Memorize the next sentence and make it your mantra:

Everything speaks to a first-time guest…. Everything.

From the moment a guest sets foot on your property, he tunes in to receive the message your church is sending.

You have an obligation to strive for excellence. You don’t have to be perfect, you just  have to do the very best you can with what you’ve got – which is the definition of Godly excellence.

The thinking behind “Greeted, Directed, Treated and Seated” may be a paradigm shift for you. Until this point, your plan for first-time guests may have been simply to get them through the door and make your impression with the service itself. While that sounds good in theory, research has shown that you don’t have that luxury.

By the time your service starts, your guests have already made judgments about your environment, interacted with people who may or may not have rubbed them the right way, figured out how to navigate your hallways, and found themselves a seat…more than enough experience with your church for a gut-level impression to have firmly formed.

And once the first impression has been made, you can do very little in the service itself to change it. If they have already formed a negative impression, that impression becomes the lens through which they view everything else over the next hour or so.

Conversely, if you create a “raving fan” in the pre-service, they will engage in the rest of your service with a heightened enthusiasm, which leaves them more open to hearing from God.

With a strong pre-service in place, seven minutes is all you need to show your guests just how much you care about them and want them back!

Let me show you how to fully integrate the principles of “Greated, Directed, Treated, and Seated” into your assimilation system.

Click here to download a FREE copy of my new e-book, “How to Make a Great First-Time Guest Impression!” 

Your partner in ministry,

Nelson

P.S. Discover the three most common mistakes churches make in connecting new people AND how you can avoid them!

Join me for The Top 3 Assimilation Mistakes Webinar this week.  In this FREE one-hour webinar, you will discover the three most common mistakes churches make in connecting new people AND how you can avoid them!

Click here to register for the date and time most convenient for you!

© Nelson Searcy. All Rights Reserved.

About Nelson Searcy

Nelson Searcy is an experienced church growth strategist, pastor, church planter and coach, consulting with churches around the world. As founder of Church Leader Insights and the Renegade Pastors Network, he has personally trained more than 3,500 church leaders in over 45 denominations through live events, seminars and monthly coaching. Nelson is also the Founding and Lead Pastor of The Journey Church, with locations across New York City and in Boca Raton, FL. Nelson and his church routinely appear on lists such as “The 50 Most Influential Churches” and “The 25 Most Innovative Leaders.” He is the author of over 100 church growth resources and 18+ books, including The Renegade Pastor: Abandoning Average in Your Life, Ministry and The Difference Maker: Using Your Everyday Life for Eternal Impact, and At the Cross with the People Who Were There. He and his wife, Kelley, have one son, Alexander.