[00:00:00] One of the challenges that we faced in kind of recalibrating our welcome process was
[00:00:05] that we had an established one that was good in some respects but also kind of running
[00:00:12] counter to what we wanted to do in other respects.
[00:00:15] Welcome to episode 331.
[00:00:18] Welcomeing first time guests may have been an afterthought in your church.
[00:00:22] But are you looking to launch a guest services team or welcome ministry but don't know where
[00:00:25] to start?
[00:00:26] Or are you trying to take what you have and make it better?
[00:00:29] Here's five tips to make it happen, that's today on The Reclaimed Leader.
[00:00:33] Hey everyone welcome to episode 331 of The Reclaimed Leader, I'm Jason Tucker back again
[00:00:45] with Jesse Skiffington.
[00:00:46] Jesse Easter is a comment, it's coming fast.
[00:00:49] Yeah yeah every year it shows up and we get it so great the good news that Jesus is alive
[00:00:55] and you know Jesus lives the rest follows.
[00:00:57] The reason we're talking today, the reason we're talking about leadership in the local church
[00:01:01] all of that is because of this core affirmation of our faith that Jesus lived, died and rose
[00:01:08] again and we get to share that good news with the world around us and that's the news
[00:01:13] the world needs more than anything else is that there's more to the story.
[00:01:17] This isn't it.
[00:01:20] There's something to hope for and to look forward to because of who Jesus is and what he's
[00:01:25] done for us.
[00:01:26] So that's the news that we share as churches and as we kind of go through the various ups
[00:01:32] and downs of being an organized community around that good news, there's some things that
[00:01:36] we can do to really set ourselves up for success to share that message with people especially
[00:01:42] when they finally risk showing up and coming to be with us in our churches?
[00:01:48] Yeah, so this we've been on a series over the last month just talking about welcoming,
[00:01:54] talking about hospitality and how critical that is in Christian community let alone you
[00:01:59] know like it's just like a strategy that we have right.
[00:02:03] It's not just that it's integral to who we are as the Christian community and how are
[00:02:08] we welcoming people hopefully into a relationship with Jesus Christ and how that front line
[00:02:14] of welcoming hospitality, guest services, whatever you in your church wants to call it
[00:02:20] is really the same thing.
[00:02:21] How are we a soft landing for people who are looking for Jesus and how do we make sure
[00:02:28] that we don't get in the way of that either?
[00:02:30] So I think it's so so important and I think it's kind of nice getting some affirmation
[00:02:36] this last week.
[00:02:37] I was looking at what other podcasts in our lane are kind of doing.
[00:02:41] We had Tony Morgan on here a long time ago.
[00:02:43] He's from the unstuck group and they have a podcast.
[00:02:46] Guess what they've been talking about for a month guest services.
[00:02:49] I laughed.
[00:02:50] I was like, yeah, we all have the same idea.
[00:02:52] And you know, Kerry Newhof was talking about guest services.
[00:02:54] It's like Dan Ryland was talking about guest services.
[00:02:57] Oh, Dan's talking about it.
[00:02:58] Dan's talking about it.
[00:02:59] Dan is the topic.
[00:03:00] Exactly right.
[00:03:01] So and I really do think this is this is critically important because I still believe this
[00:03:09] time in our lives right now, we're going to look back on as a wave of possibility because
[00:03:15] people are hungry for the gospel in a way that I have not seen since maybe the first few
[00:03:22] weeks after 9.11.
[00:03:23] Right?
[00:03:24] I don't I haven't seen an openness like I'm seeing right now and it's exciting but it's
[00:03:29] also like, hey, I want to make sure we do our very best to engage people and make let
[00:03:35] them know that, hey, we're here for you.
[00:03:37] Whenever you're ready, we are here to help you in your relationship with Jesus.
[00:03:41] Yeah.
[00:03:42] Yeah.
[00:03:43] That's so spot on Jason and part of making that process work is just thinking through what
[00:03:49] are the key things to build a team that can welcome well follow up well and just do
[00:03:54] some really basic hospitality kinds of things that will cost someone to go, you know what?
[00:04:00] I'm not sure about what these people believe yet or I don't I don't know about the whole
[00:04:04] story yet, but they seem like really wonderful people and I felt a warm welcome there and
[00:04:09] all right.
[00:04:10] Let's give it a shot.
[00:04:11] Let's see what happens.
[00:04:12] Yeah.
[00:04:13] So the goal with our first time guest is in some ways is not to convert them on the spot
[00:04:18] to be a Christian.
[00:04:19] It's to welcome them so well that they want to come back and hear some more and experience
[00:04:24] some more something of that.
[00:04:26] And in our weekly newsletter that goes out to our subscribers and by the way that reminds
[00:04:30] me if you have not subscribed to the weekly newsletter, you could do so on reclaim leader
[00:04:35] calm.
[00:04:36] You get podcast episode updates and everything but I was writing a blog post for it this
[00:04:40] last week and remembering this time when I was a college kid, I was brand new brand new
[00:04:46] Christian.
[00:04:47] I went back for my sophomore year of college and I was looking for a church and I was joking
[00:04:52] back then you didn't have the luxury of going online and seeing what the church was like
[00:04:55] right?
[00:04:56] I just had to show up and help for the best.
[00:05:00] And I remember I was, I mean the service was dreadful but at the end of the service
[00:05:06] I wanted to meet the pastor and because I figured if I made some relationships that's what
[00:05:11] I really needed some Christian community in that way.
[00:05:14] And the pastor, I have this awkward interaction with him and he's like are you a college
[00:05:21] student?
[00:05:22] And he goes why are you here?
[00:05:24] And it's like I don't know, it felt really awkward and then as we're talking he's looking
[00:05:31] past me to somebody else and he starts a conversation with them almost in like midhand shake.
[00:05:39] And I felt so small and so not seen.
[00:05:44] And I never went back to that church and you could say that that spiritually immature
[00:05:47] or whatever but it was because it took so much nerve for me to go in the first place
[00:05:50] and I wonder how many people are like that when they're showing up at our door?
[00:05:56] And how do we make sure we just do a better job of welcoming?
[00:06:00] And here's the kicker.
[00:06:01] I know I've done that to other people accidentally.
[00:06:04] And how do we make sure that doesn't happen?
[00:06:06] That's what the guest services team is formed out.
[00:06:10] The guest services is a phrase that we didn't even start using until maybe eight years
[00:06:19] ago.
[00:06:21] And the reason we made this switch, you know, a lot of churches are way ahead of us
[00:06:25] and especially our non-denominational friends, they have been talking this language for
[00:06:29] a couple decades.
[00:06:30] But for us, you know, traditional Presbyterian church in the Northeast, we had a few
[00:06:38] deacons who their responsibility was to sit behind like this large wooden, I don't
[00:06:46] know what you would call it.
[00:06:47] It wasn't really a desk.
[00:06:48] It was on wheels but they would stand behind it and that's where you'd receive your bulletin
[00:06:53] and if you also had a question about something they would, I guess, help you.
[00:06:59] And it was underwhelming and inconsistent.
[00:07:05] And if I showed up with my kids, for example, you know, the volunteer would usually say
[00:07:11] something like, okay, great.
[00:07:13] So Sunday school is down that way and our building and our whole thing is so confusing.
[00:07:19] So people were getting lost.
[00:07:22] We had two different services at the time in two different parts of the building and people
[00:07:25] were like rolling in late because they couldn't find, you know, it's just, it couldn't
[00:07:29] be worse.
[00:07:30] And then we very infamously, I've told the story a bunch of times when Bob White still
[00:07:35] came to our church and everyone thinks they're a welcoming church until a secret shopper
[00:07:40] comes along.
[00:07:41] Great.
[00:07:42] Great.
[00:07:43] Gotkinson last week.
[00:07:44] And, you know, nobody greeted him.
[00:07:46] You know, nobody engaged with him and we knew we needed to make a big change but we didn't
[00:07:51] really know where to start.
[00:07:53] And so we said, okay, we got to rehaul this whole welcome ministry thing.
[00:07:57] We got to start from scratch.
[00:08:00] So today's episode, I'm going to talk a bit about what we did and we're going to talk
[00:08:03] about if you're starting a guest services team from scratch.
[00:08:07] And if you already have a guest services team, I think this is a good reminder to what
[00:08:11] to pay attention to to make sure it's getting better and better especially right before
[00:08:15] Easter.
[00:08:16] Yeah.
[00:08:17] I agree with that.
[00:08:18] One of the challenges and maybe this is some people out there.
[00:08:20] One of the challenges that we faced in kind of recalibrating our welcome process was
[00:08:25] that we had an established one that was good in some respects but also kind of running
[00:08:32] counter to what we wanted to do in other respects kind of like the person behind the counter.
[00:08:36] Right?
[00:08:37] We had this big L-shaped bar that some people actually had to stand on a stool as volunteers
[00:08:42] to be able to really see over and then now we have this person like towering over a
[00:08:46] guest that came up to get information or it's like, what is happening?
[00:08:50] Hello there.
[00:08:51] Hello yeah, right.
[00:08:52] So when we recalibrated, we had to take that thing out and try to get our people to come
[00:08:58] alongside a guest rather than be sort of the banker behind the counter like the teller
[00:09:05] or something.
[00:09:06] It was going from that to really just being like, hey I'm shoulder to shoulder with you
[00:09:10] rather than in this over and above kind of way and people have been doing it that way
[00:09:15] for a long, long time so changing can be hard but man is it worth it and it actually feels
[00:09:20] really great for our people when they start to get this new way of being a welcoming presence
[00:09:25] dialed in.
[00:09:26] I'm looking forward to this Jason.
[00:09:27] I know you were going to learn a lot from what you all have learned and implemented there
[00:09:31] at Tower Hill.
[00:09:32] Yeah, a couple of things just before we get started.
[00:09:36] One is this didn't just happen all at once.
[00:09:39] This is true about everything in life of the church, right?
[00:09:42] It's a process and you get better and you make mistakes or you have some gaps and you
[00:09:47] just keep it front of mind enough to where you're constantly trying to get better.
[00:09:52] And so now I feel like we're in a place where we're doing a lot of things really well.
[00:09:56] A lot of things we can improve on too.
[00:09:58] And also to remember in the order of impressions that Greg Adkinson talked about in our last
[00:10:04] episode starts with social media, your mobile site, your church website and then your parking
[00:10:10] line or your physical campus.
[00:10:12] So just keep that in mind with all of this you're welcoming your guests long before they
[00:10:17] ever show up but let's just talk about what do you do when they show up?
[00:10:20] Right.
[00:10:21] Okay.
[00:10:22] Couple of things.
[00:10:24] The first thing is, I guess this would be 0.0 because this wasn't even on my five but
[00:10:31] I just thought about this as this is really important to address and that is make sure
[00:10:36] the places that people see in the building are clean.
[00:10:40] I know that's not that's not earth shattering but how often do we forget because we become
[00:10:47] sort of nose blind to the environment around us if we see them all the time.
[00:10:52] Like we go into the one room where people hang their coats or something and it's like
[00:10:57] half storage unit, half coat rack.
[00:11:00] That says something.
[00:11:01] It says it sends a message.
[00:11:03] It doesn't look great.
[00:11:05] It's not all that comforting and welcoming and we don't even see it anymore because we've
[00:11:09] seen it every day for 25 years or whatever but your kids areas are the toys do they look
[00:11:16] like they're from the Eisenhower administration?
[00:11:19] Like maybe that was the last time they got cleaned.
[00:11:22] Like is everything a bit dingy?
[00:11:27] There are things you can do that doesn't cost a lot of money just make sure that your
[00:11:31] spaces are clean especially looking for it to Easter because that sends a bigger message
[00:11:35] than you even know.
[00:11:36] Yeah.
[00:11:37] And a fresh coat of paint goes a long way.
[00:11:39] And I think that's really spot on is getting some eyes on your facility that are new or
[00:11:45] fresh because you don't even see stuff anymore.
[00:11:48] You just walk right past it because it's part of the environment.
[00:11:50] So I think that's really good.
[00:11:52] I think the key thing with that is people don't need fancy or brand spank and new but they
[00:11:58] need to have the sense that this is well cared for that people are here and it matters to
[00:12:02] them enough to care for those spaces and keep them clean.
[00:12:06] It communicates something of value so do it, keep it clean.
[00:12:10] I think that's spot on and if your building's mules musty get an air freshener.
[00:12:14] I don't know but I think in terms of what is that impression?
[00:12:17] That someone walks in that's so important.
[00:12:19] Well it's like if you had guests over at your home I'm your expecting guests to arrive
[00:12:23] you clean up the house.
[00:12:25] I remember my mother when we would have people over I'd be cleaning the closet in my bedroom
[00:12:29] and I think that was just an excuse to get me to clean the closet in my bedroom.
[00:12:33] But yeah, but you know the places that even they're not going to see because that's what
[00:12:38] you do.
[00:12:39] It's a way of practicing hospitality right?
[00:12:40] Exactly.
[00:12:41] We care enough about you to clean up our space before you come.
[00:12:44] Really it's because we don't want to look bad or something maybe but really it's a way
[00:12:47] to be polite.
[00:12:48] It's a way to be welcoming.
[00:12:50] So this actually leads to my first point.
[00:12:52] So you want to build a guest service team or hospitality with everyone to call I'm going
[00:12:56] to say guest services just because that's the language we use.
[00:12:59] But the first thing you need to realize like let's say you have no volunteer you got nothing
[00:13:03] right now.
[00:13:04] The first thing that I think is important to realize is anyone can be a greeter but not
[00:13:11] everyone can be a welcomeer.
[00:13:14] Here's what I mean, it's not just sticking warm bodies on the guest services team people
[00:13:20] who've just put their hand up like that's great.
[00:13:22] You definitely need some folks like that but you also need people who are gifted at hospitality.
[00:13:29] You know those people in your congregation the people that are just sort of magnetic.
[00:13:35] They tend to foster relationships with lots of different kinds of people when you talk
[00:13:39] about them in front of others they go, I love that.
[00:13:42] I love that guy.
[00:13:43] Oh, I love that lady.
[00:13:44] You know, I love.
[00:13:45] I love that they're great.
[00:13:46] They're the best right?
[00:13:48] People that are just good with people welcoming people you want as many of those on your
[00:13:53] guest services team as possible.
[00:13:56] Welcomers are the front line of your guest services team so they come in the building
[00:14:01] there are the ones saying hi trying to engage if they see you coming with kids they walk
[00:14:08] you to the Sunday school check in they explain what's going on.
[00:14:13] Again, they are they're the hosts that are really taking you from the entrance way into
[00:14:21] the sanctuary.
[00:14:24] So you need people that are gifted at that now what do you do with the warm bodies?
[00:14:27] Well, here's here's what you can have them do.
[00:14:29] You can have them making sure that the spaces are tidy making sure that the environment
[00:14:34] looks good on that morning.
[00:14:35] You can have them smile and hand out bulletins if you do bulletins.
[00:14:39] They don't need to particularly be the host right so they can do that.
[00:14:42] They can also help with a lot of behind the scenes prep.
[00:14:45] So I know in our church we have online connect cards and we also have physical connect
[00:14:51] cards and I think what I'll do in the show notes is I'll set a picture of ours in case
[00:14:56] anybody's looking to create a connect card and they can make sure they're they're stocked
[00:15:01] for that morning or they can make sure that they've collected the ones that were filled
[00:15:05] out and that they get to the right people or they get to the pastor.
[00:15:10] You get if you have any sort of congregational gift or maybe a resource that you are selling.
[00:15:18] So for example, this happens with us right now we're in a sermon series we're doing 24
[00:15:22] hours it changed the world based off Adam Hamilton's book of the same name and so we had copies
[00:15:27] of the book available for people to either take or give a suggestion to donation.
[00:15:32] So our guest services team made sure that there's copies stock there, you know within their
[00:15:37] budget.
[00:15:39] Make sure that the coffee and refreshments are out I mean again you can use somebody who's
[00:15:44] just willing to serve they don't have to be gift of hospitality but both of those different
[00:15:50] types of volunteers are great for your guest services team.
[00:15:55] Yeah, I think that's really spot on and there's something about a warm culture that you're
[00:16:00] trying to find.
[00:16:01] So as you're thinking about the welcome or type people are there certain types of personality
[00:16:05] traits or you said people that others kind of talk about and say hey I love that guy
[00:16:10] or I love that lady.
[00:16:12] What should we be looking for to distinguish between greater types and welcomeer types?
[00:16:17] So we kind of I don't know I can I can think of those people but are there some characteristics
[00:16:22] that come to mind.
[00:16:23] Well I think somebody that's that clearly is passionate about being around people.
[00:16:32] So they have lots of friendships in the church.
[00:16:34] That's a great sign right that's a that's a great sign that they have that hospitality
[00:16:40] gift like people are just sort of naturally attracted them they want to invite them to
[00:16:45] be part of their team you want you could probably make a list and just start thinking
[00:16:49] about who are those people in my congregation you could come up even if you're in a church
[00:16:53] and let's say you're where you have a very small worshiping community.
[00:16:57] You can think of one or two people maybe in that or maybe one or two that aren't regular
[00:17:02] tenders but they're tangentially associated with the church that you might say hey would
[00:17:06] you help us out for a season for a couple months for a few weeks right so there I think
[00:17:13] if you just think about who are people that are good with people and I always just say
[00:17:17] like who are the people that seem to know everybody those are often the people if you're
[00:17:20] Presbyterian those are often the people that you end up electing to your church nominating
[00:17:25] committee because they know a lot of people maybe that's a place to start are there people
[00:17:30] in that that like our are people people right just got a natural connector kind of people
[00:17:34] yeah yeah I can think of a few on our side people who just remember people's names and
[00:17:39] a little bit about their stories and are just kind of naturally talking about who we met
[00:17:43] and who was here and so if you heard someone that saying hey did you meet the new family
[00:17:47] blah blah blah blah whoever they were and that you go oh you're the kind of person that
[00:17:52] is thinking in terms of somebody was new and I welcomed them and I want to make sure that we
[00:17:56] follow up like they're not on your team man that's a great person to say hey would you be willing
[00:18:01] to help us out with that because it's so important yeah so I like it so keep in our eyes open
[00:18:06] and having a broad team that you know sometimes the welcomeer personality doesn't want to necessarily
[00:18:11] be doing that behind the scenes stuff because that maybe it's not their gifting so having some of those
[00:18:15] more um functionally motivated people or you know behind the scenes people is really important too
[00:18:21] and in most churches we have way more I keep saying warm bodies it's just that's yeah that's
[00:18:26] kind of derogatory yeah I mean yeah that's kind of that's not how I mean it I just mean like
[00:18:31] people who are willing to serve that maybe don't have the natural gift of hospitality but they want
[00:18:35] to serve right usually churches are way heavy on those sorts of volunteers more than than the
[00:18:42] welcomeer but I but here's a word of encouragement you really just need one you need one really good
[00:18:47] welcomeer and everybody else can kind of fill their roles behind the scenes and you start to create
[00:18:53] a really nice team so don't be discouraged that they're on a lot they're never a lot
[00:18:58] well that kind of leads you to your second point here that you have is that you know you might
[00:19:03] be thinking well Jason has a whole army of welcomeers there at Tower Hill or whatever and
[00:19:08] you know it must be the preaching or something like that that draws the men open time I don't know
[00:19:12] but you don't have to have an army of welcomeers you said it could just be one it could and when
[00:19:18] you're talking about guest services or your welcome team hospitality however you want to talk about
[00:19:22] that you said we should start with who we have yes start with who we have so um one of the things
[00:19:29] I always try to do when I'm initiating change is I try to think about are there some existing systems
[00:19:35] that this will plug into so that it's part of the existing system right it can we because I don't
[00:19:41] want it to just change tomorrow I want to change the entire year the entire I want it to be part
[00:19:47] of who we are what we do so you always have to think about change in terms as who's going to own this
[00:19:52] what how's it going to get funded where does it belong where are we going to find
[00:19:57] the people to do the work of this ministry area so I think about who are the people that you
[00:20:01] already have again Presbyterian world we have two different kinds of of officers typically
[00:20:08] our teams we have decons and we have elders and then you have staff if you're church that's multi-staff
[00:20:15] maybe your solo pastor um but whatever that looks like for you start there because if you could build
[00:20:24] again into your decon team or into your elder team a couple of people that are good at this
[00:20:30] and or to create a sub team of decons and elders then you start giving it a chance
[00:20:35] to keep going year after year that is not just dependent on one really good welcome nerds
[00:20:41] you have a system in place or dependent on you somehow I think is yeah by giving that away and
[00:20:47] delegating that authority and letting people run with it um so start with who you have and
[00:20:52] and you might be surprised if you start looking around and thinking in terms of uh welcome or
[00:20:56] personality there's probably somebody that's going to come to to the front of your mind and
[00:21:02] I would encourage you rescounding a conversation with them about what that could look like
[00:21:06] and you may find that a people oriented person will take it and run with it further than
[00:21:11] you would have anyway because that's what lights them up so I like that so uh anyone can greet
[00:21:17] not everyone can welcome so we need to know that distinction and then start with who you have
[00:21:22] and work from there and just start somewhere start with what you have available and move there
[00:21:28] so that you can eventually have an army of welcomeers like Jason does and uh uh but you got to
[00:21:33] start small and sometimes that actually helps because then it's not unwieldy where we have a kind
[00:21:39] of a group that we can shape and form and and kind of get things right and dialed in and then um
[00:21:45] yeah go ahead if you're gonna know yeah no I was gonna say as long as your intentional
[00:21:49] it will improve yeah do what you can it's not an all or nothing thing it's not like oh we have this
[00:21:55] massive robust team or we have nothing it truly is you can you can build it as you go as if
[00:22:01] you're being intentional it is gonna improve bit by bit and you'll be amazed at what a big improvement
[00:22:06] it is once once it really starts to to get going even just if you have a very small small team if
[00:22:12] you uh by small I mean you have two or three people if you can get this going with two or three
[00:22:18] people I promise you it's going to make a big difference yeah well and I think it kind of hinges
[00:22:23] a little bit on your third point here which is recruit and train yeah I think the training part
[00:22:29] is where that that's what gets lost for us most quickly most often is we have we have
[00:22:34] we have people that are welcoming and doing their thing and doing the hospitality stuff and
[00:22:39] all that but we uh if we don't build it in a consistent predictable training system then it kind
[00:22:47] of just it kind of degrades over time or uh kind of drifts over time and so let's talk about
[00:22:53] recruiting and training as we're thinking okay start with what you have but then build from there
[00:22:58] and you said it is going to get better but you have to do it on purpose it takes intentionality
[00:23:03] yeah but it's also not going to happen if if you don't know what to teach them or if you don't know
[00:23:09] how to train like we I mean you and I of course we don't need any training we're just constantly
[00:23:17] you know on top of it you kidding me we talk about it every week and we still need to get trained
[00:23:21] right it's you can't over communicate the training especially to volunteers so
[00:23:28] we make sure that at least a couple times a year we put it out to the congregation about wanting
[00:23:34] to continue because people's you know lives change and now they can't serve on the guest services team
[00:23:39] and we're always needing to sort of repopulate this team and um and the way that that we talk about
[00:23:46] it is is this is a critical part of our ministry and if you feel you know if you love to welcome
[00:23:53] people and love to be a part of that we want to have you part of this team now let's say we get
[00:23:57] a couple new members then we do a training and we we have some videos that we watch one way
[00:24:03] that you could do is you're like well you know I don't have videos we made a funny video basically
[00:24:07] with our staff about bad guest services and we had a lot of fun with that it's super cheesy and not
[00:24:13] high quality but uh and i'm not ready to share it with the world but it's our little in-house way of
[00:24:19] talking about and guest services training but you can have your team read secrets of a secret
[00:24:27] shopper that great at getting some book which by the way remember you can win if you are a subscriber
[00:24:32] subscribe again to that newsletter you get we're gonna choose a winner we're gonna choose a
[00:24:36] he's gonna win uh the hospitality book as well so but have them read that book and do we always
[00:24:43] say do the Dan Rylan thing we got this Dan Rylan that's read one chapter ask three questions
[00:24:49] and have a conversation around it for a couple of weeks until you go through the book together
[00:24:52] well that's perfect that would get it done that is enough if you want more on that there's lots of
[00:24:59] races or resources out there i love inside north point north point community church they have really
[00:25:05] just for church leaders to unpack what north point does and they have a great some great systems outline
[00:25:12] for guest services so does 12 stone church with this which is Dan Rylan's church they have a bunch
[00:25:17] of free resources on their websites that talk about what they do and guess so no you're not going
[00:25:22] to be able to do what they do but you can take a lot of the philosophy of what they do and apply it
[00:25:28] to your context concepts and adapt them for your purpose i'm makes me so grateful for churches like
[00:25:33] that now they're just say hey take it if you can use it awesome do do a good job with it that's so
[00:25:38] cool but the training doesn't have to be crazy right it's literally go through a book together talk
[00:25:43] about it talk about the things that that you value what are the top three things you want to make
[00:25:48] sure you do right yeah i think it's spot on so just getting it out in front that it matters
[00:25:52] enough for us to to train you we're not going to get crazy about it either so it's this like
[00:25:57] rigid legalistic system of welcome and you know here's the 15 steps to you know success or i mean
[00:26:02] like we want to do it in a life giving way but we need some some eyes for it and we need to
[00:26:07] understand it and what do we mean and uh we are just kind of revisiting some of our emergency
[00:26:12] preparedness procedures and yeah or do our welcomeers greeters uh various volunteers on a Sunday
[00:26:18] do they know have they been trained you know so just kind of touching with people actually
[00:26:23] communicates we value what you're doing enough to to help you get better at it or at least to be
[00:26:28] aware of the best practices around it yeah all right number four and this is partially to do with
[00:26:34] kind of the same philosophy is like start with what you have but about the importance of systems
[00:26:39] and that is give guest services its own meaningful budget right don't be like here's 25 bucks let's see
[00:26:48] what we can do right well we all have our own definition of meaningful Jason and $25 sounds like
[00:26:54] you could do a lot with $25 you could but no meaningful and like you always know a church is
[00:27:00] priority based on what they're spending their money on yeah and and this really deserves to be
[00:27:05] elevated to a thing that should be part of your evangelism or your outreach budget budget
[00:27:11] something that you would use now what would you use a guest services budget for maybe you want
[00:27:17] to get special food every once in a while you know everybody's got like a coffee budget can you
[00:27:21] add a little more and do something special like in the fall we like to do cider donuts and we actually
[00:27:26] get them half donated from a place and then you know we pay for the other half not all comes out of
[00:27:32] guest services budget or or if there's a giveaway sometimes we'll do like in Advent we'll order
[00:27:39] those outreach calm devotionals and we'll give them away to worshipers in the church and you know
[00:27:45] again like the sermon series we're doing now we give some copies away that's all from the guest
[00:27:50] services budget so some churches they like to do a gift or like a welcome gift for first time
[00:27:58] guests we don't we don't do that not because we don't believe in it I just think we didn't have
[00:28:02] the money for it. So coffee mugs yeah yeah yeah I don't know do you guys have trucker hats at Tower Hill
[00:28:10] we that really you need a truck tower here a trucker hat to give away I think we probably do
[00:28:15] anyway but things that just say hey we're glad you're here here's a little something that just says
[00:28:20] you know it matter to us that you came you know I don't know it's not for every church but
[00:28:24] there's just something that communicates some value there right yeah all right and then
[00:28:31] last but certainly not least develop a first time guest process yeah with accountability
[00:28:39] and what I mean is develop that process and right next to each step of the process put who
[00:28:44] is gonna own this and at first it may be the same person owning it all but at least you know who's
[00:28:51] accountable to make sure these things happen let me give you an example so let's say
[00:28:56] uh our first time guest process goal is that every guest is individually engaged and invited
[00:29:03] to a next step whatever that looks like come back again uh join us for the Christmas concert
[00:29:11] whatever it is right maybe that's our goal so what are the what are the steps to reaching that
[00:29:16] call first is how do we make sure everyone's warmly but not overly welcomed we talked a little
[00:29:23] about that last week warmly but not overly welcome what does that look like let's let's put some
[00:29:29] details around that and then who's gonna kind of make sure that they're talking to the team and
[00:29:34] make sure the team's doing it um how do we make sure that they're properly led to wherever else
[00:29:40] they need to go in the building even as just they need to find the bathroom how do we make sure that
[00:29:45] everything is nice and easy and this includes signage making sure our signage is clear okay well who's
[00:29:51] gonna own that step who's gonna make sure that we have signage that's up to date and easy to find right
[00:29:59] um we want to make sure that we offer to help with follow-up after service whatever that means
[00:30:05] within one week are we gonna follow up with an email we're gonna follow up you know what
[00:30:09] what are we gonna do and who's gonna own that who's gonna make sure that they process the connect
[00:30:15] cards and make sure that gets out to everybody right so so you're just develop a process your
[00:30:20] process can be whatever the heck you want it to be but write it down figure out what do we want to
[00:30:25] do and then who's gonna own each step yeah i think that's really important so it could be unique to
[00:30:31] each of our settings what works best uh in the northwest people don't there there's a sensitivity
[00:30:38] to like a connect card being forced down your throat the first day you show up so yeah we kind
[00:30:42] of create a layer of an anemone and we say if you just need to be here for a little bit and
[00:30:47] and sit in the back and check things out that's totally cool but when you're ready we're ready
[00:30:52] and so you let us know you fill out this connection card and then somebody will follow up with you
[00:30:56] with more information get you plugged into our email and communication streams so but when that happens
[00:31:01] we better be ready to do what we said we were gonna do right so then what's your process from there
[00:31:06] and i found more than anything else if you can commission a couple of people and you're welcoming
[00:31:13] that are those welcoming oriented people to say if you remember someone's name
[00:31:17] and use it the next time they show up i don't know what the stats are but i think it probably has a
[00:31:23] high level of predictability about their feeling like this could be a place for me so that's one of our
[00:31:28] things is we try to remember the names of those who came and use them again the next time you see
[00:31:35] them stuff like that so um i think those are just those little touch points that are gonna add up
[00:31:40] over time and really what we're talking about Jason i think in in this whole gist services thing
[00:31:45] is not only creating a warm welcoming environment where people are gonna hear the gospel and
[00:31:48] hopefully god's gonna work through that to draw them closer to himself or to lead them into
[00:31:53] a relationship with the christ for the first time but we're also uh gonna be building
[00:31:58] some growth over time if we can welcome a guest in such a way that they become a part of the church
[00:32:04] and we go from one in ten guests sticking around our church and we go to something even like two out
[00:32:10] of ten or maybe higher three out of ten sticking around we're gonna actually begin to see some
[00:32:15] growth out of that and i don't want to get too crazy you can do the math on all that stuff
[00:32:20] on retention rates and what's you know what's your loss rate and retention rates so that you grow
[00:32:24] over time and we can do some of those things but if you are doing a good job of welcoming more people
[00:32:30] are gonna stick around and that's gonna lead to good things for your church so um i think the stuff
[00:32:35] is spot on yeah and then um yeah we get too far into it but don't forget to acknowledge your guests
[00:32:43] when during the worship service like think intentionally about how are you even designing your
[00:32:49] worship in a way that has them in mind or how are you introducing yourself one of the things that i do
[00:32:53] pretty often is say hey and if we haven't met yet my name's just as service pastor here i'm
[00:32:57] just really glad you're here i hope we get a chance to connect sometime soon and just go on from
[00:33:02] there it doesn't have to be this big dramatic thing but by acknowledging that there are probably
[00:33:06] people in the room that are new or guests or that you haven't met yet they go oh this is a place
[00:33:12] that expects people like me to be here and they're glad that i'm here something like that so yeah
[00:33:17] this is really good stuff Jason five steps to crushing it on the guest services front
[00:33:21] that's it yeah boom so uh anyway thanks everyone for listening i hope this is helpful for you
[00:33:27] especially as we are racing toward Easter if you're listening in real time we have holy week coming
[00:33:33] up next week and in our episode next week we're going to just do a kind of a quick checklist before Easter
[00:33:40] so make sure you tune into that and then looking forward to April we're going to be talking leadership
[00:33:46] all month and uh we hit we're gonna have a guest on and we're excited about that so yeah good stuff
[00:33:52] coming up and as always thanks for being a part of the reclaimed leader community and as always we are
[00:34:00] we are rooting for you we're praying for you we're rooting for us and praying for us as we prepare
[00:34:05] for holy week and what hopefully is a transformational experience for everybody that is touched
[00:34:13] by our churches so anyway thanks for listening as we always say ministry is hard it is so much better
[00:34:20] when we do it together