Do you think new church greeters need training? What about church greeters that have been doing this for 20 years?
If you said no, the first segment of this short video may challenge you to rethink that.
I will share some tweets from one of the most recent popular articles is 20 Crazy Things Church Greeters say. Even if some of the comments in the video are made up, they are not out of the realm of experience either. Most have come in the last few weeks.

Are you a first time or new church greeter?
Are you a new church greeter?
The second half of this training video for new church greeters gives you 10 useful tips you can put into place right away.
If you like it, give it a share.
Check out these 10 awesome tips for church greeters in video.
This was one of the very first videos I made. I forgot to smile (breaking one of my own tips).
Church Greeter Resources mentioned:
- https://store.evangelismcoach.org/shop/church-greeter-training-webinars-2-pack/
- http://www.ChurchGreeterTraining.com
Additional Resources:
I’ve written a book for leaders of church greeter ministry. Click on these links to read more (at Amazon).
Also, see this tutorial on fixing your greeter ministry.
Coaching Corner:
- If you were to add another important tip to this list of 10, what would it be? Share in the comments.
Julie: Thanks for stopping by and asking. . . There is a time and place for things. At our church, we have enough greeters that another one can slip in and take over while we patiently endure a story and move the person to prayer. Sometimes, we are able to redirect that conversation to our pastor in the library, or to another church leader. Sometimes, we are able to say, let’s talk about this after service when I can give you my full attention. . .
Part of our responsibility is to see if it’s a moment where God wants to work in their life, or if we need to postpone that conversation in a friendly way.
Not sure what to do when I’m a greeter and someone starts monopolizing me with their health history. When this happens, I am not greeting the other people entering church. I don’t want to be rude to the long-talker by breaking eye contact to greet other people. What to do??!
It is always better to say “Good to see you” rather than “Good to meet you” to avoid the awkward situation where you might have met them in the past!
‘I don’t think we’ve met before’ can be troublesome too – it can have the same effect as ‘are you new here’ if the greeter HAS actually met that person but just doesn’t remember! That has happened to me. I know there’s probably no perfect phrase. Another basic tip would be for greeters to wear name badges with their name on, followed by ‘greeter’ so people don’t just think they are being hit on as soon as they walk through the door, especially if the greeter IS going to ask the question, ‘hi I don’t think we’ve met before’; especially for someone completely new to any church – it might be intimidating or offputting to be met with that unless the greeter is tagged as such!
Welcome. It’s so great to see you again!
How was your week? It’s great to see you again.
Thanks Lindsay. I keep gathering new church greeter comments as they are made each week. Sometimes I simply laugh out loud at experiences that are tweeted.
Excellent video… Though comments are sad, the are lo hysterical. Awesome not to laugh while producing this.