Helping Guest Feel at Home
July 1, 1998
6 Ounces of Security
We employ four strategies to make our church more welcoming.
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Hospitality time. We have a 20-minute segment between our two services when we provide coffee juice, and donuts in our lobby. Greeters and hosts mingle and welcome people with cup in hand (one greeter remarked, "It's amazing how a six-ounce cup provides a sense of security for a 180-pound male").
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Response cards. Our worship bulletins have perforated tear-offs that members and guests are asked to fill out and place in the offering plate. It has spaces for all kinds of quick interaction (such as "My decision today," "I'd like information," "Prayer need"), which we try to respond to quickly.
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Deacon-of-the-week. The deacon-of-the-week attempts to call guests following the worship services to thank them for attending. This gives our guests a personal touch from someone other than staff.
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Proactive small groups. This will eventually become our primary means of assimilation. Small groups meet twice a month and are asked to invite guests to their meetings we do this in lieu of our evening worship service). We provide group leaders the names of interested quests to contact each Monday.
Friends Don't Let Friends Drift
The most important thing we do is develop the value within our people to build relationships with spiritually unconnected people and bring them to church. Thus the welcoming part is easy because most guests come along with a regular.
How do we develop this value in our people? We remind each other that every day we come into contact with people Jesus came to rescue. Our staff has made a commitment to pray regularly for five to ten people in our lives who are not connected with Jesus Christ. An attitude like that in the leadership tends to penetrate ...
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