3 Quick Fixes to Your Church Greeter Ministry

I’ve recently been coaching some church volunteers that have stepped into a new role of re-launching their church welcome ministry.

Each has been a relatively new volunteer in charge of the Church Greeters Ministry.

Often this volunteer is looking for new ideas to improve the existing greeter ministry in their church.  They see that their greeters are

• showing up late
• not fulfilling their roles
• apathetic in their hello.

3 Quick Fixes to Your Greeter Ministry

Here are 3 quick start ideas:

1.  Cast the Vision for Church Greeters.

Do your church greeters see their task as only “Saying hello to people walking in the door on a Sunday morning?”

If so, they likely consider their role to be unimportant.

They do not see the big picture their role plays in the overall welcome experience for your church guests.

If you are the new greeter ministry leader, refresh the vision of a great welcome.

Help your greeters see the big picture of church hospitality and how their part can help people grow in their journey with Christ.

Each time your team gathers people to refresh the vision of your hospitality ministry, it is also a chance to:

• Tweak what has broken
• Think of what might be missing and provide it
• Think of how to improve your welcome and greeter process.

Action step: What can you do in the next 7 days to cast a vision?

2.  Appreciate your Church Greeters.

We have all experienced the impact of appreciation and encouragement.  A regular thank you or action of appreciation often re-motivates volunteers and honors them for their work.

• Send a thank-you note.
• Smile.
• Send a Christmas greeting card or similar on another holiday.
• Spontaneously say “thank you” during a chance or planned meeting or gathering.
• Ask a greeter for their input about a program or evaluation.
• Utilize a suggestion box. Carefully consider their suggestions!

I try to send handwritten thank you notes to people who support this ministry and have been told several times how appreciated those notes are.

Action Step: Who do you need to say thank you to?  Go do it within the next 7 days.

3.  Email Quick Tips to your Church Greeters

Some of your greeter volunteers do not necessarily know what is expected of them and may feel nervous about serving.

They may also feel embarrassed about asking you what to do, so help minimize that potential nervousness by emailing some quick tips to your greeters when reminding them of their upcoming service.

Some churches are choosing to create a series of 12 emails they send out to all their greeter volunteers, one per month with some quick tips.

Here are some examples:

• Read: 10 Tips for Church Greeters.
• Send this video: Video: Ten Useful Tips for Church Greeters
• Show bad examples: 20 Crazy Church Greeter Comments

Action step: Use the share feature below on the 10 Tips for Church Greeters article and share it with your church greeter team, Facebook, and LinkedIn.