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How often have you heard?

Greeting church visitors is every one’s responsibility.

However, you know this doesn’t always get done.

Thus, many churches  have organized greeting teams to serve a few weeks in a row.

In my experience, some times people who are recruited as church greeters may not be sure exactly what to say or how to give a greeting.

It can be a little embarrassing to say “I don’t know how to do this” so in the privacy of their own home, they search the Internet for

• “How to say a welcome to a church visitor”
• “Welcome Scripts for Church Guests”
• “Greetings to 1st time visitors at church”
• “A word of welcome for church visitors”
• “How to Say the Welcome Greeting at a church“
• “Words of welcome to/for church visitors”
• “What to say to welcome visitors in a church”
• “How to say a welcome to visitors at church“
• “Tips on welcoming First timers in Church”

This list above comes from my search logs just in the past 3 days.

In one month of traffic, over 700 people visited my website (www.WelcomeChurchVisitors.com) looking for what to say to church visitors.

So let me share some possible starting scripts that you can use yourself, or develop more fully into a resource you can use at your church.

If you are a church greeting coordinator, perhaps you might want to consider giving a script to your new greeters.  Once people say something a few times, they might feel the liberty to relax and put their own flavor to it.

You can give your new greeter permission to mess up.  Consider these as guidance to offer them.

Greeting Church Visitors at Entrances:

Sample one line greetings for parking lot or entry greeters or for your members to say in a hallway:

Welcome to [church name] this morning!

God bless you.

We’re glad you are here this morning.

I’ve not met you yet!  Welcome.

Greeting Church Visitors from the Front.

During the worship service, the leader can say something like the following to welcome visitors.

We are glad that you are here with us this morning.

If this is your first or second Sunday with us, we are grateful that you have come to be with us this morning.  It is our hope that you experience the love of Christ this morning and His presence during our worship.

If your church does the passing of the peace handshake ritual, the worship leader can go on to say this to help the church greet visitors (See #5 in this list of 10 practices to welcome church visitors).

Get up, turn and greet someone that you’ve not met yet. Shake their hand, introduce yourself, and take a few moments to welcome them to God’s house.

See more tips at How to Say the Welcome Greeting at a church.

Greeting Church Visitors After the Worship Service

During the fellowship reception time after the service, church members can be encouraged to look out for and intentionally greet people they haven’t met.

I have find it helpful to break the ice and initiate the conversation by saying:

“I’ve not met you yet.  I’m Chris.”

With that, I offer my hand to shake and I continue with a conversation.

Follow up: 20 Blunders in Welcoming Church Visitors.

Let me ask you this?

What do you say to greet visitors to your church?  Add your thoughts below.

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