PAOLO, CRICKETTE, AND I VISITED THE “Sticky Church 2.0” conference last week. This was a gathering led by the team of Pastor Larry Osborne, the senior pastor of North Coast Church of San Diego, CA, USA. Also the author of the book, the ‘Sticky Church’.
1.) Passion For The Word. Since North Coast is part of the Evangelical Free denomination, you can presume that they put a high premium on the Word of God and it’s ‘inerrancy’. A good number of the people in their multi-site congregations bring their own Bibles every weekend. What a sight to see.
2.) Authentic Community. The relationships among believers were not just talked about, they are lived out. Imagine eighty percent of the people in church are in ‘growth’ group. This is rare in America.
3.) Culturally Sensitive. The leaders of the church are excellent students of their culture. They know how mobile the Americans are, so therefore have no strong relational roots. And they value their time so much that the leaders only expect them to be in two major important meetings every week: To be in one of the multi-site congregations and in a growth group.
4.) Culture Of Empowerment. If there was a choice between excellence and empowerment in church, the latter wins all the time. They are pretty much aware that empowerment without a platform breaths frustration. In a seven-thousand-member church for example, they have twenty-four bands to boot!
5.) Family Priority. Leaders don’t sacrifice their families in the altar of ministry.
6.) Making Disciples. The motto of the church that any guest can visually recognize says this, “Making disciples in a healthy church environment.”
7.) Small Group Emphasis. They call their groups, ‘growth groups’. They call them that, because that’s what they expect for the members to experience: spiritual growth.
8.) Teamwork Among Pastors. It was so evident when we were there. They all do their part to contribute to the overall church atmosphere: To be ‘sticky’ relationally and to the Word.
9.) Creative Communication. They decorate their venues according to the type of people they are trying to reach. They don’t hesitate to design their stage if the preaching series calls for it.
10.) Sermon-based Materials. The growth groups thrive week-in week-out because the members have something to look forward to every week. The people are given, not just the sermon outline to fill in during the preaching, but included with it is a homework they can work on prior to going to their respective small group that particular week.
It’s good to learn from a church with a similar passion: Making disciples.
