For the last few weeks, I've been pondering a simple question. What is the 1 thing i desire for people, who visit our church, to leave knowing? We all wish they would leave their first visit knowing who we are, what we believe and why we love Jesus. But like most children, we only process one over feeling about a place we are exposed to. When we pick up our kids from church or school for the first time we ask them the same questions. ( did you have fun, what did your learn)
I believe it is the same with first time guest to our churches, they leave with one feeling and a decision already made about our churches, ( before the service is over, usually within the first 7 minutes) did they enjoy it and will they come back. The first question we must ask ourselves is "what is unique about our individual church"?
While we have the same commandments and vision the The church, I know each church has a unique God given vision, gifting and motivations. Being a 3 yr. old small church we know that Restoration isn't the only church in town. duh! We also don't believe we are the best church in town for every person. We are really good at a few things but don't pretend to have the "best of everything" nor should we be expected to. Thus we believe and support all churches in our area and The Kingdom. We celebrate each unique differences and common purposes.
We are blessed to have been entrusted by God with each individual or family that walks thru our doors and consider each person a gift. It may surprise some to hear, but usually after talking with someone about their past church attendance and preferred music or worship styles, I usually know if restoration church is going to be a good fit for them. For a large percentage of people "looking for a church home" we are a good fit and they stay and often I recommend them to try several other churches that better fit their past history and preference. So back to the question.
All Christian churches hope every visitor leaves our service (after their first visit) knowing we love Jesus, we love people , we love our community. Funny thing is even the " snake handling" churches can live by the motto: we love Jesus and we can prove it. For the rest of us "non-snake" churches we hope we have some unique differences that separate us from other churches.lol.
But what is the one unique thing we want them to know about our church, people, staff or pastor? I have little desire for people to leave our service thinking we have the best facility, best transportation, best programs, best music or funniest preacher or most eloquent communicator. Probably not gonna be true in more than one of those areas. My desire is that everyone who comes in contact with Restoration church will believe that we are real. While we want be able to share how our bi vocational staff sacrifices or how they are among the biggest financial givers per income. Many will never realize what they do without in order for us to be financial sound and save money. In an age when mega churches and their leaders have little financial self control or integrity. Restoration church has been able to save several months income toward our operation and opportunity fund. While many churches (even some with famous pastors) are struggling we have been blessed with financial increase. This is just one but measurable ways we can prove to the world and ourselves that we do ministry out of pure hearts and motivation. Authenticity is a major factor for the success we have experienced.
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