Five Questions Your First-Time Guests Probably AREN’T Asking
When a first-time guest (FTG) shows up at your church, there are a lot of questions they tend to ask: the standard, obvious ones. Questions that seem so obvious to us, the fact that they’d ask them doesn’t land on our radar.
And we’ll get to those questions…later.
But before we do, it might be helpful to take a look at the questions our FTGs usually aren’t asking. Some will. But most won’t, especially on day one. The only problem: these are often the questions we try to answer – even when no one’s asking:
1. What is your full doctrinal playlist?
(I don’t know if “doctrinal playlist” is a thing, but it felt right.) I’ve discovered that most FTGs don’t care where you stand on codified anthromentality, whether your Pelagianism is semi or full strength, or the pros and cons of consubstantiation. In fact, most FTGs don’t even have a category for what those things are, or whether I just made it up (spoiler: codified anthromentality is totally made up).
What many FTGs will feel intuitively is whether the service or the preaching squares with their concept of church. If they grew up in a legalistic environment, the concept of boundless grace may take time to sink in. If they’ve never been in church, there’ll be a learning curve on who God is, how Jesus fits in, and why it even matters to their present day life.
2. How many ministries do you offer?
I’ve never heard a guest ask that on their first visit. You have never heard a guest ask that on their first visit. But what do we often do on their first visit and in their first-time guest bag? We load them down with every ministry offering that has been offered in the history of ministry offerings: Sunday School! Small Groups! Thursday Morning Men’s Bible Study! Cat Walkers Support Group!
…we shove the menu down their throat without ever realizing that too many options mean they won’t choose anything.
3. What can I offer here?
This is the flip of #2, and can be alternatively worded “Here’s how you can get involved.” I’m sorry: get involved with what? I just showed up. I’ve been here five minutes; I’m not signing up to lead the eighth-grade boys’ Sunday School class.
4. What is your long-range plan for my growth as a disciple?
Should we have a long-range plan for maturing as a disciple? We certainly should. Do we need to lay that out on day number one? We certainly do not.
Let’s state the obvious: many FTGs won’t have the language to understand what you’re talking about. They may or may not have a history in church. They may or may not have a relationship with Jesus. So rather than focusing on their ten-year plan, let’s focus on the first ten minutes.
5. What’s my next step?
For many FTGs, it took everything in ’em just to build the courage to get in the car and drive to a strange building full of strange people. Their first day is about survival. They are not often thinking about what is to come.
And they certainly aren’t thinking about the 25-30 “next steps” you have in mind for them (see points 2-4 above). So give them one: come back next week. We can’t wait to see you again.
Those are five things your guests probably aren’t asking. In the next post: five questions they likely are asking.
