I want to give you 5 areas to consider improving your church welcome for your first time visitors when the come this Christmas Season.

1.  Train Greeters

Greeters can provide a warm handshake, helpful information and walk a guest to classes or the sanctuary if needed.

Greeting is more than just a hello.  It is a first impression.

I’ve got some free church greeter training videos here.

Or, purchase this DVD or Download video done in September 2011 to train greeters as a refresher.

Why is this important? Read these tweets and you get the idea.

Greeter at church- “How’s college? Have they kicked you out yet?” Not sure what this says about me.  –Twitter User

The greeter at church always flirts with me………uncomfortable!! — Twitter User

Way to go folks. Brought a visitor to church. Overheard “well that ain’t no way to dress for church.” — Twitter User

2. Cast a Hospitality Vision

Being friendly to your church visitor means that the church family is listening, inviting, encouraging, and caring.

Help your church get that vision for hospitality by casting it  when you can in sermons, meetings, and Sunday school classes. (Audio download from the store).

Church Visitors should be greeted by someone around them, not just the greeter at the door.

Particularly the lonely ones who may be away from family this time of year.

3. Church Visitors Welcome Packet.

Prepare Welcome Packets for your guest.

Read How to Prepare a welcome packet, perpetually one of the 10 ten articles on this website each year.

Include current information on upcoming programs and an invitation to meet with the pastor.

4.  Have a reception after the service.

Have a coffee/snack reception after the service.

This allows time for

• conversations with your church visitors to occur,
• for prayer to happen, and
• for your guests to meet with the pastors.

Beverages:

Make the coffee fresh and of appropriate strength. It shouldn’t be reheated from last night’s fellowship event nor should it be so weak as to taste like colored water.

While it doesn’t take a lot of skill to make coffee, making it right is the challenge.  Coffee drinkers know a good cup of coffee, and a bad cup will leave a bad taste.

Don’t forget to make enough – sometimes the pot gets drained before visitors have had a chance to get to the urn.

Offer alternatives such as teas, juice, ice cold water. If you choose to use bottled water, offer a recycle container for empty bottles.

Food:

Whatever snack items are offered, make sure they are fresh.

Stale sweets, or frozen items that had been thawed simply taste cheap and do not make a great first impression.

Consider common food allergies and either avoid those (like nuts) or provide an appropriate sign.

In our health conscious time, provide healthy options for those that don’t want sugary cookies or sticky sweets.

5.  Post visit Welcome Letter

Assuming you got church visitor contact information during the worship service, you’ll want to send them a nice follow up letter.

Be sure to include an invitation to return to the next worship service, as well as some upcoming event or service.

Don’t bother with “we are here to serve you, if you need anything.”

Instead, invite them to join you on a mission or upcoming event.

For example, “We believe in serving our neighborhood and being the best church for the community.  This month on [date] we’re going to serve the homeless and invite you to join us on that mission.”

Next steps

What are some areas that you would add?

Please share them in the comments below.

• Some are out of town guests.
• Other church visitors seek out the Christmas traditions of their youth.
• Others are awakening to their spiritual thirst.

Churches have special activities that are geared at increasing the number of personal invitations that members give.

While your attendance may swell at Christmas time, the critical question is

• How can you get your church visitors to come back after visiting your church this Christmas season?

Here are four factors to keep in mind.

1. A excellent and meaningful Christmas worship experience.

Make sure all your Christmas season events and worship services are done with excellence and quality.

Don’t let sloppiness or a lacksidasical attitude hinder your visitors experience of the Christmas season.

Think about your worship experiences and ask “Is this helping our visitors and members experience God and hear God’s truth?”

If a visitor doesn’t have a sense of encountering God during their visit, it’s highly unlikely they will return.  Instead, they’ll simply wonder “What’s the point of that?”

2.  Well done hospitality that reflects Christmas cheer.

Remove the unnecessary barriers to a return visit.

• Make sure your greeters are smiling at Christmas.   Read 10 Tips for Greeters.
• Make sure your facility is cleaned up and well decorated.
• Make sure your processes of getting from parking lot to pew are frictionless.
• Make sure your bulletins are easy to follow.

And most of all, make sure your members people say hello to the visitors.

There is lots of other information on this website about church hospitality.

Create the best experience possible at Christmas.

You can’t make a long term influence for Christ on a church visitor if they don’t come back to your church.

3.  Use the Advent time build momentum for your January sermon series.

The four weeks of advent is also a great time to start promoting your post Christmas sermon series.

Pick a topic that is relevant to life.

Do a six week  sermon series connected with the launch of new small groups.

These are great avenues to invite people back to church after the Christmas season is over.

Small groups allow for relationships to form, which increases the possibility your visitor will become a regular attender.

4.  Get visitor contact information.

There are many ways to get contact information.

I recommend the use of contact cards.   (Read and listen: How to Get Church Visitor Contact Information).  In our congregation, we are small enough to recognize first time vistiors. We hand them first time visitor cards.

Drop a note or Christmas card in the mail.

Invite them to other Christmas specials.  Remind your visitors they can bring a friend.

Also, use the card to remind your church visitors of the upcoming January series.

Even drop a little gift in the mail like a $5 gift card or gas card.

Some churches still make a personal visit within 24-48 hours.

Find ways to show honor to your visitor and invite them to return for January’s sermon series.

You can’t follow up if you don’t get any contact information.

Let me ask you this?

What specifically are you doing to be intentional about inviting your church visitors to return after Christmas?

Please share in the comments below.

• by hosting Advent activities,
• reaching out into the community, and
• making your church more inviting.

Don’t miss the opportunities to introduce people to Christ this Christmas.

As you celebrate and announce the birth of Christ, don’t forget to also proclaim the resurrection of Christ. After all, that is the reason Jesus came.

Your church can make an eternal difference in the life of your visitors, if you can help them come back on a regular basis.

Several of you are already rehearsing your Christmas musicals, setting dates for your parties, and getting the ball rolling on your community service projects during December.

If you haven’t started, now is the time to begin planning your events to reach the first time visitor who will come this time of year.

Are you ready for a Christmas increase in First time church visitors?

A study in the late 1990s showed that three out of four Americans attend church some time during Christmas, and almost 30 percent attend church more frequently during the holidays.

They will be

• family members from out of town,
• people thinking about making a change in the coming year after Christmas
• seekers longing for the familiarity of Christmas traditions they grew up with
• curiosity driven consumers seeking the comforts of beautiful Christmas music

How one church failed it’s first time Christmas visitors

Don’t be like this church I visited — read here to get some ideas on how to fail your visitors.

A Christmas Eve Tale (My first time visit failure)

This was a disappointing experience.

Even though I was an out of town guest, this church lacked the foresight to connect with any of it’s guests.

Sloppy music, hard to find, and no one said hello made for an uninviting Christmas experience.

Prepare to receive your Christmas church visitors

Over the next few posts, I’ll share some ideas on Christmas outreaches, but let’s start this one with an intentional review of your hospitality systems.

Wise church leaders will do some advance preparation related to hospitality in expectation of new church visitors at Christmas. A regular review of your systems is a good way to make sure things flow smoothly. You know that Inertia and inefficiency always creep in.

Whether that is you as

• Senior Pastor
• Head of the Greeter / Ushers.
• The leader of your church hospitality ministry
• Chair of the committee that oversees your church welcome ministry.

Your systems and processes are 1 of at least 4 Variables in Church Hospitality.

Wise hospitality ministry leaders will

• Review their facility navigation
• Review their current facility appearance.
• Review their church visitor follow-up process.
• Review their status of current hospitality ministries
• Review their current church greeter process / volunteers
• Review their process to how they get church visitor contact information.

Doing this kind of review will often reveal a bunch of

• We need to fix this.
• We ought-a
• We should have . . .

Free Church Hospitality Assessment Download

Other Evangelism Coach resources to :

• Ebook: How to Welcome Church Visitors
• Ebook: Church Greeters 101
• Audio: Church Hospitality Systems Review
• Audio: Cast a vision for Church Hospitality

Read more for your Christmas planning

• Guest Post: Seeing Christmas stories through eyes of ministry
• How to Welcome Visitors During the Christmas Season

This may sound funny coming from me, because I write so much on this topic (and even sell two ebooks).  But as I’ve consulted with churches, I run into this substitute regularly.

Personal Evangelism Substitute #2: Church Hospitality Ministry.

In many churches, we have substituted evangelism for the nicety of saying “Hello” at a church on Sunday and we call that evangelism.

Many churches have an “Evangelism Committee” that is focused on the church coffee hour and assimilation of newcomers.

Some committees are expanded to include church marketing efforts.  (By the way, What does an Evangelism Committee do?)

But Christian hospitality on a Sunday morning is not personal evangelism.

Your hospitality ministries support the evangelistic work of the church, but it is not evangelism.

Rather, your hospitality creates the space where evangelism can occur, much like Starbucks has created the third space for life conversations to occur.

Read more about how I define evangelism

The Definition of Christian Hospitality

I 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.

Two different goals.

In my ebook on hospitality (How to Welcome Church Visitors) I write:

Evangelism seeks conversion and repentance and deals with salvation and faith.

Hospitality seeks a repeat visit and to help the person connect to the fellowship.

The focus of evangelism is a changed life, while the focus of hospitality is to create a first impression.

These are entirely different goals.  They’re mutually supportive, but they’re not a substitute one for the other.

The place for Church Hospitality Committees

Churches should have hospitality committees that oversee the various welcoming functions of the church, but this work is not personal evangelism.

The art of welcoming church visitors is a key component in helping a church fulfill its evangelistic partnership with its members.

Your church members should be confident that their invitees will be warmly welcomed in the midst of a group of strangers.

Your members should be so proud of the welcome that your church gives that it naturally fosters personal invitations.

A hospitality team will oversee all that: reception, greeters and tweaking the system to leave your guests feeling like that they’ve had a great visit.

Your hospitality committee should do at least a quarterly review of your church hospitality systems.

Let me ask you this?

What is the actual role of your church’s evangelism committee?

How can your committee take a more active role in encouraging personal evangelism in the church?

Parts 3 and 4 in the series will come out later this week.  To be sure to get the next parts, choose one of the subscription options via RSS Feed, Twitter, or Facebook.

I’ve compiled this based on the reading that I’ve done.

The 2 Church Hospitality e-books I’ve written:

1.  Church Greeters 101

Church Greeters 101 is an instant download after purchase.

Your pastor calls you on Thursday and says

We are preparing the church bulletin.

Would you like to be our liturgist and give the welcome speech on Sunday?

Your heart races, the mouth goes dry.  You think:

Me?  I have to say something in front of all those people?

But since you want to

• please the pastor, or
• volunteer your time, or
• practice good church hospitality because you know its the right thing to do,

you suspend your fear for just a moment and say yes.

How do I say a welcome at church?

When you hang up the phone its a race to Google and type in something like:

• How to Say the Welcome at/in Church
• How can I say a/the welcome in a church
• How do you say a church welcome at church functions
• How to do church greeting
• How to give a welcome address in the church
• How to give welcome address for church visitors
• How to give a church welcome
• How to give welcome speeches for church visitors

I know, because this question and variants are common for my website and in my coaching practice.  I was surprised by the number of queries asked of me, so let me give you some tips.

5 Tips to Prepare the Welcome Speech at Church

1.  There is no magic formula to a church welcome speech.

I wish I could give you a script.  I’m often asked for a script. You might even be looking for sample welcome speeches to give at church.

But churches are so unique, each church visitor is unique, every person who does this unique, and every worship service is unique.

Even the location of the greeting is so unique to every church.  Some give this welcome greeting at the beginning of the service, others in the middle in relationship to their connection card, and others at the very end after the worship is over.

What you will say in your welcome speech at church is dependent on lots of other variables.

2.  To design a welcome speech, think like a first time church visitor.

Once first time church visitors get to the sanctuary and are participating in the worship service, first time church visitors have common questions.

• Will I fit in here with this group of people?
• Is this a place where I can serve?
• How do I get more information about this church?
• Will this place help me grow in my relationship with God?

Depending on where your welcome or greeting speech for visitors is located in the service, you may want to address one or two of those typical questions.

3.  Typical parts of a church welcome speech

Your welcome speech doesn’t have to be long at all.

Most church welcome speeches start with some kind of acknowledgment or appreciation of the visitor’s presence.

• If you are here for the first time today, we’re glad you are here.
• We want to give a special welcome to our first time visitors today.

Some may then move on to address a potential fear in the mind of a church visitor at this point.  For example

• We won’t make you stand up if you don’t want to  . . .  .
• We want to give you space to be as anonymous as you want . . .

Some may then move on to how to learn more.  For example

• We invite you to visit the welcome center.
• If you’ll raise your hand, the ushers will give you a welcome packet that we’ve prepared just for you.
• If you’ll fill out your connection card, we’d love to send you a gift.

Some move into an invitation to some volunteer mission work or connection point that is upcoming.

• We are building houses for Habitat this next Saturday and we invite you to come and serve with us and meet more people who might just be the ones to help you grow in your faith.
• This Friday, we’re having a newcomers gathering at the pastors house.  Come and meet new people and get some of your questions answered.

4.  Invite them to join your church’s mission

That last part is a big deal for me.

I don’t know about you, but the generic “we are here to serve you” speech falls on my deaf ears.

I find that the more and more I hear that, the less I pay attention.

Why?

“I don’t know how the church can serve me.  I know nothing about it.  I don’t know their programs, I don’t know their people.  They don’t know me.”

What catches my attention is the church’s mission and programming.

What is your church’s unique mission and how are you expressing that in your programing in the next few weeks.

Think like a visitor.

What would motivate you to explore more of the church’s programming / service

• We are here to serve you.
• We are building houses for Habitat this next Saturday and you are invited to come serve with us.

You don’t need to cover every announcement every week, but pick one program expression that you want to invite people to.

This is simply suggesting a next step in a first time church visitors process of connecting with your church.

5.  Cover your visitor welcome speech with Prayer.

As you prepare your welcome greeting, pray for your part in the service.

Your part is one of many that the Lord may choose to use in helping people make another step of growth in their spiritual journey.

If you are a layperson, pray that the Lord will give you the right words for that particular crowd on that particular worship service on that particular day.

Let me ask you this?

What advice would you give to someone who is nervous about composing or giving a church welcome speech?  Use the comment field below

The pastor organized one of their leadership committees that were taking on some new areas of responsibility, particularly in the area of church hospitality.

Why did they do that?

The church was experiencing some new and fresh growth, both internally as well as new visitors coming.

The combination of the two helped them to see that they were not yet really prepared to receive new visitors in the way they wanted to.

They felt overwhelmed and stuck.

• Where do we start to organize our hospitality minsitry?
• What are we supposed to do?
• What are we going to do?

It was a feeling of starring into the fog and not seeing much of anything clearly.

The problems appeared too big, too nebulous.

The pastor and leadership committee needed someone outside of their situation to chase some clouds away.

What did it take?

So, here is how we did a Church Leadership Coaching Session for this particular church

1. Each of us had SKYPE (free software from Skype.com) installed on our computers.
2. Each of us had high-speed internet.
3. Each of us had a video cam and microphone available for use with our computers.
4. We connected through the free service of Skype.  I saw them, they saw me.

Sometimes, we’ve simply done teleconference via a service I have.

They call in from their own phones to a conference calling number I have and we talk simply over the phone.  There was no need for computers or video cameras.

Here is what we did:

For about 1 hour, we talked about issues that were on this hospitality committee’s collective mind.

It had the give and take of a conversation.

They went through a brainstorming process to find a their own solutions.

I simply facilitated a the conversation.

Along the way, I shared some of my experiences, but generally, they were developing answers to the questions I asked.

What did they get out of it?

In their process of talking out loud, they shared how they were

• Re-energized to find new solutions.
• Ready to implement some solutions they just thought of
• Full of hope that they can make effective changes in some of their processes.

How can you get yours?

I’ll get on the phone with you or your team for up to an hour or so, and you can tell me what’s the most troubling about your church’s hospitality ministry.

I’ll then give some coaching or advice specific to your exact situation to help break through the logjam.

Read more here: Church Leadership Coaching Session.

I have a one time call as well as a 4 month process to help you implement various aspects.

1.  Preprint church name tags for your regular attendees

One church set up two large registration areas.

One has preprinted tags for regular attendees and blank name tags for first-time guests.   To get a name tag, each guest completes a registration information card. The next week, those guests have preprinted name tags waiting for them.

Another area has preprinted name tags for staff and core volunteers such as the prayer team or ushers.

First time guests are somewhat easy to identify because their name tags are handwritten.  This can help your ushers and greeters connect them with more information and resources about the church.

Yet, this “obvious” distinction may have an unintended consequence of showing a visitor that they are yet “different” as the nametag is not like the others.  You know your local culture to be able to discern how people might feel about this.

2. Handwritten name tags every Sunday

Another church has a stack of labels every Sunday.

All members and visitors fill one out as part of their “culture.”

All are handwritten, avoiding some of the concerns of the pre-printed ones

This takes administrative burden off the staff, but requires that your regular members understand the reason for doing this every week.

One church shared with me they preprint a theme logo, plus the branding of the church with its phone number, name, and website.  Sometimes they will use an image for a special event that week, like a Baptism, or communion.

3.  Distribution of name tags

Churches need to design a system that works for them.

Some will have a board of some kind near entrances where members can obtain their name badge and return it when the service is over.

Visitor centers or guest information booths will have greeters staffed to provide name tags for visitors.

4.  Recollecting name tags

Some may have one central area near the entrance, and make announcements in the bulletin about how to return the nametag.

Inevitably, some will get ripped, accidentally taken home and put through the wash, or just somehow lost.

Part of your ongoing maintenance of a name tag initiative is replacing lost ones, torn ones, or overly doodled nametags.

I’m familiar with churches where about every quarter, leadership reminds people of the reason behind the name tags and that begins a new wave of organizing, using, and distributing.

Let me ask you this?

• What style of nametag do you use that you have found effective?
• How do you distribute them?
• How do you recollect them?
• How do you maintain them?

Share your thoughts in the comment field below (Feed or email readers: click through to find the comment field).

See also

• Using Name Tags in Church
• Why Use Name Tags in Church

For more church hospitality tips on welcoming church visitors, buy your copy of How To Welcome Church Visitors.

Why are church hospitality committees looking to improve their hospitality ministry in their church by buying my book?

• Fear that a visitor to their church will come a few times and still not feel welcome.
• Fear that a church visitor will be overlooked.
• Fear that a first time church visitors will not welcomed because of the actions of untrained church greeters.
• Fear that their church greeters will be too overzealous and drive visitors away.

Readers find that these fears are calmed somewhat by this practical “how to book.”

In it they find over 60 practical hospitality ideas for new church visitors and how to organize their church hospitality.

Results not guaranteed

You might be thinking – If I buy your book, will I see results?  Yes, but with qualification.

The risk is assuming that the church hospitality ideas found inside this book are a formula that will guarantee the results.

“If I perfect the system, I’ll get the results. .. ”

That’s flawed thinking.

This thinking might work for weight loss, making money on line or fixing your golf swing, but not building your church.

Church’s come in different sizes, shapes, local cultures, and different theological traditions.

Hospitality ideas in the church may works in one place, but the same church hospitality idea may not work in another context.

For example, a personal visit to the home of a first time visitor that Sunday afternoon, unannounced, may still work in some places, but would be considered intrusive in others.

Identifying visitors by making them stand up, wear a visitor badge, or sign a guest book might work in some places, but fail miserably in others.  (By the way, I don’t recommend any of these ideas).

The point is, technique doesn’t automatically build relationship.

The goal is relationship.

The goal of your church hospitality ministry is to facilitate emotional and relational connections with the church family.

The goal of your greeting ministry is to remove easy barriers to making that happen.

Hospitality ministries are one of many pieces – ministry events, small groups, etc — to help that process happen.

Techniques help, but if your congregation isn’t truly friendly to your guests, you still won’t get the result you are looking for — growth.

Think of the goal first.

Then work backwards and ask yourself –

• Does this hospitality practice help or hinder that goal?
• What additional practices can we do to facilitate relational connections with the congregation?

Order your copy of How to Welcome Church Visitors.

Yes, I’m serious.

Ever been blown over by that uniquely powerful smell?

You know what I mean.  What’s the first room you clean in your own home when

company is coming?

I rest my case. Is your church bathroom up to “company standards?”

Put some nice de-odorizers in there.

2. Greeters.

Remember your first day in a church?

Unless you were born into one, you were probably nervous your first day and filled with questions.

A common practice in US churches is greeters at the doors to at least give a hello and a friendly handshake.

Some churches have a few volunteers they call welcomers who are available to engage visitors in conversation after the door greeters say hello.

See also Church Greeter Training videos.

3. Real coffee, with real cream.

Most churches will offer some kind of reception after the service.

Use good coffee and provide some real cream.

That powdered milk substitute just doesn’t work.

See Tip #9 in 10 Practices to Welcome Church Visitors for more thoughts.

4. Cast a Vision for welcoming Visitors.

One killer to your hospitality ministry is when the congregation isn’t as friendly as your hospitality team.

I have experienced professional greeters at the door and welcome center that gave a great first impression, but chilly experiences from church members inside the sanctuary.

In other words, I was welcomed only by the “professionals.”

Pastors – Refresh a vision for welcoming visitors so that your congregation doesn’t create a cultural mis-match with your hospitality ministry.

5.  Clean up the junk room.

Most churches may have a “junk room” where stuff accumulates that doesn’t have a home.

That could be a coat closet, classroom, or even a corner in a public space.

Clean it up.

See Church Hospitality Survey Assessment to download an audit tool for free.

6.  “Visit” your own church.

Commission a few wise souls to observe your Sunday morning processes before Mother’s Day.

Examine the quality of greeting, the ways people’s faces look, the mood that seems present from the time the first worshipers arrive, and what your church probably feels like to a visitor.

Do a thorough inventory of how your church presents itself to a visitor.   A critical analysis and review will help your greeters and team get a good idea of what needs to be addressed.

7.  Website Page

Many people will use the Internet to find a church nearby or to find out about a church they have been invited to.  Does your home page announce your Mother’s Day services?  Does the home page of your site give clear directions? Does it provide easy to find contact information for staff and church leaders?  Does it show pictures of people, not just buildings?

See the website category for more ideas.

More ideas

For more ideas on preparing your church for mother’s day, buy a copy of How To Welcome Church Visitors.