I’m currently composing a rough draft of Elevation Church’s best practices for early stage church growth. We’re going to hammer out the dents and consolidate them at our staff advance (it’s an advance, not a retreat… retreating is for sissies) in July.
In the meantime, I’ll post a few for mass consumption.

Here’s one:
Be Ruth’s Chris, not Golden Corral.

Ruth’s Chris serves the best steaks in town, for my money. I prefer the filet w/ extra butter, served on a sizzling plate capable of burning your hand to the bone.
Of course, they serve other things, but what are they known for? Steaks. Good steaks. Some of the best steaks. Expensive steaks.
I go there when I want to eat a great steak with my wife in a perfectly engineered environment. And when I want to drop some serious coin.

I must admit, Golden Corral is another one of my favorite restaurants. Quite the contrast, I know.
I go to Golden Corral when I want a little bit of everything. None of it is particularly great, but you can eat almost anything you want. And you can eat as much as you want.

Most churches are more like Golden Corral than Ruth’s Chris, don’t you think?
A little bit of everything. A program for everybody. Every night of the week. All you can eat. None of it is very excellent, but boy, the menu (church calendar) is robust!

Elevation’s philosophy:
Don’t try to do a little bit of everything.
Give everything you’ve got to a few things.
Make the best steaks in town. Steaks so good that people wouldn’t dream of haggling about the price, or suggesting that they should be allowed to go back for free seconds.

Develop a worship service so impactful with music so powerful and preaching so anointed and creativity so inspiring and greeters so helpful that people will come from miles around. Make it sizzle.
Focus like a laser on reaching people far from God through preaching the Gospel and enabling Christ centered worship.
And send the buffet Christians to the restaurant down the road.