At The Vertical Church we have several of what we call Kickoffs a year.  Just like the start to a football game, these are times of excitement and growth for our church. But in order to have a successful kickoff, we have to be disciplined to “P.L.A.N.” ahead for what God is about to do.  We use this acrostic to help us be ready for these times of spiritual and numeric growth.  So I just want to share with you this area of discipline that we practice as we prepare for a kickoff. There is nothing new in this system.  It is just a way for me as the pastor and our team to stay disciplined.

P- PRAY FOR GOD’S POWER We plan to pray. The way I look at it if you do not plan to pray you will not pray.  So we have specific times of the year already set aside for concerted prayer for the upcoming kickoffs.  For example, we start the year with a prayer guide called, “31 Days Of Prayer”.  The entire church takes the first 31 days of the year and prays together through this guide.  Or we might plan a day of prayer and fasting or 24 hours of prayer right before a kickoff.  Whatever the case, we try to put together a prayer calendar that has dates marked when as a church we will pray together for God’s power.

L-LINK YOUR PLAN TO A SERMON SERIES Next we link our plan of prayer and our kickoffs to a sermon series.  This takes months of planning in advance.  We set down in November and plan out thematically the entire year of sermons.  Then about six months out from a kickoff, we are titling it, packaging it, and thinking through the Big Ideas of the series.  The reason we choose to use a series is so that there is a hook that keeps them coming back for 4-6 weeks.  We have to stay disciplined to get this done early so that we can go to the next step.

A- ADOPT AN OUTREACH PLAN As we pray through this, we ask God how He would have us reach out to the community.  In this process, we include random acts of kindness and big events.  For example weeks before a kickoff, we may spend every Friday night at a local grocery store handing out free bottled water and then have one big block party right before the kickoff to promote the series.  If you don’t plan ahead and adopt a plan early you will run out of time to captialize on planting seeds for a later harvest.

N- NEVER FORGET FOLLOW UP During a kickoff series, we may have 50-100 guests come through our doors over a period of 4-6 weeks.  If we do not think through the process of inviting them, welcoming them, treating them right, and following up with them, we will lose a grand opportunity.  The goal after a kickoff is to keep the majority of first time guests.  To do this, we try to assess everything from the time they first visit our website until the time they leave and get home and check their email and then mailbox through the week.  We want to find the best possible ways to follow up with them without being overbearing.    This is just a plan that keeps us disciplined in planning ahead for kickoffs.  I would love to hear your planning process for big days or sermon series.