Greg Atkinson

How to Leverage Facebook

August 8, 2012 — 1 Comment

I use Facebook in a number of ways to reach people, stay connected to people around the world, communicate to my congregation and allow people to get to know me on a personal level. I’ll talk about several ways that you can use Facebook in future blog posts. Today I want to talk about Facebook ads.

If you look at my Sunday Setlist blog posts, you’ll see a little picture of the series we’re in with our church’s website on it. Those aren’t our official series graphics – those are our Facebook ads. I run Facebook ads from Thursday through Sunday each week for people within 10 miles of my campus’ city. You can get specific about who you’re trying to reach (men, women, young and old, people that are members of your church’s Facebook page or people that are not a part of your church’s Facebook page). I usually run the ads so that just people that are not already members of our church’s Facebook page can see them. I don’t want our people clicking on the ad and using up our daily limit.

One tip I’ll encourage you to do is to track who comes to your church via Facebook. Our bulletins have a Communication Card (which we use for a number of reasons). On that Communication Card, we ask people:

How did you hear about Forest Park?
Invitation
Billboard/Sign
Website
Facebook/Twitter
Mailer/Postcard
Newspaper
If you collect this data for months, you can see where most people are coming from and really invest in that area. For example, if you run newspaper ads and after 6 months, you realize no one has come to your church via the newspaper – STOP running newspaper ads. If you see people are coming due to direct mail pieces and/or Facebook ads – INVEST in those. Get it? By the way, it’s always encouraging to see people check off that they came due to one of our people inviting them. Track and measure where people are coming from.

Back to Facebook ads – I ask our designer to create me Facebook ads for each series we do and I run them throughout the series. Below I’ll show you examples of our Facebook ads. They need to be simple (less text is more).

This is our current series starting this Sunday (going with the whole “Back to School” theme)

This is our last series we finished this past Sunday

Next to last series

Next to next to last series

This was our series to kickoff 2012

*** I should mention that we are a multi-site church and this is just something that we do at my campus. If you remember my background, I’m huge into social media and have a marketing background. We have seen tremendous growth at our campus due to Facebook and social media. At our last Lead Team meeting, our Lead Pastor shared that all 3 of our campuses were growing, but that the Carthage Campus (my campus) was up 35% over this time last year – far ahead of the other campuses. I contribute this to God first and foremost and many other things – one of which is my use of Facebook.

To give you an example, look at our Facebook analytics report I received on August 1st (keep in mind that my campus is the smallest campus of the 3 Forest Park campuses). Note our reach on Facebook compared to the other 2 larger campuses.

Forest Park Joplin Campus (Original and largest campus)

New Likes – 6

New Check-ins – 8

Talking About This – 18

Weekly Total Reach – 1,482

Forest Park North Campus (Second largest campus)

New Likes – 7

Talking About This – 14

Weekly Total Reach – 1,006

Forest Park Carthage Campus (Smallest campus)

New Likes – 9

New Check-ins – 1

Talking About This – 30

Weekly Total Reach – 8,215

*** Social media and online presence is something I always evaluated when I did a secret shopper and/or consulted with a church. Don’t be blind in this area – it’s too important!

Sunday Setlist – August 5

August 6, 2012 — Leave a comment

Yesterday was the last day of our series entitled “Supernatural” which we got the idea from LifeChurch.tv. This Sunday’s message was entitled “Heaven and Hell.” Scripture text was Matthew 25:46.

“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. ”

Pre-service: Had iTunes pre-service mix of upbeat songs playing with Welcome and Announcement slides playing on the left and right screens and a big Welcome graphic on the center screen. The center screen also plays an animated graphic of a cell phone that reminds people to turn their phones off. Countdown starts at 5 minutes until the service begins (9:30 and 11am).

Song One: Where the Streets Have No Name (Db) – U2
Welcome/Brief Announcements: Me (Greg Atkinson) – At the end of my welcome and announcements I mentioned the craziness our country had faced this week with the whole Chick-fil-A issue. I said that I wanted to be clear to everyone how we felt at our church. I said we were introducing a new song that had the words “All are welcome here.” I stated that that is our heart – all our welcome here at our church.
Song Two: Here and Now (C) – Eddie Kirkland/North Point Music
Song Three: How Great Is Our God (C) – Chris Tomlin
Message: Video message by our Lead Pastor
Response: I came back up and wrapped up the message and led people in a time of commitment and response to the Gospel. After leading in an invitation (where people prayed to receive Christ), I encouraged our people to sing the next two songs as a time of worship and a glimpse of Heaven (which we had talked about during the message).
Song Four: Revelation Song (F) – Kari Jobe/Gateway Worship
Song Five: I Can Only Imagine (E) – MercyMe
Closing: I came back up to close out the service and went straight into a prayer that acknowledged the intimate worship moment we had just had. I talked about how next week we were going to present the Gospel and talk about salvation. I encouraged people to invite someone they care about and bring them with them next week. I mentioned that if you got here early or on time, you got to experience our band cover a U2 song. I pumped up next week’s opening and the kickoff of our new series, “Basics.” I mentioned that people could text in their response to our special text response cell phone. People can text their name and if they made a decision, want to be baptized or want information on membership. I then end each and every service by having us all pray and recite Ephesians 3:20-21.

Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

***NOTES:

We sometimes open with cover songs. We opened with “Where the Streets Have No Name” by U2 to kickoff this day focused on Heaven and Hell.
We introduced a brand new song called “Here and Now” from North Point Music. When we introduce a new song, we do it for 3 weeks straight, so you’ll be seeing it in our next 2 weeks’ setlists.
We rarely do “How Great Is Our God”, but decided to do something very simple and familiar after such an aggressive new song like “Here and Now.”
We wanted to end the service/day with a glimpse of Heaven and powerful worship. “Revelation Song” we do very rarely, but when we do, it’s a powerful time of worship and really relates well to the scenes of worship we see in the book of Revelation. I changed our last song to “I Can Only Imagine” after watching our Lead Pastor’s video message and seeing how much he pumped up Heaven and how great it is going to be. I immediately thought of the MercyMe song (which we’ve never done before, but our people know from the radio) and it was the perfect closer to a day focused on where we’ll spend eternity.
During the outro of “Revelation Song” and the intro of “I Can Only Imagine”, I asked our worship pastor to put the following Scripture up on the screen to set up the final song:

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those that love Him.” – 1 Corinthians 2:9

In Church 2.0, church planting, Churches, Ideas, Leadership, Multi-site, Music, Outreach, Preaching, Worship Leading, Worship resources

Where Do We Go From Here?

August 3, 2012 — Leave a comment

Okay, so hundreds of thousands or possibly millions of Americans came out Wednesday to show their support for Chick-fil-A – their love for the restaurant and their right to freedom of speech by their COO. The point was made loud and clear – you’ll never be able to “boycott” Chick-fil-A out of business. Chick-fil-A, a Christian company, built on Christian values and ran by family-oriented leaders who have given their employees off Sunday since the beginning is a company that has been truly blessed by God. America loves their food, customer service (it really is the best) and their Christian values. That’s a generalization, but we’re talking about the majority of people. So now, I ask: Where do we go from here?

I think we try to build a bridge. Somehow, taking a stand for freedom of speech got turned into hate speech or discrimination. That disturbs me. I shop at Walmart, do meetings at Starbucks and eat Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and I don’t agree with their politics. I just don’t boycott anything. I think it’s ridiculous. Just because I ate at Chick-fil-A doesn’t mean I’m anti-gay. It means I, as an American, will support anyone’s rights to freedom of speech (even if I don’t agree with them).

This quote from Pastor Greg Surratt of Seacoast Church says it well:

“… It is because I’m irritated that politicians in Boston, Chicago, Washington DC, and New York City are trampling on freedom of speech.
While I don’t agree with all of Howard Schultz politics, I will gladly drink his coffee and fight for his right to put a Starbucks in my community.
When we start excluding business on the bases of politics, we’ve lost a little bit of what it means to be American.”

So that’s the peek behind the curtain of the why for my post yesterday and why I ate at Chick-fil-A, but moving forward, I want to build a bridge. I’ve tried several times through this blog to do that. I’ve discussed the issue of homosexuality numerous times over the years and I’ve always tried to build a bridge and see if we can get along (like I wrote about here 3 years ago).

If we’re going to build a bridge, we’ve got to work together. You respect my beliefs, opinions, view of Scripture and freedom of speech and I’ll respect yours. As a matter of fact, I’ll respect you and your beliefs whether you respect and tolerate mine or not. I just wish we’d all show tolerance toward each other.

At my own church this week, we’re doing a brand new song called “Here and Now” from North Point. I love the words of the song because they say, “All are welcome here, as we are, as we are.” That’s my heart and something I’m going to drive home to our people. At my church: all are welcome. Let’s build a bridge, start a conversation with someone that has different beliefs from us and still be able to call them a friend. Let’s all (both sides) be people of grace. Deal?

Eddie Kirkland, “Here And Now” from North Point Music on Vimeo.

In Churches, Homosexual issues, Random Thoughts

I Ate at Chick-fil-A Yesterday

August 2, 2012 — 2 Comments

Yep. I joined the peaceful movement, showed my support for Chick-fil-A and ate there yesterday. I tried to eat there at lunch, but it was too crowded and I had a meeting to get to. I ended up going back for dinner and still experienced a crazy line of people waiting to get in or go through the drive-thru. It was encouraging to see so many people support a Christian company and to look at all the pictures of lines of people waiting to get in around the country. I ate there Saturday and last week we ate Chick-fil-A at the ECHO Conference. Bottom-line: I love the restaurant and think they have great customer service and quality food.

Am I anti-gay? No and neither is anyone associated with Chick-fil-A. The problem is when voicing your support of traditional marriage gets turned in to “hate speech” and “discrimination.” That’s ridiculous. As I’ve said before on this blog, I have gay friends. I have much love for gays. I also support Dan Cathy’s right to free speech and have no issue with him voicing his personal opinion.

I discussed this issue on my blog over 2 years ago (in June, 2010) HERE. What bothers me and rubs me the wrong way is the people that cry out for tolerance are some of the most intolerant people I’ve ever come across. These mayors speaking out against Chick-fil-A are ridiculous and intolerant.

So – I ate there. I enjoyed it and I love their business. I suspect they made a ton of money yesterday and were greatly encouraged by the love and support shown to their business. Actually, I suspect Chick-fil-A makes more money in 6 days than many restaurants do in 7. Go figure!

*** Perry Noble wrote a great blog on this and summed up my thoughts better than I could. Read his words HERE.

In Companies, Greg's Favorites, Homosexual issues, Random Thoughts

Burden

August 1, 2012 — Leave a comment

I’ve been serving my church (as Campus Pastor at a multi-site church) for almost a year and a half now. About a year ago I met with our Lead Pastor and shared with him this strange feeling and awareness that I had been experiencing. The only way I know to describe it is to call it a “burden.” Many of you that have followed my blog and journey through ministry over the years knew me as a worship pastor, then Director of Worship House Media, then Tech Pastor, then social media guy, then consultant. I finally found my God-given fit and calling as a Campus Pastor at a multi-site church.

Many things are different for me in this role (overseeing an entire campus/congregation) than in previous roles on church staffs. I’ve always laid awake at night with ideas, innovations, strategy and thoughts on how to do my job better, but now it’s different. I lay awake and have people’s names and faces running through my mind and heart. I pray for God to save my city. I pray for God to allow us to be a strong light in a dark world. I pray for God to change lives and hearts. I pray for the lost (a lot). I pray for God to introduce me to more people that don’t know Him. I pray for God to give me wisdom, guidance and humility.

But beyond the late nights, I constantly carry around a huge burden in my heart – a longing for our church to make a difference in our community. To live a life of significance and to share the good news of the Gospel with as many people as I possibly can.

Please know I’ve always cared for the lost and tried to evangelize throughout my entire career. I’m not putting down any other positions or roles in the church. I’m simply acknowledging that this is different and I never experienced it until I was an overseer and leader of an entire congregation. I shared this new reality in my life and heart with my Lead Pastor about a year ago and he smiled back at me and said “God’s given you a pastor’s heart. You feel what I feel.”

I don’t know why I share this today and who this will resonate with, but I simply want to say that I love my city and I love my church. This is not a stepping block for me. We’re in the process of buying our home and we’re planting roots. I’m investing my life here in Missouri and I’m passionate about God’s Kingdom work in this area. I pray the same for you and your region of the country.

In Church 2.0, church planting, Churches, Devotional, Leadership, Multi-site, Outreach, Preaching, Random Thoughts

Who Are You Investing In?

July 31, 2012 — Leave a comment

When I was in the interview process at my current church (Forest Park), I told them that discipleship took place in various ways and there was no cookie cutter approach. Though we primarily do discipleship through small groups, I said that I believe there’s a place for mentoring and one-on-one discipleship.

In my new eBook Church Leadership 101 (which has now been downloaded over 5500 times by church leaders and pastors around the world), I have a chapter on mentoring. I talk about how at each church I’ve served, I had someone younger that I poured my life into and mentored. Usually guys around 20-22 years old. I also mentored a 15 year old kid when I was on staff at Bent Tree (who is now on full-time staff there).

I was recently inspired by Andy Stanley (he tends to do that) at the Catalyst Dallas Conference held at my old church, Bent Tree, in May. He gave a talk about “Do For One” – and the gist of it was to do for one what you wish you could do for all. There’s no way that Andy Stanley can personally minister to and help all 30,000 people at North Point, but he can do for one what he wishes he could do for everyone. It’s all about investing in a few (kind of like Jesus did).

So, I was already doing some of that in my current ministry through one-on-one discipleship (I meet once a week with a man my age in my church and we go through Experiencing God together. He wanted to learn more about the Bible and God in general, so I’m taking him through this Bible study, which I’ve been through numerous times) and I try my best to mentor my Student Pastor, who is 24 years old. (We do a one-on-one meeting once a week and I try to help him as he’s just starting out in ministry. I also suggest or give him books to read and am sending him to a youth ministry conference this Fall.)

But inspired by Andy Stanley’s talk, I came home and though I was planning to have a more relaxed Summer and crank things back up in the Fall, I felt led by God to start at new small group for those struggling with addiction in my church. These are women at my campus that I have had the pleasure of baptizing, but they were full blown addicts (alcoholics and sexual addicts) and are on a journey to recovery. We meet at my house on Monday nights and my wife and I co-lead the group together. We’re going through Rick Warren’s/Saddleback’s study Life’s Healing Choices written by John Baker.

It is a sacrifice and I have willingly given up my Monday nights to take these women through this study, which often lasts until late in the night. But I firmly believe I’m doing for a few what I wish I could do for my whole congregation. I’m investing in these struggling addicts and I believe I will see them fully recover and be clean, pure and sober in the future. My alcoholic in the group just got her 30 day chip at AA. I’m so proud of her.

Like Andy Stanley said, we are all busy as pastors and leaders and running an organization or church, but we should be able to point to someone and say, “I’m investing in them and by God’s grace, I’m going to help them.” So, I ask you: Who are you investing in? Can you do for one what you wish you could do for all?

In Church 2.0, church planting, Churches, Continuing Education, Devotional, Greg's Favorites, Leadership, Multi-site, Outreach, Preaching, Random Thoughts

Sunday Setlist – July 29

July 30, 2012 — Leave a comment

We’re in a series entitled “Supernatural” which we got the idea from LifeChurch.tv. This Sunday’s message was entitled “Angels.” Scripture text was Psalm 103:20-21.

“Praise the Lord, you His angels, you mighty ones who do His bidding, who obey His word. Praise the Lord, all His heavenly hosts, you His servants who do His will.”

Pre-service: Had iTunes pre-service mix of upbeat songs playing with Welcome and Announcement slides playing on the left and right screens and a big Welcome graphic on the center screen. The center screen also plays an animated graphic of a cell phone that reminds people to turn their phones off. Countdown starts at 5 minutes until the service begins (9:30 and 11am).

Song One: Calling All Angels (D) – Train
Welcome/Brief Announcements: Me (Greg Atkinson) – At the end of my welcome and announcements I read from Psalm 103 (our key passage of the day). I mentioned the song we do by Matt Redmon (10,000 Reasons) and it being based from Psalm 103. I concluded the Welcome time with having everyone turn and greet one another (we don’t do this every week).
Song Two: Everlasting God (B) – Lincoln Brewster
Song Three: The Stand (A) – Hillsong
Message: Video message by our Lead Pastor
Response: I came back up and wrapped up the message and led people in a time of prayer. I encouraged our people to sing the next two songs as a time of prayer, reflection and as a response.
Song Four: Come and Listen (F) – David Crowder Band
Song Five: O Praise Him (Bb) – David Crowder Band
Closing: I came back up to close out the service. I gave a shout out to “old school David Crowder Band.” I mentioned that if you got here early or on time, you got to experience our band cover a Train song. I pumped up next week’s Opener, but said I was sworn to secrecy about what it is and that they didn’t want to be late next week. I mentioned that people could text in their response to our special text response cell phone. People can text their name and if they made a decision, want to be baptized or want information on membership. I then end each and every service by having us all pray and recite Ephesians 3:20-21.

***NOTES:

We sometimes open with cover songs. We opened with “Calling All Angels” by Train to kickoff this day focused on angels (and the supernatural).
We rarely do old school David Crowder Band, but decided to end the service with a reflective moment (“Come and Listen”) and then intentionally sang “O Praise Him” because of the lyrics. One of the points our Lead Pastor made in his message was that “Angels are worshippers.” Here are the key lyrics from “O Praise Him”:

VERSE 1:
Turn your ear
To heaven and hear
The noise inside
The sound of angels’ awe
The sound of angels’ songs
And all this for a King
We could join and sing
All to Christ the King
VERSE 2:
Turn your gaze
To heaven and raise
A joyous noise
The sound of salvation come
The sound of rescued ones
And all this for a King
Angels join to sing
All for Christ our King

In Church 2.0, Churches, Continuing Education, Ideas, Multi-site, Music, Preaching, Worship Leading, Worship resources

Have You Downloaded My New eBook?

July 27, 2012 — Leave a comment

At the time of my writing this (Sunday afternoon), almost 3000 church leaders and pastors have downloaded my new eBook Church Leadership 101. It’s a FREE resource for you to read and share with your staff/team and discuss as a group. There are questions at the end of each chapter for you to go over with your team. There will be a Church Leadership 201 coming in the Fall. For now, please download, read, discuss and share this free resource with your team, peers and network. You can download it HERE.

This is a quick and easy read (just 47 pages). You can read it on your computer, download it as a PDF and read, or then load the PDF in iTunes and read it on your iPad like I did. Enjoy and help spread the word to others you know serving in ministry. Once you click on the download link, you’ll see the eBook in preview form. Look for the icons underneath it. Go all the way to the right and click on the box with an arrow on it – that’s the download button.

Feedback after the eBook released (name changed to protect confidentiality):
Greg,
My name is XXXX XXXXX and I’m the Executive Pastor at XXXXXXX Church in Pittsburgh, PA. I’ve been following your blog for some time now and just read through your eBook, Church Leadership 101 (which I’ll require our staff to go through!). We just had to let our worship pastor go due to many of the points discussed in your eBook. Thank you for your work, your insight and for taking the time to write.
XXXX

Open publication – Free publishing – More campus pastor

*** NOTE: Tonight is the Opening Ceremonies of The Olympics. I can’t wait to see what London has in store for the world. How will it compare to China? Let’s see and discuss next week!

Have You Heard of Third Millenium Ministries?

July 26, 2012 — Leave a comment

Over the weekend, I came across a great new resource for pastors around the world (via Twitter). Third Millenium Ministries offers free seminary training/education for pastors around the world in various languages. Did I mention it was free? I’m so happy for this new resource for my pastor friends overseas and for people that want to take classes here in the US. To find out more, visit there website HERE and watch their promo video below:

2012 Promo Video 01 "Meet Li Chen" from Third Millennium Ministries on Vimeo.

In Blogs, Books, Church 2.0, Church Media, church planting, Church video, Churches, Communication, Conferences, Continuing Education, FREE, Greg's Favorites, Ideas, Intros and Announcements, Leadership, Preaching, Training, Web 2.0

Back in Dallas for the ECHO Conference

July 25, 2012 — Leave a comment

Today, my worship pastor (Matt Rector) and I are in Dallas for the next few days for the ECHO Conference. I’ve spoke at and attended ECHO for several years and always look forward to what they offer. If you’ve never checked out the ECHO Conference or ECHO HUB, I encourage you to check them out. Plan on attending ECHO next year and start using the resources of ECHO HUB right now.

Echo 2012 Promo from Echo Hub on Vimeo.

Go to our website: http://echohub.com/echo2012/

Sunday Setlist – August 5

Where Do We Go From Here?

I Ate at Chick-fil-A Yesterday

Burden

Who Are You Investing In?

Sunday Setlist – July 29

Have You Heard of Third Millenium Ministries?

Back in Dallas for the ECHO Conference

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