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.

personal productivity

7 Steps to Take on Monday When Sunday is a Train Wreck at Your Church

Rich BirchApril 29, 2015

Some weekends at your church are better than others. Things seem to fall into place and everything clicks. The band is in the pocket. The announcement time goes well. People connect with the message. Then there are weekends that seem like a total train wreck. Everything goes wrong. Nothing seems...

communications

7 Tools for Researching Rental Church Facilities

Rich BirchApril 28, 2015

Is your church launching a new campus? Or are you moving from one rental facility to another? At some point in your church's journey, you're going to be looking at new sites. Here are some tips for what to bring along when you visit potential locations: Smartphone Camera // You can't take...

Uncategorized

Mike Linch on Mobilizing Your Church To Impact Your Community

Rich BirchApril 23, 2015

This week I was blessed to have Mike Linch share with me his take on the importance of churches forming relationships with and staying connected to the people in their communities. Mike is a pastor in Kennesaw, Georgia. His church, NorthStar started as a church plant a little...

communications strategy

6 Netflix Facts that Church Leaders Need to Consider

Rich BirchApril 22, 2015

1/3 of all "prime time" internet traffic is from Netflix. We can't ignore the popularity of Netflix. It's a mixture of clever marketing, excellent deployment and being in the right place at the right time. In a move similar to what iTunes did in the music industry 10 years ago, Netflix has...

communications

6 Reasons to (Occasionally) Skip Church Announcements

Rich BirchApril 21, 2015

Announcements are the part of your service that move people to action. They help people take their next steps into community with your church. Why would you want to take a break from that on any given weekend? Here are a few reasons why I think it's wise to stop doing announcements...

personal productivity strategy

Ron Walborn on Evaluating Personal Growth in Your Church

Rich BirchApril 9, 2015

Welcome to this Thursday’s podcast on unSeminary. Today, I had the privilege of talking to Ron Walborn, Dean of Alliance Theological Seminary. We talked about assessment and how to determine if people are growing. I asked Ron what sort of things we should be thinking about as pastors when...

communications

6 Times Church Communications Needs To Be Clear Not Clever

Rich BirchApril 8, 2015

Clarity is the highest goal of all church communications. Our role is to cut through the clutter and deliver the message we are giving with as much precision as possible. In order to do that we employ a wide variety of tactics to persuade people towards the goals that we've...

strategy

Is it time for a new worship war?

Rich BirchApril 7, 2015

The first church I served at was in the middle of a worship war when I started there. It was like a cold war with a lot of passive-aggressive leadership on both sides of the debate. The "Hymns & Organ Crowd" declared that their music was rich with theological significance, whereas the...

communications multisite podcast

Brandon Cox on Mentoring & Releasing Church Planters

Rich BirchMarch 26, 2015

Spring is finally upon us, so it seems like a great time to talk about planting! In this week’s podcast here on unSeminary, I had the opportunity to talk to Brandon Cox, senior pastor at Grace Hills Church in Bentonville, Arkansas. If you’ve heard of Bentonville, it’s probably because...

communications

10 Secrets to Supporting Teaching Pastors

Rich BirchMarch 25, 2015

As I reflect on my almost 20 years of ministry experience, one of the things that I'm proudest of is serving a handful of amazing communicators. I've played that "second seat" role to support great teaching pastors as they use their gifts and skills to communicate the message of Jesus. Here are some...