076: Anniversary Edition: 5 Steps To Turn Milestones Into Celebrations That Propel You Forward

076: Anniversary Edition: 5 Steps To Turn Milestones Into Celebrations That Propel You Forward

Laurie Graham 0:01
Hey, this is Laurie Graham. Welcome to the Small Church Ministry Podcast.

Laurie Graham 0:14
Hey, welcome back to the Small Church Ministry Podcast. For today’s episode, Episode number 76, we’re taking you behind the scenes into one of our Small Church Network Events. Each month in the Small Church Ministry Network and Academy, we meet together live for an amazing time to share, to network, to connect, and to receive a teaching and a training that we can actually take back to our churches, apply immediately, and increase our impact, not by doing more things, but by getting more from the things we’re doing. Since we’re celebrating our third year anniversary as a ministry here this very week, we thought it was a perfect time to really explore the topic of celebrations, and how to actually take milestones and turn them into celebrations that propel us forward, kind of like a slingshot.

So instead of throwing a party to undergraduates or say goodbye to a retiring pastor, or even to appreciate volunteers, instead of just throwing a party to honor the past, what could we do to have these exact same celebrations with not any more time or any more effort, but just some intentionality, totally turn it on its head to not just celebrate a past season or a past event, but really, to help propel us into our future, into more transformation, into more impact. So listen in and enjoy this training on five keys to turn a milestone into a celebration that propels you forward. Enjoy.

Laurie Graham 1:47
Hey, everybody, um, introduce yourself in the chat. Let us know you’re here and where you’re from. I know a lot of you already know each other well. This is Anniversary Week at Small Church Ministry. So we’re gonna have some fun just talking about, talking about, we’re celebrating us a little bit, by us, I mean, all of us. And Jen’s gonna help kick us off at the beginning. We do have some cool stuff to unpack that you can use in your church, and we’re going to do discussion groups, and we might even hit some networking at the end. So we will just see how we’re all feeling and how we’re all doing. Hey, Jovi’s here from Florida. Becky’s here from Florida, Linda’s from Minnesota. We got people from all over already. So that’s so fun. As you come in, please do introduce yourself in the chat, but Jen, because it’s Anniversary Week. You knew it’s our anniversary, right? So our third year anniversary, like your three.

Jen Kline 2:36
It’s amazing.

Laurie Graham 2:37
Do you, because some of these people don’t really know, do you want to tell them how we met and how this all started, or how it kind of grew. And then we’ll jump into doing a little bit of content, but let’s start with a little bit of fun.

Jen Kline 2:49
So, cut three years ago, I was doing some Vacation Bible School stuff, not for my church, but for the interwebs, and this girl kept pinning, on Pinterest, some of my articles and I’m like, who is this? I gotta meet her. And Laurie, did we jump on the phone maybe? And then it just, I don’t know, we were.

Laurie Graham 3:08
I think you reached out through like a Facebook message first.

Jen Kline 3:14
We were, we at something we connected and then we did end up talking on the phone. And then we just kind of recognized that we were headed in the same direction with some, some online stuff and some ministry stuff, and and that was a fun connection. And then we talked about hey, why don’t you run a conference, Laurie? And so you did, and so now we do lots of things like that.

Laurie Graham 3:39
Jen is the reason, you all, why we do conferences. And like I, you know, a lot of you know my story. And by the way, in the chat, would you right now just let us know how you found us, like how did you first get connected? Because Jen and I just shared how we got connected. So you let us know how you got connected. Whether it’s with me or Jen or the Network or the Facebook group or whatever, like just tell us a little bit because so many cool stories. But, I know a lot of you know this, I lost my job in COVID, and by the way, two nights ago, I was totally overwhelmed that this has all really happened in three years.

Jen Kline 4:09
Yeah.

Laurie Graham 4:10
Three years ago, my life was so different. I was working a really exhausting day job. And not that this isn’t exhausting, but it’s different, but everything has really changed in three years. But, I did like a little online workshop and it was trying to make a go have an online business and Jen literally called me up or message me out of the blue and said Laurie, I really think you should do an online conference. And I was like, what? And I literally, I knew my face was like that. What? Like, why would I do that? I’ve never done that. I don’t, I’ve never gone to one. I’ve never even wanted to go to one. And she’s like, no, no, I really think you should. And that happened in October 2020, and that was such a boost. We were growing in other ways, but the host conferences man. Like Jen, what have you seen have been the coolest things that you’ve seen come out of the conferences because you’ve been part of all of them,not only onstage, a lot of times backstage, but I know you’ve seen the testimonies, you’ve seen the connections. What do you think has been so amazing about that?

Jen Kline 5:07
My favorite thing coming out of conferences is the community and the connections that happen every time. So you come in and you see, hey, I know you because we went to a conference together, and we’ve had that connection, or, hey, I need to connect with you outside of an event, those like, hands down, I love the community and the connections that come out of the conferences.

Laurie Graham 5:30
That is so awesome. And, in right now, just with the few of us who are gathered here, like I think there’s less than 20 of us in the room right now, which is awesome by the way, we have two people from Europe at least. So we have a Tony from the UK and Amelia is here from Poland. Like when we talk about being global, we really are global. And when, even the Canadians when they find us, they get really excited that we even mentioned Canada. Like I remember, it was like on the website like this is the time zone in Winnipeg and I had Canadians reaching out saying thank you for even just acknowledging that we were here. What were you going to say, Jen?

Jen Kline 6:03
I was gonna say from Poland, we, I’m, I am so VBS focused, our missionaries at our Vacation Bible School are headed to Poland soon and that’s just so exciting! Just all the connections, right?

Laurie Graham 6:14
Yeah! So you should find out if it’s near where Amelia is.

Jen Kline 6:18
I should find that out.

Laurie Graham 6:20
Amelia. if you’re still here and didn’t get kicked out or anything like sent Jen a direct message. Um, Stephanie said she found us through a Facebook ad. And can I just give a shout out for Facebook ads? Because I hate them, we all do, except I love ours! Do you know that half the people who found our live conferences since we’ve run Facebook ads have been from Facebook ads?

Jen Kline 6:40
That’s amazing.

Laurie Graham 6:41
Yeah, I mean, Facebook ads, amen. So how cool is that? Oh, there’s Amelia. She’s still here. Okay, awesome. And we’ve got a lot of pastors wives in the house. So that is so cool. We’re going to be talking about celebrations to you all, and as we’re celebrating Small Church Ministry in the midst, I’m just going to also be giving you some some quotes and testimonies we got from that Annual Survey. If you have not done the Annual Survey, please fill it out, because we grow our ministry based on what your needs are. Like, and I am saying this because I believe it’s true, but we’ve also been told this, I think we are the most responsive organization I’ve ever worked with, I’ve ever been encountered. Like, when there’s a need, we work to try to meet that need and we literally, instead of like a lot of people in business, and Jen, you’ve probably heard this because you’ve done business stuff, you’re an entrepreneur, you’ve done a few different things, a lot of people in business will say, hey, figure out what your passion is and what you want to create and then find the audience who wants what you created. Have you heard that?

Jen Kline 7:41
I have, but that’s not what you guys do.

Laurie Graham 7:43
We’re opposite. Like, we found the audience this, this great need in small churches, and what we’ve done is, we’ve looked at what the needs are and we have begun creating things and we’re not done by the way. We’ve, we have a big announcement at the end of this week. I think Thursday night, we will do a little bit of a reveal, but you know, every time I think we’re done, like, oh, the funnel is done, we’ve got this, this, this, this is gonna meet everybody’s needs, something else comes up. We’re like, wow, that would meet a bigger need, that would meet a need better, that would meet this need better and not that we’re crazy scattered because I don’t think we are we’re very focused on our mission and what we do, but we are committed to excellence and just meeting needs like crazy, right and left. Jen, can you put up some of the quotes that are in the banners I started dropping them in. These are just a few testimonies before we kick-off into our little learning session today. And by the way, like, put your testimony in the chat, like what has really made a difference for you? It could have been a person, it could have been something you learned something you applied in your church. How has this changed your ministry?

This was a quote from Robin that just ran across the bottom of the screen, and what she was talking about, I don’t know if you read that whole thing and maybe it’ll it’ll probably loop again, unless Jen changes it to another one, which you totally can, but Robin was talking about that Small Church Ministry has revolutionized her view and flow of ministry. And I want to talk about that because that mindset shift, that view of ministry has been such a game changer for so many people. In fact, it’s, and that happens, by the way, in the very first unit of the Small Church Academy. So many people have said one unit in, 30 days in, and by the way, that’s the free trial. Okay? Grab the free trial. We have extra bonuses today, if you join the Academy. This stuff happens in the first 30 days of the Academy. Stacy said it’s helped me change the way I think about what is successful and what is not. Can we get like an amen to that one? Like so, so true. And I’ll pop down to another one, Jen. This provided solutions, great suggestions, and access to resources that help our small church function the best way that it is. So, I’m gonna go back and see if there’s any comments and we’re gonna jump into our thing and I’ll kick you off the screen here, Jen, in just a second.

Jen Kline 9:58
Sounds good.

Laurie Graham 9:58
But can you read a couple of these while I pull up my notes?

Jen Kline 10:01
Yeah, absolutely. So, Cheryl says, mostly my own personal growth, which has made me a better leader, realizing these are God’s plans, not mine helps tremendously. And Nat goes on to say, it’s given me tools to use in leading people, given me ideas about what to try and helped me make a mind shift from our time in a bigger church to being in a smaller church now. So she’s just talking about helping that transition and the mindset that has to shift because of that. We were just talking about Amelia, she says, I started questioning my busyness in church and started delegating some of my activities. I started to ask the overlooked to join in the ministry. These were successful changes. Isn’t that so exciting?

Laurie Graham 10:48
That is one of my favorites, asking the overlooked because Nancy actually gave a really great testimony about the same thing when she was setting up her VBS this year. More volunteers, all the spaces are covered, because I started looking at the overlook and so so good. All right, we’re gonna jump into our teaching. And Jen, if you’re around, you’re welcome to come back at the end. If you’re not, totally cool! This was so impromptu that Jen was on the screen with us. I’m so glad you were here just to get us going, but could you just pray for our next hour before you go?

Jen Kline 11:17
I would be delighted to. Gracious God, I thank you so much for the Small Church Ministry. I thank You that You have given a vision, and you have equipped so many people to be a part of that vision. God, I thank you for bringing together this community of people. I pray that you would just use this time that the people here today have together. I pray that You would give Laurie Your words, help her to be sharing Your thoughts and Your ideas. And I pray that You would give the people hear Your ears to hear so that what is shared today can make the impact that You would have. God, I thank you most of all, that you’ve sent Jesus to die on the cross to rescue us from our sins. Thank you that He gives us our ultimate hope. And I just pray that You are glorified today. It is in Jesus name we pray, amen.

Laurie Graham 12:10
Amen. Jen, could you do me one more favor before you go?

Jen Kline 12:13
I probably could.

Laurie Graham 12:14
In Facebook Messenger, I dropped you a PDF link. Could you put that in here so people can grab it?

Jen Kline 12:21
I will do that!

Laurie Graham 12:22
Awesome. Thank you so much. All right. Well, let’s jump into today. We are going to be talking about how to turn milestone celebrations, milestones into celebrations that propel you forward. And if you were able to catch the live video last night, Shineka and I talked about celebrations and how they’re not just a party, and how God used them in the Old Testament, and they continued throughout and like celebrations and festivals were set up on purpose. They weren’t just something like, you’d say, oh, do we deserve a celebration? Should we throw a party? And we do that a lot in churches, right? But they were like these set things that people looked forward to and they weren’t just about the past. And that’s one of the things I’m going to talk about today because they’re not just about the past. It is so much about the future, and if you do it right, I mentioned this last night in the video, it’s like a slingshot that throws you into your future. It’s like that momentum and motivation and vision and hope, and I’m going to tell you, even if you don’t feel like it, if you plan a celebration, and you move into it with the principles that I’m going to share, you’re going to see things turn around even in your own heart. Because I know some of you listening and watching whether it’s live or later are discouraged, and I would like to tell you that when you are discouraged, it is almost the best time to throw a celebration like we are talking about, and you’ll see why as we go through.

So if you’re here this week, like watching live with me right now, with the Anniversary Celebration, I just want to let you know what’s happening this week, every evening at 6pm Eastern time we’re going live on the Facebook page with a little teaching time celebration, maybe a little story sharing, but it’s good stuff, like we had just a, and it’s new teaching. So we have new things for you to just put in action in your churches, we always want to be helping small churches, don’t just want to talk about how cool everything’s been. We want to give you something new. And so, the video last night the, when we went live, it was all about, you know, these celebrations and how they can really help us move forward. So you’re gonna want to check that out, but also, every day we have an offer whether it’s free or a discount, we’re giving prizes every day on that video. And by the way, if you can’t join it live just watch your email. Hopefully you’re on our email list, so if you’re not, like shoot an email to hello@smallchurchministry.com to like double check that, but every morning I will send a link to the replay because we don’t want you to miss it because you’re in a funny timezone or because you’re working or because you’re doing ministry, right? We want to make sure you have access to everything.

Laurie Graham 14:49
But last night, we ,I put in the link for the free resource called Untapped, and if you have not downloaded that or gotten it yet I really want you to grab it. If anybody’s here that you could put the link in the chat, that would be great. Otherwise, we will drop it later. I know Cheri has it. I know Becky has it. Just drop that link to grab that free resources Untapped. Otherwise, I will give it later and make sure you have it, okay? But untapped is like a six session Bible study. There’s a short video, and it’s short, and then discussion questions, but it is based on, we, we base it off of the Five-Day challenge that so many pastors and ministry leaders and volunteers were saying, oh, my gosh, this changed my life. How do I share this with others? So we developed a six session study around that we’re giving it to for free, you can make as many copies as you want for your local church, please. You can go through it together. You can unpack it together. You can use it alone. You can use it in small groups. You can use it as a ministry team training. You can use it as a pastor’s, I’ve had a few pastors tell me they’re doing it church-wide, where they’re actually preaching a study kind of based around the topic, asermon based around the topic of each of the six weeks, and then those discussion questions are going into their Sunday school class. It’s called Untapped, Discover The God-Size Potential Of Your Small Church.

So if you’ve been in through the Five-Day Challenge, you know what this is about. This is about discovering where God is working in your small church. This is about small church ministry is not less, it is different. This is about, if a whole bunch of people don’t come, that doesn’t mean God’s not working. This is about small church pants. Okay, if you guys have gone through the Five-Day Challenge, so many people say that is the concept that revolutionized me. Yes, we’re talking about pant,s like blue jeans, and finding pants that fit instead of saying your body is the wrong size. So all those concepts are in that study. It is free. So grab it. The other really cool thing we have going on right now, and is, if you join that Academy, Network Academy for the free trial, and I know you’re in here, this is why I’m telling you this, tell your friends, this is the week to grab the free trial for the Small Church Network and Academy, and here’s why. Never done this before, anybody who joins this week, and those of you who are in here are also gonna get it, every day, starting next Monday, for about a month, I’m going to do a quick live video just on my iPhone, like like one minute long. Each day, there’s going to be a little focus, and once a week, for the next month, I’m going to have a Zoom call where you can jump on with me. Now here’s the point, the point is to get quick wins and transformation in the next 30 days.

Laurie Graham 17:26
Because sometimes when you sign up for something, it’s a struggle to get started, or you just kind of put it off, I’m not going to let you do that. You’re going to, if you want to join that free trial this week, you’re going to have me like in your ear by your side and a whole bunch of other people, by the way, in the community, but helping you get transformation in the first 30 days because it happens. Heather just posted in there, I finished unit one, I can’t believe it. It’s the first time, like I’ve had something for small churches. My mindset is changing. This really happens in 30 days. And we don’t just, we’re not about quick wins, like quick weight loss or something. We’re about sustaining. Sustaining meeting with God and being with Him and doing ministry, like the way that God wants us to be. So definitely, like grab, tell your friends, I know you guys are in there, you’re gonna have access to it, but please like, just think of one person right now who would benefit from the hope that you got.

You’re not the only one in a small church who was discouraged before you found us. So if you think about that thing that like, has made such a difference from you from being connected with us, please just think and pray about one person to invite, to join the 30 day free trial, just quit before your, your card is charged. After 30 days, and you won’t be charged 30 day free trial. There’s a lot of good, great stuff, including including an event next month, which is all about getting unstuck, which is awesome. So that’s included in the free trial. You’ve got me with this whole transformation like focus for the next 30 days. You also have a zoom coaching call, people who joined with the free trial also get a welcome call with me, many of you have done that, taken advantage of it. So it is so much stuff. So think of one person, truly I would love for you to do this, that you could just share the free trial with and say, hey, this is the week to join. Come join me. We’ll do it together even, and encourage somebody else. Okay.

Laurie Graham 19:15
Okay, we’re gonna jump in right now to the short teaching on how to turn milestones into celebrations. Um, hopefully you have that PDF, maybe you’ve downloaded, maybe you have it next to you, maybe you don’t, then I’m going to encourage you to grab a piece of paper or notebook. Um, one of the changes for this month that we did is, I do have session notes printed out. So people have been saying, awe, I wish you had like a note sheet, kind of like what we do for the conference workbooks, where it leads you through the points so you’re not going to miss anything, and I included that in this month. So you’ve got a session notes page, and then you’ve got a discussion guide. And that is what we’re going to work through right now because I want you to have a celebration this summer that propels you forward. Like, wouldn’t you like that? Like, does anybody in here live, right now, just need some motivation and some momentum, or you wish you could share your motivation and momentum with the others in your church or in your ministry area. This is how we do it. This is one of the best, most amazing ways to get that motivation and momentum in you sharing it with others, and also, if you are lacking some motivation and momentum, I want to tell you, doing a celebration like this will lift you beyond. It has for me.

I have, several times in my life, when I’ve pushed into this process, to do a celebration in a ministry area, even in this ministry area, and it has lifted me in a new way and propelled me forward. So you ready to jump into the, the pages? Did you guys pull it up? If you guys have it, please do so, leave me some comments in the chat so I know you’re still with me. I am excited! Okay, so, first off, let’s just talk about celebrations. Do you ever do Christmas parties? You ever do volunteer appreciations? Do you ever do, like anniversary celebrations in your church? Drop in the chat, whatever kind of celebrations are kind of normal in your church. Sometimes there’s a Rally Day at the beginning of the school year, stuff like that. Okay. So we’re going to take those celebrations and actually talk about milestones, like, what are we celebrating and why? Okay, and talk about how to get that momentum to propel you forward. Because the reality is this. Most of the times we throw parties, I truly believe we get about 20% of the transformational results we could get. Like, I think we’re getting this much potential out of most of the parties we throw, and that even includes personal parties, birthday parties, graduation parties, like these principles can apply in so many ways, and you’ve seen it done well, I know you have. And you’ve also seen it done not well, many, many more times, even weddings.

Laurie Graham 22:00
So as you think about the celebrations you have in your church, the things that are normal for you to do, okay, I want you to um, Jen, they don’t see the link for the download. Could you pop that into maybe the event chat at the top? Um, you all, we’re gonna pin that for you so you can grab it, but again, if you don’t have it, it’s okay. You can just take some notes. But as you think about whatever celebration is in your head, I want you to take these five things and kind of overlay it and think about, did that happen? How could it have happened? What would have been different if it had happened? Right? Okay. So the first step is this, define that milestone that you’re celebrating and the details. Sometimes we’re just kind of wrote, like we do a volunteer appreciation every May, and we don’t really get detailed about it. Well, what it, why does it exist? Just to celebrate volunteers? Well, what exactly happened? What are we celebrating? We had 30 volunteers. We had 20 people help with that event. We had 10 different people show up to clean. We had two new people. Like whatever details you can get, I want you to write those down.

Get super detailed before you throw that party because we need to know exactly what happened and what reasons we have to celebrate including effort that was made that didn’t quite pan out. We’re still going to celebrate those efforts, actions that were taken, because just as much as we can’t control the results of how many people come to our church, or what that person does, what we can control is our effort and our actions. And sometimes, we need to celebrate those actions, even if the result wasn’t what we wanted. Do you all know what I’m talking about? Okay, I’m going to talk about exercise just for a minute because I joined an exercise class, this crazy like high interval intensity training kind of thing, I’m one of those crazy people who goes to the park at 7:30 in the morning and meets with a group of people out in public and exercises and looks crazy okay? So, I’ve been doing this for, since the beginning of March, and I was going to reward myself when I lost 10 pounds because I have some weight I want to lose bla bla bla, beside the point, I was going to reward myself when I lost 10 pounds. Haven’t lost that 10 pounds as quick as quick as I want it, but you know what I did? I rewarded myself at the end of three months. You know why? Because I worked really, really hard.

Laurie Graham 24:19
My effort was there. I missed only a handful of classes in the Arizona heat and it was cold when I first started okay, at 7:30 in the morning, and I rewarded myself at the end of three months. I did not hit my goal weight, okay, at all. Didn’t. But I wanted to celebrate that effort I put in. Do you know what I’m talking about? Sometimes at church, we don’t feel like celebrating because we didn’t have, we didn’t hit our goal. We wanted to bring a whole bunch of people in for outreach and we have three families, but your church worked so hard on that egg hunt. Do you see what I’m saying? We need to celebrate so much of what we’re doing. We need to celebrate our effort and our actions and those of our team, not just the result, because God is in whatever result you have, whatever challenges you have, whatever actions you’re doing, we’re gonna get to this in a second, okay, but what I’m saying is that no matter what that result is, there is something to celebrate because God is at work. God was at work, He is at work, even if the results weren’t what you wanted. Is this translating a little bit to you? Have you ever had those trying ministry seasons, where it feels like there’s nothing to celebrate?

I want to flip that on its head right now because it’s not true. If God is present, and God is active, and God is alive, there is something to celebrate. We’re going to talk about how to unpack this a little bit. So number one, if you have those notes out, that’s great, if not just grab a piece of paper, was defining what you’re celebrating, defining the milestone, and get it detailed. And I do want you to understand, even if you can’t think like there’s a big milestone there is, there is one right now in your life. In your life, in your family, in your church, there is something to celebrate right now. So as we’re going through this, think about what that might be. The second point, second key second step is to honor the past. You have to honor what happened. Now, usually, this is a little bit of a no-brainer, because if we’re celebrating graduation, like somebody graduated from high school or college, we’re looking at what happened, right? We’re saying, hey, you went through it, but I want you to get a little more detailed here. What happened in this past that we are celebrating in the past 10 years of your church service, in the past, you know, year of your appreciating volunteers, in whatever milestone you are celebrating, let’s honor the past.

Laurie Graham 26:51
And here’s three questions I want you to think about when you think about this. What did we learn about ourselves? Where was I stretched? Where did I grow? We’re going to talk more about personalizing this, okay? The second thing I want you to consider is what did you learn about God? Honoring the past, where did God show up? What did you see Him doing even if it was different than what you expected or what you wanted, or what you thought was best? How about what did we learn about each other and us together? Honoring the past, what happened, it’s not just the stuff. The stuff is in there. We need to honor the stuff. We got through the classes. We got through the events. We got through the year. We got through COVID. Whoohoo, right? Okay. Like we need to honor the stuff. But while you’re honoring the past and creating that memory, right, of honoring the past and celebrating what happened, think too, about what did we learn about us, about me, individuals? What did we learn about God? How did we experience Him? What did you learn about each other, us together, your community? So important. Whether you’re celebrating a family event, the community of your family, celebrating a church event, you see what I’m saying? This can apply in so many places, if you’re part of the PTO, or community organization, or an inner, you know, interdenominational kind of community type outreach. Think about that. Think about the us, together.

Okay. The third thing is this. Maximize engagement at your celebration. So we are literally talking about, during the celebration itself, whether it’s a one time event or a week long anniversary, like we’re doing here with Small Church Ministry right now, live this week, maximize the engagement. How, how can we engage ourselves, our spirits, our bodies, our emotions, and everyone else too? If you have your notes out, it’s going to talk about a few things here, but emphasize how each person was and is part of what happened. Have you seen this done at weddings, where people say I just want to thank my parents, I want to thank my community. I want to thank my friends? This is a way of engaging everybody, you were part of this mission. I think we miss this at church celebration sometimes because when we’re celebrating an anniversary like the church’s 10 year, or we’re celebrating, you know, our volunteers in general on a Sunday morning, we don’t engage each person as we could.

Laurie Graham 29:20
When I do volunteer celebrations on a church service on a Sunday morning, I love to have people stand. And this is what I do. I have people stand who, like helped at this event. They remain standing while other people stand who helped clean it up. And I have other people stand who, who like, did you invite somebody? And the last thing I mentioned is if you had a kind thought or you sent a prayer up for this team or this event, would you please stand? Almost every time I’ve done this, the entire church is standing at the end, and it could have been a celebration for Vacation Bible School Volunteers because every single person in that church had a kind of thought or a kind word, or they smiled at a child, like you just figure out how to include every single person in the celebration, that they are part of what happened, because they are. They are part of that community. That’s how God made our spirits and our souls to interact with each other.

So in this third thing of maximizing the engagement, try as best as you can to loop in each and every person in your midst, in your circle, in the breath of where you’re speaking. And then, engage these three things. Now, I have to say, I got these from Joy Wendling. I interviewed her on the podcast, she spoke at the last conference, she talks about engaging children and lessons, I thought, oh my gosh, this is so perfect. This isn’t just children. This is humans. Think about how you can engage people’s bodies in the celebration, sight, sound, taste, touch, smell. How can you engage people, their bodies, in the celebration? So right now, while you’re watching? Would you just do me a favor? Would you’ve just put your hands up and say wee, like wee, like how awesome is this? Like, do the big hand raise, you know, raise the roof for Small Church Ministry? Did you do it while you were watching? Okay, I just engaged your body. The second thing is to engage people’s emotions and spirits. You all, this happened so much with stories and testimonies. Jot that down in your list, like on your notes. If you’re taking notes. This is why it is so important. Can, how can you possibly not be engaged when you read a testimony like this?

Laurie Graham 31:30
This was Amelia, about the Small Church Academy. This is what she had put on her Annual Survey. I started questioning my busyness in church. You all, do you feel that heaviness? Have you had busyness? Have you had that heaviness, that weight of busyness and started delegating some of my activities. I started to ask the overlooked to join. I’m gonna skip ahead. I know we read a few of these. Most of my personal growth has been, made me a better leader, that personal growth realizing these are God’s plans and not mine has helped me tremendously. Cheryl said that. Have any of you had those same feelings, those same overwhelm, the busyness, releasing your plans to God’s, okay? So if you just engage in those stories, okay, I just engage your emotions and your spirit. And the last thing I want to talk about engaging, and by the way you can maximize engagement a lot of different ways, these are just three main ones, is I just want you to close your eyes right now while you’re watching, and I would like you to imagine what God might do in the future in your church. What He might do with Small Church Ministry because I am absolutely positive, we are going to meet in person someday, we’re going to do some regional events.

I’m also absolutely positive that we are going to do a 24-hour conference Sunday, Jen don’t throw up. Someday, we’re going to do a 24-hour conference and we’re gonna have speakers from different continents all around the globe. Nobody’s staying up all night, but there’s something all night long that’s happening for different timezones. Did I engage your imagination? Are you excited? So we can do this at our celebrations at church. We can help people imagine. We can engage their senses. We can share stories and testimonies. Are you with me? So what are you thinking so far? I’ve only done three points. Define it. Get really detailed. Number two, honor the past. Number three, maximize engagement. Number four is a big win. When you do celebrations, and you want to get that slingshot momentum to propel you forward, is you vision for the future. Do not miss this. At any time you celebrate anything, okay, anything, you are celebrating Sunday school teachers, you still can vision for the future. You want to honor graduates and you’re doing graduation party, how do you vision for the future?

Laurie Graham 33:52
Somebody in this group right now is losing their pastor, and I said, oh my gosh, there’s a lot of fear. There’s a lot of grieving, and I said, this session today is for you because while you define in detail how to celebrate your pastor’s leaving, and you honor the past, you talk about learning from him, learning from God, learning together as a community, you maximize engagement, you are going to be considering all these different things and all these things to celebrate. How do you vision for the future when you’re saying goodbye to a pastor? I’m gonna give you two things. Envision his future. Pray him into his future. Like, how awesome is that? And envision your church into the future, because of his time serving. If you’re following your notes in number four, vision for the future, what does the past have to do with our future? Here it is. As you are celebrating what has happened in the past and honoring his time because of this, because of his service, because of him serving with us, we know that we can do something, I can do something, you can do something because we learned, because we grew, because we engage with God through His time serving with us. Because of his time and serving, we know that God can do what for your future? God showed up here. We didn’t used to know each other either. He was new at one point. Look what God did. Did God help you work through conflict? Did God help you work through challenges, through grief through anything? Because of this past we know God can do this.

And how about this one, because of this past, we know, together, we can do it with God’s help because, somehow, God took this crazy group of people who were not connected, connected them into this community. We’ve been together for 10 years, or whatever it would be. This pastor is leaving us, but you know, God connected us before, He will connect us again. So as you look at the past and what you’re celebrating you can envision forward, and I’m going to tell you right now, this is even if you are grieving or celebrating a loss. Because this is what happens at celebrations of life. Have you ever seen a great celebration of life, a great memorial service that doesn’t just focus and celebrate the past, but literally visions the future? Literally talks about the legacy, literally lifts up the grandchildren? Like, have you seen this happen? Because of this person’s work in this, would you join this mission?

Laurie Graham 36:28
Which leads us into number five, invite the celebrators to join in the future next steps. Wouldn’t it be cool when I die, okay, let’s just picture my death, celebration of life sorry, kids who are watching. I would love it. It, let’s say I die young, let’s say I die young and God calls me home early, and at my memorial service people hear the mission of Small Church Ministry, and they are invited, at my funeral, this would beso cool, to speak and to write and to blog and to support and to pray for people in small churches. I did not expect to say that, this is not in my notes, how cool is that, every celebration be an invitation to move to the future? Celebrate those graduates, right? How many of you did celebrations for graduates in your churches? Did you invite people to be part of their future? Did you say, hey, people watching here at church, would you commit to praying for this graduate? Did you print off cards with their pictures, and where they’re going and what their needs are, so that people could just do it privately, sneaky, they don’t want to commit, but they can each take a card with a picture on it, to be part of the future.

Any celebration, any celebration can include these five steps to propel you into the future. Define what you’re celebrating. Define the milestone, good and bad. There is good in it because there is growth, and we can honor the past. We can look at what we learned about ourselves, what we learned about God, what we experienced in it, good and bad. And where God was present, we can learn about each other. The third thing maximize engagement. During the celebration, maximize every single person who’s in contact during engagement in the celebration. Physical bodies, emotions and spirits, imagination. What can we imagine? How can we engage people? Gifts, things, videos, tools, like we’re giving digital resources, we have some discounts on other ways to get engaged, be part of this community events, right? Number four vision for the future. Don’t, the celebration is not just about the past. This is what I love about God, biblical celebrations. People knew they were coming, they looked forward to it, and it was also, it was a stamp. It was a stone altar saying God did this in the past, not because it was done, but because God did this in the past, we know He will be there in the future. We know He will do it again, and honestly bigger and better.

Laurie Graham 39:20
That’s what a celebration is for. It is as much about propelling into the future as it is about looking to the past because the past shows God’s faithfulness, shows our ability to learn, shows the community. How awesome is that? And then don’t forget to invite people to the future, to invite people to be part of that future vision. Do you feel the slingshot? Before we go into our discussion groups, would you please, in the chat, jot down what, it’s the first question that’s going to be asked in your discussion group, what stood out to you from this session and what are you thinking about now in a new way? Just jot this in the chat before we head into our discussion groups. What stood out to you from the session. What was new, or what has gotten you thinking about something in a new way, even if it’s something in your church that you could, like, I guess, put into place, right?So I’m gonna give you a second to do that. I’m gonna find a few more quotes to pop up on the board here, because there’s so many amazing testimonies, and then I’ll read some of your comments to you before we head into our our session.

This next quote I’m going to put up is from Linda before I look at your comments. Small Church Ministry has brought clarity to my ministry regarding volunteers. Amen, and hallelujah! I understand the need to invest in them and build them up. This is so key. It’s why we talk about volunteers so much. And it’s also why we are creating our little surprise resource that is coming up, that will be revealed at the end of the week. Okay. So keep that in mind. This is what, these are some of the highlights from the session before we break into breakout rooms. Becky Sargent said it is an assurance, a promise of you of what God can do. Jovi said this, being specific about what we’re celebrating and all of the numbers. Absolutely. Nancy, maximizing engagement by pulling in all supporters easy to overlook those who work behind the scenes. Absolutely. Maximizing engagement, again, hearing testimonies, yes. And by the way, I will say, to do it to do a celebration like this. There’s a little bit of pre planning. You’re watching me put quotes up right now. I had to ask for them to have them, right?

Laurie Graham 42:03
There’s a little bit of pre-planning, but I do want to tell you, it does not have to be exhausting. It can be very, very simple. Each of these steps can be done in very simple ways, but there’s that intentionality, right? There’s that choice to pull aside for an hour, to think, to be intentional, so that we can do this well, and I really believe these things are worth doing well. And if I have not said this before, this is not my quote, I’ve heard it from many people, maybe I’ll say it in a different way, I don’t really know, but if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing well. I really believe we in small churches need to quit doing things not well. I think if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well. Do less and do it better. So much more impact. Honestly, so much more, what do you call it like, credibility for you as a leader, for you as a small church, if you do less, but do it well. Credibility, it builds trust, it builds friendship, it’s builds, like it just builds so many different things in there. Amy said, out of last night and today this morning, I pitched celebrating summer. Awesome! We have just had a birthday, but I’m not waiting till next spring. I love it.

And Tracy said we need more celebrations. We have been tired and weary, but celebrations bring joy. Joy is contagious, and our church has been through so much. Tracy, I just want to acknowledge this right now. I don’t know that this will become part of the replay, what I’m about to say, but I just want to tell you guys, I have been really discouraged. The last couple of weeks have been, last couple months have been really, really hard on the personal front, on the business front, on all kinds of fronts, and I thought about not doing the celebration. A couple of weeks ago, I almost cancelled it. I was like, I don’t have it in me. I am exhausted. I’m having a really hard time. I don’t know that I can pull this off. And I want to tell you, when I committed to doing this, nope, we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it, my mind, my heart, I got reenergized, I got remotivated. So this is why I want to tell you, if you are discouraged, that’s the best time to plan a celebration, the best time, because it doesn’t just lift those up around you, it lifts you up, because it forces us to look and see where God is working. It forces us to look at our own numbers and our own achievements and our own efforts because what are we celebrating? If you’re going to detail it, you’ve got to dig deep. And hopefully this includes a lot of prayer and a lot of spirit stuff as well, okay?

Laurie Graham 44:21
So Tracy, I’m totally with you. Yes, we need to celebrate. And I believe this is why in the Old Testament, God set it up that those celebrations just happened. They didn’t choose to do a celebration in the fall, or at this time or whenever, it literally was on the church calendar ahead of time, okay? You don’t just choose it because if we’re going to choose to celebrate, it’s usually when we feel like celebrating. And I really believe that’s why God set up these celebrations along the way, that we’re almost forced, like we are going to celebrate then and we will have something to celebrate because God is always at work. Jovi said she’s planning a volunteer training and celebration. Yep, you got this! Awesome, awesome. This is what we’re doing. Um yes, Amy, joy is life giving, okay? Perfect timing from Linda, we are in the middle of VBS right now. Absolutely. Okay, so I hope I give you lots of practical stuff to celebrate.

Now, we’re going to break into breakout rooms in just a second. Let me give some specific instructions. And if Tony is here, he’ll be leading breakout room number one. He had a pretty stressful day, so you can be praying for him. And if Becky Sargent is here, she can be with leading breakout two. We can do two rooms today. Amy Burkholder, would you just be on, on call if one of those rooms needs a cofacilitator or to facilitate? That’d be awesome. And you Jovi, if you also could too? This is why, part of the reason I have guided discussion questions that you all have is because every single one of us is able to facilitate. Every single one of us can. We don’t, it’s really great to have people who are set aside and they know they’re doing it, but I’m going to tell you right now, you have that guided discussion. And we can cofacilitate together we can peer like be a peer group, right? Where a bunch of leaders are meeting together and staying on track and sharing. One of the things I love to do when we lead these discussion groups is, before you start, and you can do it right now, by the way, I want you to pick out the one question that you want to make sure gets answered during the discussion time. Sometimes, we’ve got nine questions and you don’t have time, probably, to go through them all, right? So, put a star beside which one that you really want to make sure gets gets talked about in your discussion group. Right now, everybody. If you’ve got it printed out, just put a little star by that just read through them. There’s only five questions this time. Just put down what you want to make sure gets covered, okay?

Laurie Graham 46:34
The other thing I’d love to do in discussion groups, and if you’re a facilitator, you know, this is awesome is, when there is a question that anyone could answer, take the time to go around the whole room and invite people to answer. Because if it’s kind of a free for all, and we say who wants to share, the people who share are going to be the people like me who speak before they think, okay? Like, that’s who’s going to speak first. A lot of people are uncomfortable with quiet, so they’re going to be jumping in, but the people who often have more to say than everybody else, are the people who will let everyone else go first, and the people who think before they speak. So definitely find one question that everybody could answer, not something people are gonna get stumped on, not something that’s advice-giving, but just something that everyone could answer. Like the second one, how well do you think you and your church have maximized past celebrations? Just say, how well have we done? Done really well? Why? I haven’t done well. Why? Just think, that could be one. I’m not saying that’s the best one on here, but I would always pick one question that everybody can answer. Hey, everybody, let’s go around the circle. Just give a short answer to this. Don’t let the talkers talk too long, because we want to make sure we have time, but always make sure there’s one question that everybody gets to answer, so that everybody has talked and hopefully toward the beginning, not toward the end. Because we want to make sure we’re hearing from everyone.

Every time I teach things in Small Church Ministry, I’m always modeling, and I’m always trying to create atmospheres where we are practicing what we teach. And one of the things that I teach that I want to be practicing in the Network intentionally, over and over again, is learning to listen better than we speak. Now, I think speaking skills are great, and someday I’m going to do a whole training on how to do better public speaking, because I have so much to share on that too, okay? And I think we should be good speakers. We should be great speakers. We should be the best speakers we could be, but I want to tell you what I believe is more important than speaking well, and it’s listening well. And so let’s be great listeners. Okay? And so let’s go ahead and jump into our groups, and we’ll put Tony in room one if he’s here, and Becky in room two, if she is here. If Tony is not in room one, Jovi, could you just hop into room one, just in case Tony’s not there and just, you don’t have to be the leader, but you can just kind of coordinate it and I’ll be popping in and out too. Okay.

Laurie Graham 48:53
So discussion groups, let’s go to discussion groups, and when you are done with your discussion groups, you can leave. So if your discussion group lasts until the bottom of the next hour, like 40 minutes, feel free to keep talking. If you feel like you’re done after half an hour, that’s great, too, but hop into a discussion group and we will see you soon, and I will make sure to be dropping in that free resource you can get and also, don’t forget, Anniversary Week! Watch these videos every night, truly new content, new tips, new revelations, I believe from God, in so many different ways and, and also some really great deals coming up. And please do pray and think about inviting somebody to join the Small Church Academy and Network. This is the best week to join. I’m telling you the amount of value that’s going to come out of this next month, the amount of true transformation in the next 30 days, you’re going to love it and they’re going to love it too. So think about inviting somebody and we’ll make sure to empower you to do that. Okay. All right, hop into your discussion groups and we will see you later!

I hope you enjoyed the sneak peek behind the scenes into our Small Church Network Event. The Small Church Network and Academy is the most amazing thing that we do. It’s where transformational stories come from. And even in the 30 day trial, we have people who come out saying, oh my gosh, I had no idea. This really is for small churches, or very recently, we had someone say, my mindset is totally changed. I had no idea what would happen in 30 days. And I just want to invite you to join! We’ve taken all the risk away by opening up a free trial into the Small Church Network and Academy. If you love the podcast, you’re going to totally love the Small Church Network and Academy. And here’s the truth, so many people in small churches are looking for better volunteers. I hear that all the time. We need better volunteers. I need more committed volunteers. I need more faithful volunteers, or we just need more volunteers. But here’s the truth.

Laurie Graham 50:47
If all of us who are looking for better volunteers would take this same energy and time that we’re spending talking about more volunteers, needing them, wanting them, recruiting them, trying to find them, going through that revolving door of people coming and going, if we would take the same time and energy that we spent trying to find better volunteers and invested it in becoming a better leader, amazing things happen. So please, if you want to be a better leader, whether you’re an accidental leader, you’ve been leading for a long time in different settings, or you really just want to grow in your skills, come join us in the Small Church Network and Academy. So, with the 30-day free trial, what do you have to lose? Why not jump in and get 30 days of transformation and to see what God can do? You can start your free trial today by visiting smallchurchministry.com/network. Come join us. We’re totally waiting for you. Until next week, be a light!