How Everything You Do as a Church Affects the Guest Experience
Sunday service. Bible study. Mid-week gatherings. Youth night. Prayer night. Worship night. Retreats. Conferences. While these are services and events many of our churches host, church is not an event. Each event we host has specific purposes, with one purpose in particular being at the forefront: discipleship.
Every person who walks through your doors is someone God has entrusted you with, even if for just that one instance. They’re a part of your local community, and God planted you there to build roots and be an agent for change. Yes, it feels great to see a full room, witness growth, and hear that many lives are being changed…but we cannot get caught up in the vanity of numbers.
We treat each single person out of the whole with care and love by making it a point to consider our guest experience and journey. This goes for how you prepare for each service or event, how you treat them when they’re in the building, and how you care for them after!
We believe there are three simple (but powerful) principles that apply to any church…and we can actually borrow from Jesus’s own model of discipleship to make these principles clear:
Start with Relationship (Not Just Participation)
It’s true that many may visit a church’s service because they heard the worship was good, the preaching was powerful, or even that the building was nice. But those are rarely the reasons people stay, especially long term. Personal connection and a desire for community is possibly the most important deciding factor when guests are deciding to continue attending a church.
Jesus didn’t just speak to crowds; He made people feel seen both by name and by need. Don’t just collect names and numbers for the sake of sending announcements and invites for more services and events…make every effort to get them plugged in with other members of your community and build genuine relationships with each person that walks through your door. While small groups and other programs help with establishing this principle, this is bigger than a system or program. It’s a culture you have to establish within your church body.
Let Them Belong (Even Before They Believe)
We’ve heard this phrase all too often that sometimes we forget what it means: “Come as you are”. Sure the phrase doesn’t mean “stay as you are”, but it does give room and grace for doubt, skepticism, and overall personal growth. Remember: not everyone who walks through your doors has been a part of a church before. There are many ways to give others a chance to belong regardless of where they are in their walk with Christ…but there are some foundational practices that help develop each person we’re discipling:
- Make their next steps clear (and provide tools and resources to assist in their spiritual development)
- Offer mentorship opportunities (small groups, ministry groups, volunteer groups, etc.)
- Speak truth in love (build relationship before giving correction or advice; show you care first)
Jesus was known for walking and dining with “sinners”, but he never led with judgment. He recognized others, met their needs, and gave them kind instruction before ever holding them to a specific charge. He only acted differently when those who were responsible for doing the same failed in doing so (by loving the law more than the people). It would be in our best interest to avoid making that same mistake.
Focus on Growth (Not Just in Numbers)
A church that grows only in attendance and not in depth will always be a revolving door. We spoke earlier about some of the attractive elements of church services and events, making the assertion that it doesn’t keep people coming back long term. This time, I’m not addressing your attendance; I’m actually addressing your teams (more specifically, your volunteer teams).
Yes, your volunteer teams need to scale as your church does in numbers. However, if your volunteer teams grow only to meet needs (and not to disciple others), you risk burning out leaders and stalling true growth.
Jesus gave His disciples opportunities to do real work, environments to make mistakes, and instruction to support their development. Without this process, there would be no Acts of the Apostles, no appointing and training of new leaders, and ultimately no church. We have a responsibility to create healthy developmental pathways for individuals to grow within our volunteer teams, not just systems to help add more bodies to the team.
When we embrace these principles, it’s a lot easier to create things like guest follow-up systems, internal communication strategies, mentorship and volunteer training programs, people management databases, etc. Now that we know what the guest journey looks like, we can use the digital tools we have in our arsenal (Planning Center, Breeze, Text In Church, Clearstream, etc.) to make it effective and scalable!
If you’re ready to take the next step in improving your guest journey with digital strategies, visit getignitd.com and hit the Let’s Talk button on the homepage!