Building an Inviting Church: Greg Griffith on 60% Growth in Two Years

unSeminary Podcast

Welcome back to the unSeminary podcast. This week we’re talking with Greg Griffith, Lead Pastor at King of Kings in Omaha, Nebraska.

If your church does what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten. But when you take a risk and step out of your comfort zone, who knows how God can use it to reach your community. Tune in to hear how King of Kings has taken some risks to reach out to their community in unique ways and the impact and growth they’ve seen.

• Keep it simple. // As with many churches, the COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted King of Kings, cutting their attendance in half. Despite these challenges, Greg focused on the new attendees who began to come during this time, many of whom were eager to engage with the church and share their faith with others. To encourage growth and help foster a culture of invitation, King of Kings focused on a couple of simple, actionable items that they could put into place.
• Big Sundays. // One of the key strategies they implemented was to create four big “inviteable Sundays” outside of Christmas and Easter services and encourage their people to think of at least two where they could invite someone to church. One example of a Big Sunday is “Jersey Sunday” which is held over Labor Day weekend and everyone wears their favorite sports jersey. Around Halloween, King of Kings holds “Super Sweet Sunday” and children are encouraged to dress up in church-friendly costumes and enjoy the candy that’s distributed.
• It’s ok to be attractional. // Greg acknowledges that some people may view these initiatives as gimmicky, but he believes that they serve a greater purpose. If Jesus used simple elements like turning water into wine and feeding people with bread and fish to connect with them, then churches can also use creative and fun events to draw people in. Take a risk and do something that may make you a little uncomfortable and see what happens. You won’t see different results if you just keep repeating what you’ve always done.
• Other invitable days. // King of Kings also holds four non-church invitable events. These are community events that don’t include a church service, for example a back-to-school event where school supplies are distributed, or offering a gift-wrapping service to the community around Christmastime. Greg underscores that the community events are meeting a need and helping in an area that stresses out non-churchgoers. The events are a gift to the community and have to be free. If someone wants to give money at the event, Greg encourages people to instead come to a church service to give, or donate online.
• Church Growth Incubator. // Greg and his team are taking part in Church Growth Incubator, which is a one-year coaching experience that includes two calls a month and two retreats a year. It’s designed for churches who want to increase their invite culture. The program has offered actionable steps that have helped King of Kings grow and work toward their attendance goal.
• Honor all generations. // As they look toward the future, one thing Greg and his team are wrestling with is how they lead to truly be a church that honors all generations and households. Regardless of where people are in life—single, widowed, empty nest, married with kids, married with no kids, divorced—King of Kings wants to help the church to honor one another in their neighborhoods and worlds so that all people can feel welcome and connected to each other.

You can learn more about King of Kings at their website www.kingofkings.org, and find Greg on Facebook and Instagram under the name “GregGriffithLeads.”

Thank You for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!

Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live!

---

Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: Risepointe

Do you feel like your church’s facility could be preventing growth, and are you frustrated or maybe even overwhelmed at the thought of a complicated or costly building project? Are the limitations of your church building becoming obstacles in the path of expanding your ministry? Have you ever felt that your church could reach more people if only the facility was better suited to the community’s needs?

Well, the team over at Risepointe has been there. As former ministry staff and church leaders, they understand how to prioritize and help lead your church to a place where the building is a ministry multiplier. Licensed all over North America, their team of architects, interior designers and project managers have the professional experience to help move YOUR mission forward.

Check them out at Risepointe.com/unseminary and while you’re there get their FREE resource “10 Things to Get Right Before You Build”.

---

Episode Transcript

Rich Birch — Hey, friends, welcome to the unSeminary podcast. So glad that you’ve decided to tune in today. Really looking forward to today’s conversation. Today we’re talking with a good friend of mine, Greg Griffith, from an incredible Lutheran church in Omaha. First of all, Omaha is a great city. Lots of good things happening in Omaha. King of Kings is an incredible church in Omaha, and Greg is a friend. This is a fun podcast because often I’m talking to people who I’ve just met online. But Greg I know from the real world.

Greg Griffith — Yeah.

Rich Birch — So it’s so great to have Greg on the show today. Greg, welcome. So glad you’re here.
Greg Griffith — Thanks so much. It’s so great to be with you, Rich, and good to see you. And it’s been too long since we’ve seen each other in person. So.
Rich Birch — Yeah, absolutely. It’s true. Well, why don’t you fill in the picture? Tell us a bit of the King of Kings story. Give us kind of the flavor. Fill out the picture a little bit. Tell us more about the church.
Greg Griffith — Yeah, I’ve been at King of Kings for five years. Started in August of 2019, so I was called here to stand on the shoulders of a giant, in our church body and a giant in Christendom, I believe, named Mark Zehnder. And, I had a charge to just take off further where he went. And then obviously, eight months later, I did the unthinkable, which is we had a church attendance of zero, so, due to Covid. But, so we’ve navigated through that over the past five years.
Greg Griffith — But, King of Kings has been a church that’s always been innovative. They’ve been a pioneer, really, in our church body, from music style in the 80s, obviously making a shift from more traditional into a contemporary style, to making their own music. And then even moving from a church that look like a church into a 250,000 square foot industrial software microchipped warehouse, and making that their church home. And then and then today we’re continuing to innovate in how we do multi-site. And, King of Kings is a place that, truly, the people have a wonderful heart and posture to say, let’s do anything short sin to reach those who don’t know Jesus. And, it’s really been a joy and a thrill to be a part of this great church and this great community.
Rich Birch — Nice. Yeah. It’s fun to, you know, to to interact with your church and get to know your team a little bit. Over these last couple of years and we’ve had I’ve had a chance to visit your church, which is which has been great. And so I’m really looking forward to kind of diving in a little bit.
Rich Birch — A part of what caught my attention was, you know, I don’t know, at some point, you know, we’ll stop talking about Covid, but like it is a benchmark in all our brains. Like, I don’t know, you know, it’s like a it was such a dramatic moment. And then, you know, you’ve you’ve seen some really significant growth at the church…

Greg Griffith — Yeah.

Rich Birch — …really from that milestone to today, which is, you know, there’s so many people, even I know there’s people that are listening in when when you said, oh, I started August 2019, every everybody knows, like, oh my goodness, what a crappy time to start in a church right before all that. But, you know, kind of post Covid, talk us through, you know, what does that look like? You were running about where and then today. And then what I want to do is unpack some of that. So tell us a little bit of that story.
Greg Griffith — Yeah. So, post-Covid, as we came out and really got back up and running we experienced, what every church in America and maybe the world, I think experiences. We we had people that stayed fully engaged. We had new people that came, but we also had a lot of people that left. And so we went from worshiping pre-COVID of around 13-, 1400, to about 750. And so it was about, two years in, we started, I think, 500 and then about, two years into Covid, right around 2022 or so like that, we were like right at that 750 mark and it was like, gosh, we know these are raving fans. We have new people that are on board. They’re loving what we’re doing, but there’s a significant drop here. And, and church just looks different. And so, so what are we going to do? And how do we do this?
Greg Griffith — And so, we really began looking at certain things to say how do we increase our invitability? Because I think one of the the keys that was important for us is we did have a significant portion of people who were new, new to King of Kings. And, kind of had come out and said, I’m like, I’m in for Jesus. Like Covid has taught me that, that I needed something stable and church and Jesus is that. And so they’re actually the dream of like when you have new people, they want to be your number one cheerleaders. They’re ready to tell their neighbors, they’re ready to invite people. So but we needed to say, here’s, here’s the things that are invitable and the things that we can do for those invitability.

Greg Griffith — And so we really began to hone in and say, all right, for our campuses, and at that time, we only had one campus. We, we looked at a couple just really concrete, actionable items that were simple that we could put into place. One of the things I think I had heard on your podcast or heard part of our, our, our incubator group, was that, you know, every one of us, as pastors, always wants people to invite every single weekend. The reality is people aren’t able to invite every single weekend.

Rich Birch — Right, right.

Greg Griffith — And so it’s an unrealistic expectation. And if you just keep laying it out there, eventually people go, I can’t do this. So it just becomes white noise to them. And so we really honed into that and we said, all right, let’s find for invitable Sundays and let’s, let’s really dive into this and say, hey, church, we’ve got four and invitable Sundays. We’re asking you to just find two, outside of the Christmas and Easter…

Rich Birch — Right.

Greg Griffith — …but like find two that you go, this really resonates with me, my neighbor, my friend, someone like that. And so we identified four, really big, identifiable Sundays. Big Sundays, as we call them. And then we also, said let’s, let’s press into four non-church invitable events. What are what are four things we can do for the community that aren’t church events, that you can invite someone to that isn’t inviting them to church? Because a church invite is a high bar, and that’s really hard for someone to go to.
Greg Griffith — A back to school event for my kid, which every parent I mean, you know, my kids are all back to school here, this week. And, you know, every parent, my wife, as I was leaving the house the other day, said to me, “Hey, by the way, Greg…” She’s the money person in our family. She goes, “By the way, Greg, it’s been a really expensive month with, shoes and backpacks and this and that, and the other thing. If you could not spend money the rest of the month, that would be great.” And so luckily, I just bought my new running shoes. And so I was like, yeah, I can do that from now on.
Rich Birch — I can do that. Yes.
Greg Griffith — So I think we just really tried to press into, how do we get people to invite into the community? And and then I and then I think the other piece that we really look…

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s great.

Greg Griffith — Yeah. Go ahead.
Rich Birch — Well, I’d love to lean in on those big days things…

Greg Griffith — Yeah.

Rich Birch — …to start there. So, you know, I don’t one of the ways I describe a church like King of Kings, it’s like the it’s like the church of record, like it’s a, it’s a large church that has had, you know, a have a well-established, kind of, for lack of better word, brand or reputation in town that’s positive. People know the church. And Christmas and Easter, I can imagine that those are big days already in the in the life of your church because of that. What would be a couple of those other days that have been particularly helpful for encouraging your people to invite? And what does that look like from your side? Like, what have you done to try to help encourage those?
Greg Griffith — Yeah. So one of our big, big Sundays, we call them is we do something in October. And it’s called Super Sweet Sunday. And so, our, our thing is we actually invite our all the kids. We invite the adults, we invite everyone. We have our our worship team wears them on stage. And so what they do is we say, hey, it’s usually the week before Halloween. And we say, you know what? Come to church in a church friendly, Halloween costume. And, and then we have more candy everywhere. I mean, the entire corridor is with all the candy. The entire kids area gets all the candy. I mean, kids walk out with more candy from church than they do from going out on the evening that that is actually where they’re going neighbor to neighbor and door to door.
Greg Griffith — And, and and really what we want is this is where kids get super excited to come to church. They hear, I can wear my costume to church. And they just think it’s so fun. They invite their friends because they say, hey, why don’t you come with me? and they come to church and they have a great time. So that’s one of them.

Greg Griffith — Another one that we do. Labor Day is always a hard day. And so it’s what we do call a big Sunday. It’s a hard day for the church. And and so what we do on Labor Day, that’s fun, kind of invitable is we actually call it Jersey Sunday. And we have some jerseys that are King of Kings jerseys that people can buy.

Rich Birch — Oh okay.

Greg Griffith — But also we say, wear are your favorite sports jersey. College football’s big in Nebraska. We really still believe that we will win a national championship again in Nebraska, we believe that.
Rich Birch — This is the year! This is the year!
Greg Griffith — Yeah, yeah, we’ve got a God of miracles in Nebraska. So, so we do that. But then the other thing we do that’s, I think a lot of fun is, and it’s a lot of work on our worship teams, but they do it. They will have songs, and they’ve got two songs cued up for each one of our song sections. And the congregation live votes which song they want to sing. And so they do it via texting.
Rich Birch — Oh, wow – that’s fun.
Greg Griffith — Yeah, it’s so fun. People love it. And actually we also love it because we get due their texting, we get their information and can correct either cell phones we don’t have, or add cell phones that we need. So there’s always a piece there.
Rich Birch — Oh that’s good. I like that.
Greg Griffith — Yeah. So so those are those are a couple of our kind of big Sundays that we do. In July, it’s not one Sunday, we actually July we call Sundays are for Sundaes. And so all of July, we just give ice cream away.

Rich Birch — Right.

Greg Griffith — So your kid can have ice cream for breakfast. I can have ice cream for… like, who doesn’t want ice cream for breakfast? Like, we’ve just been told we can’t have this. Well, at church you can. And it’s calorie free…

Rich Birch — Yeah, yeah. I love it.

Greg Griffith — …because, you know, Jesus has made it, turned, He turned water into wine. He can turn ice cream into healthy. So, I’m just kidding. But, you know, so.…

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good. That’s good. I love it.

Greg Griffith — …so those are those are the types of things we do. Just super low invitational. And and our goal is we want to attract people that go, hey, you think church is like what you think in your head. Come with me this week. You’re just going to it’s just going to be radically different.

Rich Birch — Yeah.

Greg Griffith — And and we know some people will say, well, that wasn’t for me. Some people though, or their kids, they love it. We’ve had many, many families who come and say, our kids say, can we come back? And that’s our goal. We really want kids to say, can we come back?
Rich Birch — Yeah. Totally. Yeah. And you know, your church is has served so well, you know, so strong on the kids ministry front. Definitely, you can see that. What do you say to a leader who is listening in who may not know you? You know, I know the church. You guys love Jesus. You like actually talk from the Bible. You have like actual, you know, like you really want people to take steps towards him.

Greg Griffith — Yeah.

Rich Birch — But they hear all this stuff and they’re like, it just all feels very gimmicky. Like I, you know, I are, man, I just why am I a part of it? I wouldn’t, I don’t want to do that stuff. What would you say to a church leader who’s who’s who would say that to you about these kinds of things?
Greg Griffith — Yeah, I do think it’s gimmicky. And I think gimmicks are okay.

Rich Birch — Yes, yeah.

Greg Griffith — I, I’m okay with that. And, and I get it that that’s not everyone’s cup of tea. But I would say this: I think if, if Jesus can use, right, water into wine, if he can use a couple breads, loaves of bread and, and fish and, and if Jesus is always looking to grab people where they’re at and then take them to a step that they didn’t even know they were wanting to go. And it really comes, I think, from our our theology is, you know, I think I really believe everyone everyone wants to love Jesus. They just don’t know it yet. And and so if you can get them in a door to, to have that preconceived notion that they have that they’re not welcome, church isn’t fun, Jesus God doesn’t laugh. Yes he does. I think God laughs all the time, I think. And so so if we can get people to see that, that God is good and God is gracious and God is fun, and that your kids can have fun. And and faith, is not this just kind of what we have in our mindset of like or what we grew up with that we think as a child that probably wasn’t fully true. I think we can.
Greg Griffith — I also I I think when you were on our site visit or I think it was maybe an, in a podcast, I heard with you, right? Every one of us has attraction in some way, right? If you have a sign outside your church, that’s an attraction.

Rich Birch — It’s true.

Greg Griffith — If you clean your bathroom.

Rich Birch — Yes, yes.

Greg Griffith — Like you are saying, we want you to say, this feels nice. Like I can go to the bathroom here. Like that’s attractional. So we’re all attractional to some level. And and I do think you as a church have to just find where is your level, and, and that’s okay. And then and then sometimes I would say if your level is pretty low, maybe, maybe just say, hey, what if we tried one thing, right? What if we…

Rich Birch — Yeah. Yeah, that’s good.

Greg Griffith — …what if we tried something, something a little bit different? Maybe, maybe if you live in a beautiful place, like like I used to be in, in Michigan, one of the things they tried is they said, let’s move service in the summer outside because Michigan summers are amazing, right?

Rich Birch — Right. Right.

Greg Griffith — And so, yeah, have an outdoor service…

Rich Birch — Right.

Greg Griffith — …like that’s a new attraction, a way to invite someone. So that’s what I would say.
Rich Birch — Yeah that’s good. I love that. I think there’s something to there too about like, hey, you know, if you, if you’ve always done what you’ve always, if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got.

Greg Griffith — Right.

Rich Birch — You know, if you just keep repeating what we’ve always done, you’re not going to see new results. And so, you know, trying something new, trying to say like, hey, well, maybe we could take a risk here and do something that maybe makes us a little bit uncomfortable. And and see what happens. You know, I think is, is good advice. I think, you know, at the end of the day, you know, why people arrive as the people arrive at our church for all different kinds of reasons. The question is, when they actually get here, you know, what are they, what are they encountering and they encountering, you know, teaching that points them towards Jesus? Are they encountering a community of people that love them, that want to care for them?
Rich Birch — Let’s talk about those non-church events. You know, back to school. What would be some of those other things that you’ve done as a church that have helped you, you know, become more invitable, help you be the kind of place where people will, you know, invite their their friends and connect with their, their community?
Greg Griffith — Yeah. Our back to school event is a huge invite. And that’s something where we just we give away backpacks and school supplies. It’s grown every year. When we started here at King of Kings, we had just under a thousand people come. Last year, we had about, 1800 to 2000.

Rich Birch — Wow.

Greg Griffith — This year we just had it. We had 3000 people on campus. It just continues to grow and grow. We also do, at our northwest campus, our second campus, they do a, they do a Trunk and Treat, and, invite just congregation and community to, you know, decorate their trunks. And then kids and families can kind of walk around and pick up candy and do things in their costumes. And that started that started with a thousand people on their, their first year doing that. So I’m not sure what it will look like this year, probably even greater.

RIch Birch — Wow!

Greg Griffith — And and our key, so we have two keys in, in all of our community events that we do. First, they have to be free. So that’s just us. We really say if we’re going to invite the community in, we want it to be free. And and so when, and occasionally someone will walk up to one of our staff or me and say, hey, I have some money, can I give a free will donation? And our answer’s: no, you can’t. And they go, why? And we say, well, this is this is our gift from our congregation to the community. And they say, well, how can I do this? And I say, if you want to come on Sunday and put it in the offering plate or you want to give online, you’re welcome to do that. But but this is a free event for our community.
Greg Griffith — And, and then one, I think that that actually is not necessarily a community event, but we’ve seen some really great traction out of it is we do we are we are one of the site locations for the Tim Tebow Foundation Night to Shine. And, people love to serve. And we’ve been noticing we we have more non-church people, and I would say even some just non-Christians, but they have a heart to want to make a difference, especially in the lives of kids and people with developmentally disabilities. And so, so, so that’s been something where people have experienced just a heart of Jesus in a way, that’s for our community, and, and where they’re actually then serving into our community. So those are, those are a few of the things that we do.
Rich Birch — Yeah, I love that. We talk about those, you know, community service type events as magnetic community service. This idea of getting people, you know, out of out of their seats and into the streets to actually make some sort of difference. And, you know, people want to be a part of a church that not only makes a difference, but is seen making a difference. And they will, you know, they’ll tell their friends about that. They’ll, they’ll communicate that. And, and the the Tim Tebow Foundation has done just such a good job packaging up that experience into like a… It’s still a ton of work. It’s not like it’s plug and play. It’s not it’s not easy. I don’t want to give that away. It’s a it’s a ton of work, but it is a compelling idea. This idea of like, hey, here’s some kids who don’t, have a prom. And what if you were to provide that experience as a as a church. Like, it’s also a huge volunteer ask, which and, you know, it’s, it’s the kind of thing that people want to be a part of. They want to engage and they want to say, hey, I would I’d love to be, you know, I’d love to do that for sure.
Rich Birch — That’s good. Well, you and I are a part of I lead a thing called the…Oh, sorry. Go ahead.
Greg Griffith — Oh, no, no, no, I was just going to piggyback off that, Rich, real quick. I think one of the things we’ve really learned with, especially community events, is asking the question, around our community and our non churchgoers, of what are some things that stress them out, and then how can we do a community event that meets that need? And so the back to school event is there’s a lot of families like like this time is a really expensive time for them. It’s really hard. And for many families living paycheck to paycheck, it just gets really tough.

Greg Griffith — I think the other thing is, you know, we do a Christmas event, and wrapping gifts and getting gifts when your kid is always around. So we’re like, hey, give us your kid. Go shopping for the day. And then when you come back, we’ll wrap the gifts you bought for your children. So so really, how do we… We’ve learned here in Omaha, one of the biggest needs right now is people feel super stressed out. And so we’re saying, how do we alleviate some of that stress and not add on to it through our events? That was all. That’s the last thing I want to say.
Rich Birch — That’s good. That’s good. No, that’s good. Well, you you I’m a part of it. I run a thing called Church Growth Incubator, and it’s been such an honor to have you be a part of that. That’s a it’s a one-year coaching experience. Includes, you know, remote calls we do, or two calls a month, and we do two retreats a year. It’s really designed for churches that are wanting to increase their invite culture. We try to provide some kind of consistent coaching feedback, really pressure on this issue, trying to help, you know, help churches ultimately increase, you know, their invite culture. What part of that for you has been the most helpful? When you think of like, oh, hey, this this piece of Church Growth Incubator, this, this part of it has been the part that, man, has has been the most helpful for us through these last couple years, as we’ve been as we’ve been plugged in.
Greg Griffith — You know, I think I would say this, I’m I’m always thankful for anyone that’s willing to pour into another church and expertise that they have. I’m especially thankful, Rich, when it’s in ways that are applicable that can be implemented. And and it’s not like, here’s 45 things. Choose the ones you like. Like that’s too much. It’s really it’s you give actionable steps, and simple things to do, and we do them.

Greg Griffith — So case in point, right around before Christmas in our first year, you asked the question, what is your Christmas recall? And and you said, here’s a couple things I do, right? What is your January series? have that marketed out in your A-frames. have that on your guest information cards. And then and then here’s a couple templates for how to send that out after Christmas Eve to invite people back to the January Sunday.
Greg Griffith — And New Year’s, people have resolutions. And church is always a resolution for those who aren’t attenders. I mean, it’s just one of the ones. It’s like losing weight, right? Like I’m going to lose weight this year, right? I’m going to go to church.

Rich Birch — Right.

Greg Griffith — And so, we employed that. We did, we did. And we plan on that series. We employ that. And the the weekend after Christmas that we meet again is is now in our top five highest Sundays, which before was always a lower Sunday.

Rich Birch — Wow, that’s incredible.

Greg Griffith — But but now it’s just, it’s, it’s right up there. So the, the, the Church Growth Incubator for me has been really helpful because our teams can take a couple things and say, oh yeah, and then put that into place. We’ve changed all of our, our terminology. We’ve, we’ve now gone to, Are you newer here? Right? Rather than necessarily first time guest, or go to our next steps rooms. Now it’s a new here area. And because some people be coming in for a month and you go, are you first time? And they go, no, I’m not a first time. I’ve been here a month, but I haven’t wanted to engage. And so so this this allows them to still do that.

Greg Griffith — We’ve just gone to for, for our newer here people, one of the things we learned was give people options. So now we offer a coffee mug, a water bottle, or a t shirt. And we’re seeing connections of more connections now, people going, Oh, yeah. I would love to pick one of those. Right? Because if I bring another coffee mug to my house, my wife’s going to kill me. So I can’t bring any more coffee mugs, right? You know?

Rich Birch — That’s hilarious. Yeah, sure.

Greg Griffith — But a t-shirt? Man, I love a t shirt. I mean, for some reason people love t-shirts. I don’t know why. So, yeah, it’s been it’s been.
Rich Birch — It’s true. It’s true.
Greg Griffith — This is a been a coaching thing, a coaching incubator, not only where I’ve met really great pastors who are all, have the same mission, mindset and teams that are saying, let’s go and just reach more people for Jesus. But the the actual implementation of ideas, is stuff that we can actually do. And, and that when I bring them to our teams, they don’t go, oh. Like, because as a senior pastor, we can bring ideas and ideas and ideas. But a lot of times we bring ideas and your teams are exhausted already and they’re just like, okay. And they have a pressure.

Rich Birch — Yes.

Greg Griffith — And this has been, hey guys, here’s here’s what we learned today. And they go, oh yeah, we can do that. We just haven’t had that system all fully put out. And so then they do it. And then we see these great results. So, yeah. So today I mean since we’ve been a part of this we’re now worshipping over 1200 people a weekend. So in the last two years…

RIch Birch — That’s amazing.

Greg Griffith — …we’ve had a growth of 500 people, new people. I love it. Our staff continually say, we look around and we’re not we don’t see people we always recognize. And I go, amen. That’s great.
Rich Birch — Right. Yeah. That’s great. Well, it’s it’s super encouraging. It’s encouraging for me as a coach to hear that. And, and, you know, I’m on my personal mission is to help 100 churches grow by a thousand people. And like, I, you know, I’m super, it’s an honor to engage with you guys as you’re on that way, you’re on that path towards, you know, you’re halfway there towards seeing…

Greg Griffith — Yeah.

Rich Birch — …you know, that kind of growth. And I and I think the trajectory is heading in that direction. When you think about the future, Greg, you kind of look up over the horizon, what are some of those questions you’re asking? What’s kind of coming down the pipe for you at King of Kings? What are some of the things that you’re looking at, looking at or up over the horizon, you know, that you’re wondering about as a leader?
Greg Griffith — Yeah, I think we’re we’re wondering right now about, and actually we’re just really wrestling through this, how do we, as a church lead to be truly a church that honors all generations?

Rich Birch — That’s good.

Greg Griffith — I think we’re we’re discovering and I think it’s a subconscious issue. You know, all of us kind of look at, like, right now, boomers are not seen in the greatest light. And and gosh, that’s not honoring. I mean, we’re standing where we stand because of what boomers have paved the way for. And then and then too, it’s really simple to cast shade. Every generation has been cast shade upon by generations above them. And and we’re really saying, I think God’s calling us to honor all generations, right? Love your father and your mother.

Rich Birch — That’s good.

Greg Griffith — Right? And so so we’re saying, how do we, as a church, honor all generations and and all households? Single, widowed, empty nest, married with kids, married with no kids, divorced. Like, so so we’re really pressing into how are we, how are we as a church helping one another honor each other, in our world, in their neighborhoods…

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good.

Greg Griffith — …and where they’re called to minister as a priesthood of all believers. So so that’s something we’re really wrestling through. Not only what will Sundays look like for that, but even our language and even who’s on stage. Who’s, you know, who’s on our websites? Who are the pictures? All those things.
Rich Birch — That’s good. I love that. I love the, you know, as a church looks to try to reach, you know, more of its community as you start to wrestle with, like, oh, like, I think, you know, God’s given us a shot here to make a huge impact in Omaha, as you link arms with other churches. And, I love that heart of trying to say, hey, like, maybe, you know, maybe that means we’ve got to figure out how to to broaden who we connect with. Not just like, hey, this is it’s just a church for people with kids. And, you know, if you don’t have kids, forget it, you know, kind of thing. So that’s cool, man. I love that, Greg.
Rich Birch — Well, Greg, I appreciate you, love you, love your church. I love, you know, you’re you have such a huge heart. And it’s it’s fun to see you lead and to see you connect with, you know, with your people. So I just want to honor you today, on the podcast.

Greg Griffith — Thanks, man.

Rich Birch — So thank you so much for that. I want to give you the last word. Anything else you want to say just as we wrap up today’s episode?
Greg Griffith — You know, I think my last word is, I would say I thank you, Rich, because you’ve helped us. And I hope you help many, many more churches figure out how to break through the, the ceiling that they’re at. We all get to a ceiling and we either get to where we say, you know what? This is just who we are, and we get stuck there. Or we get and we say, oh, there’s no way to get to get higher. And we fail and we quit. Or we figure it out. And, I thank you for helping churches like us, and I pray many, many more, to figure it out and to break through that next ceiling. And know when they hit another ceiling, like we’ll hit another ceiling that we know, Okay, we can just figure this out. So so thank you.
Rich Birch — Thank you so much, sir. Appreciate you, appreciate your leadership. If people want to track with you or with the church, where do we want to send them online?
Greg Griffith — Yeah, you can track with our church at our website: kingofkings.org. And then on social media, my handles on Facebook and Instagram are @greggriffithleads. And, yeah, and anyone can reach me anytime.