The Sanctity of the Visitor

When it comes down to it, church growth is about stewardship.

I remember working in southern England with a vicar who led several churches. An amazing man. As we evaluated his churches, we started to see gaps where the experience just wasn’t prepared for an outsider. It was very insider-centric.

Things were happening in the service and along what we call the guest journey that threw people off track and made them uncomfortable. We’d gotten very comfortable doing things our way, and we weren’t thinking about the outsider or the guest.

As we shared those details, the vicar said to me, “I get it, Richard. The sanctity of the visitor.”

The sanctity of the visitor. Those words stuck with me.

What he saw was this: there’s something holy about God bringing someone into our church. There’s something sacred about a person who doesn’t usually go to church, or who’s just looking for one, actually visiting on a Sunday. It’s our job to receive that holy moment and prepare for it with tender care. That way we meet them well and present the gospel well, instead of doing our own thing in our own little world, ministering to ourselves. We’re actually ready for the person who’s going to walk through our doors.

That’s the sanctity of the visitor.

As you prepare for services this Sunday, I hope you’ll look at every part of your church with fresh eyes, the eyes of a visitor. Think about how you can honor that moment and make room for what God wants to do in it. You never know how long a grandmother has been praying for the person walking through your doors on Sunday morning. It’s a big deal, and God wants to bring people into our churches.

In fact, it’s such a stewardship issue that I’d put it this way. If you were God and you saw two churches, which one would you send lost people to? The first is ready for visitors. It shapes its messages and communication for them and creates a Queen of Sheba-like experience that wins them over. The second is just trying to get through Sunday and isn’t thinking about anyone but itself.

Of course you’d send them to the one that’s prepared.

It’s time to get prepared. If we do, God will send people, and God will change lives. We need to be ready to meet them where they are, love them where they are, see them, value them and invest in them, so the glory of God can come through in the knowledge of Christ.

Thank you for what you do for the King and the kingdom.