The Sad Truth About Church Events

“Every project wants to fall apart and every project wants to be bad. They have two instincts that you’re always fighting against. Make it better. Hold it together.”

When Nina Jacobson said this on the Without Fail podcast she was describing her job as a film producer but THIS IS UNIVERSAL.

Every church event WANTS to fall apart. I used to think all I had to do to make a successful outreach was to put it on the calendar and post about it on social media. That might not be the dumbest thought I ever had but it’s up there (when I was little I thought I could trick my friends into thinking I was the star of Home Alone).

Think about it like your big event is actively working against you. That'll keep you on your toes. You can’t afford to assume anything. Volunteers will drop out, people won’t pay attention to social media and completely miss the announcements, and it’s probably going to rain.

I’m really bad about assuming too much. I assume people know things without me ever communicating them. I assume things are possible without checking ahead of time. 

You have to make sure you have enough time to develop, plan, and prepare this event.

You need a team who can handle some of the responsibility because it’s easier for a big event monster to defeat you when you try to tackle it on your own. With a team you can attack from all sides.

If it’s the first year you’re doing this big outreach event, imagine it’s a baby. You wouldn’t throw some clothes into a baby's room and expect them to get dressed and ready on their own. You’ve got to be hands on. If you’ve been doing an event for 5 years, you can probably treat it like a 5 year old. They’re able to do a lot for themselves but they still need some supervision. If you’ve been doing the same event for 18 years, maybe it’s time to kick them out of the house and try something new.

Every event is trying to fall apart. If we go with the baby analogy, every event wants to poop its pants and throw up all over your nice clothes and ruin your plans.

If we believe in our event we’re willing to fight the good fight, get our hands dirty, and make sure it’s a success.

Want to make sure you believe in your event? Here are 3 questions to ask in the planning stage.

3 Questions About The Comedy Outreach Event

In a previous post I shared 3 questions to ask when planning your next church event. I thought I’d answer them about my 3 night comedy outreach event.

Why this?

It is a totally unique approach to outreach. We’ve never done anything like this before and it’s important to try new things.

We all know people who are closed off when you invite them to a church service but they might be more open to an invitation to a free comedy show.

It’s an event the whole church can get behind, bringing together youth and adults.

It’s be a great way to open conversations within the church about vulnerability and the importance of being open and honest about what’s going on in your life and it’ll train the congregation on how to be there for each other and bear each others burdens.

It’s an event that tackles heavy issues in a way that doesn’t feel scary or intimidating. The laughter makes it all more approachable.

Why here?

If we want to see growth, discipleship, and stronger community in our church we need to start with an emphasis on confession. Community is built when our walls come down and we let people in to our lives and see us for who we are, mess and all.

If we want people to know Jesus can pull them out of the darkness of their struggles, first they need to know it’s ok for them to admit they’re struggling in the first place.

Why now?

This one depends on when you want to schedule the event.

Maybe you’re wanting to relaunch small groups and this could be a great event to get people plugged in. Maybe it’s in the Spring and you want to have a big exciting event to announce to all the new people who show up on Easter Sunday.

You know what God is doing in your church this year. You know the best place for an event like this to fit in.

I really believe in this event. It’s the most effective way I partner with churches for comedy shows. I’d love to be a part of what you’re doing in your community.

To book an event, contact me.

Deadlines

Deadlines. https://t.co/UbFXdE1xEd

— Brendan Reichs (@BrendanReichs) January 6, 2019

Douglas Adams on deadlines:

“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.”

This last week I set deadlines for my book. I know when all four of my drafts need to be finished. I know when I need to send it off to get printed. I know when I need to make a decision about who’ll design the cover. It was a real relief to create that road map and know what exactly what needed to be done in the coming months.

But now I have to actually do the work?

Oh boy.

Daily Blogging Like Austin Kleon

Austin Kleon has always talked about why daily blogging has bee so important to him as a writer. I decided to try it back in November and I finally understood what he was talking about. I’ve been going strong for 65 days straight.

Sitting down to write has gotten SO much easier. A few posts I’ve written have turned into rough drafts of chapters for the book I’m working on. And I’ve seen a HUGE spike in the number of people visiting my website.

Whenever I try to convince someone else to join me in daily blogging I always point to Austin Kleon’s post “A Few Notes on Daily Blogging” because it’s so good and he’s absolutely right.

Are all 65 of my posts incredible pieces of writing that everyone should read? No. Absolutely not. Yesterday I was so drained, in such a bad mood, and DESPERATE for something to post that I wrote about a screenshot of Shaq in a General Insurance commercial. That’s…not great. But it’s something. I’m keeping it a daily habit.

I’ve heard Conan O’Brien talk about how he’s learned to not get too obsessive about the quality of every single episode of his show. He’s doing a new one every night. That’s hundreds of shows a year. You can’t waste any time beating yourself up about a show that aired three weeks ago. You’ve got to move on and focus on the one that’s airing tonight. He says he likes to think of it like a batting average in baseball. He knows that not every show is going to be amazing but he wants to make sure they have a really high average. More good shows than bad. When you look back on the year, sure not every hit was a home run, but what’s your batting average?

I try to have the same mindset with my posts.

The other thing that was really helpful when I was starting out was Austin Kleon’s 30 Day Challenge. I used that to get through November and now the habit has stuck. Even if it’s 2 am and I’m SOOOOO tired I’ll still make sure I post something before I go to bed.

It’s a new year. Maybe daily blogging is worth trying out?

Appreciating The General

My mind is all over the place right now. I’m trying to keep up with my writing deadlines for my book, I’ve been getting ready to start booking shows and services in the spring, and on top of that I’m just plain ol tired.

The weather is really affecting my mood. I don’t feel like doing anything. I’m barely pushing through. Some times when I feel overwhelmed I just need to laugh at something incredibly stupid. This screenshot from a General Insurance commercial is really doing the trick for me right now.

It’s just so dumb.

Look at Shaq. Look at him. What is he doing? Why is he best friends with the general? Why are they on a road trip together?

I don’t know the answers but if they turned this into a movie you know I’d watch it.

Biggest Misconception About Christian Comedians

There are a lot of misconceptions about Christian comedy. “All Christians who are comedians suck” is the most obvious one. Usually I’ll hear about this from people who come up to me after a show to say “Man, I thought that was going to be terrible but I had so much fun!” Thank you?

But there’s one misconception I really want to help erase from pastors’ minds.

"My church isn’t big enough to host a comedy show."

I totally understand where this thought comes from. You don’t want to invest all this time, energy, and money into a big event and end up with a tiny audience. Laughter is contagious and you’ve got to have a crowd in order for a comedy show to be successful. If you don’t think you can pack out your auditorium and have as many people as you’ve seen in the crowd on Netflix comedy specials, why even bother?

But here is the truth: it is not the size of the crowd that matters. It is the size of room you put them in.

You can have an incredible show with a ton of energy and excitement with an audience of only 40 people. You just have to put them in the right room.

Put 40 people in a room that fits 500 and it’s going to be awkward. It’ll feel empty. Everyone feels disconnected from each other. The laughs won’t be as loud and the energy feels low.

But if you put those same 40 people in a room that BARELY fits 40 people and it’s a totally different show. Everyone is close together. You feel packed in. There’s excitement because the crowd looks big in that room. The laughs are louder because they’re contagious.

The size of the room is really important.

When I did my tour of house shows I’d perform for 30 people and it felt AMAZING because we were packed into a living room.

If you want to plan a comedy show at your church, figure out how many people you think you’ll have attend, and choose the room you’ll have the event in based on that.

If you only have access to the main sanctuary, use pipe and drape to curtain off back sections to make it feel like a smaller room.

I promise it’ll make a difference.

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Want to book a comedy show at your church? Contact Taylor Johnson, a very funny comedian and all around nice guy.

Got to do it

I don’t know why today was such a struggle. I barely made it through and got any work done. It was one of the roughest days I’ve had in a while. Where’s the sun? The weather has been so dark and gross and moody for too long. Do I need to buy one those lamps that tricks you out of seasonal affective disorder?

Tonight I sat down to write 2,000 more words for my book. After crawling my way through my To Do List all day I fully expected writing to be a real battle. I set up my laptop at a coffee shop because I had to get out of my apartment if I wanted to avoid going insane and before I pulled up my word document I played this song from Andrew W.K.

I needed to hear someone say “You’ve got to keep going.”

42,951 Words Remaining

My goal is to finish the first draft of my book by January 31. I’ve been taking notes and writing little thoughts for a long time now but I thought I needed to finally commit to this thing and jump right in.

Wade Bearden told me the first draft of his book, Failing Faith,  was around 45,000 words, so I decided to use that as the target for mine.

I officially started tonight. The goal was to write 2,000 words before going to bed. I’m at 2,049. I’ve got 42,951 to go. 

New Year, Better Goals

I love the end of December. We get Christmas, my birthday (selfish), and New Year’s.

Today starts the brief window of about one to two weeks of everybody at their most optimistic. It never lasts but at least we get to see people setting goals, dreaming big, believing in themselves, and hoping for change. You get a peek into who they want to be. After the first few weeks of January people usually hide that part away from the public again. We get embarrassed because we've already slipped up on our plans so we might as well give up all together. We feel stupid for even trying. Shut it down.

I really hope I don't fall into the same pattern. I've done it before. I have the capacity to do it again.

I started using Michael Hyatt's Full Focus Planner at the beginning of December and I really hope it can help stay on track. It's really dragging me out of my comfort zone. No one has ever accused me of being organized. It's all very new and strange for me to even attempt this. I had to watch 11 training videos to learn how to use this planner.

My favorite aspect of the planner is how you set goals. You’re supposed to make them big and risky. Clearly define them. I’ve seen a lot of people on instagram with resolutions like “be better with money” or “be less stressed.” What does that even mean? It’s so vague and forgettable. How are you going to measure it?

It’s all about SMART goals, baby! Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant (or risky), and time-bound. Give it a deadline!

After you’ve figured out what your goals are, the planner has a space for you to write out WHY the goal is important to you and you designate a REWARD for when you finish it. I love that. That why is going to keep you motivated and if that doesn’t work you can remind yourself of that sweet present you’re going to give yourself when you finally complete the goal.

I’ve got my goals all figured out. I’m excited for 2019. Big things are coming.

Watch More Jackie Chan Movies

I’m sure a lot of you have already seen this. I’m sure I’ve even shared it before but I need to post it here on my blog just to make sure.

A couple of days ago I was recommending movies for a group of us to watch. I brought up Jackie Chan’s Rumble in the Bronx but I realized halfway through my pitch that it’s a hard sell. Unless you’ve seen this video essay about why Jackie Chan is so incredible.

Rumble in the Bronx is on Netflix and so is The Legend of the Drunken Master. Both are so much fun.

We should all spend more time with Jackie Chan is 2019.