People on the platform – what’s your job? There are generally three people in leadership roles on the church platform in any given worship service – the preaching pastor, the worship leader, and the service host (i.e. the person who welcomes guests, does announcements, etc…). The setup may be a bit different in liturgical churches (and in very small churches, it may even be the same person doing all three), but you get the general idea. Everyone knows that the job of the preaching pastor is to preach. The job of the worship leader is to lead worship. But what is the job of the service host?
If you go by the title, it’s to host the service. And, simply put, the service host is successful if he or she helps people to engage. There are two sides to this engagement:
- Welcoming people and helping them to feel wanted and “at home;”
- Giving the “why” behind next step opportunities or events.
We’ll hit part 1 on a different day, but, in most cases, it’s part 2 where I see churches struggle. Instead of the “why,” many churches focus on the “what.” For instance, there may be a class designed to help the attendees nail down what their spiritual gifts are. An effective service host would briefly explain what spiritual gifts are and why it’s important to know yours. However, what I often see as I do “secret shoppers” is service hosts giving the time and the room number (and perhaps who’s leading the class). That’s it. None of that info matters if people don’t think the class applies to them…or aren’t inspired to go.
Make the “why” your top priority.
creativeworshipideas 