How to engage your guests using "The Power of Place"
A bath at Magdala on the Sea of Galilee
When I was in Israel, I learned 2 principles that are always at play when connecting new people at church.
In this post, I am going to create a short photo scrapbook from a location in Israel to demonstrate something I call The Power of Place — which I believe can make or break your engagement efforts with people at church.
Our bus pulled up to a site I did not even know we were going to see. It was a new discovery: the 1st-century town of Magdala where Mary Magdalene was from.
In building a prayer retreat recently, the Franciscans accidentally unearthed it. It had a synagogue Jesus is thought to have taught in complete with mosaics still on the floor and the remains of frescoes on the walls.
There were streets that were still barricaded against the Roman siege in 70 AD and stone fish shops for selling fish from the Sea of Galilee which was only steps away.
But it was a short walk toward the sea led me to a place that had an unexpected impact on me.
We entered in on the bottom floor of a newly built structure.
The first floor was a recreation of the Magdalene Synagogue. It used stones from the dig to form the benches that surrounded the sides of it because back then, they discussed things in a round instead of lecturing in rows.
They put a copy of the stone podium they read the Scripture from in the center. They even recreated what they thought the frescoes looked liked on the side walls.
It was the curved wall in front of me however that was what was going to lead me into an unexpected and powerful moment.
Note the spark where her finger touches Jesus’ robe.
This wall had a mural that was a close up of several men’s feet on a stone road with something unusual in the center: a woman’s hand reaching out to touch a hanging piece of cloth near the pair of feet in the center.
I recognized it as the women who reached out to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment recorded in Mark 5 & Luke 8. It took place not far from this location as did many other well known events in Jesus’ ministry.
Why did this one get sole focus, front and center in the recreation of the synagogue?
I was about to find out.
We ascended some curved stairs to the upper level. We were now in a striking, classic but modern rotunda edged with 12 marble pillars with a baptistry in the center.
There where also 4 chapels evenly spaced surrounding the circle, each with a mosaic wall in the back that depicted a scene in Jesus’ ministry that took place here on this side of the Sea of Galilee.
It was the pillars themselves that began to tell the story, though.
8 pillars were placed in a round in this rotunda. The names carved on each one and the one with no name had an impact on me.
7 of these grey smooth pillars each had names carved on them: Mary Magdalene, Susana and Joanna, the wife of Chuza from Herod’s household, Mary and her sister Martha, Salome, the mother of James and John, Simon Peter’s mother-in-law, Mary, wife of Cleopas, the “many other women” (Mark 15:41).
The one that caught my eye and imagination was the Unmarked Pillar – for women of all time who have followed Jesus and lived by faith.
These were women of faith whose service, resources, energies and prayers have extended the influence of Jesus in the world over time.
Their contribution may be anonymous to us (hence the unmarked pillar) or may be known to us (like the 7 labeled pillars), but standing in front of these pillars, I thought about women who have changed the world.
I thought of my mom.
I thought of how despite being the oldest from a highly volatile family, she got behind my dad who had little education and…
formed a marriage that provided the secure and loving shade I grew up under.
built 2 business (one with my dad and one on her own) that not only provided for them but allowed them to be extremely generous with others and with our church.
created a home that most of my friends (who also called her “mom”) envied and loved to hang out in.
opened up her house to many, many people who sometimes lived there for years at a time.
shared the good news about Jesus with every one of them and invited them to become part of our church.
I could go on and on but let me just say, If I asked this question in any of our church’s 5 weekend services, “Who has lived at one time or another at Ken & Judy Curtis house?”, there would be people standing in every service.
After thinking about my mom a bit, I looked beyond the pillars and saw one more thing that blew me away.
A replica of a 1st century fishing boat recently discovered by fishermen in the mud of Galilee. It has a podium built into the hull so that teaching comes from the boat like Jesus did due to crowds.
There was a sanctuary with a back wall entirely made of glass. Behind the glass there was an infinity pool overlooking the Sea of Galilee.
Best of all, there was a large fishing boat in front of it, with a mast that hinted at being a cross, with a podium built into the inside of the hull.
I realized we were near the location where the crowds forced Jesus to preach from a boat like this. Now I could see a priest reading scripture, teaching and sharing communion from a boat that looks like its actually floating on the Sea of Galilee.
I was thinking about women like my mom and so many others advancing the kingdom of God, and Jesus speaking to me from a boat when it hit me:
Why am I so moved?
Why am I thinking about the contribution of women to the spread of the kingdom of God right now?
Why am I sensing the presence of Jesus with fisherman calling me to fish for men?
Why am I thinking about my mom?
Someone had leveraged the Power of Place so that I would.-
I loved this room used to host “Next Move” at Church on the Move in Tulsa OK. It was located right in the church lobby between the entrances to the auditorium.
Fast forward to the lobby of Church on the Move in Tulsa Oklahoma.
The first thing I saw when I walked in was a glass room with some delicious food displayed inside with people having fun with each other.
I wanted to go inside to see what was happening, partly because I was hungry, and partly to see what all the fun was about.
It was then I noticed the words “Next Move” written on the glass. This was the place where guests at their church come to find out how to get involved.
I saw pillars in this room also. These pillars were not made of marble with the names of women on them. They were made of brightly colored fabric and had the names of different high-impact ministry teams on them that people could become a part of.
A man and a women were sitting up front on stools leading in a game that was making everyone laugh and helping them get to know each other.
Table Hosts were leading conversations with the guests at their tables in a way that had all of them participating.
All these people were engaged in thought and conversation about why God had led them to Church on the Move, visualizing their best fit, and getting excited about taking their next step.
I found myself bummed that I couldn’t stick around and be a part of this moment, but I wrote down Priscilla Shield’s name and email address when I found out she is their Next Steps Pastor.
It wasn’t long before I connected the dots:
as the church at Magdala was designed to make me think of women who have furthered the Jesus movement, this room was designed to make me want to meet other new people at this church and to make a contribution on a ministry team.
Both environments were strategically designed for their purpose. I realized that at my church they were not.
At some of our campuses, our room for Next Steps is down a long dark hallway. At other campuses, it is in another building from the one guests go into when they worship.
At our broadcast campus it is in a multi-purpose room with no windows that would allow a guest to see what was going on inside. They have to commit before they see it.
This has spurred some discussions about leveraging the Power of Place at my church. Connecting people early in their journey with us is just too critical to helping them become followers of Jesus.
So as we make new plans for this in the years to come, I have become aware of some questions we can all ask ourselves to see if we can better leverage the Power of Place:
➊ Is the place we want guests to go located where they already are or somewhere they need to go find? (the “Where” question).
➋ Is the place we want guests to connect designed so that they will actually connect or just learn info about connecting?
➌ Are we taking advantage of all the programmatical possibilities for connection that the space offers or are we just using it like a classroom?
➍ Does the space offer visibility in an attractive way so that guests not only know in advance what they are getting into but also want to get into it?
Is there any question that you answered “no” to?
Take that question into a brainstorming session with 2 or 3 other like-minded leaders to leverage the Power of Place. When you unleash that power, you will connect more people, more effectively.
