5-page paper synthesizing the 3-5 ideas from the readings that made the greatest impact on you, and how those ideas apply to yo

Effective Assimilation of New Attendees
into the Local Church

Once the first-time guest becomes a second-time attender, the church leader must focus on the process of bringing that person to the saving knowledge of Jesus, if that commitment has not already been made, and introducing them as members of the local church. Searcy observes: “When your guests return for a second look, you’ve won 80 percent of the battle of gaining new regular attendees and have drastically increased the chances that they will begin a journey with Christ.”⁰ Sometimes friends pressure a first-time guest to come to the church, but when the first-time guest comes the second time, it is based on a personal choice. Church leaders should be grateful to God when a person comes back a second time, as it indicates God’s reward for diligent retention efforts. When church leaders partner with God to reach the unchurched, they can expect a significant harvest.

When a person comes back a second time, it indicates that the assimilation plan works. People come to church for the first time for a number of reasons; when they come back a second time they are looking for relationships with other people.⁰ They enter the church the second time hoping that someone will remember them as a person and maybe even remember their name. Gainsbrugh says: “If a visitor is remembered the following week when he returns as a second-time guest, he or she may give you ‘ten points’. However, if a greeter somehow remembers their name and face, it gets the ‘gold ring’ or 25 points of ‘bonding glue.’”⁰ The best way to help the greeter remember a person’s name is to have multiple contacts with that person. When a church is staffed with the correct number of greeters, each greeter has more time to take a personal interest in the first-time guest. Remembering someone is a key point to helping the second-time attender know that building a relationship at this “new church” is a possibility.

Rainer theorizes, “When assimilation takes place in a church, the pastor, staff, and other leaders are working fervently. Effective assimilation requires hard work. And the leaders must be visibly at the forefront of the efforts.”⁰ Effective assimilation requires knowing who attended the morning worship service and having a well-thought out program to reach each person who came as both a first and second-time guest. McIntosh and Martin, in their book, Finding Them, Keeping Them: Effective Strategies for Evangelism and Assimilation in the Local Church, list four ways to effectively assimilate new attendees into the local church: (1) assimilation through friendship, (2) assimilation thought tasks/roles, (3) assimilation through small groups, (4) assimilation through spiritual growth.⁰

Assimilation through Friendship

While one cannot have too many friends, if a person has one true friend in life, he or she is fortunate indeed. Most people long for a true friend. Therefore, one of the most important things a church can offer people seeking a new place of worship is friendship. Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud. A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.”⁰ McIntosh and Martin state: “Assimilation begins right at the heart of our need for relationship.”⁰ Church leaders must help new people in the church move from casual friendships to relational friendships where they experience a sense of belonging and accountability. When the local church does not help new attendees transition into meaningful friendships, people live with an unmet need. Alan Loy McGinnis observes:

People with no friends usually have a diminished capacity for sustaining any kind of love. They tend to go through a succession of marriages, be estranged from various family members, and have trouble getting along at work. On the other hand, those who learn how to love their friends tend to make long and fulfilling marriages, get along well with the people at work, and enjoy their children.⁰

Church leaders must understand the importance of creating an environment in which new attendees can easily make new friends in the congregation. Win Arn and Charles Arn indicate that each person needs at least seven friends in order to stay in a church.⁰ When people find a true friend at church, they willingly sacrifice for one another while also enjoying the mutual benefits of nurturing one another spiritually.

Assimilation through Tasks/Roles

In a perfect church, each member would have a specific task to accomplish. A task includes any job inside the church with kingdom purpose. Each member should only do one job; otherwise, fewer members will have opportunity to participate in the ministries of the church. Carl S. Dudley believes that boredom serves as the primary reason for why people leave the church.⁰ Barna further emphasizes the importance of involvement when he poignantly states: “Unless you become involved in the activities of your church, you will never truly feel satisfied with that church.⁰ Win Arn, a church growth expert, provides a means by which to measure the importance of each person’s involvement in the church. Performing tasks not only ensures the accomplishment of Kingdom work, but also ties individuals doing the tasks to one another. Arn’s research indicates that a declining church has twenty-seven tasks per 100 people and that each individual usually performs more than one task. This, in essence, limits the total number of participants. A plateaued church reflects a ratio of forty-three tasks to 100 people in attendance. However, growing and healthy churches demonstrate a ratio of sixty tasks for every 100 people in attendance, with almost no one doing more than one task.⁰

People should not be assigned tasks just for the sake of keeping them busy. Frank Tillapaugh, pastor of Bear Valley Baptist Church, observes that a healthy church creates jobs by looking for new opportunities for effective ministry.⁰ When the church serves as Jesus did, it reflects God’s heart, for the “Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28). The Apostle Paul also teaches on the importance of spiritual gifts and how everyone should participate in the ministry through the body of Christ. “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it” (1 Cor. 12:7, 12, 27). The old adage, “Many hands make light work,” clearly applies in the context of the ministries of the church. Leaders must help congregants work together in the kingdom of Christ. A children’s song summarizes this concept very well: “When we all pull together, together, together. When we all pull together, how happy we’ll be. For your work is my work and our work is God’s work; when we all pull together, how happy we’ll be.”