Why Your Church Sucks at Reaching People

Patrick Bradley — Sun, 19 Aug 2018 09:00:53 +0000

by Peyton Jones: Know why your church sucks at reaching people?“It” was never meant to. You were.

Churches are never going to be effective at reaching people.

Churches don’t reach people.

People do.

Churches don’t make disciples.

People do.

Don’t count on your Pastor to reach people either. They strategize and roll up their sleeves with the aim of working harder to do ‘what’s not working’ better. Like athletes training in anticipation of the next weekly match, their weekly energy and activities center on Game Day. Then, when the Sunday service is all over, it’s time to do high fives backstage and gear up for the weekly practice for next week’s big game when the crowds turn up. Except their not turning up less and less. It’s no point getting better jerseys and revamping the stadium if nobody’s interested in coming out anymore.

Our current models of trying to reach people are failing us because they aren’t about people.

You might not be able to see it by looking in the mirror, but the treasure of the Holy Spirit is inside your jar of clay. And he’s busting to kick loose out of you and start doing some damage. It cost the Son of God a death on the cross to make it possible; for you to become the temple of the Holy Spirit. Paul’s whole point in writing to the Ephesian church is to tell them that they should be the 8^th wonder of the world, radiating God’s glory greater than the temple of Diana, or the Jerusalem temple ever could. The day that Jesus died, the veil was torn top to bottom. The access goes both ways; not just access to God through Christ, but His access to get out.

It’s through what the Spirit on high supplies to every believer below that has consistently changed the trajectory of kingdom growth. Look at the most rapid kingdom expansion movements being accomplished through ordinary people in South East Asia through the underground church. In church history, epochs of reformation and revival have occurred because God has energized the entire church. Whether it was releasing the scripture into the hands of the commoner during the renaissance to ordaining lay preachers and setting up home based experience meetings during the Great Awakening. Following suit, the solution for the church’s plight will come from an activation of the pew, not a mandate from the pulpit…just as it has in every age. Whether it be the Salvation Army, or the Moravians. The groundswell of empowered believers delivers change.

Buy Peyton’s newest book “Reaching The Unreached: Becoming Raiders of the Lost Art” over on Amazon.com. You can also download a free chapter and watch a cool trailer for the book HERE or click the image below.

Source: WHY YOUR CHURCH SUCKS AT REACHING PEOPLE

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Want to Reach New People? These 10 Habits Set Your Church Back

Patrick Bradley — Thu, 26 Jul 2018 09:00:54 +0000

by Tony Morgan: What is the first-time guest experience really like at your church?

When my team at The Unstuck Group helps a church assess ministry health, one key step we take is to attend and review the church’s weekend experience through the lens of an outsider.

That’s because once you see what an outsider sees, you can’t unsee it.

Serving in 100+ churches each year, we’ve started to notice some patterns.

What are the most common offenses? Here are the Top 10—the biggest issues with the weekend that we see the most often.

Keep in mind, these are only issues for churches that actually want to reach new people…

One last thing before I get to the list: Many of these issues show up in the “secret shopper” reports for large churches just as often as in small churches.

Once you see what an outsider sees, you can’t unsee it.Click To Tweet

1. The Guest Services area is staffed with people who don’t engage with newcomers.

The church feels like a private club. Guest service team members are more engaged with one another than with newcomers.

Guest services are the “first” in “first impressions.” If this team is off, my visit is off within minutes.

If the guest services team at your church is off, the guest’s visit is off within minutes.Click To Tweet

2. The church didn’t welcome me and help me know what to expect.

There’s a general lack of guiding visitors through the worship experience and explaining what to do in the different elements of the services, like singing, offering, etc.

Specifically welcoming new people is frequently missed. Someone yells “welcome” and then all of a sudden people start standing up, and then they sing. The only place I sing is in my car or in my shower. Guide me a little more. Invite me to sing, but give me permission to just take it in.

3. People on stage don’t reflect the church’s target “customer.”

The people on the platform should non-verbally communicate this is a safe place, a normal place, to the people you are trying to reach… just by being who they are.

Many times the platform presence doesn’t reflect that. A lot of churches miss the “75% rule”—having 75% of people on the platform in the same age range (or below) as the people you are trying to reach. (Credit to Lee Kricher in For a New Generation for defining it well).

Put 75% of people on the platform in the same age range as the people you’re trying to reach.Click To Tweet

4. The service order feels like an assembly of separate parts, rather than a cohesive experience.

Stop…start…stop…start… Nothing makes me check my watch more than a herky-jerky service. We sing two songs, there’s a video announcement, there are live announcements, we have a song for offering, message, another song, communion, closing announcement, benediction…

An unchurched person will be thinking, “Get me out. Land the plane.”

Nothing makes a guest check their watch more than a stop-start-stop-start service.Click To Tweet

5. The message is too long.

Especially if there were already a lot of other service elements (see the last point), I’m not gassed up for a 45-50 minute message. Tighten it up, add a story, make it applicable, and send me on my way.

6. Lack of application or next steps in the message.

I’ve given you an hour—give me something specific to take away that applies to my real life today.

7. Lack of security in the children’s area.

If I can walk off the street into your kid’s area, that’s a problem.

My team often finds unlocked, dark, rooms in the same hallway as kids programming, along with unattended external exits.

This is an issue we see far, far too often.

If someone can walk off the street into your kid’s ministry area, that’s a problem.Click To Tweet

8. The bulletins/programs are too crowded.

It looks like the Cheesecake Factory menu. What on earth am I supposed to choose to pay attention to?

This is a key first impression piece for a new person. It should welcome them, tell them what to expect and provide key info on kids ministry.

Unfortunately, many churches view it as the way to keep all the insiders informed.

9. Too many specific, insider-focused announcements instead of a few church-wide announcements.

I would add that many churches waste announcement time telling me about all the logistics of what their people could be doing instead of leveraging that time to communicate the “why” behind the activity.

They use the time to say, “Small groups will start next week, at 7 pm, in room 202, which is up the steps and down the hall.”

What would be more meaningful? Share a personal story about your small group and then challenge people who aren’t connected to get in one.

And really, just stop announcing so many things all together. Point people to your website.

Stop announcing so many things at your church. Point people to your website.Click To Tweet

10. The feel of the church—the interior design—feels like nothing else I experience outside the church.

It’s brown. There are bulletin boards, plastic flowers in the restrooms, churchy banners that mean nothing to an outsider, and sometimes worn out carpet, furniture, and funky smells.

The church members and staff have been nose-blind to it all for years, but a new person who steps through your front door will instantly notice all of it.

Your first thought reading that list might be that having an outsider attend your service and point all of these things out would be discouraging.

Oddly enough, the opposite tends to be true. This experience is one of our clients’ favorite phases of the whole planning process.

Why? Because as I said at the beginning, once you SEE what an outsider SEES, you can’t UNSEE it.

If you want to reach new people, start trying to see yourself the way they see you.

And, start looking at them the way Jesus looks at them: with a willingness to leave the 99 for the one.

If you’d like some more insight on this topic, I dug a little deeper in a recent episode of The Unstuck Church Podcast (5 Ways to Impress Your Church’s First Time Guests | Episode 45).

In that episode, I give some suggestions for how to prioritize tackling these issues, where to start, and why.

You can listen (and subscribe) here: The Unstuck Church Podcast

Final thought: This matters. Let’s not make it difficult for those who are taking a step towards God. Let’s do everything we can to meet them where they are.

Let’s not make it difficult for those who are taking a step towards God. @tonymorganliveClick To Tweet

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