Easter Sunday was the most unbelievable thing our church has ever experienced. Over 500 people made a real and personal decision to follow Christ. Any time we experience God’s blessing like this I get asked by many church planters how we count our salvations. This is a valid question because there is no “standardized” way to get a total.

Â

Most of this post is nuts and bolts but before I get into the how let me comment on the why. We have done “invitations” for people to receive Christ several different ways at Elevation. I don’t think there are wrong ways to do it but I do think there are better ways. Our goal is to not just get people to raise a hand or stand but to actually get them to take the first step in a lifelong process of being a Christ follower. So, for us, the why is what drives the how. Here is what a Sunday looks like along with our simple counting approach.

 Â

When everyone walks in our auditorium they are handed a worship guide (our version of the “bulletin��?). Inside is a perforated section called the connection card. On that card is a box that can be marked if a person is “praying to receive Christ today”. That is all pretty standard. What makes the difference is how Pastor Furtick drives people to the card.

Â

Once the invitation is offered in the worship experience Pastor typically asks for a show of hands. From there, he spends several minutes explaining how we want people to let us know of there decision on the Connection Card. This is a time intensive explanation, but has been the key to getting people to take the next step forward in there faith. (If you want to see Easter Sunday’s message, check it out here).

Â

Once the card is explained, Pastor offers two options:
(1.) Take the completed card to our “Next Level Area��? or
(2.) Place your card in the offering.

The “Next Level Area” is set up in the atrium and manned by a team of people. Here we get contact info and give everyone who made a decision a gift- a great gift.

The gift package contains:

• a new leather Bible (with some Elevation orange)
• a bookmark with scriptures, a card with some scriptures to help someone just getting started reading the Bible from Pastor
• our latest worship CD

The pack costs us almost $14. This Sunday alone cost over $7,000 to do this gift, but it’s worth every dime and then some.

Â

Our Next Level Team heads up all of our follow up processes. They are responsible for giving away the gifts and following up with a phone call and getting all new believers plugged into a starting point class or another small group. We put our best people on this team because it is so important.

Â

In the end, we count salvations by the total number of completed cards with a checked salvation box. We always have many more hands that go up in the air than actual cards, but we always go with the lower numbers. We average over 70% of the cards we receive indicating a decision for Christ being turned in at the “Next Level Area��? and getting the gift and bible. The rest come through the offering.

Â

I’ve heard of churches doing a lot of things to record salvations numbers but this is what has worked the best for us. Our effort and planning are nothing without the supernatural power of God. We know and believe that and take it very serious the responsibility we have at tending His flock at Elevation. And it’s days like Easter Sunday that leave us all in awe of God’s power.

Â

Chunks Corbett, Executive Pastor

Â

Filed under: Creative Elements, Marketing, Worship | Comments Off

Pastor Furtick asked us to read a book together called Emyth by Michael Gerber. One of the things that Gerber highlights in his book is the importance of tracking everything. He points out that in retail the words you say or the colors you wear can significantly increase your sales. In other words, if you wear navy and ask customers “what would you like me to show you today?” you will sell more clothes then you would if you wore yellow and said, “can I help you?”Â

In my opinion, if people who sell clothes think at this level of detail to sell a tee shirt why would we shun these principles in the church. It is infinitely more important (literally) that people see the sign labeled “information” in the atrium of your building then it is that they notice that the pants are on sale in Old Navy - after all, your “information” will impact their eternity, Old Navy’s pants will be out of style in a year! Â

In every area that I lead I have tried to take this principle to heart. If there is something that I can reasonably track, I track it! Some of that information is helpful and I keep tracking it to look for trends. Some of that information is not helpful and I trash it. The point is, you’ll never know until you collect the information and test it. Â

If you could make more money by wearing blue instead of yellow you would wear blue most of the time, right? So if you could make more disciples by re-branding your information area and adding lights then add some lights! We are selling the most precious commodity, we’re representing the greatest brand, we’ve got an eternal investment in our portfolio, and it’s worth our best effort even to the smallest detail!Â

John Bishop, Community Groups PastorÂ

Filed under: Marketing | Comments Off

We print series specific posters for every series. Many companies require you to order posters in large quantities. Elco Color Labs lets you order single prints of any image. We mainly use their 20×30 poster print for only $10. You can chose glossy or matte, and they usually print the same day you order. They have a wide variety of sizes and are the cheapest I could find anywhere. We buy cheap poster frames at Walmart or from Displays2Go. Displays2Go has many options for displaying posters and banners.

We have used Discountmugs.com for mugs and water bottles. Their quality and lead times have been great. Bottle your brand is great for custom labeled bottled water. They ship the next day and the custom labels look great. We are currently using these water bottles as invites for our next series DEEP.

1stpads.com did an excellent job on our custom mouse pads. Our logo is a circle, so their 8″ circle pad worked perfect for us. Vista Print has a large selection of print items, we use their magnets and business cards all the time.

JM sign service has provided us with some very nice corroplast yard signs. They offer a wide variety of sizes and color options. They usually ship within 48 hours.

We have been blessed with a local vendor that offers us great prices on vinyl banners. We print new vinyl for every series. Most often we hang our banners from pipe and drape by have a 6″ pocket placed in the top. We also use retractable banner stands from Displays2Go for creating an identity for each area. We order empty stands and them get the custom banner printed local. Find a good local vinyl printer that will work with you on pricing, because vendors can vary from $1.50 - $6.00 per square foot.

We have also been blessed with a great local t-shirt printer. We sell our custom designs each week at our resource area. People love to wear the shirts as an outreach tool. We try to make them as cool as possible so others will ask about them. Almost every series we print series specific shirts to help display the series theme. Sometimes we’ll put the greeter team or our usher team all in the same shirts. It helps identify this team and also is one more way to transform our setup into a theme for our series. Give a local vendor an idea of how many you’ll print throughout the year and try to negotiate a price that will work for everyone. T-shirt prices will vary from $4.00 - $6.00 per shirt

Damion Pirolli - Production Director

Filed under: Creative Elements, Marketing | Comments Off

People always ask me who we use for printing. At Elevation we made the
decision that we will always give out the best quality printed materials
possible. We outsource as much as possible. Every item that has an
Elevation logo on it needs to look as best as possible. For that reason we
have a rule, if someone wants to hand out something to more than ten people
it needs to go through the creative department. This has helped us keep a
consistent look across all departments and keep quality high.

Rarely does a day go by that we are not ordering a print piece. We use
several different printers in an effort to get the best prices and service
for specific items. One of the most important factors in ordering print pieces is allowing enough time. The first time you are ordering from any online company be sure to call their support and make sure you understand their time requirements. If you are ordering a piece for a special event and it misses the date, all you have is expensive trash. Here are some of the printers we use.

Press-ex Print offers many different sizes and card stock options. We
mainly use 12pt card stock with aqueous coating for our items. Press-ex
will also make any custom size you can imagine. We order all of worship guides here because they are very convenient. They will do folds and
perforations on all their items. When the order arrives it’s 100% done.

Overnight Prints offers a very limited number of options. They truly are
overnight though on almost all of their items. Check their website for details on cutoff times, etc. Some weeks we’ll decide to do a print piece last minute. We never want printing to stop us from doing something, Overnight has helped out.

Vistaprint has great prices and great selection. Their quality is great and
they have never been late. They offer a nice feature on their website, each
time you order they offer you arrival options. There is a sliding cost
for the options, but it gives you freedom to work within your schedule and
budget.

We also have had great success with 48 Hour Print, Psprint, and Action
Envelope. The main thing to remember is to know your schedules and be out
front on your printing. Paper is expensive to send overninght.

Damion Pirolli - Production Director

Filed under: Creative Elements, Marketing | Comments Off