In real estate, they tell you that selling your home comes down to three things: location, location, and, you guessed it, location. I think that the church can learn a lot from this simple mantra. One of the things we noticed on our visit to Lifechurch.tv in Hendersonville was the location of their welcome table. It was just to the left of the door as you entered (at least one of them).

In contrast, our welcome table was out of the way, almost tucked in a corner of our lobby. Why, you may ask? Well, when we started LifePoint, we placed the cafe table and naturally assumed that people would flow a certain direction because of it. Unfortunately for us, we were dead wrong. Almost no one ventured to the welcome table, even though it was stocked with a bevy of tantalizing LifePoint goodies. Worse still, we had people leaving the building faster than a hemophiliac with a knife wound. No one stopped to talk to each other. As soon as the service ended, they were out the door. After visiting LifeChurch.tv, we realized that we needed to move our welcome table. So, last Sunday, the table was positioned strategically near our entrance/exit door.

Now, it’s only been one Sunday and I don’t want to overestimate its impact, but all I can say is “wow”. I never would have guessed that moving one piece of furniture would do what moving our welcome table seemingly did. Not only did almost everyone stop at it to talk or grab something, but after service, almost everyone stayed around a few more minutes to talk to each other…around the welcome table. I’m not a church growth guru, but I’d say that’s pretty amazing results from something as petty as relocating a table.

All this got me to thinking…what else do we have in place as a church that could be more effective if it were re-thought? Do we need more signs on the road leading to the theatre? What kind of music do we use? What if the words on screen were bigger? What if we reexamined the flow of service? or the way in which we teach. Don’t underestimate the importance of change. In the immortal words of Cheryl Crow…”A change will do you good…”