Are You Reaching Non-Christians This Christmas? (Part 4)

This week, we’ve been thinking about how you can work with the natural surge that God has built into the Christmas season to influence those who don’t yet know Jesus.

We started by making sure we are outwardly-focused this season. Then, we talked about how to increase the number of guests at our Christmas services. Yesterday, we learned how to make sure that those guests feel welcomed and want to come back again and again. If you’ve missed any of these posts, you can check them out below.

Today, we are going to wrap up this mini-series by exploring the importance of follow up. When your Christmas service is over and the pre-New Year lull hits, how will you follow up with the first-timers God gives you this season?

The way you follow up, or follow through, on the guests who come to your church will impact whether or not those guests choose to return. With your follow up, pay attention to the three Fs. Make sure it is Fast, Friendly and Functional:

FAST – Don’t underestimate the power of a quick follow up. Today, people are used to a whole new level of immediacy, thanks to technology. I suggest getting an email in your guest’s inbox within 36 hours of her visit.

FRIENDLY – Your follow up needs to reach out in a warm, personal way. Make your guests feel valued as individuals, rather than sending them something that resembles a mass form mailing. At The Journey, we send a handwritten note from me (or that week’s teaching pastor), along with a small, relevant, free gift within 96 hours of a guest’s visit. Handwritten notes seem to find their way to the top of everyone’s mail pile!

FUNCTIONAL – Follow up with your guests in a way that meets them where they are. Be simple and straightforward. Use the opportunity that follow up gives you to extend a clear invitation for them to come back to your church. I mentioned the free gift… you might include a $4 gas card and say something in the note like, “We’d love to see you again. This trip is on us!” Be creative!

This Christmas, God will bring millions of unbelievers into our churches. We can either let the opportunity to influence them with his truth pass us by, or we can make some decisions now that will help us reach them effectively.

Let me challenge you to make this the year you focus on non-Christians at Christmas. Enjoy the celebration of our Lord’s birth but while you do, make sure you do your part to introduce him to those in your community who don’t yet truly understand the significance of the season.

- Nelson

P.S. – For more on creating a follow up system that will keep your guests coming back, check out Fusion: Turning First-Time Guests Into Fully-Engaged Members Of Your Church.

Are You Reaching Non-Christians This Christmas? (Part 3)

Yesterday, we learned how you can have more first-time guests than usual at your Christmas service. But what do you do with your guests once they arrive? How can you make them feel comfortable? Is there anything you can do now to make sure they’ll want to keep coming back to your church in the new year?

Turning first-time guests into fully-engaged members of your church is what assimilation is all about. In my book, Fusion, I detail a plan for creating a system that will help you keep the newcomers who come through your doors. If you haven’t had a chance to study that system, let me encourage you to do so. In the meantime, here are a few things you can do to make sure your first-time guests have a great experience this Christmas:

1. Spiff your church up – make it look as good as it can look.
2. Have signs in place to point people where they need to go. (For example, have signs pointing the way to the children’s area, the restrooms, and the main sanctuary.)
3. Make sure each guest is properly greeted, directed, treated and seated. Let’s look at this one in a little more detail…

First impressions are very important to your first-time guest. One of the best ways to make sure he feels welcomed and gets a good first impression of your church is by creating a strong pre-service – one where he is:

Greeted – Welcomed with a friendly smile by someone at the front door
Directed – Simply and politely shown where he needs to go (preferably by a sign and a volunteer)
Treated – Happily surprised with comfort food/drink (Offering hot coffee and donuts in your service will speak volumes to the new people who show up.)
Seated – Led to a comfortable, appropriate seat by a volunteer

The first-time guests you’ll have this Christmas will be making gut-level judgment calls about your church from the minute they hit the parking lot. What they see, before your service even begins, will determine whether or not they’ll ever come back.

Take some time today to think about what you can do to make your first-time guests feel welcomed this Christmas season. Put some time into polishing up your method of Greeting, Directing, Treating and Seating.

If you put some intentional focus on your assimilation efforts as you prepare for your Christmas services, you will see many more of those first-time guests become second-time guests, then regular attenders and ultimately, fully-engaged members in 2009!

- Nelson

P.S. – If you’d like to learn more about how to keep the first-time guests God brings you, check out Fusion or take a look at these tools and resources. Have a great Thursday!

What Keeps People in Church?

My friend John Donahue from Stone Point Church had a great post recently that really challenged me. Check it out:

————-

Communication Card Download

You asked for it…here’s the latest version of the Communication Card we use at The Journey. We call it a Connection Card (I stole that term from my good friend Jimmy Britt a few years ago) because it seems a little softer.

Two versions for you to download (just right click and choose Save As – includes both front and back of the card):

Communication Card as PDF

Communication Card as Mircosoft Publisher File

Here’s some key thoughts for your connection card:

- Are you asking for information you are not using? If so, cut the info from your card.

- Can you fill out the card in your lap?

- Is the most important info at the top of the card?

- Is there enough space for a long email address?

- Are you placing the card in the bulletin (no more tear-offs or back-of-pew cards)?

If you are just starting out, you don’t need to customize the card for the series or even do it in color (I’ve found no increase in the return rate for either).

Hope this helps!  I want this blog to be a useful tool for you.  If you have feedback, you can use the Ask Nelson button on the right.

Nelson

Fusion In Motion

Since its debut back in January, God has been using Fusion: Turning First-Times Guests Into Fully-Engaged Members Of Your Church to help churches of every shape and size from all over the country – and even all over the world!

I am humbled by the reception the book has received and thrilled that it is truly helping to change lives.

At least once a week, I get an email from a pastor or church leader who wants to share how Fusion has impacted the way they do ministry. Thought you may be interested in taking a glimpse into a few of these stories:

“I just wanted to let you know that your book, Fusion, has changed (our church). We will never look at a first time guest the same way; they are all gifts from God.  I have heard your talk on assimilation two times, but it really struck a spiritual nerve with the book. I hope you write a book on every system.”

“Thank you for writing Fusion. It has me more excited than ever to reach lost people and to have a plan ready for them when they come, so that we can see them go from first time visitor to membership. I really liked the fictional story that made it all hit home. I have recommended it to several other pastor friends.”

“A few weeks ago, I was discouraged about how few were coming each week to our new church plant, but after reading Nelson’s formula about the number of guest per 100 people who already attend, I realized that we are in the 5 to 7 per hundred and are actually doing pretty well.”

“We will have an Assimilation Team meeting for the first time in a few weeks to get organized. I am very excited and have been pouring over the appendix and making it ours.”

This is just a tiny sampling of the overwhelming response to the book. If you have read Fusion, I hope that its principles have helped you revitalize the way you move newcomers from first-time guests to fully-developing followers of Jesus.

If you haven’t read Fusion, I encourage you to do so. By tweaking your assimilation system in the right way, you can infuse your church with new life. Just click here to check it out.

By the way, if you have a story about how Fusion has changed the assimilation mindset/process in your church, I would love to hear it!

Thank you for helping Fusion to make such an impact.

- Nelson

God Is In The Details

Earlier this week, I came across a quote by Og Mandino that really struck me:

“Never neglect the little things. Never skimp on that extra effort, that additional few minutes, that soft word of praise or thanks, that delivery of the very best you can do.”

When I read this quote, I immediately thought about the Raving Fans principle of “Deliver Plus One.” This principle teaches us to deliver excellence consistently and then to go beyond that to give people one percent more than they expect. (Those of you who have read my book, Fusion, and who have spent any time with me in seminars are familiar with the book Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles. If you’ve never read it, add it to your list.)

The Og Mandino quote and the principle of “Deliver Plus One” operate from the same mindset. That is, always go the extra mile.

Church leaders are busy people and we tend to get caught up in the big things. But when we make the conscious effort to take “that additional few minutes” or “deliver the very best” we speak volumes to the on-looking world – many of them skeptics.

Take some time today to think about the little things in your life. Are you delivering the best you can? Are you delivering not only what’s expected, but an extra one percent?

Let’s break it down:

• Do you take the time to deal with small staff concerns?
• Do you mail your first time guests an unexpected free gift?
• Do you serve Starbucks coffee on Sunday mornings rather than Bargainbucks?
• Do you go out of your way to speak a word of encouragement to the people serving?

You may have heard that “the devil is in the details.” I prefer the opposite spin on that saying. I believe that God is in the details. Why? Because it’s the details – the little things in our lives and ministry – that give us the best opportunity to truly reflect the extent of God’s grace and love.

- Nelson

First Time Guests Want Information

First Time Guests want to get information about your church when they are ready to receive it – not when you want to give it to them.

So the question to ask yourself is:

Are you making information about your church readily available to your guests?

Examples of this include:

- Putting out easy to find brochures about key areas of your church, such as children’s ministry, small groups, etc.  You can place these on a guest table so that they are easy to find.

- Making free CDs and DVDs available that go in depth on the questions newcomers may have about the faith.  One of our most popular DVDs is a message I did entitled “What Does It Mean to Be a Christian?”

- Having friendly members who are willing and trained to answer common first time guest questions.

Over the next few weeks, think through how you can make information available to your guests when they are ready.  And remember, First Time Guests want three things that we’ve discussed this week:

1. To fit in with everyone else attending.
2. To be anonymous.
3. To get more information as they are ready.

Have a great Labor Day Weekend!

Nelson

P.S. Watch for an email from CLI today about a Labor Day Sale….$9 downloads on most of our single resources.  Sale starts at 10:00am today and ends at 11:59pm on Monday.  Click the “Store” link above.

First Time Guests Want to “Fit In” With Everyone Else

On Tuesday I said that an unchurched first time guest wants at least three things…

1. To fit in with everyone else attending
2. To be anonymous
3. To get more information as they are ready

Let’s talk about #1 today. A first time guest wants to fit in with everyone else attending. This means that you want to:

• Avoid singling them out in any way. Allow them to identify themselves. See my earlier post for more on this.

• Provide directions for what to do and when to do it. This means that you want to provide clear directions both in signage and from the stage, so that a first time guest doesn’t ever feel lost or confused.

One big area where you should provide direction for newcomers is in the worship service itself. This means you give instructions on when to ’stand up’ and when to ‘bow your head and pray’ (beware of prayers that just start and leave newcomers standing with heads up while everyone else bows their hands).

In general, just a few small instructions throughout the service can help newcomers fit in. This not only leads to a great first time experience but highly increases the likelihood they will return. And that’s the first goal of assimilation: to turn a first time guest into second time guest.

Action step: think through your entire worship service and ask, “Am I giving my first time guests enough instructions so they can ‘fit in’ with everyone else.” Next, think through signage from the parking lot to children areas to the main auditorium. Can people figure out where to go without having to ask someone?

Tomorrow we’ll discuss why first time guests want to remain anonymous.

Nelson

P.S. For a complete treatment of my full assimilation system (that goes way beyond the Fusion Book or the basic seminar) check out The Assimilation Intensive by clicking here.

“Hey, Are You A First Time Guest?!”

Is anyone at your church asking attenders if they are first time guests?

If so, could I kindly encourage you to have them stop asap?

In my Assimilation Seminar, I encourage you to have a Guest Table where you offer first time guests a free gift. For example, we currently offer first-timers a free copy of the book One Month To Live by Kerry Shook, with a welcome letter from me.

The books are stacked on a table near the exit. There is no one there asking those who pick up the book if they are first time guests. We allow guests to self-identify themselves and take the books without being pointed out or questioned.

Newcomers don’t want to be identified as newcomers. Unfortunately, I’ve seen…

• Churches that have a ‘monitor’ at their book table asking: “Are you a First Time Guest?”
• Churches that have their greeters asking: “Are you a First Time Guest?”
• Ushers come through the auditorium asking: “Are you a First Time Guest?”

I’m in favor of allowing guests to identify themselves and pick up a free gift or even attend a post-service gathering (like the 10-Minute Party that many churches do). But asking someone if they are a guest is off-putting and can actually push first-timers away from your church. Here’s why:

An unchurched first time guest wants at least three things…

- To fit in with everyone else attending
- To be anonymous
- To get more information as they are ready

I’ll be posting more on all three of these starting Thursday, so check back!

For now, make a decision to allow your first time guests to attend without having to answer the awkward, off-putting question: “Hey, Are You A First Time Guest?!”

Read Part 2 by Clicking Here (To Fit In)

Read Part 3 by Clicking Here (To Get More Information)

Nelson

P.S. If you are new to my blog and you want more on How to Turn First Time Guests into Fully Engaged Members of Your Church, check out these resources on Assimilation by clicking here. And, welcome to the conversation!

Members Reception Today

Today I’m hosting a brief reception for members after each of our services. It will be a 30 minute reception where I cast vision for the fall and provide key updates to our members.  The basic purpose for this is similar to the Newcomers Reception (which I wrote about here) but the focus is on members.

Since last year I’ve been working harder to communicate vision to our members and the top 10% of leaders in our church. Today’s reception is part of that effort.

I normally invite members to join me for a couple of times a year for a special Sunday afternoon lunch.  This time, I decided to do a series of shorter, more intimate gatherings for members after each service.  So far, the total RSVP’s for the receptions have outpaced the single lunch (more options = more people).

For more on the Top 10% Principle, check out this months podcast by clicking here.

Since I’ll be tied up with the receptions today, Chris Brady who leads The Journey -San Francisco will be teaching today at all four services.  Chris has a great story and is doing a fantastic job in downtown San Francisco – check out his website here.

Off to the first service….have a great Sunday!

Nelson

Have You Called Your Office Lately?

Here’s a great exercise… call your church office with a basic question like “what time are your services?” Or better yet, have a have friend do it. Then, sit back and see what happens.

Are you able to reach a live person? If so, is the greeting friendly? Do they know how to transfer a call? Does the person answering the phone know how to handle basic requests? Does the conversation start out on a friendly note but then seem rushed as the call is quickly transferred?

Does the answering machine or voice mail sound OK? Does it give you enough time to leave a message? If you leave a message, how long before someone returns the call?

I often do this exercise with my coaching networks. We take turns calling each others’ church offices and ask basic questions about service times, what to expect or even for a staff persons voice mail. Honestly, the results are usually horrifying!

Take a few minutes this week and have a conversation with your staff about phone standards. Make sure everyone is presenting the positive attitude you expect. I’ll be doing that with our staff, too.

Nelson

Are Your Big Givers Members?

Just before our last membership class at The Journey, a question came to me:

How many of our Top 100 givers are members?

I felt like God had prompted this question, so I asked our financial team to give me a list of everyone who is a Top 100 giver but not yet a member. When I got the list, I was shocked! It contained 36 names.

These 36 people were showing high “ownership” in our church but had not taken the formal step of membership. What to do?

I simply wrote each one a short email offering a personal invitation to membership class. Basically, I said, “you are clearly engaged in our church and I want to invite you to take the next step of ‘formal’ membership.” No big sales pitch. No mention of their financial gifts. Just a simple invitation.

The majority of them signed up for the upcoming class. A large number of the remainder signed up for a future class. In short, about 80% said ‘yes’ to membership with just one simple invite.

Why is it important for these big givers to be members?

One, they need to be fully informed about why we do what we do. The goal of my invitation to membership class was not to convince them to give more (although several decided to increase their level of giving). The goal was to further clarify what our church is all about and give them a deeper connection.

Two, the importance of being a member goes far beyond finances. Even though these 36 people were models of stewardship, we wanted to make sure that each one was fully engaged in all of the key areas of our church (serving, groups, etc.).

Stewardship is discipleship….are you helping your stewards become disciples in all areas of your church?

Nelson

P.S. For more on our membership process, including how we promote, prepare for, conduct and raise accountability for membership, check out The Maximizing Membership Package. BTW, our Membership Class is a fast moving, 3-hour Sunday afternoon class that we offer every other month.

Where There’s Slack There’s Lack – Part 3 of 8

SYSTEM #3: THE ASSIMILATION SYSTEM

It’s Wednesday again! Time to take another step in our weekly Wednesday blog series, “Where There’s Slack There’s Lack.” Hopefully, you’ve been keeping up with us in this series and have been giving some real attention to whether there is slack (and therefore lack) in your church systems.

If you missed the series’ first post on The Weekend Service System or last week’s post on The Evangelism system, be sure to check them out in the archive.

We’ve got a fun system on tap for today – The Assimilation System. This is the system that asks, “How do you move people from being first-time guests to being fully developing members?” As we looked at last week, lots of churches have an evangelism problem – meaning that they have a hard time getting first-timers through their doors – but even more have an assimilation problem.

You know that you can’t just expect your first-time guests to come back without any intentional action from you and your staff. You have to make sure you are creating environments that make them feel comfortable and welcome.

Think about how many first time guests you have over the course of a year. An average of just 3 guests each week means that you influence over 150 new people every 12 months. How many of those are sticking around?

To get a gauge on how well you are keeping on top of your Assimilation System, try asking yourself these questions:

How many of your first-time guests end up becoming members? Are you happy with that number? If not, where is the problem?

When was the last time you looked at your church through a guest’s eyes?

Have you filled out your own communication card to make sure it is user-friendly?

What do people say is their first impression of your church?

Assimilation is one of those systems where a little bit of tweaking can reap big results. Simply by keeping your finger on the pulse of this one system, you will see a huge difference in growth.

So I challenge you to spend this week getting real with your Assimilation System. Be honest about how well it is working and what kind of improvements you need to make. When God blesses you with guests, you need to make sure you are doing your part to give them unhindered access to learning His truth!

Make this your mantra for the week: In my Assimilation System, effort = excellence!

Nelson

P.S. – If you haven’t already, make sure you download the free Church Systems Report, to learn more about the eight church systems and how they work together.

P.P.S. – To dig deeper into the area of evangelism, check out my book on assimilation, Fusion, or The Assimilation Seminar.

I love to meet new people

Today I’m teaching live at our Jersey City location, by video in Brooklyn and Kerrick is teaching live in Manhattan.  But here’s what’s cool:

We are holding newcomer receptions in all three locations!

By the time the day is out, I will have met 100 newcomers to our church.  Very cool.  I love to meet new people….they are the lifeblood of any growing church.

BTW, I recently wrote about a How to Have a Newcomers Reception here.

Have a great Sunday!  Off to Jersey City….

Nelson

Spend the Extra Two Seconds – Saturday with Seth

A great reminder from Seth Godin:

Two Seconds

How to Wow!

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that we had a meeting where we asked this question:

How do we WOW people when they first walk into our church?

My first answer is always that the Gospel is WOW enough! At the same time, I believe we should do all we can to welcome people in such a way that they are more open to the BIG WOW of the Gospel This is called Biblical Hospitality. (See my book Fusion for more).

I would encourage you to ask your staff this question, too. I asked it at an all-staff meeting and it led to a 15-minute brainstorming session. Great ideas came out of the meeting…and only about two (ok, maybe one) came from me. There’s a tip…

Since the focus of this meeting was how to wow ‘”from the street to seat,” we mainly focused on greeting people and directing them toward the bathrooms, lobby and children’s check-in.

Here are our (edited) thoughts:

• Upgraded mints in women’s/men’s restrooms
• Fun size chocolates in men’s restroom
• Flowers in women’s restroom
• Nicer soap in women’s restroom
• Program above urinal in men’s restroom
• Deodorizers for restrooms
• Mouthwash in both restrooms with disposable cups
• Plants (silk) in lobby and outside by door to soften the environment
• Upgraded candy in lobby
• Tape down the entrance “red carpet” with red tape
• Scrolling marquee outside
• Featured sermon series poster outside in showcase
• Big individual bottles of water in lobby
• Big cups for hot chocolate at refreshment table
• Ushers walk through attenders and offer mints (before service)
• Better trays for food items
• Upgraded food: apples and bananas
• Omelet bar
• H&H bagels – the best bagels in the city
• Toaster for bagels
• Better cream cheese / different flavors / Philadelphia Brand
• Carry food on trays to serve people seated / offer the tray full of pastries to seated attenders
• Cardboard trays to carry food to seats
• In Elevator: “This Week at the Journey” events
• Recycle bins that show we recycle

In a later meeting, a few of us pulled together and decided which of these things we would do immediately, which ones we would do over the next few months and which we would never do. Here’s the final decision on each restroom:

Women: Bath & Body Works or similar soap & lotion, tissue, mouth rinse, and special canisters for other feminine products for better presentation, including tray with fine chocolates, flowers.

Men: Bath & Body Works soap, regular chocolates, mouth rinse, and possibly paper towel holder/tray. Coming attractions (Inside of program) posted at the urinals, and on stall doors.

At the end of the day, we implemented about 75% of the ideas. And guess what? It cost us just a few dollars to do everything. Yet our regular people noticed (our members were wow-ed!) and our guests took notice, too.

The general guest response was “what kind of church would do this for us?”

I want to be the kind of church that does whatever it takes to reach people and introduce them to the BIG WOW of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

So, what could you do to wow people when they first enter your church? What could you do this Sunday? Next Sunday?

Nelson

P.S. This is one of several ‘advanced’ Assimilation strategies we discuss in The Assimilation Intensive – a twol day workshop that goes far beyond the regular Assimilation Seminar and the Fusion book. Click here to learn more.

Little Things Don’t Mean a Lot – They Mean Everything

I went to McDonalds recently . . . because I got a coupon in an Amazon.com order for a free Southern Style Chicken Sandwich. I ordered my sandwich, a small fry and a small soda. The total came to $3.47 – I was a happy camper. I can’t remember the last time I ate lunch for under $3.50!

About two bites into my ‘Chick-Fil-A-look-a-like’ sandwich I glanced at the receipt. And that’s when I noticed it:

Eat-In Tax….. 0.25

I was a charged a QUARTER for eating my meal in the restaurant where I ordered it. I was no longer a happy camper.

Now, before you think this must be a ‘New York City’ thing, I want you to know that this happened outside NYC . . . in a standard suburban McDonalds.

The issue was not the actual 25 cents . . . The issue was not ‘tax’ as I don’t mind paying any legitimate tax (render under Caesar and all that)… The issue was that McDonald’s was charging me a hidden fee to eat the meal I purchased from them on their premises.

Here’s the point: The issue wasn’t the quarter but the feeling the quarter caused. It left a bad impression on me that I’ve been living with for several days now. Over a mere 25 cents, McDonald’s left me feeling bad about the entire experience (and overall the chicken sandwich was pretty good).

In 1988, I heard bestselling author Harvey Mackay speak and he said:

Little things don’t mean a lot – they mean everything!

I’ve lived with that quote for almost two decades! In this case, one little thing at a fast-food restaurant left a huge negative impression on me.

So here’s a question for you. . .what are the little things you are doing at your church that are leaving negative impressions on your guests or regular attenders?

Here are a few things to prime your thinking:

• Are you charging for regular coffee on Sunday? Eat the quarter and give it away!
• Are you being stingy with your printed materials and trying to save a quarter by not printing both sides in color?
• Are you skipping the ‘little things’ in your worship service and not telling people when you are about to pray or when its time to sit down?
• Are there funky odors in the bathrooms that a 25-cent deodorizer would solve?
• Are there lights burned out in the children’s area?
• Are the labels on the envelopes you mail out more than a little crooked? (couldn’t resist mentioning envelopes since Harvey Mackay is in the envelope biz)
• Are you settling for regular paper instead of heavy stock for your connection cards in an attempt to save a few cents?

You get the picture. Let me remind you again:

Little things don’t mean a lot, they mean everything!

What changes do you need to make this week that will remove negative impressions and leave people saying ‘Wow!’ when they leave your church on Sunday?

I’m not saying that I won’t ever eat at McDonalds again but I will probably get my future orders ‘to go.’

Nelson

Answering Your Assimilation Questions – #4 and #5

This is two-for-one “Assimilation Friday!” For the last several days, I’ve been answering some of the most common assimilation questions I get in response to my Assimilation Seminar and Fusion – my new book on assimilation. I’m going to wrap this up today by answering two more questions about Connection Cards. Here goes:

#4 – How do you measure your Connection Card completion rate?

After each service, we count the Connection Cards that were turned in and divide that number by the estimated number of people in the room. We constantly compete against ourselves, trying to get the number higher than the week before.

#5 – How do you get both a husband and wife to fill out a Connection Card?

The first step is to make sure that every person gets a bulletin – not just one per couple. Train your greeters to hand a bulletin and pen to both the husband and the wife. But beyond that, you have to understand why individual cards are so important – and then relay the importance to your attenders…

First of all, each spouse probably has their own email address. You want to be able to follow up with both of them. Secondly, you want each person to take the “Next Steps” they most need to take… Too often, husbands want to leave it up to their wives to fill out one card and consider themselves covered. I purposely challenge the guys on this – to connect on their own and to take their own steps toward growth.

Hope this week’s assimilation Q&A has been helpful to you! If you missed any of the questions, just check below. And don’t forget – to go more in-depth with how to turn your first-time guests into fully engaged members, check out my Assimilation Seminar and my book, Fusion. Have a great weekend!

- Nelson

Answering Your Assimilation Questions – #3

Question #3 – Do guests have to hand their Connection Cards in to someone in exchange for the free gift?

We don’t ask guests to do anything that would make them uncomfortable – that includes handing their Connection Cards directly to someone in order to get the free gift we offer them. Instead we ask everyone, including guests, to put their Connection Cards in the offering buckets as they are passed at the end of the service. And we let them know that if they do that, they can pick up their free gift (currently, the book One Month To Live by Kerry Shook) on their way out.

We keep the books stacked on a table by the exit. No one hands them out. The guest can simply grab one as they walk by. (You may want to have a volunteer stand off to the side to restock the table or answer any questions, if approached.)

Why do we operate this way? Experience has shown us that if you allow guests to remain comfortable and anonymous, they will be more likely to do what you ask and they will be more likely to return. They don’t want to be the ones not turning their cards into the offering bucket when everyone else is. They don’t want to have to talk to anyone to get the free gift. If you require them to speak to someone, or to hand a card directly to a staff person or volunteer to get their gift, you will have far fewer Connection Cards turned in. Guaranteed.

Keep it simple, keep them comfortable and you’ll keep them coming back.

- Nelson

P.S. Check back tomorrow for more on assimilating your newcomers! And, if you haven’t already, don’t forget to take a look at my Assimilation Seminar and my new book on assimilation, Fusion.

Answering Your Assimilation Questions – #2

Question # 2 – Do You Do A Newcomer’s Reception?

I get this question a lot. Pastors everywhere are wondering whether or not to do a reception and what it should look like if they do… should it be weekly? Monthly? What should it entail? How do you get people to attend? There are lots of questions wrapped up in this one.

The short answer is yes, we do a Newcomer’s Reception every two months. Let’s break the details out journalism-style, shall we?

What: Every two months, my staff and I host a Newcomer’s Reception.

When: The reception is held right after the last service of the morning and lasts no more than 30 minutes.

Where: We always hold the reception at The Journey’s meeting location, rather than at our offices or some other off-site location. Proximity is key.

Why: I am a strong believer that a Newcomer’s Reception creates stickiness. It gives all of your recent guests another reason to come back to your church. Then, in turn, the reception helps connect them even more deeply – At each one, we do a giveaway (using giveaway cards) that allows us to collect every newcomer’s information. On the giveaway cards, they can sign up for membership, small groups, serving, baptism, etc. The goal is to use this opportunity to get every attender connected on a deeper level.

How: So how do we get our newcomers to attend? After someone visits our church for the first time, they get an email within 36 hours thanking them for attending. In that email, we mention the next Newcomer’s Reception and ask them to RSVP. We also ask them to bring a dessert to share – This gives them “buy in.” Then, two weeks before the reception, we send out personalized invitations from me, via first class mail. It works! We had more than 50 people attend our last one.

Check back tomorrow for some Assimilation tips on giving away free gifts to your first-time guests!

- Nelson

P.S. – If you want to go more in-depth with proven assimilation principles, check out my Assimilation Seminar and my new book on assimilation, Fusion.