Plug First-Time Guests Into the Church Immediately After the Service

At Experience Life Church in Lubbock, Texas, first-time guests are VIPs and are encouraged to visit the VIP Center after worship. The church tries to get them plugged into the church on that very first visit. They use a system called Experience Life to help people evaluate where there are on their faith journey. The system, says Operations Pastor Clayton Walker, has proven effective, with more than 1,000 commitments to Christ in 2012 alone, about two-thirds of whom were first time guests.

ONLINE: ExperienceLifeNow.com. Adapted from an article that appeared in the November/December 2012 issue of Outreach magazine.

James P. Long
James P. Longhttp://JamesPLong.com

James P. Long was formerly the editor of Outreach magazine and the author of a number of books, including Why Is God Silent When We Need Him the Most?

Ohio Church Makeover

This move would not only give them room to grow, but also would enable them to do a lot more to fulfill their mission of being a church focused on “building the kingdom, one life at a time.”

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.