Book Review: “Fusion” by Nelson Searcy

I’m in my second year of coaching with Nelson Searcy. So, I’m a bit biased towards his work. But, I guarantee I wouldn’t have gone back for year two if it hadn’t been extremely beneficial to the Mission of Jesus in South Florida.

Ultimately, I don’t know of any two ministry books (Activate or Fusion) that are more straight-forward when it comes to the practical application of ministry practice. Nor do I know of two ministry concepts that have more deeply impacted my ministry than either the small group or assimilation systems that Nelson teaches.

Top 10 Takeaways from “Fusion: Turning First-Time Guests into Fully-Engaged Members of Your Church:”

1. Assimilation can be defined as “the process used to encourage first-time guests to continue coming back until they see and understand God’s power, accept Jesus as their Savior and commit themselves to the local church through membership.
2. By sending guests to you, God is giving you the opportunity to cooperate with Him to move someone forward in their journey toward Jesus.
3. A church in maintenance mode will probably have 3 guests per 100 people. A steadily growing church will have about 5 guests per 100. A rapidly growing church will have 7 or more guests per 100 people.
4. The Church should be a family expecting guests.
5. We live in a culture where the business world understands more about true expressions of hospitality than the Church does.
6. The more prepared a church is to receive guests, the more guests a church will receive.
7. You have 7 minutes from the time someone arrives on your campus to convince them to come back.
8. If you want to leave any hope of assimilating your guests, you cannot let them leave without knowing how to connect with them. The art of communication is the language of leadership.
9. The most powerful word for change in your church is “because” (and obviously the words and communicated principles that follow).
10. All follow-up should be fast, friendly, and functional. IT should provide a “wow factor” that pleasantly surprises people and stirs up a desire to give church a second, third, and fourth chance.

There is a lot of “how-to” in this book that I didn’t get into.  I’d highly recommend it for every pastor, staff person, or ministry volunteer that wants to see the Kingdom of God increase as a result of what God is doing through you.