WEEKEND REFLECTIONS: TONY'S EVALUATION

I asked Tony Morgan to give us some feedback after attending our conference and Sunday experience. He is the perfect kind of person to come in without Rock Church knowledge and give some perspective on strategy. We went over to Sockeye's restaurant for Sunday brunch and he and his associate Michael downloaded their thoughts.

• He over arched everything he said with a continuous emphasis on the level of excellence at The Rock Church. He talked about the parking lots greeters, first impressions, worship team, video and media elements, communicators and etc.
• He was very complimentary of the loyalty and commitment of TRC volunteers. He saw all of them in action and was impressed.
• He commented on the talent of musicians, video and media teams and etc.

Then, he talked about some of the hindrances at TRC. He asked a couple questions, and told me I could not answer. I patiently listened while the staff responded...He asked,

• What is your mission? Our team unanimously answered, "Connecting people to life!" That was absolutely clear.
• He asked, What happens to a person after they have connected to TRC through a Sunday morning experience? There were multiple answers like Regional Reach Teams, RC Steps, Meet and Greet, Guest Services, Volunteering and Beginning Point.
  

Thus revealed our first hindrance to growth; the next step at The Rock Church is unclear, there are too many choices. He showed us how there are so many messages being communicated it has become noisy, unclear. He showed us that just in our foyer alone there are several messages like IFit, Connecting People to Life, Core values, Reaching More, Tomorrow Together Together and other smaller stuff. He showed us how, at our info kiosk, we have the information sheets which are all communicating different things about differing ministries, but none of them can be read at a glance, too wordy. It was really revealing for us.

• He then asked, "Who are you trying to reach?" There were several answers like seekers, families, the un-churched, people of all ages that need Christ and etc. Before we could get all the targets out I think we all had an epiphany at the same time: We don't really know, exactly. I mean, we want to connect people to Life, all people. But what Tony showed us is that what keeps people in church is quite different than what brings people to Christ!
  

Thus our second hindrance was revealed: Christianese. Tony communicated, in grace, how he didn't think some of our printed and verbal language used in the worship experience would be understood by most people who are not familiar with our church. He gave several examples and I didn't realize how much we communicate with terms and words that are exclusively used by Christians. Tony challenged us to make sure our language isn't exclusive, requiring a knowledge of church; instead, he challenged us to drop some specific words. I welcomed the critique; I always need to grow.

• He talked about differing elements of our services, children's ministry, youth strategy and as much as he could take in in one weekend.
  

Thus revealed some real truth. NO CHURCH has it figured out. There are elements that we do really well, there are others we need to work on. We've been knocking on the door of breaking 1,000 a weekend several times over the last few years and Tony gave us permission to cut off the important stuff to go after the most important stuff.

I'll be spending the next few days, as will all the staff, asking myself, what must I do and how will I do that which God has asked of The Rock Church? It's a great question.