1. 82% of the unchurched are at least somewhat likely to attend church if invited – Dr. Thom Rainer, The Unchurched Next Door
2. Only 2 percent of church members invite an unchurched person to church. 98% of church-goers never extend an invitation in a given year.  – Dr Thom Rainer, The Unchurched Next Door
3. 7 out of 10 unchurched people have never been invited to church in their whole lives. – Dr Thom Rainer, The Unchurched Next Door
4. The US Church is in a general state of decline, with fewer than 20% regularly attending church. That suggests that 7.9 million people may be leaving churches annually – that’s 150,000 each week!  – Outreach Magazine
5. 55% of those who go to church were first invited by someone they knew – George Barna
6. Less than a quarter of Americans (24 percent) are very or somewhat willing to receive information from a local congregation through a visit to their door. Still, 31 percent say a visit to their door would be very or somewhat effective in getting them or others to visit a church. – Lifeway Church
7. 94% of churches in America today are either stagnant or declining. – Outreach Magazine
8. “Perhaps one of the most underestimated reasons people return to the church is that someone simply invited them back. 41% of the formerly churched said they would return to the local church if a friend or acquaintance invited them.” – Outreach Magazine
9. Approximately 60% of those 18–35 would consider returning to church if someone they knew asked them to come back. –Outreach Magazine
10. “A study including more than 15,000 adults revealed that about two-thirds are willing to receive information about a local church from a family member, and 56 percent from a friend or neighbor. The message is clear that the unchurched are open to conversations about church.” – Philip Nation, LifeWay Research and National Spokesperson for Back to Church Sunday

Photo By: Tracy Hunter

Photo By: yoppy

As always, the quality of your audio recording is key to successfully capturing your sermons.  This can be accomplished by using a digital recording device.  Here are a few devices that I would recommend for recording audio:

• Tascam DR-05 Portable Digital Recorder
• Tascam DR2D Portable Digital Recorder
• Sony ICD-AX412 Digital Flash Memory Voice Recorder

These devices range in price from $65.00 to $185.00 on amazon.com and are sufficient to do everything a church would need in the area of audio recording.  These work best when they are linked into a channel on your sound board.

The other thing that will really help enhance your production of the audio recording is good editing software.  Churches definitely are not required to edit the sermons before going on the web, and I definitely don’t think that churches should spend hours on end to edit them. Some churches will want to add a tag to the beginning or end.  This is particularly useful if the church is podcasting.  Here are a few software solutions I would recommend:

• Garage Band (mac)
• Adobe Audition CS6
• Adobe Soundbooth CS5
• Magix Music Maker MX
• WavePad Master’s Edition

I hope these recommendations help your church take your audio recording to the next level.  What is your church currently using to record your sermons and edit them?

Photo By: visual.dichotomy

My wife and I loaded up the kids and went to a church we had not been to on Sunday in a long time (it was a family member’s home church).  When we arrived, we went to check-in our kids. We found the church had two check-in stations but no one at the front desk to help guests.

We were not sure how to use the self check-in system and were pretty sure our kids were not in the system anyway.  We waited along with another family for almost 10 minutes for someone to come along that could help us register our kids.  It was frustrating for sure and if it had not been a family member’s church, I would have bolted for another church.

We finally got scanned in and seated for the service.  I thought about this exact scenario for most of the service.  How many families is this church missing out on because they are not adequately staffed with volunteers on Sunday morning?  This church is a good sized church.  It is not a small country church.  It is a church that runs between 500-600 on Sundays in a good sized city.

What is the take away for you as a church leader?  Always make sure you have volunteers who are there to welcome and help first time guests find their way.  I felt hopeless as a guest at this church, don’t make your guests feel that way.

What do you do at your church to make sure first time guests feel welcomed?

Photo By: Beneath_B1ue_Skies

1. 10 Tips for Having a Great Church Blog
2. Audio and Video Recording in Worship Services- Part 1
3. Creating a Winning Team from Dysfunctional Members
4. How to Get Guests to Give you Their Information
5. Social Media Demographics

I speak with pastors and ministry leaders everyday and everyday I hear how tough it is to get first time guests to give their information to the church.  Here are a few tips to help you increase the number of first time guests that give you their information:

• Get rid of the pew pads.  I talk to so many churches that still have pads at the end of every row that get passed down at the beginning of the service.  If you want to scream at first time guests “We don’t want your information!”,  I would advise you to keep the pew pads and stop reading.  If you actually want more info from your guests, keep reading.  A much better way is to use a guest information card in the bulletin or chair back.
• Incentivize them for giving information.  Most churches expect that first time guests will willingly give their information out if they are asked for it.  In this day of telemarketing and the like, you must incentivize them to give you their information.  Have you ever walked into a major league baseball park and been offered a free t-shirt for filling out a credit card application?  Why do you think they give you a free t-shirt for doing that?  It is simply because they know they will get a much better response if they offer you something for your information.  I have seen churches give lots of things away, from chocolate bars to coffee mugs.  Whatever you choose to give away in exchange for first time guests information will be good as long as it is something people value.
• Have them bring it to a welcome center.  The only real way to incentivize the guest card and make sure you get more of them is to have them turn the card in to a welcome center to receive their gift.  This also allows them to have a personal interaction with a volunteer and increases the likelihood they will return for a second and third visit.

What do you do at your church to ensure you are maximizing the amount of guest cards that come in?

Photo By: Kdt

Let’s take First Christian Church, an imaginary church, as an example of what I am talking about.  First Christian Church spends $10,000 a year on marketing and outreach.  They are seeing somewhere around 5-6 first time guests every Sunday.  This is really good for a church that is running 200 on Sunday mornings.  These numbers mean that FCC is seeing 250-300 first time guests every year.  Those are strong numbers that seem to indicate that FCC is really effective in their marketing and outreach efforts.  The problem comes in when you look at FCC’s average attendance 12 months ago.  Twelve months ago FCC was averaging 190 on Sundays.  Most churches would see the average increasing by 10 over a year as a win, but they fail to see all of the first time guests that have come and gone in that year.  In this scenario, FCC has grown their average attendance by 10, but they have missed out on 240-290 people they could have retained and assimilated into the body.  What would happen if FCC could keep just 4 extra people (an average family) every month for the next 12 months?  It would mean instead of growing by 10, FCC would have an average attendance of somewhere around 260.

This is how IgniteCRM helps churches.  IgniteCRM helps churches keep more of those first time guests by streamlining the follow up process and allowing visitors to get connected into the life of the church.  I have seen IgniteCRM help church after church to make their retention and assimilation process better as they have tried to keep more of the first time guests that walk through the doors.  How is your church doing with retention?  With assimilation?  I would love to walk you through a church health analysis and show you what IgniteCRM can do for your church.

Photo By: silent shot

What are your thoughts on sharing the Gospel via social networking channels?

• George Barna’s research shows that people will form their opinion of a church they visit within the first 5-7 minutes of being on campus.  This means that everything we do as a church should be guest friendly.  We need to have good signage, friendly greeters of all ages, parking lot attendants, clean restrooms and so much more.  Everything you do and even things like clean parking lots speak volumes about your church to a first time guest.
• One church in Arizona has a team that meets first time guests at their car and starts to form relationships with them as they walk them to their classes or to find a seat in the worship service.  This allows the first time guests to get to know someone before they venture into the building and builds a sense of comfort.  Some churches even have that team sit with those first time guests during the worship service.
• 40% of people will form their opinion about a church before they even see the pastor, according to Barna.  This really tells me that the support staff and volunteers that one comes in contact with before seeing the pastor are going to be a determining factor in forming the opinion of the church the majority of the time.

What it all comes down to as a church is how comfortable you want first time guests to feel.  I was reading a book by Nelson Searcy not too long ago in which he states that every first time guest at your church Is a blessing from God.  He says that the first time guest is a gift that God has given you and the question is how you will respond to that gift.  Many churches have first time guests all the time who come to church searching for a church home or answers in their spiritual lives only to leave the church not feeling  welcomed.  What will your church do to go above and beyond to make sure first time guests are welcomed and feel comfortable?  What does your church currently do with first time guests?

Photo By: Beneath_B1ue_Skies

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