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What to Say to Greet Church Visitors
By EvangelismCoach | August 1, 2009
People often tell me
Greeting church visitors is every one’s responsibility.
However, it doesn’t always get done.
So many churches have organized greeting teams to serve a few weeks in a row. (For more free information, visit www.ChurchGreeterTraining.com)
New Church Greeters are Nervous
Some times people who are recruited as greeters may not be sure exactly
- what to say while at the door or
- how to give a greeting.
For them, it can be a little embarrassing to say “I don’t know how to do this.”
A friend of mine was asked Saturday night, at 7pm to serve as a front door greeter at the 9am service the next day. She had never served as a church greeter before.
Hear her words:
- I didn’t want to say no, I wanted to serve.
- I instantly felt nervous — would I mess up?
- Would I embarrass myself, or my church, or the church visitor?
- I couldn’t rest well that night, because I was nervous and wanted to do a good job.
- I thought: What would I say to the group of 200 people walking in through this door?
What do I say to people coming into the church?
Thus, in the privacy of their own home, these new church greeters search the Internet for
- “How to say a welcome to a church visitor”
- “Welcome Scripts for Church Guests”
- “Greetings to 1st time visitors at church”
- “A word of welcome for church visitors”
- “Welcome church visitors speech”
- “Words of welcome to/for church visitors”
- “What to say to welcome visitors in a church”
- “How to say a welcome to visitors at church”
- “Tips on welcoming First timers in Church”
This list above comes from my search logs just in the past 3 days.
So let me share some possible starting scripts that you can use yourself, or develop more fully into a resource you can use at your church.
HINT: If you are a church greeting coordinator, perhaps you might want to consider giving a script to your new greeters. Once people say something a few times, they might feel the liberty to relax and put their own flavor to it.
You can give your new greeter permission to mess up. Consider these as guidance to offer them.
Encourage the church greeters to pray before serving, asking God for wisdom at the moment.
Greeting Church Visitors at Entrances:
Use a few different ones — the same phrase spoken every weekend by every person is insincere.
Sample one line greetings for parking lot or entry greeters or for your members to say in a hallway:
Welcome to [church name] this morning!
God bless you.
We’re glad you are here this morning.
Good morning and welcome to our church
I’ve not met you yet! Welcome.
I don’t believe I’ve met you yet. Have I?
Greeting Church Visitors from the Front.
During the worship service, the leader can say something like the following to welcome visitors.
We are glad that you are here with us this morning.
If this is your first or second Sunday with us, we are grateful that you have come to be with us this morning. It is our hope that you experience the love of Christ this morning and His presence during our worship.
If your church does the passing of the peace handshake ritual, the worship leader can go on to say this to help the church greet visitors (See #5 in this list of 10 practices to welcome church visitors).
Get up, turn and greet someone that you’ve not met yet. Shake their hand, introduce yourself, and take a few moments to welcome them to God’s house.
Greeting Church Visitors After the Worship Service
During the fellowship reception time after the service, church members can be encouraged to look out for and intentionally greet people they haven’t met.
I have find it helpful to break the ice and initiate the conversation by saying:
“I’ve not met you yet. I’m Chris.”
With that, I offer my hand to shake and I continue with a conversation.
What now?
Learn more information about welcoming and first impressions ministry. Buy and download How To Welcome Church Visitors
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