Dick Hardy. Hospitality. Make It Happen. 9 Aspects of Over-the-Top Guest Hospitality. Coaching Guide THE HARDY GROUP

Transcription

1 Dick Hardy Hospitality Make It Happen 9 Aspects of Over-the-Top Guest Hospitality Coaching Guide THE HARDY GROUP

2 Make It Happen Coaching Guide 9 Aspects of Over-the-Top Guest Hospitality By Dick Hardy Printed in the United States of America ISBN Copyright 2011, Dick Hardy Production by Harp Creative, LLC Graphic Design by Emma Ross Cinematography by Randy Bacon and Jonathan Murphy Text Editing by Ken Horn All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be used without written permission of the author, with the exception of brief excerpts for magazine articles, reviews, etc. Permission to make copies of this coaching guide for group discussions is granted to those who have purchased the Make It Happen DVD pack.

3 9 Aspects of Over-the-Top Guest Hospitality What are 9 facets of taking care of the guests who visit your church? Make It Happen Coaching Guide

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5 Thank you for taking time to view the Hospitality video. I hope you enjoyed it. More importantly it is my desire that it motivated you to action to Make It Happen. In this Make It Happen Coaching Guide, I encourage you to do the following. Pray before you begin. Ask God to direct your thinking. Be diligent in your careful reading of the narratives. Be reflective. Do not rush through just to get it done. No change will occur if you do. When you come to the Questions and Descriptions you must think. Some will be simpler questions or descriptions than others. Some will cause your brain to stop, pause, engage and even sometimes lock up. Push through those times and draw the answers and thoughts from within you. You have taken the important step to provide over-thetop guest hospitality for those important new friends who visit your church. Be your best and watch God Make It Happen! Dick Hardy 3

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7 Part One Introduction Welcoming guests to the church? Sounds like a simple question but according to most lead pastors it is extremely complex. Doing it well has become an art form for many. For all, it is a journey of trial and error. It is a one of continuing growth, looking for more and better opportunities to reach guests those who are looking for a church home and those who are looking for God. The following pages describe nine aspects of welcoming guests to the church. Part Two Two Critical Cultures Develop a culture of evangelism. Frankly, there are not many good reasons to encourage a guest to come back if you do not present the gospel in some way. Building a culture of evangelism starts in the pulpit it must be seen as your heartbeat. It must be regularly ingrained into the thinking and psyche of the Body. When members are regularly inviting their non-believing friends to church, then you are one step ahead of the game. That person already has a connecting point to the church. Develop a culture of evangelism and guests will return because of relationship. 5

8 Questions and Descriptions: a. What steps could you take to increase your church s understanding of the critical need for reaching lost people with the gospel? b. Describe what your church service would look like if it were constructed in a way to appeal to a person far from God. c. What are three obstacles to you increasing the culture of evangelism at the church? 6

9 d. Name two things you can do in the next month that will start you down the path of developing this culture. Develop a culture of giving. This may seem odd, but think about it. Do you want Scrooge standing at the front door passing out bulletins? If the people in the congregation are regularly in a mindset of giving, financially and otherwise, then they will be interested in giving to people who are looking for a church home, those looking for God, and those who have no clue what they are looking for. The stingier those in the Body become, the less guests will feel welcomed. Believe me, there is a connection. When people give of their time and resources their arms are open. When arms are open, guests feel it. 7

10 Questions and Descriptions: a. On a scale of 1 (not much fun) to 10 (I love doing it) how much do you enjoy preaching and teaching on tithing? What does it take for you to move that up one notch? b. Calculate your church s giving per capita. Divide last year s average attendance of the total church (man, woman, child) into last year s total general fund giving. What could you do to increase that amount by $50 per year? c. What are three ways you can demonstrate the joy of giving? 8

11 d. Describe the church s physical, hands-on volunteer service to your community food pantry, clean up days, partnership with community agencies, etc. e. What percentage of the congregation participates in volunteer service to the community? What could be done to increase that percentage by 15%? 9

12 Part Three Genuineness and a Gathering Place Create an atmosphere of genuineness. New people to your church can smell this a mile away. When people are genuine, your guests can sense it immediately. This becomes a real challenge, particularly for churches that have been around awhile. People in the congregation, regardless of size, get comfortable with one another and the sense of welcoming new people to the family gets harder and harder the longer the church exists. Questions and Descriptions: a. Name two ways you get a true read on how an outsider to the church views you and the church. 10

13 b. Describe something from your church service that is very clear to us as believers but may not be to those who are not. What can you do to change that? c. What makes being genuine hard to do? d. What goes on inside of you when you come across a person in a store who is there to help you but your sense is that it is just a job for them; they really don t care about serving you? Name the things you can do to be sure no one on your staff or volunteer teams does this. 11

14 Create a specific area for guests to meet you and leaders of the church after service. It is vital that weekly opportunities be given for new friends of the church to gather information about the church and to find connecting points with people. That is best done right after services on the weekend. It is also best done in a space that is somewhat segmented from the rest of the traffic and not at the info booth where all the church folks hang out. Avoid using a room unless it has double doors and is full of big windows. Guests can be hesitant to enter a room not knowing whether they re going to get trapped into something. The best bang for this has you as the lead pastor there to meet them for a few minutes. Communicate from the pulpit that you personally want to meet the guests. Believe me, the largest number of guests will show up if you do so. Do not fall prey to I m too busy on Sunday to meet with guests. I understand your No. 1 priority to be ready in the pulpit. However, not meeting guests is analogous to a senior sales manager saying he is too busy directing things to meet with a new prospect who shows up on the showroom floor. Remember, these guests are prospects for the church. 12

15 Questions and Descriptions: a. Describe the ease of flow out of the sanctuary to your lobby areas. b. What are two obstacles to you developing an after-service gathering place for guests? c. Describe two possible locations for your guest gathering place. 13

16 Part Four Giving and Going Give to the guest. Whatever you do make sure you provide the very best for your guests. Serve them the best coffee around. Have the highest quality donuts or cinnamon rolls. Nothing but the best goodies for your guests. Do not communicate cheap or We are too poor to give you something nice. Questions and Descriptions: a. What kinds of refreshments could you provide for guests that would set the hospitality area apart from anything else you have in the building? b. Describe the kind of volunteer you want to work in your guest hospitality area. 14

17 c. What things can you do to train these volunteers and raise their level of understanding of giving to the guests? Go visit your guest. This must be done right. In an age of high tech, it is critical that the church maintain and accelerate high touch. In the sales culture when a prospective client makes contact with you, you reciprocate. In doing so with a church guest, the church must be genuine and operate with no hidden agenda. Some churches take pre-packaged popcorn, specialty cookies, etc., to deliver to guests at their homes. Make sure there s a nice note attached. No effort should be made to enter the house. It is purely, Thank you for coming; this is our gift to you. And then be on your way. If the guests are not home, those delivering the gift should simply leave it in a safe place at the door. In most communities this works very well and has good retention results. 15

18 Questions and Descriptions: a. Describe how you could set up a systematic plan to go visit your guests, making them feel like you genuinely appreciated them coming to visit the church. b. What obstacles can you foresee to setting this system in place? c. What three things excite you about the prospects of visiting guests? d. What two things make you nervous about the prospects of visiting a guest? 16

19 Part Five Venues to Meet Provide a Sunday welcome lunch. For guests who have attended a few times, a Sunday lunch once a month or every other month affords them the opportunity to get one step closer to the church without a heavy commitment. You will get smaller attendance than your monthly guest count, but those who attend will be the most interested in the church. This is a great place for guests to meet the lead pastor and the team. The larger the church the more important this becomes. Questions and Descriptions: a. Where would be the best place for you to do a Sunday lunch and why? b. Name two people who could do an outstanding job preparing the room to be the finest in feel and appearance. 17

20 c. What are the top three things you want to communicate to guests at this luncheon? d. Who can you think of that would be very good at hosting the guests at the luncheon either at the door to the room or at individual tables. e. Of course, you have to have food. Who s the best cook and why do you feel that way? 18

21 Part Six Signage and Consistency Have proper signage. There is not much worse to a guest than to show up and not be able to navigate around the facilities. Make sure your signage makes sense to those on the outside, not just the folks on the inside. Questions and Descriptions: a. What would it look like if you invited three different friends of different stages in life to come visit the church and asked them to communicate to you how easy it is to navigate the facility restrooms, sanctuary, kids areas, classes, information, etc.? b. Describe the route a guest takes to drive off the street and find guest parking. 19

22 c. Describe the identification of your front door as seen from the street and as seen from the guest parking. Be consistent. Once you have achieved a sense of genuineness, make sure you are consistent. Some people may feel you are a very friendly church, others that you are not. In some cases, guests may even have varying experiences on separate Sundays. It is critical that the church develop consistency in all the contacts with guests from the parking lot into the building, the lobby, and the sanctuary. The same level of consistent friendliness and openness must pervade your church culture. Questions and Descriptions: a. Describe a time when demonstrating consistency worked for you. 20

23 b. In what two areas could the church be more consistent in their service of guests? c. Name two systems obstacles that exist that slow that consistency. d. What people obstacles exist that slow that consistency? 21

24 Part Seven Conclusion Whatever you do to welcome guests, be sure to keep your expectations in check. Guests are like you. They kick the tires and make sure they test everything before they gain a sense of trust. The church needs to earn that trust by paying attention to the considerations listed above and avoiding missteps. The church must genuinely want to minister to as many people as possible. Excellence in church hospitality is a journey well worth taking. People who do not know God today will someday rise up and say thank you for reaching to them through the gift of hospitality offered by the church you serve. 22

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26 Make It Happen Timeline After responding to the questions and descriptions of this coaching guide, I purpose to do the following. I intend to make sure over-the-top guest hospitality is in place at the great church I serve. Within the next 24 hours I will: Within the next 7 days I will: Within the next 30 days I will: 24

27 Within the next 90 days I will: Within the next 6 months I will: Within the next year I will: I will contact this person within 48 hours and will share with them my plan. I will ask for them to call me at the end of each commitment to determine my status: 25

28 6 Brand New Growth Videos for Pastors Complete with Make It Happen Coaching Guides and Make It Happen Timelines to accelerate your leadership growth. 3 Cultures Necessary for a Church to Grow 5 Pastor-Driven Obstacles to Growth 3 Foundational Elements Necessary for a Church to Grow 9 Aspects of Overthe-Top Hospitality 3 Absences in Flat and Declining Churches 12 Steps to the Culture of Improvement in the Church Also available 27 Tough Questions Pastors Ask Leadership Book for Pastors