Transforming Ministry

Category: Guest Friendly Church

  • Invite Your Guests Back!

    Invite Your Guests Back!

     

    A while back I visited a church with my family for the first time. We had a great experience. We were welcomed at the door, handed materials at a Guest Services table and told what to expect and where to go. The people seemed friendly and interested in us without being pushy or fake. The service was interesting and engaging. We were even greeted informally after the service by a few random people as well as one of the pastoral staff. My wife and I left that afternoon encouraged and relaxed.

    We also proceeded to do what nearly all other guests do after their first visit to a local church. We went to work, shopped at the store, fixed dinner, put kids to bed, took the car to the shop, mowed the lawn, watched a movie, cleaned the house, went for a walk, bused our kids all over the place, worked on our budget, and a million other little things. In other words, we got back to our daily lives. Our church experience became a back-burner memory that we might drudge up again that next weekend, if we weren’t too busy with other things.

    Which is why we were so impressed when we received a personal letter from the pastor later that week. Not just a cookie-cutter letter with the same three paragraphs you’d expect to see on a thousand other church follow-up letters. No. A personal letter. It may have been typed up nice and neat on church letterhead, but we couldn’t miss the fact that the pastor mentioned my wife and I by name in the letter as well as all four of our kids, by name. He also made mention of a conversation we had together for our brief moment together the previous Sunday morning. It was personal and real.

    The letter was an invitation to join them again at church. It wasn’t pushy. It was just a simple note to let us know he’d love to see us again. And he told us about a couple other things happening in upcoming weeks we might be interested in.

    Truth be told, we decided to make another visit to the church that very next week.

    Guest follow-up isn’t the answer to all your assimilation problems, but it is one proven strategy that will help you along the way. 

    GUEST FOLLOW-UP IDEAS:

    Treat your guests like VIP’s when they visit.

    It doesn’t matter what kind of follow-up you have, if guests don’t feel noticed and valued when they arrive; if they don’t have a positive experience at your church, then they’re not going to be interested in returning. Think of that restaurant you visited for the first time who gave you bad service. You never went back. Neither will they. Be sure they are treated like VIP’s. Let them know they are valuable and important to you.

    Give them something to take home.

    I’m not talking about the Sunday morning bulletin. Ideally, you’ll give them some sort of gift and a little information about the church. It’s icing on the cake if you can also give them information about an upcoming activity that might interest them. Make it look good and keep it simple. There’s always a chance your guest will pick that up off the kitchen counter during the week and look it over. It’s an indirect way to encourage your guests to think about you again that week, and come back.

    Get contact information when people visit.

    It’s kind of hard to follow-up with guests if you don’t know their names email address and/or physical address. You need to strategize how you will collect their information when they visit. This can be a challenging task, but it is possible. 

    Send a note.

    It can be an email, a letter in the mailbox, even a Facebook message, but find a way to send a note to your guests letting them know you’re thinking of them. 

    Keep it simple.

    Don’t try to say everything in the note and don’t preach. Just acknowledge their presence that previous Sunday. Let them know you are glad they got to join you. Communicate that you are available if they have any questions about the church or their experience on Sunday. And invite them to come back again sometime. No pressure. Just an invitation.

    Keep it real.

    The note needs to be personal. Not the whole thing, but at least the opening and closing couple of sentences. Your guests need to know you took time out of your day specifically for them. They need to feel special. Acknowledge them by name, not just in the ‘Dear’ line. If you can, mention their kids. Mention something about that past Sunday that either happened during the service or that you talked with them about personally. 

    Send it from the preacher.

    Notice I didn’t say from the ‘Pastor’. I said from the preacher. That is, from whoever spoke that Sunday, unless it was a guest speaker. Your guests will connect best with the person they heard from in the pulpit. If it’s possible, let that person be the one to send the note. If not, then let it be from the Lead Pastor. Alternatively, if the guests had a great connection with a greeter or leader, that might work as well.

    Send it soon.

    Statistics indicate that the sooner first time guests receive a note from the church, the more likely it is that they will return. It is often recommended that the follow-up happen with 24 hours of the Sunday morning experience, or by Monday afternoon. So don’t wait long!

    What other ways can you invite your guests to come back?

  • Five Questions Every Church Must Answer

    Five Questions Every Church Must Answer

    The answer to these five questions will determine how effectively a local church is fulfilling its mission. They will impact the activities and programs we host. They will establish the depth of ministry to our congregations and communities. Ultimately, they will play a large role in the ongoing impact of God’s transformational work in individual’s lives.

    1. How do we attract people to our church?

    It is so easy for church leaders to fail to address this question. We assume people will visit our church because they see the church building and a welcome sign on the front lawn or because our attendees are inviting people to church. We scratch our heads and wonder why we have so few guests. A pastor once told me that first time guests were often heard making comments like, “Your church is the best kept secret in town!”

    In Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

    Our communities don’t need to see the building so much as they need to see “the light of the world” in us and our congregations. They need to see that our church is a place where transformation takes place. Where lives are changed. Where people meet the True and Living God. We need to find ways to shout from the mountain that God shows up at church each week. We want people in the community to get the feeling they are missing out on something important at our church.

    What is your church’s strategy to attract people?

    2. How do we assimilate guests into our church?

    Of these five questions, this is what church leaders ask me to help with the most. It can be very frustrating to see 3-4 guests walk through the front doors every week and yet not experience growth as a church. Sometimes guests will even return for a second or third visit, but eventually they sort of just disappear and we never know what happened. What makes matters worse, they usually tell us they really enjoyed the service! We can’t help but secretly ask ourselves: Was it something we said or did to offend them? Are we weird and just don’t know it? Why won’t they come back?

    More often than not, our problem is that church leaders and longstanding members have blinders on. They have lost the ability to see the church environment through the eyes of a guest or newcomer. This is fairly normal and to be expected, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good thing. Creating a ‘guest culture’ should be high on every church’s priority list and should include finding ways to ensure guests have a positive experience and are intentionally and tactfully invited to come again.

    Another reason why this question is hard to answer is because we often fail to properly define what ‘assimilate’ means. Is it when guests have visited 3 times,6 or 8? Is it when they join a small group or sign up to volunteer? Is it when they become a member? It may be different for every church, but at some point, newcomers need to feel like they are one of the ‘insiders’ at your church. We need to make that as easy as possible!

    In Acts 15, Paul said, “It is my judgement, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for Gentiles who are turning to God.” In other words, we need to pay special and close attention to our new attendees as they are “turning to God.” 

    What is your church’s strategy to assimilate people?

    3. How do we connect people with one another in our church?

    I often tell church leaders, “You can make a lot of mistakes as a church and people will keep coming if they are connected.” Certainly, the answer to this question is an important part of ‘how do we assimilate people,’ as well. But it’s more than about getting newcomers to come back. It’s about having a church where people truly care about one another, and show it in practical ways. A church that successfully accomplishes this doesn’t have to rely on the pastor(s) to do all the ministry in the church, because people organically minister to one another all the time.

    In today’s culture, getting people to ‘connect’ with others in the church is a LOT easier said than done, but it’s a necessity if people are to move from superficial relationships to authentic relationships. Despite the indoctrination of social media in our world, nothing will ever truly beat regular face to face interactions. Getting people to actually do that is a challenge some church leaders have given up trying to address. They’ve tried small groups, Wednesday services, Sunday School, fellowship events and more. However, no matter how discouraging or hard it may be, it’s important we ‘not grow weary in doing good’ and continue forward until we have discovered ways to break into authentic church community.

    The author of Hebrews so aptly reminds us, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Don’t give up. It could be your church is just inches away from a major breakthrough in this area!

    What is your church’s strategy for connecting people?

    4. How do we disciple people in our church?

    Any church leader who doesn’t know what the “Great Commission” is, should probably hang up his hat and let someone else lead. This is Christ’s final mandate to His disciples, and a primary role of the church. Volumes of books, masses of videos and thousands of series are available to help us explore Jesus command to spread the Gospel to our communities and around the globe. It’s hard to miss the four primary commands found in this passage:

    “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:19

    Go. Make Disciples. Baptize. Teach.

    I’ve noticed local churches can be all over the place in answering this question. Usually, we have an innate belief that discipleship is happening, but we can’t really quantify how much, to whom and when. It’s easy to simply “do church” the way we’ve always done it, without asking the question, “is it working?” Are we hosting the {put program/activity/service here} because we really believe it will disciple people? 

    Either way, discipleship should be a foundation activity in our church’s strategy to minister to the congregation. Among other things, this will include helping people learn how to discover God for themselves through activities like Bible reading, prayer and missions trips; teaching them Godly principles regarding evangelism, parenting, relationships, stewardship, etc.; and equipping them to overcome the world, the flesh and the devil by living a victorious life.

    What is your church’s strategy for discipling people?

    5. How do we engage people in our church?

    One indicator of a healthy church is found in the level of volunteer engagement and ownership within the church and community. When the congregation relies primarily on the pastor or church staff, something is broken. The “body” has turned into a codependent entity that will never effectively serve it’s mission in the community. A few years ago I spoke at a small rural church of about 75 people that is run entirely by volunteers. It was an active church with several great programs and meaningful activities for it’s attendees, and there was nobody on staff. They told me they wanted to eventually hire a part time pastor, but in the meantime, they had discovered something powerful – when the body works together, ministry can and will happen.

    Recruiting and releasing volunteers is something we church leaders talk about a lot, but often struggle doing. It often seems easier to just do things ourselves and rely on a few key influencers in the church to handle the rest, but this cripples the body of Christ. Paul was quite clear in 1 Corinthians that every person is important and makes up different parts of the body of Christ:

    “But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.” 1 Cor. 12:18-19

    Helping people find their place in the church will serve the volunteer, the congregation and the larger community. This will stimulate growth and create ministry momentum. It will also define a more balanced ministry environment, rather than a staff-driven and co-dependent one.

    What is your church’s strategy for engaging people?

  • Why Simple is Better

    Why Simple is Better

    Recently, I was asked to speak at a church. I already knew what I wanted to talk about when I was asked. I looked forward to the opportunity . . . except for the part where I had to sit down to do the ‘work’. Since I wanted the message to be simple, I ended up redrafting that message three times. I whittled a 45 minute message down to 25. Chopping it up was painful, but in the end it was well worth it. The congregation stayed with me the whole time and I believe God used my words to bring transformation to their lives. Simple. Hard. Worth it.

    Perhaps one of our biggest mistakes when attempting to make ministry, leadership, relationships, or whatever, simple, is that we assume the process should be simple too. But making something simple is complicated, time consuming and a lot of work. Most of us give up at the worst possible time, when we’re just on the cusp of a ‘simple’ breakthrough. There’s a miserable valley we must walk all the way through before we arrive at the other side and our goal – the Valley of Complexity.

    Despite the work, simple is better. A few more observations about simple.

    People Remember Simple.

    God gave us 5 fingers on each hand, not 8. I suspect He knew that most of us can only remember a few things at a time. If I ask you to remember 4 words, I suspect you can do it no problem; but 12? God gave us 10 commandments, but Jesus summed them up in 2 that a four year old could remember.

    People Value Simple.

    We live in the day of the ‘elevator speech’. If you can tell someone what you want to say between the 1st and 12th floor, they’ll listen. If not, well, “Sorry. I need to get going.” We pay attention to simple and lose interest in complex. When you present me with simple, I’m impressed and know you cared enough to prepare. 

    People Do Simple.

    Less is more. Give me 23 tasks and I’ll easily get locked up. I won’t know which ones to do and might just go find something else to do (like check Facebook). Give me 4 tasks and I feel empowered to get things done. Simple helps me focus and motivates me to action.

    Other Examples:

    • Your congregation and community don’t want 8 announcements that last fifteen minutes; they want 2 announcements delivered in 3 minutes.
    • They don’t really want 12 emails a week about upcoming events & activities; one will suffice.
    • They don’t want to spend 10 minutes on your website trying to find service times or directions.
    • Certainly, they would love to have notes from your message; but if they are going to have to fill in the blanks they secretly hope they won’t get writer’s cramp, that there’s enough light in the room and possibly that you will provide pencils for them. 
    • Your volunteers and leaders would really prefer to open the resource closet and find what they need in 8 seconds.
    • Your attendees aren’t looking for a booklet with 28 volunteer opportunities; they just want to know what the one or two things are they can do to help make a difference.
    • Volunteers would like to have a simple 1-page document that lets them know what you expect. They would appreciate getting a quick email reminding them that they are scheduled to serve each week. They want to know about the training event at least a month ahead of time. 

    What do you need to simplify in your life or ministry this week?

  • 10 Tips For Effective Guest Follow-Up

    10 Tips For Effective Guest Follow-Up

    A while back my wife and I were invited to dinner with another couple in our church. From the moment we arrived until the moment we left we were treated like honored guests. The food was great, the fellowship was great and the overall experience was just very relaxing and enjoyable.

    The next morning the host family sent us an email thanking us for joining them for the meal and we found a post on Facebook announcing their joy in spending time with us. I was really impressed that they were still thinking of us even after the official ‘event’ was over with. It was definitely a Romans 12:13 experience.

    “Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.”

    There are so many things the local church can learn and should emulate from this experience. The one I’d like to highlight in today’s post has to do with the importance and value of effective guest follow-up.

    Consider this scenario:

    It’s Sunday afternoon and Tim & Joanne just finished lunch with their two teenage kids. Conversation centered around everyone’s impression of the church they visited that morning for the first time. Everyone was in agreement that they enjoyed the service and the people were mostly friendly. Since attending church is not something they normally do as a family they found it a novel experience, to say the least. That said, nobody suggested going back next week.

    Two days later Joanne and her daughter are sitting in the living room watching TV when a commercial comes on, distracting them for a moment. Joanne mentions that she received a nice letter from the pastor expressing how glad he was that they visited and letting them know he’d love to talk with them sometime if they have any questions about their first visit to the church. This sparks a lively conversation about one aspect of the service that they did find awkward (the singing). Before the show resumed, the daughter wondered if they should try visiting again some Sunday. 

    Fast forward three weeks to a Saturday afternoon. Everyone is driving back from a baseball game when Tim announces he had just received an email that morning from one of the greeters of the church inviting them to come visit the church again sometime. He asked his family, “What do you all think of us going back tomorrow morning?” After some discussion about schedules, everyone agrees to give it another try.

    A simple little story that highlights just one thing: the potential influence of guest follow-up. In this scenario, had the church not reached out to that family again, it could have been months or even years before they ever came back. The busyness of life and schedules would hold a greater demand on their time.

    Church was hardly the center of this family’s attention or priorities, but they decided to visit again. I wonder what might happen after they have come a second time? Will their conversation at lunch that Sunday result in a die-hard commitment to the church for the rest of their lives?

    I doubt it very much. Assuming they have another great experience (which is sometimes ‘iffy’) they may find themselves a little more vested than a month ago, but not enough to become regular attendees . . . yet. Thus, the importance of a second time guest follow up.

    I’m a firm believer in consistent, intentional and friendly follow-up to Sunday service guests.

    I believe there is a RIGHT way and a WRONG way to follow up with church guests. In fact, poor guest follow up might actually end up being worse than no follow up at all. Check out some of these tips for great guest-friendly follow-up.

    10 Follow-Up Tips

    1. Decide to Follow Up.

    One of the biggest reasons church’s don’t follow-up is simply because they are already busy and overwhelmed. Follow-up is just one more thing to do and often it gets shoved to the back burner for more urgent tasks. What most pastors and leaders forget is that effective follow-up may ultimately be one of the most mission-critical things you do besides the Sunday morning experience. Your passion to see lives transformed means you should be committed to finding ways to encourage people who need what you have (Christ’s Transforming Love) to return again and again until they have received it. Make a decision this week to start or begin evaluating your guest follow up.

    2. Ask Permission.

    Nobody likes to receive communications without at least some small amount of permission first. It’s not necessary to literally ask a person if you can send them information; but it’s usually wise to create a system whereby they give you their email, phone numbers, and mailing address (as opposed to surprising them by sending them communications by looking them up). The simple task of having them write out their information is implication enough that you just may DO something with that information. For example: Asking them to fill out an information card during their visit to the church.

    3. No Pressure.

    Please don’t pressure your guests to come back or make them feel guilty if they don’t visit again! This is, perhaps, one of the worst ways to communicate with new people in your church. Whether you are sending a letter, email, Facebook message, or calling them on the phone, remember to treat them as you would want to be treated were you in their shoes. Guests want to feel valued and special when they hear from you. This also means that you shouldn’t presume that they will or will want to visit the church again in the near future.

    4. Be a Giver.

    The focus of your follow-up communications should stay solely on serving your guest. What can you give to them to help them in this season of their life? You know they may be interested in your church, so GIVE them information they are interested in receiving about your church, with no strings attached. Ask them about their experience on Sunday and if they have any questions about anything. You also know that, whether they know it or not, people usually attend church because God is drawing them. If possible, find out what’s going on in their life that you or your church can help them with. Ask them if there’s anything they would like prayer for. As a bonus, if you can find ways to literally give your guests gifts I’m sure they won’t be too upset. For example: Include a $5 gift card or see if a business owner in your church would be willing to give out free coupons to guests for their product or services.

    5. Look Out.

    In this article I discuss the difference between Insiders Looking In, Insiders Looking Out, Outsiders Looking In, and Outsiders Looking Out. Taylor your follow up with an ‘Outsiders Looking In’ or an ‘Outsiders Looking Out’ perspective. Remember the world they live in and that their lives are probably already complicated and full.

    6. Follow Up More than Once

    It is very common for churches to send one follow-up to guests and then to never contact them again. Unfortunately, one follow-up is rarely enough to encourage repeat visits for every guest. Fact: Your guests will probably NOT attend your church consistently at first. They may visit two, three or more times over the course of several months before they start attending weekly. Fact: Your guests have NOT decided to make your church their church home after visiting two or three times. They may say they like your church and the people, but they are not vested in attending regularly yet. Follow up after each guest attendance – at least the first three if not more. Consider following up more often in between visits as well. For example, I know a church that sends a letter to all the guests who visited their church the previous month.

    7. Build Follow-Up Systems

    There is no way you will be consistently successful in guest friendly follow-up without some systems in place to accommodate what amounts to a highly administrative part of church work. Check out this article I wrote about the Systems/People Matrix. This means you need a simple system for collecting guest information, processing it, tracking it so that you know how often your guests have attended, clarifying which type of follow up should happen (first time follow-up, second time, etc.), and getting the right tasks to the right people in order to actually do that particular follow up. Note: there’s no way around it, you will need a secretary or an administratively gifted individual to champion your follow-up systems.

    8. Be Relevant

    What worked last decade probably isn’t relevant today. Letters are nice in certain communities and for the older generations they are probably great. But take into consideration your demographics and who you are trying to reach when you choose your methods of follow-up. At one church I worked with for many months they chose to follow-up with a mix of phone calls, letters, emails and Facebook posts.

    9. Be Personal

    Another way to say it is, “Be friendly.” It is altogether too easy to write an email or letter that sounds formal and businesslike. Not good. Work hard at ensuring the tone of your nonverbal communications are down to earth and friendly. Work just as hard at your verbal follow-ups. You may even consider writing out a script that could be used to ensure your language is friendly over the phone. For instance, “Hello, this is Pastor Bill from the Community Church. I was wondering if I could speak with Tim or Joanne? Oh, hi Joanne. (1)Am I catching you at a bad time? Great. (2)How are you today? . . .  (3)Joanne, the reason I’m calling today is simply to follow-up on your visit to church this last week. (4)I was wondering how you liked the service and if you had any questions about your experience . . . . . . Hey, one more thing before I let you go. (5)Is there anything I can pray for you and your family about this week? . . . . OK. (6)I’m so glad we were able to connect for a few minutes. Have a great day! Bye now.” Notice the script includes several key phrases I wouldn’t want to forget to say. I also phrased them in a conversational way to help me keep the conversation informal. 

    10. Follow Up in Bite Size Chunks

    You’ve heard the phrase, “Don’t bite off more than you can chew.” It applies here. Please develop your Guest Friendly Follow Up, but don’t try to go from zero to hero in one week. Build your follow-up systems in small pieces to ensure the systems work. A few months ago I was coaching a pastor and he told me he was ready to take another step in his follow-up systems. We developed a system where a particularly nice and caring man in the church gets a list of 2nd time guests once a month and calls them to pray for them and invite them to an upcoming special event or Sunday service again. It was one step forward. He spent several weeks getting that strategy up and running, and then came back and started talking about what should happen after that.

  • Guest Friendly Perspective

    Guest Friendly Perspective

    Does your church have what it takes to attract and keep guests? I’m sure the vast majority of churches in America want guests to darken their door. Most pastors and church leaders would be very happy if they saw a weekly inflow of visitors. There is something exciting about knowing that your church just might be instrumental in touching others’ lives for eternity’s sake.

    The problem is that many churches don’t understand that a “Guest Friendly Church” requires a “Guest Friendly Perspective” from the pastors, elders, worship team, greeters, ushers, kids ministry workers, etc. A wrong mentality about guests will only drive and keep them away. Here are a few thoughts on the kinds of mindsets a church might adopt.

    Insider Looking In

    This is when an insider (member, pastors or leader) thinks about their church from the perspective of an insider. In other words, when they only think of the church as if it were there FOR themselves.

    This is the worst possible mindset you and your congregation can have. It is the exclusivity that comes from a lot of people getting used to how things are and resisting any changes towards something different. The focus of the entire Sunday morning experience as well as most of the church programs is to serve the current congregation, specifically, the one that is and has been there for some time. Insiders looking in have a lot of sacred cows. Usually the pastor walks on egg-shells when certain topics are discussed. Oh, and the guests. When guests actually come to church they usually feel like outsiders interfering in a family affair and are very anxious for the service to end so they can make their getaway. If church growth happens at all, it will be primarily due to internal growth, not external. The families within the church get married and have kids or the in-laws move in town and start attending.

    Insider Looking Out

    This is when an insider (member, pastors or leader) thinks about outsiders (guests or potential guests), but doesn’t really put themselves in their shoes. In other words, they want to reach guests, but still focus mostly on themselves.

    Not quite as bad as ‘insiders looking in’, but still not desirable. Congregations with this mindset genuinely want to have guests and really hope to not only attract them, but find ways to help them become part of the family. The problem is that insiders looking out have a lot of preconceived notions and expectations of guests. They assume guests will understand and embrace the culture and people in the church. They reason to themselves, “after all, we like it here so others will to.” Insiders looking out expect guests to know what to do and what’s going on during the Sunday service. They assume they will go out of their way to greet people and ask questions if they have them. They expect them to be interested in church activities and upcoming events since they are interested in them. In short, this mindset assumes that guests will perceive the church similarly to how they perceive it.

    Guests at this kind of church will often meet one or two people who are genuinely glad they are visiting, but they will still feel like outsiders. Additionally, they will likely feel like they are stupid, unspiritual, or unfit for the church. After all, the unspoken expectations of those around them will be speaking loud and clear the whole time.

    Outsider Looking In

    This is when insiders (members, pastors or leaders) think about how the church is perceived by outsiders (guests or potential guests). In other words, they regularly put themselves in the guest’s shoes.

    Now we’re getting somewhere. Congregations who foster a perspective of an outsider looking in has taken the first and biggest step towards becoming a ‘guest friendly’ church. These churches are always viewing the church culture, environments, language, and activities through the eyes of new people and the unchurched. It is not that they orient everything in the church just towards guests and it doesn’t mean they have committed to become overly “Seeker Sensitive” as a church. They are simply considerate of people who have never been there before.

    Those with an outsiders looking in perspective regularly evaluate the various aspects of the church experience based on what a guest would think or feel. Leaders with this mindset might send an email to the pastor during the week saying something like, “Pastor, I noticed this Sunday that when our guests arrived they had a hard time finding seats near the back. If they were me I would have felt a little uncomfortable coming in late and having to walk up the aisle to the middle section. What do you think about us asking our regular members to keep the back row free for guests?”

    Guests in this environment are going to genuinely feel comfortable and cared for. The likelihood that they return is much greater than the aforementioned two insider perspectives. 

    Outsider Looking Out

    This is when insiders (members, pastors, leaders) not only view the church from the perspective of the guest, but also find ways to create a comfortable environment for guests by integrating cultural norms into the church environment.

    I think this is perhaps the hardest perspective for church leaders (myself included) to have. With this perspective, not only are congregations aware of how guests might view church as they arrive, similar to Outsiders Looking In, but they are also keenly aware of the actual culture their guests live in. They have become students of the towns, communities and people who surround the church. They have familiarized themselves with the social and economic statistics relevant to their area (which can be found for free at www.census.gov). They are constantly thinking about what it’s like to live in this world and in the communities around them.

    Outsiders looking out don’t separate their work, home, school, and neighborhood world from the church world. Rather, they find ways to draw the world into church by creating environments that are relevant, inspirational, and practically applicable to everyone. Guests are often drawn to these kinds of churches and tell their friends about them as well. They feel comfortable and are amazed that church can be so engaging and applicable to them. At the opposite end of the “Insider Looking In” kind of church, these visitors immediately feel accepted, empowered and equipped to seek and find God simply because most of the members of that church don’t have an “us/them” mentality – it’s just “us”.

    Churches with this mentality don’t compromise biblical values to create relevance, they don’t become worldly. But they do intentionally choose to depart from the ‘norm’ of what a lot of church environments tend to be like. Usually churches of this nature will frustrate and drive away the “Insider Looking In” kind of people. 

    So how does your church measure up? Which perspective do you think your church most closely identifies with? How would you rate your church’s “Guest Friendly” culture based on these criteria? What ONE THING could you start doing THIS MONTH that would help foster a “Guest Friendly Perspective”?