Hopefully, you will meet new people this week. One of the marks of a healthy church is a steady stream of new attendees. They might have come for any kind of reason—an outreach initiative, a special service or time of the year, or maybe just an invitation from a church member. Whatever the cause, they are there. And once they are, there is one, key question you should ask:
What happens next?
Most churches have some kind of answer to that question, but generally, the answer involves actions taken by the church toward the guests. What happens next? There might be a gift bag. Or a phone call from a member of the church staff. Or even a personal visit or invitation to coffee. These are all good things, but think about the question from the opposite direction:
What should a person who visits your church do next?
Another way to say it might be: what prescribed next step will we offer to someone who is visiting? This is an important question to answer because if there is nothing for that person to do–no action for them to take–then chances are they will hang around on the periphery of the congregation and then eventually move on.
For visitors to become contributing members of a local congregation, they need to be involved as quickly as possible in the life of the church. The problem is that every single person who visits a church is different.
They have different spiritual backgrounds, different understandings of who God is and what church should be about, and different life experiences that have shaped their understanding of faith. All of those differences make it complicated to involve people effectively. And yet the answer to that “next step” question is one of the things that separates churches that have steady and sustainable growth from those that do not.
So what happens next?
For some churches, this is a membership class in which people come to understand the core doctrines of the church, the philosophy and vision of ministry, and how they can become involved. But what many such classes lack is the personal relational connection with other church members.
Other churches push new people immediately to a small group in which they can experience life connection with others. But what that next step often lacks is the emphasis on doctrine and church vision found in membership classes.
Ideally, the next step has both. It is a “level-setting” experience in which people learn the truth of the gospel and the other core doctrines, while at the same time connecting deeply with other people. In such an experience, people come out on the other side not only understanding who the church is and what spiritual development looks like there, but also with a depth of relationship that serves as the glue to keep them in the congregation.
Perhaps one of the reasons you might not be seeing sustained growth is the lack of such an experience. If that’s true, then it’s time to rethink your answer to the question, “What happens next?”
Rooted Network can help meet this need. Hundreds of churches are understanding how the Rooted experience can not only help people understand the core Christian doctrines but also connect them deeply into the life of the church. To find out more, visit experiencerooted.com/churchanswers.
