By Josh Hunt
To hear some believers talk, Easter guests are the enemy. They are some sort of a nuisance. They are consumers who want to perform their religious duty with no intent on follow through. People who want to pacify their conscience by attending church once a year. They are lukewarm. Didn't the Bible say some bad things about the lukewarm? We have enough trouble with “one day a week Christians”. These "one day a year Christians" -- this is too much!
Kingdom focused churches look at Easter guests in a totally different way. Kingdom focused churches look at Easter as one of the great opportunities of the year. This is the one time a year when people who are far from God will come to us. We get an opportunity to touch them, talk to them, teach them and love them. Kingdom focused churches prize this opportunity, look forward to it, pray about it, and plan for it.
And, they have a well thought through strategy for following up with Easter guests. What is your strategy? Consider these three words in guiding your strategy for treating guests, not only at Easter, but also all year long
Promptly
All things being equal, the quicker you get to guests the better. If you do visitation, you will do better on Monday night than Tuesday. The quicker the better.
I knew one church that had it worked out where they had people who attended the early service and middle Sunday School hour. The church took the names of guests in the early part of the 11:00 service. This team who had gone to the early service took one or two cards each and stopped by on the way home, delivering a plate of cookies and a note that read, "Thank you for visiting in our church today."
On the other hand, if you wait three weeks to contact guests, there is not too much you can say at that point to persuade them that you are really, really glad they came.
Persistently
Treatment of guests starts when the guests arrive. I was in a church once that took friendliness and turned it into an art form. They had multiple tiers of greeters—in the parking lot and at the curb and outside the outside doors and inside the outside doors and outside the inside doors and so forth. It made quite an impression.
On the other end of the spectrum are churches that don't even do the courtesy of Wal-Mart: to have one smiling greeter at the door. The Bible tells us, in the form of a command to, "Greet one another." It may seem like a small thing, but I have known people to get very mad when they are not greeted properly.
More important than having seven contacts instead of two the first week is continuing to contact them seven weeks and seven months later. Many people take a long time to come around. No matter how many contacts you do that first week, they are not going to come around. The more important question is how many contacts will they get in the next six months.
Personally
People are not looking for a friendly church; they are looking for friends, as Rick Warren says it. People are looking for someone who will scribble their name on the outside of their phone book. They don't care so much about being in the church's database of contacts. They want to be in your heart.
Will you love them? Will you find of place in your heart for one who will visit this Sunday? Will you love them in common, ordinary, pedestrian ways like having them in your home and sharing your coffee cake with them? People who are opposed to the gospel are not opposed to ice cream. Love them. If we love them they will come and they will come to love our Lord.
THINGS YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN .....
FOR DISCIPLESHIP: "Read the Bible for Life" to increase biblical literacy - www.lifeway.com/
FOR DISCIPLESHIP: Host (at church or in your home) the simulcast of David Platt's Secret Church, April 22 - http://www2.lifeway.com/secretchurch/?CID=RDR-SecretChurch
FOR DISCIPLESHIP: "Life Lessons from Mayberry" retreat/conference, Ridgecrest, NC, September 20-22, 2011 - http://www.ridgecrestconferencecenter.org/event/mayberry
FOR SMALL GROUPS: "Building Biblical Community" - http://www.lifeway.com/product/005271302/
FOR TRANSFORMATIONAL CHURCH: NEW FREE Transformation Sermons by Ed Stetzer: http://www.lifeway.
FOR PRETEEN MINISTRY: FLYTE - Faith, Life, Together, ANew preteen curriculum - http://www.lifeway.com/e18/shop/?N=4294673088&nru=2&CID=RDR-Flyte
FOR WOMEN'S MINISTRY: "Duty or Delight - Knowing Where You Stand with God" - http://www.lifeway.com/product/005429354/
