I’m really hesitant to do this, because this will only exasperate the problem. You see–I’m very competitive. I like it when there’s a scoreboard. I like to win. Given that information, it should be no surprise to you that I monitor the Amazon rankings for my books. It’s just one of many scoreboards in my life. I know. It’s a disease, but now, at least, you know how you can be praying for me.

Bwatlz01 Well, the problem is I’m about ready to tell you to check out Mark Waltz’s book, First Impressions: Creating Wow Experiences in Your Church. The reason why that’s a problem is that Mark works with me on our team at Granger. He’s a super guy. He’s probably the only guy in the country right now that’s talking about the importance of improving how churches ensure a great first impression for our guests. The only problem is that Mark’s book continues to have a better Amazon ranking than my two books. Go ahead. Visit Amazon. I’ll guarantee you his book is currently ranked higher. For the record…I’m jealous. I’m bitter. I don’t like to lose.

This is probably the reason why so many people are checking out Mark’s book: It’s filled with practical insights about how normal people view the church and how we can positively impact their first experiences with our ministries. Here are some of my top take-aways from the book:

  • "Before the message has been given or the songs have been sung, your guests have formed opinions of your church based on their first impressions."
  • "I am a consumer. So are you. So is every individual who enters your church." Before people explore the claims of Christ, "they are shopping for a spiritual experience that addresses their personal needs."
  • The other Christ-centered churches in town are not your competition. "Your competition, the rival that will keep people away from your church, is any business, service, or experience your guests have encountered in the past few weeks. The competition includes restaurants, malls, golf courses, and amusement parks…The competition for your guests began when they were wowed in another environment."
  • "If our guests can’t say, ‘Wow! I’m impressed!’ within their first ten minutes on campus, then we’ve failed."

Mark has done an incredible job of outlining how we can improve the experiences of our guests. When people visit our churches for the first time, they aren’t going to listen to the message "you matter to God" until they have experienced Jesus’ love and they know "you matter to us."

With that in mind, go ahead and pick up a copy of First Impressions. Just do me a favor. Don’t buy it from Amazon. I really want to win.

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