Expecting Church Visitors at Christmas? 5 areas to spruce up

Are you prepared for to receive new church visitors at Christmas time?

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 Church 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 Set 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.