anthonycoppedge.com church tech blog

My buddies at Church Media Group have been working diligently on the new website for Collide Magazine.

I remember when I first talked with Travis Gates about this project and how hard it was going to be to do a website worthy of the guys who, in my opinion, are setting the standard for a magazine. Their designs and style is gorgeous and impeccable. Creating a site for this group would be the greatest of challenges.

Well today’s the day! The new site is LIVE!

Major props to the gang of artists and developers at Church Media Group, including

• Ish
• Jurgen
• Chris
• Jose
• John

These guys are top class and have created a site that’s clean and easy to use while looking hot in the process!

And that guy you see in the picture above? That’s my good friend Phil Cooke. He’s one of my mentors and I love that the gang at Collide interviewed him. Once you’re on the site look it up. Or, if you’re lazy, just click here.

I’ve written a new article for Church Production Magazine about the use of IMAG in churches, slated for the July issue. The magazine editors have asked for several high-resolution (300 dpi) images of churches leveraging this technology.

If that’s your church and you can send a few of these high quality images to me, I’ll make sure to send them on to my editor. Plus, I’ll be sure to credit you and your church for the photos in the article. Just shoot ‘em over to me: anthony AT anthonycoppedge DOT com.

If you don’t mind, please email your friends and blog about this need for photos.

Thanks muchos,

Anthony

Day 18


Why do you serve in a creative/worship/arts/tech ministry? Before you answer, remove thoughts about what you are good at. Why do you serve?

I know that in my “church career” I’ve been in a position of doing a task rather than serving in a ministry. Do you see the difference?

If I serve rather than work, then I’m following my passion instead of my ability. Where we get confused is when our ability trumps our passion.

Think about it: when we’re asked to serve because someone saw an ability that we have, we find ourselves being guilted in to doing something that we’re not passionate about. Sharing transparently, while I know that I’m a terrific greeter (Meyers Brigg ENTJ here), that’s not something I’m passionate about. I’m very, very good at greeting people, making them feel welcome and creating a terrific first impression, but that’s not where God has given me a passion to serve.

Having a strong ability alone isn’t what calls us to serve with passion. Our call is based around our passion and our passion is derived from God’s blueprint for our life. When we serve with passion, we don’t rely on our talent (ability) but instead on that inner fire to do what we can’t help but love to do. In that passion, service is joyful and not a task.

So, after all of that, now answer the question: Why are you serving?

Here’s your assignment:

• Spend time (not just a few minutes) seeking God’s answer to that question.
• If you’re feeling burned-out, take a month-long Sabbatical and seek God.
• Check around you: who are you serving with that’s not where they’re supposed to be?

Day 17


Zach Neese, one of the song writers at my church (Gateway - www.gatewaypeople.com and www.gatewayworship.com), wrote this about the beautiful and moving song that he wrote, Alabaster Jar. I thought it was so incredible that as I began to write about “pouring out” (today’s assignment), this trumped any words I could have stitched together.

When I write a song, I begin in a moment with God, a gem of truth, and a cry that the Church needs to learn to vocalize. Alabaster Jar is a moment in the life of a person who remains at the feet of Jesus. The truth is that worship is not something we simply sing, but it is an attitude of the heart that motivates the actions of our lives. The cry is the chorus, “Here I am. Take me as an offering. Here I am giving every heartbeat for Your glory.”

The title refers to the sinful woman in Luke 7 who anointed Jesus’ feet with oil and tears and wiped them clean with her hair. I understand that woman. When you have been pulled off of the dung heap where the world casts aside its used-up, worthless garbage, you cannot remain unmoved. This woman permitted God to move her. And when she moved, it was an all-out act of worship; selfless, pure, extravagant, even embarrassing to the religious establishment. It takes a heart that has been wooed by forgiveness to love that deeply.

She bowed at His feet and poured out the wages of her past - everything she was. She poured out the security of her future - everything she could ever afford to become. She even poured out the tears of her broken heart and laid bare the wounds that they had pooled in. Then this amazing woman loosed her glorious hair and used it to wipe Jesus’ filthy, neglected, feet clean. She used her glory as a dust rag to serve Christ.

Her actions more eloquently expressed gratefulness than any words she could have spoken. That is worship. Worship is not lip service, but the grateful response of a heart that has been won by mercy (Romans 12:1).

That is how I want to live. God is worthy of nothing less.

Wow. That’s a powerful picture of pouring out, isn’t it?

When we serve, we pour out.

When we help a friend in a desperate time, we pour out.

When we are obedient without reservation, even when we don’t understand, we pour out.

Matthew 25:40 - “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’“

Here’s your assignment:

• Serve this weekend with the heart of one who pours out like the woman in Luke 7.
• Provide for a friend in desperate times; you have no idea how much they will appreciate it.
• Be obedient in that area where you are finding it hard to understand God’s plan.

The very first comment to my post on counting vertically and measuring horizontally, prompted this question from David:

Anthony,

I appreciate what you seem to be getting at here. The Great Commission is a call for the church to be making both converts and disciples.

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this question: Why should we make the effort to measure either one?

It’s a great question, and I’ve wrestled with how to give this the proper perspective. For if we first understand that we are in a society that has taught us to evaluate, categorize and analyze everything, it gives us our first clue that this might be an exercise in Greek thinking instead of Hebrew thinking. But, when we look back at Scripture, our thinking here might not be as simplistic as a measuring stick.

In the book of Acts, there are about 15 times when numbers are mentioned and/or expressed as a measurement. However, the context of those numbers seem, to me, to be based on the description rather than the numerical value of counting. Here’s how it breaks down:

Acts 2:41 - “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.”
Acts 2:47 - “And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
Acts 4:4 - “But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand.”
Acts 5:14 - “Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.”
Acts 6:7 - “So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith/”
Acts 9:31 - “Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.”
Acts 9:42 - “This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.”
Acts 11:21 - “The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.”
Acts 11:24 - “He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.”
Acts 11:26 - “So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people.”
Acts 14:1 - “There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed.”
Acts 17:4 - “Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women.”
Acts 17:12 - “Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.”
Acts 17:34 - “A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.”
Acts 18:8 - “Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized.”

The results are what Luke describes in the book of Acts. The quantitative numbers are the barometer; the qualitative numbers are the effect. Both give context and provide value. Numbers help us identify, codify and understand. It’s easy to look only at attendance as the main measurement tool, but it takes maturity and discernment to understand the fruits that are represented through the results of growth.

In churches that focus more on evangelism (top priority) than discipleship, numbers become the goal, so that practices change to pursue the numbers rather than engaging the practices that result in the numbers. Yet, on the other side of the coin, churches that focus on discipleship more than evangelism often don’t change their practices when the numbers represent stagnation.

I do not write any of this to throw stones one way or the other; to do so would be divisive and unhelpful and continue to reinforce the “either/or” mindset. Instead, I share my thoughts as an edification to believers for “both/and” in leveraging the measurement of quantitative and qualitative results.

Please share your thoughts, too.

Disclaimer: I’m not a certified church growth expert. I’ve not written a book on growing churches, nor do I pastor a large church that’s had a ton of numerical growth. But in talking with a very good friend of mine I’ve thought through some ideas and wanted to share my thoughts on measuring growth. - end of disclaimer

Yesterday I blogged about the Fellowbackgrangepoint Church model as a way of trying to describe what I’ve seen happening with churches. You might have your own church model that might look more like the Willoharvesttemple Church or the Friendshipcommunityofbible Church or any other mash-up of churches that your leadership has tried to emulate.

At the end of the day there’s a lot of ‘me too’ churches that are honest and sincere in their application of proven lessons. But the results are an overlay of formats that are missing the key ingredient: who God called your church to uniquely be.

There seem to be a couple of prevalent schools of thought floating around:

1. Measure attendance, because each number is a life in need of Christ
2. Measure discipleship growth, because life change matters most

Why is it either/or instead of both/and? If a church has 10 people that go very deep in studying Scripture and are a tight-knit fellowship of believers, but never reach people in need of Jesus, they’re ignoring the Great Commission (go and make disciples). Conversely, if a church has a huge front door with thousands coming in and nearly as large back door with thousands going out, why aren’t they discipling those people who are in and out?

So here’s the question I want to posit:

If we count vertically (attendance) and measure growth horizontally (how many serving and changing lives), our metric system is holistically valid.

Obviously, measuring attendance is a lot easier than measuring changed lives. But isn’t that worth the effort? I think it is.

We have to be careful in implementing this process, as it would be very easy for a leader to stop counting and begin judging those who are growing and serving with personal life-change. Yet, with a solid leadership infrastructure and a commitment of group leaders, capturing both anecdotal as well as tangible data is very do-able. In the end, I don’t think we should look for a hard and fast number for the horizontal growth, but maybe more of a barometer that gives an honest and accurate sampling of the result.

Given the plethora of church management systems software packages available, I know first-hand that the right reporting tools exist. The question is, are we being trained to use them to capture both the vertical and the horizontal?

How about your church? Is this honestly what’s happening? Or do you find yourself in an either/or situation? How can you move from where you are to the genius of the and?

I’d love to hear your thoughts…