Ministry Best Practices

Taste of Big Creek

Monday, May 5, 2008 by Bill Reichart

This past Sunday we had our monthly event called Taste of Big Creek. Taste of Big Creek (TOBC) is a luncheon that we have every second of the month (May was an exception because of Mother's Day). During this time, guests who have been attending Big Creek can learn and investigate our church. The pastors and the staff of Big Creek are there to showcase their ministry scope and to answer questions.

Our Connecting Ministry Team owns this event and they have done an excellent job of putting together a process of invitation, implementation and follow-up.

Here are a couple of bullet points that give you an overview of the ways we communicate to our guests leading up to the TOBC event:

EVERY week, we strategically showcase TOBC during the worship services/bulletin reminders
2 weeks out from the event invitation postcards go out (we send invitations to those who visited in the last 90 days and who haven't been to a TOBC)
1 week out email reminder/invitation via Google calendar
5 days out we make calls to those we haven't heard from and extend a personal invitation.

Since there is food preparation and childcare provided, we try to get an clear indication of who is going to attend. Even though we are intentional, we nevertheless anticipate a percentage of walk-ins that Sunday morning.

Here is an overview of our assimilation process and how the TOBC fits in. It is a great doorway for a guest who has typically visited about 3 times (although some people will walk in during their first visit). Our desired measurable outcomes from this event are to see people move toward membership (which we call Inquirers) and/or connect in a small group and/or find an opportunity to serve and get involved at Big Creek.

Here is the brochure that we give to our guests at TOBC. They rip off the panel to communicate with us ministry areas and opportunities that they would like us to follow-up and on the other side of the panel it gives us a way to receive feedback and evaluation. The rest of the brochure, which they keep, has contact information and important dates related to our desired outcomes.

Taste of Big Creek brochure - Upload a doc

This event overall has been a big win for us. We are constantly trying to improve and refine it, but it is a significant piece of our assimilation process. How do you help your guests to connect? Please share your ideas and what you do in the comments section.

Labels: Assimilation, Guests, Process

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Treat Visitors as if they were coming to your home

Friday, October 12, 2007 by Bill Reichart

Vince Antonucci has this very important principle listed on his blog the other day. When guests come to your church, treat them coming to your home. (Gary McIntosh in his book, Beyond the First Visit, draws out this application in his book as well.) Here is an excerpt of Vince's post here:

Visitors in Your Home We’re looking at principles we apply at our church so that our services reach truly lost, un- or anti-churched people. Today, principle #3: Treat visitors at church like you would visitors who come to your home for dinner.

Your home is for you. It belongs to your family. You have certain ways of conducting yourself with your family, certain rituals and traditions you adhere to, certain things you do together. But when you have first-time visitors to your house for dinner, things change a little. There are some things that you won’t do because you have guests. Maybe you typically walk around in your underwear. Your family understands this, has never reported you to the police, and loves you anyway.

But you won’t walk around in your undies with guests over. Or perhaps you normally listen to country music during dinner, but know your guests don’t appreciate songs about broken hearts, broken pickup trucks, and broken basset hounds. So what will you do? You won’t play it. Or if your plan was to go over your family budget at meal time, but you suddenly discovered new friends would be joining you, you would elect to not talk about your personal finances. Why? You know it would bore, and perhaps even embarrass, them.

So when you have visitors over you will change the way you dress, the style of music you listen to, and what you’ll talk or not talk about all in an effort to help your friends feel comfortable. There would be other things that you would still do, but you’d explain them to your guests to make sure they understood and felt comfortable with what you’re doing. If you always pray before your meal but your guests weren’t Christians, you might say, “Hey, we always pray before we eat. I hope that’s okay.” You’d make sure they understood anything that might be foreign to them so that they don’t feel completely out of place. At Forefront we know we always have some newcomers on Sunday mornings, so we approach it in exactly that same way. For instance:

* Very early in the service we usually have someone come out and welcome everyone, and that person will usually introduce themselves (“Hey, welcome to Forefront. My name is Chuck…”). Why? Because if you have someone over for dinner, you welcome them when they come in. And if they don’t know your name, you tell them.

* We never start with worship. (Almost every church I visit opens their service with their band leading worship songs – to me this is a major no – no.) Why don’t we start with worship? Because for the new person, worship is weird! A bunch of people standing up and singing, in an auditorium, in the morning? Weird! And if you’re new and not a Christian, you have no idea what to do with yourself. You just feel uncomfortable and out of place. It creates a first impression of, “This is for us. We’re not sure why you’re here. We hope you can follow along. Good luck.” ....Read the rest here

(HT: vinceantonucci.com)

Labels: First_Impressions, Guests

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New Series from Church Marketing Sucks

Tuesday, September 11, 2007 by Bill Reichart

Church from a Visitor's Perspective

by David Zimmerman

....Consequently, some churches make some very basic mistakes when they welcome a visitor. If they welcomed you to a dinner party like they welcome a visitor to their church you would never want to come over for dinner again. They are so glad to see you that they make an embarrassing scene. After shaking your hand they ignore you, leaving you to fend for yourself. They exclude you by talking about things you’ve never heard of. They even slip into the common jargon of their friends, leaving you out of the conversation altogether. On top of these faux pas, they forget that you are a little nervous to be there in the first place. Who would want to be at that party? Who would put themselves through that a second time?

I hope to be part of the solution. As a pastor who has been visiting a lot of churches over the last couple of years, I would like to share with you some of my experiences in being welcomed (or not). I hope some of my experiences can help you avoid the common mistakes churches make--and prevent me from making them myself, now that I am the pastor of a church again. (read the whole post here)

(HT: Church Marketing Sucks)

Labels: First_Impressions, Guests

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Turkey's Need Not Apply

Thursday, March 29, 2007 by Bill Reichart

One of my responsibilities as Pastor of "Doing Life Together" is our First Impressions team. Our First Impressions team consists of 4 individual teams that are in the Parking Lot, at the Front Door, at our Information Desk and who operate the morning cafe'. The First Impressions team in an integral part of what happens on Sunday mornings at Big Creek Church.

We believe that what happens before people actually step foot in the worship service is as important as what happens during the service. People size up a church in the first 10 minutes. A guest will judge whether a church is friendly, caring and real before the worship band even plucks their first chord. Our First Impressions team is made up of dedicated and awesome individuals. The First Impressions team is so important, that Turkeys need not apply for this ministry team at Big Creek Church.

This story from MSNBC.com illustrates that point:

And in Wales Township in Michigan at Lamb UMC there was a brief eulogy recently for a critter the pastor called a model member of his congregation- a wild turkey! If he was a model member, I am wondering what the slackers looked like. This turkey regularly attended services for over a year and greeted people as they went into the church week after week. He was there when they came out as well, strutting his stuff.

But one day, someone, apparently annoyed with the noise and fuss of the bird ran over him- hence the need for a eulogy. When people would come out of the church, seems he annoyed some folks and caused them to leave in haste and in a huff.
(HT: MSNBC)

The moral of the story is that you shouldn't have Turkeys greeting people at the door - THEY ARE ANNOYING!!

Labels: Guests, Humor

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