In a recent post, we talked about the concept of mise en place, a French term used by chefs that means “everything in its place.” And I argued for mise en placeing our first-time guest...
Disclaimer #1: this post is only for the super-nerds, the people driven by processes, and the detail-oriented among us. If your happy place is a cluttered junk drawer, just skip it. It’s too much. You’ll...
When you get serious about creating inviting environments for your guests, you’re going to face difficult choices. You can make the insiders comfortable: they talk to friends they already know, they gravitate towards parking spaces...
We’ve long used the saying “The Why is More Important Than the What.” It’s one of our five Guest Services plumb lines, and the gist of it is this: if we know why our role...
When we serve in, work for, or repeatedly show up at the local church, it’s all too easy to gain a sense of familiarity with how the whole thing works: we know the insider language....
A couple of weeks back I wrapped up my official summer reading list, capping off the literary journey with Beth Moore’s excellent memoir All My Knotted-Up Life. (Side note: I want to write as beautifully...
I heard those four words again not long ago. I was with a group of church leaders in another state, and the topic of training guest services volunteers came up. One of the staff repeated...
Recently I took a five hour road trip. You should know that I drive a thirteen year old car with nearly 170,000 miles on it. My teenage car can do five hour road trips, but...
Every church leader worth their salt knows about the Christmas and Easter peak crowds: those couple of times per year when the sanctuary is full and resources are stretched to their limits (but don’t call...
Behold Harvey Ball, the man who invented the iconic smiley face: In 1963, ol’ Harv was commissioned by an insurance company to create an icon to boost the morale of its employees. He cranked out...
