Here’s a great exercise… call your church office with a basic question like “what time are your services?” Or better yet, have a have friend do it. Then, sit back and see what happens. Are you able to reach a live person? If so, is the greeting friendly? Do they know how to transfer a call? Does the person answering … Read More
Are Your Big Givers Members?
Just before our last membership class at The Journey, a question came to me: How many of our Top 100 givers are members? I felt like God had prompted this question, so I asked our financial team to give me a list of everyone who is a Top 100 giver but not yet a member. When I got the list, … Read More
Where There’s Slack There’s Lack – Part 3 of 8
SYSTEM #3: THE ASSIMILATION SYSTEM It’s Wednesday again! Time to take another step in our weekly Wednesday blog series, “Where There’s Slack There’s Lack.” Hopefully, you’ve been keeping up with us in this series and have been giving some real attention to whether there is slack (and therefore lack) in your church systems. If you missed the series’ first post … Read More
I love to meet new people
Today I’m teaching live at our Jersey City location, by video in Brooklyn and Kerrick is teaching live in Manhattan. But here’s what’s cool: We are holding newcomer receptions in all three locations! By the time the day is out, I will have met 100 newcomers to our church. Very cool. I love to meet new people….they are the lifeblood … Read More
Spend the Extra Two Seconds – Saturday with Seth
A great reminder from Seth Godin: Two Seconds “Sometimes, busy people need to remind themselves (and us) how busy they are by shaving off the last two seconds of what would otherwise be a pleasant interaction. At a restaurant yesterday, the maitre’d, who is paid to be busy, looked up our name in the reservations book and then said, “over … Read More
How to Wow!
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that we had a meeting where we asked this question: How do we WOW people when they first walk into our church? My first answer is always that the Gospel is WOW enough! At the same time, I believe we should do all we can to welcome people in such a way that … Read More
Little Things Don’t Mean a Lot – They Mean Everything
I went to McDonalds recently . . . because I got a coupon in an Amazon.com order for a free Southern Style Chicken Sandwich. I ordered my sandwich, a small fry and a small soda. The total came to $3.47 – I was a happy camper. I can’t remember the last time I ate lunch for under $3.50! About two … Read More
Answering Your Assimilation Questions – #4 and #5
This is two-for-one “Assimilation Friday!” For the last several days, I’ve been answering some of the most common assimilation questions I get in response to my Assimilation Seminar and Fusion – my new book on assimilation. I’m going to wrap this up today by answering two more questions about Connection Cards. Here goes: #4 – How do you measure your … Read More
Answering Your Assimilation Questions – #3
Question #3 – Do guests have to hand their Connection Cards in to someone in exchange for the free gift? We don’t ask guests to do anything that would make them uncomfortable – that includes handing their Connection Cards directly to someone in order to get the free gift we offer them. Instead we ask everyone, including guests, to put … Read More
Answering Your Assimilation Questions – #2
Question # 2 – Do You Do A Newcomer Reception? I get this question a lot. Pastors everywhere are wondering whether or not to do a reception and what it should look like if they do… should it be weekly? Monthly? What should it entail? How do you get people to attend? There are lots of questions wrapped up in … Read More