Thom Rainer has become the guru of all things local church. This book, another of the small, attractive, hardback volumes published by B&H Publishing that he has turned out over the last few years, teaches us how to become a welcoming church. Its not so much a book of suggestions as one of necessity because all of its recommendations are drawn from real data from church visitors.

Rainer explains that visitors often dont rate our friendliness, facilities, or services in the way we do. Our friendliness is often in holy huddles that excludes visitors, our facilities are laid out nicely only because weve had years to get used to it, and our services are not as geared to visitors as we have allowed ourselves to believe.

Chapter 1 chips away our determined belief that we are welcoming and asks us to be willing to do a true evaluation. He warns us that we may be in for quite a shock. In this chapter, he explains what consistently bothers visitors (hint: it has nothing to do with doctrine or gospel faithfulness) and what makes for happy visitors. As I read over these lists, I marveled that there was no spiritual element, just practical things that we could work on. Chapter 2 goes on and give us what he calls a confidential report where he digs deeper into how our churches are viewed by visitors. Chapter 3 looks at the practical items of signage, parking, and websites. Chapter 4 describes how visitors expect a safe and clean church and what is most important on that list. Chapter 5 explains greeters and welcome centers while Chapter 6 is a concluding chapter. There is an appendix with a church facility audit and secret guest survey.

If you are familiar with Rainers work, this book is classic Rainer. I happen to be blessed to be a pastor of a friendly church yet see several things on these pages that we need to shore up. This book is a practical, top-notch work and I highly recommend it!

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255.

Usually when I pick up a non-fiction book to read, it takes me a lot of time to read it. Becoming a Welcoming Church was a very quick read and had a lot of good information. Once I started reading it, I didn't want to put it down. Thom Rainer does a great job of giving you helpful information and also sharing real life stories of what works and what doesn't. I feel like this book makes me better equipped in knowing how to make my church more welcoming and how I personally can become a more welcoming person in my church. I ended up highlighting so much of the book. It is definitely one that I will go back to as a reference. I have already shared the book with many people and will continue to recommend it to others!

(I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author/publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. That is something that I have personally reminded my first impressions team at the church that I pastor. That statement and more like it were reinforced to me in Thom S. Rainer's book Becoming a Welcoming Church, published by B&H.

In this book Rainer challenges us to think through whether or not we are as welcoming as we think that we truly are. When we take an honest look into the mirror, we find that when we think that we are friendly and welcoming, we are really focused on ourselves and not outsiders. It is so easy to get complacent and therefore lacking in this area.

This short book by Rainer encourages you to look at your church from the eyes of an outsider. Discussions about signs, websites, safety, cleanliness, greeters, and welcome centers are vital. They are short but concise. He touches so many areas of the church in so little time. What I like about this book is that this is something that I can hand to my leaders and be assured that they will read it.

Each chapter has a list of discussion questions that could help you or a small group think deeper about your own situation. I found the questions to be very helpful. There is also a church facility audit in the back of the book as well as a secret guest survey that one might give to someone that you have attend a Sunday at your church to see how you are doing.

This is a very helpful book and there is a companion book entitled We Want You Here that can actually be presented to first time guests of your church.

Yes, I do recommend this book to you and your guest services team. I plan to share it with mine.

I received a copy of this book for an honest review.

This book helps you see what your visitors may be seeing for better or worse and how to make your church sensitive to the needs and impressions of your visitors and potential members.

This book is loaded with practical suggestions (in a loving tone) of how to make sure your church is welcoming to visitors.