The last few days, Nelson Searcy has been answering assimilation questions on his blog, Church Leader Insights. These posts are a MUST READ if you are seeking to improve in the area of assimilation. Searcy’s posts include answers to the following questions: What do you say to get people to…
Robert Raikes is known to be the father of the Sunday School movement. He believed that education was an effective tool to battle moral decline and determined to develop an experimental school to test his theory. Initially, he was legally barred from developing the school until England passed the Enabling…
In his book, Concentric Circles of Concern, Dr. Oscar Thompson says that the most important word in the English language, apart from proper nouns, is the word “RELATIONSHIP”! I believe his statement is true in a number of areas related to the church. Evangelism. Although I am not opposed to…
I recently hosted Dr. Gary McIntosh at the Kentucky Baptist Convention building for a conference that discussed assimilation principles taken from his book, Beyond the First Visit. Fortunately, while he was here, Dr. McIntosh unveiled the findings of a recent national survey he conducted. I’m going to discuss some of the findings…
The average church could learn a lot from Chick-fil-A. Last night my family dropped by for a casual dinner. As usual, we had a wonderful experience. Good food, great service, fair prices! Their mission statement is simple, “Be America’s Best Quick-Service Restaurant!” The founder, Truett Cathy, may well have fulfilled…
This Thursday, May 22, Dr. Gary McIntosh will be with us at the Kentucky Baptist Convention building. He will talk about assimilation principles taken from his book, Beyond the First Visit, along with other books he has written. Check out the well-written Western Recorder article on this upcoming event. Dr.…
Your smile, attitude, and sense of humor impact connections and assimilation. Welcome others with your smile!
Today, as I continue discussing Nelson Searcy’s book Fusion: Turning First-Time Guests into Fully-Engaged Members of Your Church, I will look at the seven-minute, pre-service period when first-time guests decide if they will return for a second visit. Searcy refers to this time as the time “from the street to the seat.” This is…
Today, we continue talking about Nelson Searcy’s book Fusion: Turning First-Time Guests into Fully-Engaged Members of Your Church. Searcy titled chapter 3, Seven Minutes and Counting. In the chapter, he talked the importance of what happens to first-time guests during the first seven minutes of their visit. He wrote, Seven minutes…
Let’s continue to look at Nelson Searcy’s rockin’ assimilation book, Fusion: Turning First-Time Guests into Fully-Engaged Members of Your Church. Today, we will look at God’s assimilation plan discussed in chapter 2. But before we get into our discussion, let me point you to the comments section of Part 1…
Two encounters are critical. First, the leader encounters God in His Word and is changed. Second, the leader guides the group to have a life-changing encounter.
In John 13:34-35, three times Jesus said, “Love one another.” Your group is the ideal place to practice and launch the kind of love for one another that shows the world that we are His disciples.