Get More Church Invitations: A Great Welcome

Recently, I was asked via Ask EvangelismCoach about ways to increase the number of invitations to church that members give to their network of friends.

Review these posts to get on board with some of the answers

1. More church invitations: Friends and Family
2. Get More Church Invitations: Prayer
3. I want you to come to my church
4. Get More Church Invitations: Relevant Sermons

Today, I want to add number 5.

5.  A great welcome

Do your church members believe that their friends will be welcomed well by other people in your church?

Does the general atmosphere of your church provide a safe welcome for your members willing to risk giving an invitation to church?

What does it take to give a good welcome in your church?

• A friendly face
• Easy access to their seat in their church
• Understandable sermons
• Questions asked that are actually answered.

You do not want your friend to feel out of place or over looked.

Serve your church visitors and guests with honor

Your hospitality system plays a role in shaping a visitors decision to return and get involved.

Greet visitors when they come, visit with them after the service, and most of all, remove the unnecessary barriers that keep visitors from making that second visit.

Just last week, we invited a family in our neighborhood to join us for church.   They came and had such a good experience they have promised to come again this week.

Hospitality and welcome plays a role in this.

We also look for opportunities to pray with our guests before they leave.  This often opens the door for God to work and for our guests to notice that God is concerned about them as well.

Is it a risk to invite your friend to your church?

In some cases, church members feel like it is a risk to invite their friends to church.

• Will they be safe?
• Will they be stalked by a desperate hospitality committee?
• Will they be welcomed by church greeters with a firm handshake and a smile?
• Will other church members take the initiative and introduce themselves to my friend?
• Will my friend walk away from this experience with a positive impression of the church that means so much to me?

Maybe it’s time to review your welcome process to help minimize the sense of risk your church members might feel in inviting their friends to church.

A point to remember

Inviting people to church is not the end-all of personal evangelism.

An invitation to church is but one step in the entire process of evangelism.

Your friend might start coming to church and gradually hear the gospel’s relevancy to life.

But an invitation to church is no substitute for personal evangelism – the personal sharing of your faith and what God has done for you in Christ.

Image Credit: Ted Harrington