience they had.

We are in an experience economy. People don’t just want to attend church out of obligation or family heritage, they want an experience - an experience with God. Our role is to facilitate that. Have some fun, create some buzz, but always make sure our number one priority is God showing up and speaking to hearts. If we can do that, people will leave talking about what an unforgettable experience they had.

That’s word of mouth.

We decided to cancel our service on Christmas Day. To be honest, it wasn’t a hard decision. Just common sense. We understand that people have a life and would appreciate having the morning to spend with their family. Besides, we have a great Christmas Eve service planned that everyone looks forward to. Getting up Christmas morning for church would be more duty motivated than heart and relationship motivated.

Here is an article our Executive Pastor Eric Brown emailed over to me. I didn’t realize decisions like these were causing such a stir.