Making guests comfortable – even when they are few and far between! – is a “mission critical” task for churches in transition. In fact, failure in this area is often one cause for the decline that led to securing the services of a skilled transition pastor in the first place.

In the various churches I have served as the transition pastor and those where I have merely consulted I have observed that churches in decline often perceive themselves as friendly or welcoming even though they are not. On top of that I have been blessed with the good fortune to have the guest assimilation process in my portfolio while I served at what was at that time one of the fastest growing churches in America. (Disclosure: that I ended up there was due entirely to the grace of God rather than to any skill, knowledge or experience on my part. In God’s sovereign direction I just happened to be in the right place at the right time) In addition, I have visited numerous churches and noted a wide variety of ways to do it wrong.

Welcoming is theologically significant

In the midst of research on effective means of extending comfortable welcome I had the opportunity to take a fresh look at John 4:23:

But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

I found it rather odd that most of the commentators labored over the obscure meaning of the phrase “in spirit and truth” while overlooking the obvious. The present indicative verb “is seeking” couldn’t be clearer: the Father seeks people who will enter into (and I believe seeks them while they participate in) the public worship of the Church. In other words, the Father is at work in the lives of those who attend our public worship services. Sadly, this fact is largely neglected by most churches these days. Who hasn’t visited a megachurch and come away with the impression that we’ve just been to Walmart on the day after Thanksgiving? There are very large churches that do it well, but they are few and far between; most of them throw a few resources at the problem and mark the scorecard.

So the bumps, bruises and scrapes I suffered along the way have attuned me to recognize good counsel in when it comes to creating a comfortable, welcoming atmosphere for guests that gently nudges them through a series of “next steps” that enfold them into the life of the church without violating their personal boundaries.

A helpful blog post

Doug Lawrence’s recent post at Church Central, 10 things the Apple Store teaches pastors rings true. He extracts solid principles from Carmine Gallo’s recent book, The Apple Experience: Secrets to Building Insanely Great Customer Loyalty. He cites ten items from Gallo’s book that deserve the attention of any church, particularly declining churches or churches in transition:

  1. Stop selling stuff
  2. Enrich lives
  3. Hire for smiles
  4. Celebrate diversity
  5. Unleash inner genius
  6. Empower employees (read “volunteers”)
  7. Sell the benefit
  8. Follow the steps of service
  9. Create multi-sensory experiences
  10. Appeal to the buying brain

Three things in this list are particularly important for churches that struggle in this area: diversity, empowerment and inner genius. Each is worthy of a blog post in itself. Perhaps I’ll have the time to expatiate later, but in the meantime, give Doug’s post a careful read. It rings true and it is well worth saving for future reference.

Blessings…

Update (9/20/12)

While surfing the web this morning I happened upon a related post on another blogsite. “Are You a Welcoming Church” is worth your time to read.