Today’s
blog post is written by Scott Goodger, General Manager for one of
our Ministry Brands partners.
Welcoming and connecting first-time guests to church is essential if you want to grow your ministry. According to Pew Research Center, 79% of people said feeling welcomed played an important role in choosing a new place of worship. Creating a great first impression is key, but so is the follow-up after they visit. How you engage your guests after they visit will determine how many return. As Back to School season approaches, churches see a surplus of newcomers, giving you a big opportunity to make a lasting guest impression.
4 Ways to Intentionally Welcome First-Time Guests:
#1 – MAKE A GOOD FIRST
IMPRESSION
Have
you ever been to a church that felt cold and indifferent, or even uncaring,
when you walked in? Did you get the sense that you didn’t belong and didn’t
want to come back? When a newcomer arrives at your church, you have the
opportunity to make a life-changing impact through each step of the process.
After all, the church is the body of Christ and each part plays a role in
showing Christ-like love and compassion to someone attending for the first
time.
#2 – CREATE A NEW VISITOR
STATION
A
new visitor station is a great way to have gifts and resources for new visitors
right when they come in the door. While your station can help answer questions
and provide information to your guests, it should never be seen as a complete
replacement for a real person.
#3 – TRAIN YOUR VOLUNTEERS
Your
people will always be at the core of your church communication and interaction
with new visitors. For that reason, you need to take some time with those
volunteers and ensure that they know how to welcome and represent your church
to newcomers. Host a class for new volunteers to let them know how to identify
and interact with new visitors as they come in. Be sure to give your volunteers
some sort of identification that makes them stand out, such as badges,
lanyards, or matching shirts.
#4 – USE CHURCH CONNECTION CARDS
Your
connection card is a major tool to collect information and follow up with new
visitors, but don’t overdo it and accidentally overwhelm your guests with all
the information you ask for. Keep it short and sweet with what you ask your
visitors to fill in.
Your
basic connection card should just ask for these three things:
If
you need more information for specific reasons, it’s best to use separate cards
for different purposes. A good CHMS system will help you track all of this
guest information in one secure place.
4 Ways to Intentionally Follow-Up With Guests:
#1 – GATHER INFORMATION
Once
someone has visited or interacted with your church, go through and have a team
or individual enter all the new church visitor information from your connect
cards, registration forms, online forms, etc. and build a database of contacts to invite back to your
church.
#2 – ORGANIZE YOUR CONTACTS
As
you build your contact database, take time to include any specific details
about the person that you know or they provided (i.e. gender, age, spiritual
gifts, ministry interests, events they’ve attended in the past, etc.). As you
work on communicating to your congregation, there will be times that you’ll
want to specify a demographic to send your message to and connecting your
contacts to specific groups will help you do that.
#3 – USE TEXT MESSAGING
Churches
everywhere are finding text messaging to be an extremely useful tool for
immediate communications, with 98% of text messages being read within the first
2 minutes. For cases where you want to send a brief message, such as a greeting
or event announcement, text
messaging is the perfect way to alert your recipient and get their attention. Text messages are perfect for
sending a quick greeting with an introduction from the pastor, immediately
after someone’s first visit and then inviting them to respond and return for
the next service.
#4 – FOLLOW-UP WITH EMAIL
If
you’re not sure what to include in your follow up email communications, some
great ideas are upcoming event promotions, a thank you message for visiting, an
introduction from the pastor, and more. It’s also great to include special
resources like a link to a welcome video from your church or encourage them to
sign up for other communications, such as the church email newsletter, so they
stay informed of everything going on at your church.
Make
sure that your church is equipped to succeed with the best tools and resources
to reach and engage your visitors, even after they’ve left your campus.
Contact a Shelby Sales Consultant to find out how to manage your church guests and to help you make them full time members.