Post-Easter Sherpa lesson from Italy #1
My cousin Melinda and I in Florence, Italy
🛀“Rejoice and Recovery mode” from Easter- at Eastside and across the Globe
🧢The downsides of invisibility
📣 The power in breaking from routine
At the time of this writing, I am in “rejoice and recovery” mode. Rejoicing in a record breaking Easter attendance at my church that resulted in 487 baptisms, and recovering from baptizing around 220 of them myself (with the help of ibuprofen).
I believe that Easter was momentous in one way or another for all of us regardless of size or location. 45% of the US population planned on attending church this year on Easter, with a notable percentage of them being from Gen Z. But the increased interest in Jesus is far from just a US phenom:
Great Britain was reporting a 50% increase in church attendance that led up to a record breaking Easter attendance that predominantly consisted of 18-24 year olds.
France saw a 45% increase in adult baptisms this Easter over 2024. Belgium, over 30%.
As astounding as it sounds, Iran is reporting over a million converts to Christianity over the last year and the projections from several mission organizations indicate that the number of Christians in China could exceed the current number of Christians in the US by 2050.
With Bible sales to first time buyers also increasing in the West, we can now compare notes with each other and learn from each other across international boundaries.
Though I didn’t attend a church service in Italy when I was there a few weeks ago, I did learn much from my experience that will help us in the wake of our Easter attendance to connect with as many people as possible.
Whenever I go to Italy (the land of church’s and incredible hospitality), I am alway looking for what we can learn as leaders in Guest Services and Assimilation. This latest trip at the end of February did not disappoint. In fact, this is my third series of posts on Sherpa lessons from the land of pasta, piety, and “prego” (meaning “welcome”, not the sauce…).
Here is lesson #1…
Break any routines of your Guest Engagement volunteers to increase their “guest awareness” for the next 4 weeks.
Here’s why…
I heard that finding the restaurants where the locals go (instead of the tourists) is the best way to find the best food Rome has to offer. So, when my cousin Melinda and I were meandering through a maze of multi-story Renaissance building on cobblestone streets, we found an outdoor cafe that was filled with locals while all the others seemed almost empty.
It was 3pm and we had not had lunch so we jumped at the opportunity to dine at this trattoria and were seating right in the center of the patio with a great view. We were surrounded by locals reconnecting and greeting each other in Italian and good food and drink was being dispensed and enjoyed with passion and smiles.
You would have thought that this was going to be a dining experience to remember, which it was, just not for the reasons you’d expect. it was over 45 minutes before anyone spoke to us. It wasn’t like we didn’t try. We waived at servers multiply times, called out to them, and made eye contact with as many as we could. They just never looked at us. They simply did not see us amidst all the familiar faces they were engaging with. It was like we were wearing the invisibility cloak from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
They simply could not see us.
Even after we got someone to take our order they forgot to engage with us, bring our drinks, and check in at any level. As a result, despite a 2 hour lunch experience, I can’t remember what I even ordered or ate. I know it was good, because I would remember if it wasn’t. It’s just the experience of being invisible that overshadowed everything else.
Though people were friendly, we would not return to this trattoria in the future. Churches that see themselves as friendly, usually gage it by this reality: they are friendly to each other. That’s exactly why guests need dedicated Sherpas to notice them and guide them into higher levels of connection. Your Guest Services and Assimilation Teams are those Sherpas. Without them being on the balls of their feet when it comes to noticing guests, blindness develops and the people they are called to serve become invisible.
It made me think of Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:47 NIV
“If you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?”
And in the Message version:
“If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.”
Guest service teams at a church can easily become blind to the presence of newcomers for the same reason the wait staff did in this restaurant, in a country famous for its hospitality. Their deep familiarity with the regular attendees kept them from seeing, welcoming and engaging with newcomers.
The routine nature of Guest Service teams and their Sunday morning duties can ironically be the problem. As these dedicated volunteers engage with the same familiar faces week after week, they may inadvertently lose sight of their vital function, critical mission and overarching vision of reaching new people God is drawing into the church.
Ultimately settling into a comfortable rhythm of simply greeting and ushering can foster a lack of intentionality and proactive engagement. This results in missed opportunities to create a truly welcoming and inclusive environment for all.
By failing to prioritize mindfulness and attentiveness in their roles, guest service teams may unintentionally reinforce a culture that is more focused on the familiar faces at church, rather than fully embracing the seeking guests the church genuinely aims to serve and support.
So what is the cause of this blindness?
Familiarity reinforced by routine.
Solution: Break your team’s routines, especially on big weekends and for the 2 to 4 weekends that follow where these guests are likely to return.
Some ideas include:
Moving kiosks where your teams serve guests to more strategic locations on high attendance weekends
Rotating the doors where team members greet
Asking team members to sit in a different spot of your auditorium during worship with their families to create a heightened awareness of their surroundings
Having team members park in a different section of the parking lot (or side of the church) to serve as a mental cue to engage meaningfully with newcomers
Implementing pre-huddles adds another layer to improving guest interaction. These pre-huddles ensure that those serving guests are not just prepared but also motivated, creating a PURE experience for newcomers (click here to find out exactly what that means).
Breaking routines fosters a mindset of active service, prompting teams to become more alert and approachable, and cultivating an environment that welcomes guests with open arms.
They also cure blindness.
Try this to create a great 2nd and 3rd time visit for your Easter guests, or any guests that may be returning after a big weekend attendance at your church. Look for my next learning from Italy to help you in the weeks ahead coming soon. It will focus you on the one thing to never give a guest so stay tuned and see you on the climb!
What routines might be making team members blind to the presence of guests or the opportunities we might have to engage them in a special way?
What creative ways can we break these routines for the next few weeks to create visit awareness?
How will we implement these new routines in a way that teams will embrace instead of resist?
