10 Better Practices for Effective Guest Response

by: Bryan Rose

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The most-asked questions at each Auxano Guest Experience Boot Camp consistently revolve around recognizing, and hopefully eliciting, some kind of response from First Time Guests. After serving more than 100 churches and campuses while curating Guest Perspective Evaluations, I have observed various styles of church Welcome Team best practices in this arena. Here are a few common forms of Guest recognition that ultimately end in failure to produce a second visit:

The Family Reunion – We are very friendly and love it when we have first timers and they will definitely feel welcomed. But like the “last boyfriend,” we don’t expect them to be here the next time we gather so we do not invest much real effort.

The Sorority Ceremony – We quickly forget that we invited that guy to be Santa at our Christmas Party and leave him in the corner while we conduct some weird “OMG! You got engaged!” ritual. We feel sorry that he was uncomfortable and we wasted his time during exams week, but it’s our house and our rules.

The Eggshell Walk – We work hard to make sure our Guests can remain completely anonymous. However, in consciously sidestepping Guest parking spots or welcome centers, it becomes MORE conspicuous and uncomfortable to visit our campus and wander helplessly around for the first time.

The Humanitarian Relief – We are so tired from keeping the ministry held together and the lights turned on, that whenever a new family visits, they are mobbed like aid workers during a third-world famine. Every smile carries a certain sense of desperation and the hopes that “you are the one” that return us to our former glory.

Here are 10 Better Practices for Effective Guest Response:

1. Remember to leave time for them to fill out the card. If you announce the seat/pew-back connection card immediately before the offering plate or another stand-and-sing song starts, people will not have time to fill it out. Think through your service timing and make welcome announcements intentional not automatic.
2. Provide pens too. Keep the seats stocked or hand them out at the door. This simple reminder is essential for filling out cards and taking notes on the sermon. Invest in branded pens and invite them to “steal the pens” as long as they leave them for their server at lunch, alongside a generous tip.
3. Don’t ask for too much information. Think through how much you are asking for on the connection cards and what you will do with it. Do you really need every data point, or just enough to follow-up the next week?
4. Provide your contact information first. Why would a first time guest give you, a somewhat over-caffeinated announcement maker, their cell phone number? List your contact information, whatever you are asking for from them, first. Unless you are ready for them to call you randomly, do not expect to be able to call them randomly.
5. Tell them why you want their information. If you need their address or cell phone number, then tell them why. If they know that you are just sending a thank-you note and not going to show up out of the blue some evening, they may be more likely to give it to you.
6. Trade them for something. One great way to receive a Guest response is to give Guest swag. Consider a “swap” for the connection card in the form of a Bible, book, teaching resource or other tangible items. But be careful, some churches have gone too far with this idea!
7. Tie their response to your vision. What if you choose to invite your Guests into God’s better future, to share in your missional calling, instead of just making the typical announcement? Let them know how their response demonstrates a core value of your church, represents the next step in their spiritual growth, or forms the foundation of long-term disciple-making success.
8. Don’t send them to a back room or dark corner. Position any next steps, meet and greet areas, or welcome centers in prime locations within the flow of traffic. Very few people will go against the flow to huddle under the dark balcony stairs – no matter what new swag you have to give them.
9. Plan for a multi-dimensional response. Create two to three different opportunities to respond rather than just relying on one card. You should provide online web forms, Facebook group pages and regular discovery classes to attend. Move beyond the worship tear-off card and look for other, natural opportunities to connect. Team up with the Kids ministry and share information about Guest families, as every parent will have given contact information at sign-in.
10. Plan the work and work the plan. Think through the entire experience a new family will have at your church, from their first Google search to the ride home. Now think beyond the first visit and how that family will be engaged and growing in Christ at your church. Create a plan and the supporting systems that move people toward God’s better future, one step at a time. Assign one person to have ownership over the entire process, working with and for every ministry.

At Auxano, we use Seven Checkpoints to frame the Guest Experience process from the web to the welcome center. Interested in learning more? Bring a team of up to five leaders to one of our upcoming Guest Experience Boot Camps and learn how to integrate the seven checkpoints, as well as create an intuitive plan to get an excellent Guest response at your church.

Find out more about the Guest Experience Boot Camps here.

> Read more from Bryan.

Tags: Bryan Rose, Church Guest Experience, Guest, Guest response

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6 Moments to Engage Families in Small Groups

by: Bryan Rose

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It happened again.

You just made the same small group announcement.
Sure, it happened on a different Sunday, during a different series. However, you just made that same hope-full announcement and received that same life-less response.
All across today’s church, leaders are saying more, yet somehow congregations are hearing less.

Every prop and trick lay used, relegated to a back-of-the-stage pile of ineffective effort. The funny videos made lots of people laugh, but no one dropped their carefully curated “perfect life” façade to live in heart-level relationships. The moving testimony video made plenty of people cry, but no one took that first, fear-fueled step into schedule-wrecking community.

Our best, most creative emphasis and announcement efforts bounce harmlessly off the Teflon-strong force field of the family calendar. For most in today’s church, a crisis-level lack of family engagement in groups boils down to this: the felt-need of life in community has yet to surpass the real-pain of an over scheduled life.

All of the church-speak generic “life together” reasons for “living in community”through “life groups” ring hollow as cul-de-sac gatherings, travel team parent bonding, and friends (with boating benefits) deftly imitate true and Gospel-centered relational connection.

After all, who needs yet another night away with yet another group of people?

We make the announcements but fail to articulate the value of community, especially with other people experiencing life-change. We promote the seasonal sign-ups, but neglect the most natural entry-points during life-stages.

Consider the many, fear-inducing moments of change and seasons of adjustment that every family experiences. Most are perfect opportunities to leverage the wisdom and comfort of community as a real and natural need to be a part of a group.

Here are six life-stage opportunities to expand engagement in small group life:

Newlywed / Engaged Couples. The first friends as a couple are typically life-long. Leverage premarital counseling and intensive wedding preparation seasons to focus young lovers on building depth of community into their marriage, not simply crafting Pinterest-worthy moments into a ceremony.

Expecting Parents. Parents-to-be, especially when it is their first child, are usually scared to death and more open to asking questions and being influenced by parents who have “been there, done that.” Working together, the preschool minister and groups leader have a natural opportunity to encourage and resource parents into group life.

Baby Dedication. More than preparing for a Sunday moment, this is a natural time to gather families in a small-group environment as a prerequisite to participation. Gather new parents to discuss a book or parenting bible study for 4-6 weeks before the Sunday morning ceremony. Church leaders can reinforce gathering in a home as more important than standing on a stage, and see those groups continue for years.

Kindergarten / Grade School. The tear-filled eyes of parents driving away from the campus after dropping their “couldn’t possibly be this old already” child at school are indications of shared emotions. They are also likely indications of an openness to prioritize time with other parents wiping their eyes as well. Giving parents a place to do more than cope or commiserate, groups in this life stage encourage connection and iron sharpening. Start the conversation by introducing parents to the children’s ministry while at the same time introducing them to other parents just as scared and hopeful as they are.

Middle / High School. Puberty, dating and social media… enough said. Parents with children entering middle school or high school need help, and quickly. As your next group of youth age-up into the student ministry, do more than just meet with parents and talk at them. Make it a goal to get those parents talking to each other and finding common ground together. Convene a round table on important topics, and spin off discussion groups that can grow into meaningful small groups or bible study classes.

College / Empty Nest. The last 18+ years have been spent focused on successfully getting their children out of the nest, and prayerfully staying out. Now these suddenly purposeless parents struggle to reconnect and establish the new normal once their baby birds finally fly off. Graduation Sundays offer a great chance to celebrate each student, but also a great connection with the parents wondering “what’s next.” What if leaders offered one or two strategic gatherings over the summer to prepare parents for this new normal, all the while pointing to a Fall season of group life?

Families in your church are physically, emotionally, and spiritually right where you have led them to be… in groups and not.

Now is the time to stop thinking about small groups in ways that work on a ministry calendar or for a pastoral preference.

Now is the time to start engaging families during the seasons and moments in life that actually matter to them.

Now is the time to truly engage people in meaningful Gospel-centered community, not just make that same small group announcement.

Learn more about engaging people in a Gospel-centered community: Connect with an Auxano Navigator.

More from Bryan.

Tags: Bryan Rose, Community, Discipleship, small group

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7 Reasons to Incubate Your Next Campus Launch

by: Bryan Rose

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In elementary school, one of my daughter’s classrooms held an egg incubator. Over the course of a few weeks, the children learned about eggs and were able to watch their hatchlings emerge. This transparent case, with heat lamp and straw matting, become critical to the life of those little chickens, protecting them from rough handling and carefully controlling environmental conditions until the birds could begin to fend for themselves.

The multisite church movement no longer exists as a revolutionary approach to church multiplication. Campus launching is now standard practice for reaching new geographic areas and extending the gospel impact of congregations large and small. Despite the commonality of this model, it remains helpful to remember that new campuses could also benefit from the protection of an incubator early on. Holding at least two weeks of worship services on-campus at the sending church, alongside existing worship services, can be critical to the development of volunteers, leaders and staff. Carefully controlling environmental conditions in a secondary venue of worship brings benefits to both the team being sent, and those doing the sending.

Here are seven reasons to hold at least two incubator services before launching your next multisite church campus:

To Build Campus Identity by bringing the early adopters all together in worship and establishing the core team’s identity as pioneers months prior to launch.

To Sample Message Delivery by forcing communicators to think through their content and the context of their sermons. If preaching live to each campus, early incubator services help campus pastors practice applying local context in each campus or environment. For video communication, an incubator service serves as a lower-risk way to alleviate the fears of screen-driven sermon delivery.

To Bring Everyone Together by leveraging existing childcare and gathering space, usually a choir room or fellowship hall, at the sending campus. An incubator service may be the only time everyone on the launch team will worship as one body. Once launch happens, ministry volunteering and multiple services dissipate core team connectivity each week.

To See Who’s (Really) In by allowing leaders to get a feel of who is on the team and recruit or steer direction as a result. Seeing everyone in one room, without the immediacy of launch looming, brings cohesion to every one-on-one conversation. Savvy campus leaders will use an incubator to make those elusive personal connections that they have been missing.

To Share Launch Ownership by reminding the entire church body that they are being sent as one to this new frontier, represented by this group of launch pioneers. Minimizing the “them” and “that new church” language must begin as soon as possible. Incubator services reinforce a one church multiple locations mindset before launch even happens.

To Test Parallel Systems by replicating worship service processes in a controlled environment. Developing multiple teams for concurrent worship, delivering technology in a portable setting can be daunting. And while preview services on-site are helpful at debugging systems, incubator services at the sending campus can help everyone know what questions to ask in the first place.

To Train New Volunteers by creating excitement across the congregation. Seasons of launch are a natural time to bring new volunteers to the team at both the sending and multisite campus. Incubator services are effective in providing opportunities to shadow existing volunteers and learn the systems in a known environment.

WHETHER 2018 IS THE YEAR YOU ARE GOING MULTISITE FOR THE FIRST TIME, OR SENDING YOUR SEVENTH CAMPUS, CONSIDER HOLDING ONE OR TWO INCUBATOR SERVICES BEFORE YOU LAUNCH.

AT AUXANO, WE CREATE BREAK-THROUGH CLARITY FOR MULTISITE CHURCH TEAMS THROUGH A UNIQUE PROCESS OF LAUNCH EXECUTION PLANNING THAT FULLY INTEGRATES YOUR UNIQUE IDENTITY WHILE STRENGTHENING A WHOLE-CHURCH VISION. WE KNOW THAT MOST CHURCHES NEED MORE THAN ANOTHER GENERIC STRATEGIC PLAN OR NOTEBOOK OF MULTISITE BEST PRACTICES, AND HAVE HAD THE HONOR TO WORK WITH MULTISITE CHURCHES FROM 200 TO 20,000 DURING SEASONS OF LAUNCH AND GROWTH.

> Read more from Bryan.

Connect with an Auxano Navigator to start a multisite conversation today.

Tags: Bryan Rose, Church multisite, Multisite, multisite church

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20 Unavoidable Requirements for Vision Breakthrough

by: Bryan Rose

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As leaders, we are naturally praying for breakthrough in one or more areas…

• In our family
• In our health
• In our relationships
• In our congregation
• And especially in God’s vision for our church

But vision breakthrough requires change.

And in just a few short weeks, the warm, hopeful desire for vision breakthrough will stand toe-to-toe with the cold, hard reality of the sacrifice demanded to achieve change. Only what we are truly committed-to, and convicted-of, will remain standing.

For most of us, spending another year talking about what should be different will be as effective in this year as it was in the last.

There is profit in all hard work, but endless talk leads only to poverty. Proverbs 14:23

It might seem obvious, but healthy change and Biblical growth will not “just happen” without work.

Lasting breakthrough in your church consists of at least 20 unavoidable requirements, because in the end…

…vision takes Effort – As followers of Christ, we have no model nor Biblical map for the path of least resistance.

…vision takes Money – Extending the life of a dying church costs very little, revitalizing hope for the future takes thoughtful & intentional investment.

…vision takes Time – God has gifted us with a mind to dream about “what if,” and the time to be about “what next.”

…vision takes Risk – The riverbanks are safer than the rapids, but the full beauty of the river cannot merely be observed, it must be experienced.

…vision takes Courage – Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the presence of fear and then moving forward in faith anyway.

…vision takes Recklessness – Following a Savior who gave His life will likely involve moments of leadership in which we risk ours.

…vision takes Fear – An honest appraisal of the stakes involved in pastoring a church should strike fear in the heart of any experienced leader.

…vision takes Control – A pastoral calling in the local church requires active leadership engagement, not passive membership observation.

…vision takes Prayer – Depending on prayer for breakthrough, means setting aside enough time for a season, not just enough to start a meeting.

…vision takes Truth – Understanding the current state of the church is the only start, if effectiveness and health are truly the destination.

…vision takes Reality – Communication of “what could be” apart from “what is” creates a precarious gap. Excessive aspiration breeds active cynicism.

…vision takes Collaboration – Successful leadership is not measured by what you get accomplished, but by what gets accomplished without you.

…vision takes Help – Every leader naturally thinks they can “do it themselves” when it comes to vision – if you could have, you would have by now.

…vision takes Commitment – It’s much easier to start something new than to revitalize something in existence. New isn’t always better, ask Coke.

…vision takes Humility – Owning and understanding what we presently do not know catapults the process of understanding and owning God’s preferred future.

…vision takes Understanding – Lasting leadership impact does not happen because you developed great solutions, but because you asked great questions.

…vision takes Perspective – The longer you are a part of a system or organization, the harder it becomes for you to see things as they actually are.

…vision takes Immediacy – There are as many reasons to start tomorrow as there are wishes we had started yesterday. Today is all we have.

…vision takes Patience – You cannot microwave vision, it is as healthy & nutritious for the church body as a microwave burrito is for your physical body.

…vision takes Jesus – If the Gospel of Christ is not the primary catalyst and the singular focus of our effort, let’s change the name and charge membership fees.

Visionary breakthrough will demand much, but reward much more. Will Mancini’s book God Dreams is a great place to begin. Here is a recent post from Will on the importance of breakthrough church vision.

If you are ready to start a breakthrough vision conversation with an Auxano team member, or learn more about scheduling a 2-Day Vision Retreat this year, let us know here.

In the meantime… get to work.

> Read more from Bryan.

Tags: Bryan Rose, God Dreams, Vision Breakthrough

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Six Churches Who are “Nailing It” with Their Branding

by: Bryan Rose

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Intentional Sunsets Bring Beautiful Sunrises: How to Lead Healthy Change in Your Church

by: Bryan Rose

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Remember when the University of Alabama Birmingham football program was dissolved? A video of player’s reactions was definitely NSFW! Although the original announcement was not in the clip, based on the player response filmed… their own important, personal and emotional decisions to play ball at UAB felt overlooked and thrown to the side because “the numbers do not work.”

Immediately I recognized the passion and fervor (and honestly, some of the language) often seen and heard from church members after being told they were losing a very important, always personal and often emotional part of their church identity through changes like:

• A staff member transition.
• A worship style change.
• A Sunday school model abandoned.
• A children’s program discontinued.
• A building left empty in relocation.

Every instance held arguably “right” reasons…

Yet right reasons rarely make emotional changes feel right.

Our church culture, with a social-media connected visibility of great ideas, fuels the desire in leaders to love sunrises. We are guilty of emphasizing the starting of new initiatives, while forgetting the importance of celebrating the impact of aging strategies through healthy sunsets.

After all, transition is inevitable in the church…

• Ministry programs fail to meet once-felt needs and lose effectiveness.
• Worship styles change and respond to artistic gifts of emerging worship leaders.
• Staff will retire, move to another church or worse yet, lose their authority to lead.
• Altars and “sacred spaces” will eventually repainted, re-carpeted or replaced.

HOW we communicate change is as important as why we are making the change to begin with. Most often, our rationale is rarely relatable in the context of high personal investment. Effective church leaders tell stories of Gospel impact and Christ-centered transformation, while pointing ahead to the next sunrise God is preparing.

Celebrating change with an intentional sunset builds anticipation toward the beautiful sunrise to come.

How can you lead the next change at your church with an intentional sunset?

> Read more from Bryan.

Tags: Bryan Rose, Change, Change in Your Church, Church Change, Healthy Change, Leading Change in Your Church

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3 Reminders to Reach Travel-Ball Families

by: Bryan Rose

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Fall is the time of year when the days grow shorter and the fireflies glow softer. The season when the amber aura of Friday night stadium lights illuminate the welcome relief of cooling dusk hours.

As sunburns fade and school assignments increase, many families make their annual migration back to church from weekends at the lake or ball field.

In these Fall Sundays, church leaders have an unnervingly short window to reintegrate these passive parents into active biblical community and reinvigorate in them blessing of body-life. Instead of finger wagging at their summer delinquency, the grace-full leader will leverage this opportunity to welcome families back home.

You do not have to affirm seasonal church attendance to reconnect with a seasonal church attender. If you hope to engage prodigal families this fall, keep these thoughts in mind:

Do not ask for more time… cast vision of great impact.

Paint a picture of the value to personal and family growth by connecting in a group or in a volunteer role. Remember, these families have demonstrated a willingness to prioritize their finances and calendar to the things they perceivewill matter. Instead of giving them another event to put on their already-too-busy calendar, build deep wells of engagement by speaking of the impact missional involvement has on their family.

Do not ask for more money… give opportunity for investment.

Use vision language to speak to the real and immediate consequences of a mission activity, season of ministry impact, or facility need. The average family in our culture spends the fall paying down their “perfect summer” of credit card expenses, just in time to run them up again in the name of perfect Christmas memories. Remember, parents will invest resources where they sense a real and personal return. Today is the best time to help them see beyond the rusting, moth-ridden pleasures of now to the eternally stored treasures of heaven.

Do not ask for more guilt… share an abundance of grace.

It may be convicting to realize that our generic “life together” descriptors and ineffective development strategies are the reason families disconnect so easily. Many parents in your congregation see very little difference in spending time with travel ball parents criticizing coaching or referees, than they do circled around God’s Word with youth group parents. Many of these fathers and mothers have not been discipled or taught to see the value of Biblical community over sporting competition. Encourage parents to engage each week with meaningful bible studies or teaching points, supported by intentional next-step discussions beyond the Sunday morning pulpit.

When it comes to engaging families this fall, remember:

Giving Value > Getting Time

Helping Invest > Raising Money

Abundant Grace  > Heaping Guilt

> Read more from Bryan.

Tags: Bryan Rose, Fall, Families, Reconnect

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7 Signs of Lifeless Church Vision

by: Bryan Rose

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Five People Who Volunteer in Every Church Parking Lot

by: Bryan Rose

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He is the face of your weekly welcome.

He is the first human interaction every Guest will experience.

He is fighting on the faded front lines of an automotive battlefield.

He keeps chaos at bay by the power vested in a reflective nylon vest.

He is the Church Parking Lot Volunteer.

Not that all church parking lot volunteers are men, it is just that most women are not tempted by the rush of power and vestiges of control found only by directing slow-moving automobiles toward already-obvious decisions. In fact, church parking lot volunteers are a unique breed of servant leader, a people set apart. They possess a keen ability to step right from the parking lot into the worship service, and remain blissfully oblivious to their distinctive “I’ve been outside all morning” smell… suggesting that they may not be set apart enough.

However, as a church leader, it would be foolish to classify every parking lot volunteer into one cliched, amorphous whole. There are at least five distinctive sub-types within this walkie-talkie wearing brigade, each with different needs and motivations.

Here are five types of church parking lot volunteers and clear direction for leading each one:

The Deputy
Marked by his wrap-around sunglasses, fingerless gloves, and Batman-type utility belt, the Deputy carries a flashlight to his post each and every Sunday, no matter that Christmas Eve is the only nighttime service all year. The Deputy insists on wearing an earpiece, even though he was asked to stay on a different channel from the security team after reporting yet another possible disruption/charismatic worshipper entering the building. The Deputy travels the tri-state area all week in his plumbing-supply, or similar sales role. But he has never recovered from that one week spent around the Sheriff’s Office as a part of the Boy Scouts Explorer Program. Leading the Deputy requires the twin disciplines of patience and humor. Not taking yourself too seriously allows room for how serious he is, and playing the long-game of leadership will eventually earn his respect. Validate the Deputy’s role on the team and praise his decisiveness as he regales you with yet another heroic close call story from “Malfunction Junction” – the name that only he uses for the four-way stop next to Guest Parking. But above all else remember this about the Deputy: he knows that deep down in places you don’t talk about in church staff meetings, you want him on that wall. You need him on that wall.

The Squirrel
Maybe this guy is not the best person to have in the parking lot, but it is a Fifth Sunday and everyone else is at the lake. The Squirrel is indecisive, panics easily and usually ends up stopping or sending everyone, all at once. Sweating profusely and constantly spinning around, so as not to be overtaken by a hybrid, the Squirrel is a bundle of nerves when he comes back into the lobby. In fact, he is determined that your “15 Minute Rule” keeping him in the parking lot after each service begins, takes a year off of his life each Sunday. Leading the Squirrel requires you to be a cheerleader turned hostage negotiator every week that he serves. Be sure to tell him he’s doing a good job, but do not give into his demands for a transfer to the coffee bar or handing out bulletins at the worship center door. The stakes may seem higher in the parking lot, but out there, at least the Squirrel’s sweaty palms and shifty eyes are not involved in alienating your First Time Guests.

The Zealot
He is excited to serve. Maybe a little too excited for a Sunday morning. The Zealot proves that it is possible for a Welcome Team member to actually be too friendly. Traffic comes to a complete stop as he high fives each excited child and every confused adult in the crosswalk. Heaven forbid someone have their window down in the parking lot, as inquiries toward whether or not they are having a good day and updates on the morning’s coffee flavor are inevitable. The Zealot loves his role, can be counted on to have the golf cart cobweb-free and ready to go, and loves nothing more than to give you a ride right up to the front door each week. He gets there before any staff member, and your drummer just now realized that The Zealot isn’t in the band. Leading the Zealot is easy: just stay out of his way. He is the ideal volunteer, and can be counted on to take any task. Be thankful for the Zealot and treat him and his kind well.

The Rebel
You can tell your team has a Rebel because you cannot tell him apart from anyone else in the parking lot. The Rebel refuses to wear your silly yellow vest and will only stand where HE thinks the traffic flow needs him most. This rugged individualist has been known to release a Nevada Test Site-type mushroom cloud of vape smoke just as service ends. Simply put, the Rebel doesn’t care. He is not afraid to hold traffic in every direction in order to reply to a Small Group text thread on where to go for lunch. Leading the Rebel is the polar opposite of leading the Zealot. In fact, unless you have raised a teenage son or daughter, you are not actually qualified to lead the Rebel. You cannot tell him what to do. Nor can you hope that he will eventually figure it out. Leading the Rebel well keeps your daily walk with Christ honest, and your best bet is to keep sending him the emails and high-fiveing nothing but air each week. If you think you are up to the challenge, get humble and play two steps ahead of the Rebel, in order to make him think every idea is his idea. And you should just give up on him wearing that vest.

The Hostage
His wife made him sign up for this position, and he makes sure you know it each week. The Hostage shows up to volunteer in the parking lot just as the service is scheduled to start. Without a care, he will shrug his shoulders, linger in the coffee bar for ten minutes and then heroically slink in and join his wife in worship. Just know that the Hostage does not want to be there, and, instead of making sure your parking lot experience is great, his mind is occupied with working out a great escape plan. Leading the Hostage is actually quite simple, set up a direct line to communicate with whomever is holding him against his will. Need an extra 15 minutes for a pre-service meeting? Make sure his wife gets the email. Want an extra hand on Easter Sunday? Promise his captor that the Hostage will be returned unharmed, ready for family photos and afternoon ham.

You may not have a parking lot full of Zealots, but hey, at least you are building a team! Experts say your church will never get past a bad first impression, and the parking lot is where most first impressions are made.

Do you want to learn more about creating a great guest experience at your church? 

Do you have a team full of Rebels and Hostages, and no real plan as to how to lead them? 

Do you know that, bottom line, your church’s First Time Guest Experience needs to get better?

Read more from Bryan.

Learn more about the critical importance of your church parking team at Auxano’s Guest Experience Boot Camp. More information here.

Tags: Bryan Rose, Church Guest Experiences, Church Parking Lot Team, Guest Experiences, Parking Team

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Do you have a Good Guest Experience?

by: VRcurator

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Why settle for good?

Why not give your First Time Guests an exceptional welcome!

Here’s something that will help: Two days of training and preparation at Auxano’s Guest Experience Boot Camp in Cincinnati, OH, on August 7-8.

Introducing Auxano’s Guest Experience Boot Camp:

First Time Guests coming to your church will decide to come back or not in the first 11 minutes. And that timer doesn’t start in worship… it starts as they make multiple decisions approaching your campus, pulling into the parking lot, and entering your building.

What will your First Time Guests experience in their first 11 minutes?

Based on over 500 onsite Guest Perspective evaluations with churches of every size and tribe, Auxano’s Guest Experience Boot Camp exemplifies our biblical mandate to have a love for strangers – and create a culture of hospitality!

This 2-Day Boot Camp will include:

• Immersive and interactive training with up to five team members
• Guided learning around core leadership principles from Auxano’s Guest Experience Workbook
• Development of a phased Guest Experience implementation plan integrated into your church context
• Reproducible take-home training tools for your entire Guest Experience team
• Collaborative learning with other dynamic churches
• A 60-minute, one-on-one virtual coaching session one one month after the Boot Camp to check in on your work toward implementing your plan
• Two virtual follow-up sessions with Boot Camp participants two and three months after the Boot Camp
• Lunches and breaks throughout the Boot Camp

The Guest Experience Boot Camp will be held at Vineyard Cincinnati, in Springdale, OH, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday, August 7-8.

Register for the Guest Experience Boot Camp

The $1,995 investment includes registration for up to five members of your church team. Transportation to the host church, local lodging, and evening meals will be the responsibility of each church.

Your Boot Camp Navigators:

Bob Adams is passionate about helping church leaders understand the importance of Guest Experiences in their church. For over 37 years he has served the church in various capacities, working with hundreds of churches in developing Guest Experience ministries. He serves as Auxano’s Guest Experience specialist.

Bryan Rose pairs a degree in Architecture with a servant’s heart for ministry through the local church – the result of which is a powerful passion for creating Compelling Environments to help churches reach and connect with their community. As Lead Navigator for Auxano, Bryan has a strong bias toward merging strategy and creativity to create break-thru clarity for every church team.

Join us at the Guest Experience Boot Camp for a collaborative learning environment that will help you design a Guest Experience centered on your vision and built around a culture of hospitality.

Register for the Auxano Guest Experience Boot Camp here.

Tags: Auxano Boot Camp, Bob Adams, Boot Camp, Bryan Rose, Guest Experience Boot Camp, Guest Experience Training

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