Sticky Church

This was written by Dan Maxton/Terry Martell who are the BGC LEAD Team Coordinators. It gives a great overview of STICKY church. I am currently reading this book and believe it has some great ideas that need to be implemented in most churches.

What does it mean to be a STICKY church?

Here is an interview of Larry Osborn, pastor of North Coast Church in San Diego about his new book written about assimilation.

What are one or two things that you've learned about STICKYNESS? The first is that stickyness starts and ends with significant long-term relationships. It's not about providing better programs. It's not about developing a slick assimilation process. It's about finding practical ways to velcro people to one another to create long-term relationships.

What is unique about what you have to say in STICKY Church? I show what STICKINESS looks like, and explain why so many of the things we currently do to "reach" and "assimilate" people actually hinders the process.

For instance... programs and ministries are not very STICKY. They're sort of like Post-its; they do connect people to the ministry; but the connection is easily removed. Or how about small groups? Most of the models we're using today are broken. They work far better in theory than in real life.

Who is the book for and why should they read it? It's aimed primarily at pastors and church leaders. It's the sort of book that a pastor or leader can work through together with their staff or lay- leadership team. That's why we put a study guide and reflection questions in the back.

Share one idea from the book that's been helpful for pastors. I'm challenging some of the most widely held and seemingly unquestioned bits of conventional wisdom about assimilation, special programs, and small groups. I've had lots of people tell me, "I always thought that, but I didn't know anyone else did."

What do you hope the reader takes away from the book? It's about church health... It's simply about keeping them connected to the church long enough to fulfill the second half of the Great Commission: "Teaching them to obey all things I have commanded you." Retention matters--in everything. If we're not STICKY, it's hard to be healthy.