Do you ever have one of those awkward moments where you start your Sunday morning service and there are only 3 people in the room? And it's basically just the pastor's family? Eventually, a song or two in, people start making their way in to find their seats. And it's frustrating isn't it? Why can't people just show up on time?
You can blame it on their seemingly apathetic laziness and complain about it. OR you can take ownership of what you can control and actually take action!
Here are 2 things you can implement to help your church show up on time:
1️⃣ Start on time, every time
You set a starting time for a reason don't you? It's important to stick to that starting time no matter what - whether the room is full or there are only 2 people sitting in the back row.
The truth is there is NOT NOBODY showing up to your service on time. You are only choosing to see the people who aren't there. But if you want people to start coming on time, you have to start on time every time!
If you say your service starts at 10... start at 10! This builds trust with the people of your church because they know you are going to do what you say you're going to do. Eventually, people will get to church 15 minutes late and you'll actually be 15 minutes into your service and they'll realize they need to get there earlier next time.
2️⃣ Use a countdown
Sometimes the problem isn't people being AT church on time - it's getting them to come into the worship space instead of standing out in the lobby talking. How can you let them know it's time to start? A countdown is a visual reminder for people there that things are about to start. Throwing a 5 minute countdown up on the screen let's people know it's time to find a seat.
Now what?…
Now that you have some people in your room at the start of your service, what are you supposed to say to them? Do you just go into the first song? How do you welcome them? Well tomorrow I'm going to answer those questions and more over on the Leading Worship Well YouTube channel in a new video called "What To Say Before Leading Worship | The 4 Step Formula For Welcoming People Into Worship."
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