The One Thing Reach Australia

When you have a church building and people who don't attend your church want to use it, what questions should you think through first?

Kate Stace from Vine Church is the Ministry Operations Director at Vine Church in Sydney. She shares:


Why what happens in your church building matters
Using your site as a mission field
Priorities for what the building is used for
Policy nuts and bolts
Questions to ask before outsiders use the space
Church members using the building and why they should
Mistakes Kate's made (and what she learned from them)



TOOL BOX:

Building Management Resources Kate has made available.



CREDITS:

The One Thing is brought to you by Reach Australia.

For ideas or questions please email resources@reachaustralia.com.au

To support the Reach Australia Online Library head here.

Have you ever noticed the bits of writing at the end of the song you are singing? It should include the acronym CCLI. Christian Copyright Licensing International does not police the law in copyright, but is there to serve the church in making sure we adhere to the laws well and serve our musician brothers and sisters. Bhavani Marks visits us to talk about:


What you need to pay copyright licensing for and who do you need to pay it to.

This can include: playing songs, playing music in the foyer, live streaming, movies and clips of movies, etc.
Reporting and licensing can be an administrative pain, but it is important act of love and obedience.
Other tools that CCLI provides like SongSelect.
How and when churches should be reporting and why it matters to CCLI (and song writers).



TOOL BOX:CCLI Australia

Song Select

Reach Australia National Conference



CREDITS:

The One Thing is brought to you by ⁠Reach Australia⁠.

For ideas or questions please email ⁠resources@reachaustralia.com.au⁠

To support the Reach Australia Online Library head ⁠here⁠.

Australia has seen a number of church management platforms. Do we need another one? ChurchSuite (an online management system built in the UK) is coming to Australia this year. Scott Sanders asks Gavin and Paul from ChurchSuite about how their platform will benefit Australian churches:


Why putting 'people before programs' is so important.
How the platform is designed for people who love tech and those who don't
The relationship between discipleship and database
Helping churches ask the question: Where is the one sheep that is getting lost?
The uniqueness of the platform having 'tags' and 'keynotes'
Is ChurchSuite here for the long term?



TOOL BOX:

churchsuite.com.



CREDITS:

The One Thing is brought to you by Reach Australia.

For ideas or questions please email resources@reachaustralia.com.au

To support the Reach Australia Online Library head here.

Vine Church uses name tags, Hunter Bible Church does not. In this episode Toby Neal (Vine Church) and Dave Moore (Hunter Bible Church) face off in a debate about whether name tags are helpful in church. 



Arguments for:


Community: They can help people connect as addressing people by name helps with relational interactions
Follow up: Having a check in process helps to get new people's contact details and helps with the followup process after Sunday
Pastoral care: Name tags can be used to see attendance and help reach out to people if they aren’t turning up to church

Arguments against:


It adds a step of complexity to people coming into church
If you train a good welcoming team, you don’t need name tags
It can make church feel like a corporate event when it should be a relational environment







TOOL BOX:

177: Better Welcoming 1

178: Better Welcoming 2

Gospel Growth and Community ebook

Are Christian books still a powerful tool for evangelism? Rory Baxter has been publishing books as cheap as he can, to get them into the hands of as many non- Christians as possible. Here's his take on how they've been effective in churches. 



Scott and Rory talk about:


Rory's own story about learning the gospel with dyslexia
What is it about books? You can take it are your own pace, it is easier to give people a book, it sits with people and you can give it away easily


Shorter books allows all types of people to engage with the gospel and they get to the point quickly


Books are a supplement or an addition to evangelistic work within the church. If everyone leaves with a book, they have access to the gospel whenever they want and can return to it anytime.


Different books will work for different people so we need lots of different books but books about Jesus are the most effective in evangelism


Get good books and give them out widely, don’t let cost get in the way because people will read them





TOOLBOX:

10 Of Those

Wandering Bookseller

Matthias Media

Word 1 to 1

12 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Easter.



CREDITS:

The One Thing is brought to you by Reach Australia.

For ideas or questions please email resources@reachaustralia.com.au

To support the Reach Australia Online Library head here.

Andrew Heard has a new book out, Growth and Change. Over the coming weeks we'll be posting conversations that Jo and Scott had with Andrew about the book and its background on the Reach Australia Podcast (our longform podcast).



In this episode of The One Thing, Jo and Scott reflect on their conversation with Andrew. Here are some of the things that they loved:


He works through these struggles biblically and practically


He doesn’t rush to the pragmatics, rather focuses on how the hearts of church leaders need to be in the same place as God’s heart


This then flows into everything - principles of ministry, focus, pragmatics


He challenges ‘what is it we are focusing on?’ - more clarity and directs our energy into the right things.


He challenges the desire in our world to want to measure - why numbers matter, how to use them to assess ministry.





TOOL BOX:


Watch for the 4 Episodes with Andrew Heard on the Reach Australia Podcast (usually comes out on Wednesdays)


‘Growth and Change’ by Andrew Heard


Reach Australia Ministry Framework ebook



CREDITS:

The One Thing is brought to you by Reach Australia.

For ideas or questions please email resources@reachaustralia.com.au

To support the Reach Australia Online Library head here.