Month: April 2019

Becoming a Welcoming Church

Assimilation, Welcoming / / By

Thom Rainer has written a wonderful little book on how a church can better welcome guests. It is based on both long time consulting experience and extensive research. It is a book I believe every church leader would find helpful and I encourage you to read it and share it with other leaders.

For example, when they asked actual guests why they would not return to a particular church, their top ten answers were (in order):
1. The stand-and-greet time in the worship service was unfriendly and awkward.
2. Unfriendly church members.
3. Unsafe and unclean children’s areas.
4. No place to get information on the church.
5. Bad church website.
6. Poor signage.
7. Insider church language.
8. Boring or bad church services.
9. Members telling guests they were in the wrong pew or chair.
10. Dirty facilities.

The positive side of this was when they asked guests who returned:
1. Someone asked the guest to sit with her.
2. People introduced themselves to the guest.
3. There was clear signage.
4. There was a clearly marked welcome center.
5. The kid’s loved the children’s area.
6. The children’s area was secure and sanitary.
7. Guest parking was clearly visible.
8. The church did not have a stand-and-greet time.
9. The members were not pushy.
10. The guest card was simple to complete.

There are many specific ideas for churches to improve their guest services. Two helpful tools are given at the end of the book:
1. A “Church Facility Audit” your leadership can fill out.
2. A “Secret Guest Survey” form you could have a guest complete. For example, get a friend from another church or area to visit your church un-announced and complete the Secret Guest Survey for you. Then you go do it for them.

I encourage you to buy and read the book. Then share it with other leaders in your church. “Becoming a Welcoming Church” by Thom S. Rainer. Published by B&H (Broadman and Homan) 2018.

Is it Time to Repeat the Church Development Process?

Recalibration, Strategy / , / By

No matter how great your church is, every church needs to go through some development process at a minimum of every five years. The reason is all organizations, including your church, over time lose focus, clarity and conviction. Also all systems tend to weaken or atrophy over time. The way to combat these tendencies is to do a periodic Church Development Process.

Some of the things that need to be re-examined include:

  • Mission (What is God’s mission for your church?)
  • Culture and Values (What Culture and Values does God want for your church?)
  • Functions and Purposes (What are the functions or purposes of a New Testament Church?)
  • Congregational makeup (Who is part of your church and what are they like?)
  • Community analysis (Who lives in your ministry area and what are their values and needs?)
  • Evangelism System (How are you building relationships with people who do not yet have a relationship with God?)
  • Spiritual Formation System (How are people becoming more like Christ?)
  • Worship Gathering System (Is your Worship Gathering drawing people to Christ and are they being encouraged?)
  • Ministry/Serving System (Are people discovering their gifts and strengths and finding a place to serve?)
  • Finance System (Are you developing a generous attitude and managing God’s money and resources effectively?)

Some churches will want to go through a concentrated process and other churches will prefer to focus on two or three systems each year in a five year cycle. But no matter which approach, to keep your church strong you need to be intentional about recalibrating. We see what happens in the New Testament when churches do not do this. The same vibrant churches planted in Acts are challenged in Revelation for getting off mission.

A mistake some churches and leaders make, is to think once they have been through a development process (For example: Leadership Development Process (LDR), Turnaround Churches, Re-calibrate Network, Outward Focused Churches or Acts 2) they are done. In reality, they need to repeat such a process as a church at least every five years.

If you have not done an intentional Church Development Process in several years, I encourage you to become part of one of the ministries that can help you get refocused or to connect with a Church Coach.

Here are some development approaches you might consider:

All of these will help you keep your church on mission!

Complexity and Simplicity

Strategy / , / By

In coaching leaders and organizations, I find they often want a simple solution to their challenges. The problem is they do not want to do the work and research necessary to fully understand the complexity of the issue, before they implement a simple solution.

Oliver Wendell Holmes observed, “For the simplicity on this side of complexity, I wouldn’t give you a fig. But for the simplicity on the other side of complexity, for that I would give you anything I have.”

Some of my favorite quotes on this subject are:

  • “Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.” — Alan Perlis
  • “…the only simplicity to be trusted is the simplicity to be found on the far side of complexity.” — Alfred North Whitehead
  • “Simplicity is complexity resolved.” — Constantin Brancusi

The goal is always simplicity, but to get there you must first understand and analyze the complexity.

What is it in your life or work that you need a simpler solution for?

The old Acrostic K.I.S.S. (Keep it simple stupid) it a good formula, but to get there will require work. First study and analyze the bigger situation with all its complexity, then and only then look for the simple solution.

Albert Einstein said, “Everything should be made a simple as possible. But not simpler.”

May you find simple solutions to the issues you face.