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Evangelism Scripts. See our popular series on
Definition of Evangelism and
HospitalityOn a human level, visitors will come to your church because they have
- Been invited by a friend.
- Been referred by a friend in their grapevine.
- Seen your building in their commuting patterns
- Heard about your church through your marketing (direct mail, website, door hangers, business cards, radio, TV, phone book)
- Experienced your community outreach (e.g. food pantry, medical outreach, Dog Park, Hot Dog’s for Jesus, Free coffee on Mondays, Christmas Store)
These focus on the how that visitor found their way to your church. These don’t suggest “Why did that visitor come?” That gets into motives, spiritual needs, situation and life. There are many different reasons why a person would choose to come to your church for the first time, and in this series on Christian hospitality, we won’t explore that here.
Getting Visitors to Come
Getting visitors to your church is a different question.
We can explore outside of this series on Christian hospitality. That gets into the missional/attractional debates, marketing, outreach and lots of other trails for another day.
It also touches on the connection between marketing and evangelism, and other blogs I read (www.MinistryMarketingCoach.com and www.ChurchMarketingSucks.com) deal with such issues.
Welcome Visitors to Church
Searcy writes in the introduction to his book Fusion (see my review of Fusion Visitor Assimilation), that
“Next Sunday the Spirit of God will prompt hundreds of thousands of people in the United States, and millions around the world to visit a church for the first time.”
In fact, he suggests that each visitor are “God’s gift to you. . . . ”
While the book covers his entire system of Visitor Assimilation, chapter 3 gives a good writeup on Four Factors that he considers important
- Greeted: Welcome with a smile
- Directed:simply and politely shown where they need to go.
- Treated: Shown respect and perhaps surprised with food/drink.
- Seated: Led to comfortable, appropriate seats.
Greeting Visitors
I can’t begin tell you how important a greeting can be.
You can read the difference between two of my experiences of two different congregations that shared the same building:
I’ve complied a set of links on Evangelismcoach.org that point to Greeting visitors.
Different ways to greet visitors:
www.ChurchMarketingSucks.com conducted a poll among its readers. See the Special Guests Poll Results (on Welcoming Visitors) and various ways their readers greet visitors during the service.
First Presbyterian in Branson MO greets visitors publicly during the service. Read More tips for welcoming a visitor which is their story. It works for them because of the pastor’s skill in greeting people before the service and he makes the greeting time fun. It’s a church that draws lots of out of town tourists each weekend, so it’s a fun moment to see where all the visitors have come from. I think the church takes pride in that.
One reader submitted a question via Ask EvangelismCoach about greeting visitors in the public service with flowers. (Read Should we single out First Time Visitors?). The discussion in the comments grows, and I’ve not yet answered the question myself. That’ll come in a future post.
Here is a simple but not exhaustive list of ideas:
- A simple handshake and a small greeting.
- Friendly ushers trained to notice and talk with visitors.
- Everyone stand and greet/meet while upbeat music is playing.
- “Secret” Greeters who are trained to notice and talk with visitors
Let me ask you this?
What is the way your church greets and give welcome to church visitors?
(Get our Newsletter and a link to download for free:Avoiding First Time Visitor Nightmares)
Popularity: 2% [?]
Comments (0) Posted on Thursday, August 7th, 2008
You were a first time church visitor.
I can say that because most of my regular readers (through my RSS feed) and Newsletter subscribers are actively involved in their local church.
At some you, you visited for the first time.
Do you remember your experience? Do you remember the emotions you felt being in a new space for the first time surrounded by dozens, if not hundreds, of people you didn’t know?
Before getting into the practical steps on giving welcome to Church visitors I want to share a few more devotional thoughts about church visitors and Christian Hospitality.
You were the church visitor
Leviticus 19:33-34 commands Israel to welcome strangers because of their experience in Egypt.
‘When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.’
They were not to oppress the alien because they knew how it felt when they were in Egypt (Exodus 23:9)
While this verse can say much towards the current national debate on immigration in the US and perhaps the immigration debates in other countries, we can stretch it to speak about visitors who come to your church.
(It’s not proper exegesis, but a great point can still be made).
You might be a long term member of your church.
At one point you were not.
You were a visitor for the first time. You had a need and somehow, you found your way to that church.
You were the “alien.”
Now the coin has been turned.
You have integrated yourself into the community of faith, and other people are coming to your church for the first time. Now those visitors are the “alien.”
How can you treat visitors as one of your own?
How can you “Love them as yourself, for you were aliens . . . ?”
Jesus welcomed people
Notice what Jesus did with visitors in Luke 9:11 (Feeding the Five Thousand)
The crowds . . . . followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.
In fact Jesus welcomed so many people into his presence, that he was accused of welcoming sinners (Luke 15:1-2)
Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Acts 28:30 points to Paul’s practice of welcoming people
For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him.
McIntosh makes the point that several different Greek words used for “welcome.”
together, they suggest the meaning of gladly welcoming someone to one’s home as a guest . . . [Welcoming newcomers] is a theological demonstration of God’s grace. . . .when we welcome newcomers to church, we are demonstrating the gracious love and care of God (p. 12)
Source: (Assimilating Church Visitors: Beyond the First Visit)
Let me ask you this?
- How does your church welcome visitors?
- How do you personally welcome visitors?
- Do you see your welcome as reflecting God’s grace?
Popularity: 2% [?]
Comments (0) Posted on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008
I’m continuing this week a series on Christian Hospitality. I have a series linker, but we’ll see how it works as new pieces come in over the next few days as I write, and meditate on it.
Here is some links and scriptures for your study.
Positive Examples of Biblical Hospitality
Negative Examples of Biblical Hospitality
Biblical Hospitality Verses:
Let me ask you this?
Do you have a favorite hospitality scripture or verse to add to this list?
(Picture from: MyfanwyX)
Popularity: 3% [?]
Comments (0) Posted on Tuesday, August 5th, 2008
I’ve written in the past about the connection between Christian Hospitality and Evangelism, particularly as to the connection to welcoming first time visitors.
I’ve published stories of being a first time church visitor and experiences of welcoming church visitors:
But I want to develop a little more depth on hospitality with regards to helping welcome church visitors who may be coming for the first time.
The Definition of Christian Hospitality
In this context then let me define Christian hospitality as
Taking the initiative to welcome others and
inviting others to share in our community life.
This extends beyond our group gatherings for worship but a welcome in:
- our small groups
- our families
- our home
- our lives
This definition is much broader than evangelism.
It speaks to
- Our small group life,
- Our corporate worship life
- How we treat other people in general
- How connected we feel to the local church body
- How we get along as members of the body of Christ,
- The potential depths of our relationship with one another.
However, for our purposes here at EvangelismCoach.org, we’ll focus specifically on the connection between Christian Hospitality and Evangelism.
Learn from the Hospitality Industry
All sorts of corporations that interact with the public have studied hospitality, implement training programs to improve their public interaction, and spend millions on hospitality consultants.
We see its effects in store personnel trying to greet us as we walk in the door, training customer service reps to speak gently on the phone and check out clerks that smile (in many stores anyway).
These corporations want you to remember the good experience that you’ve had in their presence and will likewise want to return. They want to remove potential bad experiences so that you willingly spend money on their product, experience, or merchandise. By creating a “good experience,” you’ll want to return and spend more.
While the church is not to imitate a corporation, nor even mimic one, nor our our worship services a product to be sold or even consumed, a good question for the church is:
How can the local church lower the barriers to hearing the message that will be proclaimed?
Christian Hospitality is only one tool in the church’s ability to be evangelistic. It is not the only tool and should not be confused with evangelism itself.
Rather hospitality can lower and remove the potential barriers that can harm the gospel message during the worship service.
Christian Hospitality is part of Pre-Evangelism
As I think of my experience visiting churches for the first time, and as I’ve listened to others who have made first time stranger visits, one thing has consistently risen to the surface.
Lots of anecdotal evidence suggests that the ability of a first time visitor to connect to the worship service was directly impacted by the warmth of the welcome experienced.
- When no one says hello, the perceived coldness hinders your ability to remember what the sermon was about.
- When people are staring at you for not dressing right, you want to hide, but feel trapped. Can’t pay attention.
In both examples, the ability of the first time hearer to interact with the sermon (the central part of most worship experiences) is hindered.
However, when a guest is given a warm welcome, a greater openness and ability to engage and comprehend the sermon remains in place and a greater likelihood (from a human point of view) of greater connection to the local church during that stage of their spiritual journey.
A warm welcome is thus part of the pre-evangelism work necessary in a church’s mission to help people find faith in Christ.
Do You Welcome Church Visitors?
Take a personal moment and examine your heart on this matter.
How do you come across to others?
When people meet you for the first time, how do you think they perceive your personality, disposition or attitude?
When you extend a hand to shake when a guest walks through the church’s front door, are they interrupting your conversation with someone else, or do you offer them genuine interest along with a hand shake (a typical greeting in the US)?
How do you treat the unknown person who sits next to you during the worship service?
How do you welcome the visitor who sits behind you, or in front of you?
Do you
- Ignore them?
- Talk around them?
- Look at them and say nothing
