5 Ways You Make Your Guests Feel Comfortable
Church visitors come and church visitors go. And most of the time, it’s just like that. In a typical North American church, less than 15 percent of all first-time visitors ever return. Over the years, I’ve spoken with hundreds of business owners and every one of them has agreed – if they only retained 15 […]
4 Ways Your Greeters Make Guests Feel Welcome
When it comes to first-time visitors, you may be surprised to learn that perhaps the most influential person your guests will meet isn’t your worship leader. It’s not the choir director, Christian education leader, or the board chair. It’s not even your pastor. Believe it or not, probably the most influential person your first-timers meet is your church greeter. […]
Ushers Ush
“Good morning, Mrs. Dalton. Do you have a seating preference?” “Oh, Sheila, you ask me every week. You know I always sit in the same place.” The usher smiled. “Yes, but you never know!” Then she turned to a couple who was just then coming through the door. “Good morning! Do you have a seating preference?” […]
Liturgy, Pentecostalism, and the Unchurched
I just returned from a place where I was working with a new church start from one of the “confessional” churches… one of those that, by and large, practices a formal liturgy. In this case, the church had relaxed the liturgy a bit, but to those not raised in a smells-and-bells church, even their relaxed liturgy […]
Nursery
The nursery is one of the most important rooms in the church and should reflect the type of homes the parents have made for their children (or in some cases should be much better than). It should be on the same level as the worship area and should be located close to it. It should […]
Bells Ringing in My Ears
I had to vacate my house for the night because some remodeling was being done, so I checked into a Holiday Inn. While I was out walking my dogs, one of the biggest mainline churches nearby began to ring out old hymn tunes. I was a block away and it hurt my ears. I went into […]