These series of blogs will help you keep the people you reach. One of the challenges churches face today is not only getting new people to attend but getting people to stick after they join and not slide off. Would you say your church is more like Velcro (people stick)…
Assimilation is all about the process of helping people find your church, join your church, and get involved using their gifts and talents for the kingdom. Of course, experiencing salvation in Christ would be the number one goal as you reach out to people with the Gospel. In a recent…
Will they find it here? Churches and associations all across Kentucky are excited about “Find It Here.” This effort has involved prayer walking (or driving if you are out in the country), and delivering 1.5 million bags that contain a Gospel tract, information about local Baptist churches, and a special…
One of the most important things a church does is to follow up on guests who visit the church or any activity sponsored by the church. It is a key to church growth. Each church must customize what works best in their particular setting. Churches today are rethinking the follow…
Romans 12:13 says, “Practice hospitality.” Churches need to be places that are hospitable, friendly, loving, and welcoming. They should be places where people smile and one can easily see the love of Jesus. This is Part 3 in this series on making guests feel welcome, but to be honest we…
Getting ready for company is an important element to growing churches. Growing churches expect guests each Sunday and spend much energy and time getting ready for their arrival. When the James Gang have company coming to our house I usually do the vacuuming and I must tell you, I am…
Churches spend lots of energy, money, and time enhancing the worship experience. We spend some really big bucks on sound, video projecting, lighting, banners, worship music, etc. That is a good thing, but is it enough? For that matter if a pastor spends 20 hours preparing for his message on Sunday,…
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…
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…
This week I am going to be discussing Nelson Searcy’s excellent new assimilation book entitled, Fusion: Turning First-Time Guests into Fully-Engaged Members of Your Church. Searcy is the founding pastor of Journey Church in New York City and formerly served as the founding director of the Purpose Driven Community with…
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.