Rich Birch

Rich Birch is one of the early multi-site church pioneers in North America. He led the charge in helping The Meeting House in Toronto to become the leading multi-site church in Canada with over 5,000+ people in 18 locations. In addition, he served on the leadership team of Connexus Church in Ontario, a North Point Community Church Strategic Partner. He has also been a part of the lead team at Liquid Church - a 5 location multisite church serving the Manhattan facing suburbs of New Jersey. Liquid is known for it’s innovative approach to outreach and community impact. Rich is passionate about helping churches reach more people, more quickly through excellent execution.His latest book Church Growth Flywheel: 5 Practical Systems to Drive Growth at Your Church is an Amazon bestseller and is design to help your church reach more people in your community.

communications

First-Time Donor Letters: 18 Lessons from 12 Churches

Rich BirchFebruary 24, 2016

Churches making a difference in their community have a robust stewardship system that encourages people to give to the mission. Core to that system is ensuring that when people give to your church for the first time, you acknowledge it. It's a strategically important "first contact" that helps shape a...

Developing a Leadership Pipeline podcast strategy

Mike Ash on Team Behaviors that Drive Cultural Clarity

Rich BirchFebruary 18, 2016

Welcome to this week’s unSeminary podcast! We’re honored to have you join us today and we are honored to have Mike Ash from Next Level Church in Florida talking with us. Next Level started in 2002 and is a multisite church with two campuses and about 3000 people attending each...

communications strategy

36 Lessons We Learned from Donating Online to 10 Churches

Rich BirchFebruary 17, 2016

Giving through a church's website continues to be a preferred channel and it isn't showing any signs of slowing down. Looking at the broader non-profit sector, it's clear that we're in the midst of a shift toward giving through online channels: 2 billion dollars a year is given to non-profits...

communications strategy

5 Lessons from Amazon for Your Church’s Digital Giving Strategy

Rich BirchFebruary 16, 2016

Way back in the mid-1990s there were a lot of companies gunning to be the leader in "online retailing." (Who remembers Pets.com?) Amazon was an early leader. Since then, it has cemented its place as the "everything store" by offering a massive selection of items that are delivered at a...

podcast strategy

Layne Schranz on the “Free Market” Approach to Small Groups

Rich BirchFebruary 11, 2016

Welcome to the unSeminary podcast. Today we’re honored to have Layne Schranz from Church of the Highlands. Church of the Highlands was started in 2001 and now has 12 campuses with 31,000 members. It was started as part of an experiment among a small group of pastors and was so...

communications

14 Reasons Why Pastors Avoid Preaching About Money

Rich BirchFebruary 9, 2016

Today we’re honored to have John Finkelde guest posting for us. He pastored at C3 Church Hepburn Heights in Western Australia for 30 years and now provides church consulting and coaching with his wife, Dianne, to the larger body of Christ. The atmosphere was colder than an arctic winter. Palpable hostility was written all over some...

communications podcast strategy

Mark Mellen on Funding Initiatives in Your Church

Rich BirchFebruary 4, 2016

Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining in to this week’s episode of the unSeminary podcast. Today our guest is Mark Mellen at Elevate Life Church in Florida. Elevate Life has about 1200 attendees and is one of the fastest growing churches in the country. Mark describes Elevate Life as...

communications strategy

6 Practices of Churches with Increasing Generosity

Rich BirchFebruary 2, 2016

There are two kinds of church leaders ... those who worry about finances and those who lie about not worrying about it. If we're honest, many of us have lost sleep over the generosity of our churches. We're filled with God-given vision but we wonder how that vision will be...

podcast strategy

Darin Poli on Networking with Other Leaders to Accelerate Your Ministry

Rich BirchJanuary 28, 2016

Welcome back to this week’s episode of the unSeminary podcast. I’m excited to have Darin Poli, Executive Pastor of River Valley Church, with me today. River Valley Church is a great church in the Twin Cities metro area of Minnesota and is celebrating their 20th anniversary this year. They...

multisite strategy

6 Reasons to Launch Your Next Multisite Campus This Year

Rich BirchJanuary 26, 2016

What if this was the year your church multiplied? Rather than putting it off until some future date, what would happen if your team leaned in and made the decision to do it this year? You're going to have to start before you feel ready. So ... you don't feel...