Brett Eastman | Lifetogether

Introducing the Next Innovation in Multisite Ministry–MICROSITES

by Brett Eastman | Apr 3, 2017 | Programs

The greatest breakthrough in church planting has come with the decentralization of not only the weekend teaching in a small venue like a home, club house, or conference room, but the introduction of a video-driven worship experience that is actually working. This is produced in a small venue setting for a more engaging and intimate church community experience. Here at Lifetogether, we’ve been at the forefront of microsite strategy and development. Take a look here at how we’ve taken church to the community in the past:

This model of utilizing small venue campuses is clearly the wave of the future – smaller than a multisite yet larger than a small group. Here at Lifetogether, we understand that church planting is church planting, but there have been some new innovations that are helping to launch an exponential number of new churches like never before. Microsites are a great addition based off of your weekend service and conversation production.

Our new microsite coaching program is designed for churches who are looking for the next revolution in taking the church to the community: Microsites. Discover how to launch and lead a wave of microsite campuses regionally, nationally, and globally. We’ve included a short trailer for you down below, in which our team of experts answer all of your questions about our new groundbreaking program.

THE WHO

Designed for multisite campus directors, senior pastors, campus pastors, executive pastors, and church leaders tasked with launching multisites.

THE HOW

Discover the potential and pathway to starting a small venue microsite campus based off your weekend service and conversation production
Produce weekly small group curriculum based on the Microsite Conversation Service production
Evaluate the purpose and strategy for producing a conversation service that delivers the content for a microsite campus
Evaluate the numerous options available to produce creative mirosite service worship (live, pre-recorded, combination…)
Learn how to brand, market, and promote your new “church in the round” experience
Learn how to recruit, train, and develop microsite campus leaders
Explore business models that can self-fund a microsite campus strategy in your church

and MANY MORE proven and unique features, so flip through our digital catalog below!

Let’s partner together to help your church launch and lead the next wave of microsites regionally, nationally, and even globally. Contact us today!

Breakthroughs in some of the largest independent Christian churches

by Brett Eastman | Apr 3, 2017 | NACC, Partnerships

We have been so blessed by the ministry of so many leaders in the Independent Christian churches network and are so grateful for the partnerships we’ve developed over the years. Recently it seems like God is up to something big, opening even more doors for Lifetogether to work with some of these churches.

The video below shares some details about some of these breakthrough projects and the strategies we’re using with them.

Heartland Community Church – Josh Peigh

In this video, you’ll see footage from three different productions we hosted for Josh and the team at Heartland. In the first series, called “Why Am I Here?”, we produced one of the most creative productions and our beautiful full-color print curriculum connected 75% of their adults into small groups.

We also produced their worship team in what has been an extremely significant new initiative for us. By capturing their worship experience we are able to decentralize worship to the small group as well as create new ways to do midweek services, individual worship experiences, or a small venue multisite campus we like to call “microsites” which can launch three miles, three states, or three continents away from the home campus.

We also tried something new with Gene Appel and Mike Breaux doing a short teaching segment from a studio in California, with Josh providing additional teaching and facilitating our popular “town hall” video shoot, which engages with a live audience.

In addition to starter campaigns we like to do a sustaining series that helps to assimilate new groups. For our second series with Heartland our team interviewed three dozen people and produced those as testimonies that preceded Josh’s teaching.

We then follow the sustaining series with a strengthening series which takes them deeper. In our one-year partnership, Heartland was able to start 300 new groups, connecting over 3000 into community. As one of the first multi-site churches in the country, Heartland is also on the cutting-edge of starting “small venue campuses” around the world. This kind of video-driven, volunteer-led experience is changing the way churches of all sizes are thinking about reaching not only their current members but those outside of their church walls.

Grace Place – Clay Peck

At Grace Place in Colorado, senior pastor Clay Peck and his team shot a town hall project based on a series called “Doing Life Together” which helped to launch much of their congregation into groups in addition to serving as a timeless major church-wide alignment that can be used to launch groups 52 weeks of the year!

This series also had a companion worship piece, and it was a blast seeing their worship team come together to produce something that is really helping to transform their congregation and their community.

River Hills Christian Church – Jeff Metzger

We also loved our projects with River Hills Christian Church in Loveland, OH, where Jeff Metzger and his staff put together a town hall production in the beautiful atrium of their church. Jeff’s son Josh produced a companion worship series and the integration of the two things took them beyond any small group initiative they’d tried before and connected north of 75% of their adults.

Christ’s Church – Jason Cullum

We’ve wanted to work with Jason Cullum and his team at Christ’s Church for years. They are a multisite church looking to connect the rest of their congregation and are doing some of the most progressive stuff with their worship services.

We are excited to help coach their team on producing video-based curriculum that aligns with the weekend and connects their congregation in the community and exploring our microsite strategy. In addition, we will be producing several sermon alignment campaigns, a spiritual growth series, and next step programs.

Real Life Church – Rusty George

Several years back, we helped produce a video series in a home setting like we did with Steve Poe at Northview Church (check out the trailer and full-color curriculum). We worked with Rusty and Mike Breaux to launch a major campaign, and, as with most churches we work with, they were able to connect north of 75% of their adults in the first effort and align the focus with weekend worship.

But what was unique was that they produced a Christmas series for their people to use on the holiday, because that year – like this year – Christmas landed very close to the weekend. Their people responded incredibly positively.

We would love to talk with you more about what we’re doing with town hall series, microsite initiatives, decentralizing worship, connecting your entire congregation, and more. We’re also introducing some new coaching programs, both group and individual options, and we are working with churches to help them develop and train teams to create their own church-wide campaigns.

Whether you are just starting to explore small groups or you already have a program up and running, we’d love to have the conversation about how we could come alongside you and make your ministry more successful. Contact us today!

A Fall Campaign Idea Guaranteed To Transform Your Church

by Brett Eastman | Apr 1, 2017 | Main Blog, Programs

Spring, Summer, Fall…is right around the corner!

I realize it’s almost insensitive to bring up the topic of the Fall, especially when Easter is right in front of us, but this idea needs to be shared now in order to prepare for the upcoming season!

What we know at this stage in the game is that most pastors have either a napkin filled with notes about their plans, or in some cases, it’s a part of a three-year master plan that they have already outlined last year.

No matter what side of the scale you are on, this simple idea has the opportunity and upside of transforming, not only your Fall season, but how you will do church in the future. I can guarantee you this, especially after doing this strategy over and over again in some of the largest and fastest growing churches in America. Now, we are rolling this campaign out for churches of all stages and sizes, no matter what your theological persuasion, denominational affiliation, geographic region or ethnic tradition.

The “Pastor Factor”

After producing the “Purpose Driven Life” video series for Rick Warren, we discovered that aligning with his weekend teaching series was a really big idea. As a result, over 30,000 churches have posted a 40-day campaign in their church of one kind or another. The results from these campaigns were exponential and helped to launch a whole new way of doing church.

In the excitement of of this season, we thought that the results were because of the “Rick factor”. However, over the years we have discovered that the greater principle is more the “Pastor Factor” – every congregation would rather hear from their senior pastor than any other best-selling author, third-party publisher, etc.

The Big Idea

That said, we are recommending that you consider producing a church-wide alignment campaign with a video teaching series, coupled with a full-color companion study guide featuring your senior pastor. This type of campaign is sure to connect your entire congregation this Fall.

Best of all, our expertise allows us to work with whatever sermon series that you want to produce. We can help you develop the scripts and the strategies that will turn your visions into a reality.

Not only is this a great potential first step for those churches that have never considered hosting their own campaign, but it’s also a great strategy to take the quality of your existing campaigns to the next level. It’s no surprise that congregations want more video production and professional quality print curriculum that showcase better design, photography, and quality of writing. With our coaching, you’ll be able to reach your congregation and community farther and further than ever before, guaranteed.

We will utilize all the latest and greatest strategies that we are using to connect more of your congregation, mobilize more leaders, multiply disciples who in turn make disciples, and model for you how to produce your own in-house video curriculum and church-wide campaigns for years to come.

There are a lot more nuts and bolts on how this happens between our ministry and yours, but here are a few features to keep in mind. We will partner with your team to either coach or do full-service production for a video curriculum series, including on-location visits, integration of numerous new formats, and new video features and technology, to produce your state of the art series. Our town hall style production, that has become a primary format for churches around the country, is a great example.

Here’s a link to our YouTube page that has a number of samples of some of our recent trailers and projects.

Production Samples

In addition, we recommend producing a full color, professionally published print curriculum that becomes a signature project for your congregation. Everyone will want to participate, simply because it’s something they have never seen before along with being something that they can keep and reference for years to come.

Next Steps

As you could imagine, the cost can range from one extreme to the other, based on the size, scope and nature of the project. That’s why, we have developed a series of packages and programs that will suit whatever size budget and timeline you may be considering.

The first step is to contact our Lifetogether team to set up a FREE consultation where we can better assess your needs and make a more unique, customized recommendation on your next steps. We recommend you join the conversation, and we can share more on our proven processes to not only produce a Fall campaign that aligns with your sermon series, but will also help you plan, produce and promote the entire series that will ensure 100% participation of your average adult attendance.

In addition, we can send you a care package, including full-color catalog, of our best examples from when we’ve worked with churches and organizations all across the country. These packages include a few sample series, such as books and DVD’s, to give you a better idea of the how and the what behind Lifetogether consulting and productions. Follow this link to check it out!

Lifetogether Catalog

Second, we are including new group coaching programs to our coaching package, where if the production route isn’t financially suitable, then we will partner with you and your team to provide coaching strategies and consulting about production and ministry development instead. Follow the link below to see our new and exciting coaching package, including microsite and conversation service development.

Coaching Package

Finally, we are offering the new Fall campaign, curriculum and consulting package, a special offer for a limited time. This is all-in-one, plug-and-play, package will help you be ready, in only six months, to launch your desired campaign! It is one of the most complete and effective programs we’ve ever introduced to churches across the country.

Happy Easter!

We hope this simulates your thinking, even for a moment, before the Easter crunch happens! As we mentioned above schedule an appointment or contact us using the button below for these limited fall campaign openings!

Conversation Service Coaching Program

by Brett Eastman | Mar 30, 2017 | Programs

Over the last five years, we have partnered with pioneering, mainline churches to connect their entire congregation using technology and media. This passion and vision goes far beyond small groups and integrates into the very DNA of these churches, with thrilling results.

Some of the most interesting projects have come from the mainline traditions, where the heart for reaching a community through the power of community is embedded in the DNA. As a result, we have had a high level of response from some of these churches, and we’ve also learned a great deal. We’ve continued to develop these production insights, refine our campaign designs, and bundle all of this content creation into – a conversation service.

Here’s a trailer we put together for a new series at Victory World Church, that showcases the most prominent features of a conversation service. Take a look below:

This program is designed to help churches launch their first conversation service in order to reach more people on the weekend, engage the next generation, and launch groups 52 weeks a year. We’ve put together another informational trailer, filmed on the beautiful Saddleback Church campus, that gives you the breakdown on our new, and arguably most exciting, offering yet.

THE WHO

Designed for senior pastors, executive pastors, weekend producers, and multisite pastors.

THE HOW

Learn the 10 primary features and benefits of hosting a “church in the round” service
Learn how to brand, market, and promote your new “church in the round” service
Discover proven ways to save money on equipment and time in production
Learn how to catalyze groups 24/7 off of your new forward or existing online experience
Transform your online streaming service into a more engaging and more effective individual experience
Learn what, when, and how to secure funding for launching your first service
Learn how to launch and lead a fully synchronized Facebook Live service 52 weeks a year
Learn how to edit the conversation service footage for exponential social media purposes

and MANY MORE proven and unique features, so flip through our digital catalog below!

Join the conversation by clicking the button below to contact us!

Discover more about Microsites, the first step into conversation services!

Microsite Resources

New & Next coaching

by Brett Eastman | Mar 27, 2017 | Programs

Given we are a community-based ministry, we have decided to put together a more affordable and more accessible group coaching program for churches! This year as we reviewed our offerings, we also reviewed some of the most innovative strategies that we’ve worked with churches to create, combined with some of the most inventive insights we’ve gained along the way. These discoveries have introduced an exponential, “New & Next” approach for not only connecting entire congregations into community, but also for equipping them to reach their communities and beyond. These emerging coaching models are aligned with small groups, with weekend services, with the vision of the church’s pastor, and with the mission of the congregation.

Check out how we’ve been “New & Next” in the past with some of the Top 100 largest and fastest-growing churches, highlighted in our previous blog post.

Our partnerships with Outreach Magazine’s Top 100 Largest and Fastest-growing Churches

This “New & Next” coaching program is designed for experienced Pastors, weekend producers and progressive church leaders wanting to know what is “New & Next” in leveraging the power of community to change how church is done. In addition, this program’s faculty will include Lifetogether’s Brett Eastman, consultants, video directors, and a panel of past churches that we’ve partnered with for some of our latest breakthroughs.

THE WHO

Designed for senior pastors, associate, campus pastors, and small group pastors.

THE HOW

Discover proven strategies to engage 2 to 3 times your average weekend attendance online and launches groups regionally, nationally, and globally
Discover the 4 ways to produce video curriculum that launch groups 52 weeks a year
Create “Conversation Starters” that launch “Conversation Groups” on campus and online
Help introduce a new publishing program where we can sell your curriculum online
Help produce, direct, and launch a new “Conversation Service” that grows your weekend audience
Help you to discover and develop the 12 core curriculum every church will produce in the future
Develop a group strategy that mobilizes people to ministry and mobilizes them for missions

and MANY MORE proven and unique features, so flip through our digital catalog below!

Before you go, check out our NEW webinar below, in which our Lifetogether team of experts – Brett, Dave, and Taylor – give you an exclusive insight into our New & Next coaching program.