After a couple of days of reflection, I really believe that this weekend went about as good as we could have dreamed. The lobby of the theater was buzzing with energy pre-service, the people were engaged during service, all of our tech stuff went well (a video in the middle of worship, another video to intro the sermon and then our video annoucements) and then people stuck around for a long while post-service. All in all a really, really good day.
A couple of things that we collaborated on that really went well on Sunday:
1. T-Shirts – We designed shirts with our series title “BELIEVE” on the front and our logo and website on the back. Every volunteer wore them on Sunday, and every person who came got one on the way out. It was a great way to send people out into the community promoting for us. It also served as a reminder for all of our visitors to come back…every time they see the shirt they will remember Hope.
2. Gift Cards – We bought a ton of $25 gift cards to restaurants in our community and gave them to anyone who brought a friend to church that day. It was a great way to energize our core team to invite people because they were able to turn around and take their friends to lunch after service. The people LOVED this idea.
3. Gas Cards – Every person who visited on Sunday received an e-mail, a hand written note and a $5 gas card in the mail this week. The note said (paraphrasing), “thanks for coming to Hope…here’s a gas card to take the trip back on us.” This should go over well considering the massive hike in gas prices this week.
These are just a couple of things from our opening that really stuck out to me. One of the great benefits of working together as a team is creative collaboration. Lots of ideas get thrown around and the best ones stick.
