Welcome to the TryTank An experimental lab for church growth and innovation.
A joint venture
What’s a TryTank? • Is it a ”think tank”? • Is it the “way to save the church”? • Is it a “silver bullet”? • Rather it’s…
…a place where we can ask
Innovation models Current church model TryTank 1- think of an idea 1- try it 2- pray about it 3- write it out 4- form a committee 5- hold listening sessions 6- write a paper 7- go to a conference 8- do theological reflection 9- talk about it in the diocese 10- discern some more 11- bring to vestry 12- bring to vestry again 13- try it
That’s what we are… • An opportunity to ask “what if?” • A chance to dedicate time and resources to this work. • The R&D part of our church.
But our experiments speak best… • Right now 17 of them • In three categories: • Congregational Development • Leadership • Technology • Let’s take a tour…
Our Experiments 1-Alexa Skill: Creating a prayer leader out of Alexa to help people pray at home.
Our Experiments 2-Apple News Prayer Feed: Make it easier for people to engage with scripture during the week, during their normal life by creating a source that can supply content into their Apple Newsfeed.
Our Experiments 3-Connected Congregation: Using available technology that allows for fun and incredibly easy points of contact between the congregation and its members leading to more engagement with the church and higher attendance.
Our Experiments 4-Digital Collection Plate: Grow the plate collection at congregations by making it as easy and fast as possible for people to give in other forms than cash.
Our Experiments 5-Idea Festival: A festival of ideas for church growth and innovation. Seeking to create a '"primordial soup" where the right elements (folks) can bump (meet) and create new ideas beyond the “adjacent possible.”
Our Experiments 6-Latino Ministry in a Box: Using multi-site technology to create a Spanish-speaking congregation taking small steps.
Our Experiments 7-Latino Music Library: Make it easier for the church to provide Spanish-language worship services by creating a music video library of the most used Spanish hymns.
Our Experiments 8-Latino Phonetic App: Make it easier for non-native speakers to be able to lead Spanish-language worship services by creating an app that teaches them the phonetic way to say the prayers from the Libro de Oración Común.
Our Experiments 9-Listening Project: Conversations with 100 leaders who have grown and maintained their congregational growth. Leading to the " Habits of Highly Effective Church Growers ." Some will be basic, but we also hope to find surprises.
Our Experiments 10-Spin Church: Taking the basics of a regular Soul Cycle group fitness class and making it full-out about Jesus and then sharing a liturgical meal after.
About SpinChurch • We know … That 26,799 people saw the Facebook ads, • Those people are 86% women and 14% men, • They saw those ads a total of 160,671 times, • And that 1,176 of those people took action from those ads. • That’s a click-through rate of 1.40 which is more than 3x the Facebook benchmark for “well-performing” campaigns. • However, only 9 people signed up to attend Spin Church over the campaign, and • None went to the class.
Our Experiments 11-Facebook Master Class: A social media expert will lead a one-day master class on how to use Facebook to grow the church. The class is followed by 3 months of subject matter coaching and accountability for the participants.
Our Experiments 12-Interactive Sunday: Using technology to have interactive sermons (quizzes, surveys, word clouds, etc.) leading to more engagement with the church and higher attendance.
Our Experiments 13-Theological Explainer Video Library: Create a library of whiteboard videos that explain theological concepts in 2 minutes. The videos will be hosted on YouTube, the 2nd largest search engine in the world.
Our Experiments 14-EpiscoPALS: Create an incredibly simple website (also mobile) that can connect seniors to a live streaming platform for senior games and community.
Our Experiments 15-Homebound Sermons: Weekly 3 minute sermon videos to be used by Eucharistic ministers as they take communion to the homebound.
Our Experiments 16-Baptism Revival: Create a parish neighborhood baptism revival reaching those who have no church relationship.
Our Experiments 17-HeartEdge USA: Helping to expand the HeartEdge network in the US. Building association, learning, development, and resource of congregations on the edge. HeartEdge, based in the UK is a project of St. Martin in the Fields.
Connect with us • Lorenzo@trytank.org • www.trytank.org
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