Making the Most of Your Summer

May 21, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Summer can be a challenging time for Life Lessons groups, as vacations and the pleasantness of eating lunch outdoors take a toll on group participation. But with a little forethought, you can actually turn this seasonal lull to your advantage and potentially increase your group’s influence down the road. Here are:

Four Ways to Leverage Summer to Your Group’s Benefit


CHANGE TARGETS
Shifting your focus for the summer—for the sake of reaching a group of people you’ve been missing—can give you a wider base from which to draw once you’re back in season. You can tailor your DVD selection and market toward a specific stage of life, such as parents or singles. Or you could target management and management-hopefuls by temporarily switching gears from sermon-based content to leadership-based titles, like those in North Point Resources’ Leader Essentials series.
Suggestions: Parental Guidance Required; The New Rules of Love, Sex & Dating; L.E.: Trust vs. Suspicion; L.E.: Becoming a Great Staff
A great time to try it: When you’re having a difficult time reaching certain groups within your target audience.
Not a great time to try it: When the “this-group-is-for-everybody” promised is a key part of your arrangement with H.R.

TAKE A STRATEGIC BREAK
Sometimes we’re hesitant to take breaks because we’re afraid we’ll lose momentum. But cratering attendance loses momentum anyway, and you can actually build momentum by purposefully taking a break and giving your audience a chance to miss you. It also gives you a chance to build your lunch funds back up and re-charge your leadership batteries.
Suggestions: (1) Tell people in advance that you’re taking a break. This allows you to cast vision for why the break is a good thing, and plant the seeds for a momentum boost when your group returns. (2) Let people know that—and when—your group will be coming back. (3) Pick a series with a good “hook” for the return in the fall. Avoid titles that sound like downers.
A great time to try it: When the past couple summers’ experience tells you you’re headed for a trough in your participation.
Not a great time to try it: When your group is new (started in 2013) or has recently come off an extended break.

CAST VISION TO THE “INSIDERS”
When attendance flags, it’s often the core group of Christians who keep the group afloat. They’re also the ones who sometimes push back against the idea of taking a break. Have your cake and eat it too by taking the summer off from your normal Life Lessons group, but use that time to focus on the “insiders.” Specifically, use a Christian-oriented message series to remind people why you’re doing Life Lessons in the first place—to reach out to the unchurched/non-Christians in your sphere of influence—and inspire them to look outward.
Suggestions: Go Fish, On Location, Big Church, Christian: It’s Not What You Think (these last two may require meeting weekly to finish them before summer ends).
A great time to try it: When there haven’t been any new faces in a while, or when your group members have lost sight of the importance of reaching out.
Not a great time to try it: When your group is actively drawing new people (especially the unchurched/non-Christians) on a regular basis.

GREATEST HITS MARATHON
Some leadership teams don’t want to take the summer off, but also don’t want to “waste” a new series on a time when a lot of people won’t be there to see it. Their solution: summer re-runs! This allows people who missed a series to catch up, and can re-kindle interest by bringing back some titles that drew big interest in the past. You can also cherry-pick the best individual messages from different series to create a strong slate, while giving newcomers a chance to see what they missed.
Suggestions: Stick with titles you haven’t shown in at least a year.
A great time to try it: When your group has been around a while, but has experienced an influx of new people over the past several months.
Not a great time to try it: When your group is new and has little history from which to draw.

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New Series: “Breathing Room”

April 5, 2013 By Leave a Comment

We are pleased to announce the newest addition to the Life Lessons message series catalog: Breathing Room.




Deadlines . . . Traffic . . . Flights to catch . . . Bills to pay . . .

Emails . . . Carpool . . . Tennis . . . Dinner . . . Homework . . . Ever feel like you can’t catch your breath?
Perhaps you need some . . . [inhale] . . . breathing room . . . [exhale]. We all do.

In our attempt to get the most out of life, it’s easy to lose control of our lives. For most of us, breathing room feels more like a luxury than a necessity. In this four-part message series, Andy Stanley shows us how to create breathing room in our schedules, our finances, and our relationships. After all, life is better with breathing room.


Wait, this sounds familiar.

You’re absolutely right.
We now have three series that deal with the issue of “margin.” Most of you are familiar with Guardrails, a six-part series from 2010. Before that, there was Take It To The Limit, a six-part series from 2002.

So, how are these different from one another?

Breathing Room is shorter (four parts instead of six), because it has a narrower focus. It looks at margin in the areas of our finances, schedules, and work/life balance, but does not include messages devoted to margin in our morality or friendships (which Guardrails and Take It to the Limit include). Also, Breathing Room approaches the subject of margin from a quality-of-life angle, while Guardrails approaches it from the perspective of protecting yourself. All three series are fantastic and a great fit for Life Lessons groups, but there’s pretty heavy overlap in the content. If you have shown one of these margin-based series, we recommend waiting 18-24 months before showing another.

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Planning for Easter

February 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Today is Ash Wednesday, so with Lent underway, it’s time to start thinking about Easter.


In church world, we think of Easter as our “Super Bowl” — it’s the time of year that even non-church people attend church. Likewise, the Easter season may be a time of year when your Life Lessons group can attract some new participants who show little interest at other times. You can leverage this additional interest by showing an Easter-themed message or series in your Life Lessons group.

This option is not for everyone. In particular, if your group has made promises to HR or management not to proselytize or “push Jesus” on your participants, you should at least watch these messages in advance to make sure you’re not violating those commitments, as Easter messages are naturally among the most Jesus-centric messages we have available. That being said, if you think your group could leverage an Easter message or series, here are a few options:

Multi-part Series:
With Easter approaching on March 31st, you might need to start these series as early as next week to get the whole thing in before Easter.

  • Three Shadows of the Passion (2004, 3 parts) – In this series, Andy looks at three characters from the Easter story and contrasts the self-centeredness of their motives with the selfless sacrifice of Jesus.

  • Playing God (2007, 4 parts) – This series, which looks at power and how we use it, is not an Easter series, per se. However, Part 4 of this series (“The Script”) was the Easter message at North Point in 2007. The message was a bit shorter than most (29:50) because it was accompanied by a couple of special openers as well as 2 closing songs. The DVD version of part 4 does not include these additional elements, just the “Playing God” title package and the message. If you want to see how this played on Easter, you can stream video of it here. If you plan this series for Easter, then if your audience is open to it, your environment/equipment allows it, and you wouldn’t be compromising promises you made to HR/management, you might consider playing part 4′s intro via the web, then switching to DVD for the message.

Individual Easter Messages:
Each of these are DVD-Rs that are not available from North Point Resources, but can be requested by emailing us directly. Please order at least 2 weeks in advance, because we have a limited supply of these discs.

  • The Final Hours (2009) — Today, crosses are an important part of cultures around the world. We see them on the tops of buildings, we wear them as jewelry, and we celebrate them in art and fashion. So, how did the cross go from an unmistakable symbol of suffering and shame in the ancient world to a definitive symbol of hope and salvation in ours? In this message, Andy Stanley explores that question by examining Jesus’ choice to die on a cross.
    Click here to preview this message.

  • The Resurrection: It’s Essential (2012) — Do unto others. Love is patient, love is kind. Turn the other cheek. It’s easy to appreciate Jesus’ teachings. But then the Bible writers tell us that he rose from the dead. And a man rising from the dead is harder to believe; for some, it’s so hard to believe that they cherry-pick the teachings and refute the resurrection. In this message, Andy Stanley recounts the truth about Jesus’ life and death that Paul says is “of first importance.”
    Click here to preview this message.

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Did Andy really just say that?

January 29, 2013 By

Over the past week, I’ve heard from some of you who have had questions about something Andy Stanley said about President Barack Obama.

Last week, Andy spoke at the pre-inauguration worship service, and in his sermon, Andy used the phrase “Pastor-In-Chief.” This phrase sparked a bit of a controversy, and because you show messages from Andy in your Life Lessons group, you may find yourself called upon to explain or defend those comments.

That can be an uncomfortable place to be.

Fortunately, you don’t have to speculate on what Andy was thinking. Andy addressed this question himself a few days later, in an interview with Christianity Today.

Here’s a link to the web article:

      Christianity Today:   Did Andy Stanley Really Mean Obama Is ‘Pastor in Chief’?

If you have Life Lessons participants—or leadership team members—who have questions about Andy’s comments, I would encourage you to direct them to this interview.

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Most-requested DVDs of 2012

January 11, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Now that 2012 has wrapped up, and the results are in, it’s time to share with you the most-requested Life Lessons DVDs of the year.

Top 10 DVDs of 2012
We shipped well over 600 DVDs to Life Lessons groups in 2012. Not surprisingly, the four DVDs released between 4Q2011 and 3Q2012 were all among the top five most-requested message series for Life Lessons groups. Sitting at the top is The Comparison Trap, with 36 orders. I remember sitting in church with my wife last February, as The Comparison Trap was presented live, and we looked at each other saying, “This is going to be huge for Life Lessons groups!”

By the way, most of the newer DVDs on this list have had very few ratings or comments so far. If you’ve done one of these in your group, would you take a minute to rate it and/or offer your comments on the series page? Your feedback really helps your fellow leaders, who are considering which series to show in their groups.

Here’s the list of the Top 10 most-requested Life Lessons DVDs of 2012.

Rank Chg. Message Series 2012 Orders 2011 Rank Ratings Comments
1.
Comparison Trap
36
[new]
1
1
T-2.
When God?
26
[new]
1
1
T-2.
Life Apps
26
#5
8
3
4.
Recovery Road
24
#12*
6
3
5.
Christian: It’s Not What You Think
23
[new]
1
1
6.
Destinations/Boulevard of Broken Dreams
22
T-#6
15
15
T-7.
Game Plan
14
#3
7
3
T-7.
Guardrails
14
#5
19
16
T-9.
White Flag
13
T-#13
3
3
T-9.
Time of Your Life
13
#1
8
4

* Recovery Road was only available for the last 10 weeks of 2011, yet it still managed to rank 12th for that year. If all of the Recovery Road requests for its first 12 months of release were counted, its 38 would place it above Comparison Trap, and would be the 2nd-highest 12-month total, trailing only the 45 requests for Time of Your Life in its first 12 months. Of course, Comparison Trap still has two months to go in its first year of release, so it could still break Time of Your Life‘s record.

What about you? Which have been your favorite series? Add your comments here.

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Thank you, Jill!

July 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment

This is Jill Thornton’s last week with Life Lessons Over Lunch, and I wanted to take a minute to thank her and share the impact she’s had during her time here.

In the nine months since she joined the team as Life Lessons Coordinator, we have launched 39 new Life Lessons groups, and Jill has touched almost every one of those—whether in processing the applications, interviewing the leaders, fielding questions as they prepared to launch, or shipping their DVDs. If your group has launched since October, you have felt Jill’s influence. Jill has also invested in our veteran groups. She has helped countless leaders select message series for their groups and has shipped over 300 DVDs.

Jill’s influence has extended beyond just the administrative side, however. Prior to Jill’s arrival all of the Life Lessons staff had been men, and as a result, the Life Lessons groups that are primarily led by women have been somewhat under-served. Our male staff had not been able to meet one-on-one with female leaders, but with Jill on board that changed. In addition to her coordinator role, she served as a Groups Director for more than 30 female-led groups, visited many of these groups in person, and had one-on-one’s with a dozen of these leaders between January and the end of May.

This spring, some changes with her husband’s job created a new opportunity for Jill. She and her husband have two children, and for the first time since becoming parents, Jill has the chance to be a full-time, stay-at-home mom. That opportunity has proven too good to pass up. She left our staff just before Memorial Day so she could be home with the kids from the very beginning of summer vacation, but she graciously agreed to help us from home on a contract basis while we looked for her replacement. With our new Life Lessons Coordinator starting on Monday, July 30th, Jill’s time with us has come to a close. We are so excited for Jill and what this new chapter holds, and so grateful for everything she has done to help all of you invest in your spheres of influence!

Thank you, Jill, and we wish you the best!

Brian Volk
Director, Life Lessons Over Lunch

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Planning for the Fall

July 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Late July/early August is the time when
many Life Lessons groups plan their fall message series calendars.

If your group is like most, meeting every other week or twice a month, the Labor-Day-to-Christmas corridor gives you 7 or 8 meetings for which you need messages. Sounds like the perfect time for a 6-part fall series, followed by 1 or 2 stand-alone Christmas messages to close out the year.

By tapping into some seasonal interest, you may be able to draw some new faces into your group, and give more people an opportunity to here practical Biblical principles and consider issues of faith. Here are some great options:

6-part Fall Message Series:

  • Game Plan: Andy Stanley and Jeff Henderson tag-team this 2010 series on discovering God’s plan for our lives. Its football-themed intros and analogies make it perfectly timed for the fall.
  • Recovery Road: In the run-up to the U.S. Presidential election, the state of the nation and its economy will be front-and-center in many people’s minds.
  • Five Things God Uses to Grow Your Faith: The beginning of a new school year is a natural time to focus on growth, and the “fall color palette” and tree motif in the theme work nicely this time of year.

Stand-alone Christmas Messages:


These messages are described in greater detail on our Single Message Options page. With the exception of An Invitation to Christmas, they are all DVD-R’s that do not appear on our DVD Order Form, so you’ll have to request them directly by emailing the Life Lessons staff.

  • My Make-Believe Christmas (2005): The dysfunctional people and relationships that make Christmas so difficult? They’re the reason for the season!
  • Footnote (2007): Andy explains the historical context of the first Christmas.
  • An Invitation to Christmas (2009): Introduces us to a few of these colorful characters in Jesus’ family tree and how their roles in the Christmas story give hope to us all.
  • Uncomplicating Christmas (2011): The story of Christmas—God’s most important message to mankind—shouldn’t be complicated.
  • A Random Christmas (2011): Andy challenges us to respond to the seemingly random curve balls in our lives the same way Mary did to God’s biggest curve ball ever.

What about you? What is your Life Lessons group planning to show this fall? Add your comments here.

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North Point Live Album Recording Concert

April 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Are you a fan of the North Point Live albums?


     

Would you like to be there when the next one is recorded?

On Thursday, May 3rd, North Point Music will host the album recording concert for the next North Point Live worship album. Tickets are $10 each and are expected to sell out. Get your tickets here, while supplies last.

Want to go for free? Be one of the first two Life Lessons leaders to post a comment on one on the Staff Blog posts (other than this one), and you’ll win two tickets to the concert.

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Innocent and Shrewd

March 30, 2012 By 1 Comment


“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” (Matthew 10:16)

Jesus compares his followers to sheep at least a dozen times in the New Testament. In Matthew 10:16, he’s talking about sending his disciples into the world to spread his message‐and into harm’s way. And while followers of Christ in 21st-century America rarely face the kind of persecution that awaited the apostles, we are still at risk when we take the message of Christ into hostile environment.

This past fall, one Life Lessons leader found this out first-hand.

Chris*, was a Business Banking Sales Manager at a bank here in Atlanta, until he was terminated in November, in part for his involvement with Life Lessons Over Lunch. An employee whom Chris had previously invited to his off-site Life Lessons group and church had been fired for poor performance later complained that her dismissal was the result of religious discrimination. She claimed that the invitations were unwelcome, and that her lack of attendance precipitated the firing. The bank took a zero-tolerance policy, and with little investigation, terminated Chris’s employment. Chris feels that the HR manager was unhappy with the faith expressions of several employees and was looking to make an example out of Chris. Chris has since found a similar position with another bank, and continues to engage in marketplace ministry, but his experience highlights an uncomfortable truth:
We have been sent into hostile territory.
* name has been changed

The thing is, Jesus knew his followers faced risk. “Therefore,” he advised them, “be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.”

So what does that look like for Life Lessons leaders?

Let’s start with >>INNOCENT<<. Being innocent means being above reproach. It means giving those who wish to slander us nothing with which to work. That means:

  1. Follow the rules. If the company laid out ground rules in giving approval for your Life Lessons group, be diligent about following those rules. That may mean that you don’t send mass emails. It may even mean you don’t use your work email address to send the invitations. It almost certainly means that your email list should be opt-in.
  2. Be a team-player. Surrender the conference room cooperatively when it’s needed for company business. Make sure your meetings stay within the allotted time. Be willing to lead out if HR/management solicits your help with other corporate initiatives (or at least don’t cite your commitment to Life Lessons as a reason why you’re unavailable).

It’s not enough just to be innocent. Make sure you are also being >>SHREWD<<. Being shrewd means wise or prudent. A certain amount of risk is inherent in what we do; being shrewd is avoiding needless exposure to harm. That means:

  1. Be careful who you invite. Inviting your direct reports may create the impression that they need to attend for the sake of their job, and that can come back to bite you. Inviting those who have been openly hostile to religious things—unless your invitation is based on a solid relationship you already have with them—can easily be perceived as unwelcome proselytizing.
  2. Be careful how you invite. Be clear that while everyone is welcome, participation is completely voluntary. You’d be glad to have them, but there’s no pressure to attend. Persistence can be confused with pushiness, and pushiness is asking for trouble. Be willing to accept “no” for an answer; it’s not necessarily “no” forever. Once they know what you’re doing, when they’re ready, they’ll know who to see.
  3. Be clear about your purpose. The purpose of Life Lessons Over Lunch isn’t to be a place where you can share your faith or “witness” to non-Christians. The purpose is to “create safe and relevant environments… where participants are exposed to biblical principles and have the opportunity to consider issues of faith.” We want to set the stage for future conversations about spiritual growth; trying to “convert” people in the meeting usually works against us.
What about you? What does it mean to be “innocent” and “shrewd” in your environment? Add your comments here.

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Ordering Made Easier

March 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

You want DVDs. We want to give them to you.
And we both want this to be as simple as possible.

So we’re constantly working on ways to make the process ordering your DVDs smoother and more effective. Now you can:

  • Fill out the online DVD Order Form, click Submit, and you’re done. No more downloading a Word doc to your computer, filling it out, saving it, and emailing it to us.
  • Save your shipping address in your Profile, and it will pre-populate the Order Form for you.
  • Request up to 4 DVDs at a time. In fact, we’d prefer that you order at least 2, to make the most of our shipping budget.
  • Add your first DVD to the Order Form directly from that series’s Series Page.

Because we know it’s how you use this website the most, we’re putting quick links to the Order Form and the Curriculum Listing on every page in the Leaders section.

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