When the financial markets collapsed in the summer of 2008, communities all across our nation were hit hard. Many were devastated. One such community was Dalton, GA located just south of the Georgia-Tennessee state line.
Dalton is the carpet and flooring capital of the world. When new construction and building renovations basically came to a halt, this city became of the epicenters of the 2008 economic collapse.
Matt Evans, a lifelong Daltonian and Lead Pastor of Rock Bridge Community Church, was now forced to lead in this new reality. God has since used this church in a powerful way to bring hope and healing to this once-devastated community. Despite being in a rural setting, Rock Bridge now runs over 5,000 in weekend attendance with four campuses.
Our team at INJOY Stewardship Solutions recently sat down to talk with Pastor Matt to discuss how to lead a church during a financial crisis along with a number of other items including how to grow a multi-site church, disciple financial leaders, and lead in a rural setting.
You can view this amazing interview this Thursday, February 25th at 2:00 PM EST for FREE by clicking HERE. The webinar is entitled “How To Grow A Multi-Site Church” but contains content all church leaders can learn from. You will be a better pastor and church leader after learing from Pastor Matt.
To give you a small taste of what you can expect, the following are 14 truths from Pastor Matt about Leading A Church During A Financial Crisis:
- Leading A Church During A Financial Crisis Does Not Mean There Are Not Opportunities To Advance The Gospel – “There’s opportunities in every setting for the Gospel to be presented that’s contextualized and people can understand it.”
- Leading A Church During A Financial Crisis Does Not Change God’s Original Plan – “God has ordained giving to fund the Kingdom.”
- Leading A Church During A Financial Crisis Allows For Creativity – Creativity often flows from scarcity. “Our only tradition is the Bible.”
- Leading A Church During A Financial Crisis Is Often Confusing – “As a lifelong Daltonian I’d never seen our town as at a loss and I don’t know we’re out of it yet.”
- Leading A Church During A Financial Crisis Changes The Context In How You Deliver Ministry – “The context has changed. We were the millionaire capital of the world when I grew up and we’re either the second or 10th poorest metropolitan area today depending on how you measure.”
- Leading A Church During A Financial Crisis Requires You Create Financial Margin – “We took precautionary measures in our budget with regard to savings.”
- Leading A Church During A Financial Crisis Requires You Shrink Your Budget – “(We would ask), ‘Do we have to do that right now’ and just shrunk down a little bit.
- Leading A Church During A Financial Crisis Requires MINISTERING To Your Financial Leaders – “We knew certain people had lost significant assets.”
- Leading A Church During A Financial Crisis Means Offering People Hope – “The middle class in Dalton was, I don’t want to say wiped out, but it was significantly reduced.”
- Leading A Church During A Financial Crisis Means Touching Poverty On A Daily Basis – “Poverty escalated. All our schools are 80% or higher free and reduced lunches.”
- Leading A Church During A Financial Crisis Requires You To Help People Transition – “Unemployment went into double-digits.”
- Leading A Church During A Financial Crisis Means Having A New Reality – “From my conversations with business people I don’t think we’re out of the recession.”
- Leading A Church During A Financial Crisis Changes Your Posture In Demonstrating The Gospel – “We realized we could not live in a community with this level of poverty and not change our posture to demonstrate the Gospel and demonstrate the Kingdom.”
- Leading A Church During A Financial Crisis Changes Your Focus Of Ministry – “It changed our focus to being more engaged in local outreach or local missions.”
As you can see, you don’t want to miss any of Matt’s insights. Click HERE or on the image to the left to sign up today.