Inviting guests to your church is easy. Getting them to stay is not. Gary McIntosh’s new book offers concrete suggestions for getting guests to stay “beyond the first visit.”I began reading Beyond the First Visit in January 2007 when my wife and I moved to California’s central coast to pastor a church. We didn’t know anyone in the area or the church, so for a while we felt like guests in our own congregation. I grew up in a pastor’s home and was associate pastor to a long-time friend, so this was a new feeling for me. But it was a very valuable feeling, for it gave me an important insight into how guests at our church feel all the time. (And I have a very friendly church!)
According to McIntosh, we need to “guesterize” our churches. That is, we need “to make a church more responsive to its guests and better able to attract new ones.” From the moment guests step foot on our campuses, they need to feel a welcome invitation to be there as well as opportunities to connect with others and get involved in the life of the church.
Each chapter of Beyond the First Visit includes numerous suggestions for making your church guest-friendly, real-life examples of what works and what doesn’t, and discussion questions that can be used individually or among leadership groups.
If your church has many guests, but few who stay, read Beyond the First Visit. It will open your eyes to your guests’ point of view.
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