The Advent season will begin very soon.  This is the season where churches typically receive more guests than any other time of year.  Is your church ready to receive guests?  How will the guest experience be different this year because of COVID-19?  Is your congregation making special preparations and anxiously anticipating receiving new guests?

To say that 2020 has been a weird year would be a gigantic understatement.  To say that people aren’t stressed, too, would be a huge understatement.  And, to report that many are searching for hope, peace, and community in epic proportions is not surprising.  Unlike any other entity, the church can meet these needs like no other.  Yet, I am often surprised how many churches are not poised to be the light in the darkness, the beacon of hope, and the source of community for their neighborhood.

With this need for hope, peace, and community at its peak, please consider these few steps to prepare, invite, and receive your neighbors in this Season of Advent:

By planning and implementing some intentional strategies, your church will reach more people, connect with more people, have deeper community impact, and introduce more people to Christ by offering hope, peace, and community when your neighbors need it more now than ever!

One Response

  1. Doug Powe: Yeah. You’ve said a lot of things. I’m going to pick up on a few of the threads because I think that you’re right. And I want to begin in talking about individuals who have been attending for a long time but may not realize that they have never really been discipled. How do you help those individuals to understand that there really is something more that we should be doing as Christians and not simply showing up on Sunday to worship and maybe attending a Bible study or Sunday school? Because I think, like you say, we’ve gotten into a pattern where many people, that sort of do what they’ve done all of their life. And they believe that is what it means to be a part of a church. And we’re coming along saying to them No. No. No. No. There is more than that. So how do we help them to understand there should be more to it?