As we prepared to break the 500 mark, I actually led the church through a year-long rethink which led to us shutting down most of our ministries and our Wednesday night service so that we could focus on a few key strategic steps that led the greatest number of people (including new people) into spiritual growth: serving, giving, inviting friends and groups. And we run an orientation called Next for new people and invite them to take Starting Point before joining a group. The goal? To find a few strategic engagement points for people that would help them find faith and grow in their faith.
When it comes to leading people into transformation, simplicity is your friend.
If you want more on this, read Tony Morgan’s guest post about programs v. path, and this piece I wrote on why engagement is the new church attendance.
3. Saved Seats
This is a small thing about being a welcoming church that’s actually a big thing. I was at a church last year where no one on the guest services team ushered me and my wife to our seats. We were just handed a bulletin and made our way down.
When I got a row that looked quite open, I headed in and asked the elderly woman a few seats in whether they empty seats were taken, she said “Not yet.”
I had no idea what she meant.
So I asked if I could sit a few over from her. She just looked at me, didn’t say a word and moved further away by two seats. Welcome to church.
Nothing says church is for insiders quite as loudly as ‘you can’t sit in my seat.’
Interestingly enough, her friends did show up halfway through the service one by one. None of them smiled at us…they just kind of brustled past and sat even further away.
No idea what that was about, but I doubt I’d go back if that was my first time.
You should train your guest services team to walk people into a seat and let them do the work of cheesing off your grumpy members.
4. Insider Speak
Christians often talk weird—from the front and with each other.
Too often, we use unnecessarily strange language—like this:
