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As a pastor or church leader, you need to be aware of five significant facts about first-time guests looking for a church home and five vital actions you can take to make them want to return.
Fact #1 - Your visitors make up their minds regarding your church in the first ten minutes.
Before a first-time guest has sung an inspiring song, watched a compelling drama or well-produced video vignette or heard your well-crafted sermon they have made up their mind whether or not to return. But, you probably spend more time and energy on the plan and execution of the worship service than preparing for the greeting and welcoming of your first-time guests.
Action - Use the following questions as a quick checklist:
- Are parking 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?
So what do you think? What is FVC good at? Where could we do better?
16 comments:
I was in Reunion today--my two boys are at a basketball camp there this week, and I noticed BEFORE I ever got into the development off of 104th Ave., there was a sign that read: "Happily ever after begins here".
What a brilliant marketing program this developer has going. Before I ever get to see what's inside the walls of Reunion, they are 'speaking' to me about being happy, and belonging here. I'm already warming up, before I ever see their homes!
I wondered how we could do that in churchland? How can we 'prepare' people to begin warming up before they ever walk into our 'church building'?
We are so far behind our secular counterparts when it comes to reaching our 'audience'.
Phil mentioned signs leading in from the street corners--as with anything in churchville, volunteer workers are the key! Signage is one of the cheapest means of announcment, but without someone willing to step in (check that--without someone ASKING another to step in ) and volunteer to put them up and take them down--the church gets stuck.
Due to the situation at Second Creek this weekend we went to another church. As we pulled up the main parking lot looked full but they had parking lot attendants directing people where to go. We very much appreciated this especially because it was raining and we had two young children to bring in with us. This is the same idea that 'anonymous' said about warming up before you ever get into the church. We already felt welcome, cared about and planned for. When we entered the church there were two people whose sole responsibility was to welcome people into the church. They weren't handing out programs or anything, they were simply making sure each person that walked through the door felt important. The programs were passed out as we entered the worship area.
I agree that we need volunteers for the welcoming ministry, however even more than that we need a leader to lead and grow this important ministry.
ANOTHER CHURCH? WE'RE UNABLE TO HAVE WORSHIP SERVICES FOR ONE WEEK, AND YOU'RE ALREADY ATTENDING ANOTHER CHURCH?
Just kidding! I hope worship was awesome!
I agree. We have to do a better job at the first 10 min. impression from the time people pull into the parking lot to when they are seated in the worship area.
I think our biggest issue is getting the "regulars" to see this vision and get excited about how our initial impression is Kingdom work.... not just volunteering for another "job".
It would be nice to have some parking attendants. Even just one that is there. someone mentioned special "visitor only" parking for first-timers or even "Parents of young children" spaces. I know, in our church, that would be the entire parking lot, just some thoughts on showing people that we are thinking about them at FVC.
I think signs once you get to chambers and 104th are good. It would be nice to have bigger ones east of chambers on 104th. Inside the church I think the ones we have are good.
I'm not sure what the jobs of the ushers/greeters are sopossed to be, but I like the idea of not passing out bulletins until entering the "sanctuary". I know I have my hands full with kids and diaper bags, etc. and I'm lucky if I am able to keep the bulletin with me after I've dropped the kids off...
I think the environment is uer-friendly and accepting. It would be good to ask a newer guest and see what their impression is.
Walt Disney is famous for making GREAT 1st time impressions. One thing they(Disney workers) do daily is when the doors open for the park, the greeters are trained to greet people with a lot of energy, trun the back ground music up and make Disney the most excited place on earth. But In the Evening they change up the mood, turn down the music and make the greeters act low key (because Disney knows they have drained your batteries and your tired) Disney makes your good bye a more relaxed occasion. If Disney can master this I think we could as well. We need to GENERATE!!!!! excitement to the people walking into our doors and let them know that something is going on here and they can't wait to be apart of this.
I have a quote on my wall from Jeannie Mayo: "Above all, I believe one of the greatest lessons that can be learned from extraordinary companies like Starbucks and Disney is their passion for their product. Starbucks sells coffee, and they believe it is for everyone. Disney sells entertainment, and they believe in entertaining everyone. How much more passionate should we be about the Gospel?"
The bottom line is how passionate are we about creating a worship experience that allows people the opportunity to focus ALL of their attention on hearing from the Holy Spirit while at FVC?
As for the signs, I say we use all of the high school students to become sign twirlers. Then we would have not only extra signage, but signs with motion. Just kinding.
Actually, if we could get a permanent sign somewhere on 104th west of Chambers and another one/two at the overpass for I-76 and sable, we would be getting more visibility.
As for parking attendants, what would be nice would be to have a system set up to allow the parents with small children to drive up to the front door and we effectively provide valet service. The only difference would be that we would help with the children and the mothers. Sorry Dads, but you still get to park the car. That would show that we care about the families, but more importantly, it would show that we are thinking about the kids. If the kids get a great experience, then the parents will most likely have also had a good experience.
Okay...I'm all ears on how we're going to find and train parking lot attendants. Any takers out there?
I have already incorporated in the new Greeter description and the posts for greeters, 2 outside people who will do exactly what Kevin is talking about. I plan on showing the first 2 with the intention of recruiting and training a leader over greeting and continuing the training as we add new greeters.
So, with that said........Any takers???
I have had the pleasure of reading all these comments, and I think Dale,you hit the bee hive. Here's my two mites about the matter. Signage is always an important means to point the way to the church. Parking attendants are a luxory, but a very sensative thoughtful gesture. I totaly agree with Lori, give the bulletines out as people enter the sanctaury. Here's my thought, when I go into a church and the person that greets me has a greeters badge on, it deminishes the genuine motive behind the greeting; example, in the back of my mind I am wondering if they realy are glad to see me, or are they performing their assigned job. Hebrews says "If a man wants to have friends he must show himself friendly". First impressions are important, but repeated First impressions are lasting. First lets station two greeters anonymously out by the front door, then lets station a person to assist in directing the traffic in the main hall(nursery,childrens,auditorium),then lets have a person handing out bulletines at the sactuary entrance, and finaly have Secret Service Greeters in the sancuary mingeling throughout the auditorium before the service starts. This would require a team of six people, I will volunteer to head up this ministry, that leaves five people needed, unless God wants to weed it down to whoever drinks on his stomach lapping it up like a dog verses cuping there hands while in a kneeling positon to bring the water to their mouth.
ok Doug........let's talk about this Sunday! And BTW, I was requiring a team of 7. But we will discuss this further! Thanks for your willingness to serve.
Sorry to go back to the parking lot attendants, but I think we need to be cautious here. In the past, my family attended a church with such attendants, and while it may have kept traffic flowing better, they annoyed the begeebees out of me. They herded us in like cattle, being too demanding and inflexible with regards to WHERE we parked. Sure, we had special parking for new guests and families with new babies, but otherwise the rest of us HAD to go where they wanted us to. It really creates a hostile atmosphere. Let's face it, there's not so much traffic coming in and out on Sunday yet to warrant such an approach. Special parking to assist families with new babies, etc. would be great, but please don't rule the rest of the crowd as if we're a bunch of teens attending a concert.
By the same tokan, I've been to churches where there was no parking lot people, and the place was kaos!
You may not have a lot of traffic now, but when you get bigger you will--especially if yoyu have 2 services, and you better get ready for traffic problems, and prking problems if you don't have someone to help.
Danielle made some good points. My intention for outside greeters was not to direct traffic like the Pepsi Center orange people....we may at some point need some parking help. But, at this point I think it is important that we are making it easy for people to get in the doors by; helping songle moms, families with their hands full, greeting everyone as they come up to the doors, ready with umbrellas on rainy days, etc. I certainty never intended for this to be a "attack mission". Just a friendly way of letting people know that we have thought about them before they ever showed up.
I'm with Danielle regarding the potential for the parking lot greeters. I've been at churches with 500 in attendance that made it more of an annoyance. Alternatively, I've been at churches with 1500 in attendance at each of two services and it went just fine WITHOUT an attendant. I say invest your time and energy inside. If one of the outside door greeters sees someone pull up to let the family out, they can certainly help at that point, but just don't tell people where to park.
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