Ensuring church visitors feel welcome is essential for faith leaders. A church that is welcoming and open is likely to lead visitors to return or share their experience, which in turn can help your congregation grow.
Here are some suggestions to help you welcome visitors at church and make them feel at home.
Maintain Your Signage
The process of welcoming visitors to church begins even before they enter the building. Ensure that your church’s exterior is clearly marked. Visible and well-maintained signage will help newcomers easily find your church as well as available parking.
Create a Church Welcome Team
Ask for volunteers to be a part of a welcome team to build personal connections with visitors. These should be volunteers who are warm, enthusiastic, and eager to help. They are representatives of your church, so how they engage with guests is incredibly important.
Station your greeters at entrances and exits to ensure that new worshippers are put at ease and are aware of whom to approach with any questions. Greeters for Sunday School or children’s ministry can also help parents and children feel comfortable.
Additionally, consider other areas where greeters can provide support. For example, add parking lot attendants to help direct traffic and guide visitors.
Share A Gift With New Worshippers
A small gift or token can be an excellent way to show new visitors that they’re part of the community and encourage them to return. A gift can be something small: a keychain, water bottle, branded journal, or Bible. It will help keep your institution top of mind, and it’s an easy way to show a little extra appreciation.
Additionally, you can offer visitor information packets containing details about your church. This provides newcomers with a quick reference to help them get acquainted with your community.
Offer Great Childcare
Many individuals are reluctant to come to church because of the difficulty of finding childcare. While some children are content to be in church and may even enjoy services, young children may have more fun in a children’s ministry at your church.
Finding reliable teachers and volunteers to spend time with kids, do activities, teach, and play games can go a long way towards making the church experience positive for the whole family.
Keep Your Church Neat and Well-Decorated
This may sound simple, but keeping your church and ministry rooms clean and organized is important in making visitors feel welcome. Make sure spaces that guests will frequently use are clean and free of clutter and debris. Consider doing a deep cleaning during busy times of the year, like Easter or Christmas. Likewise, welcoming decor, such as appropriate art, new paint, or wallpaper, can go a long way in creating an inviting space.
Don’t forget about the exterior of your church. Make sure your parking lot and landscaping are well maintained, as these are the first things people will see when visiting.
Write a Memorable Church Welcome Speech
While offering a few kind words is a nice touch, crafting a memorable speech requires thoughtful consideration and a genuine connection with the audience.
Understand Your Audience
Understanding the demographics, cultural backgrounds, and experiences of your congregation is important. It allows you to tailor your greeting to be inclusive.
Recognize potential newcomers and make sure your speech is inviting to all, fostering an atmosphere of unity and acceptance. Include any pertinent information that newcomers may need.
Highlight Upcoming Events
You shouldn’t lay out the whole church calendar, but it’s good to provide information regarding upcoming events, programs, and ways to get involved. A well-informed community is more likely to stay engaged.
Encourage attendees, both new and familiar, to connect with church members, join groups, and participate in the various activities that foster a sense of belonging.
Be Authentic
Congregants can tell if you’re sincere, and a genuine connection establishes trust and openness. Share personal anecdotes or reflections that highlight the relatable aspects of your own spiritual journey or your commitment to the church community.
Express your excitement about having everyone present with sincerity and warmth, creating an atmosphere that encourages a reciprocal connection.
It’s alright to reference notes during your church welcome speech. But reading from a script makes it difficult to make eye contact with people and connect with them. Practice the speech ahead of time so you can focus on connecting with the congregation.
Follow Up with Church Visitors
There are a number of different ways you can follow up with new visitors:
- Personalized emails
- Handwritten notes
- Welcome packets
- Phone calls
- Text messages
- Invitations to events and small groups
If you provide a guest card, you can for ask visitors for their contact information and their preferred method of contact.
What to Include in a Church Visitor Follow-Up Message
It is best to follow up soon while your visitors’ experience at your church is still top of mind, within a week if possible.
Importantly, thank them for coming with a personalized message. Do not automate your message. You might ask for feedback or give them some information on the church that is pertinent to them, especially if they had some questions when they visited. If you had a conversation with the visitor, use that to establish a connection in that message.
Invite them to an upcoming church event or ask them to return for a sermon series. Give the visitor clear and concise next steps that they can follow if they want more information. Of course, make sure they know how to become a member.
If your follow-up doesn’t work the first time, that is okay. You can message them again, but make sure to keep track of how often you are reaching out.
Make Sure Your Website Provides a Good Experience
While the essence of a great church service almost certainly must occur in person, your church’s website is, for many, the face of your church. Given the amount of time people spend online finding new businesses and institutions, including churches, it is important to have an attractive web presence.
Here are some tips to help make your website stand out to visitors and guests:
- Convey all essential information about your church: location, worship times, events, etc.
- Add videos or testimonials from members can go a long way towards putting a human face to your place of worship.
- Have a page that has information about your church leadership, so guests can get to know them.
- Include videos of your latest messages or sermons, so visitors have a glimpse of what they can expect when they attend a service.
Ensuring visitors feel welcome will go a long way towards encouraging them to come back to your church.
