Ep 103: Helping Small Churches Win Guests, with Desmond Barrett

The Church Lobby

Karl Vaters interviews Desmond Barrett about how small churches can do a better job at reaching, welcoming, and keeping guests.

Desmond is the author of Helping Small Churches Win Guests: Preparing to Increase Attendance, which is a short, but very practical book that pastors will find great benefit in.

Karl and Desmond talk about:

• How to reimagine the church facility from the parking lot to the pew
• Why sharing updates about facility improvements is attractive to guests
• Why so many pastors and church leaders resist doing what needs to be done
• Why “we just need to attract young families” is never the answer
• The good news that new Christians are not looking for programs, they’re wanting to live on mission

Links:

• Helping Small Churches Win Guests: Preparing to Increase Attendance
• Revitalizing the Declining Church with Dr. Desmond Barrett (podcast)
• Desmond's Amazon Author Page
• Libby App

Bonus video

5 Options When a Church Property is Too Big for the Congregation, with Desmond Barrett

Karl Vaters talks with Desmond Barrett, the author of Helping Small Churches Win Guests: Preparing to Increase Attendance, about a subject that is a challenge for a growing number of congregations. What can you do when a church facility that was built to hold hundreds of people has just a handful or worshipers left?

The five options they discuss are:

1. Do Nothing
2. Share the Property
3. Rent the Property
4. Sell the Property
5. Recreate the Property

Links: Helping Small Churches Win Guests: Preparing to Increase Attendance

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