Appealing To All Five Senses

I just finished reading a great book from the Disney Institute called "Be Our Guest" where they talk all about Disney's legendary customer service. There were so many great takeaways in the book for any type of business you're in but particularly for the church there were so many things to think about. One of the sections that was particularly interesting and thought provoking to me was a section where they talk about how important it is to appeal to all five senses while you are in the park and how each section of the park uses differnt means to let all five senses know you're in a different area then you just came from.

As a church we usually have different areas (ie. entry, kids area, youth area, main room for service, maybe adult classes) and it made me think "what is the church doing to appeal to peoples sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste senses?" What if depending on which area you were in there was different types of music? What is in the different areas the surface you walk on is different? What is for kids the area smelled like cotton candy or popcorn while in the adult area you have the smell of coffee or pastries? What if as you move from area to area the colors and design changed so that you knew you were in a different area?

There are so many ideas we can do as a church to make when we gather a memorable experience and then when you add the Holy Spirit into the mix as the ultimate experience maker then Wow! What are some ways your church has appealed to all five senses or what are some creative ways you can think of to appeal to them?

Building Bridges at Work

So I've been working at my new job for about three months now and one of my goals was to build bridges with people who are un-churched. In the job I had before this one I was working on a daily basis with people who are hurting and far from Jesus so it was a great experience to build a relationship with them and share with them the hope of Jesus. In my new job I've already built relationships with two un-churched people and I'm hoping that soon they'll not only come with me to church but come to small group with me. God places us in our jobs for many reasons but I believe one of the greatest opportunities for us is to build relationships with people far from God and invite them to come to church and also share the Gospel with them. I guess the question is then have you built any relationships with un-churched people in your work place and if not when are you?

Multiplication

It has been a while since I've blogged but reading "Killing Cockroaches" by Tony Morgan has hopefully inspired me to be more diligent. Basically "Killing Cockroaches" is a book of blogs that Tony has written over the years. I found it really enjoyable and it helped me realize a blog doesn't have to be some professional piece that would be published but it can just be my thoughts on random stuff.So....
Yesterday our church, McKinney Fellowship, had a big day called Equipping for Impact where around 400 people who are either already volunteer leaders or are interested in becoming a leader attended. It was a really great day beginning with Bruce Miller, Sr. Pastor, talking about how 14 years ago McKinney Fellowship was a church plant for another church in the Dallas area and now has come the time where God has really been challenging him on how McKinney can multiply into the future. So many churches have the goal of becoming HUGE mega-churches but quite honestly the stats don't bear out that mega-churches can do it all. In Collin County if all the existing churches were filled for three services every Sunday only 40% of the people that live in Collin County would fit. That is amazing!
McKinney Fellowship has decided that their new key plan is multiplication...small groups will multiply and so will the overall church through new independent church plants, campuses, and venues in places like prisons, coffee shops, and senior living facilities.
Over 42 different cities are represented at McKinney Fellowship and there is no way they could reach all those people in their present facility or in any facility for that matter. I applaud McKinney Fellowship for realizing the only way to reach those 60% of un-churched people in Collin County is the bring church to them instead of the old mindset of you come to us.
How is your church doing? Do they realize that they can't reach everyone so they need to think about multiplication or are they satisfied with the status quo?