Does your church do potlucks? I know many churches no longer do these. In case you don’t know what this is, it’s just some kind of lunch that’s offered after the service is over.

At my church we used to do these every week. We thought that it was a great opportunity for people to connect with each other and touch base with guests that have come. To a certain degree, this was the case. A few months ago we made the decision to just have a joint potluck just once a month. To be honest, this was mainly a financial and human resources issue. Doing a big potluck every week requires quite a few volunteers and a lot of cleanup, so we decided to do something else for the other weeks. Outside of the church doors we set up some tables with drinks, muffins, cookies, and that sort of thing.

And guess what we noticed? We noticed that people were actually interacting a lot more then they were in the potlucks. In a potluck, people typically sit with the same people, in the same areas. If they do sit with a guest, they have the ability to connect with 3-4 people, perhaps. Notice the fatal flaw here? It’s all the sitting that’s happening.

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Easter is just a few days away. So here’s the question: will you be ready to receive guests that want to come?

I recently read a fascinating report by Bob Franquiz called  How To Think Like an Unchurched Person. You can download the pdf by clicking on that link. In the document he details his experience of what it was like being a first-time guest at a synagogue.

And the following are four pieces of information that an unchurched person will be looking for on your church website before they come:

1. Service Times. This probably sounds like a no-brainer, but many don’t have that info on their website. Someone should be able to find your service times quickly and without too much hassle. Do you have two service times? Do you start at 10:30am? Do you start at 11:30am? List the times.

2. Directions. Not only should you have the full address listed clearly, but you should also have a link where they can receive turn-by-turn direction through a google map. It’s quite easy these days to insert the Google map of your church address onto your website. For more info on how to do that click here. You should also include clear signage on the inside of your church to help them get around to where they need to go. There’s nothing worse than walking into a new place and having that lost feeling.

3. Service Length. You may list your service times on your website, but do you list how long the service actually lasts? People want to know if they’re going to be sitting there. If you don’t list the times, people may assume the service is three hours long. So share if it’s a 60, 75, or 90 minute service.

4. Dress Code. This is important. What’s the personality of your church like? Do people mostly dress in suits there? Do they mostly dress in jeans and shorts? If it is a more laid back atmosphere, but they come in a suit, they’ll feel quite out of place.

So how are you doing with those? This definitely made me do a double check on our church website. And I found things that I could tweak to make more clear. So if you found anything you need to change, jump on it now. Be ready to receive guests in your church this Easter weekend. So what do you need to add or change?

[image by guarsan]

In this post, entitled “One of the Best Ways To Learn Leadership,” I wrote about the principle of taking leaders you admire and want to learn from out to lunch on a regular basis. Today I had a question about what kind of questions I usually ask during those meeting times. Thanks Chris Jones for asking me about this.

Here are some of the top questions I ask:

1. What do you do for evangelism? What’s your evangelism strategy? Some churches go really big on Easter, Christmas, and usually a few other days in the year. I want to know about that. One pastor I spoke to has had great success in doing a big outreach during Mother’s Day.


2. What do you do for assimilation? How do you treat and respond to first time guests? Some churches send out cards, some call the people, some bake bread and deliver it. I try to understand how they contextualize this process for their area and people they’re trying to reach.


3. How do you get people involved in ministry? What process do they have to go through?
In some churches you have a chance to be involved in ministry once a year during a nominating committee process. In other churches they encourage you to be involved the very next week. I want to know what kind of metric they have in place for people to be involved in leading a team or just joining a team. 


4. What is the organizational structure of your church like? How are decisions made in your church? The second question will reveal most of what you need to know. Either decisions are made through some kind of boards or committees or they’re made by the pastor and his staff, or maybe just the pastor. I want to know if they have teams of elders and deacons and how they function and what their purpose is.


5. Do you do small groups? What’s your small group philosophy?
I want to know if they use affinity groups or cell groups? Are the semester-based or do they meet through the whole year? Do they meet in homes or at the church? How effective have they been?


6. Do you have a stewardship system in place?
What do they do to facilitate giving in the church? Do they do online giving? What do they use for that? How many are giving online?


7. Do you have a discipleship system in place? What’s your strategy for helping the people to become spiritually mature?

Those are some of the main questions I ask about. In short, I just try to be really curious and have an open mind that’s ready to learn. To read the post I reference click here.

What about you? What questions would you add to the list to ask a leader if you had one hour with them?


[image by amanki]

I just finished a mini-series dealing with how we interact with first-time guests. Here’s the first, second, and third part of the series.

*Just in case, here’s the first, second, and last part of the series.

*Just in case, here’s the first, and third part of the series.

So hopefully by now you’ve realized your need to have some kind of system in place to follow up with first-time guests. Most people probably have well over a hundred first-time guests in the course of a year. So how would your church be different if you were able to get some of them to come back and become part of your church?

Think about it.

Today I’d like to introduce the most important part of this assimilation process: a response card. We call ours a connection card. Most churches have a response card of some type, but most don’t use it effectively. Let’s look at a picture of one and then add a few comments.

I know it’s not the most impressive thing you’ve ever seen, but I think there are a few strategic elements. Notice the first three lines. On most response cards we ask for information that people don’t care to give and that takes the longest time to write. Here people can put their name, email address, and then we ask them to check off if they’re a first or second time guest, regular attender, or member. This is the most important information. Many don’t like sharing their address, but won’t mind sharing their email, as long you promise to not do anything weird with it or sign them up for something. Next is the address line and best contact phone number. Finally, on the bottom, is the line where they can write in how they found out about the church.

Here’s a few extra questions that people commonly have regarding the connection card.

A connection card is placed inside every program every week. And the program is given as people enter the “sanctuary” or “worship center” part of the building. This ensures that every person can use it to respond.

It is introduced during the welcome part of the service. At Carrollwood Church we have one or two songs, the welcome time, then a continued worship set. During the welcome time I come out, ask the people to greet and welcome each other, and then I draw their attention to the program. I ask them to pull out the connection card and say something like this:

“This morning when you came in each of you were given a program that looks like this (hold it up). Inside the program you should have a connection card that looks like this (hold it up). If you’re a regular attender or member you know how these work, but if you’re a first time guest we’d love to get to know you a little better. So we ask that you fill out as much information as you’re comfortable sharing.”

I then let them know to keep the card handy, because we’ll be making reference to it a little later in the service. Here’s what the back of the card looks like.

The card is then reintroduced during the end of the message. I make an appeal every single week using the card. This is where the card goes to work. So here’s what I say no matter what I’ve been preaching on:

“I’d like to invite you to pull out your connection card one more time. At Carrollwood Church we encourage everyone, whether you’re a first or second time guest, regular attender, or member, to take some kind of “next step” in your walk with God. So I just ask them,

“so what next step is God calling you to take today. Maybe your next step today is to become a follower of Jesus Christ. Or maybe you’ve never been baptized before. Baptism is a public confession that you belong to Jesus Christ. If you’ve never taken that step, take a moment to check it off and we’d love to begin preparing you for it. Or maybe you’ve been jumping around to lots of different churches, but God is finally impressing you that this is the place where you need to be. If that’s you, just check it off. So just take a few moments between you and God, and write down whatever next step God is calling you to take.”

I then give them an additional 30 seconds or so to write in their response. We then collect the offering, and this is the place where they can put in their connection card.

So those are the basics of the connection card. In the past, I didn’t make appeals every week. Or when I did, I never had a way to respond and follow up with those that had made decisions. Now we know exactly what decisions are being made and how to follow up with them effectively every single week.

Next time we’ll look at what happens after the service is over.

So have you tried a version of this? What would happen if you could effectively follow up with every decision that was made in your church?

[image by northern star a Paris]