Blog

Easter is coming soon! If the doldrums of winter make it difficult to get inspired about Easter, we understand and we’ve got your back. Here are three of our favorite Easter products to get you started. Use these as inspiration, or plug them in to your Easter weekend programming:

• 40 video: This simple text and narrative video reminds us of the reason for Lent, and the significance of taking 40 days to prepare for the celebration of Easter.
• Up For the Rising – Easter Drama: Three modern-day characters (The Thief, The Outcast, The Failure) share their connection to three people whose lives were impacted by Jesus (the thief on the cross, Mary Magdalene, Peter).
• Easter–Baptism Graphics: This downloadable package includes the graphic elements Granger Community Church used to promote a two-week Palm Sunday and Easter experience that included baptism.

Looking for last-minute program elements for Valentine’s weekend? Here are three of our favorites that you can plug into your love- or relationship-themed message right away!

• Love vs. Lust Video: This animated video was used during Granger’s Sex for Sale series as a message opener, to illustrate “Love vs. Lust.”
• Hurt Drama: This powerful monologue is a man talking about the damaging effects of pornography and revealing the hurt behind the lie that Satan often tells in the moment.
• My Story Video: This is the personal story of a young woman finding healing from a difficult sexual past in her relationship with God. Hear first-hand the story of her journey to freedom.

We have many more resources like these, along with full messages and graphics packages available in the store. Search for topics like love or relationships to get just the right thing for your church.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

by Mark Waltz, Executive Pastor

I’ve been asked lately about some bottom-line “musts” to establish and/or take guest services excellence to the next level. This isn’t an exhaustive list (that’s why I wrote a few books on the topic), but these core essentials will provide a foundation to make your service to guests excellent and personable.

• Leadership:
  • Are the right leaders in place?
  • Do they carry the DNA, mission, vision and values of the church?
  • Do they hold the experience of the guest as a top priority over personal convenience?
  • Are they gifted leaders—not merely doers (although they may do fantastic work)?
  • Do these leaders have chemistry, trust and love for each other?
  • Do they model the level of personable service you want every team member to practice?
• Values:
  • Are values defined and communicated (whatever those are: Team, Engagement, Next Steps, People Matter, etc.)?
  • Are teams using those values as lenses to serve guests? That is, are they operating from a motivation of values rather than mere technical training or a task list?
• Systems:
  • Are systems defined and functioning so guests are served well?
  • Are systems facilitated and owned by team members who utilize those systems to serve people?
  • Do systems help team members understand their schedule, expectations, and feedback loop?

Of course if you’re providing guest services in the local church, it’s assumed, but should be stated—the love of God in Jesus motivates everything you do. It is the number one driving value. Helping people experience the grace of God is the point—or there is none.

by Lead Pastor Mark Beeson

Three years ago, I got “weathered-in” on Kodiak Island in Alaska.

Planes were grounded for days. There was no way to leave the camp and no way for supplies to reach us. I had my camera, shelter and food. I had a great big gun ’cause there’s a reason they call them “Kodiak Bears.”

It was awesome. It was challenging. It was an opportune time.

A few random moments of internet access during those days opened the floodgates for a torrent of questions from the caring and the curious:

• Are you OK?
• What’s it like?
• What are you eating?
• When will we see you again?

The concerned wanted to know my status. They wanted the truth about my current situation. They wanted to pray. They wanted to know if they could help me, or if they could do anything to help Sheila while I was away from her.

“The Truth is your friend,” so I offered an honest update about the conditions I faced, along with specific plans for the days ahead.

Now, three years later, I’m not on Kodiak Island, I’m home, and I recently offered my honest update about The State of the Church and the conditions we face. I presented specific plans for the days ahead.

If you’re interested in what’s going on at Granger and what we’re focused on in 2015, watch the full service now.

Starting off the New Year the Arts teams at Granger were asked to package a series on salvation. We knew that the culmination of the series would be a time where people would be invited up on the stage, to physically walk across a bridge, a way of publicly expressing the personal commitment they had made to Jesus.

It was time to brainstorm—go! How would we promote and package a series with the theme of salvation while still making the weekend services appealing to new people with ties to pop culture? We ended up being drawn to the look and feel of the popular AMC TV show, The Walking Dead.

Several other churches have used the TV series for inspiration as well. We thought it was a good fit for talking about the concept of salvation—being dead and coming back to life as something new.

What in popular culture is inspiring your teams to reach people for Jesus?

Watch the trailer we developed to promote the series. View our series bulletin.

The New Year is on its way! We want to help you get it started on the right foot. Here are some great resources we think will help you and your church in 2015:

1. Reset Graphics. At different times, many of us take an honest look inside and realize we need our own reset. How many resolutions and promises do we make that we don’t end up keeping? How can this time be different? Reset dealt with answers to these questions as Granger encouraged people to change things that weren’t working and start moving in the right direction. This download package includes the graphic elements Granger used to promote the weekend message series Reset.
2. Granger Kids Training Videos. These videos will help your staff and volunteer teams with preparing for and leading both small and large group lessons.
3. Creative Arts Constants. This document outlines the constants that define the brainstorming process for the arts teams at Granger Community Church.
4. Communications Playbook. This is an updated version of Granger Community Church’s communications manual, revised in 2014. This playbook helps Granger have consistent, professional and effective communications. It includes a review of branding, Granger’s vision, how staff should work together with communication vehicles and the filters Granger uses to decide what gets promoted when and where. We have also added information pertaining to multisite.
5. ReMix Volunteer Series and Expo Graphics. Let’s face it—we can’t do this without volunteers. We all need more volunteers, helping to push the vision forward. And there are people in your church looking for ways to get involved that make them come alive and help them to live within God’s purpose for their lives. Connect the two needs and help your church flourish in 2015 with the ReMix Your Life series.

Enjoy, and Happy New Year from all of us at WiredChurches.com!

I headed to the gym recently with Romans 8:31 on my mind: “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

As I let the treadmill dictate the slope necessary to get my cardio peaked out, I looked up at the wall of monitors streaming morning news updates from at least three different stations. Troops back to Iraq. A driver identified in the death of a young mom. Tornadoes that ripped through Nebraska, taking two human lives. 

Watching my heart rate rise, I said to God, “What am I supposed to do? What effect can I have on this pain and chaos in our world?” The truth is, I’m praying for God’s hand to move within my own family. We all have our personal “prayer lists” of things we’re believing God to act on. But Nebraska? What can I do? The other side of the planet? 

I felt small. Insignificant. And it didn’t take long until the focus was on me. 

How did that happen? These stories aren’t about me; they’re about other people. And now I’m back to me? Really?

“Okay, God, what are you supposed to do? How are you going to intervene? How long does this chaos and injustice and pain go on? What about the boys and wife who lost their dad and husband last week? What about the woman who called yesterday, looking for anyone to understand the pain of her wrecked marriage?”

So, as I felt my heart rate climb, I asked again—maybe rhetorically—“What am I supposed to do?”

Continue reading on Mark’s Blog...

Awhile ago one of my roommates told me about a preacher he heard on the radio that day. The preacher had said, “Our bodies and souls are so connected, they catch each other’s diseases.” I think he was saying that if we do something destructive with our bodies, it will affect us in ways that go deeper than our skin. And if the deep parts of us are sick, that sickness may find its way to the surface of our lives. I think that’s true. But it’s sad that he only talked about the negative side of that connection. If our bodies and souls are really so connected, then couldn’t that connection work for good, too?

If our bodies and souls are so connected, then what happens to our souls when a singer, tapping into the joy of her heart, cries out a song, her voice traveling through the atmosphere to land on our ears, grabbing us, shaking us with the same joy?

What happens to our souls when our eyes take in some staggering beauty, like when the setting sun lights the sky on fire?

What happens when we are touched with love and care?

If our bodies and souls are so connected, then what happens when we stand in the kitchen together, smelling and tasting and talking for hours?

If the things we see or hear or touch or taste or smell have the power to lead our souls toward destruction, then maybe they also have the power to lead them toward life.

Continue reading on Jason’s Blog...