Everything within me screamed not to trust my dad – that much.

But when I did, my world changed.

That one act of trust and obedience opened up my world [...]]]> One of the most frightening and most comforting moments in my childhood was when my dad made me jump off a wall into his arms.

Everything within me screamed not to trust my dad – that much.

But when I did, my world changed.

That one act of trust and obedience opened up my world to what could be.

How about you?

Trusting God, more, at a deeper level, is the only path to what could be.

“Jesus reached out his hand and caught him.” (Matthew 14:31)

“David and all the Israelites marched to Jerusalem.”

The Jebusites who lived there said to David, “You will not get in here.”

Nevertheless, David captured the fortress [...]]]> 1 Chronicles 11:4-5 (NIV)

David had a God assignment, one that only he could do.

“David and all the Israelites marched to Jerusalem.”

There was big time resistance.

The Jebusites who lived there said to David, “You will not get in here.”

David refused to quit and found a way.

Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion.”

Throughout the history of time God has called all kinds of people to refuse to quit and be nothing less than nevertheless.

Since then millions more have expressed their need for Jesus through outstretched hands, and they too have been healed and restored.

Instagram just sold for $1 billion to Facebook.

What made them worth so much money? The way they serve their users.

And why are they so valuable to their users? The tools they use.

But not just any tools, they use tools that are available to anyone (see their list [...]]]>

Instagram just sold for $1 billion to Facebook.

What made them worth so much money? The way they serve their users.

And why are they so valuable to their users? The tools they use.

But not just any tools, they use tools that are available to anyone (see their list of tools here).

At a church, the way we serve those that attend and the tools we use to serve them, makes all the difference.

As with Instagram, churches have access to readily available tools that will help them stay competitive and grow. Yes, I used the “c” word (“competitive”).  Any church leader that does not think churches are competitive does not understand how God designed humans and why He designed us this way (Matthew 28:19-20).

On a side note, churches that are 200 in size and under (which are most of the churches in America) better learn fast and hang on because mega-churches armed with the right tools are expanding rapidly and may be coming to your town soon. I call this new phenomenon “The Church Walmart Effect.” (I’m writing an article about this and will post in the future). Along the way I hope to also challenge large expanding churches to not just blast into new communities with no regard to the existing smaller churches already there, but to strategically partner with them by sharing their resources of knowledge and tools for the benefit of all.  It’s important that expanding churches not forget that we need all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people.

Sorry, I regress. Back to the tools.

Three Tools Every Church Must Have To Survive & Thrive

1. Website — Your #1 Church Growth Tool.

• Your church website as an outreach tool either attracts people to your church or repels them. There’s no middle ground in this. Either your website works for you or it works against you. Do whatever you have to do to get this right.

• Your website generates your churches very first impression. This is critical to church growth because that first impression will determine who will visit your church.

• Your website defines your church to your target community. You can be sure that most of the people in your community that are seriously looking for a new church home have visited your website. Is that a good thing? Once they do who do they think you are?

• Your website is where new people will begin their relationship with your church. Starting relationships with new people in your community is where you will get your best volunteers and financial givers.

2. Church Identity Package — Your #2 Church Growth Tool.

• How people perceive your church before they attend is very important. As the old saying goes “perception is reality” to most people.

• Who your outreach target thinks you are makes a big difference as to whether they will come visit your church or not.

• New people will not know who you are or what you do if you don’t tell them. The better you tell them (through your church identity package) the more people will want to come visit your church.

3. Visitor Assimilation Plan — Your #3 Church Growth Tool.

• People, especially American people, always want to know “What’s next?” Help them know where they are going (what the plan is) and they’ll be more likely to stay.

• It’s not enough to just get them to your church. If you want them to stay and become contributing members (shutting the back door) you have to communicate clearly what their next step is, and then guide them down your strategic assimilation path.

Bottom line: Using the right tools results in more people visiting your church, more people coming to Christ, more volunteers getting involved, more income coming into the church to accomplish your mission, and greater spiritual growth of those that attend.

Creating and executing a visitor follow-up strategy that is relevant to the culture of the community you are trying to reach, is critical for sustained church growth.

Questions to Ask: [...]]]> Once new visitors walk into the door, how you follow up with them can make or break whether or not they come back a 2nd time.

Creating and executing a visitor follow-up strategy that is relevant to the culture of the community you are trying to reach, is critical for sustained church growth.

Questions to Ask: (while developing your visitor follow-up strategy)

• What are we trying to say to the visitor. What you want to say will determine how you say it. For example, if you just want to say “We noticed that you visited, thanks for coming, hope you come again next Sunday!” then what you say and how you say it will be different than if you want to see if the visitor has a counseling need. Understanding the culture of your community plays a big part in determining what to say to your visitors (see below).

• What type of communication is best to use.  Determining what type of communication the visitor is accustomed to and comfortable with is vital for not pushing visitors away from your church.  For example, if most people in your community close their garage doors and no longer sit on their front porches, what is the reason for this?  Discover the reason and this will help you develop your visitor follow-up strategy.

• What are other churches doing (that is working). When developing church growth strategies it’s SO important to know what is working today. The culture and community we are trying to reach is a moving target. What worked five years ago, or even last year, will not automatically work today. No one, especially churches, can afford to live in a vacuum. The “us four and no more” mentality is not only unbiblical, it’s a sure fire way to stagnate growth and potentially kill a church (it’s now estimated that over 70% of new church starts do not survive). God intended that we learn from one another inside the church and outside the church. So how do you do this?  Find a church that is the size your church would like to be in two years. Try to make sure it’s similar in geographical location and community demographics. Then take the time to discover what their visitor follow-up strategy is and learn all you can from them.  Along the way you’ll find that many growing churches are also very Kingdom minded, and more than happy to share what they have learned with others.

• How can we measure results. If it’s important enough to do, it’s important enough to measure. What gets measured is what matters, and reaching new people for Christ matters a lot. When you measure, you can adjust, and when you adjust correctly you will be able to gather the needed resources of people, talent, and money to accomplish the mission God has assigned to His Church, the mission of sharing His amazing love with the dear people living in your community, and beyond.

Taking the time to develop the right visitor follow-up strategy will not only give your church a measurable return, but it will help you reach new people with God’s amazing grace and love found in Jesus!

Now that you have their attention, turn that into an opportunity to delight. If you do, your church will grow.

To delight is to give those in attendance something worth talking about to others. Certainly God’s Word is worth [...]]]> Once a week in your church service you have the attention of most of your attendees.

Now that you have their attention, turn that into an opportunity to delight. If you do, your church will grow.

To delight is to give those in attendance something worth talking about to others. Certainly God’s Word is worth talking about (if it’s communicated so it can be understood and applied), but also there are all kinds of things that you can do in your Sunday service to create moments of delight.

Do that and your people will talk, and if they talk, your church will grow.

Here’s why.

We live in America. American’s by nature shop. Shoppers not only shop, they compare.  Not only do they compare, they keep score. When Americans (your outreach target) walk into a store, restaurant, movie, doctors [...]]]> If a first time visitor to your church has to ask more than one question, you’ve probably lost them, for good.

Here’s why.

We live in America. American’s by nature shop. Shoppers not only shop, they compare.  Not only do they compare, they keep score. When Americans (your outreach target) walk into a store, restaurant, movie, doctors office, or church, they are keeping score.

Shopping, comparing, and keeping score is not just a part of our American culture, it’s who we are.

Why Unanswered Questions Push Visitors Away

When a first time visitor can’t figure something out on their own, they are forced to go ask a question. The reason this is such a big deal is Americans expect their questions to be answered for them.  In their Monday-Saturday cultural norm, most questions are answered before they have to ask. So when they have to ask a question at your church on Sunday, they get frustrated (the opposite of a positive first impression). That one frustration generates a negative mark on their shoppers score card and once your visitor gets a few of those, they won’t return to your church ever again.

Questions Church Visitors Expect To Be Answered For Them

• (Arrival) What door do we go in? (if it’s not totally obvious they will not know).
• Where do my kids go? (the #1 question asked by parents immediately upon entering your church building).
• Where is the bathroom? (the #2 question asked upon entering the building after three cups of coffee).
• Are there Sunday School classes or small groups for us to attend?
• What is the title of the Sunday school or small group class? Who is the teacher? Where are they located in the building? Do you have a handout with info and a map to the classroom?
• How do I get involved? What are my next steps? How do I become a member? Can I join today? (questions a ”I finally found my new church home!” visitor asks).
• How do I give? What are my giving options? Can I give cash? Check? On the Web? How do I get a receipt for my donation? (*Many churches encourage first-time visitors not to give but I believe they should be left alone to make that decision because visitors often want to feel part of the church, and giving creates a bond/ownership which increases the chance that they will return.
• What is the website address for the church? Do you have a Facebook page? Twitter page? Can I use YouVersion or other Bible apps in the worship service and small group? (*2 out of 10 people now use Bible apps on their smart phones instead of a printed Bible -and that number continues to grow; If you still don’t understand the value of correctly using social media to do ministry and grow your church, let’s talk).

The information about your church that you already know is not always obvious to new visitors. That’s why it’s important to take some time to evaluate what questions are not being answered for your visitors. An easy way to do this is to follow up with those that visit and ask them if they had to ask any questions or if anything was not obvious during their visit.

Take some time and evaluate the questions visitors ask, and you just may see greater growth this year!

If you have additional question I’d love to help! Contact me at www.about.me/barrywhitlow.

Every Sunday streams of people enter your church already filled to overflowing with information. But not your information. The vision you cast last week is gone. Long gone.

Where did it go? Well it didn’t just leak [...]]]> When it comes to casting vision to people in today’s distracted ever-connected world, vision does not just leak, it pours!

Every Sunday streams of people enter your church already filled to overflowing with information. But not your information. The vision you cast last week is gone. Long gone.

Where did it go? Well it didn’t just leak out through the week. The vision you cast last week was intentionally knocked around and it spilled from the hearts of your people. Like so much of today’s communication, your vision got lost in the tangled web of information overload.

May I Have Your Attention. Please!

Think about it. During the last week your people have been engaged in connected conversation 24/7. They have been force-fed hundreds of short messages, messages produced by professionals who have spent millions learning how to cast the vision of their products. The counter vision they cast is designed to convince your people to buy what they are selling, temporal satisfaction in an eternal world.

It’s Not Personal – It’s Just Vision Casting

Church leaders tend to be a perky bunch and can get pretty defensive when it comes to talking about their vision, and rightly so. They are the stewards and defenders of the vision God has entrusted to them.  The problem is they are not usually the best at measuring how effective they are at casting vision. More often than not church leaders either think they are casting vision enough, too much, or they don’t feel that casting vision is necessary at all.

When it comes to casting vision I suggest:

• Do what works-here. Since most of us are in America and not in Rome, to reach our American target we have to learn to cast vision in a way that Americans can relate to. First, that means we have to learn to speak in the language of today. Next, we have to embrace the fact that America is filled with consumers. That’s our target. Thankfully, large corporations have learned about our target demographic and done the expensive R&D for us, and what they learned is that repetition creates action and builds followers.
• Take the test. Think you’re good? That you have cast enough vision? Hmmm. Okay then, I triple-dog-dare you to walk around your church before the service this Sunday and randomly ask people “What is the vision of our church?” If three different people instantly spew it out, you win a cookie and are in great shape!  But if they stumble over their words, or if you get three different answers, it’s time to back up, relearn, and release a new version of your vision casting machine.
• Again, again, and again. Vision casting in our distracted ever-connected world is not a quarterly thing, or even a monthly thing. It’s an every week thing. Remember, vision no longer leaks, it spills!
• Change it up. How you cast vision is just as important as when you cast vision.  There are a million ways to cast vision, and it should not just be limited to text or verbal communication on a Sunday morning. Every time people gather at your church, for any occasion, your leaders should already have a strategic vision casting plan in place.
• Keep score. Just as you track the church finances, measure how well your vision is being communicated. It’s that important.
• Move vision from the head to the heart (or it doesn’t count!) It’s not enough cast the line, you have to catch a fish! If you don’t move the vision from the head to the heart, it doesn’t count, nor will it help accomplish your mission.

The results of regular vision casting will make an eternal difference!

No longer is a handshake and a bulletin enough to connect with the first time church visitor.  To connect with [the heart of] today’s visitor, greeters must wear several different hats.

One of the reasons for the change comes from [...]]]> In today’s always connected-all about me American culture, the role of the church greeter is changing.

No longer is a handshake and a bulletin enough to connect with the first time church visitor.  To connect with [the heart of] today’s visitor, greeters must wear several different hats.

One of the reasons for the change comes from the influence of the Web. Over the last few years Americans have gotten used to being able to access detailed information on the Web as well as make personal comments about their experiences, and rate what kind of expereince they had.  Like no other time in the history of the American church, visitors keep score and are paying more attention to how they and their families are treated.

In order to respond to today’s visitors, church greeters should not only be trained to cover the entire church E2E (Entry-to-Exit), but should also be trained to function in the following areas:

• First Impression Specialist: Not only should the greeting team be the first ones to greet first time visitors, they also should be trained in how to greet. For example, does the greeter know how to identify a first time visitor, or what to say to them to make them feel the most welcome?
• Guest Services Specialist: Does the greeter know how to quickly help the first time visitor feel relaxed and at home? Are they aware of the most common questions that visitors have? Questions like “Where do my kids go?”, “Where are the restrooms?”, “How do I get involved?”, or “How do I join?” (some visitors will be so excited about finally finding “their” church home that they will want to join right away).
• Church Ambassador: Since greeters are ambassadors of your church, they not only should be able to state the church mission in one sentence (Why are we here?), but they also should be able to easily share with a visitor the vision of your church (Where are we going?).
• Last Impression Specialist: What is the last thing your first time visitor remembers about your church? Is it bumping into other people while trying to leave the service and pick up their kids? Or is it a friendly “Thank you for coming!” that was joyfully delivered by a greeter that has been trained to love and serve the people at your church?

Think about it. What else can your church spend 3o minutes a day doing that will bring two new families to your church every month (or more)?  Two new families a month equals 24 new families in a year.

Think about the positive impact that would have [...]]]> This is so good just had to share.

Think about it. What else can your church spend 3o minutes a day doing that will bring two new families to your church every month (or more)?  Two new families a month equals 24 new families in a year.

Think about the positive impact that would have on your church in the areas of encouragement, financial resources, and volunteers. 

Social Media can do just that. Yet SO MANY churches have yet to begin using social media or they are not using social media correctly, and therefore not seeing measurable  results.

John Saddington over at ChurchMag has once again provided churches with a valuable resource, and this time it’s the Free Social Media Handbook For Churches. You can download it here.