5 Hints for Guest Follow-Up

Enlist a coordinator or team to oversee guest follow-upeverything from creating contact forms to assigning follow-up calls.

Consider guests in your preaching and service planning. Don’t assume people know Bible references. Always explain who people are: “Paul was a guy who … .”

Give guests a small gift. If you give the sermon on CD, also offer something useful or fun like a flash drive, package of fair trade-certified coffee or a beach ball.

Let guests know your church will pray for them. Encourage them to share on information cards. Often people visit a church looking for help with a problem in their lives.

Ditch the “thanks for visiting” form letter for something better, possibly handwritten.

Check out more ideas to help with retention.

How Much Tech Do You Actually Need?

Because you cannot do this alone, you are going to have to trust the right individuals who know more about tech than you do. Your calling is to shepherd. Do that.

Gene Appel: Do Less Ministry; Reach More People

None of the programs at our church were bad in and of themselves. The volume of it just prevented us from being focused on building relationships with those who are far from God. So, we had to do less ministry to reach more people. It sounds funny, but people had to be trained in how to do life with nonbelievers or people spiritually disinterested.

When Familiar Becomes Careless

God wants to be in a relationship with his people that’s not marked by fear but love. Not apprehension, but an appreciation of his great grace and compassion.