Responding to Visitors
Before you strategize about how to increase the flow of visitors, you need to craft a detailed plan for responding effectively and consistently to visitors, especially on the Sunday of their first visit.
Numerous best practices for responding to visitors are well known. What is often missing is a sense of urgency about managing this vital ministry well. A good starting point, then, is to share stories about church visits that were handled well and poorly, and how much it mattered to you to be received well.
Here are best practices that healthy congregations employ. They require intentionality and some fresh thinking, but aren't costly or difficult.
Greet and get information on all visitors
Don't "pounce." First-time visitors usually prefer to observe than to engage in energetic conversation. Pouncing conveys desperation. At the same time, visitors are sensitive about feeling ignored.
Friendly members are more effective than official "greeters" wearing official nametags. If members aren't instinctively friendly at this time, you can recruit - and train - greeters, but make sure they don't come across as just doing a Sunday job and thereby seeming insincere. Visitors are attentive to the quality of first greetings.
An attendance pad passed down each pew is an excellent way to capture name and e-mail address of visitors. Churches that don't have a history of using attendance pads need to start doing so. They are standard fare in other churches and aren't offensive to visitors.
Other than a friendly tone, your primary goal is to secure the visitor's name and e-mail address. You might need to employ multiple tools for doing so: a pew attendance pad, a welcome packet in the back, greeters taking down names, a guest register, and a welcome table. Don't expect one method to do all of this critical work.
Some congregations introduce visitors during the service. Some don't. You will need to discern what works for your visitors. In general, we discourage this practice as being intrusive and premature.
Personal visit on day of first visit
The studies are clear: if you call on a visitor the day of their first visit, the vast majority will affiliate. The percentage drops dramatically the longer you wait. If you don't call at all, the affilliation rate sinks toward zero.
A drop-by visit is best, with the expectation that a hello on the doorstep might be all that happens. The point is to acknowledge their visit and to communicate a desire to make their acquaintance.
Caller should have a leave-behind: short, simple, a word of welcome and what visitors mean to the congregation. Not a lengthy description of the parish. Some callers bring a loaf of home-baked bread.
Unless your pastor isn't skilled at calling, the first-Sunday caller should be a pastor. This establishes the priority that the congregation places on welcoming visitors and incorporating them into the community of faith.
Freeing your pastor to make Sunday calls on visitors might require some fresh thinking about other Sunday duties, such as hospital visits and home communions. Sunday might be a day for trained laity to make such calls.
If the pastor feels awkward in such visits or can't free the time, lay callers should be recruited, trained and supported for this work. Calling is a critical ministry that requires awareness of visitor psychology and how to handle likely situations. Two-person teams of mixed ages and genders can signal your belief in diversity.
Send brief informative e-mail during first week
This message acknowledges the visit and contains links to the church web site, preferably to a special "Visitors' spot" where the visitor can find information about the church, a schedule of upcoming events, an explanation of worship, an explanation of how people typically enter into the life of the community, and a Frequently Asked Questions section.
Have just one link in the welcome e-mail, rather than a long list of links, which could seem overwhelming. Get people to the web site, and let them explore at will.
Use a database-driven tracking process
A first visit should initiate a thorough process for leading the visitor from first-visit to affiliation.
Data should be gathered at every stage. You need to know where the obstacles are, where people tend to drop off.
With this data, you can tweak the process constantly. For example, if you get good results on first few Sundays, but find that visitors don't respond to a newcomers class, you will want to evaluate that class: how invitations are sent, how often, with what tone, when class is offered, how class is perceived, whether class is even helpful.
After newcomer's second visit to church
Send second e-mail, focus on an upcoming church event.
Add visitor to e-mail newsletter distribution.
Add visitor to specials events invitation list, with focus on events that fit their perceived age or interest.
New Member Class
Offer one with whatever frequency will yield a class of about eight to twelve people, small enough for good discussion, large enough to convey energy. Use your tracking system to fine-tune frequency and content.
Class should be part social, part listening; include food, if possible. Focus is on learning about the visitor, not selling the congregation or its denomination, and on responding to any preliminary questions they have.
If you offer instruction, it should be about faith questions, not denomination or congregation. People don't come to a church seeking an institution, but with yearnings and questions about faith. Don't stress parish history. That isn't likely to be a bridge-builder at this time.
Pastor should be present. Important pastoral clues will come out in this class. Newcomers need to begin identifying pastor as a spiritual leader.
Understand desired outcomes
Outcome for church: discern personalities and needs whom God is bringing to this church. Each 20 new members are a strong indicator of who the next 20 will be.
Outcome for visitor: feel welcomed, informed and invited.
Outcome for parish leaders: critical data on where church needs to be going. What mission and ministry are indicated by membership trends? For example, a sudden influx of recently laid-off workers would suggest a ministry to workers in transition. A sudden influx of young parents and children would suggest some ramping up of educational offerings.
As you meet, listen for clues as to the changing religious culture. For example, even though you flagged this family on a Sunday visit, is Sunday worship their actual goal? Might they respond more enthusiastically to midweek education, non-Sunday worship or home-based spiritual community? In other words, don't assume that, because they showed up in your usual venue, that this venue will serve them well over the long haul. Be sensitive as to where they live in relationship to church and what their work and family schedules indicate.
Provide regular opportunities to join
Your New Member Class shouldn't be considered a requirement for membership. Avoid any appearance of legalism or of having to earn one's way in.
Instead, provide a standard time in the Sunday service when people can make a decision to affiliate and come forward to be welcomed. Members need to see this happening all the time, not just a few times a year. Over time, adding members will seem normal, not threatening.
If a new member hasn't attended the New Member Class, they can be invited after joining.
