2. Lack of Excellence
3. Lack of Exposure
4. Lack of Welcoming Atmosphere
5. Lack of Kids/ Youth Events
6. Lack of Good Preaching
7. Lack of Genuine Worship
8. Lack of Intentionally Reproducing Leaders
9. Lack of Intentional Outreach
10. Lack of Continued Pastoral Growth and Assessment
-By Rich Fogal
A number of these items are no-brainers. One that sticks out to me is 4. Lack of Welcoming Atmosphere. I imagine a number of Pastors would say, "our church has very nice people, we always welcome our first time visitors..." However, it says welcoming atmosphere...not welcoming people (however the goal is to have both). I recently went to a local supermarket and they had a parking space for expecting mothers. My wife really appreciated that, and we drove right in and parked with smiles on our faces. I think our churches need to pick up on ideas like this, more spaces reserved for people than clergy. I believe today people want to FEEL more welcomed than actually be welcoming by MORE people. That can be intimidating. In selling a house it is said that a good idea is to have fresh cookies baking as people view your home, what a welcoming and inviting smell (plus everyone loves cookies). It's all about atmosphere. When was the last time your church smelled good?
Love the cookie-baking thought, very cool translation. It reminds me of a Vineyard church I attended a few weeks ago while in Maine. They gave me a pass for a free coffee in their cafe.
ReplyDeleteI walked up and with a huge smile on his face this guy welcomed me to their church and made it a point to make me feel like a million bucks. I love it!