"Double Our Impact"

(This is an old post that was in my drafts.)

That was our prayer starting in November of last year. If you've seen my posts on "How Fast Can the Church Grow?" then you know I've been pondering this for a while. Well, we challenged the church to consider: "What must we do for God to double the impact of StonePoint by the end of January?"

My approach was that in last May and August I stood in the theater and challenged our launch team of 11 adults to pray that God would fill our theater. We had a strategy, plan, outreach and marketing. And God did it! If He could do it then, why couldn't He do it again?

I stood before StonePoint in late November and told them we were going to two services. We didn't have enough people to go to two services. We didn't really even have the volunteer support to go to two services. However, the challenge was "what must we do for God to double our impact?" I believe we needed to create room for God to work. It was chaotic when we launched but somehow we pulled it off and everything went smooth.

I am excited to say that we've doubled our impact! We've doubled our community presence with our marketing. We've doubled our attendance. We've more than doubled the number of people serving in ministry. We've had more people in the past two weeks make a spiritual commitment than we've had in any message series.

I don't suggest every church planter go out and start two services. I do believe every church planter ought to seriously consider what must God do to double the impact of your church. Here are some thoughts when considering it.

• It's really up to you. God wants His church to grow. It's up to you to discern what God wants you to do to work through His church to make it happen.
• Set a goal. For us it was doubling. Not just doubling our attendance. We knew we couldn't support the attendance if we didn't double our volunteers.
• Set a time frame. For us it was the end of January. I knew January would be a prime opportunity for us to reach new people. It was one that we needed take hold of.
• Equip your people. I've had to release people like never before. I gave up answering questions that other people were totally capable of answering and implementing. I still focus on quality control, but I don't focus on the decisions.
• Equip people evangelistically. We've been putting our mailers and invite cards in our programs every week. It's a reminder for people to be inviting their friends. Our people know that our mailers are to equip them to talk to their friends.
• Create space for God to work. This means taking a bold step and risking your credibility. The Sunday I announced two services and doubling our impact, I knew my credibility was on the line. If it didn't happen I would've lost major leadership points. Some people seriously doubted it would happen. They never really told me but I could tell by the questions they asked. For others, I could tell they doubted by the look on their face when everyone started showing up.
• Develop a strategy. Our staff spent a great deal of time on developing and implimenting the strategy.