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What Others are saying
40 Days of Purpose Observations and Lessons from a New Zealand Church
40 Days of Purpose (40DP) had a big impact on our church. We saw a 40% increase in the number of people in small groups, increases in baptisms and those wanting to join the church and it proved a catalyst for the birth of new ministries. At the end of the journey over 100 of our people indicated they had experienced something life changing during the 40 days. A number of seekers committed their lives to Christ during the 40 days.
It has led to changes in the way we approach some functions of the church (such as the way people join, and attitudes to worship).
For us, as a church that has a Purpose Driven structure, we initially saw 40DP as serving 2 functions - we expected it would help our people understand the nature of our church (since 40DP is built around the 5 purposes of a Purpose Driven church) and also to give a spur to spiritual growth. In practice it far exceeded our expectations.
Planning definitely needs to begin 3 months out to see the full impact - we found the program grew and grew on us so the time frame was necessary. Planning needs to start with the appointment of a team (not led by the "Pastor") who will devote themselves to making 40DP really impact - the training manuals document how to do this (including on the team makeup) and need to be thoroughly studied by the team leader.
The program is launched with a "simulcast" (in NZ this is just a video). In the US this was on the Saturday before the start but we decided this would diminish it's impact and chose to use it 2 Sundays prior to the start at both morning and evening services.
The video is around 1hr 50 mins long and features a full service including Rick Warren speaking in about 5 segments. We did not just play the video - we replaced the early worship with our own and used our own baptism video.
There was some concern how people would react to a video of a speaker in a church service (and an American at that) but it was extremely well received. Rick Warren is an outstanding communicator, is low on "hype" and comes across with great integrity. We informed people about the nature and length in advance and there was very little negative reaction. In fact, this service really helped buy-in in our church. If the speaking is perceived as too long, the last 10 minutes (after the "Reach one more for Jesus" solo) could be removed.
We underestimated the degree of buy-in - in the end we had to order 3 times as many books as we originally ordered and around 500 adults used the book each day.
On launch day we ran a "connection event" with a meal on Sunday evening (recommended in their literature) to facilitate people joining a small group and the formation of new ones. However we limited this to those not already in small groups. Around 180 came to this resulting in 410 in small groups. Most of those are still continuing.
We gave leaders the option of using the Rick Warren small group videos or just the study material (this was the first time our small groups had ever simultaneously used the same material!) In the end all opted for the videos (after having seen the "simulcast") and once again we had to urgently order in more videos. It is easy to underestimate this - the pressure came on small group leaders to use the videos from their group members because of the impact of Rick Warren's speaking in the Simulcast.
At the start I made it clear to our people that they would not agree with everything they read - and indeed may become very upset by some of it - but not to let this prevent them continuing because they would find God would speak to them as they kept on the journey. I stressed they did not need to agree with all they read. This proved to be an important warning - I know of people who otherwise would have given up at chapter 2 of the "Purpose Driven Life"!
The Sunday services: We incorporated many of the creative suggestions from Saddleback. We used our own songs and messages but some of the Saddleback dramas. With the preaching I used Rick's sermons as resource material for the messages. From my experience these take a great deal of preparation time (Rick Warren's preaching style and use of scripture may not be yours!) I am happy to offer my messages to others who wish to use them as resource material and to see how I interacted with Rick's material (or at times completely left it). Email 40days@dcbc.co.nz
We shut down most of the church's programs during 40DP - this freed up time for us to make the most of the program.
We rapidly realised that a lot of momentum was being generated and started to "piggy-back" other events off the services. For example we ran a "discovering membership" event one Sunday afternoon, called together those interested in developing new ministries to needy people on another (this was in addition to Saddleback suggestions of a ministry and mission "expo"). In hindsight we could have done more of this - we had not anticipated how much momentum the program would gather.
The last weekend posed a special problem. Saddleback recommended it ends with a Celebration service but it soon became clear that Sunday also was a crucial "looking back where we have gone" and "Where to next" occasion. In the end we ran 2 events - a morning service where we did the looking back, baptised, heard testimonies and a 5.45 pm celebration where we baptised more, heard more testimonies, took communion and gave an opportunity to publicly testify to life change during the 40DP. Over 100 came forward to lightBlue a candle below the cross to make this statement.
This day needs long and careful advance planning. We feel we would have done it better had we realised in advance that we were going to need 2 separate events.
If you want to know more, feel free to contact us and members of our team will follow it up.
May God bless you with this program as he has blessed us.
Senior Pastor
Dunedin City Baptist Church
New Zealand
Trevor Geddes
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