Easter Blessings!  Easter is a time of year that churches excitedly anticipate the opportunity to burst at the seams!  Many who may not attend church regularly, make a point to attend in Celebration of the Lord's Resurrection.   It's interesting that even the casual church attendee will usually go to a place they feel somewhat familiar with and have a certain comfort level.  

   Leading up to this day, there are invitations via television and radio by many churches inviting people to attend their church (or a church) on Easter Sunday. That's what businesses do all year long.  They "invite" people (customers) into their business. 

   When people tell me that they "love their church", I ask them why? What about it do they love?  The response is consistently, "the people." "The people make me feel cared about (significant, valued, important, loved) ...like I belong there."  They never say its' the beautiful building, the ample parking, or the time of the services.  It's exactly the same in any business or organization.  If they're asked what draws them back, it's "the people".

   So, if it's "the people", what kind of people, and what do those people do to create this natural desire to return?  The common qualities are clearly their ability to make others feel valued.  This is shown in many ways: sincere greetings, smiles, welcoming people with a handshake, going out of their way to ask sincerely how they're doing and caring enough to listen to the answers. 

  Ironically enough, the show "Cheers", that took place in a bar, had a theme song that summed up the truth of this. "You wanna go where everybody knows your name and they're always glad you came."  Isn't it interesting that the same principle goes for a church, a bar, a business - any organization.

    Recently New York Times Best-Selling Author, Max Lucado was interviewed about his book, Fearless (Imagine Your Life Without Fear).  He said he was surprised by the results of the surveys they did, which revealed that the top fear for most people is the fear of feeling insignificant: that their life wouldn't matter, they could come and go and they wouldn't make a difference. 

   Regardless of the venue, people gravitate back to where they found genuine acceptance and significance. It's clearly a place where they made a connection with at least one or more people and felt like they truly belonged there.      

   Even subconsciously, we will avoid places where we felt uncomfortable or insignificant. The number one reason people have for not returning to a particular place is due to the feeling of apathy...nobody seemed to care if they were there or not.

  Reflective questions to ask ourselves:

  1) "If a person felt valued based solely on how I personally greet them and treat them, how valued would they feel?" 

  2) "What is our organization doing to make sure people know we truly care?" 

If we answer these, and insure it's happening, we'll be burstin' at the seams all year long!

 Joan Endicott is an internationally known professional speaker, facilitator, author and life coach who helps empower individuals and organizations to grow their teams, increase morale and productivity.  For more information visit: JoanEndicott.com, call (208) 453-8056 or email:Joan@JoanEndicott.com