Helping Churches Grow & People Belong.
Proven systems, resources, and coaching for pastors and
church leaders ready to build a church people never want to leave.
Trusted by Churches & Organizations Nationwide
How We Serve You
Everything Your Church Needs to Connect & Grow
Take the Church Audit
Discover where your church is connected - and where guests are slipping through the cracks. Our free 50-question assessment covers 5 key pillars.
Start the Audit
Resources & Products
Books, toolkits, sermon packages, and training resources designed to help your church build systems that actually work.
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Coaching & Consulting
Hands-on partnership to audit, design, and implement guest experience systems tailored to your church's specific needs.
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Sound Familiar?
The 3 Biggest Gaps in Every Church
The Retention Gap
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Guests fill out a connect card and you never hear from them again
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Families visit 3-4 times, then quietly disappear
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You have no idea what happens between someone's first and fifth visit
The Volunteer Gap
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You're personally texting volunteers Saturday night to fill Sunday holes
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People sign up to serve, show up twice, then ghost
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Your team doesn't have written roles — they just figure it out on Sunday
The Follow-Up Gap
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Someone attended your church for a year and nobody knew their name
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There's no clear next step between "I visited" and "I belong here"
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When someone leaves, they say "we just never got plugged in"
Your church is losing guests every single Sunday.
Find out exactly where — in under 5 minutes.
Meet Dustin
Building What Works.
Leading What Matters.
A Pastor Passionate About Building Healthy People, Strong Teams, and Effective Ministry
Dustin serves as Teaching Pastor and Director of Next Steps at First Baptist Simpsonville | Upstate Church, a thriving multi-site church in South Carolina. He oversees the Next Steps Team across ten locations - more than 400 volunteers creating meaningful connection pathways for 6,000+ weekly guests.
Over the past eight years, Dustin has helped launch seven new campuses, double church attendance, celebrate 850+ baptisms, and earn recognition as the 9th fastest-growing church in America (2023). He's also the creator of The Connected Church Co., an organization devoted to walking alongside pastors through practical resourcing, coaching, and team training. Above all, Dustin is a husband and proud dad of three - building a home filled with faith, laughter, and purpose.
Work With Dustin
Hands-On Partnership for Real Church Growth
Church Consulting
A deep-dive into your church's guest experience, volunteer structure, and connection pathways. Dustin audits your current systems and builds a custom growth roadmap tailored to your church's size, culture, and goals.
- Full systems audit & gap analysis
- Custom implementation roadmap
- Ongoing accountability & support
Team Coaching
Equip your staff and volunteer leaders with the skills and frameworks to build a culture of connection. Group coaching sessions designed to align your entire team around a shared vision for guest experience.
- Group & 1-on-1 coaching sessions
- Leadership development frameworks
- Scalable volunteer team systems
The Connected Church
They Visited and Left - Solving the Belonging Problem in Today's Church
What if every guest who walked through your doors felt seen, known, and genuinely connected - not just welcomed?
The practical playbook for pastors tired of the revolving door. Proven frameworks for building guest experience systems, volunteer teams, and small group pipelines that turn first-time visitors into lifelong family.
"The Connected Church is a practical, no-nonsense guide for helping people move from just showing up on Sunday to actually being part of a faith family, something we all desperately want and what we were designed for."
Joby Martin
Lead Pastor, The Church of Eleven22 · NYT Best Selling Author
Equip Your Team
Most Requested Resources
Proven tools pastors and church leaders are using right now to build connection systems that actually work.
How to Build a Connections Team
A step-by-step video mini course to recruit, train, and launch your guest connections team from scratch.
Learn More
Connections Team Manual
A fully editable volunteer training manual covering best practices, team values, and Sunday-ready workflows.
Get Your Copy
Connections Team Roles & Responsibilities
Clear role descriptions for every position on your connections team so volunteers know exactly what to do.
Get Your CopyTestimonials
Pastors & Leaders Who've Been There
Take the Next Step
Ready to Build a Church Where Everyone Belongs?
Start with the free audit to see where you stand, or grab 30 minutes with Dustin to talk through what's not working and what to do about it.
