For Leaders in the Local Church
Join smart pastors and leaders in non-profits who spread the message of Christ to more people by:
We'll never sell your information or spam you.
I’ve followed Jon Acuff’s blog for several years, and he has that witty, satirical Christian market in a headlock (by that I mean that he’s one of the only people that actually pulls it off well).
Anyway, head on over to his blog and read todays post!
Thanks for coming!
Originally I had titled this post: “Why You Should Pay a Hippie to Greet People at Your Church.”
It’s catchy, right?
But then I realized that that wasn’t the point. I don’t really think that churches should have hippies be their door-greeters. But I do think, however, that hippies do a much better job than churches at creating a welcoming atmosphere.
I’ve been a visitor at several churches in the past couple of months while I’ve been traveling.
As I walk in, the greeter usually smiles, waves, then gives me their church bulletin. Then I’m “ushered” into the lobby to a sea of faces I don’t know.
This happens at churches all the time.
The reason that we don’t recognize this at our own churches is because we already know people in the lobby. We can go in and start mingling. We’re in our territory.
After I’m in the lobby what am I supposed to do? Do I go start a conversation with a random stranger? Do I go find a seat and wait there alone until the part of church when the pastor says, “Introduce yourself to your neighbor?”
It’s awkward being a new person at most churches.
Eventually, if I come back week after week, somebody will probably come and say, “I’ve seen you here a couple times, are you new?”
But what about the ones who don’t come back? The statistics show that if a visitor doesn’t connect with someone the first time that they come to your church, they’re not coming back. It’s called the “back door” in church experience lingo.
If you want visitors to return to your church you’ve got to shut the back door by designing a church experience that draws people into your community.
Compare an awkward first visit at a church to your first visit with a park-occupying hippie.
Whether you’re a talkative person or not, talking with a hippie is generally not something you walk away from without a warm impression.
That’s because in every conversation you have with a tie-dye warrior, they are enthusiastic, personal, helpful and they create a desire to belong.
Here’s how they do it:
Whenever hippies do something, it is done with enthusiasm.
Whether they’re protesting or talking about music, it is as if it’s the most important thing that they could possibly be doing.
If churches want to build an experience that is inviting to both visitors and long time members, the greeters need to set the atmosphere with enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is contagious, and one of the biggest contributions your greeters can make is with a warm, genuine smile.
Enthusiasm can quickly be snuffed out though when a volunteer feels that they are unappreciated and over-used. And this doesn’t only go for greeters. Your volunteers everywhere are one of your most valuable resources to draw from, and you don’t want to burn them out.
As a leader, you can guard the enthusiasm of your team by making sure that they know how much they are appreciated and by having a large enough team that you don’t use the same two greeters every service and every week. Make sure you have a volunteer calendar for this team—in fact, you should have one for every team—and that you clearly communicate with them in all circumstances.
One of the easiest ways to do this is to automate your schedule with Church Management Software, and use it to communicate your schedule, meetings, and other important information all in one place.
In conversations I’ve had with hippies, they always asked me a ton of questions about myself.
Greeters are not just placed at your front doors to hand out a bulletin. They should be given the freedom to leave the doors—knowing that someone will take their place—so that they can talk with a visitor or member.
Creating a culture like this in your church may be tough depending the size of your church. If you have much more than 100 people, it will be hard for two greeters to make your visitors and members feel personally invited into your church. So get more people on the team. And don’t just have them at the doors, have them greeting in the lobby. Our church has adopted the policy that every member is also a greeter.
One of the most important parts of making an interaction personal is the feeling that you go above and beyond for everyone.
A hippie will never drives past another hippie who is hitch-hiking.
Similarly, your greeters have a great opportunity to go above and beyond for everyone who comes into your church.
Many visitors are not going to raise their hand, fill out a contact card and go talk to someone after service. But a greeter who meets them, shows them where to check there kids into a classroom, and gets their email address can contact them with the service times they asked about or information about specific ministries they are interested in.
Communicate with your greeting team that they should open every door, or run out to meet people at their car with an umbrella while it is raining.
The thing that sucks about this type of interaction is that it cannot be faked. If your leadership team doesn’t go care for your volunteers, there is no way that you can expect them to do it for visitors and members. There’s no handbook for above and beyond. It is an experience that you create.
And when you create that experience, people want to belong.
Hippies have created a culture that is distinctly different from the rest of the world. They have decided upon a specific audience that they want to appeal to—the peace, love, and happiness crowd—and have built a culture catered to them.
Many churches do have a different culture than the rest of the world, but in most cases it appeals to the wrong crowd. By appealing more to the people who have already been to your church you leave out most of the people who could potentially come in from the outside world.
Think about the experience that someone who has never been in a church before has when they come through your doors. Do they feel accepted? Do they feel Loved? Invited? Out of place? Do they want to belong here?
Thinking about it in this way will allow you to understand at a deeper level who it is your church experience is designed for.
The great part about designing your church experience for people who are hurting and broken is that it will actually appeal more to the people who already go to your church. Design for humans, not seminary students.
The reason that greeters have been around for so long is not because they’re in the Bible. There wasn’t a special rule about holding church meetings that you need to have somebody at the doors to welcome people.
The reason we have them is because they work really well.
Your greeters have an amazing ability: the ability to listen.
They can meet somebody, ask questions, problem solve, or match needs with ministries. Greeters work because they are real people and they understand other real people.
People are much more likely to come back if your greeters talk with them, get their information and send them a personal invitation via email to come to church next week or to an event that would appeal to them.
An easy way to do all of this is to put it all in Executive Pastor’s Church Experience Software, it saves contact information, interests and preferences, and a whole lot more.
Designing church experience can start to feel like a bad thing if we’re not careful. It feels like we’re treating the church like a business with target markets and sales goals.
A lot of people don’t like designing their church’s experience because of that. I used to be one of them. I thought my church needed to pay more attention to God and less to people.
I changed my mind though. That’s because I realized that Jesus says people are the second most important thing we can focus on. We are called to first love God and then His people.
Yes. We need to focus on God. We also need to connect with people. For this to happen those people need to feel that they are welcomed, accepted, and loved. And this starts with your greeters.
What do you do to create an inviting atmosphere at your church?
P.S.
When you’re trying to design a Biblical, powerful church experience it can feel a little bit like you’re all alone. You’ve got to figure how all of the pieces fit together, which ones should come first, and how to convince people in your church that this is actually important. That’s why we started a newsletter, it’s an ongoing project that has 10 parts right now. It is a quick and simple guide to creating an amazing church experience. It’s completely free and we’ll also never sell your email address.
Copyright © 2013 · Generate Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in