People are creatures of habit. It probably couldn’t get more obvious than the Church environment.
Having attended my current church for nearly 6 years and being on the stage as part of the praise team, I can easily tell you when certain people are going to come in and exactly where they are going to sit. It’s a habit for them and it can be difficult behavior to change if church leaders are attempting to make changes during the service.
And this is not necessarily a bad thing, in and of itself, but we all know it can be better, and that a better experience could be created if we simply dealt well with “scattered” congregations.
Here are 4 tips for helping to deal with these creatures of habit:
1. Rope Them Off!
Not the people. The seats.
It is amazing what a simple rope can do. Think about it. If you’ve been to the bank or a club, there’s usually one of those big velvet ropes holding back a handful or sometimes dozens of people back. That’s it. That’s all it takes. I’ve seen churches essentially rope off 5-6 rows of seats and people will move up.
2. Move Them In!
Another problem (and this affects full services as well) are the people who get there early enough to take the seats in a row closest to the aisle. Other people coming in behind them will tend to look for a row where they too can sit on the outside.
This is what creates the scenario of the person running across the row with an offering plate like it’s a baton and they’re handing off in an Olympic relay race.
Not a good thing.
A good way to help with this is to place sheets of paper on the outside seats with bold print asking people to please move more towards the middle of the row. It works.
3. Need More Bouncers!
Actually, it’s just the ushers really.
Again, people will do something if they are guided. Ushers can be placed strategically in areas in order to guide people to different seats.
An addition to this would be to employ the use of greeters who would be the first people church-goers would encounter. They could cheerfully direct say to somebody:
Please go right over to John (an usher) and he’ll be more than happy to help you find a seat.
Bingo.
4. Looping Video!
Encouragement can come in the form of a video loop that runs prior to the start of the service. I’m a fan of using video to do announcements anyway.
I think church bulletins are a waste of time and resources as most people do not read them and get most of their information from announcements that are made before or following the service.
Have rolling announcements along with a video of somebody saying something such as, “Hey you in the back! Why don’t you move up closer and sit near your brothers and sisters in Christ for the service?”
Have technology take the hit, not your ushers, if you get what I’m saying.
Some Closing Thoughts:
Granted, aside from the rope (and you’ll sometimes see people step right over that), you’re going to have people who no matter what you say or do are going to sit where they want. There’s no point in belaboring the issue if they’re not going to cooperate.
Creatures of habit. Check.
Of course, it always helps if the people walk into a church that is warm and inviting and see the suggestion to move to another seat or be guided to somewhere they normally wouldn’t sit as a suggestion and/or guidance and not an order.
PhillipGibb says
Rope Them Off! lol, we have tried that a number of times, and yes it is always the same people who want to sit there (and they are special so the rope does not count for them)
Move Them In! – got to try the paper thing – we keep a 2-3 seat isle down the middle to help with this.
Video: we used to make use of video announcements that started 5-10 minutes before, someone said that it was too much effort; funny because it was me doing the effort not the comment. Anyway this worked to some effect, except that if people do come late then they miss out. But done well with a buzz will get people in. this could include a funny segment to move people to the center. Then the more important and strategic announcements can be live and on a bulletin (yes they throw it away, and yes so do I)
JayCaruso says
Yeah the video one could be an issue. Especially with Baptists who are notoriously late. ๐
Relax folks. I attend Parkview BAPTIST Church so I’m allowed by proxy to make fun of them…
PhillipGibb says
lol.
we were thinking also of a bluetooth server or something to push some reminders to everyone hang out outside the doors – Get Inside
Chris says
Ropes are suggestive in nature. Sometimes I take the suggestion, sometimes I don’t.
Electric fences…. also suggestive in nature. But much more convincing. Let me know how that works. Your welcome in advance.
peace | dewde
JayCaruso says
Why stop there? Why not a cattle prod?
Nate Beaird says
Great Post, Jay! I’ll be forwarding this ASAP… nice moves.
JayCaruso says
Thanks Nate!
Nick Shoemaker says
All great suggestions Jay! Great post!
One thing we’ve done in the area of “move-in” is to just have someone from the front ask them. It has to be worked in as a passing comment, but when done with panache and timing it works really well.
I am a huge fan a doing away with the bulletin/printed announcements. Waste of resources. If you must print- print something and put in the bathroom. We created weekly video announcements and cut our printing budget in half. It took some time, but now there’s a following and a buzz that wasn’t there with paper.
I always find it ironic that Believers have the hardest time with change. The Bible states that Christ will make all things new- that means change people! ๐
Thanks for writing this Jay- best of with photog-ing!
JayCaruso says
Yeah, if not get rid of them, at least make them simpler. When I was in Georgia this past year, I visited West Ridge Church in Dallas. That’s a big church with a big budget. They had bulletins that were printed on heavy paper but in black and white. No fancy graphics or anything. If it can work for them, why not other churches?
greenhornet79 says
When I attended Lifechurch.tv in Tulsa they always had a big title come up on screen right before worship that said “Please move to the middle of your row” or something to that effect. Every time it came on everyone squeezed in. It wasn’t annoying, especially when you expected it to come up every week.
JayCaruso says
Yep. That’s why I think it is key to just make it clear that what they’re doing is being helpful and they’re not just being told what to do.
kylan says
Haha! Some of the pews at our church were roped off this Sunday. Looks like we have some ChurchCreate fans in the house. ๐