Lunch with Jake Miller

I had a great lunch with Jake yesterday. He was the finance administrator and groups guy for Catalyst Church a Northpoint Strategic Partner that had to close it's doors earlier this year. Here were a few things he said that I thought would be good for everyone to learn from.

1. The biggest mistake we made was not talking about stewardship and giving from day one. People got used to coming without giving, so when we asked them to later on, it was too hard to make the transition.

2. We thought we knew everything. Even now, when church planters ask us to have lunch with them, they tend to talk 90% of the time, rather than listen to some of our advice that was painful to learn.

3. We found our location to be where people worked, but not where they lived. We should be where they live.

4.We outsourced our payroll, and much of our media. This cost us some money on the front end, but it kept us particularly in payroll from having to have people trained in new tax laws, and filing options. And at the end of the year, it was that company's head on the chopping block, not ours.

5. We made every attempt to focus our worship experiences on the people who had never been to church before rather than on those we already had attending. At times when we got away from this, we found ourselves very busy trying to please people.

What can you learn from someone else? Are you asking questions, or are you doing all of the talking?