Growing Church #1

Idea # 1 - Who are your visitors?

Find out who your visitors are! You can't possibly get to know them if you don't know their names addresses, email, and phone numbers. Only then can you follow up intentionally. And remember, your interest is in serving them, not the other way around. Your contact should be upbeat, interesting, and interested. You are not trying to sell the church. You are offering your interest and concern. If they then want to return to your church, you have opened a positive door.

There are four ways to get the information you need, possibly more: One is to open a visitors book in the back of the sanctuary, and offer visitors the chance to sign it. But remember, not all will. (Be sure to follow up with a personal visit or phone call. (See Idea #3, Visiting Newcomers.)

The second is to place visitors cards in the pews and invite people to fill them out and place them in the offering plate. This is better, because cards usually ask for clearer, more specific information than guest books.

The third idea is to use a ritual of friendship that gets every member to sign an attendance pad in each pew. This is like the card idea, except that everyone fills out the pad. It's big advantage is that as you pass the pad down the pew and then back, everyone gets to see the names of everyone in the pew.

And fourth, and probably best, use persons as greeters who regularly (so they know who are visitors!) approach newcomers and fill out for them visitor cards. This way you have complete, legible cards and personal contact. The greeter knows the visitor's name and basics about them, can answer the visitor's questions (where are the bathrooms, is there a nursery, which hymnal should they use, etc.), and is known to the visitor by name because the qreeter is wearing a name tag (not the visitor)!

Try this and see if you don't have a few more newcomers to email or call!