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Granger's Numbers

It's cool to see these kinds of numbers and celebrate with Granger Community Church:

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Case Study: Granger Community Church Part 4

All week we've been sharing stories and insight from Granger Community Church's launch of the Table. There's a lot we can learn from this large, nationally-recognized church near South Bend, Ind. Today we're going to look at a few more pieces.

Granger's Launch Plan
If you want to launch the Table right you need to do a lot of planning and work. We offer a roadmap that can show you the way. Granger did that planning and work. You can see some of it reflected in their detailed launch plan, which includes specific text for tweets/slides promoting the Table. Check it out:

• Launch Plan in PDF (201 KB)
• Launch Plan in Google Docs - If you have a free Google Account, you can click on ‘File: Make a copy' to save your own version of the document and then customize it for your church.

More Resources

• Launch Weekend - During launch weekend Granger's teaching pastor, Rob Wegner, shared the vision of the Table. This is how vision casting is done.
• Welcome video - Granger's welcome video is worth taking a look at, as much for what it doesn't say as what it does.
• Table video - Granger also put together a quick video summarizing what the Table offers.
• Web page - Their public website also has a Table section that includes all kinds of helpful resources and links.
• Q&A - And if you haven't seen it yet, be sure to check out part 1, part 2 and part 3 of our interview with Kem Meyer, Granger's communications director.

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Granger's Welcome Video

In the past we've offered recommendations for how to make a welcome video. We included all kinds of examples and tips.

But when Granger Community Church near South Bend, Ind., launched the Table, they didn't take our advice. They used this video:

Notice that it never once mentions the Table, or even the words "Internet" or "social network." The video was created and posted before they even decided to use the Table.

But it works.

Why?

Because the video is about who they are as a church. It says: This is who we are as a community. Join us.

You couldn't ask for a better introduction to the Table.

Because the Table is all about enhancing and building on the relationships that exist in your congregation. A lot of churches think of the Table as something extra, another thing to add on to what they're already doing. But Granger recognizes that the Table simply compliments what they're doing.

So their welcome video doesn't need to be about the Table (or even mention the Table). Instead it can simply focus on the community. Because that's what matters.

Learn more about how Granger uses the Table with our case study: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

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Case Study: Granger Community Church Part 3

Granger Community Church (GCC) is a leading congregation in Northern Indiana that launched the Table in the fall of 2011. Granger often draws national attention and helps other churches through their Wired Churches network of training and resources. With an average attendance close to 5,000, Granger put a lot of planning and effort into their launch, which was led by Communications Director Kem Meyer, author of Less Clutter. Less Noise.

We've been talking with Kem about their efforts with the Table. Part one of our interview covered why they needed something like the Table and part two covered how the Table has been received. For part three we dive into what made the Table work:

What do you think are some things that helped your launch to be so successful?

Kem Meyer: Let me mention five things...

There were pre-defined wins.
We took the time up front to identify our ministry needs (member and staff) before we started asking specific questions about functionality. We were careful not to react to new technology products, but to proactively connect value to our mission, vision and values. That's key. It was all about enhancing existing ministry—not adding on. We listed our objectives and tested every decision against those objectives along the way.

There was shared ownership.
We identified an advocate for the process, stakeholders and affected teams up front. We had early and on-going conversations throughout the entire year-long discovery process, answering respective questions and getting feedback all along the way. We even assembled a small team of volunteer beta testers from the congregation. Their questions and feedback were helpful from the start—they understood how people would use/not use features better than we did.

There was teamwork.
Not only were there a few churches already on the Table who took the time to share their story with us and answer questions for us, the staff team at the Table Project was invaluable to us. They listened, responded, offered assistance and were pretty much our "doctor-on-call" in the weeks and more intensely in the days leading up to and right after our launch. Their experience with the Table's use in a variety of settings provided us with a much needed advisory voice. They provided missing pieces and helped us make sense of things. Because of their commitment to us, we were able to make informed decisions about our plan for communication, launch and on-going care. Without them, we would have been flying blind.

There was context.
We were intentional about timing and language. The sequencing/invitation and consistent communication, including how-tos and celebrations, have been significant. We set our launch date during the "serving" weekend of our generosity series. A perfect fit. All of our planning and preparation for communication (launch and on-going) was about people, mission and ministry—it was not an announcement about a new "social network," website or technology.

As a matter of fact, we've been very intentional about not referring to the Table as a social network, social media or online network. The context that comes with those words for most people can be bad when we're trying to cast vision and create distinction for the unique value the Table brings to our congregation. Eliminating these words helps. For us, the Table has always been referred to as a "private network just for our church" or "a 24/7 hub where GCC people can connect with each other to serve, share and pray together."

There was care.
Before launch, we identified a couple of people to work together and build a Table Waitstaff team. They operate as Table community advocates by championing the appropriate uses of the Serve App, Discussion Board and Prayer Wall; helping members post pictures; monitoring all the traffic and offering personal coaching as needed. Two to three weeks after launch, the norms were quickly established, the community seemed to quickly figure things out and the need for personal coaching dropped off drastically. The current level of involvement needed by the Waitstaff is minimal (three to six hours a week) but crucial.

What kind of roadblocks did you run into post-launch and how did you deal with them?

Kem: It's been a tremendous launch and the right tool at the right time. I couldn't classify anything as a "roadblock" but there were two sticky points we didn't anticipate.

We didn't realize the constant communication it requires to get people to upload profile pictures or the complaints we'd receive from people getting too many emails from the Table. It's been pretty easy to navigate both issues; we just keep reinforcing the value of connecting names and faces and stay responsive to help people change their notification settings. It's constant, but simple. For example, we share a "Table Tip of the Week" to help with these sticky points. You can see a list of those at the bottom of this page: http://gccwired.com/table

There were a couple of controversial posts in the first few days, but we re-directed those directly and sensitively with help from our Table Waitstaff team and haven't had any other issues since that first couple of weeks.

You guys do a ton with Facebook and are very successful at it. Do you feel like the conversation is different on Granger's Table? How so?

Kem: The atmosphere of privacy and intimacy in the Table is safer, more personal—it's a conversation centered around church life, not all life. Because of the common faith and trust in the church family, people are sharing things on the Table they wouldn't share on Facebook and there's more intentionality with what is shared. Which in turn creates a more personal and meaningful response from others. For example, a woman posted a prayer request after losing a child and six people she had never met before in her own church have connected with her for support through a grief you can only understand if you've been through it. Another person posted a prayer request and serve opportunity on the Table for their neighbor who lost her husband unexpectedly. Within one week, they had enough people respond to provide two months worth of meals! There's encouragement and connection on Facebook, but we do not see the level of personal care and action that's happening on the Table.

Glean more wisdom from Kem Meyer and Granger's launch: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 4

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Case Study: Granger Community Church Part 2

Granger Community Church (GCC) is a leading congregation in Northern Indiana that launched the Table in the fall of 2011. Granger often draws national attention and helps other churches through their Wired Churches network of training and resources. With an average attendance close to 5,000, Granger put a lot of planning and effort into their launch, which was led by Communications Director Kem Meyer, author of Less Clutter. Less Noise.

We've been talking with Kem about their efforts with the Table. Part one of our interview covered why they needed something like the Table. For part two we dive into how the Table has been received:

What kind of response has the Table received at Granger?

Kem Meyer: Overwhelming. People are excited and thanking us for the Table. They're enthusiastic. They're connecting. Groups are communicating. Prayers are being offered. Praises are being shared. The church is helping each other. The church is serving others outside of themselves.

It's amazing to see people praying for each other, encouraging one another, helping one another and responding to needs on their own. No promotions required. We've even seen increased responses to several serving opportunities posted on the Table that had little to no response when they were listed on our website, bulletin or pre-service slides.

I'll let the stats and the stories speak further.

Some stats...

Before launch weekend:

• 146 members
• 40 prayer requests

Two weeks after launch:

• Over 1,200 members
• 281 prayer requests
• 4,616 prayers prayed

Two months after launch:

• More than 1,700 members (approx. 37% of our weekend attendance)
• 611 prayers and praises
• 10,826 prayers prayed
• 1,312 prayer comments
• 186 volunteer opportunities
• 367 volunteer sign-ups
• 23 items loaned
• 94 items given away
• 132 discussion topics

Some stories...

• Every year we try to coordinate the partnering of people in our church who have no means to provide "Christmas" for their families with people in our church who want to bless those very people. In the past, we've had trouble making the matches. This year, exclusively through the Table, all 13 GCC families were adopted and we even had a few "extra" host families we were able to partner up with Hope Ministries to help them with their needs.
• A few weeks ago, someone called into the church with a need for blankets and sheets for the beds in a household. Our care coordinator posted the need to the Table and the response was amazing. People not only brought in gently used items, but went over and above to bless this family with new beds!
• One night after service, a couple approached one of our pastors and shared "Wow, right after the Experiencing God unit concerning how God uses the church... it was powerful that the Table was introduced, reminding us that God uses all the church—not just the pastors and staff."
• 16 praises in the past month alone specifically expressing gratefulness for the impact the Table is having on our church and their lives.

What's your favorite feature of the Table so far?

Kem: The Table released ministry that had become traffic-jammed as a result of our growth. Overall, this has been the most rewarding benefit—watching institutional barriers decrease so the church can increase. The Table has centralized our church story and decentralized ownership—that's a good thing!

If you're looking for some specifics:

• The Table blog: It's been a treasure chest of support, ideas and communication resources.
• Prayer Wall: I love that the prayers and praises are archived and searchable. We can look back, connect stories to parts of our mission and vision and see what God has done. Plus, the prayer wall wins the award for most on-going encouraging feature—for the people praying and the people being prayed for.
• Serve App: It empowers people; they're taking action.
• Integration with F1: People are able to update their contact information without going through us. That's been a win.

Glean more wisdom from Kem Meyer and Granger's launch: Part 1 / Part 3 / Part 4

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Case Study: Granger Community Church Part 1

Granger Community Church (GCC) is a leading congregation in Northern Indiana that launched the Table in the fall of 2011. Granger often draws national attention and helps other churches through their Wired Churches network of training and resources. With an average attendance close to 5,000, Granger put a lot of planning and effort into their launch, which was led by Communications Director Kem Meyer, author of Less Clutter. Less Noise.

We talked to Kem about their efforts, and her answers were so helpful and detailed that we're going to share them in a three part series. Here's part one:

Why did you feel that Granger needed its own private social network?

Kem Meyer: Actually, we didn't. As a matter of fact, we've always had a hard time justifying why we would want a "church version" of Facebook or Twitter. Why wouldn't we just use the networks where the "social" conversation is already flowing rather than try to create a separate track?

However, the growing gap between two extremes—all or nothing—couldn't be ignored. For quite some time, the people of GCC had been asking for a central tool to help them search for, share with and pray for people in their family of faith without going through a middleman. There was a growing connection gap between ALL life and CHURCH life and communication gap between CORPORATE-driven activity and MEMBER-driven activity.

That's the question we were looking for an answer to, the problem we were looking for help solving.

What made you pick the Table for Granger?

Kem: We created a working framework as a filter and evaluated several strong tools on the market (e.g., The Table, SoChurch, The Common, The City, Cobblestone, etc.) against that framework. At the end of the day (actually, we took six months investigating various options), The Table was the absolute best fit for our needs. Here's an overview of that framework:

Fill a void.
We need a 24/7, mobile space that isn't so much our front porch (that's what GCCwired.com is for) but more like our church living room where people live church together. Our primary goal is to create opportunities to enhance community—not to create another broadcast tool for "corporate" communication. And, to meet an un-met need—not to create our own version of something that already exists. We need an online hub that doesn't re-create the wheel, but provides a secure space for people to live out the important aspects of faith that aren't available with our current online environments (e.g., safe place to post things on the calendar, to pray and be prayed for, share resources, etc.)

It's a growing family.
It's hard enough to stay connected beyond a brief hello after a service. It gets even more problematic with six services across two campuses. Something that allows us to search and find each other by name, life stage, interests, etc., can help us stay connected as one church family even if we never go to the same service or campus. People who have been part of GCC for years, as well as people who are new to the congregation, should be able to access the same hub to connect and share opportunities with each other on their own—no bottleneck.

Freedom within a framework.
Anytime you give people the ability to add, edit and respond to content there will be some necessary coaching and course correction along the way. The win isn't a perfectly controlled environment where the staff team chooses what "users" can and can't see, but a real organic environment the staff team can nurture. We'll need guardrails to help free people to be themselves, personalize their own flow and connect with others authentically. At the same time, we'll need simple controls to minimize the potential for destructive rogue usage.

Stay agile.
As people start using this new tool, they'll use it in ways we hadn't imagined. Our implementation approach will be flexible so we can adapt as we gain insight from our people—not only about the features and functionality, but also about the language people are using around their experience. It will help shape our on-going communication and care plans.

Controlled chaos.
Just because we can doesn't mean we should. A strong temptation with technology is to use everything too fast all at once. We'll be strategic about what this is and isn't—who it's for and who it's not for—what it does and doesn't do. While this is a new space to interact, we won't make people create a new username, password or profile. The hub needs to integrate and share data with tools our people are already using (Facebook or Twitter and Fellowship One).

How did you go about getting leadership buy-in?

Kem: We have a mission and vision at Granger—it is what shapes our culture and drives our day-to-day. That mission and vision is something we all already buy in to; leadership, staff and volunteer teams alike. As a member of the GCC team, it's my job to help find ways to move our vision forward. As communications director, The Table was part of the answer to specific problems I was charged with solving.

I think people run into difficulty getting buy-in when they try to sell something new versus supporting something that's already in motion.

Glean more wisdom from Kem Meyer and Granger's launch: Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

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How to Cast Vision for the Table: Granger Video

Last week Granger Community Church near South Bend, Ind., launched the Table. They've been sharing some incredible numbers on Twitter, but it helps to understand what's fueling those numbers.

Teaching pastor Rob Wegner introduced the Table during the Sunday service, explaining why they're using it and what it can accomplish. He did a powerful job casting vision for the Table and giving people a reason to use it.

Check out the video. We couldn't have said it better ourselves:

Watch Granger Vision Video (5:52)

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