Case Study with  Max Lucado & Randy Frazee at Oak Hills Church – “Make Room For Neighbors”

Case Study with Max Lucado & Randy Frazee at Oak Hills Church – “Make Room For Neighbors”

I first met Randy Frazee when he was the senior pastor at Pantego Bible Church in Texas and discovered our shared desire to see connection and community in the Body of Christ. We stayed in touch over the years and when he joined the staff at Oak Hills Church, we reconnected on the idea of creating a sermon-based video curriculum and church-wide campaign.

Summer is an unusual time to launch such an initiative, but the topic was based on a series called “Make Room for Neighbors” that focused on spending relaxed time together and sharing your story in a casual way—perfect for the lazy days of summer.

 

You can view the project gallery below

 

We shot the series in living rooms. Max and Randy co-taught the sessions, often joined by their wives for part of the teaching time. In each session we captured a unique testimony that aligned with that week’s focus. We also gathered in one home where Randy was able to cast the vision for his neighborhood strategy and lead a Bible study that modeled it.

The Oak Hills staff did leadership training and opened and closed each session. We also interviewed Max and Randy separately on each session for those small group members who wanted to go deeper with that week’s theme and shot a series of promotional videos that could be played on the weekend and sent out throughout the week.

You can watch the first session below.

 

Of course, both Max and Randy had published books and materials for the broader church world, but this was the first campaign they did specifically for their church. Needless to say, publishers were interested in it after it was finished, and we’ve found that to be true for many of the leaders we work with.

Few months ago, I got a phone call from their team and flew back out to strategize about some of the breakthrough strategies we are doing in churches with small venue Multisites and new kind of church service called a Conversation Service which is the best of our Town Hall production with a weekend service. Oak Hills is exploring these kinds of strategies and our conversations were “over the top” exciting. Love those guys!!!!

Watch the video below to go behind-the-scenes with Max Lucado and Randy Frazee in our series “Make Room for Neighbors”.

 

Case Study with Ray Johnston at Bayside – “Born For This”

Case Study with Ray Johnston at Bayside – “Born For This”

A SMALL GROUP REVOLUTION

The church went from 400 groups to more than 1,700 groups and 2,000 hosts!

Gil Steiglitz, small groups Pastor at Bayside, says working with Lifetogether helped Bayside see the critical steps needed to implement a strong small groups program and create a new culture. Instead of asking “How can we get more people into groups?” Gil and his team are how asking, “How can we recruit more people to gather their friends and grow together?” The focus has shifted to hosts, with the church even creating a quick text option for people to respond that they’ll lead a group.

Bayside Church in northern California has a strong weekend worship experience, with 15,000 to 18,000 people gathering each weekend across five campuses. However, the pace of small group development had lagged behind with “only” around 450 home groups that connected fewer than half of Bayside’s attenders. The senior leadership wanted to have as many as 1000 groups – a “stretch goal,” they said – and to create a sustainable model for moving forward. The Bayside team worked with Lifetogether in August 2016 to produce “Born for This,” a seven-week video and print curriculum campaign focusing on the book of Philippians and designed to correlate with the pastors’ weekend teaching.

Through the partnership with Lifetogether and the coaching and insights from the Lifetogether team, Bayside has made other changes that are transforming their small groups program. In addition to recruiting new hosts, the church has also created a strong orientation and training program, with video training filmed by the Pastors as well as personal training from Brett Eastman and Dave Stewart. The Senior Pastors also prioritized small groups in a new way, with a sustained push over weekends in July, August, and September.

Bayside expanded that commitment to the small groups vision by hiring great leaders at each campus and bringing them into the planning and campaign implementation and, of course, by filming the video curriculum as a team. As Brett often says, “The sheep like to hear from the shepherd;” with this project, the Bayside “sheep” were able to hear from all of their leaders with high-quality teaching that extended the culture and values of the church.

The entire experience created FOMO – fear of missing out – among the church members, Gil says. People understood this was one of the significant things Bayside was doing, and they wanted to be part of it.

IMPACT BEYOND SMALL GROUPS

Because of the church–wide emphasis on “Born for This,” other programs and Pastors are pulling together around the vision. Bayside positioned the groups as a “both/and” solution, releasing the pressure for everyone to conform. Small groups in the student ministry, men’s ministry, and women’s ministry are all growing.

Bayside has not only surpassed its stretch goal, but has hopes to grow toward more than 2,000 groups in the months to come!

A WORD FROM THE PASTOR

The conversations and plans that you have introduced us to have allowed us to move from 400 groups to 1400 groups and climbing.  We are excited about how this new direction and these new ideas will allow us to build a church that has more in groups than come on the weekends.

I would suggest that any church look at your system and its powerful ability to put more disiciplemakers in the game. There is a freshness to the groups campaign that comes from Lifetogether: the high quality videos, the expert guidance about what to say in the videos, the plan for emails, commercials, and training. Thanks very much for what you have given us and what you have taught us. We have been stretched and challenged but also renewed and deepened through this groups campaign.

– Gil Stieglitz

10 Innovations in Growing Churches Around the Country

10 Innovations in Growing Churches Around the Country

5b52037d-be92-4a94-ac1d-6bee4823b543.jpgOver the last twenty years, we’ve had the privilege of working with hundreds of the largest and fastest-growing churches in the country, including 50 of the top 100 listed in Outreach Magazine’s annual list.
This year as we reviewed that list, we also reviewed some of the things we’ve worked with these churches to create and some of the insights we’ve gained along the way. These 12 discoveries have introduced an exponential approach for not only connecting entire congregations into community but also equipping them to reach their communities and beyond. These emerging small group models are aligned with weekend services, with the vision of the church’s pastor, and with the mission of the congregation.
Thumb-4.png
Here are the 10 characteristics we’ve discovered from having worked with some of the largest and fastest-growing churches around the country:

1. Create More and Better Weekend Alignment
e40fb14e-becb-4d1b-ab25-eb978a65dc3a.pngThe number one event in any local church in America is the weekend service, and it requires most of the staff’s best efforts- all the more reason to leverage that experience far beyond the weekend. What if there were more and better ways to leverage the impact of the weekend sermons? What if we turned one weekend into more of a “catalyst” to next steps vs. merely a weekend event?
The question is, “What next step do I recommend and how do I make it happen?” We are saying why not take the inspiration of the weekend service to greater application through conversation all throughout the week? This strategy honors the time-tested insight that people forget 80% of what they hear but what they discuss they integrate better into their lives. So how do I get them to talk about a sermon instead of just listen on Sunday?
Many growing churches are using sermon-based discussion questions for their small groups. This serves as a good next step for taking the sermon and putting it into context in a living room. However, with further research, we’ve discovered the lion share of existing groups don’t use this very comprehensively and we found that a new model is far more effective. Producing a shortened video edition of the weekend sermon or a new production leveraging the senior pastor allows groups to watch a video from the pastor and review the material at the next level.
Lifetogether is showing churches how to produce this and when to introduce this on a weekend so you can not only have your existing groups go through the study more effectively, but introduce a new strategy to launch groups exponentially 24/7, 52  weeks a year.
See how we used this strategy for: capital campaign at Rock Church with Miles McPherson!

2. Shift From Recruiting Leaders To Growing Disciples
e666b38d-63a2-4f1f-9752-033c011283a9.pngThe greater opportunity is to challenge any new or existing attender to continue the conversation with a friend or two with the short video segment based on the weekend sermon. If we can motivate unconnected attenders to take this step, many will grow into being a small group over time.
For decades, we focused on recruiting small group leaders in order to launch new groups in a church. Then we introduced the Host Strategy at Saddleback Church that got us 75% of the congregation connected in groups in a matter of months by simply asking people to host a group using the video curriculum that aligned with the weekend service.
This worked like nothing we had ever seen before. Today we are targeting people to not “host” a group but empowering Christ followers / disciples who simply want to “grow” spiritually. Every pastor wants his people to grow and people attending church on a regular basis by definition want to grow in their walk with God or they wouldn’t be there. If the “next step” spiritually is to not just be a disciple but make a disciple, why don’t we call it out of them?
We’ve discovered that using a video curriculum that aligns with a weekend sermon series, it provides the perfect tool to make that happen in any congregation of any size, anywhere in the country. When the pastor uses his influence to say we want you to “GROW” spiritually and your “next step” is to GRAB the curriculum outside (or online), GATHER a few friends and start “GROWING,” we see a huge response!
With 95% or more of any church service filled with Christians who have already become a disciple of Christ, this is your chance to redefine that spiritual growth is not defined by simply attending church but gathering with a friend to grow together. Trust me, this is a killer strategy to get not just 5%, 10% or even 15% of your congregation to step up and functionally lead a group – 20% – 25% of your congregation will gather a friend almost overnight. The beauty of this model is that with a video-driven curriculum and companion print study guide, you are able to then catalyze a few
friends to grow into a circle of friends or an active small group community.

3. Launch Groups Anytime, Anywhere With Anyone 52 Weeks a Year
f1f8495c-2aa9-4d7f-99ef-c5c37f96c451.pngWhen I got to Willow Creek we began hosting on-campus events to connect unconnected people – it worked but compared to what? We would have hundreds of people come and get in a group and we would hope and pray it stuck. Upon further analysis, “the sign up to show up” was embarrassing and the “stay up” was disaster.
When we started “connection events” (that others later called “Group Link”) it increased the “stick rate” substantially, but primarily just among the already-motivated church members. For the first 50% of the motivated church members in any congregation we found that “connection” was a really good hook but to get the other 50% of the congregation and beyond it would take a completely different model. Producing a video curriculum series helped a new attender gather with a few friends, family members, neighbors or coworkers to start a “circle at friends” on their own. Empowering people to “create their own community” is a far more effective way to start and sustain a new group and can be done anytime, anywhere and with anyone 52 weeks a year.

4. Streamline the Connection Strategy for Groups
889f8601-c06e-4a64-8dbd-783ebac0285d.pngLetting people sign up for groups on the weekend or go online to get in a local group is not as effective for connecting people into community.
But what is the alternative? Launch more and better groups that are more “self-organized” vs “church-organized.” To get affinity-based groups based on authentic relationships is exponentially more effective in assimilating people into groups. Simply give them a “4 spiritual laws” like tool that aligns with the most influential person (like the senior pastor) and even with the most leveraged and resourced event of the week (like the weekend service) you will NEVER come close to connecting your Easter adult attendance. Instead, have them download a how to get connected in a community video and brochure that helps them grow spiritually…crazy, yes, but 10 times more effective then we have been using so far.

5. Discover the New Mid-Week Worship Experience
bf10098e-8c96-4449-99a7-e0e025437729.pngWhen I served on the Saddleback staff, mid-week worship was the number one thing recommended as a next step off the weekend service. Many churches still host a mid-week service on either Wednesday night, Sunday night, or some other night of the week. But this was taken over by Saddleback by a small group experience and we eventually shut down the mid-week worship experience. Most of the growing churches we are working with now are doing the same thing.
For the last 15 years, Lifetogether has been delivering a video-driven teaching experience that has helped to launch and lead more groups and churches than ever before, helping to attract over 100% in many of those churches. But in the last two years the decentralizing of a worship experience led by the worship team of a local church has become an emerging new model to integrate the best of small groups and a mid-week service. We work with churches to create a second worship service experience by producing 5, 10, or 20 worship songs for a small group, a small venue or even a personal worship experience led by the worship team at their very own local church. This is, and will be, a trend that many churches will be doing in the future. You have got to see this to believe it: Best of Worship Medley.

6. Produce In-House Alignment Campaigns and Companion Video Teaching Series
07c4ee34-77ac-40a3-88ed-2b0213499f33.pngHosting a “40 Day-like campaign” has long been an outstanding strategy to build momentum into the fall, new year or spring seasons in any church. There are hundreds of best-selling authors and Christian publishers with a handful of off-the-shelf campaigns to choose from.
But the growing trend today in local churches is producing their own in-house campaign and video curriculum based off the teaching ministry of their senior pastor and aligned with their sermon series. See a few examples from pastors and churches you know well that are producing annual (or even more often) alignment campaigns with video curriculum: Best of Print Curriculum.

7. Build More Conversation, Not Another Sermon
c6146dee-00af-49c6-9828-f41aa77ea895.pngAfter trying to create small groups in a church and still producing a weekend service, a new integrated model is emerging. We are calling it the “Conversation Service,” which is the best of small groups and a weekend service. This new service is not traditional, nor contemporary, but in a new conversational format that we believe will emerge as the new contemporary service in the future. The teaching is taught in the round with an audience surrounding the senior pastor. It starts like a small group with an icebreaker and some brief interaction from the audience, then proceeds with the teaching by the senior pastor, and then ends with audience interaction that is open, authentic and unplugged. We can produce this live and make it available for the small group to discuss or just produce it as a brand new curriculum format.
We are finding that this is a far better format for an emerging culture and a better way to reach millennials who are more interested in authentic, engaging conversations than sitting and listening to a full-length sermon. Most churches don’t realize they can host a service like this, just as churches hosted contemporary services to complement their traditional services years ago. It’s a far more effective way to reach un-connected and un-churched people looking for a church of a different kind. So how might you take your first step into this? Lifetogether is coaching churches on how to produce a Conversation Series in a new pilot program we are doing.
You can co-opt a poorly-attended existing service on the weekend, either on Saturday night or Sunday morning, or you could add an additional service on either of those times. Or, like some are doing, you can add a Thursday or Sunday night service, or replace your Wednesday night service with this format. The beauty of doing this any time of the week is that this is a more effective service to stream live as opposed to your long-play weekend messages that may not be as engaging or that don’t have this kind of participatory engagement.
In this day and age, people are looking for more story, testimony and application through the lives of everyday people. It’s important to understand how to engage this audience and how to then coach the audience to engage with you, which is a part of what we are doing with local churches around the country.
This format is also the next step toward streaming a live service that we are calling a microsite service that targets a setting larger than a small group but smaller than a multisite campus. We are still calling it a campus because it ultimately operates similarly but you don’t need to pay for the lights, land or leadership–you just catalyze, coach and care for them remotely. This is a killer app for the future. Many churches are starting to do this and are going down this road… it’s just a matter of time. For example, check out what we did with Jerry Dirmann at the Rock Church whose series is now playing on Christian television and not only launching groups but launching satellite and microsite campuses: God Swears Sample Session.

8. Leverage Small Groups to Become the Best of Attractional and Missional Methodologies
ba168a5a-913d-4e09-92a1-bc12b6a8156c.pngSmall groups driven by a video teaching experience can be the best of the resources provided by the attractional service and the integration of the best of the missional model. At Seacoast Church, Greg and Josh Surratt had a “Missional Ministry” developing but it wasn’t very comprehensive or effective in its approach. We aligned their weekend content by providing video curriculum resources and saw an exponential number of groups launch that were not just effective for assimilation but evangelism and outreach as well. We are working with a number of churches around the country that are integrating the best of both of these models.
This is being refined and rolled out more comprehensively for training purposes, services, and sermon alignment series. Check out the series we did for Bayside Church for evangelism training called “It’s a Party.” It features a fun, new format that we developed with a small group of 8 people in a live small group format where they interacted, taught, and talked about the topic at the same time.
And here is another missional series we did with Tim Harlow at Parkview Christian Church called Life on Mission.

9. Provide Online Small Group Leader Training
2d6a7c67-7dbd-47b1-80d6-6fd5a7d80c5b.pngOver the last 25 years, we have hosted more live small group leader training sessions than anybody in the country. The initial training may include 75% of those registered but the follow-up training only has a fraction of the response. That’s why we are seeing a growing trend of producing small group leader training and volunteer training online in a variety of new formats. The clear winner is to produce a video training versus a print-only handbook. Some may simply be a video of frequently asked questions, some are taught by small group pastors and some are topical or developmental. But the most effective is a whole new approach to training.
When we produce a video curriculum for a church, we customize scripts based off proven small group training techniques that we have learned over the last 25 years. We actually put this kind of training on DVD and online as well. This gives you hours of small group training that will be watched by 90 of the new leaders that you’ll recruit during a campaign.
The more popular format has become a leader training strategy based on a live small group interaction facilitated by the pastor and sometimes the rest of the pastoral staff. This models group life, trains new leaders AND is a killer curriculum for small groups about what it takes to be a healthy small group.
This is put on a master DVD series that is a standard size for all small groups. We typically have an audience of 25-40 people that helps to ensure full buy-in from all of the ministries and the local churches.  For multi-site churches it provides standardized training across all of the campuses.

10. Know the Secret of Sustaining More Groups
2c02f464-7ca9-4c3d-9b8a-8c7502988c3e.pngOver the last 25 years we have cracked a new code on how to start more groups but the constant struggle is how to sustain those groups, and we are learning a ton in this area as we work with the bleeding-edge congregations.
The first thing we are doing is a new philosophy of small group ministry which is more “the parable of the sower” versus “Jesus and the 12 disciples.” The focus is more on planting, sowing and watering but recognizing it’s God who causes the growth. At the same time, aligning with the weekend services and providing a 10-15 minute version of the weekend sermon is vital in this process. The more you are aligned in message and mission from weekend to mid-week, the greater success you will have in sustaining as well as starting new groups.
Come to sunny California to produce your first video series!

Come to sunny California to produce your first video series!

We invite you out to the Lifetogether office in California to produce your very first video curriculum. The curriculum would be based off a weekend alignment series or maybe a past or future sermon series that you felt would be most influential. A featured benefit is that you wouldn’t have to bring out any equipment and we would use our own to shoot your production on the beach, in our studio, the mountains, and so many other great locations. We’ll even put you up in a beachfront bed and breakfast for the night! Join us in January or in the next 90 days and produce a second series at no additional cost!

Our beach production schedule is extremely popular and we have only a few availabilities, so call today!

Coming to California is a great way to get a scenic video curriculum series professionally produced at one of our best rates of the year! Most of our production crew is based here, so we can do a one-day or multi-day shoot without the expenses of travel, lodging, and meals. We also know a ton of great locations, from intimate bed and breakfasts with picturesque front porches to flowering gardens to church chapels, and, of course, some of the most beautiful beaches in the country.

 

In California on the Saddleback campus where I produced the first video curriculum series for Rick Warren. We’re excited to announce that it’s not too late to produce a video curriculum that is shot in California with you and your spouse in one of a dozen locations. Over the next six weeks, you have the ability to come out and shoot a curriculum on the beach in Laguna, a beautiful production studio, in downtown Hollywood, Disneyland, the desert, or any one of a dozen beautiful scenic shots on the beach.

You could pick from a dozen different types of curriculum that would include a series for your Fall campaign, a book that you have written or want to write, membership series, financial series, mission vision and value series, capital campaign, or any number of sermon and layman topics from your past, present, or future.

 


You can choose from a wide variety of California locations including:


Want to see more?

 

 

Jesus Basics is an incredible 6 week study that lays the foundation for learning the basics about what it means to be a Jesus person – while experiencing the joy of growing in community together.

 

 

30 Days to Easter was shot in Rick Warren’s studio out here in California, and it is an engaging Easter study that extends the invitation to know and follow Jesus. With the close of the year just around the corner, we could help you produce your upcoming Christmas or other seasonal campaign right here in California!

NEXT STEPS

Whether it’s coming out to do a personal assessment, coaching for a Fall major campaign, or starting your first video curriculum production, contact us today for a free consultation!

Contact us

How We Learned to Film Live Worship

How We Learned to Film Live Worship

Over the last twenty years, Lifetogether has produced more than 500 award-winning video and print curriculum packages, for churches of every size, denomination, and from every part of the country. 
After more than two decades of working with churches to produce church-wide video and print curriculum, we’ve developed the game-changing worship experience that includes, you guess it – live worship (and we learned how to shoot it by watching how the NFL grabs video of the huddle!)
 

 

 

HERE’S HOW IT WORKS: We connect with worship leaders and their teams to choose a set list, talk through instrumentation, create a great set, prep it with sound and light, and then produce a live shoot featuring the worship pastors and their worship team. The result is engaging and intimate worship that can be used for a small group, a Microsite or Conversation Service, or even the launch of a new campus. It’s your people doing your songs your way-and it’s a great opportunity to expand your ministry.  And these days, we’re doing this in a whole new way with our new and most popular Town Hall format that has been taking church-wide video curriculum to a whole new level.


We have a worship production for you!
  
For our Acoustic Worship, Lifetogether provides full-service production of 4 -6 songs with a small acoustic band and a small community of worshipers. We offer live sound recording and subtitled lyrics to give this simple production style an intimate feel. 

For our Living Room Worship, Lifetogether provides full-service production for 6 -8 songs with a medium sized band and a mid-sized community of worshiping. We offer professional sound-mixing and subtitled lyrics to enhance the experience of worshipers in your small groups. 

For our most popular, Large Venue Worship, Lifetogether provides full-service production of 6-12 songs with a full band and a large community of worshipers. We offer professional sound-mixing and subtitled lyrics to enhance the experience of worshipers in your small groups. 


Take a look below at our featured worship productions with some of the largest and fastest growing churches in America!
As we mentioned in our recent “On The Road” blog post (check it out HERE), Lifetogether has had the pleasure to partner with Christ Chapel Bible Church out in Texas working on an amazing production for their Fall series and campaign. Here’s a worship sampler from our sessions with their team.
 
Here’s another great worship medley from our partnership with Fellowship Monrovia. We loved working with Albert Tate and his team to produce their worship productions for “Disobediant God”. Check out the companion, digital print curriculum HERE.

 

NEXT STEPS

Whether it’s coming out to do a personal assessment, coaching for a Fall major campaign, or starting your first video curriculum production, contact us today for a free consultation!

Contact us

How to Produce 3 Professionally Published Video Curriculum in a Day

How to Produce 3 Professionally Published Video Curriculum in a Day

As you well know, our vision here at Lifetogether is to champion a new way of doing church by leveraging the life and leadership of any senior pastor in any local church to connect their entire congregation into community in order to reach their community for Christ.

Our video curriculum is built around story. Instead of “talking head” teaching and a simple discussion guide with a few questions, our series always integrate the power of story shot in a variety of formats. Take a look at the video below of Brett explaining how to produce three professionally published video curriculum in a day.

 

Over 25 years ago, while I was on executive staff at Saddleback Church, I filmed the first video curriculum with Rick Warren.  As a result of the  past decades of learnings, innovations and  insights, we have published over 500 professionally published video curriculum  for every major Christian publisher, parachurch ministry, and hundreds of the largest and fastest growing churches in America. We have learned the art and science of writing  award-winning print curriculum  with fully integrated magazine style color curriculum and state-of-the-art video production. Take a look below at a few of our feature samples.

 

 


 Northwoods Church
An engaging study guide curriculum that shows us how to see together, how life has certain rules and steps that are certain and unchanging – like the basics of baseball. God designed us and He had a certain kind of living in mind when he did it. 

Link to Print Curriculum


New Life Covenant
This is a beautifully designed, six-session study in which you will be inspired by the stories of some heroes and heroines of the faith, and grow in your faith as well. Gaps exist in our countries, our communities, and at home with our families. God is looking for people who walk toward their fear and stand in the gap to help those in need. 

Link to Print Curriculum


Victory World Church
Take a look at a recent project about racial reconciliation, that we produced for Pastor Dennis & Colleen Rouse at Victory World church in Norcross, GA. This production embodies the very essence of what a conversation service is and what it means for people as they come into a setting where they can engage and share in open dialogues as a means for connection. 

Bayside Church
Explore this engaging series that detail how too often we spend our days stressed out, leading to feelings of being worn out, that ends up producing lives that are burned out. Paul, inspired by God’s Spirit, wrote the timeless truths of the book of Philippians and everyone can experience that same transformation, especially as we pursue Christ’s joy together.

NEXT STEPS

Whether it’s coming out to do a personal assessment, coaching for a Fall major campaign, or starting your first video curriculum production, contact us today for a free consultation!

Contact us