Church Visitor Retention: Church Friendliness

Church Visitor Retention: Church Friendliness

#church #visitors #retention #friendly

How do you treat visitors that come to your church?

Do they come back for additional visits and then eventually become members?

Are you a “friendly” church?

What is a Friendly Church? Are you a friendly church? Of course, you are! I have not yet met an unfriendly church. However, did you know that seeing yourself through your familiar member’s eyes is a completely different perspective than seeing through unfamiliar visitor’s eyes?

A Visitor’s Testimony from a Husband and Wife. We pulled into a large, sprawling parking lot with numerous sidewalks, but because it was built in an area with lots of trees, we weren’t sure which sidewalk led to the main entrance. There were no signs to help us out, so we took a guess. Fortunately, we guessed right. When we got to the outside front area, we were overwhelmed with such a large, unfamiliar complex. Wow, there were a lot of doors. Which one is the correct front door? No one was standing at any door to indicate a main entrance, so we guessed again.

Inside the door, no one greeted us. We were left on our own to attend to our complete unfamiliarity with everything going on. OK, so we finally got inside the main lobby. Inside we saw a Welcome Table with information, a Refreshment area with tables, and a Concierge Center for small group Bible study sign-ups. We explored around these areas a little, but we were left entirely on our own, even to the location of the restrooms marked only by very small signs up near the ceiling on the opposite side of the lobby. From the tables, we didn't know what we could take for free or if maybe certain materials required a donation. So being uncertain, we took nothing to stay on the safe side.

No signs of any kind directed us around. We purposefully stood in the middle of the big lobby looking around to see if anyone would walk up to us to offer assistance. Lots of people with nametags of some sort, which were too small to read at a glance, walked past us and never acknowledged our presence. No one was wearing any kind of identifying clothing.

We found our own way into the sanctuary by watching the major flow of traffic. During the service, there was a Communication Card in the bulletin, but our pre-service unfriendly experiences dissuaded us from filling it out. So we didn't.

There were no Gift Packs for visitors. We would have loved to take something home with us by which to remember the church. We would have loved to be escorted around the church and its other buildings for an overview of their entire ministry operation. It must have been super with the numerous adjacent buildings. We would have loved to be introduced to important staff or pastors to feel like our visiting meant something to them. That would have been so honoring. But we met no one, and no one introduced themselves, except a couple who sat near us during the service. (Article cont’d.)

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Church Visitor Retention Introductory Webinar — Honor your visitors as Guests!

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(Article cont’d.) Leaving the church was about as strange as when we entered it. As we pulled out of the church’s parking lot to go home, it was about the same feeling as if we had never been there. We bet, if the senior pastor and his staff had been aware of this kind of situation happening in their church, they would have been totally embarrassed.

On the other hand, if this is how we felt after having grown up in church, how would it have been if one of us was a totally unchurched, unsaved person, having never been in a church before and definitely in need of God? How many churches, big or small, leave their visitors in the same multiple levels of discomfort? How many churches have never seen themselves through their visitor’s eyes?

Self-Evaluation. Kingdom, Inc. has a wonderful Visitor Retention Program that supersedes all other visitor retention programs. While we know there are 200 plus churches closing their doors each week across the US, we have explored the top 4% of the fastest growing churches as to why they are breaking all records. Two thousand of them have field-tested, successful procedures that attract and retain visitors, and eventually assimilate them into membership.

Seven Critical Ministries. Our Visitor Retention Program helps you to evaluate in your church the seven critical ministries whereby visitors, consciously or subconsciously, decide within 7 minutes of parking whether or not they come back. Do you know these seven critical ministries? How does YOUR church rate concerning them?

START NOW — CLICK THIS LINK: Church Visitor Retention Introductory Webinar — Honor your visitors as Guests!

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Church Visitor Retention: Church Friendliness

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