Thought I’d blog some notes from the Assimilation seminar.

These are mixed in with some of my personal thoughts. I give Nelson and Kerrick from the Journey credit for the good thoughts

Hospitality is a biblical value. That’s the bottom line! How seriously do we take hospitality in our churches? In fact, we need to treat people like angels. What if we really lived that out? Check out Hebrews 13:2. One version says we need to entertain strangers. I know entertainment is a dirty word in some church circles. I think we need to redeem it.

The Ritz Carlton Credo: learn someone’s name the second time you meet them.

I love this part of the credo: The Ritz-Carlton experience enlivens the senses, instills well-being, and fulfills even the unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests.

We need to know the unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests!

The first thing you need to know about assimilation is how not to abbreviate it. Nelson said it. I didn’t

People get greeted in two ways when they walk into our churches: personal greeting and inanimate greeting. Before someone meets someone, everything is greeting them! Everything says something about you. What does your parking lot say? What does the church sign say? What does the bulletin say? What does the landscaping say?

Aesthetics are important.

One danger we face as leaders is inattentional blindness. We have blindspots. We turn a blind eye to those things we’re familiar with!

Don’t put unhappy people at the door and try to make them happy!

Journey has two qualifications for greeters:

1) They have to smile
2) they have to have all their teeth.

People experience high-levels of anxiety when they visit a church. It ranks up there with a Junior High dance. People want to be greeted. People want to be directed.

Rick Warren says every church has a temperature. How do you take the temperature of the church? Put a thermometer in the pastor’s mouth.

“Everyone has a next step to take every week.”

One of the things I’m realizing is that networking is hugely important, but most churches don’t take that seriously. We need to be serious about developing connectors. I love the way Malcolm Gladwell frames the concept of connectors and mavens in The Tipping Point.

How you manage your database is a stewardship issue!

That’s convicting to me!