Flashback Friday: Context Matters
Every Friday I dig into the archives and dust off an old post. If you haven’t read it, it’s new to you!
Around these parts, we talk a good bit about guest services within the church…how to make great impressions on those that walk through your doors for the first time.
From time to time, I have the privilege of consulting with other churches on how they make that happen…small churches, big churches, in-between churches. And by “consulting,” I mean “telling other churches how it should work if it were an ideal world with no budget, no volunteer shortages, and no angry deacon whose last customer service experience was when he called up the Pony Express to complain about late mail delivery.”
But I digress. There are a few non-negotiables that easily transfer regardless of church size…things such as organic hospitality, having a plan for guests, and consistent follow up after their visit.
However, there are other issues – maybe even sub-issues within the above issues – that rise and fall according to context. Perhaps your church doesn’t need a first time guest tent. Maybe your follow up plan looks more like an in-home visit and less like a phone call. It could be that instead of a once-per-month newcomer’s event, you need to have it once a week. Or maybe just once a year.
Smaller churches can’t always maintain the momentum that larger churches can. On the flip side, larger churches can’t be as nimble and quick to change as a smaller church plant could pull off.
In my mind, there are a few points that drive your particular context when it comes to guest services:
Read the entire original post here.
