Divine connections, the neighborhood, the stained-glass window.

Divine connections

One of the key moments from the Holy Spirit at the beginning of our church was when he spoke to me and said, it will be according to your prayer and one divine connection a day. That word freed me as a leader, and it gave me a clear way to actually reach the city. One divine connection a day is 365 people you can impact in a year without any team at all. Whether you have a massive team to start or just a couple, it’s 365 in one year.

Right after God gave me that word, we were walking around Brooklyn the next day with our son in the stroller. It was freezing. All the kids in the city had these big stroller sleeping bags for the cold. We didn’t know we needed one, having just landed from Australia, so we went to a baby store in the neighborhood. There we met our first divine connection, a girl named Damaris, who is still part of our church and team over ten years later. Through her, probably more than a hundred people have been connected. From that one connection she had more connections and more invitations, and now hundreds of people are in our church because of one.

That’s a theme through this whole library. When we go after the one, God builds the church. If our vision is to reach our city, we have to start with the one divine connection. The reach will feel too overwhelming and too vast if we try to go after everyone. But if we just believe for one divine connection a day, and teach our future teams to do the same, the church will be built. The reach becomes exponential, not limited by a system or structure, built on relationship and personal revelation that God empowers each of us for the sphere we’re in.

The neighborhood

A key to divine connections actually starting to get momentum is a simple but powerful part of planting. Live in the area you’re planting in. I’ve heard so many stories of planters moving to a neighborhood and then planting in a church in the neighboring city or county. For all kinds of reasons. It disconnects you from your start-up place. There may be limits on what you can do as a couple or a family, but our heart is to live where you want your church to be. If your church will meet in a subdivision nearby, or the venue is just down the block, proximity is key.

You want to see the barista at your local coffee shop every day and invite them to the church down the road. You want the parents at your kids’ school, the ones you build real relationships with, to be close enough that church is easy and accessible. Living in your neighborhood is loving your neighborhood. If God has placed a city on your heart, your love and care for it will only deepen as you put roots in. Your future church will see your heart for the area, and your own capacity will grow as you build not just a church’s home but yours.

Every location and city we’ve planted, we’ve asked our pastors to live in the area. By planting roots, walking the streets, running into people, building divine connections, loving your neighborhood, the church is being built seven days a week and not just the one. Your daily life spills into the area, and the church is seen through all of it, not just Sundays.

Marketing and social media

We live in a moment where social media is one of the greatest tools for reaching people outside the church. When it’s not used well it can become a place of comparison and negativity for you as a planter. You can view it as something to keep up with, or to measure yourself against other churches. But when used as a tool to get the gospel out, it has a reach far greater than you or your team can have on your own in your city.

How we’ve always viewed social media at FOUNT is that it’s the modern stained-glass window of the church. Years ago, every church had a building and a sanctuary, and the stained-glass window was a staple. If you’re planting and not meeting in a traditional building, maybe you never will, maybe you’re in schools, warehouses, and music venues, that iconic stained-glass window isn’t something the outside world sees.

Look at it from a new angle. The stained-glass window was always there as a visual of the beauty within the building. The glory of God reflected through painted glass so that people outside would see the beauty inside. It was a billboard before billboards existed. A social post before social media existed. A visual of God’s glory to the outside world. Your social media is that now. It’s the visual for the city to see God’s glory happening within your church. A way to reflect glory, to shine bright, and to do it in a beautiful and compelling way.

When you see it that way, your social media has immense importance in reaching your city. Use it to actually show God’s glory. Make it visually compelling. Make people stop scrolling and see the awe of God, the way someone walking by a stained-glass window stops and looks up.

A practical rule we’ve used from the start: inspire two times more than you inform. Your social media will need to carry information sometimes, times and places and details, but that shouldn’t be its main purpose. People need to be inspired more than they need to be informed.

From the start we used that ratio, and made sure we were sharing stories, the word of God, and impact. Creatively designed scriptures, devotionals, thoughts to start your day, stories of lives changed. People are drawn to people. Share the testimonies of your people from the beginning. If you have five people in your church, share the story of one of them. Share what God has done through their life and how being part of the community is shaping them. That connection to a person will pull new people into the why faster than anything the pastor says.

Another good lens is to treat your social media like a foyer. On Sundays, your foyer has welcomers engaging new people. Use the same mindset online. When you’re new and growing followers, reach out to new followers and introduce yourself. Like a new person walking through the door. Send a DM. Welcome them, tell them you’re a new church in the area, mention the next gathering. That personal reach-out can land really hard on someone. If it’s for the one, it’s always worth it.

The power of stories

The power of marketing from the beginning is all about the story. Your story. The story of how you started and why. Your story as a couple. And then the stories of the people coming, their testimonies with Jesus, how God has changed their lives. The power of stories in reaching people will be the key to how you reach those outside your walls.

One thing we did from the beginning was share video stories at every gathering. We must have over five hundred video stories of lives changed across the years. What we found was that hearing from real people creates a culture of vulnerability, trust, and love in your community, because you hear of a life changed, and it reminds everyone God is alive and at work.

In your context a video testimony might not be feasible from day one. Adjust to what works, written blogs, photos with quotes, whatever the medium is. The medium isn’t the point. The story and the interview are.

For every story we want to draw out Jesus transforming a life. Past, trial, present, community, hope, future. Remember that stories are never complete. Never let it seem like everyone’s story has arrived at the destination to be worth telling. The journey is where God’s glory is revealed. That’s what we want to highlight. His glory through their story.

A few questions we ask that have drawn gold out of people:

• Describe your first experience with God. How did your relationship with him start?
• Talk through your upbringing, if there’s something specific from that season.
• What have you walked through that you’ve seen God bring you out of?
• What did you see God do through that?
• How did you find our church and get connected?
• Where have you seen prayers answered lately? How has God changed your world?
• What is God teaching you now?
• How do you think God sees you now?

However you set up your storytelling, make it a forefront of your marketing and social media from the start. Spend more time there than on event-based marketing. People will be inspired, they’ll want to share your community with their friends, and they’ll stick around.