We took our first impressions to another level. We had always been known as a very friendly church, but now we became more intentional about creating a great guest experience. This meant we not only had greeters at our entrances, but we also added greeters in the parking lot. We added a Host team to connect with first-time guests, give them a tour of the facility, and offer them a free gift. We offered free coffee and doughnuts to everyone. We made sure our facility was clean and smelled good. We created an assimilation process to get first-time guests to return for a second visit and, hopefully, many more after that.
We moved to a more energetic style of worship music. I know this is a tough one for most small town churches, but I’m telling you, it was a catalyst of growth for us. The majority of churches in our community were still singing the same songs they’d sung for the past 20 years. We decided to offer something new and different. And as part of that, we also became very intentional about who we allowed to sing. It didn’t matter if God had “laid it on someone’s heart to sing a special.” If He hadn’t spoken to us personally, then it was a no go.
Now as you can imagine, this transition went over without the slightest complaint. Ha, wouldn’t that be nice? But, that is never going to be the case. When you start changing things, conflict is going to happen, and you have to be able to handle that. Not every pastor can.
Throughout the years, we’ve had board members quit. We’ve had families leave. We’ve had hate mail written. We’ve dealt with gossip and accusations and all sorts of fun things that go along with leading a church. We had to make the decision that seeing people come to know Jesus was more important than catering to people’s preferences. If you want to move beyond average, you’ll have to do the same.
This article originally appeared here.
