In a recent post I asked a question we should all wrestle with: Do we know what our guests don’t know?

In other words, have we removed our “insider” glasses, taken a hard look at what might be confusing to an outsider, and gotten rid of our curse of knowledge that causes us to assume they know what we know.

Here’s why that question is important: not every guest will be brave enough to ask. They may assume it’s a dumb question. They may think everybody knows this, so I’ll pretend like I do. They may not even realize it’s a question that someone should ask.

So if I had to boil this conversation down to the essence, I would say don’t make your guests ask. Be proactive enough that you’re thinking through their next step before they have to, and answer the question before it forms in their brain.

Here are six areas where we can proactively answer their questions:

1. Website

This is an extremely simple fix that we often overlook: what time are our services? Where do we meet? What do I do with my kids? What kind of church are you? What can I expect?

(And don’t get me started on the number of websites I see that tell me your street address, but leave out a city and state. I’m 99% confident you’re the only First Baptist Church on Main Street that’s ever existed in the U.S.A., but humor me.)

2. Signage

On the perimeter of our property and the exterior of our buildings, portable signage should help them know where to park. Monument signage should help them know which building is for the auditorium and which building is for kids, small groups, etc.

On the inside of the buildings, restroom signage should be clear, visible, and plentiful. Any kiosk around the lobby (check in, Next Steps, etc.) should be clear enough that a guest will intuitively know what it’s for. Resources, handouts, pre-packaged communion cups, etc. should all have accompanying signs to help answer their questions: Is this for me? Does it cost? Can I take as many as I want?

3. Next steps: physically

Signage is great, but a good first-time guest tent with a dedicated team to walk with the first-time guest is invaluable. Help them navigate the space, point out the restrooms and water fountains along the way. Help them get their kids to kids drop off, and walk them to the auditorium.

4. Next steps: relationally

Everybody has a “Point A” – the place they are in life when they show up to you. Their Point A may contain certain fears, anxieties, levels of knowledge, or background experience. It’s our job to discover those and then help them identify and move toward their “Point B.” Some examples:

• At the first-time guest tent: help them with physical next steps…where do I go now? (See #3 above.)
• In your first-time guest bag: help them with relational next steps…how do I connect? (Usually this will be through a newcomers event that you host regularly.)
• At your newcomers event: help them with practical next steps…in light of my interests / needs, what’s the one thing you recommend for me? This could be a small group, a ministry team, baptism, or any number of things.

5. Service language

We have to have common, concise, and frequent language that explains what we’re doing as we’re doing it. That type of intentional language breaks down barriers, helps people to know where you’re taking them, and keeps them from feeling like an outsider. [Related article: 9 Tiny Scripts to Help Your Guests Fit In…or Opt-Out]

6. Salvation

A friend of mine often says “Never assume the gospel.” Never assume someone knows who Jesus is. Never assume they understand salvation. Never assume you can take a quick glance at their life and say, “They seem like a Christian.”

Never, ever, ever assume that the gospel is a question they know they should ask about. Always, always, always assume that the Great Commission compels us to ask it.

So hard-wire into all of your steps a clear explanation of the gospel and a call to respond. First-time guest bags, newcomers events, service language, so many things we do should have a gospel primer included. Years ago when I regularly taught our newcomers class, I would say “The greatest tragedy of this night is that I introduce you to different ways to connect you to this church but fail to connect you to Jesus.“

Doing the heavy lifting for our guests is a kindness. Going ahead of them is an act of hospitality. Thinking through their next step before they have to removes friction from their path forward.

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Through the years I’ve mentioned my friend Bob Adams: a prolific writer, a gifted thinker, and an invaluable resource to church leaders the world over.

But as nice as those labels are, there are two things that stand out the most when I think about Bob: his generous spirit and his love for reading.

His generous spirit has been on full display from our first phone call. Bob is a sharer of ideas, a dispensary of wisdom, the guy who will send you an encouraging text or a link to a new book just because he thought you might need a lift or a spark.

His love for reading is legendary. For years, Bob’s vocational role had him averaging five books per week. He reads and retains like few I’ve ever known, and if you ever have a question about the top five books written on, let’s say, the French art of mise en place, Bob can rattle off those titles faster than you can pronounce haute cuisine.

Not long ago, those two things combined in one bittersweet email from Bob. The basic gist:

I’m downsizing my library. Any chance you have a use for a ton of books on guest services?

Asking me if I have a use for books is like asking me if I want you to bring me a cup of coffee or go out for ice cream. The answer is always going to be yes.

But Bob’s offer was laced with an idea: Thinking outside of the box here, but: curated library for Summit Guest Services trainings? Lending libraries for the same? Giveaways at future events you host?

Again: yes. Yes. And Yes.

So on a steamy summer morning, I waited eagerly as Bob and his wife Anita stopped through Durham on their way from Charlotte to Virginia, and I had the honor of taking over 200 books off his hands. Combing through those bins were a delight: there were plenty of titles I already had, of course, because Bob had recommended them in years past. Other titles I’d heard him talk about but never purchased. But so many more that I knew didn’t need to simply stay in my hands.

Enter The Bob Adams Library

I knew that a gift this generous and an idea this broad couldn’t simply be relegated to tossing a bunch of books on a table and hoping someone would pick them up. So over the course of a couple of weeks, we introduced The Bob Adams Library to the kind of people Bob has spent decades serving: local church leaders who love the people God sends to the local church.

Round one was our own campus Guest Services Directors. At our monthly meeting, the conference table and credenzas in our office were covered with stacks of books, free for the taking.

Round two was at our One-Day Workshops a couple of weeks later. Leaders from across the country were able to go shopping for as many free books as they could stuff in their carry-on.

The only catch to both of these giveaways: they had to pass their thanks to Bob. Everyone filled out a Disney postcard (very fitting, if you know Bob’s love for the Mouse House) with a quick note of gratitude. People were encouraged to subscribe to his website to continue the learning journey. And every book came with a bookplate that will serve as a reminder of the generous spirit and love for reading that comes from our friend Bob.

Was The Bob Adams Library a hit? Well, do leaders like free books? I think we all know that answer:

There’s an old African proverb that says when an elder dies, a library burns to the ground. Thankfully, that’s nowhere near the case here. Hopefully, we’ll have our modern elder Bob around for decades to come.

But there’s something uniquely special, uniquely generous about Bob passing along so much of his library in his retirement years: he’s helping it to live forever. The books that he’s mined and the ideas that he’s embodied are now in the hands of others so that they can be mined, practiced, and eventually passed along again. His curated collection are so many rocks tossed in a pond of leaders, and the ripple effects will be felt for more years and in more careers.

Thank you, Bob, for your generosity of spirit and your love for learning. You’ve made all of us who know you – and many who don’t – so much better.

By the way, I’d encourage you to read Bob’s post about the journey of downsizing his library. If you’re a book lover, I dare you to read it without getting a little choked up.

photo credit: Bob Adams, Austin Franks

Not long ago I finally wrapped up Neal Gabler’s behemoth biography: Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination. It’s an absolute beast of a book, clocking in at over 900 pages, but it dives into both the whimsy and warts of Walt’s life like few biographies I’ve seen.

The old adage never meet your heroes feels especially applicable in this case. Walt was temperamental. Isolated. Prone to fits of rage and apt to humiliate those he worked with.

He could be manipulative. In a famous and often-told story of how the original Disneyland map came to be, art director Herb Ryman said that Walt called him in on a Saturday, told him he was going to create the park map (for a park that hadn’t even been concepted, much less built), and then – when Ryman pushed back that he couldn’t pull off the feat – “Walt paced back and forth, [t]hen he went over into the corner and he turned his head around with his back to me and said coaxingly, ‘Will you do it if I stay here with you?’ – like a little boy, with tears in his eyes.”

But for all of Walt’s faults, one of his superpowers was his ability to call talents out of people they didn’t know they had. Herb Ryman created a map of a park he’d never heard of over the course of one marathon weekend. Animators of seven-minute shorts pulled together to create the first animated feature film in history. Sculptors became ride designers. Army engineers took swamps and turned them into a magical kingdom.

But one of my favorite stories out of Gabler’s book – and one I’d not heard before – came from the creation of Bambi. What we now know as a cinematic masterpiece (or the most disturbing scene from our childhood) was almost shelved because they couldn’t nail the balance between realism and caricature. It was during this time that Walt revealed the better angels of his leadership. His affection for his animators and his ability to call out their talents came to bear in early 1940:

Milt Kahl and Frank Thomas had each animated one hundred feet of the movie, and on March 1, 1940, they showed their footage to Walt in room 3C13. It was, Johnston and Thomas would write, “possibly the most important day in the history of the film.” Walt watched the footage, then turned to them, they said, with tears in his eyes—a highly uncharacteristic gesture from a man who, save for outbursts of temper, rarely showed emotion. “That’s great stuff—no kidding,” he told them. And Johnston and Thomas said he added warmly, “It’s your picture. You guys have a feeling for this picture. You belong to this picture.”

Strong words from a man who was better known for micromanagement than empowerment. Gabler goes on to add, “He left the meeting saying that he trusted the animators to do their own sweatboxing [real-time film review and assessment] and even set their own schedule.”

Here’s my question for those of us who lead others: are we able to call out those kinds of gifts? Do we have people on our team for whom the items we own become “their picture”? Are we encouraging their talents, drawing out their best, and handing it over with complete trust and with a delegation of authority?

Related posts:

• Call It Out.
• Three Questions to Call Out Someone’s Gifts

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You know the experience: someone on the other side of the kiosk or the other end of the call assumes a level of knowledge you don’t actually have.

That happened to me recently. Twice, actually, over the course of a few days. One interaction was with a local medical office; the other with my daughter’s driver’s ed class.

In both scenarios, I had no doubt of the other person’s knowledge. And I was painfully aware of my own lack of knowledge. But between the two, there was a gap. And in that gap, I knew they didn’t know what I didn’t know.

Y’know?

We see that gap form in a few common ways:

Insider language. I get that your company calls it a Q49 Form. But let’s pretend that I don’t work for your company. What is it? How can I get it? Is it something I fill out for you, or do you have to do yourself with a special Q49 Pencil?

Insider process. I know that you do this job every day, multiple times a day. But let’s assume that this is my first time being run through the process. Humor me: what’s my next step? What should a person in my position expect to happen?

Insider communication. Like your process, I realize that you have a way of communicating. But can you give me a peek into that way? Will you reach out to me? Should I call you back? When should I expect to hear from you?

You can see the gap, can’t you? It’s a gap between the insider and the outsider.

And that gap surfaces all the time in our churches. Those of us in church world are on the inside: we built the system. We’ve taken the class. We’ve led the team. We’ve served in this role for years.

We know it. We’re comfortable with it. We get it.

But our guests don’t know it. Those new to our church aren’t yet comfortable with it. Those fresh to our team don’t yet get it.

Here’s your challenge for this week: re-read your next outgoing email. Listen to yourself in your next phone call. Observe yourself in your next interaction with a guest or a new volunteer team member.

And then ask yourself two questions:

1. What do I know that they don’t know?
2. Am I aware of the areas where they’re unaware?

Simply stopping to ask those two questions will do wonders to close the gap. It’ll help your outsiders navigate like insiders, and it’ll help you (as an insider) to have greater empathy for the outsiders.

Related posts:

• 10 Ways Your “Curse of Knowledge” is Impacting Your Guests (part 1)
• 10 Ways Your “Curse of Knowledge” is Impacting Your Guests (part 2)
• Want to Feel Smaller? Be Clearer.

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If your church has a higher-than-the-average-bear number of young families, dedicating an area of your parking lot to those families and their requisite minivans may solve several parking issues all at once:

• It directs a specific demographic to the area of your building / campus where they’ll end up anyway,
• It reduces friction between the time a family arrives on property and the time everyone gets where they’re going,
• It frees up other areas of your lot for senior adults, first-time guests, and other demographics, and
• It gives you an opportunity to provide extra care to those who might need it the most.

Where to put it

The most obvious spot for a family lot is as close as practical to your kids’ check-in area. If you have a kids’ lobby or a door that is close to your kids’ environment, the parking area closest to that is your best choice.

That said, you want to make sure this area won’t compete with other key demographics of your congregation. If your senior adult Bible studies also meet just inside that entrance, and the adjacent ADA parking (and other spots that end up being used for that purpose) are in that lot, that overlap may create more problems than it solves.

How to control access to it

The concept of a family parking area should be close cousins to the concept of scheduled access parking. Wide open lots are easier and quicker to fill than directing families to 80% full lots and hoping for the best.

But you do need an identifier of sorts. Parking permit tags or stickers are fine, but you can also get by with a simple piece of laminated card stock that says “Family parking.” The driver flashes it upon entry, and the parking team volunteer directs them to the space (this assumes you have a parking team).

And your parking signage should be clearly marked so that every driver – those with families and those without – know who those spaces are for.

Making it a “must-do”

Don’t stop at caring for families just by giving them a few square feet of prime real estate. Consider some other things you can do to highlight this area the benefits of parking there:

• Extra volunteers. Younger families come preloaded with strollers, car seats, diaper bags, snack bags, emergency bags, backup diaper bags, and the complete library of Eric Carle board books. So put some extra adults out there to help where needed.

• Vehicle-to-building transport. At some of our campuses, we utilize “Summit Express” wagons, both to add a bit of surprise and delight and to help weary parents get to and from the facility.

• Mobile check in / drop off. If your system (and security policies) allow it, consider a school carpool-style drop off area where kids can be checked in on an iPad and walked / carried to their classrooms by volunteers. (This is an especially helpful solution where close-to-the-building parking isn’t an option.)

Watching for first-timers

Even though we utilize family parking at several campuses, there is one caution we try to plan for and one thing I’d encourage you to look out for: in the quest to bless young families, don’t overlook those showing up for the first time.

If your family parking area doesn’t naturally funnel people past your first-time guest tent, have an alternative at that entrance for first-time families. Or make sure your kids check-in people walk them over to the tent after their kids are checked in.

Or if you utilize those parking tags I mentioned above, make sure you proactively offer those on a family’s first visit. Don’t make them wonder what kind of code they need to crack in order to get one.

Do you need family parking? Maybe. Start with these four questions:

• Do we have enough young families to justify it?
• Can we locate it strategically?
• Can we control access without creating friction?
• Can we do it without diminishing the first-time guest experience?

Getting your kids out of your door and into the church door can be one of the most stressful parts of a family’s week. How can we make that arrival experience smoother so that parents – and their kids – look forward to the moment?

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Every so often we dip our toes into a series called Danny Recommends:, articles that tip you off to the stuff that I…you know. The recommendations might be products for use in your ministry, resources that will help you develop leaders around you, or just fun stuff that you need. Want. Whatever.

Reading is a hobby of mine. A passion. Some might say an obsession. And in years past, I’ve written scads about books I’m working through or tools I use in the reading process.

So I thought it might be fun (look pal, you have your version of fun, I have mine) to point back to some of those tools and loop in some new ones that haven’t earned their own article. These are the tools that support the reading.

Let’s do this, nerds.

Writing and marking tools

• Uniball Vision Rollerball. In my openion, there is no better ink pen for underlining and marking up a book than the Uniball. I’ve used this one for years, and can never go back to the old ball point. [Danny Recommends article]
  
• Sharpie Ultra Fine Tip marker. If there’s a single drawback to the Uniball, it’s that it struggles with any paper that has the slightest coating on it. For those books, I use a Sharpie.
  
• Book Darts. When I’m marking up a book that I plan to use in a book discussion with others, there are times that a good old Post-It Note will work, and times when I want something with a bit more permanence. Enter Book Darts, a beautiful, aesthetically-pleasing little tool that will stick with your book for a long time. [Danny Recommends article]

Reading support

• Lap desk. Sometimes paperbacks or overly-large hardbacks just need a bit of literal support. This is my go-to for quiet times with my big ol’ ESV Preaching Bible, and I use it frequently when I’m working through a book where notes are just a given.
  
• Book light. Me and my old eyes read under a lamp that is roughly the wattage of the sun. But when I’m traveling, I’ll often head out with this model or this one.
  
• Book weight. I’ve owned this rascal for years, and it’s worth its … weight … in gold. If you like to leave a book open while you’re jotting something down in a journal or making a note on your laptop, you’ll love this handy-dandy weight.

Book organization

• Expressionery book stamp. I invested in this over a decade ago, and it has held up through the books I’d owned up until that point, and the ones I’ve purchased since. If you loan books out – or tend to leave them laying around – this is a must.
  
• Goodreads. Let’s be honest: Goodreads – as an interface – isn’t that great. I don’t utilize the public-facing version of Goodreads (i.e., sharing reading updates with friends), but I do love the simplicity of putting in a title or ISBN number and getting some pretty sweet cover art in return. It’s a decent way to keep up with what I own and what I want to read, as long as it’s accompanied by…
  
• Google Sheets. I went into much more detail in this article, but I have a Google Sheet dating back to 2004, where I’ve captured every book I’ve read since that time.

Reading devices and apps

• Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition. At the time of this writing I’m roughly two years into the second Kindle I’ve owned, and it’s still just as captivating as day one. Roughly half the books I’ve read this year are on Kindle, so this is a daily-use product for me. [Danny Recommends article]
  
• Simply Noise. I’m not one of those people who can tune out surrounding noise. So if I’m ever trying to read in a noisy spot, Simply Noise is my white noise app of choice. (I’m a brown noise guy, myself.)
  
• Libby. Audible is great for audiobooks that you want to own and listen to again and again. But for a free option, you can’t beat Libby. Connect your library card and get access to everything your local municipality has to offer. [Danny Recommends article]
  

Buying books

• CamelCamelCamel. If you love to read but have realized that books are just so dang expensive, CamelCamelCamel will get you … wait for it! … over that hump. Drop in an Amazon link for your book of choice, and the dromedarys will let you know when it goes on sale. [Danny Recommends article]
  
• Also see these articles on finding great deals on ebooks and books in bulk.

That’s my list…but I’d love to hear about your favorite tools for reading. Tell me about ’em below!

See all posts in the Danny Recommends series.

Disclaimer: unless specifically noted otherwise, the books and resources I recommend are ones I’ve purchased, benefited from, and believe will benefit you as well. If you buy through one of the Amazon links on this site, I may receive a small affiliate commission at no additional cost to you. If that bugs you, feel free to bypass my link and buy from the vendor of your choice.

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As part of my summer reading plan, I dove into Charles Spurgeon’s All of Grace. I have not read a ton of Spurgeon’s books, but this one rocketed to the top of what I have read. All of Grace – if I can make this comparison – was Gentle and Lowly before Gentle and Lowly was cool. It is a refreshing drink of water, an encouraging kick in the britches, an attempt by the Prince of Preachers to cup your face in his hands and turn your head towards Jesus.

And…it’s remarkably brief. My Kindle version clocked in at just over 100 pages.

Buy it. Download it. Read it. You’ll be glad you did.

Here are my top ten favorite quotes:

• He makes those just who are unjust, forgives those who deserve to be punished, and favors those who deserve no favor.

• To make him just who is just is no work for God – that were a labor for a fool; but to make him just who is unjust – that is work for infinite love and mercy.

• …come to your heavenly Father in all your sin and sinfulness. Come to Jesus just as you are, leprous, filthy, naked, neither fit to live nor fit to die. Come, you that are the very sweepings of creation; come, though you hardly dare to hope for anything but death. Come, though despair is brooding over you, pressing upon your bosom like a horrible nightmare. Come and ask the Lord to justify another ungodly one. Why should He not? Come for this great mercy of God is meant for such as you are.

• Think more of Him to whom you look than of the look itself. You must look away even from your own looking, and see nothing but Jesus, and the grace of God revealed in Him.

• Unbelief and despair are sins, and therefore I do not see how they can be constituent elements of acceptable repentance; yet there are many who regard them as necessary parts of true Christian experience. They are in great error.

• However pure our tears, there will always be some dirt in them: there will be something to be repented of even in our best repentance.

• A man might as well hope to fight a swarm of flies with a sword as to master his own thoughts when they are set on by the devil.

• If you look to Christ for your beginnings, beware of looking to yourself for your endings.

• Christ and the believing sinner are in the same boat: unless Jesus sinks, the believer will never drown.

• Let Jesus be your all in all, and let free grace be the one line in which you live and move.

Order All of Grace:

See all posts in the Top Ten Quotes series.

Disclaimer: FTC watchdogs will probably want you to know that the authors represented did not ask for this endorsement, nor did they provide me with free swag in order to do so (unless specifically mentioned otherwise). I’m just a really satisfied customer who wants to let you know where you can get some great products. So there. Further, if you order a resource from a link on any “Top Ten Quotes” page, I may receive a small affiliate commission from Amazon. If that bugs you, feel free to bypass my link and buy from a vendor of your choice. But still: buy it. I only promote books that have benefitted me and that I believe will benefit you.

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If you live in (or are connected to) the world of church hospitality, you don’t need me to tell you that can be a challenging space. What we do is broad: intersecting with lots of areas of the church. It’s sometimes poorly defined: we can’t necessarily describe what we do, so why should our lead pastors or congregants be able to? But mostly, it can be isolating: the hats we wear are somewhat unique, and it can feel like we’re solving problems in a silo.

That’s why the Connections Confab exists. Since 2015, I’ve gathered a deliberately small group of leaders around a common table. We dive in head first to topics that matter…conversations that challenge what we think about when we think about our roles…and along the way, we build an irreplaceable band of brothers and sisters to keep the motivation going.

The 2027 Confab kicks off in February, and applications are now open.

Here’s what you need to know:

• Confab is a three-session, on-site networking group that will take place in spring 2027. We go deep (really deep) on topics that are important (really important) to your ministry. You get an all-access backstage pass to the ins and outs of what we’ve learned (and what we avoid) at the Summit.
  
  
• Confab gatherings are two days each: February 17-18, April 11-12, and June 2-3. All other details for next spring can be found in this handy Confab overview.
  
  
• Confab is built around relationships. That’s why we gather three separate times over the course of five months, and why we ask you to commit to all gatherings.
  
  
• You can now apply to be a part of the Confab. Because we intentionally keep it small – think 15 or fewer – our application monkeys will go over your info with a fine-toothed comb and let you know the results by mid-December (so exciting!).
  
  
• If your application is approved, I’ll send you a link to officially register and pay. The Confab’s cost is $1,500 for three on-site meetings. (Similar coaching networks can cost upwards of three times as much, so you get a ton of proverbial bang for your buck.)
  
  
• All applications are due by December 3, 2026.
  
  

Confab is designed for church leaders who oversee guest services, connections, hospitality, or other ministries that shape the guest experience. If you have specific questions on whether this is a good investment of your time or budget. I’m happy to talk…let’s set up a time!

View the 2027 Confab overview.

Apply for the 2027 Confab today!

The Q:

How do you create and maintain team buy-in / morale when you have only a few new guests each month?

[Question submitted in a recent One-Day Workshop]

The A:

This is a great question, because it separates two similar – yet distinctively different – situations:

Momentum is a bit like capturing lightning in a bottle. Momentum can come naturally when there’s a new initiative, a new leader, or an unusually-heavy stream of guests. But momentum can mask all sorts of underlying issues, including that of morale.

Morale is a different animal. It represents your team’s unified purpose and enthusiasm to pursue that purpose. You can have high momentum and low morale…an incredibly busy Sunday where people are still just going through the motions.

But leading a guest services team when there’s little momentum is like navigating a boat in shallow waters: the rocks and stumps of boredom and lack of vision make themselves known, and it’s all too easy to bottom out.

Here are four ways to upgrade morale…even when momentum is low:

1. Always elevate the why.

We’ve talked before about our second plumb line: The Why is more important than the What. That represents my firm belief that (a) our people want to do a good job, but (b) a detailed job description can be more restrictive than inspirational.

Rather than lock a team into what they’re supposed to do, let’s lead them to remember why they are doing it: a good guest services team is clearing the path for the gospel to be clearly heard. We’re batting down every distraction that might complete with that vital message.

2. Remember that first impressions isn’t just for first timers.

I get that a Guest Services Team with few guests feels like a let down (if not a complete waste of time). But that assumes that our sole purpose is to serve first-time guests.

Yes, FTGs should be the category for whom the system is most intentionally designed, but they’re certainly not our only category. We should seek to treat every person that walks onto our property as an honored guest. We should open the door for the newcomer as well as the chairman of deacons. We should greet the charter member with as much joy as we would a stranger.

3. Realize that inactivity doesn’t equal inadequacy.

If we’re talking about morale, it can be demoralizing to make it through a Sunday at the first-time guest tent with nary a first-time guest. It can make us wonder if it’s all a waste of time, and if resources could be deployed in other directions.

But reverse that thought process for a moment: put yourselves in the shoes of a first-time guest. That tent can be a beacon of hope, clarity, and welcome for you. If you’re a tent volunteer, it can mean that you’ve waited a week or two without being put into action. If you’re the newcomer, that tent volunteer is exactly who you wanted (needed!) to see.

4. View your team as a culture creator.

Let’s Field of Dreams this process just a bit. “If you build it, they will come” may sound more like prosperity gospel than good theology, but I think there’s a nugget of truth there.

If your regular attendees can view your church as a place where people can easily connect without being embarrassed or put on the spot, they will know it’s a place where they can invite their friends or family with no risk that they’ll be embarrassed or put on the spot. If you build that culture, don’t be surprised when people respond.

Low guest numbers might limit your momentum, but they don’t have to determine your morale. As a leader, you get to navigate the boat around the stumps and to a better horizon.

Want to submit a question for a future Q&A post? Ask it here.

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This is the next installment in our ongoing “Large Church” series, which looks at guest services through the lens of the larger congregation: those with an average attendance of 800 or more. While any church can deal with these issues, they seem to especially be true of larger churches.

See the entire series here.

Let’s start off with my no one asked for this hot take: no matter the size of your church, it’s huge.

Here’s what I mean: 50 people or 5,000, living room worship or megachurch platform, bivocational pastor who wears all the hats or a staff that would rival the size of most rural congregations, any church is big to someone who has never been there.

The culture is confusing, so it’s big. The connection points are not spelled out, so it’s big. The opportunities to connect and join a group and break into cliques and figure out who does what are all new to the person who is new, so yes … your church is huge, no matter how small.

But there’s a relatively simple solution, and it’s a universal one:

Clarity.

Making your pathway clear will make next steps easier. Defining the building blocks of spiritual growth will help people know where they are and what their next move is.

Clarity is the great equalizer. It will make a large church feel smaller than it is, and a small church feel larger than it is. It makes a large church get smaller, because when people are able narrow their focus, the next step becomes easier. It makes a small church feel larger, because a spelled-out process helps the newcomer know “We thought about this before you showed up, and we want to make it easy for you to keep showing up.”

Complexity is all too easy to gravitate towards in our congregations, our staffs, our individual ministries. Policies and organizational knowledge can be a blessing or a curse, depending on whether they become the unwritten rules that clear the path or barricade the way for newcomers to connect.

Where do you need to get clear today?

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