He has a quote that I use all of the time. “Are you on the right seat of the bus?”

I have been thinking about that statement quite a bit lately. What if
you were hired and you were on the right seat of the bus and all of a
sudden the bus driver changed?

The new bus driver may take a different route. The bus driver may not drive as fast or may drive too fast. The bus driver may fall asleep. So you decide you want off the bus because you don’t want to change bus drivers.

Now, I’m wondering if it is about the right seat on the bus or about the
bus driver.

What happens when the bus driver changes?

Would a cashier at the store act differently if they were paid according to how well they served their customer?

This made me think about serving.  If I am greeting, being an usher, on the hospitality team, on the parking team or guest services, would I get a tip for serving my guest?  Would I exceed their expectations?  Don’t get confused, I am not looking for compensation.  I just wonder if we applied the same “work” principles to serving, would our level of excellence increase?

I think about the waitress I had last week. She made eye contact with my entire family. She spoke to all of us and it didn’t feel forced or fake, she was sincere.
She answered our questions, dealt with my kids not behaving perfectly, took care of me after I was inconvenienced by not having something on the menu.  This was all with a smile on her face. She chose to be happy and serve us like we were the only people in the restaurant.

Wouldn’t you want your church staff and volunteers to serve as if they were getting a tip for their service?

I know we volunteer our time in some of these roles. But, would we get a tip for our service? Or would they go complain about the awful customer service
they received?  They came in to hear God’s word and left thinking “if they hate their position why don’t they leave?” Don’t tell me you haven’t said that before about someone you have experienced
in the business world.

So, my question to you is how are you serving your guests?

Someone recently asked me what I look for on the Welcome Team at my church. I instantly think of the 5 senses, hearing, sight, touch, smell, & taste.  Here is why:

o   Hearing: I prefer music for outside and inside the lobby, not too loud & hard, but an upbeat music. This helps with the excitement. Also, love to hear people being greeted and made to feel welcome, like they are a part of the family.

o   Sight: What does the building look like? Is it clean, even on the outside?  Is the trash full, are there cigarette butts on the ground, is it dusty, are there handwritten signs?  And the list could go on and on. Does it have proper signing? Where are the restrooms, kids area, information area, auditorium? Are there pictures telling a story of the church?

o   Touch: I prefer to put something in our guests hands that lead to action, for example bulletins, or as we call them talk notes. They can help an attender follow along with the message and gives them something tangible to refer to when they leave.

o   Smell: When you walk in the building you want to have a good scent, such as the smell of fresh coffee or flowers.  Also important to keep the restrooms clean and smelling good.

o   Taste: Snacks and drinks definitely help people feel comfortable.

NOTE: If you have more than one service make sure you repeat this for every service.

It was then that I decided the search for my twelve was on. I already had my twelve in mind, but I needed to sell them on the vision of what we were going to do.

I found twelve leaders to pour into and asked them to also find twelve leaders and pour into them.  This concept helped us to make what was a large team, smaller. We were always looking for leaders.  We eventually started looking for our three, these three were people who could replace us. Our job was to develop leaders to lead others, to spend time with them, to get to know them and not just their name, to learn about their family, how long they had been attending, & how long they had been volunteering at the church. We also wanted to know what they were passionate about.  We did spiritual gift tests and personality tests to find what their strengths were.  We learned how to better communicate with them. We did book studies, training sessions, had lunches, just talked, laughed, griped and planned on what WE could do to improve the team.

Our team became small and these twelve were helping to change the team.

It was no longer about one because there is only ONE who can do it all.

So my question is, who are your twelve?

Have you ever hosted a party at your home? That explains it! I can see how this name would represent a Welcome Team at a church.

If you were hosting a party at your home you would greet every person that came with open arms. Your excitement couldn’t be contained. Everyone would be able see it on your face, hear it in your voice and see from your actions.  You would greet them with a sincere greeting, not just a hi, thanks for coming.

When you host a party your normally say “thank you for coming, I’m so glad you made it, come on in. Make yourself comfortable, better yet make yourself at home!  The host would ask them if they would like something to drink and show them where the snacks are.

Does all of this make sense to you? If you are having a party, the host gives great customer service. So consider this, we are hosting a party every week at church. Do we show the same enthusiasm to our guests that enter through our doors?

Unfortunately, I don’t always see this kind of customer service at church. Why?  Aren’t we having a celebration? We are discussing the word of God. Plus someone will leave your party having a relationship with Jesus Christ!

Is your team hot, cold or lukewarm?  What can you do to improve it?

> Did I go bungee jumping?  No. Skydiving? No. Attend a March Madness game in person?  No.
>
> I had the honor and priviledge of worshipping with 56 homeless people. They are staying 2 blocks from my church at a place called the Resurrection House. We held a special service for them. Our desire is they would start attending on Sundays with the rest of our community.
>
> It was a very cool evening & I will never forget it. I loved hearing them repeat versus out of the Bible. They paid attention to every word of the message. At the end of the night, 13 people accepted Jesus Christ to be their Lord and Saviour. My heart melted and my excitement was so overwhelming I could hardly sleep that night. I get excited just thinking about it.

I heard a message this weekend called “Sun Stand Still” by Stephen Furtick. It was about praying a Sun Stand Still prayer. Not, just a weak prayer but one only God could get glory when your prayer becomes a reality. So my allergies are my prayer. No more taking medicine that makes me sleepy. No more  taking medicine, so I won’t sneeze or my head won’t explode. No more medicine so people won’t ask me what have you been smoking?