Every church has specific ways of doing things. Among these specifics are how they interact with visitors. Every good pastor wants to leave a great first impression and create the best possible connection with his guests. In order to do so, it is important that every pastor determines what is the best way to achieve this. There is no cure-all solution. What works for one church may contradict what works for another church. Consider the following, contradictory methods:

#1 Emphasized Welcoming

Christianity Today highlighted an excerpt from their managing editor, Mark Galli’s, new book, Jesus Mean and Wild: The Unexpected Love of an Untamable God. Mark tells the story about his family’s visit to a small, irrelevant church. It was a church where the worship band struggled at times and hit flat notes. Attendance was about 45 people that Sunday, and they certainly did not have all the bells and whistles of “relevant” ministry. But Mark and his family were drawn to this church because Mark believed that “this little fellowship manifested the presence of Jesus in a way that is unique and absolutely necessary in our age.” One reason why is because of how they made his family feel welcome. Before service they were greeted by four people, including the pastor, and afterwards, another five or six people greeted them, including one who invited them to lunch. This small church may have not been cutting edge but they knew how to create relationships and show God’s love.

#2 Giving Guests Space

In contrast, in his book User Friendly Churches George Barna’s research reveals the downsides of showing guests too much attention.

In many stagnant churches, anonymity is next to ungodliness. The underlying assumption is that friendliness and Christian love can only be shown by showering attention on the visitor. The effort is meant to make the person feel welcome and special. Exit interviews, however, indicate that such attention is generally undesired and often causes the visitor to feel violated. In their desire to embrace the newcomer, these churches unwittingly trample the line between a warm welcome and overwhelming, uncomfortable pressure.

Barna goes on to say that leaders of growing churches rely on the congregation to make members feel welcome but not cornered.

So which way is right for your church? Well, both are needed. Not every person who walks through your church doors will have the same temperament and needs. Ideally, your first impressions team would be trained to be able to discern to some extent how each guest wants to be treated. Unfortunately, body language can be misleading and humans can only reasonably discern so much. With that said, your church must choose a general starting point and methodology for reaching your guests. Pray about it. Perhaps the people visiting your church need emphasized welcoming. Perhaps the culture of the community you are trying to reach prefers to be given some space at first.

You need to do whatever method you believe will help you maximize the accomplishment of your vision.

We’ve discussed before the effects of high gas prices on society. It is a problem facing any American with a set of car keys, which is why more and more churches are ministering to those needs with free gasoline.

As Outreach

In January and April 2006, Mosaic Church (Charlotte, NC) simply gave away gas to bless their community. For their April free gas event, they reserved nine pumps at a local gas station, each set to cut off at $15 until they hit a total of $2500. Their team of volunteers wearing green Mosaic Church t-shirts

• pumped gas
• washed windows
• handed out cookies
• directed traffic
• and advertised the event with signs at the road

Before the event, they sent out press releases to radio and television stations which garnered publicity several times. They also used the event as an opportunity to advertise their Easter service by attaching a banner to the side of a Jeep. Best of all, this kind gesture is sure to build a positive brand image of Mosaic Church in their community.

As an Incentive for Guests

In May 2006, The Crossing Community Church (Chandler, AZ) gave away $10 gas cards to first-time guests for the entire month. Before the promotion, their congregation averaged 85 to 90 people, but they saw it increase to about 140 for the month. They also were interviewed by four television news channels, radio programs, several newspapers, and were highlighted by Church Executive.

In September 2005, Clearview Community Church (Sioux City, IA) gave away free gas to first time visitors. They sent out a press release and attracted 19 families to come visit their church. They also got mentioned in an article from The New York Times.

Special thanks to Church Marketing Sucks for highlighting the efforts of Clearview Community Church and The Crossing Community Church.

Church Relevance’s April 2006 newsletter, Design is Credibility, has been added to the site.

We will be posting articles from Church Relevance’s newsletter a few months after we send them to subscribers. If you would like to receive the latest issues of Church Relevance’s newsletter as soon as possible, you may sign up to begin your free monthly subscription to our newsletter.

If you work at a church, Creative Pastors brought up an important task for you to add to your to-do list.

• This summer, visit your church.

Don’t go to put in 10 hrs of work on the weekend. Don’t go to get spiritually fed (although you should do this every week). This time, go to observe and experience your church. View your church through the eyes of a visitor. View your church as a child would. If you are able to, you will see a whole new world.

Because most pastors spend more waking hours at the church than at their own homes, they often become familiar with their surroundings. They no longer notice how dirty and old the facilities are becoming and how confusing the signage is.  Not to mention, that those on church staff seldom have a moment to actually pause and observe how people interact with the church. So this summer, do it. Visit your church. And when you do, ask yourself:

• How can we better serve our guests and congregation?
• How can we minister to people through every interaction and not just in the sanctuary?

“Visiting your church” should be a regular duty for someone on your church’s staff. For more on the subject, be sure to check out Creative Pastor’s post and read Church Relevance’s February newsletter, Marketability First.

LifeWay published an article by Rick Ezell addressing five significant facts about people visiting your church for the first time and gives five actions your church can take to make them want to come back.

Fact #1 - Your visitors make up their minds regarding your church in the first ten minutes.
Action #1 - Ask yourself:

• Are parking lot attendants in place?
• Is there appropriate signage?
• Are your ushers and greeters performing the right job?
• Is the environment user-friendly and accepting to guests?

Fact #2 - Most church members are not friendly.
Action #2 - Encourage your church family to:

• Introduce themselves with genuineness.
• Find out if guests have questions about the church.
• Introduce guests to others who may have an affinity or connection.

Fact #3 - Church guests are highly consumer-oriented.
Action #3 - Consider employing objective, yet trained, anonymous guests to give an honest appraisal. Many restaurants, retail stores, and hotels utilize the service of one or more “mystery guests” to provide helpful analysis of welcoming and responding to the consumer.

Fact #4 - The church is in the hospitality business.
Action #4 - Encourage members to extend hospitality to guests by offering:

• to sit with them during the church service.
• to give them a tour of the church facilities.
• to eat lunch with them after service.

Fact #5 - You only have one chance to make a good first impression.
Action #5 - Use the following questions as an evaluation tool:

• Are you creating the entire experience, beginning with your parking lot?
• Are you consciously working to remove barriers that make it difficult for guests to find their way around and to feel at home with your people?
• Do newcomers have all the information they need without having to ask any embarrassing questions?
• Are your greeters and ushers on the job, attending to details and anticipating needs before they are expressed?
• Does anything about your guests’ first experience make them say, “Wow!” and want to return?

You can read the complete text of the article on LifeWay’s website. How many of these actions is your church already performing? How many do you need to start doing?

Special thanks to Monday Morning Insight for highlighting the article.

Nature.com had an interesting article earlier this year about research conducted by Gitte Lindgaard of Carleton University that investigates how web users judge websites. A few thought-provoking nuggets from the article are:

• If you can snare people with an attractive design, they are more likely to overlook other minor faults with the site, and may actually rate its actual content more favorably.
• People enjoy being right, so continuing to use a website that gave a good first impression helps to ‘prove’ to themselves that they made a good initial decision.
• Potential readers can make snap decisions in just 50 milliseconds.

Remember that your church website’s quality of design will influence its effectiveness. This is true regarding any design. People’s behavior is greatly influenced by their environment. This principle applies to the brick and mortar church as well as the virtual church.

Influx Insights highlighted some interesting findings from a recent poll conducted by the Associated Press about patience.

• 23% of people would only wait in line for 5 minutes or more at a store or office before loosing their patience
• 54% of people on the telephone would lose patience after 5 minutes of waiting

People value their time. It is important that your church recognizes how to make the most of people’s time. Are your systems efficient? Ask yourself these questions:

How long do parents wait in line to drop their kids off at our children’s ministry?
What about when they pick their kids up?
Do people get put on hold when they call our church?
Is our parking lot orderly or could the traffic flow be more efficient?

Learn to ask yourself these questions and other problem solving questions often. The more you do to make your church a great and user-friendly experience, the more your guests will know you care.

Brand Autopsy highlighted two passages from Douglas Rushkoff’s book Get Back in the Box. Consider the following thoughts:

The only lasting way to raise the value of a product as social currency is to raise the value of the product itself. While creative marketing is always a plus, it is no substitute for creative development.

This is the principle of marketability that we discussed in Church Relevance’s February 06 newsletter, Marketability First. Enhancing your ministry is better than enhancing your marketing communications.

A company’s real relationship with a customer is not communicated through the marketing, however compelling it may be. It is communicated through the cup holders in the doors, the easy-to-read LED display in the cell phone cover, the user-friendly menu on the digital video recorder, or the leak-proof absorbency of the baby diaper.

Your church’s relationship with your guests is determined by how well you understand their needs and how effectively you can meet those needs.