Faster Connections, Lasting Community: Effective Church Assimilation with Greg Curtis

Welcome back to the unSeminary podcast. To kick off the new year, we’re focusing on key “Unpredictions”—timeless topics that are consistent and crucial for church growth in 2025 and beyond. In this episode, we’re joined by Greg Curtis, the Director of First Steps and Content Development at Eastside Christian Church and founder of Climbing the Assimilayas. Today we’re talking about how gathering together will still matter.

Wondering how to effectively connect with newcomers in both online and in-person settings? Curious about how assimilation strategies are evolving in this digital age? Tune in as Greg offers valuable insights on successful assimilation strategies following changes in church attendance patterns, and the critical first step of volunteer involvement.

• From the screen to the seat. // Physically gathering together will still matter in the future, however Greg reframes the traditional model of “from the street to the seat” to “from the screen to the seat.” Most people have vetted your church by attending services online before they will ever set foot in the building.
• Your front porch is now digital. // Online platforms are now a critical “front porch” for churches, with websites and live streams shaping first impressions. A user-friendly, guest-oriented website with visuals that reflect the church’s diversity will help visitors understand what to expect at the church. Take time to evaluate what people are seeing on the digital side of your church and make sure it accurately reflects your church and its culture.
• Engage virtual attendees. // Because of your website, social media, and online services, first time guests are also pre-vetted before they visit in-person. They will be warmer leads and more ready to connect when they do attend a physical location. Offer personalized engagement during online worship services, such as addressing virtual attendees directly and offering incentives to encourage physical attendance. Offer them welcome gifts that you can mail to their home.
• Volunteerism over small groups. // In most churches, new attendees are opting for volunteerism now as a primary first step instead of small groups. There are two things that make volunteerism a great first connection point. The first is that belonging is a two sided coin—people want to feel both needed and wanted. The second is that there is a safety zone shift since COVID and people aren’t as willing to go into homes of people they don’t know well. They are willing to serve where they are needed around the church on rotation instead.
• Increase the speed of connection. // To address declining attendance frequencies, churches need to increase the speed of connection. Committed church members now attend less frequently and so assimilation programs must adapt. Greg advocates for streamlining multi-week programs into a single-session experience that encourages the next step of volunteer involvement. This approach accommodates modern schedules while maintaining a focus on connection.
• Three checklists for building experiences. // To support churches in their connection efforts, Greg and his team have developed checklists designed to optimize guest experiences during high-attendance events like Easter. The resource includes checklists for first impressions, guest follow-up, and volunteer recruitment, tailored to maximize connection opportunities on big days.

Complete Easter Engagement Guide
Looking to make the most of Easter at your church this year? Check out Greg Curtis’s Complete Easter Engagement Guide! This resource is specifically designed to help churches connect with their Easter guests through practical tools like first impressions checklists, guest follow-up strategies, and volunteer recruitment plans. It’s tailored to make a lasting impact during one of the most important weekends of the year.

Get your copy today for just $15 at this link. You can also connect with Greg via email. Plus download the unPredictions Team Playbook for this podcast episode here.

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Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: Portable Church

Your church is doing really well right now, and your leadership team is looking for solutions to keep momentum going! It could be time to start a new location. Maybe you have hesitated in the past few years, but you know it’s time to step out in faith again and launch that next location. Portable Church has assembled a bundle of resources to help you leverage your growing momentum into a new location by sending a part of your congregation back to their neighborhood on Mission. This bundle of resources will give you a step-by-step plan to launch that new or next location, and a 5 minute readiness tool that will help you know your church is ready to do it!

Click here to watch the free webinar “Launch a New Location in 150 Days or Less” and grab the bundle of resources for your church!

Episode Transcript

Rich Birch — Hey friends, welcome to the unSeminary podcast. You’ve caught us in the midst of our 2025 Unpredictions episodes. We’re really talking about things that were true last year. I really do believe they’re going to be true this year and for years to come. These are areas that your church should be focusing on and we’re bringing on some incredible experts who are here to help you and help you take steps towards really be it to be more an effective church. I’m excited to have my friend Greg Curtis on and he’s helping us think through this idea: Gathering together will still matter. Despite the rise of digital platforms in-person church experience really does remain irreplaceable. Focus on you know our job is to focus on unique engaging in-person experiences that really can’t be replicated. Ultimately we’re trying to get people to connect online.

Rich Birch — If you don’t know Greg, what what rock have you been living under? ah He’s a part of the leadership team at East Side Christian Church. They’re a multi-site church with six campuses in California, Nevada, Minnesota, and somewhere else I might be missing. ah He is the the Director of First Steps and Content Development. ah He’s also found an organization called Climbing the Assimilayas, which is a a series of tools, some coaching that you’re going to want to make sure you get a connection to because he really is a ninja in this area of helping us help our people get connected. Greg, welcome to the show. So glad you’re here today.

Greg Curtis — Oh, it’s awesome. Love doing this with you whenever we get to do it.

Rich Birch — It’s such an honor to connect with you, friend. i’m glad you know I know um you’re so helpful to so many churches, and and i’m just I’m looking forward to helping them today as we have this conversation. Why don’t you fill in the picture a little bit there? For Some people have probably heard you on on episodes in the past, but for folks that don’t, kind of give us the 30,000-foot view of of Greg Curtis.

Greg Curtis — Yeah, well, I’ve been a lead pastor ah for 17 years, and I have been, for since 2012, basically overseeing assimilation and connection, connecting new people at church, at Eastside with ah Gene Appel, ah ah for you know since that time.

Greg Curtis — And since I took on that that ministry, um just what kind of erupted is we became the second fastest growing church in the US for a period of time. It was my job to chase that with a connection strategy. And so as we did so, we saw results that that surprised us and that we were really encouraged by. Ah you know, like one out of four getting a small group, one out out of seven guests becoming a volunteer, one out of three getting baptized…

Rich Birch — Amazing.

Greg Curtis — …and all of crossing a border on an international church. We really had some great connection, stuff that we learned along the way. And so as other churches were asking us, well, how do you do th