When was the last time you invited someone over to your house? What happens when that person gets to the door? I cannot remember the last time that I was surprised that someone I had either invited or wanted to come over was greeted with surprise and made to feel as if they were not wanted.
Why do we do this with our churches? How often do we treat a guest when they come into our churches as if we are stunned they have come to visit. We scramble to get them a welcome bag or dust off the cup that we have in the corner.
I do not think that as a church we see this is how we act. In our minds we act as if we really want these people, and I believe that we do, the problem is that is not how our guests are experiencing this time. They will walk in and feel as if we do not care enough and are definitely not ready for a guest that you want to have come, does come.
With Restore church, people have asked that it must be easy to be ready and excited for new people to be coming. As the Connections Pastor, I am having to continually push this idea of being ready and expectant for our guests each week for myself and our welcome team. I love the idea of helping break down the walls with people as they enter our churches. For so many people the first 20 min of walking to a church and into the doors are the most important for that guest to either want to come back or not. If this is the case then our welcome team and people in our lobby are some of the most important touch points of their visit.
For us it has helped that from top to bottom of our lead team we have people that are focused on making the guest experience one of the best it can be. We want people to meet Jesus and in doing this we want to take away as many distractions that are even in the area. What is distracting your guests from meeting Jesus? How is your welcome team doing? Are you ready for people? Are you excited? Are you praying for new people to come and meet Jesus?
I would recommend getting feedback from people that are outside of your church to see what they really think of how you are treating new guests. I suggest that you have someone secret shop your church, maybe three of four people over a month span of time.
Be ready! Be Excited! I have to re-center myself each week so that I can be ready each week.
