Updated & Expanded: The Assimilation Seminar + Team Training (Downloadable) Save 66%
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Product Description
Dear Pastor,
For most people, the process of growing in Jesus Christ starts when they come to church for the very first time.
Can you think back to when you entered a church for the first time? It can be an intimidating situation — not knowing where to park, where to go, who you will meet, how you will be welcomed, essentially what to expect from start to finish.
The challenge all of us face as church leaders: You have people attending each week for the first time but because of the scenario I described above, it’s difficult to get them to return to church for a second time. And if WE DON’T GET THEM TO COME BACK, they are never going to become fully developing followers of Jesus.
It’s such a challenge that the average church in America only keeps one out of every 20 people. That averages to about only 10 first-time guests per year.
Now imagine that same church making a few small changes and now improving that number to keep 1 out of every 10!
How many more lives could be transformed?
The great news is there IS a proven process to welcome first-time guests, get them to return again and again, and effectively move them to membership and an ongoing relationship with Christ.
It’s called Assimilation. I first developed this 10 years ago at The Journey Church and since then have implemented and improved these strategies with over 3,000 churches across all sizes and denominations. The turnarounds I’ve seen have been dramatic. Even with churches that are 100 to 150 years old and stagnant for a long time.
The fact is that nothing impacts the growth of your church FASTER than Assimilation — the process of welcoming first-time guests, keeping them coming back and eventually moving them to membership.
Wherever you are, and whatever stage of life you're in as a church, improving your Assimilation rate is going to have a dramatic impact on your church!
Now it wasn’t easy figuring this out in the very beginning — in fact, the struggle was very real! But I had to face this crisis of disbelief before the answers would come. Maybe you have a similar story . . .
The time God challenged me –
“Nelson, what are you doing with the first-time gifts
I’m sending you each Sunday?”
You may not know the early story of The Journey Church.
We began in a comedy club on the upper west side of Manhattan. After doing a series of monthly services, we launched on Easter Sunday and had 110 people show up.
I was ecstatic! I thought this was a great number to start with.
It was the next Sunday I learned my first principle of church growth as a new church planter in New York City: Everybody who comes on Easter Sunday does not come back the Sunday after!
A Crisis of Disbelief
We had 55 people come back, which I thought wasn’t bad – about half. But then I had an unpleasant surprise. Unfortunately, through my dynamic leadership and charismatic preaching, I grew the church down to 35 over the next three months!
I began having a crisis of disbelief. I began to have this conversation with God and asked him, “Why is this happening?” I began to sort of get mad at God and tell him all the things that I’d done for him – what I’d given up to start this church in New York City.
He interrupted my pity party and started to remind me of all the things he’d done for me, and how he’d provided for me all these years I’d been a Christian. Finally, I relented and asked for guidance — and God began to teach me some new things about being a pastor.
One of the first things I felt like God asked me is this question: “Nelson, what are you doing with the first-time gifts that I'm sending you each Sunday?”
Think about that language for a moment.
Every week, God entrusts each of us with first-time gifts. These are first-time people who choose to come to our church. I answered back to God, “Well, God, I'm counting them and that's pretty much it. I’m hoping they come back.”
Sound familiar?
An Effective System is Born
At this point I DID NOT have an intentional process to manage and follow up with even the few first-time guests we were seeing. But this is where it began, and with God’s guidance over time I developed the Assimilation System that I’m sharing with you today — a system that allows you to move someone from first-time guest to second-time guest to regular attender – all the way to fully-engaged member.
This made all the difference for The Journey — within a couple of years, we were a church of 200. And then eventually as you may know — The Journey became one of the fastest growing churches in America.
You know how we launched with 110 people? I remember, many years later, when we had 110 first-time guests!
These results are not unusual for us or for the more than 3,000 churches who have implemented the Assimilation System and seen dramatic results.
It’s really all about people. It’s about those gifts that God is entrusting to you. So I’ll ask you the same question he asked me all those years ago:
What are YOU doing with the first-time gifts that God is sending you each Sunday?”
Introducing my most powerful, proven resource to date – 10 YEARS IN THE MAKING!
Completely UPDATED & EXPANDED:
The NEW Assimilation Seminar + Team Edition
- Updated with the latest learnings and strategies that have worked in my church and over 3,000 other churches across all sizes and denominations.
- Organized for team training with seven powerful sessions that you can go through at your own pace — easily one per week!
- Designed for easy implementation with your team. Everything is laid out for you in a logical step-by-step fashion to make it easy to get up and running quickly! Including the 91-page comprehensive Assimilation Strategy Editable Document and all the editable Assimilation documents used at The Journey Church and over 3,000 of my Coaching Alumni churches.
- AND FOR THE FIRST TIME – you will have a Team Training DVD Option! Train your staff and key leaders — I will be right there on screen walking you through each of the seven sessions of training.
IN THE STUDIO - I went back in to completely rerecord and re-engineer this powerful teaching. Plus create a new DVD video version! (they don't tell you how bright those lights are going to be either!)
Each session will have specific action steps you can take so you are building your process each week in a repeatable, sustainable way for visible results:
SESSION 1: THE POWER OF ASSIMILATION
In this foundational session, you will discover:
- The one word you should NEVER use to welcome new people to your church
- The three critical steps to an effective Assimilation process
- How to identify the holes in your welcome experience and prevent first-time guests from falling through the cracks.
- Two principles you can implement THIS WEEK to jump-start your system — and see faster results!
- Specific responsibilities you should assign to your guests at each level of your Assimilation process
- The true relationship between God and his church members and the two things that must develop with your guidance
- The area you must master first before you can build your Assimilation system
- What it means to be a fully engaged member in your church and how to cultivate each area of that relationship
SESSION 2: FOUR KEYS FOR A GREAT FIRST-TIME GUEST EXPERIENCE
This session will help you get into the mind-set of a first-time guest and understand their path from parking lot to pew. You will discover:
- Characteristics of a first-time guest that will affect your welcome experience
- Four key areas of creating an impactful first-time guest experience
- The three situations that will bring first-time guests through your doors — and how to respond appropriately
- Obstacles you must overcome in connecting with your first-time guests
- The precise point where your Assimilation process must begin during the welcome experience — it’s a lot earlier than you think!
- How your physical environment is hurting that all-important first-time guest impression and the areas you shouldn’t overlook (even if you’re in a rented space)
- How to train the volunteers who will be welcoming your new guests — and what you should be practicing with them
- How to assign volunteers to the right greeting roles based on strengths
- Where you should focus your signage for optimum effect
- What matters most in creating a welcoming environment (it’s not exactly what you think)
- Best practices from the hospitality industry that you can apply to your church
- What “little thing” you can start using this week to immediately make your guests more comfortable
SESSION 3: THE ONE THING YOU WANT FIRST-TIME GUESTS TO DO
This session will show you very specifically a proven method to gather information from your guests so that you can follow up with them effectively.
- How you are unknowingly diminishing your chances of a guest coming back a second time
- The most effective, proven tool for collecting information from first-time guests — and the three-step process you must follow to deliver it
- How to make it easy and comfortable for first-time guests to share their information with you (hint – this involves EVERYONE at your church)
- What contact information you must collect at a minimum to be effective in your first-time guest follow-up
- What traditional method you should NOT be using to gather information from your guests — whether a it’s first-time guest or regular attender
- How you can maximize every step of this process for maximum spiritual growth of your guests and members
- Small details that can make a big difference in getting first-time guests to respond consistently and thoroughly — EVERY TIME
- The exact role your volunteers play in this process of collecting information
- A sample of the actual hosting script Nelson and his staff use at The Journey and coached other churches to implement (and what phrase you should memorize for maximum results)
- Why this process matters as much for regular attenders and members as it does for first-time guests
- The two most important areas to focus on AFTER the service has concluded
- The three requirements of a helpful resource center — and six areas that you should have covered
SESSION 4: AN EFFECTIVE FOLLOW-UP PROCESS IN 4 EASY STEPS
This session examines the critical steps you must follow in the week after a first-time guest comes to your church. You will discover:
- How you should mentally approach each first-time guest for the best follow-up
- The Number One action that you should include in your team’s initial response (cost is not a factor)
- What vital communications must happen within the first 36 hours, the first 96 hours and the first 30 days
- What you should NEVER ask when following up with first-time guests
- Three essential elements of an effective follow-up email (sample included)
- As the world has gone high-tech, you must be __________-__________.
- The secret method that will exponentially increase first-time guest response and position you to receive God’s trust
SESSION 5: CONNECTING SECOND-TIME GUESTS
This session will help you recognize the unique opportunities of second-time guests and how to maximize them. You will discover:
- Two essential areas in moving second-time guests to regular attenders
- One of the strongest indicators of the future health and growth of your church — and what you need to start measuring NOW
- The #1 connection opportunity you can make that will assimilate your second-time guests
- The compounding effect of the changes made to your welcome experience
- The right way to encourage engagement from your second-time guests
- The most important place you can focus your attention when it comes to second-time guests
- The critical communications that must happen within the first 36 hours and then the first 96 hours (and how they differ from first-time guests)
- Three effective ways that you can engage second-time guests for spiritual growth
- The one thing you must NEVER stop doing when following up with second-time guests
- The question you must ask yourself today — are you creating enough ___________________ in your church?
SESSION 6: FROM REGULAR ATTENDER TO FULLY-ENGAGED MEMBER
This session shows you how to keep moving your guests forward and lead them ultimately to membership. You will discover:
- The true indicator of a regular attender (and where you will notice it first)
- The critical step for a regular attender that must (always) precede church membership
- 4 identifying traits of a church member
- The two most important ways to move someone into membership
- What you should never run out of during this Assimilation process — or risk the development of your attenders
- An overlooked measurement of church health that you can — and should —immediately get a handle of
- The membership-building topic that’s missing from your preaching calendar
- 3 commitments you should regularly be asking from guests and regular attenders
- Breakdown of an impactful membership class, including format needs and sample documents
SESSION 7: WHERE TO START: THE KEYSTONE IN THE ENTIRE ASSIMILATION SYSTEM
This session wraps up the systems and strategies you have learned and helps you create a plan of action to start immediately! You will discover:
- The one method you can start TOMORROW and see dramatic improvements to your Assimilation rate (it’s easier than you think!)
- How improving Assimilation will support ALL other areas of your church development
- A realistic timeframe for developing and affecting changes to your Assimilation strategy
- The two focuses at the core of an effective Assimilation system — remember this above all else!
- How you can continue to build your Assimilation system month-after-month yet in the shortest time possible
Includes: Seven sessions of audio training, fill-in-the-blank listener’s guide, leader’s guide, step-by-step checklist, complete transcript, sample emails, surveys, connection cards and other templates, plus the 91-page Assimilation Strategy used at The Journey
Questions? Contact us @ +1 (561) 921-8488 or by email [email protected]
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