I love where I go to church. My family can’t wait for Sunday mornings.  Each one of us serves, even my 12-year-old daughter.  We faithfully support our church with our time, energy, money, and prayers.  I absolutely adore my pastor, Crawford Loritts. But this is not about my home church.

Like many churches we do not have a Sunday evening service.  Therefore, my family often visits Passion City Church (PCC) in downtown Atlanta on Sunday evenings.  For those of you unfamiliar with PCC, this church is pastored by Louie Giglio and is where Chris Tomlin, Christy Nockels, and Kristian Stanfill among others lead worship.

I have been attending church for 30+ years and have never seen the level of energy, expectation, and excitement that I’ve seen from the tribe at PCC. People cannot wait for the church service to begin.  Therefore, I want to walk through what I experience at PCC and use it as a template for measuring how excited people are to attend a particular church.

When you attend PCC, you will notice in sequential order:

  1. People Bring Their Friends – The ultimate measurement whether your people are excited to attend your church or not is do they bring their friends.
  2. The Parking Team – The parking team at any church provide you a picture of what is to come on the inside of the building. Are they excited, having fun, and very engaging?  If they are, it’s likely your church will be as well.
  3. The Line Formed To Enter The Building – The PCC service begins at 6:00 PM.  We always arrive at 5:00 PM and are probably 50 deep in the line waiting to get in.  That number swells to several hundred by the time we finally enter the sanctuary.  How early are your people arriving?
  4. The Greeters – Similar to the parking team, this group gives the attenders a picture of your church.  At PCC, there is a good diversity of age groups, genders, and races.  Once again, all are very energetic and thrilled to be there.
  5. The Pre-Service Vibe – If you want to know if God is moving at any church, just describe for me the atmosphere in your building the 15 minutes before the service.  Is there energy in the room?  What are the discussions about?  Are people smiling and laughing?  Is community being built?
  6. The Artists Walk On Stage – At PCC, the audience stands and begins clapping as soon as the worship band walks on the stage.  They do not need prompting.  That’s just cool!
  7. The Response To The Music – There is life in the worship.  People are alive and responding. The celebratory aspect and sheer excitement of the music and the connection with the audience is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.
  8. The Response To Scripture – Jesus is celebrated through the reading of His Word.  There is spontaneous clapping while reading scripture.
  9. The Response To The Message – In that early church, people sat at the disciples’ feet and were filled with a sense of awe.  Pastors, how does your church respond to your messages?
  10. Life Change – At the conclusion of each message, there is a chance to respond.  Each week, significant, heartfelt, deep life change takes place.  Lives are being transformed and people are filled with hope.
  11. People Walking To The Car – Leaving PCC feels like leaving a sporting event. I’ve come to learn that how people feel when they are leaving a service greatly determines if they will return.
  12. People Waiting In Traffic – You have to sit in traffic for about 15-20 minutes each week. I don’t mind because it gives you time as a family to talk about what you just experienced.  That is certainly a better feeling than rushing out of church to beat the crowd to the restaurant!
  13. And Most Important, It’s All About Jesus – Nothing creates excitement and expectation like continually focusing everything on the One who is worthy of all this excitement, Jesus.

Pastors and church leaders, this post is not designed to compare Passion City Church to yours.  We are just trying to establish a grid to determine how excited people are to come to our churches.  Based upon this model, how excited are people to attend your church on the weekends?

For additional information on Passion City Church, check out these resources:

5 Lessons About Apex Leadership I Learned From Chris Tomlin

10 Leadership Practices Of The Future – Passion City Church

Japan, We Are Still Praying For You

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