What does being a good host/hostess at your house have to do with church? Here are three simple tips for making people feel as comfortable at church as they would in your home.
I know, I know … here I go again ... talking about the first-time guest experience at church. But I had an interesting analogy from last weekend that I wanted to share. Our elementary-aged daughters were away for the night, so my husband and I had friends – just adults (exciting!) – over to our house.
Of course, we made sure they had our home address and good directions. And even though they were a few minutes late, we were happily waiting near the front door to greet them when they arrived. (Yet at the same time, we didn’t aggressively go after them as they walked into our home. We didn’t insist that they immediately sit down at our dining room table and begin eating – and enjoying – everything that we had prepared.) Then I got to thinking … why can’t more churches learn just a few tips from the simple dinner Brian and I hosted this past Friday night?
Here are just a few thoughts …
#1 - Give clear directions (on your website, please!) and provide large/clear exterior signage if people are going to know how to get to your home … er, I mean church. And it’s not enough just to get them to your road or even parking lot. Help them find a good parking spot (first-time guest spots are great if your guests can find them) and let them know the best entrance too!
#2 – Recruiting well and investing in your greeters and ushers is time well spent. They are the front-line people for interacting with guests. And they need to be ready to help a guest whether the guest arrives early or late!
#3 – Help your greeters and ushers feel comfortable engaging in genuine conversation with new folks. Just recently I’ve visited several churches where I was ignored as a new person (later I was told that a couple people knew I was a guest but they didn’t feel comfortable approaching me). And in other situations, when I was greeted, I was just bombarded with information about the church. There were no introductions made. No one seemed to care about my name or anything else personal. They just wanted to hand me their most recent overview brochure or ministry DVD.