How successful are you at getting unchurched, first time guest to your guest reception after your worship services. There are two key factors in your being successful.
First, who do the guests get to meet? Outgoing friendly lay men and women are great. That sharp, vision understanding, committed, programming genius, staff person is good in certain situations. He or she can even represent you well in the right setting.
But there is absolutely no substitute for the Senior Pastor. He is who they want to meet. They want to shake his hand and know that he is real. For many, this exchange is the only thing standing between them and your new member class. This gives you the opportunity to meet that need. Senior Pastors, this is an opportunity to make an investment that will pay big dividends.
Second, What are you giving away? As I have conducted “secrete shopper” visits to a number of churches, I am amazed at what I see churches give away to the unchurched guest who visit them. The “special gift” that is announced in the services many times is not so special. From ugly coffee mugs to worship CDs to left over camp T-shirts to the church newsletter to pens that don’t write are offered up. Wouldn’t those items make you want to run to the reception!
Let me make a suggestion. Give them something they have never been given in a church. Something they will tell their friends about around the water cooler on Monday. Make it something useful. Give them something that is non-spiritual. Give them a jar of salsa and a bag of chips. You will be amazed. Your numbers at the reception will increase and you will be the talk of the office tomorrow.
Save the CDs for Christmas presents! You may have to put up a “Guest Only” sign.
Mark Batterson issues a strong call to the Christians of this generation to discover the basics of the faith. In an age where believers hop from church to church in search of the deeper experience or a new motivator to holiness, Mark calls us back to the “Primal” state of faith. The state that saw the early believers not looking for a “convenient” gospel but experiencing how “inconvenient it can be to follow in the footsteps of Christ”
This “Primal” state of faith is summed up with the Great Commandment, “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” This is the core of our faith, the motivation of our walk. A commitment to this command results in radically changed lives. Mark concludes that “we are not great at the Great Commandment”.
“Primal” challenges us to get serious about being serious about the basics. To take the “Great Commandment” as a commandment and not a suggestion. He emphasizes the necessity of the Holy Spirit empowering and leading while placing a high importance on our investing our own “sweat equity” in the Kingdom. The pit many of us are in is not shared with a lion on a snowy night, but a spirit of hibernation and drowsiness that keeps us inactive and ineffective when it comes to making a difference in our world. “Primal” will challenge you to re-evaluate how you are living and the impact you are having and lead you back to the primal spiritual state you experienced immediately following your salvation experienced.
“Primal” is not a book to buy for those in your Bible Study group, it is a book you buy for yourself, first. It is a personal call to power and effectiveness thru a return to THE commandment. Whether he is telling us about “Captain Underpants” or the indescribable magnificence of God, Mark Batterson communicates what he has heard from that same God to each of us. Don’t miss what what He has to say!
Don’t miss what God has to say to you. Start this new decade by letting “Primal-A quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity” be the first book you read. Get your copy at www.randomhouse.com.
If you don’t like contemporary music, topical preaching, and the NIV, you are going to hate this: The 30 minute worship service. (Sorry Mom.) This is not to replace your normal worship services. It is not selling out to a convenient Gospel. It is not being liberal. It is not being lazy. It is not compromising or going soft on sin. It is not the answer for dead churches. It is not the key to growth. It is not for every church.
It is an idea that could give your church one more tool to reach one more lost person in your community. Or maybe the first lost person you’ve reached in a while. It gives you more seats and car parks. Oh yea. It cost you NOTHING!
It is a tool. Another hook in the water to reach the lost.
Here is how you use the 30 minutes.
6-7 minutes Music
20 minutes Message
3-4 Minutes Wrap-up
Who is this for? It is for the lost husband of the young wife who has been praying for and begging him to go to church with her. He just might give her 30 minutes. It is for the senior adult who can’t sit for an hour without being very uncomfortable. It is for the traditionalist who doesn’t like the music anyway. It is for the staff who doesn’t get to sit in a worship service with their spouse. It is for the people who, if they came to one of the regular services, couldn’t find a parking space or a seat.
It is for that lost person who just might hear the pastor for 20 minutes and like what he hears. As a matter of fact, he might just come to a “full” service. It is for that person the Holy Spirit has been wooing to Christ.
It is an entry level worship time with minimum services. No childcare. No youth services. No normal worship service rules. No videos. No announcements (that will draw a crowd by itself)! And no longer than an integrity protecting advertised 30 minutes.
It is an opportunity to preach the gospel to an audience that, without this service, you might never reach. It is an opportunity to “sell” your regular services to a group of people who need to hear about a Savior who was more interested in their salvation than His own comfort level.
This could be a chance to tell them about a Christ who did things totally different than the popular “church” people of His time. This could be an opportunity to “be all things to all people”. This could be a risk worth taking. We often talk about “thinking outside the box”. This is crawling out of the box of tradition and conformity and into the realm of doing whatever it takes to reach people.
It is certainly not God’s will for every church to use this tool. It is, however, God’s will that every church be aggressive in discovering the tools God wants them to use to reach the lost.
At least spend 30 minutes today asking God to show you one new tool to use in reaching your world for Christ. Mark Evans at www.churchatrockcreek.com did and now he has The Rock Creek 30.
Tell us about your idea!
If you are in a growing church, sooner or later you will have to make a decision to have a service at a time other than Sunday morning. Knowing that my own mother questions my salvation because I like to attend my church’s Saturday night service, I will stray even further into the dark side by suggesting that there is another time that might also work. While Saturday nights has been very successful in many situations and will continue to be used as an alternative to Sunday, Monday night is another good option.
One of the big negatives of a Saturday night service is the toll it takes on the staff. Unless a church has an entirely different team for Saturday, the staff is called on to work another day. A Monday night service is much better in that regard. Monday is a work day for most staffs and thus to do a service on Monday night is much easier than Saturday night.
There is also an attendance advantage in a Monday night service. If a family goes out-of-town for the weekend, they will more than likely be gone Saturday and Sunday. However, most people have to be back for work on Monday. Therefore, they will be available for a Monday night service. If you live in an area where outdoor activities are big, Monday night could be an answer and a great tool.
Financially, there is a benefit as well. Since the vast majority of our people are not committed tithers, most non-tithers who give, give only when they attend. When they miss a weekend, they do not make that contribution up the next time they return. They simply give their regular amount. If they attend on a Monday night, they likely will give what they would have given on the Sunday. This service has the potential to be one of your highest per person giving services of the weekend if you lead your regular attenders to come on Monday if they miss the Sunday service.
It is very important that a Monday night service run on a tight time schedule and ends on time for those who have school age children. For those where children are not an issue, it can be a great opportunity to take an unchurched family or friend to dinner and then church.
My friend, Mark Evans, Sr. Pastor of The Church At Rock Creek in Little Rock, AR, (www.ChurchatRockCreek.com) has been doing Monday night church very successfully for several years. It is “another hook” in the water to reach the lost. While there are issues with every service time that will have to be worked out, Monday night may be one of the answers for your church.
Sorry Mom!
I recently led the executives of 12 companies that make up the www.thePCCNetwork.com to read Mark Batterson’s “In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day”. This is a group of companies who are committed to serving the church. They are all laymen who are growing in their faith. Collectively they work with thousands of churches every day. We meet once a month for fellowship, accountability, and networking. Here are 4 insights they gained from the book.
1. Seize the Opportunity
” The book was excellent. It challenged me to seize the opportunities in front of me and know that God is with me, regardless of how big the challenge.” Vice-President, Church management Software Company
2. Embrace the Risk
” Wonderful confirmation of looking back in life and realizing that the biggest risks were the greatest opportunities. Through God’s prompting we can have confidence to step-out and do something outside of our comfort zone.”
Insurance Executive
3. Worship More, Complain Less
“Great message! It will help me worship more and complain less. It will also help me unlearn some fears knowing that not all my experiences will make sense at first.”
Insurance Executive
4. Value of the Lion Experience
“Amazing insights! Mark points out one of the Devil’s tools to hinder our effectiveness is to place doubt and fear in our lives. However, when you have faced a lion in your life and chased him into a snowy pit, you have a “lion experience”. When you point Satan to this experience, he fades back into the pit realizing his fear tactics will no longer work on you.”
President, Church Marketing Company
Thank You
“Right on Message for today’s issues. Right on message for me personally. Thank you for the perspective.”
Owner and CEO, Church Construction Company
If you haven’t read it, read it. If you want to challenge a group of leaders, “In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day” is a great tool.
An important part of every leader’s job responsibilities is confrontation. It is often one of the least favorite duties. As a matter of fact, I would say that it is one of the most neglected aspects of leadership in many churches. There are many forms of confrontation that are necessary in church life. Confrontation that deals with moral issues is unique unto themselves and we will deal with those at another time. Here we will deal specifically with job performance of both staff and volunteers.
A leader who is not honest about job performance with his staff and key volunteers will suffer the consequences of poor performance and mediocrity in all aspects of ministry. It is unfair to the staff member or volunteer if the first time he or she is held accountable for poor performance is when they are being relieved of their jobs. This lack of accountability can also cause a church to loose a good staff member or volunteer who simply needs direction.
Here are some guidelines for confronting your team about poor job performance.
1. Be a good match maker. Don’t hire someone to do a job if it is obvious that they are not the right person for the job. Don’t talk a volunteer into taking a job that they are not equipped to do. While sometimes you have to think “outside the box” to fill a position, be realistic. If you enlist someone to do a job and you have questions about the fit, set an appointed time to sit down with the person to evaluate the fit. This is difficult when it involves hiring someone, but works well in recruiting volunteers.
2. Don’t delay. From the very beginning be honest with a new staff member or volunteer. Don’t let them live under the false assumption that they are achieving their objective. You are only hurting the person by allowing them to live under that false impression.
3. Document. Documentation is vital in two ways. First, document specific examples of short comings so that when you meet with the person you can be clear with them about their performance. They will ask you for specifics. Be prepared. Second, document your “job performance meetings” with all your staff. Depending on the state laws in the state where you live, this may be essential if your terminate an employee. Regardless of that, for your own records, you need to document your meetings, the evaluations you give, and the instruction and suggestions you give for improvement. This documentation will be important for you and your board in the event there is congregational unrest.
4. Stay Focused. When confronting a staff member or volunteer, staff focused on the real issues. Don’t allow the person you are confronting to change the subject or take control of the conversation. Be prepared for the meeting. Set the agenda before the meeting and have good notes to follow. Don’t leave the meeting with important issues still unresolved. Make certain the person is clear on expectations, suggestions, assignments, and the timetable for future evaluation meetings.
5. Have a pre-determined plan. Before you go into the meeting, have at least one plan. I say “at least one” because your response may be based on their response, depending on how many times you have already dealt with this specific issue. If this is the first confrontation, have a plan that will help the person improve their performance. If this is “another” meeting, you may need to have several responses depending on their attitude. If this is a “final” meeting and you have made the decision to terminate, know the exit strategy such as timing and severance package if it is a paid position. Always be redemptive! If it is a volunteer, know the redemptive process or the re-assignment procedure. Remember, everyone is a “10″ somewhere. Our job is help our people find their place of service.
