A couple of days ago we started a series on why your church visitors won’t come back. Tip 1 was simply to keep your church campus inviting.

— Encourage your members to park in the less desirable spaces.
— Encourage your members to smile, wave and talk to unfamiliar folks who are entering the building.
— Keep it clean and colorful. I personally love banners and we at Professional Mojo find that keeping the branding and themes consistent between your website and the church campus is key.

Ok, now the #2 reason your church visitors won’t come back – they were ignored by staff, leadership, and the congregation. I have experienced this firsthand in both large and small churches. Listen, it is a fallacy that only mega churches or large churches aren’t welcoming. I have mystery shopped a variety of churches and found that being ignored is an equal opportunity behavior. 🙂

What does ignoring look like to a visitor – or more importantly feel like? It may vary. For example, some visitors may be satisfied with a head nod or a smile. Others may feel ignored unless they are greeted with a handshake or engaged in a more interactive way. You need to be prepared to meet their needs.

It’s best to train your greeters (please tell me you have them) to recognize folks and to welcome them. It’s also good to have families/individuals with whom you can place someone.

For example, Mr. and Mrs. Jones come to visit. Your well-trained greeter recognizes them as someone new. They are welcomed warmly to the church and then asked if they can direct them to a seat. The greeter can chit chat with Mr. and Mrs. Jones as they are led to a spot near Mr. and Mrs. Evans (who are greeters, too). Sometimes when we have an unwilling congregation, it’s best to hedge our bets (know what I mean?). Mr. and Mrs. Evans have volunteered to be a seater (um, is that a seater-greeter?…ok, that was a little lame).

See? You have placed the visitor with a person, family, or couple who has volunteered to be nice and answer questions. Does it seem crazy that you’d want to identify people in your congregation to be nice to others. I would love to say yes, but the reality is that the answer is probably no – it’s not crazy.

If you think that your visitors are always welcomed, you’re likely wrong. And are you ready to leave that visitor’s experience in your church to chance – a chance that they won’t return, the chance that they won’t go to another church because the experience was bad, the chance that they need some comfort and a good Word now?

If not and you want to make the most of your outreach, welcome visitors and seekers into the house of God, then continue with our posts.

Next post: #3 – Ask them to move out of your seat (or, just be plain mean). Really. It’s another true story!

Until then… –Lee