Consultants

One of the questions I get asked a lot about from other church planters is about our use of consultants.  We have used consultants almost since day one at Revolution.  We are always looking for people to evaluate what we are doing, offer their expertise, and give us solutions for improving every area of our church.

I can’t remember all of the various consultants we have brought in but a few of the areas we have used them in include Media (sound, light, video), General Church, Children’s, Production, and Marketing.  We have had MANY great experiences with consultants, a couple of bad ones, and one just plain weird one.

I HIGHLY recommend consultants no matter what size your church is but I think we are a lot better prepared today to bring one in then we were when we started bringing them in because we have learned a lot in the process.  Since so many of you ask, I thought I would share with you what we have learned.

• BRING IN PEOPLE WHO UNDERSTAND YOUR CHURCH - This one is huge.  We have a very clear vision here at Revolution and not everyone understands that.  We are all about reaching unchurched people and nothing else.  That doesn’t mean we talk about reaching unchurched people, that means we actually try to do it.  We have had guys come in who at one time were part of large churches (great churches doing great things) that simply wanted to talk about that church and what they did.  It didn’t matter if that fit our culture, our vision, or our DNA.  It is also important for them to understand that we are a portable church, with a thousand people, and what our budget is.  I’ll never forget the consultant who gave us a write up with around $250,000 worth of improvements when we were running about 500 people.   They were great improvements but not realistic for us at that time.
• MAKE SURE THEY ARE CURRENTLY PART OF A LOCAL CHURCH AND CALL THAT CHURCH - I am so sick of guys who “use to be on staff at ________.”  Ministry changes QUICKLY.  If you are going to consultant for local churches make sure you are part of a local church.  I am so fed up with guys who are experts at what is working in the local church but haven’t been part of one for a while.  I will never forget bringing in a guy to talk to our staff one day who had lived in the area over a year and still hadn’t found a church to be part of.  He knew every church was doing wrong but after a year hadn’t gotten his family connected to one yet.  What he said held little ground with me or our staff.  It is easy to have theory, it is another thing to actually be in the battle doing it.
• ALLOW THEM TO BE HONEST -Sounds simple, but most guys can’t handle the truth.  If you can’t handle the truth then save yourself some money and don’t bring them in.  We recently brought in a consultant for our children’s ministry and she was BRUTAL to us.  I told her coming in that I wanted her HONEST evaluation and she gave it.  It stung for about 2 seconds then we realized she was right and we have made HUGE changes in that area and it is paying huge returns.  She could have came down and patted us on the back, but she cared enough not to do that.  Swallow your pride and allow them to be honest in the areas you aren’t very good.  I like to hear what we are doing right as well, but that isn’t why I bring them in.
• BRING IN PEOPLE YOU HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH AND WHO CARE ABOUT YOUR CHURCH - This goes back to the last one.  The reason this person was allowed to be brutally honest with us is because we had a relationship with her and knew she actually cared about our church.  Anyone can tear down just to tear down.  I want someone to tear down because they are trying build us up and that comes from having people come in that we have a relationship with.  THE best consultants we have brough in aren’t actually consultants, they are people who are on staff in churches we have relationships with who come in and want to see our church be all that it can be.
• GOOD CONSULTANTS COST MONEY - One of the lessons I have learnd in planting a church is you get what you pay for.  Churches are the worst about wanting stuff for free.  If you are going to take someone’s time to travel, time way from their family and their time to give you an honest evaluation, you need to pay them.  Quit being cheap and spend the money to make your church better.
• LET THEM KNOW WHAT YOU EXPECT BEFORE THEY COME IN - I have learned that most of the time when expectations aren’t met, expectations weren’t clearly laid out beforehand.  We are very clear before we bring some in about exactly what we expect and why we are bringing them in.

I could go on and on but those are the first things that popped into my head.  Hope it helps.