Launch Day Has Arrived!
Almost eight years ago I sat in a restaurant booth in Granger, Indiana, with my friend Mark Waltz. Mark was and is the godfather of the modern era of the church guest services movement. I had an idea for a book rattling around in my head, but didn’t know if it was worth pursuing. At the time of that breakfast, there was only one serious contender on the bookshelves, and that was Mark’s book First Impressions. So much of what we do here at the Summit – and I dare say so much of what so many churches do in relation to their guests – is built on that book, on Mark’s wisdom and passion for reaching those on the outside.
And yet I couldn’t get that idea out of my noggin. Mark simply said “You oughta do it.” And so with that encouragement, the process began. I’d never attempted to write a book before, and soon my writing style became obvious: write really intensively for 20 minutes, and take a four month break. Lather, rinse, repeat.
But the day has finally – mercifully – arrived, and the book is officially in print and – one can hope! – on bookshelves at fine retail establishments everywhere (or online. whatever.).
If you’ve already pre-ordered a copy, thank you. And if you’re thinking of ordering a copy, well…thank you as well. Seriously, it’s faithful blog readers like you who made this project a reality.
So how can you help celebrate launch day? I’m so glad you asked!
Write a review. Amazon gets pretty lonely prior to a book going public. Once you wrap up the book, it would mean a lot if you’d jot a paragraph or two on Amazon (or Barnes and Noble, or LifeWay, or ChurchSource, or CBD). And remember what your mama said: if you can’t say anything nice, write a review about someone else’s book.
Get social (part 1). That review I mentioned above? It’s the best commercial for the book, and a quick post on your Facebook account will do wonders. Use the hashtag #peoplearethemission and link to peoplearethemission.com.
Get social (part 2). Drop that news like it’s hot on your other accounts (Twitter, Insta, etc). Push people to peoplearethemission.com so they can order for themselves. And if you need some tweets to retweet or Facebook posts to share, well, check out those pages I just linked you to. They’re chock-full of book fun.
Tell two friends. For real: pick two people that you think might benefit from this book and drop ’em an email or shoot ’em a text.
Order more. If you lead out in guest services world and this book has helped you, maybe it can help your team as well. Check out ChurchSource for some really good bulk pricing deals.
Friends, thank you for your kind words and encouragement throughout this project. My prayer all along is that the book will help your church bring more people into the kingdom. I’d love to hear your takeaways!
