In a world interconnected through technology, personal relationships seem disconnected due to the inability to have one-on-one conversations with other people. Before a guest enters the church, the church should think of ways to connect with them beyond a one-time visit to a service. If the church is to grow, it must be willing to meet new converts to the faith in a way that provides community rather than just connection. Here are seven ways to engage visitors.
- Share in a conversation. Sounds simple, yet you would be surprised how many visitors are never spoken to or engaged besides, “Welcome” or “Thanks for coming.” Before handing a guest a connection or information card, try to develop a commonality before you ask them for their private information. If they choose not to share their information, respect their privacy and be friendly. It may take two or three visits before they feel comfortable enough to share their data. The key is not gathering information but developing a relationship through personal interaction each time you see them. One of the ways to connect is to remember their name or at least the name of their child. Small connections can make a big difference.
- Connect personally. Everyone on the welcome team should be trained to greet and guide guests from the time they walk into the building until they leave. Instead of gathering information, focus on connecting personally with the person or family. Before they leave, make sure a person on the welcome team introduces the guest to the pastor or at least alerts the pastor that a new family is here and points them out so the pastor can connect. Through a pastoral conversation, the pastor might want to invite them to coffee or a meal on the church to connect more personally.
- Passive Connections. QR Codes are an easy way to gather information from guests that attend a service. Place these codes in and around the facility for guests to connect on their own time. Codes can be placed on the back of a pew directly in front of where someone sits, inserted into the bulletin, at the children’s check-in, or even on the bathroom mirror. The goal is to provide multiple avenues for guests to connect and not to feel pressured to be acknowledged by the church by being handed a card, asked to wear a guest badge, or standing up during the service to be recognized. Passive connections enables the guests to engage in their own way and time.
- Keep the Connection Card Simple. How much information will the church use? Ponder that question before developing a connection card that gathers information from a first-time guest. Many preprinted information cards ask for too much irrelevant information that the church does not need. In today’s world, people want to keep information private from strangers. Instead of asking for too much information, keep it simple: name (first and last), email address, personal address, or number to contact them. Let the guest choose one or all three after sharing their first and last name with the church.
- Honor the Guest for Attending. Today’s guest wants to be a part of something, not just experience it as an outsider. Invite guests to fill out the connection card, and in return, the local church will donate funds in honor of the guest to a local missional outpost of their choice. Add to the bottom of the connection card several missional outposts the church invests in and encourage the guest to circle one of the choices. Circling a missional outreach allows them to partner with the church but also reinforces that the church cares about people and programs outside the four walls of the campus.
- Provide a Gift. If you honor a guest with a gift, make sure it is tied directly back to the church’s mission and not just a gift for attending. If you give away a coffee mug, pen or T-shirt, make sure it has the church’s logo, mission and other pertinent information as a reminder of the church and its mission. A creative way to engage guests is to host a monthly drawing where you collect all connection cards and draw out a card to award a more significant gift to that person or family. The drawing is a way to reconnect with a guest who may not have come since the first visit. Or provide an opportunity once a month to meet with the pastor as way to have any guest questions to be answered directly from the pastor.
- Follow-up. Whatever you do as a church, plan a follow-up strategy to reach out to a first-time guest. That can entail sending a letter from the pastor, emailing, or mailing a gift card from a local coffee shop on behalf of the church, calling or texting an invite back to church, or a personal visit from church members. Whatever your local church chooses to do, plan on doing something. If a guest fills out a guest’s card, the church should acknowledge that in some tangible way.
While this is not an exhaustive list, hopefully, one or all of these seven ways of gathering guests’ information will stimulate your welcome team to discuss ways to engage first-time guests.