Help your church connect
with the community
it was sent to reach.
A 90‑second skill becomes a 90‑day relationship. Connection by Design teaches congregations, outreach teams, evangelism captains, and the business owners in your pews the six frameworks that turn first impressions into lasting ministry — and lasting souls.
For the church called to its community.
Most churches know they should reach out. They have programs. They have budgets. They have hearts that want to. What they often don't have is the skill — the trained, repeatable, teachable skill of connecting with a stranger in the first ninety seconds and keeping that connection alive through the next ninety days.
Connection by Design exists to give your congregation that skill. This is not a marketing program. It is behavioral training in the practice of relational outreach — engineered, measurable, and built on six named frameworks that anyone can learn, practice, and teach.
It is for your greeters, your first‑impressions team, your small‑group leaders, your visitation teams, your evangelism captains, and the business owners in your pews who want their work to be ministry too.
The frameworks Tim teaches Fortune 500 sales leaders are the same frameworks your outreach team needs. The skill is identical. What changes is the mission.
And because this work is for the church first, the pricing is built for the church first — modest, transparent, and structured so a single sponsoring business owner in your congregation can fund a workshop for the whole outreach team.
— Timothy Smith
The man who made connection a craft.
For decades, Timothy Smith has studied one question relentlessly: why do some people connect easily with anyone they meet — while others struggle to be understood even by those closest to them?
Tim is a behavior expert, communication coach, and author whose work sits at the intersection of human psychology and practical skill‑building. His expertise is the study of connection — how trust is built in the first ninety seconds, how body language shapes every conversation before a word is spoken, and how ordinary people can learn to do what charismatic people do naturally.
"Connection is not a mystery. It is a skill. And like any skill, it can be learned, practiced, and mastered."
He writes for the believer who wants to share the Gospel but cannot find the opening. For the pastor whose congregation hears the words but misses the meaning. For the marketplace Christian who knows their product but cannot seem to close the relationship. Tim's frameworks are practical — the kind you can use in your next conversation, your next visit, your next door knock, your next meeting.
How to Connect with Anybody in 90 Seconds or Less
Using the Art of Body Language
Most people walk into a room and hope the conversation goes well. This book is for everyone who is done with hoping. Tim breaks the first‑impression moment into something observable, repeatable, and teachable — through thirteen chapters covering body language, rapport, environment, empathy, charisma, cultural sensitivity, and the digital age.
It is the textual foundation of every Connection by Design workshop, keynote, and coaching engagement. Read first. Drilled later.
Buy on AmazonSix frameworks. One outcome.
Every program we deliver resolves to the same six named tools. Each is short enough to memorize, specific enough to practice, and proven across every industry — and every congregation — we've taught it in.
The 90‑Second Sequence
The second‑by‑second breakdown of a first meeting: approach, greeting, first topic, bridge. Four phases, each with observable behaviors and measurable success signals.
SOFTEN
The body‑language checklist for every interaction: Smile, Open posture, Forward lean, Touch, Eye contact, Nod. Six levers, taught as a pre‑meeting ritual.
The Mirror Ladder
The four levels of mirroring — breath, posture, gesture, vocabulary — and the order to apply them. Includes the single "stop‑signal" that tells you you've gone too far.
Three‑Door Questions
A three‑question sequence that unlocks common ground: the factual door, the emotional door, the identity door. The third door is where ministry actually happens.
The Presence Reset
A ninety‑second pre‑meeting routine for recovering composure after stress or bad news. Breathing pattern, posture reset, three affirmations, one intention.
The Follow‑Up Architecture
How to turn a ninety‑second connection into a ninety‑day relationship. The 24‑hour touchpoint, the 7‑day reinforcement, the 30‑day check‑in, the 90‑day evaluation.
Three ways your congregation uses this.
The same six frameworks. Three different rooms. Each one trained for the people in your pews who already want to do this work — and just need the skill.
Outreach & First Impressions
Equip greeters, hospitality teams, and first‑impressions volunteers with the same six frameworks Tim teaches Fortune 500 sales leaders. The first ninety seconds inside the lobby decide whether a visitor returns next Sunday — and whether they ever come back at all.
Soulwinning & Evangelism
Turn the first ninety seconds at a doorstep, a coffee shop, or a community event into a real conversation rather than a polite refusal. Three‑Door Questions teach your evangelism team to move past "weather and weekend" into the questions that open hearts to the Gospel.
Marketplace Ministry
Train the business owners and professionals in your congregation to live their faith at work — by being the most genuinely connecting person in every room they enter. Their business relationships become a ministry channel, and their sponsorship makes the training affordable for the whole church.
Choose your depth of practice.
Three event tiers. The same six frameworks. Each tier adds more time under the drill — and each one is designed to deliver measurable behavior change, not just theory. Pricing is built for the church budget, not the conference circuit.
1‑Day Overview
- Describe the 90‑Second Sequence and what happens in each phase
- Apply the six SOFTEN body‑language cues in a recorded practice interaction
- Demonstrate first‑level posture and breath mirroring
- Leave with three personal first‑impression habits to change and a written plan
- Best fit: Sunday lunch‑and‑learn · greeter team training · short ministry retreat
2‑Day Intensive
- Everything in the Overview, drilled deeper
- Three‑Door Questions to the identity door — the door where the Gospel is heard
- Execute the Presence Reset before a simulated high‑stakes conversation
- Handle one cross‑cultural and one cross‑generational scenario
- Produce a 30‑day behavior‑change plan signed by a peer accountability partner
- Best fit: outreach team intensive · marketplace‑ministry retreat · staff training
3‑Day Mastery
- Everything in the Intensive, plus mastery drills on all six frameworks
- Build and execute a personal Follow‑Up Architecture for three real relationships over 60 days
- Coach another participant through their own Presence Reset and Three‑Door sequence
- Demonstrate framework integration in an unscripted live scenario
- Graduate with a video portfolio and a signed Certified Practitioner credential
- Best fit: ministry leadership · evangelism captains · church planters
For when the room is different.
Beyond the three event tiers, three more ways to bring Connection by Design to your church, your conference, or your private practice.
Train‑the‑Trainer
A five‑day cohort program for ministry leaders, conference staff, and Certified Practitioners who want to deliver Tim's material under license. Open only to graduates of the 3‑Day Mastery who have held the credential for at least six months. Caps at eight candidates per cohort.
Keynote Address
A 45–60 minute keynote for your Sunday service, your conference, your business‑men's breakfast, your women's ministry retreat, or your church planters' gathering. Delivered with Tim's signature warmth and the same six frameworks distilled into a single message your audience will remember.
Private Coaching
One‑on‑one coaching for pastors, ministry leaders, marketplace Christians, executives, and anyone preparing for a high‑stakes conversation. Booked in 60‑minute sessions, billed per hour, no minimum commitment. Phone, video, or in‑person where geography allows.
All travel is covered by the host organization — airfare, ground transportation, hotel, and meals. The price you see for the workshop, keynote, or coaching is the price you pay. There are no hidden fees and no gotchas.
The 90 Seconds Workbook.
This is not a book you read. It is a workbook you do. Thirteen chapters, fifty‑two drills, two self‑assessments, and a scenario deck of forty practice situations for outreach, evangelism, leadership, and marketplace ministry.
Every participant in a Connection by Design program receives the full workbook. Available separately in print and digital editions for teams, congregations, and individuals who want the practice without the live training.
The Mirror Ladder — Paired Climb
- Minute 1 — Mirror only breath
- Minute 2 — Add posture
- Minute 3 — Add one gesture
- Minute 4 — Add three of their words
Stop the moment they notice. The lowest score is this week's practice.
Apply for a free pilot workshop.
Before the church‑pricing programs launch publicly, Connection by Design is running five pilot workshops at no cost — to prove the curriculum in real congregations and real outreach teams. Pilots are a 1‑Day Overview delivered free, in exchange for three deliverables.
A written case study
So future ministries can see what the training does inside a real church or outreach team.
Two filmed testimonials
Short, honest reflections from two participants on what changed for them and for their ministry.
A letter of reference
On church or organization letterhead, describing the value of the training to your congregation.
This work exists for a reason.
Twenty‑five percent of net profits from every paid engagement — every workshop, every keynote, every coaching session, every train‑the‑trainer cohort, every licensing deal — is directed to Homeless Not Hopeless, Tim's initiative restoring housing and dignity to individuals who have been in the shelter system for a year or more.
The transfer is quarterly. It is calculated by an outside bookkeeper. It is published on a public impact page. We cannot fudge the number without being caught — which is the point.
"We are not selling training. We are selling training that ends homelessness — one workshop, one church, one soul at a time."
Ninety seconds to say hello.
Whether you want the book, the workbook, the workshop, the keynote, or a one‑on‑one coaching call — the door is open.