Details
Thank you for your interest in bringing me into your faith community to help guide your people into outward focused living. I am committed to a holistic approach to outward focused living that strives to balance urgency with wisdom, boldness with compassion, harvesting with sowing, and proclamation with listening. My workshops are culturally sensitive, biblically based, and principle-driven. Hence, they are relevant anywhere in the world and appeal to everyone in the body of Christ regardless of spiritual gifting or personality types. The role playing, small and large group interactions, coupled with a state of the art media driven experience help believers gain a sense of competence and confidence which is sorely needed for transforming inwardly focused Christians into outwardly focused followers of Christ. I can assure you that the cost of bringing me in will be mission’s money well spent as I am committed to equipping your people to be moment-by-moment missionaries in the real worlds in which they live.
After many years of doing workshops all over the world, the following ideas are offered to help you maximize the impact of my visit. I am expecting you to help me understand your unique context, so that I can tailor make my workshop to meet the specific needs of your faith community. I’m counting on you to pick and choose the resources and ideas that best fit your situation. If you can't find what you think you need to help you prepare for my visit, please let me know and I will do my best to serve you accordingly.
Preliminary Planning
Meet with your key leaders to discuss a specific plan of action of what you would like to see happen as a result of my visit. If your leaders are not on board you'll need to prayerfully consider how to inspire the desire before I come in to build the skill. You might consider having them read “God Space”, or check out some of the “Articles” I've written which are posted on my website under "Resources". Below you will find proven ideas that spell out a best-case scenario for making the most of my visit.
Introducing the Value of Outward Focused Living
I have found in most cases that busy people will not put one more thing into their schedules unless they are convinced it will be time well spent. Do not underestimate the inward focused mindset that dominates many a faith community. I’ve found that if most of the following ideas are implemented, people will be much more inclined to make this workshop a priority.
1. Bring me in to speak one to two months in advance from the workshop date. My message will help to curb “evangiphobia” and build credibility and excitement for my workshop. While I’m in town I’d like to meet with your leadership team over a meal to help cast the vision for my visit and facilitate a dialogue that will help me better understand your context.
2. Encourage everyone to buy “GodSpace” at my author’s reduced price ($10, call me and I will send you however many copies you need) and read it ahead of time. This helps to create a buzz in your faith community by dispelling many of the stereotypes that keep people away from an outwardly focused workshop like mine. It also primes the pump for a more stimulating workshop as people walk into the room thinking about the topic at hand. If you choose not to go this route, please have people go to my website and read “Have You Wondered Into Anyone’s Heart Lately?” This will help to give your people a taste of the natural, doable, and authentic ways by which they can increase the quantity and quality of their spiritual conversations.
3. Use the DVD clips, promo-flyer, press release & photo, bulletin announcement, endorsements, and participant’s comments to promote my workshop.
4. Have everyone respond to the following question, If Doug could address one thing in his workshop that would help you share your faith more effectively, what would it be? Collect and synthesize the results, discuss people’s responses with your leaders, send these responses on to me one week before the workshop date.
5. Deploy your prayer warriors! Inwardly focused people tend to have a variety of strongholds that keep them from becoming the outwardly focused Christ followers God would want them to be. The enemy rejoices when God’s people stay silent. Any plan of action that does not include prayer is shortsighted.
My Workshop Preferences
If you are planning to bring me in for a weekend workshop, I would like to arrive on Friday in time to meet your sound technician and room coordinator so that we could set everything up ahead of time. This takes the pressure off if something needs to be tweaked and allows everyone to walk into Saturday in a better frame of mind. In most cases, I would be available to preach the next day if my workshop is on Saturday. This is another way to expose the folks who did not come on Saturday to the outwardly focused conversation. Some faith communities have me preach on Sunday morning then have me do the workshop on Sunday afternoon or evening. I have no will of my own in that matter. You know your people, so I will defer to your insight when setting the time for the workshop.
Workshop Needs
A Sound Technician to set up the room with a large screen projector (a larger TV would work for groups from 20 to 30) a sound system, and a wireless lapel mike.
A Room Coordinator to insure I have a swivel stool, a small table just big enough for my laptop, a table for book sales, and chairs set up around round tables (if possible), so that small groups of four to six can be formed and a drink & snack table for break time.
An M.C. to introduce me, round people up on breaks, and make announcements.
A Money Collector to collect the money from workshop participants, and sell books during the breaks.
Following Up My Workshop
Have a follow-up meeting after my workshop (announce it the day of the workshop). Discuss the big ideas that your people took away from the workshop. Discuss what organizational changes and steps need to be taken next to deepen the impact of the workshop. I’d like to suggest that you give strong consideration to the small group DVD that is tentatively going to be out in July of 2010. You might also want to consider my ongoing coaching offer as another way to help move your faith community from information to transformation.
Workshop Guarantee
My partnership with Group Publishing has everything to do with a similar commitment to REAL learning. I can’t say it any better than they already have, so I am borrowing their guarantee and making it mine. You can expect my workshops to be REAL. Why? Because different people learn in different ways, so you can expect my workshops to include a variety of methods to move people from information to transformation. That’s my REAL guarantee!
Relational - When God's people get a chance to express what has been impressed by way of a dialogue, they learn better and retain more.
Experiential - When God's people are given an opportunity to experience a teaching directly they tend to get it quicker and hang onto it longer.
Applicable - When God's people are given practical, doable "baby steps", they are more inclined towards life application.
Learner-based - When God's people are exposed to a "REAL" learning environment, the greatest potential for moving from information to transformation is achieved. Effective learning starts where the learner is, not where the presenter would like them to be.
