Toolbox For Faith

Most congregations want to be better hosts to their new worshipers, but the question is how. Pastor David Derrick (St. Philip Lutheran Church, Roanoke, VA) and I put together a checklist of Hospitality Ideas that could help an individual or team of people who are trying to become more welcoming. These are simple, basic ideas, but hopefully they can help establish new patterns and new behaviors. You don’t need to do all seven at once, but try one or two and then considering adding another. If you have other ideas for simple, welcoming activities that we could add to the list, please let me know.

1. When the service is over, intentionally go to someone you don’t know well and greet that person before reconnecting with your friends in the congregation.
2. If your congregation “Passes the Peace,” feel free to move out of your section to share God’s peace with someone on the other side of the sanctuary.
3. Call someone whom you haven’t seen in worship recently and just say, “Hello.”
4. Sit somewhere different one Sunday morning and engage the people around you in conversation.
5. Arrive early for worship and walk around the sanctuary to make sure things are neat and straight.
6. Arrive early for worship and walk through the restrooms to make sure they are neat and well stocked with supplies.
7. If your congregation offers activity bags for young children, take a moment to see if they are well stocked and easy to find.

After reading my last post on our vacation church-going experience, two people asked the same question—what can we do at our church to make sure that we are a welcoming congregation. I have three starting points you can consider.

First, change the culture of welcoming by doing an exercise at the beginning of the service that we have been calling “100 seconds of Fun” at the church where I was interim. After I welcomed everyone, I asked the congregation to move about for 100 seconds welcoming as many people as possible. We chose 100 seconds in honor of the 100th Anniversary of the congregation. Two weeks ago, a guest told me on the way out that our congregation was the friendliest she had ever attended.

Second, change the culture of welcoming by using your church’s governing body to be a greeting force. Take the group into the sanctuary and tell them to sit where they normally sit and then have them divide the congregation into areas in which they will be responsible for welcoming everyone in that area and introducing the guests to as many people as possible.

Third, change the culture of welcoming by having an Art Lee type person at the door who welcomes everyone and finds out information about the guests. Art was a member at one of my congregations who took the responsibility of being in the narthex before and after services. He gave me the names of all guests when I exited at the end of the service and then talked to each guest when they came out, introducing them to all around. Art was a natural who shared a warm welcome that became contagious and spread.

Try one, two or three and see if they can help change the culture of welcoming at your congregation.

Seven Words of Grace

God blesses us with grace. - Psalm 23:6
Strong, healthy congregation live in the grace of God. - 1 Cor 1:1-4
Grace is grassroots. - Luke 2:7
Grace is generous. - Mark 16:6-8
Grace is gentle. - Eph 4:2
Grace is mutual. - 1 Cor 13:3
Grace finds us, and we find grace. - John 1:14

- Kennon Callahan

This weekend, I had the opportunity to meet with members of six different congregations to discuss “Invitation and Hospitality.” We had a wonderful discussion focused on ways that we can strength our ability to invite and welcome people into God’s family of faith.

Here are a few of the helpful ideas we shared in both areas.

Invitation
1. People want to be a part of God’s mission and ministry in the world. When a congregation identifies its mission and celebrates its ministry, people are more willing to extend an invitation to others.
2. Congregations can encourage invitation by creating “opportunities for invitation.” These opportunities, such as Vacation Bible School, choir concerts, or a Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper, create a specific reason for someone to issue an invitation to a friend.
3. Creative Communications has a helpful resource entitled “Big Ways, Little Ways: 30 Ways - Big and Small - to Tell Others about Jesus” which offers some specific ideas for how you can extend an invitation.

Hospitality
1. Congregations need to make facilities and worship services accessible by clearly labeling entrances and restrooms, by avoiding coded language and by designing worship services and accompanying bulletins that are easy to follow.
2. Practice the “Three Minute Rule.” For the first three minutes after a service ends, talk to someone you don’t know or someone you don’t know well. When a fellow worshiper offers a sincere word of welcome that makes an extremely positive impression.
3. Extend the welcome after the service by following up with new worshipers through a hand written note or some other form of personal contact.

If you have some helpful ideas that have worked in your congregation to encourage invitation or share hospitality, please let me know.

Sandy Birch, who is a member of the St. Michael staff, put together the following article  on hospitality ministry.  We are running it in the January newsletter.

Hospitality Ministry

A new worshipper walks into St. Michael. The new worshipper has taken the first step – a giant step toward connecting with God through the ministry of St. Michael. They have overcome every barrier that might keep them away; fear, intimidation, social inertia, weekend distractions, preconceived notions and a million other reasons that might have kept them away until that moment.

Many people have said, “You only have one chance to make a first impression.” When it comes to churches, you might get two opportunities: the first three minutes after someone arrives at St. Michael and the first three minutes after the worship service is over. During those first three minutes, you have the opportunity to make someone feel welcome and connected to the people of God at St. Michael. You don’t have to be an official greeter. You don’t have to say something clever or scripted. Simply reaching out in Christian love, to say a word of welcome is a powerful ministry of hospitality. The next time you see someone you don’t recognize at worship, remember the words of the angels, “Be not afraid,” and take a moment in the first three minutes to welcome them to God’s family of faith at St. Michael.

As most of us know, the research says that there is very little chance that a long-term inactive member will ever become active again.  With that in mind, consider exchanging your inactive list with another local congregation for Christmas.  Perhaps an invitation to a Christmas Eve Service from a different worshiping community will be just what is needed to help someone reconnect with God.

A conversation with a former member and a question from a colleague inspired me to give some thought to the way in which we welcome new worshipers into the life of the congregation.  Coming out of seminary, I adopted the fairly standard model of new member classes.  I found good models to copy and did them because “that was what I was supposed to do.”  Through the years, I have had limited success with the new member class.  This week, I came to the conclusion that what you do for new worshipers should be a direct reflection of who you are as a congregation.

If you are a high challenge, high commitment congregation with a heavy emphasis on formal membership, then by all means have several classes with specific topics to be covered and introductions to make.  If however, you are a congregation focused around community and compassion, for example,  feel free to try another path.  At St. Michael, we got rid of the classes and moved to a meal.  We have an individual from the congregation who hosts the meal (usually groups of 10 or less).  I attend and we simply talk with people and eat together.  Individuals make connections and tell stories.    As the meal is drawing to a close, we give the new worshipers a “Welcome to St. Michael” folder that has general information on our ministries.  I say a word or two about the information and then open it up to questions.  Over the last three years, we have had 30 to 40 people at meals like and most of them are actively involved in the congregation today.