Help Church Visitors Make Connections

God sovereignly brings visitors to your church.

Church visitors can fall in a variety of categories:

Reached/Churched
Reached/Unchurched
Unreached /Churched
Unreached / Unchurched

Source: Breaking the Missional Code, Ed Stetzer, David Putman

But once people are first welcomed into your church during their first visit, what happens when the service is over?

Build bridges.

When we were first married and moved to Chicago, we started attending an Assembly of God and went to a Sunday school class for married couples, and socializing after the class, we had lots of things in common with 3 other couples: newlywed transplants from another state.

Then the phone calls began to happen.

“Hey, Tom had surgery, come over and play cards.”
“Hey, let’s go to dinner.”
“Hey, let’s have a cookout.”
“Hey, what are you doing. Let’s watch a movie tonight.”

Pretty soon, three things began to happen as we spent time together.

(1) We felt connected to the local church.

(2) We developed deep and intimate friendships that are now 20 years old.

This got started because someone took the initiative to get us together and we met over a meal and played cards. An act of hospitality.

This turned into deep relationships that last.

How to help church visitors connect:

If you have small groups, have leaders intentionally invite church visitors to their small group
Invite church visitors to your home for lunch or dinner (don’t worry about dessert or a spotless house — I heard a story this week about a woman who made her sister use a restroom at a gas station because her house wasn’t ready to receive her sister — sure, it needs to be clean, but not perfect)
Invite church visitors out for a snack / lunch / dinner or something with a group from the church.
If you prayed with the visitor after service, make a phone call during the week.