Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 In today's episode, we unpack six assimilation strategies. Your church needs to know for 2021, many church leaders struggle with creating a clear strategy for helping new visitors become fully committed members, but nailing your assimilation process down is one of the most important ways to help people find a home in your church. Join us as we discuss what healthy churches are doing to help more people get connected. We hope this conversation helps your church reach more people
Speaker 1 00:00:32 Grow. You're listening to the right podcast. The show dedicated to helping pastors and church leaders reach people the right way, hosted by me, Thomas Costello, and with me as always is my cohost Ian Hyatt. We're here to help your church see more visitors and grow.
Speaker 0 00:01:10 Welcome to the <inaudible> podcast. Episode number 29. I am your host Thomas Costello. And with me as always is my co-host the end Hyatt. Hey, what's up Thomas? Hey, not too much, man. Excited for this conversation here today. We're talking about the six assimilation strategies you need to know for 2021 for churches. I think this is one of those things that so often is a weak spot for churches. Uh, I think in all of our conversations, it's almost like something that I can predict ahead of time that churches have, they have strategies for getting people in the door. They have strategies for how to disciple people, but when it comes to taking someone from a visitor to someone who is a fully committed part of a church, the assimilation strategy is what we would call that a lot of times it's just really not, um, not, not working for churches. So you find the same thing.
Speaker 2 00:02:01 Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know, we've had Outerknown, countless calls and consultations and meetings with churches where we, we ask a, Hey, tell us a little bit about your assimilation process. And we always know, like you just said, we can predict what comes out of their mouth next it's uh, well, you know, that's still a work in progress or we're working on that. Uh, so absolutely it's a challenge in areas, you know, rightfully so. There's a little bit more, uh, you know, thought that needs to go into it and, and strategy. And so we're going to be talking a little bit, a lot about that, but
Speaker 0 00:02:33 It's so hard for churches. I mean, why, why do you think we have such a hard time? Cause it's, if it's something that almost every church seems to struggle with or getting it down pact is a, is hard for them. What do you think that's about?
Speaker 2 00:02:45 Well, several things come to mind. The first thing is, I think, like you said, for, for years, you know, I think a lot of the focus is just to get churches, want to get visitors in the door, right. So that's, that's been, uh, or these days, if you're meetings in the, or, you know, get them online, get them following you. Uh, but, uh, and I think that that's, there's always such a, an effort for that. And then there's the effort about, you know, kind of, uh, keeping them once they're there and closing the back door. And I think that that's what happens is like, if, if we were doing it right, there would be a sandwich, right there would be getting them in the door, closing the back door and the meat in the middle should be assimilation. Right. So I don't know that's what comes to mind, but I think that that's, those are a couple things I think, and then it takes a minute, we're going to talk a lot about this, but it takes a, it takes some leadership and some being intentional, I would say about your assimilation more than, more than maybe other areas of, uh, of church planning, would you say?
Speaker 0 00:03:41 Yeah, I think you said that. Well, I think that the, the S the assimilation model kind of got put to the back burner, getting people connected and assimilated, and maybe assimilated is a bad word for it. It's just, it seems so kind of, uh, like, uh, I dunno, it's, it's kind of clinical, and it's maybe not as warm and friendly. I am going to assimilate you now. Like, we don't say that to people when they come to church,
Speaker 2 00:04:04 But someone into a machine or something like that. So, yes.
Speaker 0 00:04:08 Yeah. But I, I think the, the modern kind of seeker movement that I think where we have come out of completely at this point, but it was the, the big church movement of the nineties. And two thousands, I would say was the, the secret movement. It really emphasized getting visitors, doing events, getting people in the door. And I think that's what you were saying is that there's so much emphasis is placed on that, that we focused everything there. And I think there's just a, this kind of, this blind spot of helping people once they're there, how do I take that next step? And really that's, that's so important because, um, we've said this before is just that every visitor to your church is an absolute gift from God. And really thinking through how you help them through that process. And really what a simulation is, is it's helping them move from someone who is new to your church, maybe new to Jesus, to somebody who is a fully committed follower of Jesus, that they are fully in at your church and part of your family.
Speaker 0 00:05:04 So it's really got discipleship wrapped up into this. That's what it's all about in the end. So yeah, I think it's a good conversation to have. So I think the goal today is to give people six simple, maybe not simple, but six takeaways for reasons and things you need to do to make it assimilation process that works, especially something that works here in this new digital first digital is default kind of a world for churches, because that's a whole new challenge that we have right now. So anyway, why don't you go ahead and kick us off with number one again?
Speaker 2 00:05:36 Yeah. Number one is I think a good one to start off with. That's quite simply to have a plan. And so a and w is it Ramsey <inaudible> who said, if you don't plan to win, you plan to fail,
Speaker 0 00:05:48 Uh, it's been around a long time. I think what you're thinking is if you fail to plan, you plan to fail is what it is. Right.
Speaker 2 00:05:56 Okay. So I, it, I shouldn't have said that, but it is, it is a, that is accurate. Uh, and I think that that's the, you know, you sit down, you know, with your team, your leadership team, and you need to have a plan in place before you just, you know, blast off. I mean, I think a lot of churches, they do the trial by error, you know, approach and, and, you know, they just throw Pete volunteers in the fire and see what sticks. And that's not a good thing to do when it comes to assimilation, because, uh, with some, with assimilation, there is a lot of strategy there. It needs to be thought out. It needs to be something that is sustainable for, for a long period of time. Uh, I would say that. So I think that you want to sit down and have a plan in place for sure.
Speaker 0 00:06:40 Yeah. I think that's good. Um, I think that the, I think having a plan and like having, I think the line for me is actually writing down a plan because I think that so often there's churches, that church leaders, we kind of, we know what the idea is and what we hope is going to happen to get somewhat assimilated into the life of the church. And we have this idea of what it should be. But if we can't communicate that with our entire team have a written process drawn out, I think it really leaves us open to a lot of creep in like the, the, the best intentions that we have for our plan. Just kind of falling by the wayside, because here's what I've found. I've led churches enough to know that if I have plans and I don't kind of hold people accountable to what the expectations are, a lot of times those things will start to wane.
Speaker 0 00:07:29 And this is never been more true that when it comes to doing an assimilation plan. So part of your plan will probably be something about communicating with new time, new visitors, right? So you'll email them or text them or message them on Facebook or something like that. I can tell you that nobody ever likes sending cold emails, making cold phone calls, doing those kinds of things. I don't, I don't like doing it. I'm sure you don't like making cold phone calls or having to do that kind of stuff. Cause you don't want to put people off or anything. So if you don't like write it down and say, this is the standard, and we're going to do this, it is always going to start to creep and not really happen the way that you expected. So it is so important that you have some kind of a plan.
Speaker 0 00:08:11 And what I see a lot of churches doing is they have the first part of the plan figured out, but then kind of connecting those dots of how do I, yeah. I have the part about getting a video visitor card. I have the part about sending messages to them. I kind of have a part about, um, you know, what our membership class looks like or whatever you call that. But then from there, how do I take them to the next step in the plan? How do I get them into a small group or into Sunday school, whatever your model is there. Like, that's really where the challenge is, but all of it starts with actually having one. So I think you're writing and spend the time, get down and dirty with your team, write it down and say, this is the standard we're going to stay with this. This is our plan of how we're going to take everybody through this process. That's it.
Speaker 2 00:08:56 That's it exactly. Why don't you tackle too?
Speaker 0 00:08:59 We'll do, uh, number two is give one clear call to action. Um, this is going to come in the, um, this is really true of all phases and really every ministry communication should have one clear call to action. Just like every sermon should have one very clear call to action. This is what I want you to do. As a result of hearing the sermon, every website should have one clear call to action on each page where it says, this is what you should do with this information. We've just given you the same thing goes for your assimilation processes. That each step has to have a very clear call to action. And the mistake I see a lot of churches making, uh, is leaders will say, Hey, we have lots of different ways that you can get involved as a first step in your church. So if you want, you can go to a small group or maybe your first step is going to be, get involved with surfing or maybe for you.
Speaker 0 00:09:50 It's coming to our pastors and pizza lunch, where we can hang out for a little while a after church one Sunday, and you can meet the pastors or maybe for you, it's coming to growth track, or maybe it's our membership class, or they have all these different things. And we make the mistake that giving people lots of options is the best way to get them to take a step. Because I can tell you that the mistake we make is that a lot of times we think that people don't say yes, because we don't have an option that works for them. And I think a more likely scenario is that people don't say yes because they don't have clarity on what the next right thing to do is. Yeah. So I think just being really clear about how we assimilate people and what that next step is, whether it is any of those things I just mentioned could be good. It could be going straight to small groups. It could be going to a growth track. It could be a lunch with pastors. I don't know what it is exactly for your church, but having one clear step where you say every single week, your next right step is this. I think that's really where it goes. Repose having one clear call to action.
Speaker 2 00:10:53 I think there's several benefits to that. First of all, I think it's going to make it easier for a church to plan this whole thing out, right. Because I mean, and, and th the thought is noble to say, Hey, we really want to give people options, you know, and that, that's, that's a good thought. But unfortunately I think that one of the reasons that, uh, it doesn't work and what came to mind, I think too, is we've got to remember that, and this is an unfortunate reality, but when people go to church, you know, we're in a culture that's more impatient, right. And, and when people go to church for some people, it's just, for them, it was a big step just to get there and go through the whole service. Right. Get there, they get their kids up, they wake up, they get there.
Speaker 2 00:11:36 And as we've seen over the last couple of years, like how, and even before the pandemic, what was trending is that, you know, like a committed person, it was no longer, they were there once a week. They were there like maybe twice a month. And they were also in a small group and gave, or something like that. So think we have to remember, we're in a culture right now where, you know, once someone gets to church, when we ask them to do more, and this is not the case for everyone, but when we ask them to do more, it's already kind of a tall ask and it's them going beyond often what they, you know, what they would do. So I think that's another good reason to make it one simple thing and make it come more compelling to someone that they'll actually do it. So,
Speaker 0 00:12:18 Yeah, I think that's right. That's really good.
Speaker 2 00:12:20 Yeah. Well, and that actually is a good segue to three, and I'll, I'll tackle that that's give them an incentive to get started. So again, it's already a tall ask, right. And, and, uh, people are being asked to do now. We're not just with church. They're being, we're all being pulled in by marketing, by, you know, there's companies, there's, uh, people in our lives that there's all ready we're into our time is in demand right in our time is, is valuable to each one of us. So people need incentives these days. Um, and, and, and, you know, let's just face it. We're all pretty selfish by nature. We know God changes that within us, but it we're always thinking of us first. And we're thinking. And because again, we're being asked to do so much within a given day and week, uh, in our lives, um, people need an incentive to get started on that assimilation process.
Speaker 2 00:13:09 So we've seen a lot of things I know at our church, we've, we've, we've basically put like whether or not it's a free gift in their hand, like a nice, like, not like a Yeti, uh, those are very expensive, but, uh, maybe a nice, a carabiner, a water bottle with metal water bottle because we in the Texas heat in the summer, these are popular. People want one of those. So, um, there's those, we've seen Starbucks cards, whatever, you know, you know, a, pastor's going to know their people, I think, uh, pretty well. And, and the demographic that they serve. So, uh, but those are a few ideas and things I've seen, but when you give them that incentive, uh, and again, we're asking for someone's information to right. Often to get this started. So, uh, an email address or a phone number. Um, so that's a lot of people don't like to give that stuff out. Um, so an incentive is important. What else would you add to that?
Speaker 0 00:14:00 I think if you get anything out of this conversation, um, the, the main takeaway for this part, especially is that the incentive it has to be what's in it for them. And so often we get caught up in what's in it for us. Like we talk about that in the church. Like, so I, I, I see so many, uh, pastors, I get to the PR one of the good things about the coronavirus is you get to see so many different services online. Nowadays churches, you could have never visited before because they didn't have an online service. So I can see what's happening in churches. And I think one of the mistakes I see so often is they'll say, Hey, why don't you go ahead and fill out the little, uh, I'm a new form on the, on the chat there, or in person, they'll say, Hey, fill out the connection card.
Speaker 0 00:14:42 That's there for you. And that just gives us your information so we can kind of reach out and, and chat with you. And yeah, just thank you for being here. Nobody wants that. Like nobody out there. I mean, I would say nobody, there's probably a very small portion of the population that is going to your church for the first time and saying to themselves, I would like someone to reach out and have a conversation with me. Just that's something that, yeah, God could impact them. And maybe they're saying, yeah, I'm going to do that. But it's something that usually people are just not quite there yet. Like, so I'll use it in our context. Like if we lead every single conversation with, uh, with, Hey, I'm putting your information. If you want to, if you want to buy a website from us, if that was our edge, that it wouldn't go very well.
Speaker 0 00:15:31 We need to give some incentive to people. So you see this in businesses all the time. They say, Hey, download this, uh, this white paper or PDF on this. If you give us your email address, we'll do that. You'll see it online all the time. Churches really need to do the same thing. And so you absolutely have to give some kind of a reason for people to get started in the assimilation process at your church. And so you mentioned karabiners, uh, carabiner water bottles. You mentioned gas cards. I saw a church recently that what they did is they gave people a gas card, uh, in, in a handwritten letter. So someone, so they said, Hey, we're going to send you a free gift. If you give us your information, we'll know where to send it. So people would fill out the form, they'd send them a physical gas card.
Speaker 0 00:16:16 And the encouragement was, Hey, you could go ahead and use this for yourself. But if you're, maybe you're not a person that needs that it's a gas card to find someone that does need it and give it to them. And it was just something, it reiterated how the church was generous. They gave gifts and they were really kind of a socially minded or a community minded, kind of a church there. So made a really big impact. I know it stuck with me and we're here talking about it today. So that says something about the whole thing. But yeah, I can't express this enough, just having some kind of a reason that someone's going to start your into your assimilation process, that they'll give you their email address, that they'll give you their, their Facebook login or their, their phone number. So you can text them.
Speaker 0 00:16:57 That is so important to, to actually give them a reason to do that beyond just so that we can reach out to you because nobody really wants that in the ed. Right? Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. That's it. Well, good. And so what that goes to is number four, which, um, which once you have that you've given them incentive to give you their contact information. You have their contact information that allows you then to do number four, which is build a communication sequence. Uh, I think the way that you're going to be able to be consistent with your assimilation process is have something that is again, written out having a plan, but having something that, where you do the same steps every single time, as long as it makes sense. Uh, so if someone is, um, is writing personal emails about how their marriage is struggling, don't in that case, send them the generic email, great to have you.
Speaker 0 00:17:49 It was so good and I hope you loved it. So like, you have to answer in kind to what people are saying, but you need to have things that are written out very clear ways that you want to communicate, that you want to talk and you need to build out a sequence of that. Now, how you do it, maybe you use something like MailChimp or some other program to send it automatically. Maybe you feel more comfortable just copying and pasting and sending an actual email from, uh, from the pastor of the church, whatever it would be. I think having these, the sequence, um, if I had to give you kind of a target number, I would say, shoot for five communications in the first two weeks, I think that would be a good amount of communication to happen. So I think having something that, uh, that happens right on that same Sunday that they show up sending them a quick message then, uh, maybe something that's written and physical in the mail, uh, that week there that gets to them another email talking about coming out again next week, um, an email that comes the week after that.
Speaker 0 00:18:47 So having several touch points, but I think if you make it your goal to make a sequence of five different communication items that someone gets in the first couple of weeks after their first visit, that goes a long way. And I think that's kind of a, that's the kind of sequence that you're looking for. So, um, anything to add to that again? Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:19:06 That's all great. Not much to add, but I would say this too, that what this does is it also makes this a sustainable model for your church. Something that you can continue to do, because let's just face it. Even if you're a, at a smaller church. I don't think you're going to have the time to hand write out, you know, and email that much, uh, you know, in a two week timeframe, like you said, even five different. It would be great if we could do five different unique emails all for that one visitor that came. But, uh, but no, it's good to think through. Uh, I don't like no one likes to use the word generic, but something a little more templated in something that it still still has some good content to it and, and is focused on them. But I think that, uh, this is what makes it sustainable for churches too. There's like you said, systems like MailChimp, this is not something that's going to be terribly expensive. It's not something that's going to be super time consuming either to get this thing going. So
Speaker 0 00:20:01 I'll tell you a couple of things. So, so what I did, uh, and I think one of the challenges churches have is that when you don't have a lot of visitors that makes you think that I cannot formalize this, right. So if you have, if you're the kind of church where let's say you have a hundred people on a typical Sunday and you see a visitor, maybe every other week, someone comes for the first time that's local and someone that could come back to your church every, you know, two a month, something like that. We're tempted in those times to say, well, you know, I could just do that myself. I don't need to make this whole system to go with it. And really the goal in a lot of things now is to try and build that number of visitors and then building the sequence that goes around it.
Speaker 0 00:20:43 So that, you know, as you have 10, 15 visitors a, well, that becomes really challenging then. So you need to build something around that. I'll say this too, is that what I did at the church that I pastored most recently in Wisconsin? Um, I had a, a pre done email, uh, that it had very clear sections in there where I could add in my own personal elements. So maybe you add in a personal element about, Hey, I hope you enjoyed our series on, um, on redemption. I thought that what I said this weekend, maybe that you had some thoughts on that. You could add something specific about the service to that particular message. What I did, I was that kind of pastor that was at the door, even as we grew. And we saw dozens of visitors every week. I was still that guy shaking hands with everybody that have walked in the door.
Speaker 0 00:21:31 Right. And I could still usually spot who was a visitor. And I, I worked really hard at it at getting someone's name, remembering who they were. And so if I did have an encounter with someone, I would try to find a way to take that generic email and get a personal part of the conversation in there with them. So, Hey, it was so good to meet you on, on Sunday. Um, you know, I don't get a lot of people that are moving here from North Dakota. So it was great to have you, you know, whatever, something personal. So they know that it's, it's something that's actually not just a form letter. I do think that's important. We want to avoid that feeling. It's just something that every single person gets. So to the customization idea, that's just one thing I would say to something like that. That's good. That's good.
Speaker 2 00:22:14 Well, I'll tackle number five, and this is a really important one, too. It's to set clear discipleship goals, uh, you know, within your assimilation process. So I think that, again, as we kind of shared earlier, you know, there's, we have a lot of options, right? Uh, within church life that we give. And I think though, and discipleship is a broad thing, right? I mean, we, we know that, uh, there's a lot that goes into that and discipling someone and what that means to them and what you take them through. But I think you need to have a clear goal to again, make this sustainable. And it also helps you to organize this growth track. I think that this is one of the reasons why a lot of churches don't come up with it because they don't know. Okay. Is the first thing that we need to ask someone to do to get baptized right away. Do we do that? I've seen some churches, that's their first discipleship goal. Not everyone. Someone might be ready to get into a small group before that point or something like that. So you need to think through what are your churches know discipleship goals when it comes to your assimilation process?
Speaker 0 00:23:14 So, yeah, that's good. I think, uh, the way we ask our clients, a lot of times it will ask them this question is what does a fully committed member of life church or whatever church it is? What does that member look like? Uh, and we get a lot of similar answers. Usually it's something to the effect of, they come on Sundays, they are involved in service. They're part of a small group or a Bible study or something like that. And they give, you know, those kinds of things are they usually the, the, the markers of what a fully committed, what they look like there. And so when we're talking about setting clear discipleship goals, what I would say is you start with the end in mind. So I'm trying to take someone from maybe they don't know Jesus, maybe they're, um, in a, in a place of life where they're really struggling with some kind of a felt need.
Speaker 0 00:24:01 Maybe they do know Jesus, but they're just new to the area and trying to get connected. You taking them from wherever they are looking at the end in mind is what does a fully committed member of our church, our church look like? And how do I, my goals are to get them to that place. How do I get them into that place? Because that's really what discipleship is, is helping them get closer to Jesus at a lot of times, that means closer to his body, the family that is at your church there. So I think, really thinking through that with the end in mind, that helps you kind of chart out the process of, okay, what is the likely step someone would take to get involved with service? How do they, how do they get on that? How do they, what's the on-ramp to something like that.
Speaker 0 00:24:40 And so when you have those goals, it helps you think through the other side a lot more clearly. Yeah. Yeah. That's really good. Yeah. Nothing much to add there with that one. Cool. Well, number six, I'll wrap it up with this one. And I think this is so important. It's number six is remember it's about the process. Uh, so a lot of times when we talk about, like we said, assimilation processes, it sounds so unorganic, um, it sounds like it's clinical and for our spirit filled brethren like us, it sounds like it's like devoid of the Holy spirit, really, for all of us here. It just feels like it's kind of disconnected from that. Now. I I'm, uh, I pastored spirit-filled churches, uh, at the same time, I'm still a systems and process kind of guy, and that's messed up how I have to think about that stuff in my head sometimes.
Speaker 0 00:25:27 But I, I really think we serve a God, not the God of disorder, but it got a border. So I do think that there, the Holy spirit is alive and well in systems that we can put in place. But I think that, I think a lot of times I tend towards wanting to see people getting from a to B. And I forget a lot of times that discipleship happens in that process. Like, so if someone's slows down after they go through the second section of our growth track, because they're dealing with questions they've had about the Bible and does God really speak through it, and they've read somewhere that it was written by people hundreds of years later, and they wonder why that is. And it kind of bogs them down. That's okay. Like that. That's where, that's where we get to have those conversations.
Speaker 0 00:26:13 That's where we get to have the go through the process and that's where real discipleship takes place. So I think while we have structure and you have very clear, drawn out steps for this here, remember that a lot of the goals are met when people are just living through this process, as messy as it gets. You know, sometimes people will do step three before they do step one. And it just, it happens that way sometimes, but that's where growth takes place. And you have to like, just trust the Holy spirit trust process. The process is good, but it is not our God. Right. I think that's, what's really important is that our God is, is completely different. It's not this process. The end goal is not to get check marks of how many people did certain actions in the process, but it's to actually lead people into a life-changing relationship with Jesus. So what do you have to have?
Speaker 2 00:27:03 Well, I think that's biblical too, right? As a pastors will appreciate that, that you're, you could come up with your assimilation process by being led, uh, through what screw, not only by the Holy spirit, but obviously through what scripture teaches. And that is that none of us have arrived right in, and I liked it. You mentioned that someone might start on step three and we, we actually, you and I both connected with a church that said that, and we, and I actually kinda liked their approach with it D that someone may go to step three and hopefully they went to one, but, uh, but you know, it doesn't mess up everything if they started three and then go back to one and then go to four, then go to two or whatever, if it's a four step process, I think that, and this also might take a while.
Speaker 2 00:27:43 It might take, I think that's one thing to, to encourage our pastors listening to this is that, you know, this doesn't have to be, uh, you know, in four weeks, they're a fully dedicated member of we're, you know, we're done now, you know, so it said, it's something that could take months, maybe even a year or so, uh, that they're in this process. And, and, and the good news is if you have all of this set up, well, like we're saying in a good plan and strategy, this will help you kind of track, you know, uh, someone's spiritual development at your church and know how to follow up with them. So like you just said, if someone quit, uh, when they got to some issues with, with what the Bible's teaching and, and, and that is a great time to step in and connect with them, or if they quit in another, maybe it was the day just w they did everything else, but we can't, they're serving, but we just can't get them in a small group. Well, then it lets you kind of know how to help them through that process. So, no, I think that's a good one to conclude on is to know it's a process and it can take some time.
Speaker 0 00:28:44 I'll use this analogy. I don't know how most of our audience preaches, but I know when I preach a sermon, I have a very clear outline of where I want to go, but I'm not a manuscript guy. And I think don't think of your discipleship process or your assimilation process as a manuscript, that this is exactly what everybody will do at every single step. But think of it as more of an outline of where we want to get to and what the, the main conclusion is. We want to get everybody to that same place of a deep life-changing relationship with Jesus, but the outline is there to serve you, not for you to serve the outline, right? You're there to be able to walk somebody through that. But yeah, just remember that the process is where discipleship is happening. I think that helps me as someone that is very structured and likes to come up with processes. It is a good reminder for me that God is still in control and we can listen to the Holy spirit in this whole process here. So that's a good way for us to conclude things today. Good stuff. Cool. All right, guys. Well, thank you so much for listening. If this has been beneficial to you, it means so much to us. If you rate, review, subscribe, uh, do those things. Thank you so much for being part of our reach right family. And we'll catch you guys next week.
Speaker 1 00:30:01 Thanks for listening to the reach right podcast. We hope this episode will help you reach people the right way, looking for more resources for your church. Check us out online at reach, right studios.com. If this episode has been helpful to you, it would mean the world to us. If you would rate, review and subscribe on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks again for listening. And we'll see you next time. <inaudible>.
