Engagement Consulting Preparation

Thank you so much for allowing us this opportunity to serve you. We are honored that your church has chosen to participate in our Engagement Consulting, the highest form of service we provide, and we are excited to be a part of your church’s journey. We believe that this highly intensive process will be a milestone for your church, aiding you in the crystallization of your vision, the clearer understanding of the mindsets and needs within your immediate community, and the tools to build upon strategic connectivity.

Our goal is for your team to come away from our meetings with a crystal clear understanding of your target audience and the steps that need to be taken to better connect with them. We have therefore outlined various ways for your team to prepare for our upcoming meetings in an effort to maximize the impact of this process.

Engagement Consulting is an involved and highly intensive process. It is our goal to leave your team on the same page, ready to advance your church and move forward together; therefore it is critical that everyone who plays an intricate role in the understanding and implementation of your church’s vision be involved in the meetings. However, for optimal meeting efficiency, we generally recommend that there are between 10-12 people, and we categorize the people who should be in the meeting as "stakeholders." By that, we mean that these are the people who are key to decisions being made as a church, and will play a key role in implementing those changes. Additionally, it is also valuable for multiple age groups and ministries to be represented. Your list may look different than this, but to give you an idea of how our meetings look, it’s common for a list of attendees to look like:

1. Pastor
2. Executive pastor
3. Worship leader
4. Young adult pastor
5. Youth pastor
6. Children's pastor
7. Connect Pastor
8. Communications director
9. Family Pastor
10. Elder
11. Elder/deacon/Lay Leader

In our meetings we plan for a good mixture both in terms of age and gender. We need people to be able to speak from different perspectives and to be representative of different groups within the church.

This consulting process is just that—a process. It will not be a presentation made by our team, but instead will be an exploration that we sort through together. It is typical for our meetings to be scheduled to last 8 or 9 hours per day. Because of the nature of the meetings in which this exploration takes place, we ask that participants commit to the whole meeting time as missing any portion of the process can cause significant delays in moving forward. As a result, we are unable to accommodate participants who cannot be present the entire time.

Once you have selected your team, we request everyone read Church Marketing 101: Preparing Your Church for Greater Growth, by Richard L Reising. Reading this book as a team will help everyone begin thinking strategically, and will set a critical foundation for what we will discuss in our meetings. We will provide you copies of the book upon request.

 Order the Book

In general, it is not necessary to provide us with detailed information prior to the team’s arrival. The more we learn by community research and “experiencing” your church, the more insight we can provide. However, in order for us to prepare for our meetings with your team and complete our research process as thoroughly as possible, it will help us greatly if you will provide us with the following items:

1. Define the Team. After working with Artistry Labs to define the team, deliver names and titles of the members that will be attending the meeting.
2. Invite the Team. Communicate with your team regarding the schedule, timing, attendance requirements, as well as to cast vision about the goals of this process. Also, provide them a copy of Church Marketing 101 (copies available upon request) to be read prior to our meetings.
3. NDA. Gather signed nondisclosures (confidentiality agreements) from every member of your team.
4. Marketing Materials. Please send a packet of recent print and promotional materials you have used.
5. Pre-Meeting Questionaire. Please have the senior pastor and/or executive pastor fill out the form at the bottom of this page. 
6. Membership Data*. An excel spreadsheet of church membership in the form of:

• Column A: Name
• Column B: Street Address
• Column C: City
• Column E: Zip Code
• Column F: Email Address
  *We will not attempt to contact anyone on this list—it is purely for research purposes.

7. Meeting Location. Directions to the room where our meetings will take place. This room should be quiet, either inside or outside the church where there will be no distractions.
8. Room Setup. Prepare the meeting room. Please make sure the following is also available inside the meeting room (please utilize our room diagram):

• A dry-erase board, the larger the better
• Tables placed in a U-shape for ease of conversation
• Snacks and drinks
• Electrical outlets
• An extension cord
  
  

As well, we ask that your team come to the Strategy Sessions prepared to discuss the following topics:

1. Your church mission (what you are called to do as a church)
2. Your church vision
3. The history of your church
4. The pillars of your church
5. Your goals for the future (short-term and long-term)

During this preparation time, our team will be gathering extensive demographic information about your community and church. We will then work to analyze that data in preparation for our visit to your area. Once we arrive, we will then use the demographic data and the time spent in the community to formulate psychographic analyses and identify various individual mindsets that exist within your community.

Using the mindsets, backgrounds, and felt needs that we discover in your community, we will conduct our anonymous visits, evaluating your church from those many perspectives. Simultaneously, we will conduct research on community church alternatives, providing insight into your competitive landscape. We will also formulate our findings in community perception— helping us to understand the external perspective of your church in the area.

It will be our goal to evaluate your services from a “normal Sunday” point of view (digitally and onsite). The value of our input is contingent on observing a regular Sunday morning service. As we coordinate our visits, please help us to ensure that we will be attending services that are not "special" or out of the ordinary (for example: a guest speaker would be out of the ordinary). This allows us a better perspective on what the average visitor would experience at your church. As for the team’s arrival to services, please refrain from making special introductions before or after the service or reserving special seating. Our team’s ability to experience a typical visit will yield the best results. It will be our goal for the team to enter and leave as discreetly as possible—similar to the typical visitor. We will enjoy getting acquainted with your team as the consulting meetings begin.

In our strategy sessions, we may cover confidential or sensitive topics. We want you to feel comfortable sharing everything with us, as the more information you share, the clearer the picture we will have of how to move forward. We want you to know that we are committed to discretion and sensitivity. In the same way you will be sharing information with us, we will also be disclosing some unique methods, analytical tools, and illustrations to help you see the picture clearly. Because of the nature of the relationship we are entering into, we ask that you do the same, and make a commitment to keep our methodology and tools confidential. We will provide a booklet for notes as well as documents that enumerate the information discussed and any decisions made. Our team has signed a Mutual Nondisclosure, committing to the utmost confidentiality when dealing with the information you share with us. We will need a signed copy of this form from each of your team members that will be participating in the meetings faxed or emailed to our offices prior to our meeting.

Click here to download the joint confidentiality agreement.