In my defense it is right next to the kitchen door. Then, I hit the wrong button on my computer –a p.c. – not a Mac- which sent an archived document to the printer in the amount of 700 pages.  The printe,r by the way, is in the common area so an administrative assistant got to it before I did and exclaimed “Who printed this?!!” There was no escape.

Finally, I managed to set off the alarm very early on a Saturday morning when I’m certain our facilities director was sleeping. Oh, it is hard to be new!!!  There’s so much to remember. So many systems that are just different enough I can’t totally navigate them yet.  Then of course there’s the underlying question leaking out of my heart, “will I fit in here?”.  Such a desire only adds to the pressure of every step or misstep in my case.  Yes, it’s hard to be new.

When was the last time you were new? For a new person everything feels foreign.  Signs that should pop out -don’t.  Activities that are common place to us may be enigmatic to our guests.  Doors we think are obvious, are hard to find.  And all the while our guests are asking, “Will I fit here?”   The answer to that question will come not because we have clear signage- though that’s important. It won’t come because we have great flyers- though they are helpful.   It won’t come because our music is beautiful- though we love beautiful music. It will be answered either because our guests are met with warmth and personal contact; or because they have been left on their own to figure us out. They first will find a place in our gathering; the latter will most likely leave.

My blunders might have served to discourage me were it not for the warmth, grace, and personal connections offered to me as the “nubie”.   “Here, let me show you”, said by the smiling admin with 700 pieces of now scrap paper in her arms, went a long way to bolster my waning security. A sense of humor on the other end of the phone when I called yelling over the screaming siren of the alarm calmed my anxious heart.  And, people regularly telling me they are glad I’m here, begins to answer the question of “will I fit ?”

Your guests are new. They need people to smile, speak warm words, and literally walk along side them to show them the way because it’s hard to be new.

Heidi Matson ©2011

Jesus saw people. He saw Nathanael sitting under a tree. He saw the soul wounds of the woman at the well; He saw the hypocrisy in the Pharisees hearts. He saw the crowds and had compassion on them. He saw me when I was lost.  In the Old Testament God saw Hagar in her distress and she called Him, Jehovah El Roi- “the God who sees me”.  We must be people who see.

As First Impressions /Assimilation Pastors we must constantly be checking our vision and working to deal with the things that impede it. We must lead our people to be people who see. So often as regular church attenders we come to church nearly blind. We know where to go; we know who we’ll sit with; we know what’s coming next. Thus, our vision is impaired because we can “do church” by rote, from memory. New people don’t have this luxury. We must look for them and be willing to really see them. I guarantee you, they are gaining a vision of us. Let’s determine to be people who see and lead others to see as well.

Practical tip:

Periodically, it is wise to employ a new set of eyes. Ask someone from outside your church community to walk around the campus with you and tell you what they see—would they know where to go if they had a Jr. High student? What message are the signs and banners communicating? Is it consistent with who you say you are as a church?. Then ask someone to watch on a weekend and tell you what they notice.  A new set of eyes will help your vision.

Heidi Matson ©

I was walking our campus this morning with Heidi Matson (Pastor of First Impression & Assimilation – Friends Church, Yorba Linda, Ca) which I had the great privilege of hiring this month as we evaluated how we are doing.  As Heidi and I began at the street corner to look back in on our campus we began to discuss how too often we (church people) believe it is the communities responsibility to know where we are.  We both looked at each other and almost in unison said,

“it isn’t the communities responsibility to know where we are, it’s ours!”

How often do we assume that everyone in our community, just knows where we are?

Too often!

Just last night while Stephanie (my wife) and I were sitting in our driveway an elderly man happen to be taking an evening stroll.  We said hello to each other as he made his way over to where we were sitting.  I introduced Stephanie and myself to him and he did likewise.  As we began to talk he shared that he’d been in this community since the 1960′s and was a Realtor until the year 2000.  That’s 40 years as a Realtor in this community and 50 years as a resident, but you know what really struck me…..  He didn’t know where our church was located.

In fact, he thought in just hearing the name that it was a church several miles away.  He went on to ask if I was sure of the cross streets I was referencing.  When I told him it was directly across the intersection from the Nixon Library and Museum, he said, “Really, I thought that was another old housing addition back in there.”

It is interesting how without knowing it, we have become invisible to the community.

Just a thought!

“Pastors, invest wisely in first impressions or no one will be in the seats to hear you.”

Seriously, if we would invest the same amount of resources helping people bridge the gap between what they think church is and what we genuinely desire it to be don’t you think more people might consider at least trying it once.

For the past 15 years I’ve spent a good majority of my time evaluating how the church invests it’s resources.

I must say we have not done a good job of wisely investing the resources God has entrusted to us.  What if we were to reinvest the same amount of funds the the following ways: communicating about us effectively in the community (oral, print, broadcast, & digital), making someones connection first rate when they arrive at the church (street to the seat), helping persons assimilate easily (clear next steps), and help them choose to be a part of belonging to the community of faith (fellowship/serving/small groups).

Pastors, just a thought to consider… What if we spent as much on your first impressions and assimilation ministry as we did on our worship experience & facilities?

Just a thought!

If that wasn’t cool enough… we have also just celebrated 9 months of Chaplain to the Outdoorsmen which is making HUGE strides in reclaiming men to manhood and addressing the needs of the Hunting, Fishing, and Shooting Sports Outdoor Leader.  So proud of what God is doing with it as well.

Stephanie, the boys, and I have just moved from Aliso Viejo, Ca closer to the church in Yorba Linda, Ca.  Being 1.7 miles from the church is AWESOME!  I forgot how nice it is to live close.  Just wish there were more places to hunt and fish nearby.

I’ll do better at posting more regularly as I know the need for good insights into First Impressions / Assimilations is vital to helping you in your churches.

Blessings!

We like it so much that we are integrating Monvee (@Monvee) into the Spiritual Growth Pathway where I currently serve at Friends Church in Yorba Linda, Ca.

This spiritual growth tool has the potential to revolutionize the way we see spiritual formation.  Take a look for yourself.

Funny how city & county regulations require facilities to have exit route signs lit up all over the campus.  And in stark contrast they limit the number of ENTRANCE signs one can have visible from the street.

On a serious first impression/assimilation note.  How often do we find ourselves paying more attention to how we help someone exit our facilities than we do helping them find the entrance?

This Christmas focus on making your ENTRANCE (s) more visible than ever.  Do not make people have to guess how to enter your Church facility this year.  And don’t forget “finding the entrance” starts long before they get to the doors.  Think through signage at the street, parking lot attendants & greeters, greeters on the sidewalks leading up to the doors, and greeters at the doors.

Just a thought!

Share your thoughts with us in the COMMENT section as we learn together.

Pastors and Organizational Leaders, here are a couple of thoughts on things to look for.

First, the person MUST be extremely passionate about making a GREAT first impression.  Everything counts!

Secondly, at their core they would rather die, than to have someone fall through the cracks.

Once you have that combination I can resource you with tools, coaching, and consulting that will only make your organization better over time.  There are no quick fixes; however, if you have someone leading the First Impressions / Assimilation arm of your organization and they don’t have those two character traits… you are in trouble!

Other thoughts that come to mind are persons with: a desire for excellence, a good communicator, an eye for details seeing what others do not, marketing skills, are responsible, someone who gets others involved, collaborative learner, a forward thinker, highly relational people person, ability to architect change, thinks on their feet, a net worker, understands/implements technology tools, and someone who sees what they do as a part of helping others choose Christ and choose the Church.

For more thoughts on similar discussions use the search feature to find additional articles on this topic.  One that comes to mind is the post in May 2010 on “Tools that you can not live without“.

If I can be of service to your church and/or organization, please Contact Me for scheduling.

Here are a couple of thoughts I’ve had running around in my head these past couple of months.  We (the Church) have made the steps for choosing Christ and the Church way to stinking hard. Through our best efforts in assimilation and first impressions we have complicated ones realization of their desire for God.

We forget that God created us internally to want a relationship with Him. Why then have we (the Church) made it a process of hoop jumping for persons to choose and following Jesus in the context of the Church? Every time I turn around someone wants to make the process more complicated than it needs to be.

I was reading through some old notes when I came across these. As you read them think about what this means as you look at helping someone take a step toward Christ.

“Our human yearning for love and belonging is to be fulfilled through God’s, “new community” which along will last forever. The church is not a place for people to gather occasionally for religious services. It is not one more social institution among many others. The church is God’s dream for the most cherished creation.” John Ortberg

And then there is this from Gilbert Bilezikian in his book, “Community 101” which by the way will rock your world.

“Each one of us hides and awful secret.” Gilbert Bilezikian

That secret is the longing for the closeness that was rightfully ours through creation, yet lost through our rebellion toward God.

As you may know I’ve been tossing around this idea of a Spiritual Growth Community these past couple of years. In fact, it stems back some 10 years, a few ideas on spiritual formations, pathways, next steps and ended up being the “grow to go matrix” by 2009 while I was in Florida.

Through that process of honing in on spiritual next steps, thinking through basic spiritual disciplines, etc… it has come to mind that every time I think I am getting close to having something that may truly be helpful for persons handcrafting a spiritual next step it feels like us “church folks” want to complicate it by putting linear guardrails, controls, and limitations around God’s creativity. Where does that mesh with “God’s dream for the most cherished creation”?

Just another reminder for me that God created us to desire him, we have a secret longing for Him, and as leaders in the church it is our responsibility to provide handcrafted spiritual next steps for persons that meet them where they are…. not where we think they should be. And definitely not within the constraints of our finite minds.

Note to self – Don’t make it so stink’n hard for people to take a step toward Christ and the Church. We want those furtherest from the cross to meet their Creator and fill that awful secret that hides inside.

Just a Thought!

I saw this today as I was getting ready for Catalyst East in Atlanta, Ga on October 6-8th.  It reminded me of what God is calling us through and to.

We don’t lead from the safety of the fringe.
We take up residence in the fray.

Where change is happening
Where change is necessary.

There we find ourselves in a unique tug-of-war
between what was, what is, and what could be.

We are faced with the reality
that we are the catalyst in the moment.

A tension ensues between ambitions and fears.

We are tempted to bail on our goals
but discover that under pressure
our vision becomes remarkably crystallized.

A hundred voices attempt to sway us.
And we find we must lean into God with a faith
deeper than we have ever known.

Change happens in the very place where many leaders
flinch, fear, and fail.

The tension we resist is actually by design.
It tests us, it tries us,
It conforms us to His image.

The tension is necessary.
The tension makes us strong.
The tension is good.

Hope you find this as helpful as I did.

Just a thought…

Early in my ministry I didn’t spent enough time thinking through the way outsiders saw the church and it truly cost me in helping others take a next step.

Around the ten year mark I probably spent too much time thinking through every possible scenario… probably talked myself out of some really great ideas.

In the past 5 years I’ve come to a place of balance in my approach making good, sound first impressions that have substance…

Remember, don’t out think your common sense when it comes to making a good first impression.
Just a thought !

The print is delivered to our office for distribution late on Friday afternoon.  We decide to read through it just to see how it reads now that it is back from print.  And there it is… a spelling error, a typo, incorrect date, a grammatical error, an indent error, or run on sentence.

What do you do?

Too often I find that most will chalk it up and say, “Oh well, they’ll never see it” or “I’ll correct it when I do announcements”.  WRONG… they will see it, and they are not listening to your announcements.  If your lucky they will not post it to ever social media outlet on the planet or be seen as a newspaper clipping that Jay Leno reads to the world on late night TV.

If you see it… they see it.

Companies pull last minute print pieces all the time due to errors.  They understand the importance of a great impression and the lack of excellence when print goes out with known errors.

Let me encourage you that when you find an error even at the final hour… PULL IT.

It does make a difference.

Just a Thought!

MissionInsite is Innovating the Standard in Church Demographics

The most…

• flexible web based information system
• comprehensive socioeconomic and lifestyle data
• interactive mapping platform
• responsive system to answer individual questions
• strategic information resource for ministry
• value and benefit for your financial investment

Hope you find this helpful.

So it is with leading… your toolbox needs to carry in it at least one tool for every situation.  And if your toolbox doesn’t, then you had better have access to a buddies toolbox within arms reach.

When you look at this through the lens of “first impressions” it helps to have a toolbox that has 4 compartments to it.

1.  Communication – these are the tools you need for effectively communicating with your community and the congregation.  Consider a balance approach… oral, print, broadcast, and digital.  Have an internal strategy and an external one as well.

2.  Connection – these are the tools for making first impressions count… such as touch points from signage, traffic, greeters, welcome centers, hosts, ushers, health care ministry, security, ministry resources, hospitality areas, etc…  These provide a warm, inviting environment where people feel safe.

3.  Contributors – these are not tools at all, but people and a pool of them that you have developed over time.  These are people that you have invested in, loved on, enlisted, trained and are ready and eager to serve Jesus by serving the first impressions team of your church.  And never tell someone you don’t need them and/or that the positions on that team are full… Your teams are never full.  VALUE your volunteers.

4.  Community – these are tools for helping people choosing Christ and take a step of belonging with the church family.  It can start with a connection card, a follow-up call, an email, a prayer list, a new believer class, a meet/greet with the pastor, small groups, discipleship class, retreat, conference, etc… These are the tools that help persons take another step in the right direction.  This is where we help them Become, Embrace, Live, Offer, Nurture, and Grow…

I love that God has wired me to be a thinker and I enjoy being a communicator, developer, strategist and organizer.  I hope that with the bandwidth God is providing me with to help pastors, church leaders, denominations, and associations to impact their community for Jesus that I can be of service to you by providing a Healthy Church Consultation.

I’d love to talk with you about how we can evaluate these 4 keep areas of your church.

I look forward to connecting with you.

kerry@streettotheseat.com
949-682-5887
skype: calitexan92688

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CONTACT US

Guest Entrance only

Now I don’t know about you, but if I were a first time guest you wouldn’t find me entering that door. Not to mention the door was solid wood, it was closed, and there was no window in it…. no greeter… nor any traffic moving in and out.  If I were someone unfamiliar with church and/or your church the last door you’d see me entering would be a closed, solid wood door at the back of your building… Who knows what’s going on on the other side of that door.  There could be holy people wanting to lay hands on me, sprinkle me with water, give me the holy spirit, pray with me, throw a bible my way, weird stuff could be going on behind a solid wood door that only “guest”s can enter.

And if that weren’t enough, everyone else entering from the same parking lot was entering a set of double glass doors about 75 feet away that had greeters, glass, and the doors were open.  Through the glass doors you could see the foyer, people laughing, kids playing, etc…  You could see life through double glass doors.

You never know how something like this affects others until another set of eyes helps you see it.

We’d love to help your church see more clearly.  Please give us a call to set up your consultation.

Contact Us

I heard this poem again this week and I wonder what it would have been like if only one would have asked, “why”?

The Charge of the Light Brigade

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

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1.Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward, All in the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. “Forward, the Light Brigade! “Charge for the guns!” he said: Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. 2.”Forward, the Light Brigade!” Was there a man dismay’d? Not tho’ the soldier knew Someone had blunder’d: Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die: Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. 3.Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon in front of them Volley’d and thunder’d; Storm’d at with shot and shell, Boldly they rode and well, Into the jaws of Death, Into the mouth of Hell Rode the six hundred. 4.Flash’d all their sabres bare, Flash’d as they turn’d in air, Sabring the gunners there, Charging an army, while All the world wonder’d: Plunged in the battery-smoke Right thro’ the line they broke; Cossack and Russian Reel’d from the sabre stroke Shatter’d and sunder’d. Then they rode back, but not Not the six hundred. 5.Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon behind them Volley’d and thunder’d; Storm’d at with shot and shell, While horse and hero fell, They that had fought so well Came thro’ the jaws of Death Back from the mouth of Hell, All that was left of them, Left of six hundred. 6.When can their glory fade? O the wild charge they made! All the world wondered. Honor the charge they made, Honor the Light Brigade, Noble six hundred.

Copied from Poems of Alfred Tennyson,
J. E. Tilton and Company, Boston, 1870

I don’t recommend living by the three most famous lines in this poem, “Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die:”  If you are to lead and/or follow…. Ask why?  It will help you regardless of the situation you find yourself in.

Just a thought!

___________________________________

I’ve found that throughout the years of serving in the church we have a tendency to say how it was or how we wished it would be… But how is it really… right now.  Are we doing what we know is true and right for the health of the local church.

Jesus said in Matthew 28:19-20, “¹⁹Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Discipleship has always been something that I’ve had an interest in and/or have studied over the past 15 years.  What I’ve noticed is that we have a tendency to take several surveys, an array of personality tests, go to way to many conference/seminars on the topic, and very seldom do anything about it.

So… how about this week we have a reality check… face reality as it is… If you are not making discipleship, then stop whatever you are doing and do something different.  It is the first step in you being healthy as a Christian as well as your church being healthy.

Just a thought!

The five purposes of scripture combined with 3 levels of learning producing 15 quadrants and 60 sub-quadrants of learning and endless possibilities of spiritual growth for the end user.  Using the data from Reveal and Follow Me we were able to work on some really cool insights dialoguing with the guys at My Next Steps that when paired with personality types and spiritual gifted-ness yielded a personalized spiritual growth plan.

It was a ton of fun working with the Christ Fellowship Team, Think Ministry, Big Bad Collab, and Skills Net on a dream I’d had for 9 years.  All great people working on a great tool.  After leaving Florida in late 2009 it was tabled.

This week I’ve had the opportunity to research and test the beta for Monvee.  I am very impressed.  It accomplishes everything we were working on with Grow to Go.

Way to go Monvee Team… I love what you’ve created and believe it too will not only revolutionize the way we think about spiritual formations it will create a way of spiritual growth that the church has been needing for decades.

If you haven’t gotten on board with Monvee… The time is now.  Be a part of the wave.

Not only who, but how they answer the phone is very important.  And if no one answers then the voice message is just as important.

My wife, Stephanie has been the voice for Hope Crossing these past several months.  If you call her you’ll hear these words, “HI, this is Stephanie with Hope Crossing Community Church, how may I help you today.”

Couple of tips:

• be cheerful
• welcoming
• courteous
• genuinely be helpful
• know all your ministries
• know the contact information for each ministry
• be able to answer basic information about each ministry
• know what is happening this week at your church… this month… and over the summer
• know who to direct calls to from local media stations
• know your service times and what is provided for each age group at each time.
• know the numbers of all your local support agencies so you can assist in connecting persons with outside help if your church doesn’t provide a particular need.
• know local police and fire station numbers in case of an emergency.
• know your church address and how to give basic directions to your facility.

One last thought:

• Who answers your phone during service times?
• People will want to talk when they think you might be there so having someone available during a service time might be of help.

These are just a few thoughts.

Please add to the discussion.

I remember when I left corporate world in December 1995 to go to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.  There were two paths in front of me…

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference”

…Robert Frost

I wonder what paths now lie ahead?

Just a Thought?

In a recent national survey (2008), most Americans said they’d accept an invitation to attend a church during Easter season if someone would simply invite them! They are waiting to be asked!

In another national survey, the Barna Institute identified five different groups of Americans:

The Unattached (23% of Americans) haven’t attended any church service in the past year. About one-third of this group have never attended a church in their lifetime.

The Intermittents (15% of Americans) have attended a church in the past year, but not in the past month. About two-thirds of this group have attended a church within the past six months.

The Conventionals (56% of Americans) have attended a church in the past month.

The Homebodies (3% of Americans) attend only a house church

The Blenders (3% of Americans) attend both a conventional church and a house church

How do the unattached think? The Barna National Survey discovered that they are:

- more likely to feel stressed out
- less likely to believe they are making a positive difference in the world
- less optimistic about the future

59% consider themselves to be Christians!

62% say they pray during a typical week.

The Survey concluded: “The best chance of getting the Unattached to a church is when someone they know and trust personally invites them, offers to accompany them, and they believe the service will address an issues or need they are struggling with at that moment.”

____________________

Ask someone to join you for Easter services this weekend… I bet you they come.

Just a thought!

Become a learner of Jesus – over time I think you’ll fall in love with Him as I did.
Embrace a life of purpose
Live life in the context of groups
Offer your time and resources
Nurture relationships within the community
Grow in biblical maturity

I once wrote that “Become” meant you had to become a believer in Christ to belong.  I genuinely believe now that if we will allow someone to walk along side us as a part of belonging, they will over time “believe”.

So where did we get off track?  Didn’t Jesus say that we are to come to Him as a child.  It is interesting that we in the North American church built a structure that tells a persons they can only belong once they have met a certain set of criteria.  Our western mindset once again at work… Oh no it isn’t, the spiritual leaders of Jesus’ day did the exact same thing… laws, rules, rituals, regulations, etc… This isn’t new. We’ve just repackaged it to fit our western culture making it permissible.

Jesus modeled for us even with His disciples that we are to allow persons to belong with us…  Think about it… Judas and Peter were “belongers” and then they turned on Jesus.  Thomas was on the inside and still had questions, right up until he stuck his hands in Jesus’ nails scars.  If 120 or so people can sit in the upper room with Jesus – belonging – and still have questions, surely we can allow persons to belong as they search out believing.

Doesn’t mean we turn people lose to run the church or even give them leadership roles without spiritual maturity in Jesus.  But we can let them walk along side us and learn as they go.  There is always a place of service in the local church regardless of where you are on the journey.

Therefore, I submit that while we are loving Jesus, I bet you He’d like to see us:

love others - belong in a community
love God – believe in Jesus
leave a legacy – become the hands and feet of Jesus

Just a thought…

Is this what your Jesus told you to do?

Probably the greatest question I’ve been asked in 15 years of being a pastor.  I really believe it is what fueled my desire to plant Hope Crossing Community Church with Pat Giraldin.

Here are 7 more things that have fueled me.

I wish church were:

1. not just a sermon, but a dialog & discussion

2. respectful of my intelligence

3. not about a building

4. less programming & more prayer

5. loving and safe place for all

6. carrying for the poor and the environment

7. a place where more Jesus was taught

These 7 things describe mine and Pat’s vision & mission for Hope Crossing Community Church in San Juan Capistrano, CA.  If this is who you are as well… come be a “mover” with us.  Jesus was about a movement … not an institution.  Jim Henderson & Matt Casper taught me that… be a mover with us.