Handout from the 03-06|07-2013 Regional Cohort Gatherings for church planters on the East Coast Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church.

1. Regional Cohort Gatherings
Wed March 6, 11:00am - 2:30pm | NY/NJ Metro
Thu March 7, 11:00am - 2:30pm | Greater Boston/New England
Contact & Quick Info
links are clickable in the post and pdf at www.jasoncondon.com
Jason R. Condon Quick-Start Guide to ECConf Church Planting
Associate Superintendent & Director of Church Planting, • "Understanding Church Planting on the East Coast
East Coast Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church Conference" (or www.jasoncondon.com/2012/04/
• jasonrcondon@gmail.com handout-understanding-church-planting.html) -
seminar handout introducing concepts & strategy
• (860) 479-2020
• "What Are We Looking For in A Church Planter?"
• www.jasoncondon.com (or bit.ly/Qfbiue ) - an overview of what we value in a
(Cohort handouts and resources posted here) church planter and his or her ministry
• facebook.com/jasoncondon • "Church Planter Identification Process"
• eastcoastconf.org (or bit.ly/TfnyKr) - an overview of how we assess
• covchurch.org church planters and pursue church planting within the
East Coast Conference and the Covenant
Welcome
• Open in Prayer
• Super-Quick Intros: name, ministry setting, why you’re here today
• Lunch: we’ll grab lunch whenever it’s ready or convenient
NY/NJ Metro Only
Covenant Kids Congo - Adam Phillips
www.covchurch.org/covenantkidscongo
Presentation, Q&A, and Discussion:
Regional Cohort Gatherings | NY/NJ Metro & Greater Boston/New England
March 6 & 7, 2013 | page 1 of 6

2. Back to Basics
Outreach & Evangelism
Normal & Natural Pathways
“In your church, what are Normal and Natural Pathways to Evangelize People so they come to a
transforming faith in Jesus?”
• What kinds of experiences do people need in order to become fully-devoted followers of Christ?
• How will you use training events, small groups, mentoring, worship, etc as part of an overall strategy?
• What will you do for a call to decision that helps people mark their milestones and allows your church
to follow-up? Examples: will you use "altar calls", have people raise their hands, mark an info card, visit a
special area in the worship space for prayer, resources, and follow-up, write their name on a "decision wall",
or some other tangible response that helps them mark the moment and allows your church to follow-up?
• Note:
• full document for Normal & Natural Pathways at: www.bit.ly/normalnaturalpathways)
• At The Exponential Retreat we’ll go deeper into Discipleship, following up on their theme: Disciple/
Shift (yes, it’s all discipleship :)
Easter Season | Purposeful Preparation
• How are you preparing as as an entire church (pastor, staff, leaders, members, regulars) for this usually
more receptive window of opportunity for sharing Jesus with friends, family, and neighbors?
• What’s your history of success and setbacks with these efforts?
Discussion & Notes:
Regional Cohort Gatherings | NY/NJ Metro & Greater Boston/New England
March 6 & 7, 2013 | page 2 of 6

3. Fruitful Measures
Debrief & Update | New Monthly Online Reporting
Part 1 | Church Planter-Specific: Online Google Form
• First time ever that everyone had their reports in! (and many are already in for this month - Due by the 10th)
• Hugely helpful to me, Howard, & the Dept. of Church Growth & Evangelism
• What was your experience? Questions, concerns, confusion? What can be improved?
Part 2 | Church-Specific: ChurchMetrics.com
• Asking for the same exact data and stories as before, though greatly simplified
Current Inputs: (greatly reduced from what was originally launched)
• Attendance [all adults at a worship service - guests, ministry volunteers, staff, etc)
• Attendance - Kids
• Attendance - First-Time Visitors [this is usually an estimate]
• Contributions [local tithes and offerings]
• Salvations [however you try to track milestones; for your context this may be more of an estimate]
• Volunteers [how many people serving in any capacity at a worship service]
Strengths
• tangible measures of some of the important fruit, providing insights, encouragement, and accountability
• online and accessible from any browser or mobile device to view or enter data
• Hugely helpful to me, Howard, & the Dept. of Church Growth & Evangelism
• it’s an actual database so the data can easily be moved, preserved, and worked with regardless of tools
Limitations
• Current: a bit of a “hack” to make it work for our purposes: We’ve set up the ECConf as the “church”
and each church plant a “campus” so that we can have everything in one place and look at the global data
• Future: I’m in conversation with LifeChurch.tv’s Digerati team to see this upgraded and improved
• Visible Data: everyone with "Staff" level of access can see everything, though only enter for own church
• Already Done: I removed the more “Sensitive” data and kept what’s normally “Public” Data
(FWIW, I think it's "best practice" and fairly common to have this level of transparency at the local level,
posting these in a bulletin, e-news, public reports, etc.)
Big Question:
• Keep as is? Need to know (anonymously) if everyone is ok with each other seeing this if they went to the
trouble of looking. If even one person isn't ok with this, it's no longer an option. (eventually these issues should be
resolved as I work with the LifeChurch.tv guys with future upgrades and improvements)
• Switch Entry Method?:
• You’d each get a pre-formatted spreadsheet for entry (we probably could use Google Spreadsheets)
• This would add some extra work on our end with importing data (not quite as bad as hand-entry)
• You would no longer have access to ChurchMetrics.com to see and create your own data, charts, reports
Next Steps and Expectations
• Take up to two more months to get weekly rhythm in place for your church’s data entry
(I’ll still need all the actual data, even if you need to email it to me)
• Requirement: by April Reports (Due May 10), up-to-date data required for Appropriation checks
Regional Cohort Gatherings | NY/NJ Metro & Greater Boston/New England
March 6 & 7, 2013 | page 3 of 6

4. Stewardship of Time, Attention, and Opportunity
Time & Project Management
Discussion
• What are the ways you steward your time and projects? (organize, redeem, use effectively, etc.)
• What are your “inboxes”? (you probably have more than you think)
• Where have you found success? Where have you struggled?
One Approach | Getting Things Done (GTD)
Five Stages of Workflow*
Collect Things
• whatever commands your
attention (anything personal
or professional, big or little,
that you think should be
different than it currently is
and that you have any level of
internal commitment to
changing)
• get it all out of your head
• minimize your collection
“buckets”
• empty the “buckets” regularly
Process Everything
• process what they mean and
what to do about them
• see workflow diagram to Left
Organize the results
Review the options
Do
choosing actions in the moment by:
• context
• time available
• energy available
• priority
* From Matt Vance’s notes & outline
Additional Resources:
• Kindle, Physical, Audio: amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Productivity-ebook/dp/B000WH7PKY
• Summary Version: www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Productivity-ebook/dp/B007ZK4YWI
• Video: Author David Allen speaking at Google on GTD: youtu.be/Qo7vUdKTlhk
• Jason’s GTD Quick Reference: bit.ly/YAtxPu
• Great tool (among many): omnigroup.com/products/omnifocus (Mac, iPhone, iPad)
Regional Cohort Gatherings | NY/NJ Metro & Greater Boston/New England
March 6 & 7, 2013 | page 4 of 6

5. Renewal, Relationships, Retreat!
Exponential 2013 & Church Planter Retreat
Full Details: www.jasoncondon.com/2012/09/exponential2013.html (read first before registering)
Finalize Who’s Going - My Current List:
Church Planters (& Families) ECConf Staff & Families
• Aaron Engler 1 • Jason (& Lisa, Jaron, Bryn) 1
• Kiho Lee 1 • Howard (& Ann, Terra) 1
• Michael Carrion (& Liz?) 1 • Kreig Gammelgard 1
• Efrain Alicea (& Erika) 1 “Vitality Pathway” Pastors (one big family!)
• T.C Moore (& Osheta) 1 • Fred Elliot-Hart 3
• Stephen Sharkey (& Kathleen) 1 • Scott Jones 3
• Ryan Yi 1 • Kevin Lester 3
• Andrew Mook 1 • Brian Estrella 3
• Drew Hyun (& Tina & David) 1 • Tim Olson 3
• Dan Sadlier 2 • Nancy & Wally Ebner 3
• Brynn Harrington 2
1 ECConf Pre-Paid Spot
• Derrick Jackson 3 2 CG&E Pre-Paid Spot
• Kim Wright 3 3 Registered On Own
Full Week Flows in Three Parts: (though you can show up as early as 4pm Sat and just hang out)
• Part 1 | Pre-Conference Fun & Covenant Connections - Mon Afternoon & Tue Morning
• Part 2 | Exponential Conference - Tue Afternoon - Thu Morning (evenings are “free” back at resort)
• Part 3 | ECConf Church Planters Retreat - Thu Afternoon - Fri Night (fly out Saturday)
Some Key Details
• Costs:
• automatic $400 scholarship from CG&E
• current Covenant Agreements include $200 for this retreat
• many costs subsidized by the East Coast Conference
• $300/planter (spouse included) for lodging and shared groceries (breakfast, lunch dinner, snacks)
• Spouses:
• Need definite count (as in you bought the plane tickets) to plan rooming options and food
• Any spouses interested in attending any or all of the Exponential portion?
• Will also be easy for spouses to self-organize for outings, hanging out, etc. We’ll plan for free time as well
Q&A
• What questions do you have about this event?
Regional Cohort Gatherings | NY/NJ Metro & Greater Boston/New England
March 6 & 7, 2013 | page 5 of 6

6. Mark Your Calendar
Coming Events | subscribe at eastcoastconf.org/calendar
April June
ECConf Annual Meeting (Harleysville PA) NO Cohort Gatherings
• April 11-13 (Thu-Sat)
Church Planter Training Intensive
• www.eastcoastconf.org/annualmeeting
• Retreat center in St. Paul MN
Exponential 2013 & Retreat (Orlando) • Tue June 4, 6:00pm – Sun June 9, 12:00pm
www.exponentialconference.org • for new Covenant Church Planters
• Full Details: www.jasoncondon.com/ (recommended at pre-Launch)
2012/09/exponential2013.html (read first
before registering) Covenant Annual Meeting (Detroit)
• April 22-25 (Mon-Thu): Exponential • Thu, June 27, 2013 – Sun, June 30, 2013
Conference + Covenant Connections www.covchurch.org/am
• April 25-27 (Thu-Sat): ECConf Retreat!
• Bonus Dates: Check-in as early as Sat April 20, July
4pm (Jason will already be there)
IDEA: All-Day, All-Planters Get-Together
• Very Affordable: automatic $400 scholarship,
• Where: Jason & Lisa’s, Columbia CT
crazy-cheap resort housing, plus other funding
(halfway between NYC & Boston)
built into newer Church Planter Agreements.
Housing and house groceries only $300 • When: TDB
(always let Jason know if finances are an issue) • Who: All current and “recommended” planters
and spouses (possibly kids, let’s discuss)
• Options: much food, BBQ , Covenant
May Approved Beverages™, bonfire, paintball,
Assessment Center (Hartford CT) backyard volleyball, frisbee, whiffleball,
whatever. Private lake beach. Casino (checking
• Wed May 15, 8pm - Sat May 18, 12pm
if you’re reading). Mostly just hanging out.
• for invited church planter candidates
Church Planter Cohort Gatherings: Aug
• NY/NJ Metro Cohort
Wed May 29, 11:00am-2:30pm (Location TBD) Cohort Gatherings - best dates & locations?
• Greater Boston/New England Cohort
Thu May 30, 11:00am-2:30pm (Location TBD) Sept
Cohort Gatherings - best dates & locations?
Full Calendar for East Coast Conference
• Visit www.eastcoastconf.org/calendar, Assessment Center (Denver CO)
subscribe through Google Cal, iCal, or other
calendar app • Wed Sept 18, 8pm - Sat Sept 21, 12pm
• Entries labeled “Church Planting” specifically for • for invited church planter candidates
church planters, rest for Covenant pastors in general
Regional Cohort Gatherings | NY/NJ Metro & Greater Boston/New England
March 6 & 7, 2013 | page 6 of 6