Just what is The Magic Seven? It’s the seven minutes before your Sunday service begins and the seven minutes after the Sunday service ends.
These 14 minutes are the best opportunities to connect with first-time guests or returning guests to your church. For that reason, you need to have an intentional focus during those times to connect with your guests in a way that:
- Makes them feel welcome
- Builds a bridge
- Helps them develop spiritually
- Encourages them to return
THE SEVEN MINUTES BEFORE THE SERVICE STARTS
First-time guests generally arrive early compared to everyone else. With that in mind, here’s how you want to be focusing your time during these first seven minutes:
Get out and make friends
When I ask pastors what they are doing during this critical time, the #1 thing I hear is this — they are going over their sermon. Now I’m all for practicing your sermon but NOT during these seven minutes. (This really should have been done the Thursday before, or the very latest Saturday night.)
If your sermon still needs polishing seven minutes before, you’re not going to perfect it then. It’s better to go out and make some friends!
Be visible and proactive — but don’t overwhelm
Reserve those seven minutes to be out and about, to be visible in front of the people. Then commit a significant portion of your focus to your new guests. Don’t ignore your members of course, but you are also looking with an intentional eye for those new people to do a brief introduction. Just a word of caution though — be careful not to overwhelm your first-time guests or come off too strong.
Tune in next week when I share a few more ways you can focus your time on the first seven minutes before the service starts.
Your partner in ministry,
Nelson
P.S. – For an in-depth study on the the Assimilation System – the process of reaching and keeping more first-time guests and helping them become fully-engaged members in your church – join me in Orlando this October for The Assimilation Workshop.
You’ll go beyond just the basics and do a deep dive on practical, how-to strategies that you can take back to your church and implement next Sunday!
Plus, with super low guest rates of just $99 each and hotel rates of an unheard-of $79 per night, we’ve made it very easy to sign up and bring your team!
This event will NOT be repeated — don’t miss this opportunity to learn EVERYTHING I know about Assimilation and get a complete “done-for-you” system to reach and keep more guests.
Register before Friday, September 30th and save on your registration with the Early Bird rate.
Just go to:
www.ChurchLeaderInsights.com/Live
Share This Post
© Nelson Searcy. All Rights Reserved.
About Nelson Searcy
