Podcast Episode #274
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Drawing from a recent post on bad church guest experiences, we discuss how churches can respond to or avoid some of these issues.
Some highlights from today’s episode include:
- Pastors typically do not hear about bad guest experiences because the guest simply does not return.
- Any time you’re expecting big crowds, be sure to prepare your members and remind them to sacrifice for others.
- Sometimes church members need confronting over the way they treat church guests.
- Some of the most strategic greeters need to be in the worship center greeting those who are seated and waiting.
- Be sure kids ministry volunteers follow procedures and know where all the kids in their care are.
- The stand-and-greet-time can inadvertently train your members to think there’s only one time to be friendly at church.
- You’ve got to follow up with all guests to know if there are issues with how they are treated when visiting your church.
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Feedback
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Great points. I have taken on a bi-vocational pastorate and these folks do not have the stand and greet time. I have no intention of starting the practice. As church leaders we must somehow develop a church culture of love, welcome, and outreach toward visitors. It takes time and is on ongoing process. Selecting and training greeters is crucial.
Thanks.
This is a very good and informative post, and I get everything in here. Would it be possible at some point in the future to flip the topic and talk about church’s bad experiences with their guests and how they handle them?
Well, since you mentioned it, several years ago a couple visited the church where I was formerly pastor and on their second visit, a Wednesday night, the woman interrupted the prayer time to publicly berate me and the church for failing to have on the prayer list a child in the community who was suffering from cancer. She said of all the churches they had visited ours was the only one who wasn’t praying for this child. I gently explained that I had never heard of this child, but since it had been brought to our attention we would gladly add the child to the prayer list. After the service that night, she proceeded to berate me further about how on the previous Sunday the Sunday school teacher of the class she’d attended wasn’t back for the evening service. She said this was un-spiritual and ungodly. Again, I gently said I was sorry she felt this way and I am certain the Sunday school teacher had a legitimate reason for not being there. These folks never came back and I said, “Thank you Lord!”
So, God calls us to handle such situations calmly, gently, Christ-like, and with a healthy dose of humor.
This may be a little off the center topic, but I am curious if there is a GOOD reason for the stand-and-greet time. It seems like some thing that is “better than nothing” but lacks merit on its own. Just looking for enlightenment….
I have been actively serving our risen Savior since I was nine years old. I am not shy. I am outgoing and very friendly. I have recently had the misfortune of moving to another part of the country. I’ve visited 15 churches and I’ll tell you, as a visitor, there is nothing good about the meet and greet.
I know. It’s cringe-time for the guest. It seems to make the staff on stage very happy to see the movement and hear the buzz, though. I know they mean well.
we greet you in the name of our lord Jesus Christ! I’m pastor Peter from Uganda country on masolya Island. Dear friend thank you to be agood minister of Jesus! really there is no good thing than to visit I want to tell you that some pastors or ministers of Jesus they don’t want to visit their churches; me am on Island masolya but they don’t want to visit us because we on Island the resion is they fear water but is it good to say like that??.thank you so much to be with that heart.
Thank you for your insight on this. I’ve visited churches and was treated very warmly by the staff as a guest-without the formal meet and greet. The “please stand if you are a visitor,” worked just fine and subsequently, have made great relationships from their warmth and acceptance.
Conversely, I was a guest at my former church where I served on staff in 3 different roles after years almost a decade of not seeing anyone and was treated with absolute disdain by the associate pastor even after being told who I was. I didn’t complain. It didn’t even register with me. The greeter was pretend friendly and the ones who knew me were atrocious. Not all-but several. The Pastor was told of this by someone other than myself and I acknowledged it. He did nothing and his follow up with me was non-existent and still is. I was never given an apology but as Christ forgives us–I forgave them because they, Pastor included had/have no idea what they did.
In the footsteps of Jesus!
I’ve served churches and we’ve done both ways. In my last church I found that if we learn as a total church and we did to practice “radical hospitality” in every aspect we didn’t need a “meet and greet.”