Inner Revolution

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Is your Twitter hype actually stat porn?

I had coffee recently with a great church planter who planted 2 ½ years ago in one of the most unchurched cities in the country. Almost no one in his congregation came from another church, so the 250 or so people who come every weekend are almost all recent converts. In my eyes he is knocking it out of the park. But he is battling discouragement because he’s not seeing the results he sees on Twitter and Facebook every Monday morning. You know what I'm talking about, we've all done it:

“We baptized 200 people this weekend!”

“We broke every attendance record yesterday!!”

“We had to literally stack people like cordwood in the fourth service!!!”

“This weekend we had more people in church then live in our entire state!!!!” 

This church planter is seeing amazing life change, but he doesn't have the stat porn he sees online. And he’s not alone. I know a lot of church planters and pastors who are being crushed by the comparison monster that feeds on social media. The reality is that no one is trying to discourage others, we’re all just super excited about what is happening in our own church and we want to share it with the world. But I think there are a couple of issues we should think through before we hit social wave next week.

What would Paul have Twittered?

Would Paul have focused on attendance and baptism numbers, or would his tweets have looked more like this:

“Got stoned after church yesterday. A little sore this morning. Its worth it for the Gospel”

“Worship was so rockin’ last night a jailer and his family came to Christ. I feel like I’ve been set free!”

“I think the unknown god illustration was golden, a couple of the Athenians dropped by the house last night. I really think they're listening.”

Seriously, I think we should really filter some of our exuberance through the lens of the first church planters. Paul never really commented on numbers other than to say he was glad he hadn’t really baptized very many people. He celebrated changed lives new growth, but he didn’t spend much time on weekend attendance.

It not a competition

Here’s what I think God’s church dashboard looks like:

1. The aggregate total of all believers. I don’t think he’s all that impressed with whose chairs they sit in on Sunday.
2. The number of new believers added to the Kingdom.
3. The progress believers are making toward becoming more like Christ. Things like not smoking crack for a month or beating back the pride monster are tough to quantify or twitter about, but I think that’s what God is paying attention to.

And your numbers have no correlation with anyone else’s numbers. What happens in Charlotte, Atlanta or Oklahoma City has nothing to do with what happens in Seattle, Boston or Denver. We all have unique callings to unique ministries and God is doing something different where you are. We’re on the same team and we all get credit for the wins. So remind yourself every Monday morning that God is up to something different at your church, so you don't need to worry about whether it matches up with the big(ger) guys.

Think before you Tweet

All of us, me included, need to think about what impact our next tweet will have on the people who read it. Will it spur them on to good works? Will it encourage them to not be weary in well doing? Or will it take the wind out of their sails and make them think about giving up?

Does the world need to know our stats? Or would it the Kingdom be better served to hear about the life change, challenge and rewards of ministry and leave the stats to staff meetings?

So the bottom line is

1. Let's stop being so sensitive, no one is competing with us
2. Let's stop being so arrogant, no one is impressed with us
3. Let's "win one more for Jesus"

 

How to Raise Kids You (and Your Friends) Enjoy (Part 3: Give them a name)

One of my mom’s most frustrating sayings (and there were many) when I was growing up was “You’re a Surratt”.  That phrase covered everything from why I had to go to church on Wednesday nights to why I should get good grades in school to why I couldn’t go to movies. Here was a typical exchange in our house: 

“Mom, can I go to a movie with Mark?”

“No”

“Why?”

“Because you are a Surratt and Surratt’s don’t go to movies.”

“But Mark’s mom is letting him go!”

“I’m not Mark’s mom and Mark is not a Surratt”

“I wish I wasn’t a Surratt”

“We can arrange that” (Mom was not the touchy feely kind)

The point of this post isn’t the good or bad of being raised in a somewhat legalistic home. The point is that my mom established that being a Surratt meant something, She wasn’t referring to our reputation or notoriety, we didn’t have any. No one, outside of students of obscure Civil War history, had ever heard of the Surratt family. But to mom we had an identity and we were to respect that identity and live a life worthy of the name we had been given.

Although my mom has been gone for over 20 years and I now attend movies on a regular basis I can still her admonishing me, “You’re a Surratt.” And that makes me proud. It makes me want to aspire to something. It makes me want to bring honor to our family name. When I had kids of my own, though the issues had changed, they were raised with that same phrase echoing in their ears. And I imagine my little granddaughter will one day be heartbroken when she realizes she too has to live within certain boundaries because, “You’re a Surratt”.

Give your children a name. Teach them to respect that name. Don’t allow them to feel superior to other children, but at the same time let them know that their name stands for something. They will chafe under it when they are young, but they will take pride in it long after they have moved out of your house because you have given them a legacy.

 

 

 

How to Raise Kids You (and Your Friends) Enjoy (Part 2: Is it a battle or a war?)

 

Before I go any further in this series let me share one of the bedrock truths of parenting I’ve come to believe after 25 years as a parent and 30 years of being around children’s ministry; kids will become what they will become. I have seen really lousy parents raise really good kids and I’ve seen amazing parents raise horrendous kids. So don’t take too much credit and don’t beat yourself up too much. You can certainly do things to help your kids along the way and there’s no doubt you can screw them up, but in the end what they become is up to them and God. Just do the best you can.

 

That being said let’s take a look at the second lesson I’ve learned about raising decent kids:

Lesson 2: Lose some battles but win the war

When my daughter was five she hated attending the mid-week children’s program (“Missionettes”) at the church where I worked. It was a program designed for little girls who liked dolls, dressing up and earning badges for homemaking. My daughter preferred basketball, magic tricks and earning badges for building things. (She idolized her older brother, and those are the things they did in his “Royal Rangers” group). Every Wednesday night was a battle. I threatened, I spanked, I forced her to sit in her class and pretend to care about girl things. I thought it was imperative that I win this battle, I could not let my four year old make her own decisions. Where would that lead?

The reality is that I woudn’t have gone to Missionettes even if I had been beaten and threatened. It was really poorly run and the polar opposite of who God wired my daughter up to be. This wasn’t just a defiant four year old (which she wasn’t defiant in any other area), this was a child who genuinely hated to be locked in that room for two hours a week. I should have realized that this wasn't a hill to die on, and figured out a viable alternative.

A friend told me recently about some great parenting wisdom he had learned from watching one episode of Dr Phil. (I believe that is the maximum life-time allowance without losing your man card.) Dr. Phil told a mother that there are battles and there are wars in raising kids. He said the difference is whether the consequences of losing are permanent. Missionettes was a battle I could have lost and my daughter would have been none the worse for it. She is now a beautiful young lady who loves shoppng for clothes and playing beautiful music. I'm pretty sure Missionettes had nothing to do with her success.

When my son was a teenager his room was a constant irritant for my wife. It looked like small clothing bombs had gone off, then covered with layers of crumpled paper and topped off with discarded candy wrappers. For awhile we considered bringing in a HazMat team. In the end, however, we decided to keep his door closed. If he wouldn’t attract rodents and city health officials, and do his own laundry; we wouldn’t stress out over how clean he kept his room. We decided this was a battle not a war. Fast forward to today and my son is happily married, working as pastor at Seacoast Church and is a great husband, dad and leader. I don’t know if he cleans his room.

So what battles are you treating like wars? Are there some areas with your kids where it might be ok to lose? I can tell you from the empty nest that most of the things you’re stressing about today as a parent are no big deal in the end.

You may also want to read

Part 1: Children Make Lousy Centerpieces

Part 3: Give them a name 

Why churches should be more like Kodak

Kodak, who introduced their first camera in 1888, filed for bankruptcy last week. Reading CNN's article reminded of my first Kodak an Instamatic with the spinning cube flash on top. No one under the age of 45 has any idea what I'm talking about, but in a way that's the point of this post. To everything there is a season, that goes for Kodak, Pan Am, and Woolworth as well as your local church.

Leaders are always shocked, SHOCKED when a church begins to decline in attendance. The interesting thing is that every church eventually stops growing, if not then we would see churches with millions of members that are hundreds of years old. And if its God's will that churches should grow forever then every church Paul planted was out of God's will because none of them are around today. Just like businesses churches have a life cycle. Most newer churches grow for 15 years and then level off. Some exceptional churches grow for 20 years. There are very few examples of churches that actually grow for more than 25 years. 

But there is hope in Kodak's legacy. From the CNN article "...there are the people: Even though the company has cut thousands of jobs, much of its generally well-educated workforce has stayed in the area, many starting tech-related businesses." Though their core business is gone (have you bought a Kodak camera lately) the pioneering legacy of founder George Eastman lives on in the entreprenural spirit of Kodak's final generation of employees. In a way Kodak will never really die.

And that is the hope for every church. We can vow to break the mold and pour all of our resources and energy into sustaining a growth curve for 15, 20, 25 years. Or we can begin now sowing substantial time and talent in discipling and training a new generation of church planters who will take the seeds of our oak tree and plant an orchard (via @johnworcester). If you want to see your church live forever invest in young leaders and send them out into the field well-prepared and richly resourced. Be like Kodak. 

How to grow kids you (and your friends) enjoy (Part 1: Children make lousy centerpieces)

 

We’ve been doing some pretty serious “how to do church” posts the last couple of weeks on the blog. so I thought for the rest of this week we’d look at more life lesson stuff. One of the most challenging and rewarding parts of my life is being a parent, so I want to share some lessons from the last 25 years of parenting. I originally wanted to call this series, “How to not suck as a parent”, but I was worried how that might show up in search engines. So let’s talk about How to Grow Kids You (and your friends) Enjoy.

 

Lesson 1: Children make lousy centerpieces

Little kids, at least mine, are so cute and cuddly it is easy to make them the center of your universe. “What can Mommy and Daddy do to make your little life more wonderful?” The goal becomes maximizing happiness while minimizing pain no matter the cost. The problem is that catering to their little wishes and whims turns children into pests that your friends want to squish like cockroaches. (I’m serious, ask them.)  Eventually you too will be looking at the can of Raid and thinking thoughts of pesticide. Stop the madness before it starts.

The best advice I got on parenting was from Gary Ezzo who taught me, “Treat your children as welcome guests in your home. You and your wife had a home before they showed up, and you will have a home after they leave. The children need to know that the home does not revolve around them.” My parents lived by this motto long before Gary was wrote a book. My siblings and I always knew that we were loved, we were cared for and we were welcome in our home as long as we knew our place. And that place was not the center. Center was for God, next to God was mom, right next to mom was dad. I think I came somewhere between my little brother and the sofa. At least I was ahead of the dog. I think.  And oddly enough we all turned out fairly normal, mildly successful and mostly happy. Who knew?

Start early and stick with the program. Sometimes you will say no because they don't need what they are asking for, sometimes you will say no because you can't give them what they want, and sometimes you will say no because there is no better lesson in life then to learn how to deal with no. And sometimes you will say yes just because it is so much more fun than no. Love your kids, play with your kids, care for your kids. And remind your kids often that their happiness is not the goal of your home.  The goal is to raise kids people like so that when they leave, and they will leave, they will have a successful life and you will have a happy home.

 You may also want to read

Part 2: Is it a war or a battle?

Part 3: Give them a name

Five Simple Ways to Make Your Church Stickier (Part 5 The Volunteer Maze)

Over the past few days we’ve been looking at simple ways to make your church stickier. Based on visiting multiple churches over the past few months I have found some common areas which, with a little attention, would make it much easier for newcomers to connect. Today let’s finish with an area that every church wants to do well in; attracting new volunteers.

The volunteer maze

My wife has been involved in working with children since she was started leading the children’s choir at her church at the age of 15. She taught public school for many years, worked as an administrator at several public and private schools, served on multiple school boards, led children’s ministry at a local level and was the Children’s Ministry Pastor at Seacoast where she was responsible for over 1000 children on multiple campuses. So she thought it would be fairly simple to volunteer to work in the nursery at our new church. Not so much. She had to be fingerprinted, have a background check, attend an orientation, meet one-on-one with a supervisor, shadow a leader and attend a training meeting. It took her several weeks to finally be placed in a nursery with two bored teenagers and a half dozen babies. While safety and training are very important in children's ministry, giving birth to her own baby was less complicated than this process.

While this is an extreme (though not exaggerated) example, it points to a challenge I see in many churches. How difficult is it to volunteer at your church? Most leaders would say it is very easy. There is always an opportunity to sign up to hand out bulletins, watch babies or park cars.  But what if there are higher capacity people in your church who might be able and willing to contribute at a senior level? It is very likely that there are men and women in your auditorium on Sunday who would be willing to share their extensive experience for free if there were an easy way to connect. While they may not be ideally suited to serve coffee or change diapers, they bring years of invaluable expertise. The church that made my wife jump through every standard hoop to babysit missed the opportunity to tap into 30 years of experience. What free expertise and experience are you missing by channeling everyone through the lowest common denominator opportunities?

How can you simplify your onboarding process for new volunteers? How could your church create an obvious and easy on-ramp for high capacity leaders who would like to volunteer in your church? Is there a tool that would help you quickly identify and connect with these leaders? If you can figure this one out the payoff in Kingdom effectiveness will be exponential.

Five Simple Ways to Make Your Church Stickier (Part 4 Better Preaching)

(Sorry for typos and heresy, this was posted between flights. So it hasn't been edited. Oops)

This week on the blog we have been ways to make your church stickier. I’m not talking about how to make your church more attractive then the church down the street. I’m talking about the new people who walk into your church looking for a place to connect, a place to belong, a place to heal. How can you make sure that they find the restoration and reconciliation with God they desperately need? Based on visiting several churches over the last few weeks I’ve identified some common barriers that are relatively simple to tear down. Today we’ll tackle a fourth barrier that may feel a little personal, but I think could have the biggest impact.

Make you preaching more applicable and practical

Every church I have visited recently (especially yours) has had a very capable preacher who has given a fairly clear, coherent presentation of the Gospel. At the same time I have felt a little lost on occasion (except at your church) as to where the pastor was going with their sermon. As a new (or old) attender at your church there are three questions I need answered in every sermon:

What do you need me to know?

Sermons are packed with all kinds of information. Background information on the Bible passage, personal stories, famous quotes, obscure statistics, amusing anecdotes, paradoxical historical references, multiple Bible verses from multiple books of the Bible. Out of all this information that you are sharing in 30-60 minutes which part do I need to know? As every college student has asked at some point, what will I need for test? While I’m sure everything you say in your sermon is essential and life changing I can’t possibly absorb or remember it all. Not even close.  So please, please, please tell me what part do I NEED to know? And make that part memorable.

How has this essential knowledge impacted your life?

The inside information you gave on the life of a 1^st century rabbi was fascinating. The quote from Bonhoffer was absolutely riveting. The story about the five year old teaching her grandfather the true meaning of faith was totally adorable. But what I really want to know is how does this play out in your life? Do you have doubts? Are you generous? How do you find God’s will? Who are you sharing your faith with? What is your small group like? If you don’t have personal stories of how the main point of your sermon works (or doesn’t work) in your life then lets just skip the sermon and get home in time for the pre-game show.

What exactly do you want me to do as a result of hearing this message?

I need a specific action step. I need something I can do now, today, before I go to bed tonight. I can’t remember five steps and by tomorrow morning all I’ll remember about your sermon is the joke you told about the priest, the rabbi and the elephant.  And I need the action step in a specific, binary format; if I will do X then Y will begin to happen in my life. I’m not asking for a part the Red Sea miracle, but I need to know that if I take action on the essential information I will see progress similar to what you have shared from your own life. And be realistic about how big of step I can take today and how much progress I will actually see. I have to believe you if I am really going to take a step.

If I knew that most Sundays at your church a pastor would share essential information grounded in his own experience that applied directly to action steps I can take to improve my life I think I would be inclined to attend as often as possible. (Obviously true life change only comes from biblically based messages focused on the cross. My point is that these sermons need to be delivered in format that the average attender can connect to.)

Tomorrow we’ll finish this series by looking at how hard it is to volunteer at many churches. (But not yours)

 

Five Simple Ways to Make Your Church Stickier (Part 3 Connection)

Here is something that I’ve realized in my recent church shopping experience: most of us who are visiting your church aren’t coming because your pastor is a stunning communicator, we’re not coming because your worship leader looks like Keith Urban and leads like Matt Redman, we’re not even here because Disney takes cues from your children’s ministry. Most of us are here because we want relationships. We want to know and be known. We are walking through a lonely, difficult time in life and we “want to go where everyone knows your name.” And churches (not yours of course) can make that really hard. 

After visiting several churches and not really cracking the code on how to connect (other than attending the pancake breakfast), my wife decided she was going to solve the riddle. After service on a recent weekend she waited in line at the table designated  “Connect” to ask how we could get into a small group. When she reached the front of the line the volunteer explained that we were at the wrong table and walked her over to the correct line. When her turn finally came she asked again how we might join a small group. The very sweet volunteer was very well versed in the process:

“Our small groups don’t start until the middle of next month, so if you come back in two or three weeks you can fill out an interest form. The form will go to the Small Groups Coordinator, who will give it to several group leaders based on your interests. Those group leaders will then contact you and you will then be invited to attend their small group.”

This was a well thought out system, which was explained by well-trained volunteers who were warm, friendly and helpful. The challenge is that we left knowing that we were at least a month from actually connecting with someone. In the meantime if something comes up in our lives where we really need a friend to lean into we can always drop by the pancake breakfast.

Churches should be more like car lots. I could never walk away from a car lot wondering how to buy a car, or be told to come back in a few days, or have to give my phone number so someone can call later and talk about car ownership. I’m not suggesting churches should be pushy or over-bearing, but we should adopt the motto of car salesmen, “How can I put you in this car today?" If the main reason people are showing up at church is to find relationships there has to be a way to help them connect today. Not next month, not at the pancake breakfast on Saturday, but today.

How can you create an obvious and easy opportunity for people who want to meet people every weekend at your church? If it’s a reception with the pastor then make sure you have friendly connectors there as well. If it’s a box lunch in the basement make sure it isn’t awkward for people who don’t know where the basement is, when it starts or what they are supposed to do when they first get there. And for the love of all that is good don’t let the members clump up in little circles laughing and talking to one another at your connection opportunity. Newcomers don’t need yet another chance to feel left out.

This isn’t about consumer Christianity or church growth; this is about people going through life alone desperate for a friend. This is the central theme of discipleship, that we love one another. People want to connect, you want people to connect, let’s put significant time and energy into making this happen.

 

Five Simple Ways to Make Your Church Stickier (Pt 2 Navigating the Maze)

This week we are talking about simple ways to make your church stickier. The idea for this series came from attending nine different churches recently and running into the same challenges (except at your church). Yesterday we covered one of the biggies which is helping your people be friendly and hospitable to new attenders. Today we’ll look at an area that is so obvious that many churches overlook it.

Make your church easier to navigate

 One way to solve the personal debt crisis in America is to make stores as difficult to navigate as many churches. Just figuring how to park is often an irritating early morning brainteaser. At a church we recently attended the main entrance to the parking lot was blocked by orange cones. There was no sign, no parking attendant, just orange cones screaming, “No room in the inn”.  Because we were determined to attend we found a secondary entrance and parked in the lot with the blocked entrance.  We often see signs at large churches that say “Lot full” with no indication of where we might be allowed to park. At one church we kept following signs and lot full signs until we were eventually dumped back out on the main street. Again, we eventually found ample parking on site, but we had to be determined. I have seen Do Not Enter signs on auditorium doors with no explanation or alternative. Can you imagine a sign on the entrance to Target "Store full, do not enter"?

Once we park it is often difficult to figure out where we should go. Which building is the auditorium? Where are the children’s rooms? Should I bring a pee cup, or does this church have onsite restrooms? These are the questions that many churches do not provide obvious answers to. On more than one occasion I have stood in the lobby and waited to see where the majority of the people seemed to moving toward to find the auditorium. Imagine standing with the fam at the front gate of Disney World with no indication how to enter the Magic Kingdom. That’s how new attenders feel when they arrive at your church.

Once inside church the challenges continue. Can I bring my soda (or coffee if you are one of THOSE people) into the auditorium? Do I find my own seat (like a movie) or will someone find a seat for me (like a play)? When do I stand, sit, hand over my wallet? Will I be forced to sing a solo? Approximately how long will this service last? Am I supposed to wash down the stale bread with a big swig from the cup of wine? These are the kinds of questions that normally I have to figure out on my own. Printed program guides are helpful, but I'm not sure if I should really sit and read while everyone else is standing and singing.

The challenge is what the Heath brothers in Made to Stick call The Curse of Knowledge. All of the regular attenders know how to navigate the church experience and they’ve forgotten what its like not to know. So how do you make your church easier to navigate? Here are a couple of ideas:

Get fresh eyes

As often as possible ask new attenders what obstacles they faced when they first attended. Get someone who doesn’t attend to try to navigate a weekend and give you feedback. Hire one of those “Secret shopper” services and see what they say. You can’t know what its like because you have the curse of knowledge, you need an outside opinion.

Retrain your host team

Make sure your host team is thinking constantly about the new attender. What message does this sign send? If we have to close an entrance how can we best explain the alternatives? Are we always scanning for that bewildered look and are we proactive about helping? What can we do each weekend to make the experience for the first time attender easire to navigate?

Start Here

A very simple but powerful idea of I’ve seen is a Start Here sign for new attenders. Most churches have welcome centers, connect tables, get acquainted tables, but a very prominent place that clearly instructs new attenders to Start Here would be awesome. (Even awesomer would be a cookie crumb trail from the parking lot to the Start Here center) The center needs to always be manned with friendly volunteers who can help navigate the experience. A simple one-page guide would be great. Not every small group and upcoming event, but a Disney type map and explanation of everything you need to know to expertly navigate the weekend experience. And a clearly defined Next Step. But we’ll get more into that tomorrow. 

The bottom line is we should do everything we can to make our church at least as easy to navigate as the local Target. How has your church tackled this challenge?

 

Five Simple Ways to Make Your Church Stickier (Pt 1 The Friendly Factor)

For the first time in our lives Sherry and I have the freedom to choose what church we attend. When we lived at home our parents chose for us, and after we got married we always attended the church I (and sometimes she) worked at. But now we are free to visit any church we want, so over the past couple of months we have visited nine different churches. In most cases we have gone as anonymous visitors and it has been an eye-opening experience. We have been surprised how difficult it is to fit in and connect at a new church. (If you know we attended your church recently I’m obviously talking about one of the other eight.) So this week I thought I’d share some tips on how to attract, connect and retain new attenders: Five Simple Ways to Make Your Church Stickier. None of these ideas are new or revolutionary, but I bet you think you’re church is a LOT better at each one than you really are. Trust me on this, they're not.

Let’s dive in with Simple Way One:

Make your church friendlier

I’m sure you assume your church gets a pass on this one; your church is one of the friendliest churches on the planet. When you walk in everyone says hi, you have a built in greeting time in your service when all the new people feel welcomed, and after church people hang around forever laughing and connecting. You’ve got the friendly thing down.

Let me give you an outsider’s perspective on the friendliness of your church. When I arrive one or two assigned people with big nametags smile and say hi. (At some churches the assigned greeters are either engaged in conversation with someone else, grunt hello, or just frown and hand me a bulletin.) Once I navigate past people in the lobby talking to people they already know I am placed in an isolation bubble called the auditorium. I sit with people who don’t acknowledge my presence in any way until the forced greeting time. “Turn and greet your neighbor before you sit down.” At most someone might crack a half smile, give their name and shake my hand. Normally I get a grimaced look, a quick handshake and a short, “Hi”. I don’t realize it at the time, but that is the last time anyone will make any contact with me at your church. After service I again have to navigate the lobby where people who already know each other have exclusive parties with other people who already know each other. Sometimes I stand in the lobby looking bewildered and feeling as out of place as a bikini in aDenver snowstorm, but no sees me.  Finally I find my way back to the car feeling more alone than I did when I arrived. And in case you think its because I’m an introvert, my extroverted wife feels the same. Feeling alone and disconnected is the one experience we’ve had at almost every church we’ve attended.

So how do you make your church friendlier? Here are a couple of ideas (most of these I stole from others):

Teach on hospitality
Take a weekend (or a month) and teach your congregation how to be hospitable at church, in the workplace and at home. Hospitality has always been a hallmark of Christianity, so we need to teach on it.

Create a “gorilla greeter” team
Get as many people as possible to be gorilla greeters. Their job is to make sure they talk only to people they don’t know for the first ten minutes after they arrive and for the first ten minutes after the service is over. They don’t need lanyards or nametags (in fact that would defeat the purpose.) Their job is to find people who seem disconnected and figure how to connect them.

Adopt a “neighborhood”
Divide your auditorium into sections and get leaders to adopt a section as their neighborhood. They commit to attend the same service each week, sit in their neighborhood and watch for new people who sit in the section. They become the small group leader of that section.

Give the greeting time a purpose of kill it
Find a way to make the greeting time in your service purposeful. Why are you doing this? How can you make it more effective? Is it accomplishing the purpose you designed it for?

How has your church worked on friendliness? What has worked and not worked?