It was our third visit to a local church in the last 102 weeks. We learned an important tip for your church greeters.
We love visiting that church when we are in that city. In fact, whenever we go, we try to invite a friend to that church.
Even though we have never experienced follow-up contact from filling out their visitor contact card, we haven’t let that stop us from visiting.
But this one visit produced a moment of social awkwardness with an overly enthusiastic church greeter.
As we approached the front door, the church greeter raised her hands in joy (she was REALLY happy to be serving).
She then grabbed my wife’s head and planted a big kiss on the cheek.
This was then followed up with a somewhat loud declaration: “It’s so great to be with God’s people today.”
That was weird and completely unexpected. It won’t drive us away, but that greeter was a little over the top.
We don’t remember the sermon, but we remember that kiss.
Lessons Learned for Your Church Greeter Ministry
1. Not everyone loves a hug or a kiss.
We attend many different churches in various cultures because I am in an international ministry.
In several Hispanic churches that I have visited, an air kiss on the cheek happens only after parties have been introduced to each other. When such a greeting is given before a personal introduction, it is an awkward moment.
In many North American churches, the air kiss between strangers doesn’t happen at all.
These are local or cultural customs.
It can be an invasion of personal space.
This can be an unintentional barrier that your greeter creates with your church guest.
Other things that make a better impression during your service will need to overcome that awkwardness. You do not want that unwelcome kiss, hug, or shoulder pat to be the only thing that your visitor remembers.
Nothing quite ruins my Sunday church experience like the 65 year old greeter who tries to mouth kiss me every time I go.
2. Train your greeters to set aside their preferences.
If your greeter volunteers object with “I’m a hugger” or “I’m a kisser,” encourage them to set aside their personal preferences for the comfort of your guests.
My wife once hugged a pre-teen boy of a family friend when greeting him. He had been a child in her Sunday School class in the past, but some time had passed. As soon as she embraced him, she felt him tense up. She learned from that lesson that not everyone wants a hug, a kiss, or even a handshake.
Church greeters should not accidentally violate a person’s sense of personal space because of their own personal preferences
Encourage your church greeters to set aside their personal preferences for a normal greeting that is customary and culturally appropriate to where your church is located.
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Image credit: belchonock / 123RF Stock Photo
5 Church Hospitality Lessons from the Honda Classic
Lance,
Thanks for stopping by. I’m more and more convinced that seeing that hospitality “prepares the way” is a great frame to help people think of this as more than a chore – it is a purpose, a mission, and helps paint the picture of a job well done.
Chris
Thanks for the response!
That line would have gotten me to stay too 🙂
I am planting a church in San Diego and I really appreciate what you just said: ” Hospitality prepares the way for that to happen.” There is always the tension between, how much or how little, with this hospitality piece. I think that line, in a way, defines it for me. There a lot of important parts of the Sunday service and the way we do hospitality will enable people to be in the right attitude to acknowledge those important things to latch onto.
Appreciate the conversation!
Lance,
Great question – what kept us going back in spite of this greeter visit was the excellence of expository preaching, the excellence of worship, the enthusiasm members and people shared.
We kept going for that reason.
But long term, it wasn’t the right fit for us in our stage of life, so we didn’t stay. It wasn’t anything the church did wrong. In fact they did lots of things right.
This shows that even doing the right things, visitors might not stay long term. But we did come back several weeks to keep checking things out.
Where we eventually settled after just 1 visit wasn’t really anything hospitality related – it was one statement from the pulipt – “if what we do in here [in the church on Sunday] makes no difference out there [in the community] we are wasting our time.”
Our family knew at that moment where we’d serve and connect. Your visitors will find things that they will latch on to like we did. Hospitality prepares the way for that to happen.
Hey there! Thank you for the article. I had a quick question: what is it about this church that makes you want to attend whenever you are in the area? I was just curious. I was reading the other article that mentioned this church never followed up or reached out. What are they doing well?
Thank you!
My friend Gary Rohrmayer added a third lesson from this experience:
Read about it here:
http://garyrohrmayer.typepad.com/yourjourneyblog/2014/04/three-insights-for-training-your-greeters-for-easter.html
Hi Srinivasulu
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you as you undertake His work in India. May the Lord Jesus bring many to salvation through His Word add you proclaim the Gospel.
God bless you
Cameron (Australia)
greeting to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
I am srinivasulu naik from india.
working as a church planting and encouraging local church leaders to share gospel in their local area
pray for me and ministry