Venture Church
Mill Creek, Washington
Website: OurVenture.church
Founded: 2004
Connection Points: Knowing Names, Small Groups, Discover Venture, Sticky Points, Decade-Based Strategy
A 2024 Outreach 100 Church
Pastor Di Beals explains how Venture Church helps people find their way in a big church.
Describe the culture of Venture Church and its surrounding community.
The wide view is that we are in the greater Seattle area. Culturally speaking, it’s a very liberal, unchurched area. Many people didn’t go to church as a child, nor did their parents. There is a little bit of hostility toward the church, so we walk this powerful line of loving people and serving their needs—and it’s sometimes hard to know what the needs are. Our main campus is in an upper-middle-class area. Venture has become multicultural, representing the demographics of our area.
We’ve worked for 20 years developing the culture of our church—consistently loving and serving people. On any given Sunday, multiple people have not only never been to our church but have never been to a church. So that impacts how we host our services—with lots of explanation of what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. This is done ad nauseam every week for first-time visitors who have never been in a church.
That also impacts the way we teach. Our team is skilled at teaching in a way that challenges people who have been in the church their whole lives, and doesn’t leave brand new people in the dust. We want to be strong teachers, but also believing that God still heals bodies and he still restores people and he still dramatically transforms people’s lives.
How do you support the growth you’ve experienced in just 20 years as a multisite church?
Growing churches have two sides: a good front door drawing people in, and keeping people from slipping out the back door. It’s one thing to have people visit and keep coming back to check out the church. But, how do you make the shift to them calling Venture their church home?
We’re very intentional about learning people’s names. But keeping people here, especially as you grow, is incredibly challenging. Our team was struggling to keep up with our own culture of knowing people well. We realized that our staff team was well spread out age-wise, and each staff member was challenged to focus on their own age group—a decade-based strategy. Of course, we’re still friendly to all, but when a group of 20 walks through the door, I can focus my attention on the few in my age group and let the next staff person catch the others.
Small groups are a huge way to connect people; again, using the decade-based focus. Each of our staff [members] is required to lead a small group—honed in on their own age group. When promoting groups, we even specify the demographics in the group description.
How does a first-time visitor get more connected with your church community?
Guests are welcomed multiple times when they walk in, and they’re invited back. Our staff and volunteers gather contact information. Volunteers send handwritten cards thanking them for coming.
If we can get their information, we are incredible at retaining them. They’re getting invited to multiple things, and I think that’s the key. We invite them to return the following Sunday and to the next Discover 101 to learn more about Venture and meet our staff. Women get invited to a women’s event, and men are invited to a men’s thing. Depending on the season, guests receive information about upcoming small groups and midweek classes. Children and youth are invited to come back and join the next event. So, they’re probably getting barraged with invitations.
Our retention rate at this moment is around 50% of a viable guest, which is somebody who lives in the area and gives us their contact information.
How are people invited through the “Discover Venture” process?
If people don’t make a single friend at your church, they’re not going to stay. Small groups solve this issue for most, but not all. For those who can’t or won’t join a small group, we’ve come up with “sticky points” in our assimilation process. The more sticky points someone has, the more likely they are to stay. Sticky points can include having a face-to-face coffee or lunch with one of our staff, finding a place to serve, or starting our Discover Venture process.
The first step is Discover 101—including dinner with our pastoral staff and hearing more about Venture. Discover 201 focuses on growing in your walk with Christ, and Discover 301 covers opportunities to serve. Discover 401 explains how to officially become part of the Venture family. Those are all very simple snapshots for people to find their way in a big church.
We are not quick to consider new people as “retained.” We take a long time and want a few of those sticky points checked off. We’re looking for them to declare they’re “all in.”
How do you notice when someone leaves Venture Church?
Our database is broken down into decades, and the staff is responsible for knowing the people in their decade. Every six months, we comb through our database. If we haven’t seen someone (or don’t know who they are), we check on them. That is a massive task, but we make the time for it.
We work hard to stay united with the pastors in our area, and speak positive things about other churches. If Venture Church isn’t a good fit for a new family, we help them find another church in the area.
How has a specific person or family engaged and grown over time as a member of Venture Church?
We had a new man from Amsterdam join our Venture U classes, focusing on the basics of Christianity, breaking big concepts into small, bite-sized pieces for brand new people. I asked him what brought him to Venture. This stern guy in his 40s [started] to cry immediately. He explained that his wife and kids left him about six months before, and he picked up an extra job driving for Uber. A client wanted a ride to church and asked to play music in the car. The driver obliged and found this “worship music” to be beautiful. He asked where he could hear more, and got invited to Venture. He had never been to a church, never held a Bible. For months, he attended services and classes, and has been a beautiful sponge of learning. He was later baptized.
