Phill Christiansen gives practical insights from a turn around church that went from 500 to 2900! - a podcast by Rich Birch

Hello, everyone, and thanks for joining us for today’s unSeminary podcast. We’re excited to have our guest Phill Christiansen from Canvas Church in Montana.

Phill has been at Canvas Church for about four years and he has seen it grow quickly and thrive during that time. The church was on decline when Phill arrived, but a new lead pastor, Kevin Geer, had recently come on. Together their team helped shake up the church and introduce new things that enabled people to experience God in a life-changing way.

Phill joins us today to talk about the changes Canvas Church made to connect with their Montana community and ultimately grow the church.



* Create a vision. // Phill arrived at Canvas Church not long after the lead pastor did. The church membership was on the decline and the leadership knew things had to change. Pastor Kevin came to the table with a vision for what needed to be done and so the rest of the team used that vision to create a plan to put it into motion, ultimately helping people to experience God in a life-changing way. There were no side projects that didn’t correlate with that vision; everything fell under the umbrella of that plan. Phill explains that the clarity in that vision helped them make decisions about what needed to be done. Everything became a mission to reach people.

* Create strategic tension. // The church was once called Kalispell Christian Center and had been known by that name for a long time within the community. But that name represented the old way of doing things, so it was decided that the church needed a new name to represent the new identity and changes they were implementing. The church was already called by different names—the children’s church was known as Kal CC while adults referred to it as just Christian Center. The tension between the varying names was relieved once the name change was introduced – finally everything fell under one new identity.

* Become a “we” church. // One of the values at Canvas Church is to be a “we” church instead of a “me” church. Everyone from the leaders down work in teams so that it isn’t thought of as “Pastor’s Kevin’s church” or someone else’s church. The lead pastor does have the final say, but everything is collaborative. Phill notes that when they succeed, they succeed as a team, and when they fail, they work as a team to look into the situation and learn and grow. As one example of collaboration, every Tuesday the pastoral team gets together and everyone contributes to the agenda.

* Nothing is too big or too small to be evaluated. // If something within the church makes someone cringe, it deserves to be evaluated. This, Phill explains, can be something as seemingly minor as the coat rack in the lobby. Another example is that a team evaluates Pastor Kevin’s message on Thursdays so it can be tweaked as necessary prior to the weekend. Phill explains that evaluations are immediate and allows for course corrections right away.

* Celebrate wins. // “Celebrating wins is the fuel for the vision,” Phill says. The leadership team gathers together to share wins within the church, such as someone came to the church for the first time or someone got baptized for the first time. The team doesn’t just work at the church, but they are the church, and celebrating wins is a core part of that mission. Every win that is celebrated has to be attached to the vision of the church.



You can learn more about Canvas Church at www.canvaschurch.com.

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