Retaining First-Time Guests

Getting people in your church’s door for the first time isn’t easy these days, but getting them to return a second and third time is even more difficult. However, you can do a few things that greatly raise the return rate.

The following is a seven step response to first time guests.

Step One:

Immediately following a […]

Turn Christmas Eve Visitors Into Returning Guests

Christmas Eve is fast approaching. Historically, your worship service/s on that holy night will have the highest number of visitors who have limited or no church experience. Indeed, the Nones are more likely to attend your Christmas Eve service than any other service of the year.

If your church is like the vast majority of North […]

Is Church a Verb or Noun?

Is the word “church” a noun or a verb? How you answer this question explains whether you understand the Gospel or have totally missed its point.

So let’s start by asking a question –“Which image best portrays a church?”

Which one did you pick? By the conversations of most Christians it would appear to be the […]

Worship Is a Celebration, Not a Performance

A friend of mine called the other day to ask my advice about something going on at his church. It seems one of their lead worship singers leaves the room as soon as she is finished singing and sits in the lobby drinking coffee, never attending a service. He has said something to her […]

For Church Planters’ Eyes Only

Over the years I’ve noticed something about church plants that might be helpful to you. Somewhere around 125-200 in worship, many semi-successful church planters lose their focus on outreach and bringing more people to Christ, and the church stalls out. I’ve noticed several reasons for this loss of focus on outreach and evangelism. I […]

To Tech or Not to Tech? That’s Not Even a Question Anymore

The latest blog post by Bill Easum sparked a number of lively conversations on both our LinkedIn and Facebook accounts. I started to reply there, but as my response grew, it seemed more appropriate to bring it here to the public forum.

The responses mostly included assertions that the church has become too focused or […]

The Future is Here

Recently, on Bloomberg TV, The Titans featured Bill Gates and Mike Bloomberg. Bloomberg said something that all churches should ponder for a week. He said, “Technology will advance more in the next couple of years than it has since the discovery of the light bulb.”  Now give that some thought.  What does it mean to […]

Preaching to the New Target

Let’s be honest. Most of us pastor-types were taught to preach primarily to a modern, well-churched or church-experienced audience. The target of our preaching was essentially “one of us.”

I hear some of you howling in protest. “I was taught how to preach evangelistically!” Yeah, so was I… but those preaching methods presumed that those […]

Alternatives for Sunday School

In my book Dancing with Dinosaurs (1993) I predicted the end of adult Sunday school.  Now we are seeing many new Southern Baptist Churches starting with no adult Sunday school and instead small groups that meet in the homes.

Now it’s time to make another prediction which has already begun and will soon be a trend […]