By Friendship Ablaze

Detailed instruction for developing a pre-assimilation plan, plus an Assimilation Life Line Chart and printable handouts.

Assimilating New Members Into Your Church

by Brian Magnuson, Church Growth Magazine April - June, 2001

The nuts and bolts of assimilating visitors into the life of your church: sharing, study, support and service.

Assimilating Newcomers

by Calvin Ratz, Leadership Journal

Why some visitors stick at a church and others don’t.

A Church Makes Its Own Assimilation Checklist

Prism Leadership Network

Action points and assessment questions to help you develop a plan for assimilation.

Gateway Country

By James Emory White, Leadership Journal

4 myths about reaching the unchurched—and 4 ways to draw them in. Former Mecklenburg Community Church pastor shares the practical ideas the Charlotte, N.C., church has implemented to connect visitors.

Gearing Up for Small Groups

BuildingSmallGroups.com

Practical tips for recruiting leaders and launching small groups. An interview with LifeTogether’s Brett Eastman on finding and developing small group leaders.

Get the Most out of Leaders Meetings: Overcome these common barriers to increase your team's efficiency and maturity

by Doug Patch, Chrsitianity Today

A guide for planning leaders meetings that help a home group "stay the course"

The Lost Art of Lingering

by Shawn Young, Student Leadership Journal

Article that llends some insight into one of the simple keys to successful assimilation...lingering. How intentional investment in others creates true small group connection.

The Making of the Christian

Leadership Journal

Richard J. Foster and Dallas Willard on the difference between discipleship and spiritual formation.

The Right Fit

by Harold Westing, Rev!

What visitors are looking for and perspectives from the pew.

Small Groups: How One Church Does It: A pastor shares a working model of how Christians can build supporting relationships into each other.

by James R. Tozer with Daniel W. Pawley, Leadership Journal

A pastor reports on his experiment of building community and discipleship—realizations that led small groups to become the beating heart of his church.

Small Groups and the Mission of God

buildingsmallgroups.com

Church planter Alan Hirsch talks about the untapped potential of individuals and small-group communities.

The Vision Behind Small Group

by Russ Robinson, buildingsmallgroups.com

Here are practical answers to many common questions about small groups in church.

Why Small Groups Are a Big Deal

by Brett Eastman, ChristianityToday.com

Seven things every pastor needs to know about the emergence of small group ministry.

Research

Research on some of the largest churches in Portland and how they’re building community.

SmallGroups.com

Small Group site of ChrsitianityToday.com.

Europia.org

Site dedicated to resourcing churches and offering ideas to reach and assimilate people into the church body.

Connection Power

Features free newsletter on growth and assimilation.

Church Community Builder

Web-based church management software.

Groupmeister

Group and membership software.

Servant Keeper

Church management software.

Fellowship Technologies

Web-based church management software

The Assimilation Seminar:From First-Time Guests to Long-Time Members

by Nelson Searcy

Church Leader Insights download.

Assimilation Begins in the Parking Lot: Keys to Successful Assimilation

by Ed Young, Preston Mitchell and Tracy Barnes

Creative Pastors download.

Assimilating Visitors Into Your Church

Building Church Leaders training pack.

Using Groups for Churchwide Assimilation. "Closing the Back Door" of the Church

Building Small Groups download

audio CD with Phil Spry.

Here are a few suggestions for cultivating a meaningful greeting time.

• Break the ice with outgoing, friendly front-door greeters. This sets a hospitable tone and facilitates conversation before people even sit down.   
• Suggest conversation starters. As you encourage people to greet each other and extend God’s blessings, provide a place for them to start. Go with the obvious. If it’s spring, suggest wishing your neighbor “Happy Spring.” If a well-known sporting event, such as the Super Bowl, is on TV, suggest that people ask their neighbors, “Who are you rooting for, or do you care who wins?”
• Truly pause. Provide enough time for people to not only say ‘hi,’ but to converse. Build the greeting time into your church service instead of trying to squeeze it in if there’s time.
• Set the example. Don’t just approach those closest to you. “While I do head down the center aisle to greet people who are sitting near it, if I see someone who has just come back after surgery, or someone I recognize as a visitor, I make it a point to walk to a side aisle or to the rear of the church to extend a greeting to them,” says Schmiege.
• Shake hands, but also give hugs when appropriate. “The issue is making people comfortable and welcome at the same time,” explains Schmiege. “Some people may find even a handshake an invasion of privacy; others would consider a hug from a stranger just as much or even more so. But we try to recognize and approach people within what appears to be their comfort zone, while being sure to share Christian friendship.”

Source: Outreach magazine, "Idea Bank"

Deb and her teenage daughter received a postcard in the mail from Granger Community Church in Granger, Ind. After much coaxing from her daughter, Deb agreed to give the church a try.

She wasn’t impressed; in fact, the heavy traffic alone—Granger has traffic guides directing their 6,000 regular attendees on where to park—discouraged her. So, when her daughter insisted on going back, she agreed, but only because she’d decided to park as far away from the church’s front door as possible and do paperwork for her job while her daughter attended church and Sunday school.

Deb did this for an entire year. Granger’s traffic guides frequently offered her coffee and bagels and gently invited her inside, but Deb was adamant—she was fine. That was until she lost her job. With no paperwork to do and inclement weather, Deb finally walked back into Granger. This time, she heard the message—she mattered and there was hope. With time, she began taking small steps: attending services regularly; joining a small group; and agreeing to serve others once a month through the church’s Connection Café. Now, she’s bringing friends with her to church.

“I want to grab our traffic guides and hug ’em,” says Mark Waltz, Granger’s pastor of connections. “They get it! Their spirit of grace and acceptance without any badgering allowed Deb to take steps toward becoming part of our church on her own time and where she was comfortable.”

This process of enfolding people into your church family, which has many names—assimilation, enculturation, connection—looks different for each person, family and church. But no matter what you call the process and how small or large your church is, there are similar paths to effectiveness. 

Outreach has gathered a panel of five experienced pastors and church consultants to help you find the path that fits the DNA of your church. They share what works, what doesn’t and how you can gently, but persistently, walk alongside people like Deb as they take steps toward becoming a committed part of your church body.

Steve Choi is outreach and missions pastor at Sarang Community Church in Anaheim, Calif. The Korean Presbyterian church is nearly 10,000 people strong and still growing. Choi also leads Sarang’s English ministry.

Gary McIntosh, a former pastor, is professor of Christian ministry and leadership at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, in La Mirada, Calif. He is the author of numerous books on church growth, including Beyond the First Visit (Baker).

Mark Waltz has served as pastor of connections for seven years at 6,000-member Granger Community Church in Granger, Ind. He is also author of First Impressions (Group), teaching churches how to make guests comfortable. 

Kevin Harney is the teaching pastor and evangelism champion at Central Wesleyan Church in Holland, Mich., and also serves as a pastor at Faith Church in Dyer, Ind. He is the author of Seismic Shifts (Zondervan).

Josh Blunt is founding pastor of five-year-old Wayfarer Community Church, a church plant of Corinth Reformed Church. The Caledonia, Mich., plant draws 150 people, 50% under  age 11, to its weekly services held in a local school.

Outreach: Let’s say a person or family has been coming fairly regularly to your worship for months, but they won’t commit to a small group or other ministry. Why? What are their reasons?

Mark Waltz: People worry they’re not going to fit in. You know, it’s one thing to come on Sunday and find a place to be comfortable and not noticed, but when you take another step to serve on a team or be part of a small group, suddenly there is this intuitive sense of being one of eight people—you can’t hide or blend in.

I also think there is a real fear of not knowing what kind of contribution you can make and wondering if you’re even needed. When guests walk in and there is a place to park, someone greeting, a clean restroom, a bulletin already prepared and printed, someone preaching, somebody singing, someone watching the kids and providing a great Bible study for them—it’s all being done! People think: Clearly the church already has plenty of others contributing!

Kevin Harney: I agree. Assimilation means giving back, and I think even people who know what they can do have a built-in fear of failure. That’s why I believe one of the first steps for really being connected is finding a place to serve. Then, when people do come to faith, chances are relationships have already been built through their serving. 

Steve Choi: But I think people fear that they won’t meet others with whom they can build those relationships. Our welcoming team sometimes assumes that shy new-comers don’t want to be bothered. But I tell them, “No, they came here because they want to make friends. Even though guests may be shy and seem a bit reluctant, let’s keep knocking on their door.”

Gary McIntosh: Although some of these fears may be real and tough to combat, I think the biggest thing is just that people are too busy to get plugged into a church. There’s so much competition for people’s time. I remember when Little League baseball didn’t schedule practices or games on Wednesday nights because of church activities. Now they play games on Sunday mornings.

It’s so hard to get people to make church a priority, but it is possible. People today will only commit when they believe the church is on a clearly defined mission. They want to be involved in something that’s going somewhere; they want to be making a differ-ence. Unfortunately, churches don’t often communicate a strong vision or direction.

O: So, how does a church tell its guests that church is worth their time and investment—worth overcoming their fears for?

SC: When our Lord Jesus Christ was dealing with the disciples, it was a pretty clear call: Come do this, follow me. I do think we need to be aggressive but before any push comes, there has to be a relationship and trust. We first want to say, “I want to get to know you, I want to hear your story, I want to know what is going on with you.”

MW: Yes, assimilation needs to be about them, where they’re comfortable. For example, our Web site is interactive; people can register for an event or express interest in more information about something, and that begins a dialogue. It bridges the gap, fills the white space, because immediately they’re in touch with somebody via a letter or a phone call in a very non-threatening way. Someone meets them where they have chosen to step, and the dialogue begins there. We don’t want to own people’s spiritual journeys. It’s their journey and we just want to help them. 

JB: There needs to be a very clear, outlined path of what that spiritual journey looks like at your church. We say, “Here’s what you can expect if you plan on sticking around here and growing spiritually. Here’s what we’ll do and what we won’t do.” The more details you can offer, the more helpful it is for them. When we first started out five years ago, we didn’t really have the luxury of a formal process, but we’re creating one now.

O: At your churches, or the churches you’ve served at in the past, what are specific ways you help people in their spiritual journey?

SC: Coming to church, in and of itself, is a huge thing. So every Sunday, our first major announcement is about how grateful we are that they came. We acknowledge and appreciate their presence. Then, we have a short, non-threatening 10-minute orientation. Guests can stop in, and I personally connect with them. Sometimes, we have 30 or 40 people, and sometimes, we have one. But no matter how many people, I make it a point to hear a little bit about each of them before I share about our church.

MW: We are intentional in keeping the lists of available environments in which to engage short enough and small enough that people can actually make choices. There is a danger when churches offer too many choices. People may delay their choice or just not choose. In our weekly e-newsletter, we list a couple dozen opportunities—service projects, small groups, etc.—but on the weekend, we’ll only paint the picture of four or five. And these are things that, regardless of how new you are, you can do. It’s a one-time shot, not a 10-week commitment; it gets your hands dirty and your feet wet. Once people are in those environments, then we’ll paint a picture for yet another, deeper opportunity, like joining a small group for a short period of time. 

GM: You have to help them make friends. Normally, people don’t make friends at worship, especially in larger churches.So, you have to help them find a group or class—a sports team, craft group, MOPS, adult Bible fellowship, whatever—as long as they can connect there. 

SC: And with Sarang’s Korean-American culture, we have three generations to connect. Approaching all of these generations effectively can make assimilation much more complex. For example, we have a small group for married couples in which the husbands are non-Korean and the wives are Korean. That’s a very focused, niche small group, but I want them to express themselves as they are and not feel like they have to be squeezed into a certain mold.

JB: Our community is made up of families living in their first home, working in their first job and having their first children. Our church is mostly under the age of 45, and in fact, 50% are under the age of 11. So I believe that children are not the church of tomorrow, but of today. We’ve found that the more we focus on the kids and on teaching them, the more often parents are likely to come to us with their own questions.

Right now, I’m trying to develop a spiritual formation program where parents and children are on the same rotation of themes. Then, the whole family can talk about the same thing, and the family can talk with other families about it in church too.
We’re also working on developing a young seekers’ type of mentorship program for our youth when they’re ready, to further assimilate them into the church. We don’t push them; we wait until they hear God talking to them. When they have an interest, they have the opportunity to sit down with a mentor of the same gender. Together, the mentor helps the student walk through a prepared curriculum that helps them with the faith maturing process.

O: How do you measure or track people’s journeys? How do you know you are effectively engaging people in the life of your church?

GM: Based on lots of research over the years, there are some standard guidelines. Ideally, you have a minimum of 60% of your adult worship attendees involved in either classes or groups. If you can get more than 70%, you’re excelling. Between 50 and 60% is fair, and less than 50%  is poor.

KH: But measuring people, commitment and engagement is a fluid and tricky thing. At my former church, we tracked how many people were actively engaged in serving. We felt that was an important indicator, because if someone is involved in serving, chances are good the other pieces are there. Relationships have been built, they’re engaged in worship and are considering ways to grow their faith through church ministry opportunities.

But it’s also very subjective. A church may say that a person is assimilated because he or she is in a small group or involved in a ministry, but if you ask those people, they may say they don’t feel connected at all.

JB: And I think it’s critical that people are connected in the right way. We want people not just plugged into a certain ministry or even multiple ministries. We want them participating in a way or in an area that they’re good at. Hopefully, they’re doing the right thing; they’re energized, stretched, equipped and effective.

SC: Measuring is something we continually work on improving. About every two to three months, we look at our list of visitors by the cards they fill out. We track where people are. Are they just coming on Sunday? Are they in a small group? Our ultimate goal is that they join a small group and mature in becoming a servant.

MW: We continually track the hard measurements like Steve’s talking about: the number of people who attend, how many go through our membership class, that sort of thing. But even with those numbers, what is the appropriate percentage of people to have in small groups? How do you determine what that is? We believe having 40% of our weekend crowd participating in groups is pretty awesome.

For softer measurements, we do a survey about every six months asking people to tell us how they are doing in five or six primary areas—Scripture reading, serving, giving, etc. These surveys communicate our vision that everyone matters, that although you are responsible for your spiritual journey, we want to help you.

Another soft measurement we use is stories. During our weekly staff meetings, we share specific stories about where God has shown up in our lives recently. Most often these come from within our circle of ministry. We also allow folks to log in and share their story on our Web site. Then periodically, we’ll take time on the weekend to share these stories. It helps validate those environments we are trying to create, where transformation can happen—a marriage is repaired, a work situation is seen differently, and ultimately purpose is rediscovered. 

O: Through these measurements and your experience of connecting people, what have you learned doesn’t work?

SC: When my ministry was smaller, I made the mistake of asking guests to stand up in front of everyone in the middle of service to tell us their name and where they come from. That is just horribly scary, and I was so insensitive to that. In fact, most people have a fear of public speaking, so I really hope there is no church that still makes its visitors stand. 

GM: For the younger audience—under 30 or 40—the assimilation process must be organic. Having greeters at the door, shaking hands is outdated. We still need to have trained greeters, but they should be positioned in a way that they don’t appear to be programmed. For instance, one church I visited had greeters with yellow armbands that said “greeter” stationed outside the main door. Now that may work great with 70-year-olds, but anybody under 35 is going to say this isn’t authentic. It feels pre-programmed.

Anything that makes the younger generation feel as though we’re processing them like a can of beans in a factory is going to turn them off. We need assimilation, and it isn’t going to happen by accident. So, yes, have greeters, but not wearing buttons or armbands, and not stationed 10 in a row.

MW: The biggest ongoing lesson for me is follow-up. When you paint the picture, cast a vision, invite through messages or promotions, ask for participation and people say “OK, I will,” and then they don’t get a call back? Bad! After one or two failed connections, people just stop trying. It doesn’t matter what other systems are in place. You can have the greatest technology, but if there’s no follow-up, it’s a huge mistake.

KH: I think we can force people into settings that don’t fit who they are. For example, neighborhood-based ministries can work well, but saying that just because you live close, you’re going to be connected to a particular group, doesn’t always work. Interests and common passions draw people together more.

Also, in the past I’ve thought of the assimilation process as something taking place on the church campus. We say, “Come here and get connected,” when really you can connect in a home, at the hockey rink, riding motorcycles together ... whatever. I think we’re too hung up on location. 

JB: As a church plant, we didn’t always have the opportunity to really get to know someone before giving them responsibility. Plugging in someone who hasn’t grasped the whole purpose and ethos of the church can create conflict. I’ve learned that it’s really worth taking your time and slowing down the front-end process of enlisting people. They need time to show their character in community for their sake and the congregation’s.

O: How do you make sure that the passion of engaging guests isn’t instilled in just one person, but in your entire congregation?

SC: In a large church, you need someone devoted to assimilation, but that doesn’t mean that the others are free from that duty. It’s the whole church’s job. There’s a danger of making assimi-lation into a ministry, with just one guy in charge hanging out with all the new people. The whole staff needs to be there to shake guests’ hands, listen to their stories and walk with them. If a guest comes and sees the pastor—the main leader—up there preaching, and then someone else comes to take care of them, it gives the impression that they’re not as important. And your members will begin to adopt the mentality of celebrating and appreciating your guests if your leaders are exemplifying that.

KH: Your people will get burnt out if they’re at church six nights a week trying to do lots of ministries. The passion and excitement among your members for brin-ging new people in can start waning if they’re tired and over-extended. We can get our people too busy to be the salt and light. So, I think being very careful of not over-extending your members is critical to maintaining excitement about bringing in and connecting with new people.  

GM: It’s important to constantly remind your congregation that the assimilation process is never done. People can become unassimilated. Even after 10 years, people can become unassimilated in a church. Very simply, we have to always get people involved outside the worship service.

Now writing for Outreach as a freelancer, Heather Johnson is a student at Bethel Seminary and the magazine’s former managing editor.

CUSTOMERS FIRST     

Mark Waltz has 17 years of experience in full-time pastoral ministry, but it’s his three years of managing a Bachrach men’s clothing store that has most prepared him for his current position—pastor of connections at Granger Community Church in Granger, Ind.

For example, he knows language is crucial. “The phrases—certain labels or specific types of alterations—that we knew as a sales team were only understood among us employees. If we tried to use that language with our customers, we’d lose them,” says 45-year-old Waltz. “Bring that principle to the church world. If you use Christian jargon, you’re going to lose your visitors.”

He also knows who and what takes priority. “My sales team needed to communicate with our customers to find out their needs. Then, we worked to meet those needs—not just to make a sale,” he explains. This is why a salesperson asking if you need help the second you enter a store is just wrong, according to Waltz.

“Customers first want to take in their surroundings, see the layout of the store and move at their own pace. Finally, when they have that look—like they maybe need help or an answer to a question—then we approach,” he says. “Likewise, when you’re welcoming guests to your church, give them space. Obviously, we have an agenda. We have a mission to accomplish, but we have to give them room and time to take their own steps.”

A self-described “people advocate,” Waltz doesn’t make Granger’s guests wear bright yellow visitor badges, but he does ensure that they have more than 200 opportunities to serve in various ways. Visitors also have 78 small groups to choose from and a Connection Café where they can get a latte and chat with friends. And if you visited Granger’s café today, you might find Waltz sipping his favorite drink, a raspberry latte, and working on his latest idea—the All Access Tour.

“It’ll be a test drive of sorts, where people are invited to come to our church for a specific, one-time deal,” he explains. “They’ll get a 90-minute walk-through of Granger, doing a physical tour of the campus, as well as hearing about all the different ministries. And hopefully, they’ll connect with someone.”

EXCERPTED from Outreach magazine, "Features," September/October 2007

By Alex Field

It’s your first week at Life Church in Temecula, Calif., and already you’ve got a nametag; in fact, everyone at church is wearing one. At the bottom of your nametag is a place to answer an ice-breaking question such as “What is your favorite TV show?”
On your way inside, several people— one of whom remarks on your answer to the nametag question—greet you. The two of you strike up a conversation. After church, you go out to lunch with this person—and by the end of the meal, you’ve given your life to Christ.

Sound far-fetched? Not at Life Church.

That story is an actual account of what happened one Sunday after Pastor John Ruhlman and his team at Life Church instituted a nametag assimilation system, created to monitor the number of visitors  and make sure those visitors got the chance to plug in to the church body.

“Before we even launched, we were talking about ‘How can we be most effective in following up on people who come?’ ” Ruhlman recalls. “We know we’re going to get a lot of people to come, but how do we get them to stick? This way we’re able to track attendance. If people don’t come for a month, we know because they didn’t peel off their nametag. So we have really accurate attendance statistics. Our assimilation level has been 40%, steady all the way through the plan.”

Looking at average church assimilation rates, Life Church is ahead of the game. Author and researcher Lyle Schaller suggests that at least one-third, perhaps as many as one-half, of all Protestant church members do not feel a sense of belonging to their congregation. “They have been received into membership,” he writes in Assimilating New Members (Abingdon Press), “but have never felt they have been accepted into the fellowship circle.”

With these kinds of issues plaguing the Church, providing true connections between visitors and an existing church community is critical—and Life Church does it well.

The first week you attend, stewards hand write your name on a nametag in blue pen. The second week your nametag is printed and waiting for you, but your name appears in italics. The third week, your nametag is printed and waiting for you in regular typeface. Here’s the kicker: While the nametags are only slightly different, the congregation is primed and ready to strike up conversations with new people as evidenced by their handwritten or italic nametags.

And if someone attends a service one week, fills out the nametag card but doesn’t show up the following week, they hear directly from the Life Church pastoral staff.

“We have what we call our Lost Sheep Listing,” Ruhlman says. “They get a phone call from our pastoral staff and a letter just saying, ‘We missed you, what can we do to pray for you, we love you.’ ”

While the nametag system has proved to be extremely effective in assimilating visitors, Ruhlman says his primary focus at Life Church is multiplication.

“We’re not interested in planting a church. We want to plant a movement, and we want to plant a number of churches,” he explains. “Planting one church is fine, but if we haven’t put [multiplication] into the DNA of the new churches, we’re not being true disciples. Our dream is in five years to have 10 healthy churches right here in our valley.”

That dream is quickly becoming a reality. Life Church, which launched in fall 2002, has already planted three daughter churches in the Temecula Valley alone. The church offers solid support to those church plants, and Ruhlman encourages his congregation to join the new ones.

“Whenever we launch a new church, we give what’s called an open fishing license to that new church,” Ruhlman says, laughing. “Their launch team comes to our church, preaches and just goes fishing for our people. So our goal is to have 50 to 100 of our congregation go with the new church every time we launch one, every six months.”

With a massive launch team surrounding this vision, Ruhlman has also developed a four-stage planting process that helps a new church spread its wings. The first three months of the process focus on Launch Team development and building a base of 30 to 40 people who will join the plant. The second stage is a 90-day period of monthly preview services, allowing pastors and their small staff to fine-tune their programming. The third stage consists of three months of exhibition worship that Ruhlman describes as “services that don’t really count yet.” The fourth stage is the new church’s grand opening.

“We’ve learned that you don’t do a one-Sunday grand opening; you do a three-month grand opening,” he explains.
And no matter how many people Life Church gives away to its church plants, the congregation continues to grow.
“Now we’re up over 1,000 people, with five services, and in the fall we’re adding a sixth and a seventh service,” Ruhlman says. “We’re going to offer a video venue and add another Saturday night service to go with the one we have now.”
Life Church indeed.

Source: Outreach magazine, "Front Line," September/October 2004

Three years ago when we moved from Chicago to Kansas City, our family began the all-too-familiar church search. We quickly dug in and actually found a small church of about 250 we could call home. On our second Sunday, the pastor took us to lunch with his family. When he learned I used to be a pastor, he said he’d be sure to line up some opportunities for me to preach.

Unfortunately, none of those opportunities materialized. In fact, all of our attempts to get involved in the church—from being on the worship team to assisting with the offering—failed to pan out. After a year there, we felt rebuffed and defeated.
We’d heard a lot about the next church we visited, a large congregation of more than 3,000. Shortly after our first few visits, we started plugging in, and, after our second Sunday, the pastor even asked me to meet him for lunch.

He suggested numerous ways to get involved, and in less than a month I was writing dramas for the worship team and attending a Bible study. I was amazed at how easy it was to get involved this time around.

A UNIVERSAL PROBLEM

Over the years, I’ve discovered that our family is not alone in its relentless quest for a church home. According to Barna Research Group, one in seven people will look for a new church this year, and one in six attends two or more churches on a rotating basis. Moreover, author and church assimilation expert Thom Rainer identifies visitor retention, or “closing the back door,” as one of the most pressing issues churches deal with today.           

After speaking with pastors from more than 300 churches about the challenge of closing the back door, Rainer discovered that each faced the same problem. One church enjoyed 411 new members over four years, yet attendance only increased by 75 because so many others left during the same period. 

What keeps visitors returning to a church to the point of commitment? Conversely, why do some churches attract visitors, only to lose them after one Sunday?

Although most pastors know there’s no magic formula for assimilation, many choose to address the problem with programs such as small groups, welcome ministries, worship services and other diverse ministries. Yet these same churches brimming with programs still complain about low visitor retention.

THE RIGHT TOOLS

Church growth experts agree that visitor assimilation systems are critical for any church hoping to build relationships with its guests. Greeters, clear signage and a visitor information kiosk are some simple ways that churches can make a guest feel welcome. Many churches use a communication card in the bulletin to ensure follow-up contact with visitors, but collecting that same information at the visitor kiosk prior to handing out a gift or information packet is another way to catch some visitors you may have missed. 

Finally, a good database ensures that all registered guests get a series of visits, calls and communication designed to provide them with the information they need to connect. Software designed specifically for churches can help facilitate this type of follow-up. But while all of these processes are valuable—even foundational—churches often mistakenly assume that these are the keys to visitor assimilation when in fact they are simply the tools.

KEYS TO AUTHENTIC CONNECTION

Do churches that attract and retain visitors share any common characteristics? Pastors of churches that are successfully closing the back door identify three main principles for effective assimilation. A church must be a place where members experience God, find true community, and discover a sense of purpose and personal significance. Consequently, a church’s assimilation programs should be based on these principles, says Randy Frazee, senior pastor of Pantego Bible Church in Fort Worth, Texas, and author of The Connecting Church.

“A lot of churches today aren’t going backward to those three major issues,” Frazee says. “They just start implementing programs for a quick fix, without understanding the rich and deeper purpose behind them. That’s why you see so many churches dealing with this problem.”

James Emery White, senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, N.C., known nationwide for its conversion growth, recalls when his church went through some major growing pains.

“I will confess closing the back door is a huge issue for us,” he says. “A few years ago, it crept up and bit us. We grew by hundreds in less than a year. It didn’t take long for us to realize that we had to get very intentional in our thinking.”
Frazee notes that a church has about six months to connect a visitor. “I’m told that if we connect six out of 100 visitors, we’ve been successful,” he says. “As pastors, we’re told that you’re not going to close the back door through worship alone.”

GOD ENCOUNTERS

In today’s world, people—both believers and unbelievers—are looking inside and outside the Church for transcendent moments in their lives. As author Leonard Sweet has said, “There’s a spiritual revival happening in America, and it has nothing to do with Jesus.”

The experience of meeting God at church is key to closing the back door, White says. “Things like worship, prayer and classic disciplines are more appealing to seekers than ever before. The key is that they experience something at church they can’t get in the world —moments in which they feel like they’ve touched God.”

 In his study of churches’ assimilation efforts, Thom Rainer identified traits successful churches share. On the list was a worship service that connects people to God.

Facilitating Transcendence:

Worship. Heartfelt authentic worship creates an experience, White says, adding that artistic elements such as music, drama and other forms of creative expression, speak to soul issues.

Prayer. Rainer found that high assimilation churches make prayer a priority, while low assimilation churches don’t. 
Message. In the last five years, White has seen a shift in how seekers who visit Mecklenburg respond to his message. The Truth, he says, resonates with seekers when it’s delivered in a winsome and understandable way. “Explanation is the new apologetic,” he says. “If you’re serving up the truth in today’s language that helps and explains, you’re facilitating transcendence.”         

Response time. To facilitate transcendence in its worship services, Pantego Bible Church offers 20 minutes of open-ended, silent response time at the end of the message. Worshippers can stay in their seats or go to one of five communion stations around the room.

Small groups. Frazee suggests that churches think outside the worship service for facilitating God encounters. Pantego is intentional about creating transcendence in its small groups that meet throughout the week.

TRUE COMMUNITY

Over the last 10 years, the word “community” and its many extensions (community-building, community group, etc.) has become somewhat of a buzzword in churches nationwide—for good reason. We are divinely designed for connection, and in this postmodern culture, for many people belonging comes before believing, says author Larry Crabb in his watershed book, Connecting.

Vernon Armitage, senior pastor of 3,000-member Pleasant Valley Baptist Church in Liberty, Mo., notes that over the last decade people aren’t looking for a friendly church. “You can go to Wal-Mart and get a friendly greeting,” he says. “People want to go to church where they can find real friends.”

Frazee agrees, adding that one of the key issues today’s Church deals with is fragmentation. “People are beginning to search for community in a much stronger way,” he says. “Once you create that connectivity, the back door closes in a major way.”
But true church community, he says, won’t happen through once-a-week small group meetings. “In many ways, churches are getting people connected to activities. But if the average person is involved in three different ministries, at the end of the day he feels disconnected. He’s not around enough for others to truly know him.”

Facilitating Community:

Community outside the church. At Pantego, worshippers develop community outside the church in apartment complexes, neighborhoods and gyms. The goal, Frazee says, is to get people connected before they come to church. “We establish a relationship base that allows us to draw non-Christians into a Christian community,” he explains. “When they do decide to try out a church, they come with the people they’re already in relationship with.”        

Targeted small groups. PleasantValley’s ministries include more than 100 specific kinds of small groups related to age, leisure interests and station in life (married, divorced, single, etc.).

Quick access. If your church makes people wait to join a small group, either until the beginning of a new quarter or after they’ve finished a membership class, you’ll lose them, White says. If you connect people with a small group just because it’s the only one with “open slots,” you’ll lose them. Churches that close the back door offer wide-open small groups, quick, six-week opportunities to get involved and fast access to membership and seminars.                  

Orientation. Every Sunday after a worship service, many successful churches offer a newcomer’s coffee where visitors learn about the church’s relational communities.

Youth and children’s ministry. Rainer found that churches with strong emphases in their youth and children’s ministry grew and kept visitors coming back.

SIGNIFICANCE AND PURPOSE

Tied to transcendence and community is the third integral principle: giving visitors a sense of their personal significance.  Once someone understands that she is a person loved by God and valuable to His kingdom, she begins to discover a new meaning and purpose for her life. 

“Knowing God ultimately answers life’s greatest question, ’Why am I here?’ says David Tscherne, former pastor and church planter. “Once they’ve met Christ, people want to know how they can use their gifts and passions for an eternal purpose.” 
White agrees that meeting a seeker’s need for a higher purpose—not a need for new friends—helps visitors connect. “We used to put the emphasis on getting them a friend,” he says, “but we’re finding that these people are not unhappy relationally. Now, it’s more about getting them connected to the church because people have a quicker connection through mission.”
And with that need for purpose comes a desire for accountability to that purpose, Rainer’s research discovered. He found that churches, which expected more of their members, kept the most members and assimilated more people than churches, which didn’t require much from their worshippers. In other words, people respond to being wanted and needed.

Facilitating Significance and Purpose:

Communicating purpose. Lake Forest, Calif.-based Saddleback Church’s phenomenon, the “40 Days of Purpose” movement headed by Saddleback Senior Pastor Rick Warren, is perhaps the clearest testimony to the power of significance today. There,  members, guests and unchurched people alike are welcomed into home groups to discover their purpose in life. The classes have resulted in salvations and church growth around the world.

Raise the bar. Rainer’s study showed that regardless of the methods employed by effective assimilation churches, each church demonstrated clearly stated expectations in their ministries.

Welcome ministries that work. Gene Galloway, founder and former pastor of 6,400-member New Hope Community Church in Portland, Ore., identifies a church’s guest services ministry—everything from parking cars and greeting to ushering and manning welcome tables—as one of the most practical steps to closing the back door. In the book Making Church Relevant, Galloway advises church leaders to consider how many “personal touches” a newcomer receives when he visits your church. “There’s a direct ratio between how many touches someone receives and whether or not they’ll return,” he says. “Make it impossible for anyone to leave your church without being greeted by at least five to 10 people.”

Newcomer receptions. Newcomer receptions, where guests can grab a cup of coffee and some food, work well at Mecklenburg, White says. “The best thing we can do is quickly tell them what this church is about and how they can get involved,” he says.

“Discovery” classes. Thousands of churches use a series of “Discovery” classes to lead guests through a process of increased involvement at a church.  Daybreak Community Church in Carlsbad, Calif., gave its “Discovery” series a twist.  “We switched what would typically be the 201 (Christian maturity) and 301 (spiritual gifts/ministry) discovery classes,” says former pastor David Tscherne. “We found that new people were often more willing to usher than to be in a small group, for example. By being involved in a task-oriented team, they found significance and developed relationships, which made them feel comfortable enough to get involved with a small group.” 

Doing ministry. Pleasant Valley Baptist has discovered that helping new people find a place of ministry quickly develops significance and purpose. The church recently turned its lobby into a “fair” at which various community organizations and church ministries set up booths to inform attendees about current needs and to provide information on how to get involved.
A pull mentality. Frazee encourages churches to adopt a “pull mentality.” Eight out of 10 people have to be pulled, or invited, before they join anything, he notes. “Few people have the confidence to push their way into a group,” he explains. “People feel significant when they’re invited to join a community. Through our words and actions, we have to make it clear to newcomers, ‘Your presence here today means something to us. We have room for you.’ ”

Source: Outreach magazine

by Charles Arn

I sat affixed in front of my TV. THE BORG had just captured my hero and brought him onboard.

“You will be assimilated,” a hideous-looking Borg intoned, raising his tentacles to the temples of “Star Trek” ’s Captain Picard.

“Resistance is futile!”

“No,” I shouted. “Don’t! It will be all over!” 

I couldn’t look… (even though I knew what was going to happen, since I had seen the show before). Captain Picard was about to lose his ability to think for himself. He was going to be (gasp!)… assimilated.

A more intellectual approach to the term takes us to the dictionary, where assimilate is defined: “To include into the larger whole; to involve; to make one.”

Moreover, Scripture offers numerous insights into the importance of our “assimilation” into the Body of Christ: “The kingdom of faith is now your home country. You are no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here … ” (Eph. 2:19, The Message).
While ultimately, assimilation into a local church is a spiritual process, it can be facilitated by a loving church that’s committed to making those connections. Here’s a look at the critical checkpoints in the process of seeing outsiders becoming insiders. How is your church doing in each area?

Attracting First-time Visitors   

You can’t assimilate visitors if you don’t have any. Thus, an obvious prerequisite to effective assimilation is having enough visitors. How many are enough? According to The Church Growth Ratio Book (Church Growth Inc.), 5% of a growing church’s total weekend attendance should be first-, second- or third-time visitors. Most churches average 1 to 2% visitors—which is one reason why most U.S. churches aren’t growing.

Making the Right Impression

What kind of first impressions does your church make on visitors? Most churches don’t know because their regular attendees can no longer see the church through a newcomer’s eyes. But first impressions have everything to do with whether or not visitors will return. 

The first 10 minutes of the visitor’s experience present prime opportunities to say, “Welcome.” If you were to visit Calvary Christian Reformed Church in Pella, Iowa, you’d be met in the parking lot by welcoming hosts. First Evangelical Free Church in Fullerton, Calif., stations hosts wearing red blazers and a “Questions???”  button.

The first 10 minutes before a service are an important time for making good first impressions, but apparently not the most important time.

The Most Important Factor

At Church Growth Institute, we have interviewed people after their first visit to a church. We asked: “What most impressed (or depressed) you about the church you had just visited?” One answer far outdistanced all others: “the friendliness of the church.”
“So, how did you determine whether or not the church was friendly?” we then asked. “Simple,” they told us. “It was whether or not anyone talked to us.” 

Well, my friends, it’s apparently not rocket science, after all. There is a simple, yet profound relationship between the number of people who talk to a first-time visitor, and a visitor’s impression of the “friendliness” of that church: Many conversations = friendly church; few conversations = unfriendly church. The perceived “friendliness” of your church is the most significant factor in whether or not a first-time visitor will return.

Critical Endings

We asked one more question in our study: “When did you conclude that the church was or wasn’t a friendly church?” The most frequent response surprised us. There is a 10-minute window in the 75 to 90 minutes most people spend in their first church visit, and that window is critical for the first impression of friendliness. When? It is the first 10 minutes following the service.

The rules are now off. The people are who they really are. And that’s when it really shows, our subjects said.
A few years ago, my family and I visited Cornerstone Bible Church in Glendora, Calif., while looking for a new church following our move. At the end of the service, the pastor said to the congregation: “Now, before we go, remember our three-minute rule here: No one can talk with a person they know for the first three minutes after the service. You can sit and meditate. You can leave silently. Or, you can talk with someone you don’t know.” Most chose the latter. I found it a “freeing” experience, which allowed me to turn to a stranger and start a conversation. Our “three-minute” conversation lasted 15 minutes. And guess who we looked for at that church when we returned for a second visit?

Returning: Seeing Visitors Come Back

Upon closer study of the visitor assimilation process, a remarkable pattern appears. Remarkable, but logical: The more often visitors return, the more likely it is that they will stay. 

Several years ago, we conducted a study on visitor return rates. We asked churches to identify a continuous six-week period and observe the number of people who visited once, twice or three times in that timeframe. Then, one year later, we asked the churches to determine how many of those people had joined or become active.

We found that 9% of those who visited non-growing churches one time during that six weeks became involved in that church the following year. However, of those who visited twice in the six-week period, 17% subsequently became active. And, even in non-growing churches, more than one-third of the newcomers who visited three times were now participating in that church.
Electronic Support

The question should leap off the page: “Do we have an effective visitor follow-up system for more than just our first-time visitors?” Tracking, contacting and following up on your visitors, new attendees and even regular attendees can be difficult and time-intensive. Yet, nothing is worse than someone falling through the cracks. Many churches have begun to use computer-based databases and visitor assimilation software. While these programs range in capabilities, sophistication and price, most churches have found that having some type of computer-based solution for tracking attendees is now a necessity.
Nurturing: Building  Relationships with Newcomers

Try asking your new members the same question we’ve asked more than 40,000 laypeople in the past 11 years: “Why did you join this church?” If your people are typical, 75% to 90% of them will mention “a friend or relative” as a key part of the process.

Relationships have been the most important factor in the expansion of Christianity since the first century. An effective assimilation strategy, therefore, will create a “greenhouse” in which new relationships between newcomers and church members are nurtured. 

In my own case, an important part of our eventual church selection grew from an invitation I received two days after our first visit. It was an invitation to become part of the church softball team. My wife was later invited to be part of a women’s Bible study.

Joining: Affiliation and Membership

A missing assimilation link in many churches is the Inquirer’s Class, where anyone can learn more about the church no strings attached. Our experience is that 85% of all graduates from such a class decide to join. 

Have high expectations for your new members. St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Trenton, Mich., tells its class that every member is expected to: 1) be regular in worship, 2) be involved in a small group, 3) give financially and 4) have a ministry in the church consistent with their spiritual gift. No wonder St. Paul’s has a high member-to-attendance ratio and a low dropout rate. 

Make the Connection

Assimilation. It’s not rocket science. But, neither is it all intuitive. There’s much to learn. But it’s well worth our effort to learn it. For there’s no doubt that the heart of God is filled with joy when the sheep He places in our care are all present and accounted for—in your church.

Source: Outreach magazine

The Big 4

Through our research, we discovered that four major factors were at work when churches closed the back door effectively. If all four were in play, the back door closed tight. But any one of these factors still contributes to more effective assimilation.
High expectations

The first “big four” issue is high expectations. Our research indicates that the American Church went through a period of more than 10 years when churches significantly lowered their expectations of members and attendees. The result was an exodus of people from the church.

“Why would I want to be a part of something that expects nothing of me?” a former active church member told our research team. Many churches are now attempting to remedy this problem with entry point or new member classes, where expectations of service, stewardship and attendance are clearly established.

Small groups

Second, churches that close the back door seek to get as many of their members as possible into small groups. In some churches, these groups meet in homes. In other churches, the small group is a Sunday school class that meets at the church. The key issue, according to our research, is that the small group is an open group, meaning it has no predetermined termination date, and anyone can enter the group at any point.
Ministry involvement

The third key component is ministry involvement. The earlier a new member or attendee can get involved in a church’s ministries, the higher the likelihood of effective assimilation. Churches that close the back door have a clear plan to get people involved and doing ministry as quickly as possible.
Relationship connections

Finally, the more new members connect with longer-term members, the greater the opportunity for assimilation. In an interesting twist in our research, we found that most of these relationships developed before the new member ever came to the church. In other words, members were intentionally developing relationships with people outside the walls of the church. They invited them to church after the relationship had been established.

If your church has a big “back door” problem, we suggest that you tackle these issues one at a time. Don’t try to implement all four simultaneously; each one takes work and time. Though improving any one of these factors can significantly enhance assimilation, the most effective starting point typically is dynamic, open small groups, whether they’re home groups or the more traditional on-campus Sunday school classes.

You’ll then be that much closer to watching the back door close tight.

Source: Outreach magazine, "Surprising Insights," March/April 2006