Last month we talked about several best practices for growing churches in the 2020s. Today we drill down on one of them: building relationships with worship guests.
All over the world, amazing work yields amazing worship experiences, really practical preaching and inspirational music. And yet, more often than not, these excellent worship services are not growing!
I have worked across five different decades seeking to lead churches to respond effectively to worship guests. The times have shifted, but great hospitality has not changed much. About twenty years ago, workshops proliferated across North America training churches to welcome newcomers. Yet most of those leaders who attended those workshops are no longer in active ministry. And a new generation of pastors is (as a group) remarkably clueless about how to welcome guests. It isn’t their fault: we largely stopped talking about it. They came along and missed the memos.
Here are the core components in building a hospitality system which may double a church’s retention of guests. Lay persons are perfectly capable of designing all these components. Clergy need to convene the team. And then follow their lead!!
(1) Focus on relationship building. In churches of under 300 weekly attendance, a lot of people come to church looking for a supportive community. (And most churches are under 300 in attendance.). Get people engaged in quick conversations with six or more people: the greeters, a couple life stage peers, one staff member and whoever accompanies them to coffee hour after the service. Get organized to build relationships while people are on campus.
(2) Good (and fun) refreshments after service are critical in order to get as many as possible to stay an extra 15 minutes. This fellowship time must be either in the worship room itself or in a room immediately adjacent to the worship space. Quality refreshments are essential, and what “quality” means varies by zip code.
(3) Create a system of response each of the first four Sundays a person registers their attendance. Different responses each week, different people. The other details are highly contextual. You will need a team of folks expecting a worship guests report on Monday with assigned contacts for that week.
(4) Create some moments of gentle laughter and levity early in the service and early in 80 percent of sermons. I’ve seen this done well in all sizes of church, in Pentecostal churches and high liturgy churches alike. The pastor must take the lead here. But the pastor probably isn’t a comedian. And we don’t need full blown comedy. We just need gentle playfulness. I cannot overstate how just a little bit of laughter helps non religious people to relax.
(5) Offer a one session membership exploration. Then do 1:1 follow up with everyone.
Let’s say 1 out of 5 first time local attendees hang around. That’s 20 percent. Imagine increasing it to 40 percent- which is likely within reach for most churches with outstanding worship content. This increase in rate of return will put many declining churches back in a growth cycle.
Procrastinate no more. Get a team organized this week led by persons who value new people and long to see them find spiritual renewal here!
If you would like to have Epicenter Group provide training to your church’s hospitality leaders please reach out. We have a 90-minute zoom based training that will raise all questions necessary for your church to offer a world-class welcome.
(703) 4032873
No comments:
Post a Comment