How To Plant In A School - Billy Almaguer

[00:00:01] Hey everyone Brian Kelly here welcome to another episode of the Cultivate Church

[00:00:05] Planting podcast. I hope you've been enjoying the show and I want to tell you

[00:00:09] about an opportunity to support church planting and church planters. Go to cgn.org

[00:00:15] click on donate. You'll see a drop down for church planting. I'm gonna put the link

[00:00:19] in the show notes but this is a great way to practically support the work of

[00:00:25] the ministry, support church planting, support church planters. You're gonna

[00:00:29] see that all those funds go right out onto the field. So I just wanted to tell

[00:00:32] you about that opportunity and now let's get into the episode. Welcome to the

[00:00:42] Cultivate Church Planting podcast and today we have Billy Almaguer. How do you say it again?

[00:00:49] I had a problem. Yeah I know what Almaguer. I was gonna say that.

[00:00:53] I was gonna say that. So Billy was on a couple episodes ago and I had trouble

[00:00:59] pronouncing the last name then although I didn't this time but I just

[00:01:02] I should have committed. You know it's what I should have committed. Just go all in.

[00:01:05] Yeah it's like those things where you meet new people at the church and then

[00:01:10] you see them the next week and you know their name but you kind of yeah you

[00:01:13] don't want to mess this up. Yeah that's a yeah you just say that's the

[00:01:17] danger when your church planting is like you got to not only be an expert

[00:01:21] and all things church but then the memorization of names so it's a

[00:01:24] tough one. Brother and sister are your favorite names so seem to work out

[00:01:29] the most. That's how you know you're a seasoned veteran when you know the

[00:01:33] brother and sister trick. Yep yep yep exactly. Awesome well Billy's here today

[00:01:38] and we're gonna be talking about something it's actually it's funny how

[00:01:42] this got set up let me just introduce this real quick. So Billy and his church

[00:01:47] Awaken City Church have been in a transition time they moved from a

[00:01:53] movie theater into a school and so when I saw that I've been following along on

[00:01:59] social media on the Awaken City Church Instagram page and I thought to myself

[00:02:06] you know what this is actually something that we need to do as a church

[00:02:09] we're out growing our facility and the landlords raising the rent at the

[00:02:13] same time so it's kind of one of those situations where we're thinking

[00:02:17] alright what's next and it does just so happen that we have the opportunity

[00:02:21] to go into a school a high school it's a it's a Christian high school so it

[00:02:26] makes a little bit more helpful for us because there are a lot of our family's

[00:02:30] kids go there but I saw that that Billy and his team have done this and I

[00:02:37] thought I text them right away I said hey because I actually it text you

[00:02:41] after I saw the cool like you know the signs and the different graphics and

[00:02:45] the ideas that you had and I text Billy and I said hey can I give you

[00:02:51] a call and you can tell me kind of what you did and how you did it and where you

[00:02:55] got the stuff I have all these questions and he's like sure and so I thought you

[00:03:00] know what I'm probably not chances are I'm not the only one out there that's

[00:03:05] thinking about going into a school using a school for a church facility and it's

[00:03:09] been done before it's been done successfully by a lot of churches so

[00:03:14] yeah I texted Billy I'm like hey would you mind recording this so we

[00:03:19] could get the message out to a lot of the other guys that might be thinking

[00:03:22] about it yeah certainly certainly hope this helps bless some some people maybe

[00:03:27] you're thinking about it or you're having to go to school whatever the case is

[00:03:30] but definitely some some good lessons I think we can pass along to others yeah

[00:03:34] totally and just for those of you who don't know Pastor Billy he is in

[00:03:40] St. Augustine Florida and you've been in Florida for quite a while right

[00:03:44] Billy yeah I mean I moved here after grad school so like 99 actually and then

[00:03:49] it's been about five six years in North Carolina then came down to St. Augustine

[00:03:54] the early part of 2015 to plant and then we launched in 2016 so been here a

[00:04:01] good while in Florida most of my time I grew up in Texas but got to Florida and

[00:04:06] spent a lot of time here so far nice enjoying it and you went through

[00:04:09] COVID and everything with the church yeah yeah it's great we launched in the

[00:04:13] movie theater you know I'd done churches church plants before and schools and

[00:04:18] nothing wrong with schools but when we were doing that down in South Florida

[00:04:22] that was like in the cafeteria cafeteria I'm not sure what they would call it

[00:04:26] but it's almost like you know you smell French fries and it's like man I

[00:04:29] don't want to smell that anymore and so we moved to St. Augustine and got

[00:04:33] connected with a lot of pastors in the area just started asking around

[00:04:37] about kind of what was available and I kept looking at the theater I'm

[00:04:40] thinking I'd like to just go into the movie theater it worked out and so we

[00:04:43] spent 442 Sundays in the movie theater from launch until we moved over yeah so

[00:04:50] a lot of time in the movie theater so you traded French fries for popcorn

[00:04:54] yeah yeah we had I mean a lot of popcorn and so you know for the

[00:04:58] church plan I mean the movie theater really worked out well for us we got

[00:05:01] the store everything there it was a good working relationship and you know some

[00:05:07] people if you if you put production value in kind of the haze in the atmosphere

[00:05:11] well that was our popcorn machines that provided that for us and so it was a

[00:05:15] it was a good environment and but it was certainly they went through a season

[00:05:19] where they were doing a lot of renovation they were doing like the

[00:05:22] nice you know nice loungers leather seats and all that which was cutting

[00:05:26] the capacity of our theater which was 298 seats down to about a hundred and so

[00:05:32] for us we're like man we don't really want to go to two and three services like

[00:05:35] just that just it wasn't going to work and I had been connected with a lot of

[00:05:40] churches through network we have up here called the collective network and

[00:05:44] kind of the whole point there's just kind of provide some soul care for

[00:05:47] pastors and as part of that connected to a lot of schools and so going to the

[00:05:51] school wasn't on the radar but I was already connected with the school

[00:05:55] trying to get other church planners coming to the area into it and probably

[00:06:00] around Christmas time this year is when we got the news from the theater

[00:06:04] saying oh yeah we're going to be redoing the theaters in my and first I was

[00:06:08] like well that's great we're gonna get upgrades and I was like wait are we

[00:06:11] upgrading seats and like yeah it's like okay we're cutting capacity it's

[00:06:14] good that's gonna be a challenge so so we've kind of been praying you know

[00:06:18] that God would kind of show us the the perfect steps and we'd already had

[00:06:22] the relationship with the school and really wasn't thinking about going there

[00:06:25] in all honesty we were kind of looking at other options and nothing was just

[00:06:29] working out but then just a chance to build community at a school that has

[00:06:34] not had a church plant probably 15 16 years here man the Lord just kind of

[00:06:39] kept putting that on the heart and it's it's been amazing so far I'll just

[00:06:42] say that I'll share a little bit more as we get into but it's a kind of the

[00:06:45] story so far just being integrated with the teachers in the community it's

[00:06:49] been really amazing to kind of see how God opened those doors for us in the school

[00:06:52] awesome let's start with that because you know I personally we've planted the

[00:06:57] church in Bellingham Washington and there was a season when we were in a

[00:07:00] middle school and you know it's it has its challenges as we'll talk about but

[00:07:05] we really did love it but one of the things that I've always been taught

[00:07:08] and that I kind of have practiced is what you're talking about building

[00:07:12] those relationships and why don't you go ahead and talk about the

[00:07:16] importance of being a being a blessing to the school or even theater wherever

[00:07:21] you're you're renting from someone else how does that work out practically to be

[00:07:25] a blessing to those groups yeah and I think you know as church planners you

[00:07:29] know obviously we get focused hyper focused on teaching the whole Sunday

[00:07:34] experience but you know the other you know six days of the week is is

[00:07:38] relationship building we don't ever stop building relationships and so if

[00:07:43] we're not maintaining and really taking care of those relationships especially in

[00:07:46] a place where we're leasing or whatever then I think those are some some

[00:07:50] opportunities miss even in a theater I mean we would we would throw the staff

[00:07:54] Christmas parties and do things like that you know just just because we

[00:07:58] were there we want to be a blessing to them we wanted to help them out as

[00:08:01] much as possible we want to leave it better than we found it just all the

[00:08:04] things you would say yeah and I think for us kind of getting into the school

[00:08:08] kind of the same thing we were already integrated in with schools in our

[00:08:11] community so when I found out that you know the principal there says man we

[00:08:16] just really want to church here and I was like well let me help you with that

[00:08:19] I didn't realize I was gonna be us that was about a year ago and I've been

[00:08:22] trying to try to find them a church planner now you know talking with

[00:08:25] different church planners come to your is like hey man this is a great school

[00:08:27] it's got 520 seats are redoing the auditorium it's gonna be an amazing

[00:08:31] you know opportunity and then it looked like I you know I ended up

[00:08:35] talking with the principal and I was like hey can we think about maybe

[00:08:39] you know having a dialogue about us getting in here and the cool thing

[00:08:43] about having the relationship part was is that that wasn't the first

[00:08:46] conversation we had he already knew kind of my heart to partner with them

[00:08:50] even if I wasn't getting something out of it so to speak and I think as

[00:08:54] church planners we always got to remember that you know we're even

[00:08:56] witnessing it we're witness for the Lord even even on that business

[00:08:59] transaction side the contract negotiation side but because of that

[00:09:03] relationship has certainly made it I think a lot easier for us because

[00:09:06] they came in they discounted it for us they did everything they could

[00:09:09] to make it as easy as possible for us to be there and want to be there

[00:09:13] and we do even down to the storage of equipment they've been very

[00:09:17] gracious and it's been a good good thing so far man you're talking

[00:09:22] about all these things that I want to kind of dig deeper into

[00:09:25] because I know that our listeners have questions about it and to be

[00:09:28] honest to be a little bit selfish I have questions about

[00:09:31] because we're thinking of making that move but did you say that

[00:09:35] the guy or the person in charge wanted a church into the school?

[00:09:39] Yeah so we're fortunate in St. John's County in Northeast Florida

[00:09:43] where the school district has you know there's a lot of believers

[00:09:47] that are part of the school district the executive staff and such

[00:09:51] and so there's a big push and has been ever since I've been here the

[00:09:54] past eight years for churches to be in schools they want to have that kind

[00:09:57] of partnership because I agree with them too I mean if we

[00:10:00] were if we could just be the church in the community then I think we could

[00:10:03] help solve a lot of the problems that our community is facing and so

[00:10:07] the school district recognizes that when I first got here we were going to the

[00:10:12] superintendent office once a month we pray with the superintendent of the

[00:10:16] school district and so that's still ongoing and that's

[00:10:19] that's just been something that's been kind of the core

[00:10:21] of kind of the leadership there and so that's opened up a lot of doors for

[00:10:25] us and as such it's opportunity you know people

[00:10:29] people want to know that you care and so it's great to be able to

[00:10:33] to throw a breakfast you know for school staff when they're coming together for

[00:10:36] the beginning of the year but we as we did that this year for

[00:10:40] the first time at Pedro Minida's high school one of the staff

[00:10:45] members came up to me she said you know this is the first time I've ever

[00:10:48] been able to just enjoy the breakfast because I've always had to put it on

[00:10:51] we've always had to figure out how we're going to pay for it he's like

[00:10:54] man this church has just been a blessing already and I know we hadn't

[00:10:56] started here yet and so you just can think about that relational side and

[00:11:00] building it's like you know the conversations that you're having this year

[00:11:04] may not you know come to some sort of like productive fruition until a few years

[00:11:09] down the road and so these conversations we've been having with the schools and

[00:11:12] the heart to serve them has been going on for years ever since we've been here

[00:11:15] but right now we're kind of reaping the reward of that relationship that we've

[00:11:19] built over the years just just partnering with them you know schools

[00:11:21] calls up hey we've got a family that they don't have a place to live

[00:11:25] they've been evicted it's like hey we got him we'll get him a place to live

[00:11:28] you know for a week or hey we got students that don't have x y and z

[00:11:32] we'll get them there in two days you know so we were just being the church

[00:11:36] being someone they can count on so that really helped us a lot in this season

[00:11:39] yeah you want to be a blessing to the place that you're renting and you also want to

[00:11:45] be a blessing after you leave you don't want to remember does that scene and I don't know if

[00:11:49] you've seen what about Bob where he's on the bus and he's just kind of acting weird and

[00:11:54] and then he gets off the bus at his destination and everybody's kind of sitting in the far back

[00:11:59] and he's in the front by himself and you know they all start cheering when he leaves yeah

[00:12:03] that and I know this has nothing to do with church planning but that right there is one

[00:12:07] of my favorite movies and when I need to unplug after a hard season it's usually that movie or

[00:12:12] elf it's one of the that is a great movie so classic so for all church planners need to

[00:12:18] know that's such a great one yeah yeah what about

[00:12:22] yeah speaks to the heart absolutely I think we can probably go on and on with the

[00:12:27] yeah some quotes from the movie but just go watch it but yeah that scene where he did

[00:12:31] get off everybody cheers because you know he just didn't they didn't like him on the bus so

[00:12:35] we want to be we want to get off and they're like oh you have to leave already yeah so in

[00:12:41] practicalities you had the relationship and that's obviously ideal I mean what a what a great message

[00:12:49] to just be in the community not so much for what you can get out of people or institutions like schools

[00:12:56] but for what you can contribute as the church what would you say to a church planner who's maybe

[00:13:02] looking at using a school or similar venue when I say similar venue I'm thinking of places like

[00:13:09] ymca's boys and girls clubs you know even some libraries things like that where they they rent

[00:13:14] space public space to whomever so if you don't have that relationship built up already like what

[00:13:22] would you say are some of the first steps to take in trying to establish that yeah I mean

[00:13:28] schools obviously being the easiest because they are a point in the community and really it's

[00:13:34] if you stop by a principal's office or you know leadership at a school or any organization

[00:13:38] and as a church you're like hey um you know we're a church we're coming into town we don't really

[00:13:45] necessarily have a place to meet yet but we would love to serve you in some tange boy

[00:13:49] you know so I'm giving you something but I'm not expecting to get something out of it I may

[00:13:53] at some point ask you know on the contractual side but right now we're trying to we're trying

[00:13:57] to give you something um to me that's the biggest deal and I think for us being a part of church

[00:14:03] plants in schools before you know I personally went into some of these schools and I'm sure

[00:14:07] you've done these things too and I and I went up to the principal and the staff I'm like hey you

[00:14:12] know I'll take your hardest kids that the kids that are like you know like one step away from

[00:14:16] going to to juvenile detention okay and I'm gonna walk them through what does it mean to be

[00:14:22] like a leader what what what does that mean and of course I know you know when you get into

[00:14:26] schools they don't you have to be invited in to kind of speak into it from a Christian perspective

[00:14:32] chances are you'll find a teacher that will open that door for you but even if they don't

[00:14:35] you can still speak of the principles that we see from the word of God and so when you go into it

[00:14:40] with that heart whether it be a school a ymca um some kind of community focus they want to see

[00:14:47] you know what is the value to the community and I think as church planners sometimes we can

[00:14:51] so hyper focused on ourselves that we we want to find the value to ourselves first yeah and I

[00:14:57] think if we lay that to the side it's like hey yeah we'll find a place Lord's going to provide

[00:15:01] but we just want to serve you um and as we got here it was it was almost like hey we're not

[00:15:06] launching for seven or eight months we we just want to serve you what do you mean we'll come

[00:15:09] paint we'll do we'll clean up we'll do whatever um and and that just really goes a long way

[00:15:14] and when you actually show up and do it that's the beginning of building the relationship and

[00:15:19] I think people are just you know blown away one of the this might be a word for someone because

[00:15:24] I know it's a church planner money you know you're you're always looking for benjamins and how to

[00:15:27] like how you're going to pay for the rent and stuff like that but even even stories within our

[00:15:32] county um there's been schools with churches in there that the churches as we're getting started

[00:15:37] we're a little short on the school said hey if you if you could just paint and provide

[00:15:41] the volunteers then we'll get you a month or two covered I mean it's a blessing right

[00:15:45] and it's because you're showing up um you're consistent and you just have a general you know

[00:15:51] just as hard to serve them and I think to me you just have to get in there and figure out

[00:15:54] it's like any relationship they're all a little bit different but I think as you get in there

[00:15:59] and talk through the organization and whether it's the school YMC or whatever you're going to

[00:16:02] find they have some tangible needs um and again you just serving people is kind of goes against

[00:16:08] the culture a little bit because most people want to be served but once you just are consistent

[00:16:12] show up I think people will finally eventually open up and say oh yeah well here's here's a couple

[00:16:16] things um and great you can jump in and kind of get in that space nice and what a lot of people

[00:16:21] don't realize is that when it comes to public schools um you know Christian schools obviously

[00:16:25] okay they have a church but even public schools I know this is true in Florida and it was true

[00:16:31] up in Washington where we were many of the states every every district is going to be a

[00:16:35] little bit different they're going to have their different leadership and management but

[00:16:39] it's a lot of people think um it's uh schools won't let churches in because separation of church and

[00:16:45] state you know they're kind of like well you can't because we all know you can't just go

[00:16:48] into school and start preaching the gospel at the assembly although many have done and will do that

[00:16:53] but what they don't realize is that um public schools many of the districts are very open to

[00:17:01] and some of them like you're talking about they want uh churches to come and rent these venues

[00:17:06] it's it's not during school hours I think that's the confusion you're renting a facility and um

[00:17:12] it's interesting because here in in our county we're in we're in Florida as well down a little bit

[00:17:17] south of where Billy is and um there's a whole website that has venue rentals for the different

[00:17:24] schools and it literally advertises on there you know practices boy scouts or whatever it is

[00:17:32] and then it says places of worship so if you you know you can go right in the website and

[00:17:37] apply for that however on uh a couple of them even here in Florida the the Christian state you know

[00:17:44] you you had Texas you got Texas in Florida yeah that's yeah I think it's a bit easier in some

[00:17:51] places other than that I mean I had a buddy who planted up in New Hampshire and it was I forgot

[00:17:55] how many different places he was in but I mean he was in a bar he was in the opera house

[00:17:59] he was in all kinds of different places but you know the thing that he stayed he stayed consistent

[00:18:03] you just stay serving people and finally God has opened the right place in the door

[00:18:07] but I would say yeah if you know don't don't discount a place whether it's privately held

[00:18:12] whether it's publicly held whatever to to approach the leadership you know and kind of the

[00:18:18] leadership for that facility with just a heart to serve them and I think it just opens doors

[00:18:22] yeah because one thing that we know obviously whether it's a school whether it's the YMCA

[00:18:28] wherever you're meeting that hard times hit everyone the same whether you're a believer or not and so

[00:18:34] as a church we have a way to mobilize and really you know get behind um you know helping other

[00:18:40] people because we see it just modeled we see it modeled um in the Word of God that that as

[00:18:45] believers kind of one of the things that we would want to do is just be able to be the hands and

[00:18:48] feet and to serve people in that way because that's just kind of at the core who we are

[00:18:52] and so that that goes well with everyone there's not a person on the planet that doesn't want

[00:18:56] to be served in some way they may be thinking that you have this ulterior motive but if you're

[00:19:00] just simply doing because you just love them as a person they can see that yeah opens up any doors

[00:19:05] yeah that's good um when we were here it's funny because I called around to a few different schools

[00:19:11] and um we we've had a hard time finding a place you know a lot of times churches will go in a

[00:19:16] strip mall and rent a space in a strip mall and here in our county we had a really difficult

[00:19:22] time because there is a apparently there's a law on the books that was made a long time ago to protect

[00:19:28] churches where they said you can't um you can't have you can't open a bar or any place that serves

[00:19:35] alcohol within a certain you know 100 yards of a church so that law is still there so anytime

[00:19:41] we go to a strip mall or somewhere like that with a restaurant around or bar space the

[00:19:45] the landlord would say no we can't rent the churches because you'll be too close to

[00:19:49] you know establish the instruments that serve alcohol so it's kind of a weird uh well there's

[00:19:55] there are there are ways around that for maybe some of the listeners like i'm bivocational so I

[00:19:59] do engineering as well and planning there are ways around that um and and if you go to like in a lot

[00:20:05] of cases the the landlord of the facility and just say as a church you're going to sign off

[00:20:10] on that you're okay with that there are ways to get around usually that's just to kind of shut

[00:20:14] it down because they it's just it's easier to say no um you know then to say yes and then have

[00:20:20] an issue down the road but there are ways around it depending on the relationship that you have with

[00:20:24] the potential landlord and coming to them kind of from a planning perspective hey I spoke with

[00:20:29] an engineer and a planner this is how we would do this and they're like cool that's fine um and

[00:20:34] because I see it happen all the time I mean I went in I looked at facilities and they were like oh

[00:20:38] no you can't be 100 feet within what I say you're right um but if we sign off saying we're

[00:20:44] okay with that you know and you have that in documentation then by the state they don't care

[00:20:47] yeah so interesting so that's it's good to know because yeah what it kind of sounds like what you're

[00:20:53] saying is a lot of times people are using excuses that they don't really know the the details of the

[00:20:57] laws and exactly yep so it's funny because when we're in Bellingham which is a real non let's

[00:21:04] just say it's a non-christian place especially compared to Florida or the south yeah and um

[00:21:10] we we would get letters all the time there was probably a brewery or a medical or a marijuana

[00:21:17] dispensary on every corner and we would get letters all the time that says uh are you okay with this

[00:21:22] thing coming in in your neighborhood and we'd always say yeah of course you know that's

[00:21:27] just bring the bring the people to us we don't care exactly but it's interesting that um you

[00:21:33] know that's often a kind of an excuse and I did talk to one lady at a school nearby us here

[00:21:38] and she was the director of whatever there in charge of the facility and she said no we can't rent to a

[00:21:44] school you know it's a separation of church and state and I was like I had to just kind of politely

[00:21:49] say well actually it's you know on your website and it's all you know after hours of that sort

[00:21:54] of thing right so yeah but that's um that's good it's I think the message is don't um don't give

[00:22:02] up uh keep looking there's so many different options for meeting space yeah and I would

[00:22:08] say to add you know kind of to put you know kind of a period on the end of that is just

[00:22:12] you know oftentimes the dreams and the vision that the lord has placed in your heart as a church

[00:22:17] planner that isn't you've been running on that bus for a year or so a lot of times you know kind of

[00:22:23] with with where you're landing and oftentimes a person you're talking to has been running with

[00:22:27] you for about 10 minutes especially in terms of talking through space and all that and so

[00:22:32] you know do your homework um you know obviously pray through how the lord would be a part of

[00:22:36] that situation but then also pray like you know and be prepared to like how are you going to be a

[00:22:40] blessing um you know to the place you're going into and again I think just one of the things that we

[00:22:46] did uh just getting into the school was I came in not with just what we were doing Sunday but

[00:22:49] I wanted to I laid out kind of a year one two three kind of approach of how we as a church

[00:22:55] were wanting to engage but certainly wanted that to be a two-way conversation and the staff

[00:23:00] were really excited about that nice um so we were thinking outside of just Sundays and

[00:23:04] thinking through like hey how can we be a bigger blessing to more to the school in our

[00:23:09] case more than just on Sundays yeah so let's walk through the let's walk through your process you've

[00:23:16] been meeting in the the theater they're doing the renovations decreasing seat size how many seats

[00:23:21] did you have in your sanctuary in that we had uh right at 300 so 298 seats dropping to right at

[00:23:26] 100 seats um nice nice yeah yeah yeah but I mean they're nice wide yeah leather loungers I mean

[00:23:33] it's pretty interesting you don't want it too comfortable during the Sunday morning yeah no it's

[00:23:38] way too comfortable I'm thinking this is going to be a problem we're going to have to go somewhere

[00:23:42] and uh you know we had a good I mean we loved it acoustically everything was just great we could

[00:23:47] livestream out of there um Children's Ministry was a little bit more of a challenge because we had

[00:23:51] to have them in some of the smaller theaters and so we didn't have as much space and so if

[00:23:54] there was a box that wasn't fully checked for us it would have been children's but you know

[00:23:59] for the most part it worked really well we had a lot of people um depending on the weekend of

[00:24:03] what movie people would come dressed up as whatever so you never know oh wow who you're gonna get shown

[00:24:08] up to the movie theater and uh sometimes they might may change your mind and go to church so we

[00:24:12] had some some great people um but kind of walking through that and realizing that you know um I

[00:24:18] was part of a church that you know we met in a like 100 seat facility um and then we went to

[00:24:24] three services and uh it's a lot of work yeah when you're doing we're there right now

[00:24:28] yeah right too but it's still a lot of work it's it's a lot um that just just and then your church

[00:24:36] feels disconnected so as a pastor you feel like that's going to be disconnected um and that's not

[00:24:41] what you want at that size church you want people to kind of be that that small to medium like you

[00:24:45] want them to feel connected not disconnected and sometimes just really weighing in on the heart

[00:24:49] and so just kind of you know considering it prayerfully considering it and we looked at

[00:24:53] all the options available and we're like well the lord wants to go to you know two services

[00:24:58] or three services whatever it's going to be then we're gonna have to just we're gonna have to be

[00:25:01] there but um you know this this relationship with the school was there had conversations and it

[00:25:07] was just it checked all the boxes of being the right place for us and just as elders and as our

[00:25:13] kind of our team elders staff and trustees and all that just kind of prayed through

[00:25:18] it was just the right move it seemed like a right fit and I think for us the thing that

[00:25:21] really kind of in my heart just and I'm not saying this has to be for everyone but for me

[00:25:25] it was just the idea of building on the community not changing so we went into it with again

[00:25:32] 442 weekends we weren't trying to take awakened city church in its current form down to the theater

[00:25:40] we saw this as god evolving the church into what he wanted it to be that next season

[00:25:45] so we're we're relaunching still the same church same thing same everything

[00:25:50] but we're relaunching because it's a new opportunity it's a new season for us

[00:25:54] and so for us that was kind of the thing for me that the Lord just really kind of put on the heart

[00:25:58] like there's just community down there there's people that that need to hear the gospel

[00:26:02] that are down there that maybe aren't connected and that just just that's really just sat with

[00:26:05] my heart and just sat well with me and just really kind of was the inspiration behind it all

[00:26:09] nice okay I'm going to throw you a little bit of a curveball here very niche

[00:26:13] situation that we are currently dealing with I want you to kind of address it

[00:26:18] so here's what here's the situation and we so we're our facility right now we don't have any

[00:26:26] fellowship area so the sanctuary is it for seating fellowship and everything we have two

[00:26:31] outbuildings like portable buildings for children's ministry and then a

[00:26:35] side like classroom for nursery kind of thing so here's our situation we have about 200 to 200

[00:26:43] 250 seats is maximum with you know just really packing it in and not really a lot of walking space

[00:26:50] so currently we're doing two services now here in Florida and probably a lot of other places

[00:26:54] in the summer that the attendance dips dips down our church was growing pretty strong

[00:27:00] in the spring months and where we need it we felt like we really need to go to two services

[00:27:07] we were over 200 you know every Sunday consistently and growing that's before summer

[00:27:14] so you know we it was you know they say 80 capacity is kind of max of where you want to be then

[00:27:20] split up into two services or whatever so we did that during the summer attendance dipped down a

[00:27:25] little bit and we probably are about a little over 100 average per service all right in our

[00:27:33] lowest kind of season we're coming back up out of it there's the thing here called snowbirds that

[00:27:39] Billy's familiar with and listeners may not be in there there are people that literally just go to

[00:27:44] their home in the northeast New York or Ohio or wherever it is for the summer and then they come

[00:27:51] back once it gets too cold there and it's nice and perfect in Florida so we're entering into

[00:27:57] that season so here's a niche kind of curveball little question that probably is just for our

[00:28:02] church we'll see if anybody else out it might be interesting to listen to whatever like I said

[00:28:07] this is kind of a selfish podcast for an episode for me so now I'm we're meeting with that we meet

[00:28:14] with the elders and the ministry leaders what do you think about going back to one service

[00:28:21] because they're seeing the summertime crowds you know hey I think we can fit everybody

[00:28:26] it's kind of the idea into one service it'll be packed like sardines

[00:28:32] and let's go to one service just for half a September and October and then go over to the school

[00:28:39] and then the other kind of group says let's push through just keep the two services

[00:28:47] probably it's gonna they're gonna fill up because of the snowbirds coming back

[00:28:50] we don't know you know you never know so that's kind of our niche situation what would you

[00:28:56] what kind of advice would you give yeah I'll give you an advice and I'll give you story

[00:29:00] kind of our last Sunday which all kind of which we were in the opposite anyway I would say you

[00:29:05] stay with two for a number of reasons one that's been advertised people know that rhythm and flow

[00:29:11] and and to kind of go back I get where we need to think about you know if that was forever

[00:29:18] and always like you didn't have a plan to kind of get into a facility then I could see maybe

[00:29:23] rethinking that but but you are going to get back into the busy season where great that's fine

[00:29:28] but I would say keep the two just because that's an advertised that's a known time you don't want

[00:29:33] to be confusing because if you are going to be going down potentially to one once you get into

[00:29:37] the school how long how big is the capacity how much capacity will you have at the school

[00:29:41] so we will have about 400 seats yeah perfect yeah so you're going to be going down to one

[00:29:47] anyway so that's that's that's the that's the flag that's the point that's that's where we're going to

[00:29:53] that's your point B and so for me I would say that just because there's consistency there's a rhythm

[00:29:58] why yes you may be down people maybe even volunteers I get it then we scale back where we scale back

[00:30:04] yeah but I've actually scaled back on the on the children's ministry and did children's ministry

[00:30:10] at one of the services so that we could have the the volunteers for it yeah and I think you

[00:30:14] do that because you know people it's once you give some people once you give someone an option

[00:30:19] and you take it away and it's a disruption people don't like that pattern disruption

[00:30:24] as silly as that may sound that's the that's negative if you're going to go down to one service

[00:30:30] but in the case where you go into the school there's a reason because you have the capacity

[00:30:33] yeah so that's a selling point there you land and you move everybody together but I

[00:30:38] don't know if I would do that so I wouldn't do that now we were kind of in the opposite

[00:30:42] where the theater was trying to work with us to keep us in our 300 seat theater basically until

[00:30:49] we were finished however the week of our last week there that Monday we get a call like hey we

[00:30:57] want you guys to move to the hundred and whatever seat side and we're like well this sucks we're

[00:31:03] not going to move to two services and so in all honesty what we did and again it's an

[00:31:07] opposite situation we ended up just doing an online watch party we opened it up for those

[00:31:11] that wanted to come and we closed out our season that way but we had already committed

[00:31:17] to staying with one service because it made no sense for us to go to two for a summer I see

[00:31:22] and so I think in your case I would if the volunteers were there to finish strong

[00:31:27] and I think sometimes that just comes down with the you know the vision and the communication

[00:31:31] of it you know what the Lord is communicating you know the nuts and bolts of it but I think

[00:31:35] as a leadership team if your team is communicating that like hey there is a line in the sand

[00:31:40] where we're converging and we're bringing everything back together that's the line so we do need to

[00:31:45] for the sake of our community because we have those options still keep those open and available

[00:31:51] that's kind of what my vote would be yeah that's good and and I totally understand the kind of

[00:31:56] the idea behind what some of the the team is saying is that you know we don't we don't want

[00:32:00] to be a fragmented church we and you said it yourself we want to be all together it's

[00:32:04] much better having one services one service versus two and that's something that we kind of all

[00:32:10] agree on it's just the the timing of it and but yeah thanks that's that's good input thanks for

[00:32:15] taking that that little side track there and I would add to that just again way my brain thinks

[00:32:20] is that you know if if I'm and this is the way I thought when I was working in the world

[00:32:25] and I was serving at the local church but if I was going to tie it on my time you know my

[00:32:31] working time let's just say my 40 hours a week or whatever and I'm going to dump four hours

[00:32:35] into the church and that was all going to be on a Sunday as a volunteer there's your two

[00:32:39] services I'm going to serve one in a 10-1 yeah because I see the value of that and so I think

[00:32:43] again it's just communicating that and just kind of letting people know the heart behind it we're

[00:32:48] not doing it just to to bring about pain and you know a difficult season no there's a reason why

[00:32:53] we're doing this and we know we want to be in community but let's finish this week this season

[00:32:57] well this season strong this season that you're in until you can get everyone back together

[00:33:03] I love that I love that idea of tithing the time too if you're working 40 hours

[00:33:07] you're given four hours to the church and that's yeah you're right that's two services attend one

[00:33:13] serve it one which is the ideal and obviously that changes for people you know some people

[00:33:17] they don't do that or whatever but yeah thanks for that okay that's helpful that's helpful for me

[00:33:23] and I'll pass that on to our team just a little advice as we work through it absolutely but

[00:33:29] getting into the school now some of the some of the things that I saw on your

[00:33:34] um church website instagram so this is really cool and I really want I'm gonna put the link you

[00:33:40] know instagrams easy to find uh you know but um I'll put the link to your website in the show

[00:33:45] notes but you guys did this really cool thing where the school is called Pedro

[00:33:51] middle school Pedro Menendez high school okay another great movie um Napoleon Dynamite so all

[00:33:59] of a sudden I see Billy and his whole staff with t-shirts that say um what did it say something

[00:34:05] about church at Pedro church at Pedro yeah so they're classic in the movie they have vote for

[00:34:10] Pedro and they all wear the shirts and it was the same font same shirt except uh you know

[00:34:16] it was talking about the church I love I loved that and it just kind of gave a fun um spin

[00:34:21] on it because people get scared when you're moving oh they need a little bit of uh you know

[00:34:25] comedic relief yeah I was trying to um grow my mustache out I just I just can't I went I was

[00:34:32] gonna go for the Pedro look and I'm like I just I can't you should have shaved off all your hairs

[00:34:36] and then got that with the two pay yeah that would be funny I got hot and I shaved off my hair

[00:34:41] last night I was preparing for the message and uh shaped my head um but yeah we you know we

[00:34:47] wanted to have fun and we didn't want to just be a name awaken city church I mean we

[00:34:52] were part of the big C church in our community and and across the world

[00:34:56] and so we wanted to make that the focus that we're the we're being the church at Pedro we're just an

[00:35:01] expression of the church at Pedro uh we get the principle um the shirt and surprise him with it

[00:35:07] he had a good laugh about that the staff loved it and uh we grabbed the domain and everything

[00:35:11] just just to have fun with it I mean because we're gonna use it um I'm working on a little

[00:35:15] side note here here's here's some gold here for your listeners okay good um one of the things

[00:35:19] I did was I came into town and I befriended one of the local coffee shops that actually roast beans

[00:35:25] you'll want to do that because if you can do that as a church you can um score kind of wholesale

[00:35:30] pricing so we're paying like right at six dollars a bag same beans they sell for 20 we're getting for

[00:35:35] six um and that's labeled you know we get them labeled and all that other stuff so it works

[00:35:39] out for us um but we're working on a Pedro specific blend I don't know what it's gonna be called

[00:35:44] I don't you know but we want to bless the teachers and the idea is that we want to give them

[00:35:48] you know a bag of coffee to take take home for for Christmas with instructions on what to do

[00:35:54] and things like that so we're kind of making interactive fun we're having a lot of fun with

[00:35:57] the name but that's the kind of stuff you can do that goes outside of the Sunday yeah um and using

[00:36:02] some things like this you know it's um man you need to write all you need to write all the stuff

[00:36:06] down Billy because you're we're hitting one after the other I'm like man these are all good

[00:36:11] well you're recording it so we're recording it so you're recording it yeah yeah we need more details

[00:36:16] we're gonna anyway uh that so let's get to a few more things that I know that our listeners want to

[00:36:21] know about and by listeners I mean me it includes so when you're going into the school you've

[00:36:27] obviously got the big the auditorium area with the seats are they are the seats built in are

[00:36:31] you setting them up and turning them down no no the seats are built in they're brand new

[00:36:34] actually they just replaced them this summer so built-in seats um they don't squeak they're

[00:36:39] always they're all brand new which but just bring wd 40 if they do it's not a problem

[00:36:42] but yeah brand new seats brand new flooring they're redoing the av audio visual in the theater

[00:36:48] next year so we we've walked into a really good situation and we brought our own stuff and we

[00:36:54] told the school anything that we have you can use we can send people to run it for you you just

[00:36:58] let us know and that's just been a big blessing I mean it's so yeah we've walked into pretty

[00:37:02] much you know a fairly new facility in terms of being renovated so right worked out really well

[00:37:08] now when it comes to the children's ministry you how many rooms do you have for the kids what are

[00:37:14] the age divisions yeah yeah we got so we got three um so if you can imagine a big rectangular theater

[00:37:20] a hallway next to it that connects to the outside but also to the theater so when parents are

[00:37:24] checking in and we've got signs you know one of the things that you you wouldn't have been able

[00:37:28] to see yet we're still getting all the pictures and all that video is not processed but

[00:37:32] kind of an engaging way like hey kids ministry this way and then the next sign is like you

[00:37:37] know funds almost here just another way to kind of point them to the check-in location but once they

[00:37:41] get checked in and kind of in the secure area we've got three rooms that we're using right now

[00:37:46] K through fifth pre-k and then infants okay um in our K through fifth um and pre-k I'm sorry

[00:37:54] K through fifth room we've got two of the I think they are eight by 15 foot walls

[00:38:01] so if you can imagine kind of you set those in a corner and right there where the gap would

[00:38:05] be would be a media cart that rolls in and rolls out which as a church planner if you've not seen

[00:38:11] like some of the portable church ministry we use church on wheels there's probably other places but

[00:38:15] there are a lot of affordable options out there um and it makes life so much easier for not only

[00:38:21] you as a the team staffing on that but actually for your volunteers and so for us we kind of got

[00:38:26] that corner of the room and then I don't know what you call them the technical terms with

[00:38:29] the round carpets for the kids we got them themed orange I call them pepperonis I don't

[00:38:34] know what you're calling but like they're just throwing all the little padded seats at the

[00:38:38] guest sit on well no they're just there's another round um I guess carpet pieces pieces of carpet

[00:38:43] that we got them from a company in Canada they're pretty inexpensive and uh you know in your show

[00:38:48] notes if you want a bunch of the I mean I can send you the links to all the stuff we use just

[00:38:51] because it's the latest and greatest from the past month but yeah if people are looking for stuff

[00:38:56] I can certainly you know point you to kind of what we use but yeah that so that kind of

[00:39:00] makes the inviting environment so you know everyone knows that as a parent if you if you're

[00:39:05] a parent you know you're looking for you know safe clean and fun and as long as it's checking those

[00:39:10] boxes um then then parents are happy and so for us those rooms were designed to kind of

[00:39:17] accommodate that so we got the actual band room where the band meets for our largest one do we

[00:39:22] have the chorus room which is where uh pre-k is and then our infant's room has kind of been a

[00:39:27] special um I'm not sure what they call it but it's the room is kind of a special use room

[00:39:31] but it works out really well for us with those three rooms and so looking at the 519 seats like

[00:39:38] the children's will probably be the limiting factor but we can always use more rooms we can

[00:39:43] always move one of the you know the groups over to the cafeteria so we've got options

[00:39:48] yeah nothing we have to decide right now yeah no that's good let's talk about signage too

[00:39:53] because that really is eye-catching you talked about church on wheels and there's a lot of the

[00:39:57] portable church um companies that'll that'll work with you but um how do you go about for lack of

[00:40:04] a better word like transforming the space from school high school you know you got the trophy

[00:40:10] cabinet and the banners for the you know the mascot and all this stuff how do you transform that

[00:40:15] as best we can I mean we're not going to go in and be hollywood set directors but

[00:40:20] how can we transform that um into a a church facility yeah there's a couple of ways um obviously

[00:40:28] one way and I think the classic approach is pipe and drape but I never want to see pipe and drape

[00:40:32] again it's a lot of work so for amen for my friends out there that like pipe and drape man

[00:40:38] just blessings to you um you go do that I mean I think it's great I think it's a great way to

[00:40:44] kind of start with a blank slate but for me I'm inherently a little lazy and I'm like man I

[00:40:49] just I'm always looking for like the shortcuts well whatever's going to be the quickest easiest

[00:40:52] and the best I mean that's right I want to work our so yeah and so for us um we ended up using

[00:40:59] a lot of products from radiant printing and there are other places that do these products but this

[00:41:04] one happens to be in Florida um that the past there was a pastor of a church he kind that's

[00:41:09] that was his business radiant uh church uh down kind of Lakeland area so but anyway radiant

[00:41:14] printing and so on there you you know again we use those walls if you want to transform a space

[00:41:20] kind of just a neutral feeling space or you want to cover something up why not just use a pop-up wall

[00:41:26] that takes less than two minutes to set up and you're done and you've got this beautiful graphic

[00:41:30] yeah that you've designed how big are those walls each of those walls yeah I think ours

[00:41:35] of one we got eight by 15s we got eight by 10s yeah they're good size and uh they've been

[00:41:41] they've held up I mean they've um you know it's funny the radiant printing had featured the church

[00:41:47] I think a week or two ago on their Instagram but I guess they didn't know we moved to the

[00:41:51] out of the theater and so they were showing all of our stuff for the theater like hey actually

[00:41:54] we just moved but you have to do another feature yeah they're not doing that feature but

[00:41:59] to me between that and just again wayfinding people like to know where to go and just

[00:42:05] just think of yourself yeah you know one of the things I despise doing is going to like

[00:42:09] Walmart for any reason but if I do have to go there because like where do you find things I'm like you

[00:42:14] know as I just want to be able to look at a sign and get to where I need to go you know as easy as

[00:42:20] possible and so I think for you know for me going to you know a church you kind of want to

[00:42:30] know where you're going to be want to know where you're going and having those signs up

[00:42:35] and add it you know kind of laid out really really works out the best and so for us you know when

[00:42:40] you're kind of leaving the when you're coming from the parking lot to the sanctuary you're going to

[00:42:45] see you know a couple of signs that are giving you really good directions and we're tweaking it

[00:42:50] you know you're going to kind of you know you'll find people find little cracks and

[00:42:53] you're going to kind of figure things out but again putting some signage in its location

[00:42:59] some signage works well outside some signage doesn't I'm a big fan of the big flags

[00:43:04] like the teardrop you know 15 foot tall flags that go outside too I think they're they catch the eye

[00:43:10] and lets people know like there's something there's something unique happening there but you got to

[00:43:13] do something you can't just put a band on the stage and think that I mean yes the Lord can

[00:43:18] bring people but maybe the Lord bring more people if you tell him where to go yeah it's

[00:43:22] kind of the way I look at it yeah that's good man I can't believe we've been talking for almost

[00:43:27] 45 minutes already I'm just learning learning all this stuff what would be the one or two

[00:43:31] things that you would share with our listeners that you know you can't do without when it comes to

[00:43:37] comes to going into a school you if when you launch into a school that right there has notoriety of

[00:43:45] being a trusted place and as a church planner people don't know if they can trust you again

[00:43:51] if you're mobile you always have the stigma right we have the stigma so capitalize on that

[00:43:56] and I'm gonna tell probably your listeners to do something which I know probably wouldn't fall

[00:44:00] in the vein of kind of being the Calvary way but I think I'm just gonna I learned this from other

[00:44:06] church planning organizations but man we really utilize the the mailers every day direct mail

[00:44:13] I think we sent out 15 16 000 pieces kind of targeted in areas because we were the church

[00:44:20] we're a church of Pedro we're letting people know like hey Pedro Menendez high school the school

[00:44:24] you know we want to come there and be the church and this is what church is all about

[00:44:28] and they can scan and go see you know take a test drive and see what that's like and so

[00:44:34] capitalize on where you're at and why people want to go there anyway people go to that school

[00:44:38] because their kids are there yeah so if you're showing them you know you're investing in the

[00:44:42] next generation you're pouring into you know that that next generation those are key things I

[00:44:48] think that we want to make sure that we're doing again that's one of the ways that we looked

[00:44:52] at it and you know I think we've had a lot of people um you know we can see kind of the

[00:44:57] metrics you know hitting websites and things like that like they're wanting to find out more which

[00:45:00] is great that's what we wanted them to do take the next step and so wherever you're going make sure

[00:45:04] you're you're leveraging that point yeah that's so good Billy um I love it the mailers the signs

[00:45:11] that you know whatever we can do to get that to get the gospel out you know the the world needs

[00:45:18] more gospel center churches our communities need more gospel center churches in schools are a

[00:45:22] great way especially schools that the the parents their kids are already going there they're already

[00:45:27] attending they're already familiar with it um but getting them in the door so that we can uh that

[00:45:32] we can minister to them so yeah and I would say one thing and don't don't forget to leverage

[00:45:37] especially in our case is where we have a church that's already set up and running

[00:45:41] don't forget to leverage the strength of your congregation chances are you have

[00:45:45] a bunch of men and women that are business leaders and and are business minded entrepreneurial

[00:45:50] and the more I think that we can can show that we're organized and we have a plan you know for me

[00:45:55] and everyone's wired differently like but for me planning down hey we're going to have trailers

[00:45:59] we're going to have this and all this is because we want to be efficient we want to maximize our

[00:46:03] time doing ministry not setting up tear down but that comes at a cost and so I think you're

[00:46:09] going to have to show the benefit cost analysis if you will of why you know certain equipment

[00:46:14] will help you do what you need to do instead of just saying like oh we need you know $30,000 or

[00:46:20] whatever it's like no break it down because you got you got some leaders in your church right now that

[00:46:24] may maybe looking for a way to engage and this might be their way to engage as well awesome

[00:46:29] Billy um let's let's call that a good episode for now okay as always appreciate you being on

[00:46:36] the show and sharing your wisdom with us and look forward to doing it again and seeing how God

[00:46:41] continues to bless the church there and seeing what we're going to do with our our school here

[00:46:45] and whoever else might be listening connect with us on that topic as well so thanks Billy thanks for

[00:46:51] doing this thanks for listening to cultivate church planning podcast is part of cgn media a

[00:46:58] podcast network that points to christ check out cgn media dot org for more great shows and ways to

[00:47:04] support the ministry