The Minister’s Workshop: ‘Help! I’m a Visitor’

While moving from the pastorate into another field of service, I’ve had the opportunity to visit a number of churches. As a result I have some suggestions about how churches can improve their ministry to visitors and make them feel at home.

Provide adequate parking. If a visitor must drive around the block several times before finding a place to park his car, he may think twice about returning. Some churches with small parking lots reserve spots for guests; others encourage members to park elsewhere, perhaps by permission, in the parking lot of a nearby office building or shopping center.

Provide an adequately staffed nursery. A worker should be posted near entrances to tell parents with small children where the nursery is.

Babies can disrupt services. They can also hinder the spiritual renewal processes that congregational worship and fellowship offer to parents. A tense and exhausted mother, after struggling with a squirming child through Sunday school and the church service, is likely to think, “What’s the use of my coming? I can take better care of the baby at home.”

Nursery workers should be capable, loving, and kind. Parents are understandably hesitant about leaving young children with junior-high school girls. (What if the child begins to choke?) In one church, my wife brought our eighteen-month-old to a nursery attendant seated in a rocking chair. The woman remained seated and showed no interest in the child. My wife laid him on the carpet and told the worker his name. Still there was no reaction that showed the attendant cared. And so our visit to that church began with an unpleasant experience. First impressions are important; an encounter like this may make the visitor wonder whether anyone in the church cares.

Provide greeters. One Sunday we walked into a large church building and our nine-year-old daughter exclaimed, “This is like a museum!” But that notion was immediately dispelled by the friendliness of the people, beginning with greeters inside the door. Their hearty handshakes and smiling faces communicated, “We’re glad to see you.” The ushers too were friendly and helpful. The over-all impression: this church really cares!

Encourage members to be friendly. It happens too often that a visitor leaving a church service is spoken to by no one other than perhaps the minister.

The pastor of one urban church I know about urges his congregation from the pulpit every week: “Greet our visitors after the service.” Sometimes he says, “Speak to at least one person you don’t know,” making it easier for visitors to help break the ice. A number of churches provide a time of friendship sharing during the service; for two or three minutes persons in the congregation greet one another and even engage in a bit of small talk, giving careful attention to making visitors feel at ease. Other churches have a refreshment hour after services. In one small church, I headed for the exit after the service but found my way blocked by several persons who gently but persuasively invited me to drink a cup of coffee with them. I left with a feeling of warmth in both my stomach and my heart.

Friendliness toward visitors requires effort on the part of members, but it’s well worth the effort. It is a way of showing Christian love and concern. And some visitors will respond to that sooner than to a sermon.

Members should be cautioned, on the other hand, against being gushy and overbearing, and they must exercise discernment and restraint in the case of the occasional visitor who is seeking anonymity or solitude.

Recognize the visitors. Some pastors ask first-time visitors to stand during a service and tell who they are and where they are from. (Don’t push the rare few who prefer to remain seated and silent.) Usually they are given a packet of information at that time. Most churches ask visitors to sign a guest book or a pew card. But some pastors say that few visitors actually do this, and they prefer to have registration cards handed out for everyone to fill out and deposit in the offering plate. This not only provides valuable information for follow-up on visitors but also helps a minister keep tabs on attendance and needs. The registration slip includes check-off spaces where a person can indicate his interest in becoming a Christian, joining the church, spiritual counsel, or simply “your prayers for me”—a cue that help may be needed.

In some churches, greeters and ushers alert the pastor ahead of time when they discover visitors who may deserve special recognition or even a pewside visit from the pastor—and perhaps an impromptu spot on the program (a vacationing minister, a missionary passing through, a denominational officer, a Christian author, a campus worker, and the like).

Visit the visitors. All visitors ought to get a follow-up letter from the pastor expressing appreciation for their visit to the church, indicating his availability and that of fellow members for counsel and help, and extending an invitation to return. Visitors from the local area should be visited that very week, preferably by a team of two lay persons. The average visitor tends to feel more at ease with lay people than with clergymen. He may feel that ministers are paid to make calls; a visit by members is likely to convince him that they really do care about him. Besides, the pastor can call the following week, doubling the impact.

Members should visit for the sake of friendship and ministry. Generally, visitors won’t return if they get the feeling that the church is only interested in getting more names on the church rolls.

There are, of course, deeper matters that affect visitors, such as the interest level of the pulpit ministry and the life—or lack of it—in church services. But the simple suggestions above should go a long way toward making any visitor feel welcome.—DAVID T. DEHAAS, Dinuba, California.

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