{"id":4239,"date":"2011-05-02T21:00:55","date_gmt":"2011-05-02T21:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/?p=4239"},"modified":"2011-05-02T21:00:55","modified_gmt":"2011-05-02T21:00:55","slug":"what-sports-clips-taught-me-about-church-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/2011\/05\/02\/what-sports-clips-taught-me-about-church-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"What Sport Clips Teaches Us About Men And Church Attendance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.visualphotos.com\/photo\/2x1766283\/two_men_worshipping_god_in_unity_566726.jpg?resize=550%2C339\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"339\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This past weekend it was time for me to get my every 3-4 week\u00c2\u00a0haircut.\u00c2\u00a0 Due to some scheduling challenges, I could only get it done during a time my regular location was closed.\u00c2\u00a0 However,<strong> I was driving by <a title=\"Sports Clips\" href=\"www.sportclips.com\/\">Sports Clips<\/a><\/strong> and thought I would give it a try.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I had been interested in Sports Clips for a while\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>as they advertise on local sports talk radio.\u00c2\u00a0 They promised an experience where I could watch sports while getting my haircut along with hot towels on my face and a shoulder and neck massage.\u00c2\u00a0 So what better time than now\u00c2\u00a0to give it a shot.<\/p>\n<p>I walked in and there was framed copies of\u00c2\u00a0<a title=\"Sports Illustrated\" href=\"sportsillustrated.cnn.com\/\">Sports Illustrated<\/a> all over the walls.\u00c2\u00a0 Banners and team emblems were everywhere.\u00c2\u00a0 The magazines were all <a title=\"Sporting News\" href=\"aol.sportingnews.com\/\">Sporting News<\/a> and other sports publications.\u00c2\u00a0 Flat screen televisions were showing ESPN’s NFL Draft recaps and analysis.\u00c2\u00a0 I thought,<strong> “This place is AWESOME!”<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>By the time my haircut had finished, <strong>the lobby was packed full of men<\/strong> just like me.<\/p>\n<p>Several years ago, I heard the following statistic on church growth from a pastor:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If a child becomes\u00c2\u00a0a Christian first, there is a 6% chance the entire family will.<\/li>\n<li>If the wife\/mother becomes\u00c2\u00a0a Christian first, there is an 18% chance the entire family will.<\/li>\n<li>If the husband\/father becomes a Christian first, there is a 94% chance the entire family will.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I’ll never forget what he then said, “Brian,<strong> our entire ministry from the time you enter the grounds, to the decor, to the music, to the message is designed to reach men.\u00c2\u00a0 Statistically, it doesn’t make sense to do anything else.”\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong> His church now runs over 12,000 men, women, and children during\u00c2\u00a0its weekend services.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sport Clips states “At Sport Clips, It’s Good to Be a Guy.<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0 At Sport Clips, we’ve created the perfect place for a guy to get great service and a great haircut. Our mission is to create a championship haircut experience for men and boys in an exciting sports themed environment. Stop in today for the ultimate just-for-guys haircut experience!”<\/p>\n<p>Church leaders, you should consider a mission statement\u00c2\u00a0that says\u00c2\u00a0“<strong>At\u00c2\u00a0ABC Church, it’s good to be a guy.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0We’ve created the perfect place for a guy<\/strong> to get great\u00c2\u00a0experience and a great adventure with God. Our mission is to create a championship\u00c2\u00a0experience for men and boys in an exciting sports themed environment. Stop in today for the ultimate just-for-guys\u00c2\u00a0worship experience!”<\/p>\n<p><strong>So church leaders, remove the flowers from the lobby and put in a Harley!<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0Replace the soft classical music with edgy guitars. Stop talking about feelings and start promoting adventure, and for Heaven’s sake remove the botanical garden and put in a ball field!\u00c2\u00a0 <strong>Do these things and watch men come into your church who are thinking “This place is AWESOME!”<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>And one more thing, then watch them come back the next week.\u00c2\u00a0 And when they do, they will bring their families with them.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div>To make your voice heard as a leader, click <strong><a title=\"The Leadership Tribe\" href=\"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/the-leadership-tribe\/\">The Leadership\u00c2\u00a0Tribe<\/a> <\/strong>link.<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>To automatically receive future posts on leadership, simply subscribe or click <a title=\"RSS Feed\" href=\"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/feed\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This past weekend it was time for me to get my every 3-4 week\u00c2\u00a0haircut.\u00c2\u00a0 Due to some scheduling challenges, I could only get it done during a time my regular location was closed.\u00c2\u00a0 However, I was driving by Sports Clips and thought I would give it a try. I had been interested in Sports Clips […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","iawp_total_views":6,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[94,96,120,164,165,229,259,285,346,723,384],"class_list":["post-4239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-leadership","tag-christianity","tag-church","tag-culture","tag-faith","tag-family","tag-inspiration","tag-leadership","tag-men","tag-pastors","tag-relationships","tag-religion"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4239\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}