Room at the Inn: Welcoming Visitors This Advent and Christmas
Advent and Christmas are the busiest, most beautiful, and most visitor-filled weeks in the life of the church. They are also our best opportunity to answer the question those visitors are quietly asking: Is there room for me?
“…because there was no place for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:7)
The first Christmas begins with a family of strangers looking for a place to stay, and a town too busy to make room. Every year, people we have never met walk through the doors of our churches in much the same condition: tired, hopeful, a little unsure, and wondering whether there is a place for them here.
They are relatives home for the holidays. They are neighbors who have not been to church in years. They are people who have watched your livestream for months and finally worked up the courage to come in person. And they are people for whom the holidays are the loneliest time of the year.
Advent and Christmas are the busiest, most beautiful, and most visitor-filled weeks in the life of the church. They are also our best opportunity to answer the question those visitors are quietly asking: Is there room for me?
The First Five Minutes
In the Invite Welcome Connect On Demand training, we share research suggesting that guests know within the first five minutes whether they will come back. Five minutes. That is the parking lot, the door, the first face they see, and the first words spoken to them.
Christmas Eve is a lot to ask of five minutes. The crowd is larger, the schedule is tighter, and our regulars are happy to see one another. That is exactly why we need to plan ahead. If we leave welcome to chance, we will greet our friends and miss our guests.
Start Before They Arrive
For many visitors, the welcome begins on your website and social media long before they reach your door. Take a fresh look through their eyes:
Update your service times and holiday schedule everywhere they appear, including your website, Google listing, and the sign out front.
Answer the questions first-time guests are afraid to ask: What time should I arrive? Where do I park? What should I wear? What do you offer for children? A “Plan Your Visit” page can do all of this.
Hand out invitation cards in early Advent so members have something to give a neighbor or coworker.
Ask your congregation to pause during announcements, to think of one person they know, and text that person an invitation on the spot.
Look at who is lonely in your community. Blue Christmas (sometimes called “Longest Night”) services offer care to people who struggle at the holidays.
Make the Threshold Holy
The Rev. Daniel Simon, formerly of Trinity Church Wall Street, put it this way: “Because you are standing at the threshold and are the first person to speak to people when they enter, you hold a huge amount of spiritual power.” Greeters and ushers are not logistics. They are ambassadors. (We wrote more about this in The Sacred Threshold: Why Greeting Is the Heart of Welcome.)
Train your greeters and ushers before Advent begins, and recruit extras for Christmas Eve. Remind them to look for the person standing alone.
Staff a welcome table where guests can ask a question, receive a small gift, and fill out a simple information card.
Wear name tags, and make sure the clergy do too. A guest cannot call you by name if they cannot read it.
Mark the way with clear signs: which door to use, where the restrooms are, where to find the nursery. Skip the jargon. Few visitors know what a narthex is.
Make the service easy to follow. Many churches print the full service, project it on a screen, or provide a QR code. Work with your priest to help make the service accessible.
Welcome the Whole Family
Christmas Eve brings children, and children bring noise. One congregation that began intentionally welcoming young families discovered its own roadblock: The vestry half-seriously considered adding a pledge card asking members not to glare at anyone under eighteen. They never did it, but the conversation helped. Decide now, as a congregation, that children are a gift, not a disruption.
Offer activity bags at the door.
Set aside a quiet corner with a soft rug and a few toys for the youngest children.
Invite children to serve as junior ushers or to help with the pageant.
Don’t Forget Those Online
If you livestream your services, your online congregation is real community. Assign a digital greeter to welcome people in the chat, and look into the camera and say that you are glad they are here. Include a link where they can tell you who they are. Many of your newest members may already feel connected to you before they arrive.
Follow Up Before the Tree Comes Down
A welcome is only as good as what happens next. Mary Foster Parmer, in her book Invite Welcome Connect: Stories & Tools to Transform Your Church, tells of visiting a church as a mystery guest. She looked for a visitor card in the pew and found a half-torn pledge card, a dirty tissue, and an Easter lily order form. Nobody had seen a visitor card in the pews in two or three years. Check your pews before Christmas Eve.
Collect contact information through a connect card, an online form, or a welcome table, and then use it.
Reach out within a day or two. A handwritten note or phone call from the clergy is especially appreciated, and a text works too.
Invite guests to a next step in January, such as a newcomer dinner, a Bible study, or an Epiphany gathering.
Keep track of who was contacted so no one slips through the cracks.
Remember that attendance alone is not connection. A person has to be invited back.
Set Out More Cups
One rector shared a simple story from his congregation. Coffee hour was thinly attended, and then someone noticed that they put out only twenty ceramic cups for a congregation of a hundred. If you were slow getting to the coffee, there was no cup for you. So they bought 150 cups and set out more than they needed, as a message of invitation. More people stayed. Soon they were brewing more pots of coffee.
Small things can say “there is room.” An extra row of chairs on Christmas Eve. A reserved parking space near the door for visitors. An extra cup at the table.
This Advent, our prayer is that no one who comes to our doors will find there is no place for them. If your team would like help preparing, our On Demand training is ready to walk alongside you. (If you’re in one of these congregations you already have access.) And you can always find more ideas on our news page.
Make room. Look up from the crowd. See the stranger. Christ may be coming to your church this Advent in the face of someone you haven’t met yet.
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