Taking ownership

I had a great conversation last night (for about an hour and a half) with David Dewes and Russ Bettenhausen concerning, "assimilating new people into our church".

It's a great topic - one that I think about constantly.

We are seeing a new influx of people coming to our church and checking us out.  I am really excited and jazzed about that.

Here's the question:

How can we get them to "stick"?

How can we lead people to it becoming "your church" to "my church"?

As "our" church becomes "their" church, they will assimilate into our church family.

Nelson Searcy writes about the "Three R's of retention".

Return, relationships and responsibility.

When new guests walk through the door for the first time, our initial goal is to earn return visits from them.

When they do return, our goal evolves to relationship.  We desire to place people in a setting that encourages and builds relationships.  Small groups are perfect for this.

After creating friendships, we our focus comes from relationships to responsibility.

You see, I will become responsible over something that I "own", something that I care about.

If you have ever rented a car, you know the feeling of a lack of ownership.  I mean - you treat the car right, but if it becomes dirty, "oh well", it is not my car.  I am not responsible for it.

However, if you own the car, you want to take care of it the best you can.  You change the oil.  You get the car washed.

Responsibility is always the catalyst that moves people from regular attendance to membership. 

It does not matter how well I preach or how passionate our worship team is - if our newcomers do not find relationship and take on responsibility within our church, they will not stay long.

How does that play out practically?

Talk to newer people in the hallways and foyer of our church.  Break out of the mold of always talking to the same people every Sunday.

Invite newer people out for dinner.  Take them out after a Sunday service.  (Debbie and I do this on a consistent basis).

Encourage them to return.  Share positive events and happenings of our church.

Invite someone to your small group.  Let them meet others who might have similar likes and dislikes.

Follow up with a phone call or an email.

I guess what I am saying is that we each, everyone of us, must take personal responsibility of leading people from return to relationship to responsibility.

Just a thought for a Wednesday.