{"id":250,"date":"2008-08-02T21:38:01","date_gmt":"2008-08-03T02:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/192.185.166.32\/~davidfoster\/?p=250"},"modified":"2009-10-08T21:41:07","modified_gmt":"2009-10-09T02:41:07","slug":"7-fear-barriers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/7-fear-barriers\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Fear Barriers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"oneonta_tunnel_construction_barriers_2006\"I\u2019ve blogged about this before, but I feel strongly enough to take the chance again. And here\u2019s the point I want to make. Going to a new church for the first time is one of the most frightening things a person can do. <\/span> While we can\u2019t change their minds, we can be proactive and try to take away as many of the fear barriers as we can, that have been erected over time. So here are seven fear barriers that we can take down.<\/p>\n

Fear Barrier #1:<\/span> The fear of going alone. <\/em>Over 78% of people in a recent survey responded positively by saying they would be open to going to a church if they were invited by a trusted friend. And who blames them? I am a Christian and have gone to church all my life and I still get intimidated by going to churches I don\u2019t know anything about. So instead of informing people that you go to a church and that it\u2019s there, invite them to go with you this<\/em> Sunday at a specific time. You\u2019ll either pick them up, meet them, have lunch with them; something definite that allows them to come into this strange environment with a trusted friend.<\/p>\n

Fear Barrier #2:<\/span> How do I get around?<\/em> For those of us who go to our churches, we know just about everything about them, or at least enough to get to where we need to go. We forget how intimidating a new environment can be. So you need great signage. You need happy people helping people find out where they need to go. Print up a t-shirt that says, \u201cAsk me. I can help.\u201d Anything will do to take away the intimidation factor of not knowing where to go. There is nothing more embarrassing than opening a door and walking into a place you shouldn\u2019t be.
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\nFear Barrier #3:<\/span> Am I late? <\/em> I am absolutely amazed at how many churches refuse to give people what they most want to know when they visit a web site. What time do you meet, where do you meet, and how do I get there? That\u2019s it. That\u2019s the most important thing. But on 90% of the web sites you have to dig for it. It\u2019s incredibly hard to find. So on every sign you make post the times your services begin. Start out in the parking lot. Since we meet in a theatre we have signs all over the place. And every outside sign has our meeting times on it. Why is that important? It helps people judge if they\u2019re early, late, they need to hurry, or if they\u2019ve got time.<\/p>\n

Fear Barrier #4: <\/span>Fear of sitting in the wrong place.<\/em> This is where happy greeters and ushers come into place. Have greeters who help people get seated especially if the auditorium looks to be comfortably full. Christian people have a really bad habit of putting their Bibles or an open program in a seat to reserve it for them over time. This practice ought not to be tolerated anywhere<\/em>. It\u2019s just simply rude. If you\u2019re not going to sit in a seat, don\u2019t put your Bible in a seat. Leave it open for people.<\/p>\n

Fear Barrier #5:<\/span> Have a clearly printed program that let\u2019s people know exactly what\u2019s going to happen next.<\/em><\/p>\n

Fear Barrier #6:<\/span> Start on time and finish on time. <\/em> A service need not ever be over 70 minutes for any reason. I know some pastors who speak 60 minutes. That\u2019s simply too much for a Sunday morning, particularly if you\u2019re going to be guest-friendly. People can\u2019t endure an hour and a half of something, sitting in a seat passively watching, no matter how good it is.<\/p>\n

Fear Barrier #7:<\/span> The fear of getting out unnoticed. <\/em> When the service is over, people who know each other turn and start talking and greeting and standing in huddles. That\u2019s a good thing. But for a guest, it\u2019s also an intimidating thing. Or people that I don\u2019t know stop me and ask me questions that I\u2019m not prepared to answer. One of the most important things you can do is to have coffee or a gathering place that makes these kinds of informal introductions less intimidating. There\u2019s something about putting a cup of coffee in a person\u2019s hand that helps them adapt to their new environment.<\/p>\n

You probably have more things to add to this list, but these are some very practical things you can do to help. And by the way, it\u2019s your responsibility to make it as barrier-free as possible for someone to attend your church and to engage the message of the gospel, not theirs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve blogged about this before, but I feel strongly enough to take the chance again. And here\u2019s the point I want to make. Going to a new church for the first time is one of the most frightening things a person can do. While we can\u2019t change their minds, we can be proactive and try … Continue reading “7 Fear Barriers”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"series":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}