Tag: holidays

8 Best Practices for Welcoming Church Guests this Easter

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Easter is the highest attended service of the year, which means more people are likely to visit your church on this day than any other. 

Here are the best ways to engage and connect with your guests:

  1. The Front Door – Your church website is usually a person’s first point of contact. Scan your site and make sure it’s guest friendly. Check to see that worship times, directions, and what to expect at your church are easy to find. Go here for how to make your website guest-friendly.
  2. Parking Ministry – Hospitality begins in the parking lot and while most people don’t need help finding a place to park, we know from a decade of research that our mystery guests rate their overall experience higher in churches with parking ministries.
  3. More Hands on Deck – Increase your capacity for hospitality by adding more Easter 2019 1volunteers to welcome new faces before and AFTER the service to help them get where they need to go.
  4. Seating – Plan for overflow and extra seating. In the weeks leading up to Easter, encourage regulars to make room for guests by attending an earlier service since guests are more likely to attend a later service on their first visit.
  5. Kids’ Ministry – Many of those new faces you see will be families who won’t know what you offer for kids or where they should take them. That means your Kids’ Ministry needs to ramp up as well to help check kids in, answer questions, and guide families to their destinations.
  6. Information – Mention during the service where guests can go to get more information about the church and how to get plugged in. When a guest has the information needed to take next steps, they’re more likely to take them.
  7. Tell them what’s coming next week – Follow Easter up with a seeker friendly message series that covers relevant topics. Highlight this information at services so guests learn about it. The goal in this is to generate interest while they are with you and get them to return.
  8. Follow-up – Too many guests in our research report leaving their contact Easter 2019 2information with the church and never hearing from them. We cringe every time we read about it. Nothing says you’re not interested more than asking for contact information and never contacting them. The key to good follow-up is to be intentional about it and don’t wait. Go here for when and how to follow up.

Easter is important, but making people feel welcome at every service is also important and it starts the moment they call, visit your website, or pull into your parking lot. If you’re ready to create a hospitable culture and an experience that leaves people feeling welcome, accepted, and wanting to return, we have the tools to help you.

Why Your Church Should Live Stream for the Holidays

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We’ve entered the month of November, so you know what that means….it’s time to talk about your church’s Christmas ministry. By now, you’ve probably already started thinking about how to welcome first-time guests that may be visiting your church during the holiday season. However, there’s one thing you possibly haven’t thought about to engage people in your Christmas message.

Live streaming.

Before you dismiss this idea because it’s something new and different, hear me out. There are multiple reasons why live streaming your service may be a great option for your church this holiday season.

It’s the Busiest Time of the Year. People are busy. They may not think they have time tolightstock_115965_full_kate attend a holiday service, but they might be willing to listen to/watch one. Make your service something people can participate in when they can’t be there in person. A live stream service also helps individuals who work overnight, Sunday mornings, or holiday shifts and simply can’t attend in person.

Boost Your Social Media Following. This time of year, people start looking for a church to visit on Christmas. Potential first-time guests are more likely to visit your website or social media page before they visit your actual church. Streaming your service allows potential guests to see what your church is like. Your live streams can show the sincerity, authentic worship, and a general sense of what your church is like in real time.

Connection. I love when my questions get answered. You probably do too, right? If you’re live streaming, a member of your church staff can respond to any questions that come up in the comments section. It’s basically another great chance to connect with guests before the holiday season. There’s also a different type of community that can develop amongst your online viewers. They start to recognize each other’s usernames and begin to build up a level of comfort with one another. They may even decide to attend an actual service together…who knows?

More Connection. In case you can’t tell, having people feel connected to one anotherlightstock_173620_full_kate during the holidays is important to me. During this time of year, I always think about families who can’t be together. Whether it’s military families with a loved one stationed overseas or a family that lives far apart and can’t travel, your church can help them feel connected to one another. By live streaming your Christmas service, these families can tune in and participate in your service together at the same time. This is a small thing that can help them feel closer. What a cool thing for your church to be a part of, right?

Outreach. The holiday season can be a difficult time of year for a lot of people. There are people in your area who may want to attend a Christmas church service, but are alone, sick, can’t get out of the house, etc. Live streaming your service gives your church the ability to let the surrounding community participate in your service and extend who gets to hear the beautiful story of the birth of our Savior.

Please hear me say that I know this will take work. You will need the proper equipment, your lighting and sound might need to be tweaked, your church may need to invest in better internet, and you’ll need someone available to monitor the live stream to answer questions, just to name a few things. But it will be worth it. Start working now and make your Christmas services available to everyone.

Still not convinced? Check out more reasons on this blog from Clover Sites.