What are your guest saying about your church?

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.

What can God do?

I have been thinking a lot over the past week or so about what can God do. Mostly I am thinking about what God could do with me. I am not the greatest at much and I am not the biggest guy. But I constantly wonder what God could do with me. I know that he did so much with so many people in the bible and some of them were nothing special, at least in the beginning. One thing that sticks out to me is when Samuel keeps hearing the voice of God and thinks it is someone else. When Here hears someone call his name and he thinks it is Eli. But it is not rather it is God. Eli eventually catches on and understands that it is God called Samuel. I think that it is amazing each time he hears the voice his response is not to turn over or turn the music up louder but rather each time he says, "Here I am". The passage talks about how Samuel had not yet heard the voice of the Lord and so he did not know it. So Eli teaches him.

I think that it is so amazing what I have been given. I have been given the chance to speak into the lives of young people and help them start to hear the voice of God. God is calling our young people and what are we doing to help them hear the voice? What are we doing to help them listen and respond correctly? Are we bringing them into the presence of God? Are we showing them with our actions? Are we encouraging them to come to church and participate in small groups (teen group) with other people their age?

I am not sure about you but I am doing what I can with the kids God is placing in my life to help them to hear the voice of God and see what God can do with their lives. I am thankful for the parents in my church who make God a huge priority in their kids lives. I am thankful for the teens that make it a priority in their lives. But to those who are not it is not to late to help them turn and say, "Speak, LORD,  for your servant is listening."

That is what I want, I want my words to be, "Speak,LORD,  for your servant is listening." I hope that this are not just my words but my teens words and eventually my sons words as well. What can God do with me? It starts with listening for the voice of God and then just responding in humility,  "Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening."