The Weekend Experience

If you’ve learned anything about our ministry philosophy from following my blog over the last couple of months, you know that we value highly the importance of delivering an incredible weekend experience for people who are checking out the claims of Jesus Christ at Granger Community Church. It may not be the case in every church, but the weekends are still our primary way for telling others about Jesus. Because of that, we take the weekend experience very seriously.

For us, though, the weekends are far more than what gets taught or the stories that are shared through the message. A great weekend experience involves:

• A friendly and helpful welcome to the campus from parking lot to auditorium seating with teams of volunteers who are always prepared to offer a great first impression
• Quality children’s ministry that allows parents to enjoy the service knowing their kids are hearing an important Bible teaching and having fun doing it
• Creative arts programming that helps prepare people’s hearts, minds and emotions for what could potentially be a life changing message
• Strategically prepared communications and systems that support rather than compete with the message that gets shared on the platform and offers easy next steps for people to take beyond the weekend experience

At last count, it takes over 425 volunteers to pull off any one weekend of services at Granger. It’s a phenomenal team. They realize what they’re doing counts. No, most of them have never been to seminary. And most of them probably would never consider delivering a sermon; however, they each realize their ministry is critical to helping people hear the message of forgiveness, love, and hope found only in Jesus Christ. They help create the experience that tells people “You matter to God and, therefore, you matter to us.”

One of my favorite blogs to follow is Creating Passionate Users. So much of what that team writes about is applicable to the ministry of the local church. Within this last week, they wrote about why it’s important to create an experience with passion. I loved this part in particular:

Nowadays, our time is our most precious commodity; to get someone’s attention, we need to not only be truly remarkable, we also need to really care, really have passion for the people whose time and attention we want. In return for their attention, people want a great experience. They’re not just buying a product – they’re buying the product and everything that goes with it – us (or our company), our reputation, and our passion for our product and for them.

I’m convinced if people knew how much we really care about them and, with that in mind, offer people an incredible weekend experience, they’ll be much more receptive to the message that we’re offering. When that happens, they’ll also be more likely to invite their friends. And, that’s how churches grow.