Evangelism Coach

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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:

• No One Said Hello 
• I can’t silence the pain. 
• I want to feel Jesus
• First Time Church Visitor Experience
• 1st Time Church Visitor Story
• The Secret Dress Code (two more first time church visitor stories)

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?
• Take the initiative to greet them?

Remember, we are Christ’s ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5.20). Our actions and reactions communicate who we are and who we represent.

Let me ask you this:

• What can you do to develop a better willingness to welcome church visitors? 
• What hinders Christian Hospitality from working in my life in general?

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

• Genesis 12:14-20
• Genesis 20:4-15
• 1 Kings 17:10-24
• Luke 19:1-10
• Acts 16:14-15
• Acts 28:2

Negative Examples of Biblical Hospitality

• Numbers 20:18-21
• Numbers 21:21-31
• Judges 19:15
• 1 Samuel 25:10-38
• Luke 9:51-56
• Luke 10:30-37

Biblical Hospitality Verses:

Matthew 25:34-43	Sheep and Goats
Luke 10:30-37	Good Samaritan
Acts 4:32-38	“had everything in common”
Romans 12:13	“practice hospitality”
Romans 16:1-23	Greetings and “who’s hospitality I enjoy”
1 Timothy 5:10	characteristic of a widow
Hebrews 13:2	“angels unaware”
1 Peter 4:7-11	“Offer Hospitality without grumbling”
3 John 1:5-8	“We ought to show hospitality”

 

Let me ask you this?

Do you have a favorite hospitality scripture or verse to add to this list?

(Picture from: MyfanwyX)

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 point in time, 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?

On 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.

That too, 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

1. Greeted: Welcome with a smile
2. Directed: simply and politely shown where they need to go.
3. Treated: Shown respect and perhaps surprised with food/drink.
4. Seated: Led to comfortable, appropriate seats.

Greeting Visitors

I can’t begin to tell you how important a greeting can be. 

You can read the difference between two experiences of two different congregations that shared the same building:

• First Time Church Visitor Experience (No Greeting)
• 1st Time Church Visitor Story (Greeted)
• No One Said Hello

I’ve complied a set of links on Evangelismcoach.org that point to Greeting visitors.

• Welcoming Visitors to Your Church - Miracles disguised as needs.
• 6 hints for welcoming visitors to your church.
• 10 Tips for Greeters (One of the Most Popular Articles Here)
• How Not to Welcome A Visitor (Secret Dress Code)
• Welcome a Spanish speaking Visitor

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. 

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)

  According to a Barna Research survey of people looking for a church, “Friendliness to Visitors” is

• Extremely important: 71%
• Somewhat important: 21%

Based on a national telephone survey of 1,015 people 18 or older; sampling error of plus/minus 3 percent. Citation: Moody (Jan/ Feb 2002);

Add that up and for 9 out of 10 visitors, the friendliness of your congregation is important.

What each church needs to do is develop a strategy to be friendly, but not overly friendly or smothering.

Ask yourself: How can I help my church welcome church visitors? What role can I play?

Here are 5 of 10 common practices to consider — (the next five come tomorrow).

1. Recruit a greeting ministry team

This team is would be responsible for recruiting greeters to serve regularly, and provide ongoing training to new greeters.

Some churches are large enough and have multiple points of entry into the building, and this requires a little more administrative planning to manage. For example: One Baptist Church has lots of different entry points.

One could make the point that all members are responsible for greeting, and while that is true, what often happens is that a greeting may never get done. It’s easy to slip into the mentality that we are a friendly church and therefore visitors will be welcomed. But there exist too many stories of “No One Said Hello”

See: Starting a Greeter Program for an example from the Assemblies of God.

2. Regularly Train New Greeters

Some churches provide regular training sessions for new greeters.

Extroverts may find this ministry easy to do, but introverts may need a little help or guidance in how to break the ice welcome visitors.

For example

• The Presbyterian Church in Canada gives guidelines to greeters/ushers.
• First Presbyterian Greenville created these guidelines for entrance greeters.

One could also read Serving as a Church Greeter, Leslie Parrott. (I’ve not read this book myself, but found it on Amazon).

3. Hospitality or Welcome Center

Some churches have a large enough lobby to have a table or booth that is staffed by greeters.

This is a central information area about the church and it’s ministries.

It can also be a place where visitors can leave their contact information for future conversations.

Many churches will give away a small gift for those who visit the table. Coffee mug, pens, free book, etc. Here is where one could place Church Welcome Folder.

One church, Glen Burnie Baptist features the church welcome center on a webpage for visitors, along with a map of the facility.

4. Church Welcome Folder or Packet

We have been in churches that distribute a church welcome folder or church visitor packet.  For more information see: Ideas for Church Visitor Welcome Packets

During our visits in different churches, these visitor packets have come to us in a variety of ways:

• We have found them ourselves.
• The members that have invited us will see we get one.
• Told to get one from the Welcome Center on the way out.
• Greeters that have recognized us as visitors give them to us.
• We have raised our hands when asked and ushers gave one to us.

Some churches will have a coupon to turn in at the welcome center for a free book or some such token of appreciation.

Usually inside the visitor packet, we will find

• a letter from the pastor,
• an audio recording of a pastor’s greeting or a recent popular sermon, and
• informational brochures on various ministries and programs of the church.

Note: We recently received a cassette tape and then discovered that we don’t have a cassette player any more – not in the car, not in our house.   We haven’t used a cassette is several years and forgot that we didn’t own a player.  All our stereo systems have gone to CD or MP3.   Consider a offering a choice: cassette, CD, DVD, or a link to a free MP3 download on the church’s website.

For more information see: Ideas for Church Visitor Welcome Packets

5. “Go and Greet someone” or “Pass the Peace”

When I am the leader of the service (emcee, moderator, director, liturgist, worship leader, pick the term for your tradition), here is what I do:

At an appropriate moment I say

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.

I don’t say the same thing every time, but they usually contain four commands.

1. Get Up.
2. Go Meet.
3. Give Your Name.
4. Greet.

I particularly mention “someone you have not met.”

I want to encourage people to make new connections that could lead to significant relationships, and I want the congregation to learn to look for people they don’t know.

Tomorrow, I’ll share part two of this list.

UPDATE:

This post has gathered a lot of traffic.  To those who have come for the first time to this website, I want to give you a personal welcome.  Here is part II. 

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If you’d like to have local Evangelism Training workshops on hospitality, see our various options at our Live Evangelism Training page.

Printed Announcements

Many churches still use a bulletin or program to share the news of community life.

• Do you proofread your announcements?
• Is the font easy to read?
• Does the bulletin appear professional (not a 7th generation photocopy)
• Are contact names and phone numbers included?  If not, what central point can a person go to to get information.
• Do you have group names that don’t indicate who that group is (see below about The eagles).

Our church doesn’t use print announcements with the exception of a monthly newsletter that is distributed 1st Sunday every month.   More immediate announcements are given via video.

Video Announcements

Many churches make announcements via video screen these days, or in color bulletins, or so forth.

At the church we currently attend, these are shown at the end.  They keep attention, are short, and prevent a person from extending their announcement too long.

Contact Persons

Many video announcements conclude with “For more information, see Jack Smith” or other contact person.

As long time visitors, we realized

• that we don’t know Jack Smith. 
• we still don’t know who to ask to find Jack Smith.

We’d like to participate in Jack Smith’s event, but it’s hard to find information.

A better idea for video is to show a photo of Jack Smith.  For more information see Jack Smith, and include his picture so that people know what he looks like.

Simply including a picture would help get around the “everyone knows who Jack Smith is” mentality.  Visitors don’t know everyone.

Groups

Another video announcement really caught my eye.  It was for a group in the church going to hike in a park.  I thought it was a great idea to help our family connect.

It also was for a group in the church called “The Eagles.”  The narration didn’t describe who the eagles are. 

• Are they a football team? 
• Are they the pre-k kids? 
• Are they the old wise men? 

The video featured all sorts of imagery, but no faces of contact people in the church.   Looked like fun.

Who do I talk with?  I want to go to the park.

For more information

The narration also didn’t include where to get more information. 

When I asked someone about where to find more, their answer to me was “Everyone knows to go to the table at the back.” 

Well, not everyone.

Not visitor friendly.

Church insiders know

• who the group leaders are. 
• where group leaders can be found
• where information is distributed.

Visitors do not  know

• who Jack Smith is
• your sub group names
• if they are welcome to come. 
• information is available at the back table.

With those barriers to hospitality, visitors may not connect at the events in the life of the church you expect them to come to. 

Let me suggest this:

Take a look at your announcements over the past few weeks and see what kinds of barriers you have placed in front of visitors.

If you would like more information about evaluating your hospitality, check out our articles on hospitality and feel free to give us a call at 804-335-1445.  Send an email to pastor_chris@evangelismcoach.org and I will send you a hospitality audit form.

The last two posts (part I and part II) shared common practices on welcoming visitors to church.  Here I simply want to give 20 blunders I’ve seen churches make in greeting visitors to church. 

Feel free to add your own in the mix (use the comments below).

1.  No One Said Hello.

2.  Bad breath.

3.  20 question doctrinal exam to make sure you are acceptable.

4.  Survey family history and marital status and background check.

5.  No follow-up contact.

6.  Stale snacks / donuts / cookies.

7.  Bad coffee.

8.  Too friendly - smothering and not respecting boundaries.

9.  Body odor.

10.  No eye contact.  Or eye contact and weak smile, but no hello.

11.  Apathy in making a greeting.  Whatever.

12.  Limp handshake and a weak hello.

13.  Too much enthusiasm.

14. “Is this your first time here?”

15.  Hugs to strangers.

16.  Swarming on visitors all at once, like flies on fresh meat.

17.  Unclean bathrooms.

18.  Unsafe Nursery.

19.  Thinking hospitality is evangelism.

20.  Rude staring at hairstyle, body piercings, or choice of clothes (See How Not to Welcome A Visitor about the Secret Dress Code).

Let me ask you this?

What would you add to this list? 

Think about times when you were a visitor once and what shaped a bad impression of a congregation. 

Add your thoughts in the comments below — simply keep church names out of your post.

If you would like more information about evaluating your hospitality, check out our articles on hospitality and feel free to give us a call at 804-335-1445.  Send an email via the contact us page and I will send you a hospitality audit form.

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