Words Matter

It is amazing the difference a single word can make.

When I was on the staff at The Journey Church in NYC, we offered a free gift (often a book or resource with a card inside with some invitations for next steps) to our first-time guests at each worship gathering. We tracked everything there, and our goal was that each first-time guest would pick up a free gift. In fact, we were more than ok with it if the number of gifts we gave exceeded the number of first-time guests we counted that day.

It was pretty easy to measure: we could count the number of guests and compare that to the number of gifts given away.

The problem was there was a lag. Lots of first-time guests were not taking advantage of the gift.

So… in a staff meeting one day, we talked about how we were giving the invitation. It went something like this: “If you’re a first-time guest today, we’re delighted you are here. On your way out today, stop by the guest table and pick up a free gift we have for you.”

We decided to make a change…a one-word change. Instead of saying “stop by the table”, we started saying “swing by the table”.

The results were instant and dramatic. The number of guests picking up the gift went up in all of our locations.

I’m not trained in psychology, but I can theorize that people were a bit skeptical being asked to “stop by” (How long will I have to stop? What are you going to ask me to do there? Are you going to ask me to sign up for something? Is this some kind of bait and switch?). But “swing by”? I can do that almost without breaking stride.

The point is that words matter. They always matter. And often, they matter more than we imagine.

What words are you using to invite people to take a next step in their spiritual journey? How might a little tweak here and there make a big difference for you and your church?

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