As I’ve mentioned before, when I read books, I highlight and notate throughout the manuscript. Once I am done with a book, I go back and type up all of my highlights to place them in a file for future reference. Here is Part 1, Chapters 1-5 of Larry Osborne’s Sticky Church. This book is an amazing resource for all churches doing small groups ministry.
Chapter One – Sticky Church
If the back door of a church is left wide open, it doesn’t matter how many people are coaxed to come in the front door – or the side door, for that matter.
No matter what the church does to expand the size of the front door, it’s going to be hard to keep reaching people when the predominant word on the street is, “I used to go there.”
Chapter Two – Who Are These Guys?
That’s not to say I’m against marketing. Not in the least. We might do it someday. But to this point, we’ve opted to close the back door and grow by word of mouth, in the belief that even a small trickle can flood the whole house if everything is locked up tight.
Basically what we’ve done is to take most of the energy and resources we would have spent on special programming and front-door events and instead poured it into making our church more welcoming and sticky.
Chapter Three – How I Learned About the Importance and Power of Stickiness
A church that develops a ministry worthy of word-of-mouth referrals before launching its marketing campaigns or outreach programs will find that those who come once the marketing begins won’t just pop in for a quick look – they’ll stick around for the long haul.
What matters is not the size of the church or the slickness of the programming. What matters is that those who come find a ministry and relationships worthy of spontaneous word-of-mouth recommendations.
When that happens, a church is primed to hold on to the people it already has and the people they bring with them.
Chapter Four – Why Stickier Churches Are Healthier Churches
Ultimately, a church grows in one of two ways: It gets more people to come through the front door, or it stops losing people out the back door.
Front-door churches tend to look for the newest and best ways to be noticed and bring people in. If you could be a fly on the wall at an evaluation meeting, you’d find most of the discussion centered on how many people came to the big event.
Sticky churches might have great marketing and incredible programs, but if you could be a fly on the wall at their evaluation meeting, you’d find a different discussion. Instead of celebrating how many people came, the most important measurement would be how many came back.
Whether it’s the fabulous food at our favorite restaurant, the excitement of a great movie, or the life-changing impact of a church ministry, most of us can’t help but tell others when we’ve been well served – and no one needs to tell us to do so.
Whatever you do to reach people you have to continue to do to keep them.
High-powered front-door programs can have the unintended consequence of sending a message that some weekends and programs are for bringing guests – and the rest aren’t.
There is a second unintended obstacle that highly programmed front-door churches can put in the way of natural evangelism. If most of the people who come to Christ come as the result of a complex and high-powered event, it sends a subtle message that it takes lots of time, planning, and money to lead someone to Christ. And that tells the average Joe to hold off until we’ve scheduled the next great fishing party.
Instead of complex assimilation programs, a sticky church simply needs to provide plenty of ministry on-ramps to which members can easily connect the friends they’ve invited.
Proficiency in opening the front door tends to blind us to any growing problems at the back door. And by the time we notice, it’s often a huge hole that can’t be closed easily.
Chapter Five – Velcroed for Growth
Need-to-know moments happen when we find ourselves in a predicament where we need to know God’s viewpoint on an issue we’ve never dealt with before.
Need-to-grow moments are similar, but they’re usually accompanied by a tough trial or a stretching experience. It might be a new job with a jerk boss, the rough sledding of a financial mess, or the pain of a broken heart. Each in its own way calls for a deeper and more obedient walk with God.
The ultimate goal of a sermon-based small group is simply to Velcro people to the two things they will need most when faced with a need-to-know or need-to-grow situation: the Bible and other Christians.
Front-door churches that fail to structure for spiritual growth risk becoming merely a birthing center, the telltale mark of which is a back door fueled by maturity migration – a steady flow of people who complain, “I got started here, but I can’t grow here.”
Back-door churches that fail to structure for spiritual growth will end up with programs and ministries that keep people from leaving but do nothing to help them grow or reach out to those who need Jesus.
