Blog

At Granger, we believe kids and students aren’t just the church of the future—they are the Church today. Watch a recent video from Granger’s summer camp, where middle school students get to experience the love of Jesus in an incredible environment each summer.

How do you keep students engaged and growing week after week? We’re hosting Kids and Students workshops to address that very question. We’ll talk through planning and executing weekly programs and more! Come with questions and be ready to collaborate and share ideas about:

  • How to build and train volunteer leaders
  • Creative ways to get your message across
  • How to get students out of their seats and into serving the community
  • Planning life-changing mission trips, camps, retreats and events

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

by Executive Pastor Mark Waltz

Maybe you’ve watched this happen with someone else. Or maybe it’s actually happened with you. You’re on your game. You’re serving well. You’re engaged. You’re making a great first impression with a new guest at your church (or place of business). And then you cross a line. You went—just too far.

  • You got new guests where they should be...
    • but you yelled their arrival to everyone
  • You did your homework and had the right and helpful info...
    • but you made your guest feel like an idiot for not knowing
      • what to do next
      • what lingo to use 
  • You’re all about guest training...
    • but the guest feels like a naked experiment as you and your team all huddle around the monitor (bookstore, kids check-in, the register)
  • You’re laid back, not invasive, playing it casual...
    • but you missed the opportunity to engage when the guest showed her hand, “Yeah, I’m new.”
  • You were paying attention to your guest...
    • but then crossed the line into assumptions
      • that was his boyfriend not his brother
      • she wasn’t pregnant
      • that was his girlfriend not his mom

Sometimes a great first impression can go south with a word, a gesture, or an assumption. Keep it great! Stay fully engaged, always thinking about the experience you’re providing from the other side of your experience.

To hear more from Mark, come to workshops in October at Granger. Select a workshop below to get more details and register. Bring your whole team!

Early Bird Rate: $99 per person | After September 18: $119 per person
Early Bird Group Discounts: $89/person for groups of 2–5, $79/person for groups of 6+

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13
9 a.m.–4 p.m.

First Impressions
Presenter: Mark Waltz, Executive Pastor
Learn how to make great first impressions with guests (old and new). Discover ways to:

  • Gain clarity and get intentional about the experience you desire for your guests.
  • Build your team—the right team—from the ground up.
  • Cultivate volunteer “wow-makers.”
  • Determine the “rules” your church has (even if you don’t know them yet) and learn what to do about them.
  • Experience hands-on training that will empower your staff and your volunteers.

Students
Presenter: John Keim, Pastor of Granger Student Ministries
How do you keep students engaged and growing week after week? We’ll talk through planning and executing weekly programs and more! Be ready to collaborate and share ideas about:
  • How to build and train leadership teams.
  • Creative ways to get your message across.
  • How to get students out of their seats and serving in the community.
  • Planning life-changing mission trips, camps, retreats and events.


WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14
9 a.m.–4 p.m.

Creative and Communication Arts
Presenters: Sean Bublitz, Creative Arts Pastor, and Jami Ruth, Communications Director
Learn about Granger’s process for planning, promoting and executing weekend series through:
  • Timelines and brainstorming creative ideas.
  • Executing a series plan.
  • Q&A with your Granger staff/volunteer counterpart (in web, production and sound, worship, design, promotions, film and more).
  • An optional weekend rehearsal experience Wednesday evening.

Groups
Presenter: Josh King, Director of Discipleship
Life is better in groups. We’ll talk through a working strategy to keep people engaged and discipled through groups. We’ll discuss the challenges and practical framework necessary to:
  • Look at the role groups play in discipleship.
  • Understand group structure.
  • Recruit and train healthy group leaders.
  • Organize curriculum and a yearly schedule.
  • Oversee group growth (numerically and spiritually).

Kids
Presenter: Ted Bryant, Pastor of Family Ministry
A healthy kids’ ministry has enormous impact. This is for leaders and volunteers who want to learn how to:
  • Create environments that inspire kids at their level and encourage learning and relational connection.
  • Plan and develop curriculum, music and more to make the Bible and relationships come alive.
  • Find, keep and utilize volunteers to make it happen every weekend.
  • Incorporate a special needs ministry to help every child take steps toward Christ.

Come for one day or stay for both days to maximize your learning!

 

So you’re just dying to get to Granger, Indiana this summer for a workshop, but it’s not in your budget. You’ve got a few burning questions to ask and want them answered by someone in your ministry field. The answer? Webinars.

These FREE one-hour, online sessions with a Granger ministry leader will be open to up to 100 people per session. You’ll need a computer with speakers and high-speed internet access. The price is $0, but you still have to register so we can send you instructions on how to access the webinar when it’s time. The hour will fly by, but bring one or two questions you’re wanting to ask, and be prepared to enjoy some Q & A and learn from others’ questions.

Webinars that will be available, starting August 7:

  • Series Development and Programming – August 7
  • Communications (Prioritization) – August 28
  • Student Ministry – September 11
  • Kids’ Ministry – September 25
  • Developing Guest Services Culture & Training Volunteers – October 9
  • Multisite – October 23
  • Human Resources – November 6
  • Finance – November 20
Register now. See you online!

Did you know WiredChurches hosts workshops twice a year, led by world-class leaders in a variety of fields? And did you know they are a quick, affordable way to strengthen and inspire entire teams of people in one day? And did you also know we have a fresh batch of them coming next month?

It’s true! Now you know. Here’s what we have coming up in April—click the thumbnails for more information on each one:


Learn how to make great first impressions with the guests (old and new)
who walk in the doors of your church.


Have your message be heard loud and clear in every deliverable—
through what people read, touch or click.


From birth through fifth grade, a healthy kids’ ministry can have an enormous
impact on the children and families in our communities.


Go behind the scenes with Granger’s creative and production arts teams
to experience a download of Granger’s creative process and structure.

The First Impressions, Communications and Kids’ Ministry Workshops are one-day events that run from 9 a.m.–4 p.m. on Fridays. The Arts All-Access is a Saturday workshop, from 10 a.m.–6:10 p.m. Lunch will be provided for all workshops. So come with your team on Friday and stay for Saturday’s All-Access event, which includes attending a Saturday evening service. All events are held on the Granger Community Church Campus at Granger Commons near South Bend, IN, just 90 miles east of Chicago and five miles east of the University of Notre Dame.

TOMORROW, April 12, you have an opportunity to match principles with real life examples. Curious how to gain…
  • a fresh perspective and some new ideas about how to craft communications so you can release the right response? (Less clutter. Less Noise. with Kem Meyer)
  • hands-on training that will empower paid and unpaid wow-makers to make great first impressions? (First Impressions with Mark Waltz)
  • insight into developing a kids' program that impacts the future of children and families in your community? (Kids' Ministry: From Leading to Legos with Ted Bryant)

Invest in this one-day learning retreat. You deserve some specific and practical encouragement. As a matter of fact, grab one or two teammates and bring them along to make the day even better. Kem, Mark and Ted will be here. And so will many others who have signed up to be here, too. Hope you can join us.

Get all the specifics and register now—it's not too late!