Is your church really welcoming to visitors?
I know I have talked about this subject a couple years ago, but with so many churches seeing a lot of first-time visitors enter through their doors I felt it was important to revisit this subject. I have pastored and visited churches where the statement was made (usually by regular attenders) about how friendly their church was. But when one drills down below the spoken statements, you find your church may not be as friendly and welcoming as you might think. Most churches are friendly to people they see on a weekly basis. If you want to find out how friendly and welcoming you are, ask a couple of people to visit anonymously and then bring you a report on their experience. You may be surprised.
Back in March of this year, I was able to spend a couple days with a “mega” church pastor here in the west. He has been at his church for nearly 3 decades. When he first arrived, the church had been stagnated in attendance of around 100. After implementing a culture of connecting with people, in five years they had grown to 500 in attendance. As they maintained their culture of connecting, today they have about 2500 who attend in person. They still continue to invest in people and especially visitors, thus their growth continues.
We know most of our churches will not see this kind of growth. But if you are not seeing any growth, it may be due to several reasons. One of those reasons could be the way your church connects, or doesn’t connect, with visitors. If your church wants to connect with visitors it must be intentional in its behavior. Here are some simple first steps.
Pastor are you “hiding out’ before service and not interacting with visitors? I know some people will try to monopolize your time when you walk into the building or maybe you are pre-occupied with “last minute” details with sound or power points. Two things can help you in these areas. Make appointments to talk to people during the week and get better organized.
Church body. Take the initiative and go and greet a new face. Don’t smother them, but be nice, positive, and cordial.
Get out of your rut. Most church attendees have a routine. They arrive at the same time; they sit in the same spot; they talk to the same people; or they come and go without any interaction at all. Try going to a different spot to sit and meeting different people. [On the fun side of this, it will drive your pastor crazy looking to see who is attending. As most pastors can tell who is/is not in church with a 30 second scan of the room by who is or isn’t in their “normal” place.]
Know your church. Get to know what is happening in your church. If someone asks about children activities, it would be great if you knew the answer or could bring them to the person(s) who has the answer.
Be cheerful. Smile at people and be happy. But please don’t give them “the look” that you often give to visitors. That look will make even your own family feel unwelcome.
These are just some starting thoughts. If you desire to have a further conversation, please give me a call and we can discuss it.
Paul Harwood is the director of revitalization and evangelism at the Nevada Baptist Convention. This article was first published by The Nevada Baptist.
