They Give Me No Reasons to Not Come Back, Part III.

Early on in my own church searching, I clearly remember wondering, “What’s next?” Several times I walked into a welcoming, comfortable environment; the message hit home; I sang along with the music; and, I really enjoyed the people I met. But, even when all those bells rang true, most often I wasn’t sure what to do next.

Turns out that North Point Community Church is one of those churches that really understands that question. And, rather than throw a lot of religious policy and procedure at you, they break it down to terms and a process that even the most unchurched can get pretty quickly.

North Point’s vision is “to continually create churches where unchurched people love to attend.”  And, yeah, after my visit, they really do have an awesome welcoming system and engaging worship environments that appeal to non-churchgoers. It’s obvious they spend a lot of time and energy removing any excuses for not wanting to come back. But getting unchurched people to return isn’t really the end game for North Point. Making space for them to engage in the flow of the church is. They have two ways to do that – and I love the clear, direct simplicity of how they named them:

• “Starting Point” – Every weekend after every worship service, unchurched North Point guests are invited to a space called “Starting Point.” Here non-, new, and returning Christians engage in small group discussions about starting or re-starting a Christian faith journey.  For example, Starting Point participants may access the small group ministry by forming a new group with the other participants. 
• NEXT – Every other weekend, “church comfortable” guests can discover what’s up next for their faith journeys at “NEXT,” a 30-minute orientation to North Point’s discipleship process. Participants may go to “NEXT” to learn how to enter service, mission outreach ministries, or a short-term small group experience. 

Both Starting Point and NEXT act as links to small groups, mission outreach, and service ministries. North Point’s strategy is to make each step easy, obvious, and attuned to their new population groups.

Many churches have a welcoming ministry. Some of these are effective and some are not. Where many more churches fall short is engaging people beyond the worship experience. The North Point model isn’t the only way to engage new people, nor is it the best way for every church. But one check for making a healthy choice includes whether or not a church offers a starting point or next step. This will indicate a church’s interest and intent for engaging new people.

If a group doesn’t offer one, then, honestly, they aren’t intentional in helping guests engage beyond “Hello.” And you might be left to your own guessing as to how and where to engage. If a group does have a starting point, see who’s invited. Then ask yourself if this a space for guests like you, or for some other type of guest, 

At North Point, they promise that, “You’re going to love this!” They present such an exceptional first time experience it brings people back for another taste. Experiencing something really, really good makes most guests want more than a weekend worship experience. And North Point strategically plans for people to find more by offering easy and obvious next levels of engagement for their main population groups. So should any church that is intentional in engaging new people.