There is just one main reason people are coming to your church instead of going someplace else on Sundays. It's the same reason I drove to Big Bear today. Discover it and leverage it to connect more people to what God is doing at your church in this season of its life. This is the intro to a 4 part vlog you will find very interesting...

Here are some thoughts that came my way after we were evacuated from our home and returned after the fire had been contained. 

Joe and I had a blast being interviewed by Nick Blevins on his Family Ministry Podcast. Nick's podcast is a must for anyone serving families in any way through the local church. Joe Schmaltz oversees Next Gen Ministries at Eastside and is a good friend. I thought I would share this with all Sherpas who are helping families make the climb toward a more vital connection with a local church.

In the wake of all that has happened to so many in the US over the last few weeks, I started looking for 2 things:

1. Were Jesus' followers stepping into the need and coming along side others during these crisis?

2. Did they do it in a way that would involve people new to their churches or even outside of them?

Here's what I found...

In this post, we will look at the one thing we all forgot to tell our volunteers before they started serving but that I want to begin telling them now. This one thing is my takeaway from what Schultze would say to the entire staff of a new Ritz before they open its doors for the first time. 

This is the second of 3 posts identifying assimilation takeaways from Horst Schultze, former President and COO of Ritz-Carlton Hotels (click here for the first post). People are people, wherever they are. With this in mind I want to look at the 3 things Horst says every customer wants whether they are at a hotel, retail store, or a church:

In these next 3 posts, I will be breaking down some profound assimilation takeaways from Horst Schultze, former President and COO of Ritz-Carlton Hotels. If you are like me, you have heard about Horst and what he did to revolutionize the hospitality industry through books, conferences like Willow Creek's Leadership Summit and podcasts like Andy Stanley's. As Sherpas hoping to help climbers reach the summit of full connection in our churches, we can learn from guys like this in the hospitality industry.

The movie Field of Dreams debuted in just a few theaters on April 21st, 1989 in hopes to gain more of a summer audience. It gained such a growing and epic following that it showed in theaters nationwide through December that year. With it's iconic line, "If you build it, they will come", this film left a Mark on American men that still resonates with them whenever it's brought up in conversation. Without exaggeration, lives were changed by this film, movements were born, and the American Film Association recently listed it as the 6th greatest fantasy film ever made (The Wizard of Oz being #1).

Today's English Bible translates Proverbs 18:1 as saying, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush". This piece of ancient wisdom speaks volumes as to why I believe that connecting with our guests at church, and connecting them to each other, is priority #1 if we want to see our churches grow.

Yesterday was an exciting day in our country. As the solar eclipse made it's way across North America, it unified our polarized nation, even just for an hour and a half. 

As I reflect on the people who gathered together from sea to sea yesterday to catch a glimpse of the sun's corona, I am thinking these thoughts about connecting guests at our churches:

After listening to this Breakout Session sponsored by Church Community Builders, discuss with your team...

• What is working right now when it comes to connecting guests at our church?
• What creates potential disconnection between our church and guests?
• What are possible initiatives that would bridge those disconnects?
• Pick one to implement and evaluate over the next 3 months.

The Gold Rush had begun.

That's how I felt while on a getaway with my wife Michelle up in the California mountains for our anniversary. We decided on Sunday morning to watch the live stream of our church's worship service and took communion together. When the live stream was over, I had my Jim Marshall moment: my fingers grazed the mousepad on my laptop after I paused the video.

That's when it happened.

I've never heard of a downhill climb. Yet many times when spiritual leaders don't see the results they are praying for, the disappointment colors everything: their time with God, their home life, their joy. So I am going to take some time to encourage you right now with the example of some extraordinary men:

When you are not seeing the results that you want to see, that is your cue to return to the leadership style of a Sherpa. 

One interesting way to mark the journey of a relationship might be the important questions asked that brought the relationship to new levels. 

I believe the questions we ask guests at our church also have the power to take the relationship we are building between them and our church, and between them and God, to a deeper level.

Here is a list of 8 questions to ask your guests, and great places to ask them: 

I had an incredible April and May investing in Church staff where I did Base Camps at One Love in Hawaii and at Crossroads Christian Church in Corona CA. Sherpa-type leaders are so easy to bond with and learn from. I feel like we all come up a level or two just through the time spent together. The Base Camp at Crossroads had Sherpas on staff from churches in Virginia, Oklahoma, Washington DC and Southern CA. What a fun group.

Despite being a record holder for dominating the basket, Koby is far and away the least valuable scoring champion according to win shares. His high scores simply did not produce the winning games and winning seasons that he and the Lakers would have thought.

This gives me pause as an Assimilation Director. Is it possible for our assimilation environment (our "one program") to be stuffed with people, lots of energy, and stellar evaluations and still not connect people to in a big way to small groups and ministry teams?

If the definition of insanity is to do the same things over and over again but expect different results, then it follows that sanity would be to start doing more of the things that give us the results we want. 

That's what we started doing in 2016 in our assimilation ministry at Eastside. It was a bold move.

It's been said that your church's ministry is perfectly designed to produce the results that you now see. The pivotal question is, would you like to see different results?

Would you like to see different results this Spring and exponential results by Fall? You totally can. It will require these three things:

Your Yelp app is pointing to a new reality in how guests at your church make decisions about where they are willing to spend their time and why. So here's what I'm learning about promoting our assimilation environments…

I have learned something about entertaining in my home: people don't always sit where you want them to. But when I dragged 2 $17 chairs to the edge of the lawn, my guests started to bee-line for the best view in the house—the one they would consistently forfeit before.

That’s when I learned that the key to changing behavior is actually changing your environment—and I see 2 principles we need to keep in mind when it comes to the guests of our church.