Most hospitality teams want better church hospitality training but don’t know where to start. If you’ve been asked to lead your church’s hospitality team and don’t know where to begin, you’re not alone.
I hear similar stories from pastors and volunteers at churches I visit, or who speak with me at live conferences across the Americas.
- “We know that hospitality matters, but we have lost momentum.”
- “We used to have greeters and usher teams, but it’s faded away over time.”
- “I’ve been given this role and not sure where to start.”
Here you’ll find simple hospitality ministry ideas to strengthen your church’s welcome process and train your team with confidence.
Many leaders inherit a ministry without training, structure, or clear goals. They search the internet looking for ideas, looking for help. There is so much out there to process and sort through. So where does a tired and uncertain new volunteer start?
Why Hospitality Matters More Than Ever
Even though I’ve been a follower of Jesus over 30 years, going through the experience of being the first-time church visitor for my own family is harder than I thought.
For nearly 25 years, I’ve been in a church leadership team and have had some kind of status. Welcome ministry was always forefront. I’ve served in churches that grasped a great culture and welcoming of the visitors. We saw life change as people found Christ.
But visiting churches as a non-staff member looking for a place for our family to serve away was harder than I thought. I saw stuggling churches. Church members begged me to come back. Leaders criticized others as they gossiped in my ear. High levels of friction in the pathway of getting to church, let alone getting through the service and deciding to go back or not, helped me see that hospitality plays a crucial role in the impact your church can make.
Many churches find that hospitality gets neglected. The passion is there for growth is there, but the health and structure is not.
And without structure, even the friendliest church can lose its sense of welcome.
That’s where we begin. Everything you’ll find here — free resources, tools, and coaching — is designed to help you build a ministry of welcome that fits your church’s personality and mission.
Two Simple Ways to Start Fixing Your Hospitality Ministry
Whether you’re rebuilding a team or starting fresh, there are two simple paths you can take today.
Let me give you the first steps to fix, restart, or strengthen your church’s hospitality ministry, using the same principles I teach in workshops and coaching calls.
Option 1: Start Free – Learn the 7 Secrets to Great Hospitality
Before you make new plans or recruit more volunteers, learn the seven key principles that make a church’s welcome memorable. Get your free 7 Secrets to Great Church Hospitality guide.
These simple truths will help you understand why people don’t return and how to build a ministry that helps them want to return.
It’s both a report and a small mini-course by email to see what’s working and what’s missing in your church’s welcome.
Reignite Your First Impressions Ministry
We all want our church visitors to come back. But to get that to happen you need to improve your first impression ministries.
But where do you start?
Get these 7 Secrets to Effective Church Hospitality to give you starting points and ideas that you can implement this weekend.
Option 2: Go Deeper – Schedule a One-Hour Coaching Call
Sometimes you already know what’s not working. It was a feeling of staring into the fog and not seeing much of anything clearly.
The problems appear too big, too nebulous. Maybe you need someone outside of your situation to chase some clouds away.
In a 1-hour Hospitality Coaching Call, you will find:
- Identify what’s missing in your church’s welcome system.
- Set two or three realistic goals you can implement right away.
- Renew your team’s sense of purpose.
You can breakthrough that log-jam of inaction and set you and your team moving forward again. As one hospitality leader wrote:
You’ve given me some great thoughts about what steps I need to take. Taking on organizing this ministry doesn’t seem so overwhelming anymore.
The phone call we had helped me discover some practical steps I could immediately take to fire up the ministry in our 400 member church.
J Hampsher
Get Clarity for Your Church Hospitality
Feeling stuck with your church’s welcome or unsure how to start improving it?
A one-hour Hospitality Coaching Call helps you breakthrough your most pressing hospitality challenge.
In this focused session, we’ll identify what’s working, spot what’s holding you back, and outline your next practical steps to strengthen your greeter or welcome ministry. You’ll leave the call with clear direction and confidence for what to do next.
Learn more about the Church Hospitality Coaching Call and see how one focused conversation can help your ministry move forward.
A Fresh Start is Possible
Over the years, I’ve visited a lot of churches in many different traditions in the Christian church. Some were bursting with life, vitality, and momentum, while others were struggling to recover their sense of welcome.
I remember one pastor who invited me to make a secret shopper visit to his church. Greeters stood in the back, chatting with each other instead of greeting guests. A pen for the connection card was missing, and no one else than the pastor greeted me that morning.
When I later met with their leadership team to share my experience, he asked me:
“Chris, if you were shopping for a church, would you come back?”
My answer took too long – because it was a no…..
Making all these church visits and studying the conversation themes from my coaching calls, here is what I discovered.
Most churches don’t lack a desire to grow. They lack a plan for improving the entire welcome system to help first-time church visitors become thriving members of their local church.
Hospitality doesn’t improve by accident. It grows through intentional steps and the willingness to recruit and lead a dedicated team forward.
Finding that core idea is where the breakthrough begins. It’s when you, the leader, decide it’s time to make a change.
You already care about people. You already believe hospitality matters. What you need now is a clear plan and someone who can help you see the next few steps.
That’s what the Hospitality Coaching Call is for. It will give you a guided conversation to uncover what’s holding your ministry back and shape practical next steps your team can take right away
Your next step could start a new chapter for your church’s welcome.
Get your creativity going as we troubleshoot a particular aspect of your hospitality ministry.
Chris Walker’s coaching ability is wonderful. He’s a clear thinker with a way of cutting through the clutter and confusion surrounding a problem. He focuses on the most practical path to a resolution and effectively communicates how to reach the intended goal.Les Dahlstedt
St. Matthew Lutheran Church
Or, if you’re still exploring, begin with the 7 Secrets to Great Hospitality. It’s a free resource that will help you see what’s possible when hospitality is transformed into ministry again.
Prayer is the most important Church Hospitality Practice
Church hospitality training often focuses on “the right thing to do,” as if techniques are the key to results.
What gets lost is the spiritual ministry of hospitality.
As a leader (or perhaps a new leader) of hospitality ministry training, your role is to remind people that their role is ministry:
Showing the love of Jesus to the members and guests who are visiting your church.
Prayer is more important than technique.
Prayer prepares the way for the effective welcome of first-time church visitors.
Learn how to Pray for Your Church Hospitality Ministry.
Free Church Hospitality Training Resources
If you’d prefer to get started with the free articles on church hospitality, this page is designed to get you up and running towards the basics of improving your ministry of hospitality at your church.
10 Practices to Welcome Church Visitors
According to a Barna Research survey of people looking for a church, “Friendliness to Visitors” isBased on a national telephone survey of 1,015 people 18 or older; sampling error of plus/minus 3 percent. Citation: Moody (Jan/ Feb 2002);For 9 out of 10 visitors, the friendliness of your congregation is important.What each church needs to do …
Do a Quarterly Review Of Hospitality Ministries
Many wise leaders of church hospitality teams know that a regular review of your systems is a good way to make sure things flow smoothly.
Inertia and inefficiency always creep in, and churches are no different.
20 Blunders in Welcoming Church visitors
The last two posts (part I and part II) shared common practices on welcoming visitors to church. Here are 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). No One Said Hello. Bad breath. 20 question doctrinal exam to make …
8 Steps to Relaunching A Church Hospitality Committee
Churches form new church hospitality committees or relaunch a tired committee with new people.
They want to update or infuse their church hospitality program with new ideas.
10 Tips for Church Greeters
Greeting visitors at church is such an important part of the hospitality ministry of the church. Church Greeters are part of the ministry team and form part of the first impression that a visitor receives. Here are 10 tips for greeters. Welcome Church Visitors Six hints for welcoming visitors to your church
Church Hospitality Survey Assessment or Audit
The gospel should be offensive, not your church members or a lackadaisical hospitality ministry.
Your hospitality ministry in the church is one of the most important factors in the experience of first time visitors that will influence their personal decision to come back to your church.
10 Most Important Minutes to Church Visitors
Church growth books on first impressions often stress the first 7 minutes of a visitor’s experience.But this surprise result indicates that the something else is more important than first impressions. Charles Arn has surveyed thousands of people: (Source: 3 Questions for Charles Arn)We also asked the focus groups when they decided that the church was friendly …
How to Get Church Visitor Contact Information
Getting Visitor Contact information is the first step towards your visitor followup, yet many churches fail at it. Listen to this expert on the subject describe different ways and what is the best way.
What to Say to Church Visitors: Examples and Conversation Starters for Greeters
Discover practical examples of what greeters can say to first-time church visitors, from simple one-liners to heartfelt introductions. Use these real-life greetings and coaching tips to help your team create a warm first impression that helps guests feel noticed and valued.