I’m working on a small research project that I think will help a lot of readers. I’ve put together a little video explaining what I’m looking for. You can add your thoughts in the comment field below.
If you get this by RSS feed via email, you may not see the video and you’ll have to click through.
Put your responses below or simply email them to me. Thanks.
Update: “If I was a microphone recording this part of your service, what would I hear you say?”
Related posts:
Generally nothing said by Lay Leader or Pastor. No official or routine welcome extended in worship.
However, this is a small congregation (as are the majority of mainline established congregations). Average worship is around 60 (78 this past week).
People are greeted prior to worship and after worship by the pastor and lay persons. During worship, during the passing of the peace, people are also welcomed individually. Sometimes during the sharing of joys and concerns, people will share that they are glad to have family or friends with them today. There are smiles of acknowledgment, and perhaps a “welcome” from pastor. But this isn’t the norm for many first time visitors.
No visitor packet, just a follow up visit by a Deacon with a plate of cookies, and mention of being glad to have them in worship. This seems to be working, as we have been growing in attendance the past 3 years, and we are looking at possibly having more than a 10% jump in attendance in a couple weeks (currently 112 active members, and up to 14 joining within next month). (Rural town of 3500 in county of 5600, area losing 2% of population each year), PCUSA which followed the average losses each year since having 400 members in mid 70’s.)
Our pastor (or a staff member if the pastor isn’t there) welcomes them, thanks them for joining us, and asks our congregation to indicate that there’s someone new there so we can ask them to fill out an information card. We then go straight into a greeting/welcome time for a minute or two so people can say good morning, catch up, introduce themselves, answer basic questions (childcard, children’s church, facilities), and so on. If people fill out a card and indicate that they’d like more information or a visit, our pastor will visit them. If they just want more information, someone will call them to answer questions.
We are somewhat small enough that we can recognize people around us, but even in most larger churches the people sitting down generally sit in the same area so pretty much know if someone is new or not.
Oops. I’d like to be a little more clear about what I’m looking for.
What words are said in these introductions?
If I was a microphone recording you, what would I hear?
The reason I ask is that sometimes lay leaders are asked to do this welcome from up front and instead of embarassingly asking the greeting recruiter “what do I say” they search for the answer in the privacy of the Internet.
I know there is no script but want to collect suggestions of things that inexperienced lay leaders can say.
Chris
Got it.
“Good morning. Welcome to [Church Name]. We’re glad you could join us today. In just a couple of minutes, [indicate people] will be passing out these yellow cards. If this is your first time with us, we’d like you to tell us a little about yourself. When we collect our offering, please place your card in the offering plate. This is the only offering we’d ask of you. Now let’s take some time to meet and greet each other.” (or something really similar)
Sometimes we throw in extra reminders to our members/regular attenders to indicate that there’s a visitor on their row so that we can give them a card to fill out. We definitely don’t have visitors stand up or remain seated – everyone gets up at the same time and it gets a little chaotic for a couple of minutes.
At my parent’s church, they just have those little attendance papers in the pews and ask everyone to sign one – I don’t think they have much of a welcome other than a simple thank you for joining us today.
On a related note, shouldn’t greeting recruiters do some basic training for those who are going to do this? I took an MC class for a couple of days (crash course) and they practices with us several times before throwing us to the wolves. 🙂 I know that I’d appreciate the extra help and training before standing in front of a bunch of people, no matter how many times I’d seen it done.
I do think that greeting recruiters could help with this, but I think many may not have the resources to offer it. The ability to speak comfortably in public may be an assumption 🙂 . . .
Chris & All… Our church is looking for exactly this sort of conversation (and help). But another church I’m familiar with seems to have a great way to welcome folks… Pardon me for paraphrasing or maybe even embellishing…
Senior Pastor: “Welcome everyone. We’re glad to be able to all be together again this morning. And we’re always glad to have a number of guests with us. There are some information cards in your bulletins this morning — we’d be honored to be able to hear your feedback today. But even more importantly, I’d like to personally get to meet you this morning. So immediately after the service I’ll be over there (in the back corner of the church) for a short ‘Cookies & Questions’ session with all of you who are visiting the church this week… along with any of you who have been visiting the church in recent weeks.”
[And the goal then is to help NEW people get to know OTHER NEW people, as well as personally getting to know the pastor. Hopefully a new small group or SS class can develop among them.]
Here is a response I received through email:
It goes something like this, “Welcome to worship…If this is your first time to First Presbyterian or if you are just visiting we are glad you are with us today. As a reminder of Christ’s love for you, please find in the friendship pad a gift, a pocket cross (small metal cross with poem and Scripture in bag) to take with you….” This is the general pattern. I tend to keep it light and hopefully inviting to receive our greeting and gift!