Tag: Leadership

The Key to Keep Church Guests Coming Back

Posted in Assimilation, Book Reviews, Church Chat, Church Consulting, Church Revitalization, Discipleship, WorshipLeave a comment

fallsemester_serve2Let’s continue to look at Nelson Searcy’s rockin’ assimilation book, Fusion: Turning First-Time Guests into Fully-Engaged Members of Your Church. Today, we will look at God’s assimilation plan discussed in chapter 2.

But before we get into our discussion, let me encourage you to check out his blog and the free stuff that he is providing to help churches in their work for the Lord. Here are some helpful links to his website:

. . . . Now, on with the discussion. In chapter 2, Searcy wrote,

God has not only given us the responsibility of being hospitable to His guests, but He has also given us the perfect example of how to go about it. Jesus came to the earth to serve, not to be served. Throughout the New Testament, we see His examples of selfless service for those He had the opportunity to influence. And we’ve been left with the challenge of doing even greater things. When we serve our guests well, we reflect Jesus’ attitude and mindset toward them.

Although Searcy provided a thorough definition of assimilation in chapter 1, he sums up assimilation here as follows:

Assimilation is simply well-planned biblical hospitality through service. The head of our organization is the greatest server of all time. Doesn’t it follow that we should be the ultimate example of such service to our guests? With the right system in place, we can serve in a way that will truly touch lives for God’s kingdom.

For more details about  improving assimilation in your church, see the following posts:

Putting Your Best Foot Forward

Posted in Assimilation, Funny, Life HappensLeave a comment

lexington-ky-hotel-location-topLast week, two members of the Kentucky Baptist Convention Church Consulting & Revitalization Team and I spent part of the day in Lexington, Kentucky touring the Downtown Lexington Hilton hotel for a future event we are planning. Throughout the day, I observed the hotel staff members utilize many basic, but impressive welcoming principles that can and should be applied to the church. See if you can pick up a couple of things from this post that can help in your setting.

The hotel did a good job of putting their best foot forward. We had an appointment with the Convention Services Manager, Emily Dowd, but she was tied up on a telephone call when we arrived.  Instead of making us wait, she sent another manager to greet us and make us feel welcome until she could break away from her call. When she arrived, she welcomed us and offered us coffee or a soft drink. Throughout our visit, she was helpful, ready to listen, and extremely knowledgeable about her facility. As we randomly ran into other hotel staff members throughout our visit, they smiled and said hello. Some even asked if they could help in some way. Mrs. Dowd invited us to join her for lunch in the hotel restaurant and made sure that we received a validated parking pass as we were leaving.

Here are some basic welcoming principles that impressed me from the day. I believe all of them apply to the church setting as well….

  • Be on time. Although we had an appointment, our appointment was simply for the “late morning.”  As a result of not setting a precise time of arrival, Mrs. Dowd could not help that she was tied up on the phone when we arrived.  Knowing the importance of being on time, she was courteous and asked another manager to “fill in” until she arrived.
  • Be prepared. We were there to get information and to make relational connections. Although, we did not expect the managers to know everything about their facility, we did expect them to know most things. We expected them to be organized and prepared for our visit–we were not disappointed!
  • Be nice. Everyone provided a warm handshake, a friendly smile, eye contact, and good manners! They acted as if they were truly glad we were there and honored we were utilizing their facility.
  • Be real. A mechanical “sales pitch” is obvious. It was nice to meet real people who were working at a real jobs. It caught my attention that everyone seemed very genuine.
  • Be flexible. Throughout the visit, we ran into a hotel staff member who is in charge of Audio/Visual. Although we had not planned to do so, we spent several minutes talking with him about new audio/visual improvements in the hotel. Mrs. Dowd was very patient and flexible throughout our visit.
  • Be thorough. When we’ve held events in that hotel in the past, the staff always sends a very nice thank you note or letter that conveys their appreciation. It’s a small gesture, but little things make a BIG difference.

Surely, if the business world can do such a good job of welcoming people simply for the purpose of their business, the church can do a good job of welcoming people for the purpose of God’s business. Keep striving to put your best foot forward!

For more help in this area, please see the following posts:

Nehemiah Sermon Series

Posted in Discipleship, Preaching1 Comment

I’ve been preaching for about 32 years now and some books of the Bible have gone virtually untouched in my preaching. Until the beginning of 2012, that was true about the book of Nehemiah. I may have preached one or two sermons from Nehemiah through the years, but I’m not even certain of that. Last year I felt prompted to preach through the entire book of Nehemiah, but I wasn’t sure about the timing. I continued to pray about it and finally began the Nehemiah sermon series on January 1, 2012.

As anticipated,  Nehemiah is full of practical, Godly leadership principles. Nehemiah’s quest to lead the Jews to restore the crumbled walls and burned gates of Jerusalem in 52 days was one of the greatest leadership ventures in history. Did you know that originally Ezra & Nehemiah were on one scroll. Later when the Jews divided the scroll they called them 1 & 2 Ezra. The chronological setting for the Books of Ezra & Nehemiah stretches from 537-433 B.C.

Over the next weeks, I will continue to work through this great book. Here are links to the video of each of the sermons in this series: