Taking the First Steps in Transforming Your Church's Welcome
Nearly every congregation believes it is welcoming. And many are, at least for the people who already know everyone. The harder question is whether a stranger walking through the door on a Sunday morning would say the same thing.
The good news is that you don't need a new program, a large budget, or a long planning process to find out. You need a small team, a little honesty, and a willingness to see your church through someone else's eyes. Here are some simple first steps.
Start with a small team
The Getting Started page at Invite Welcome Connect recommends gathering a team of clergy and lay leaders to work through the three essentials together. In a small congregation, three to six people is plenty. What matters is that the team is prayerful, has the support of your clergy and vestry, and knows who is leading it.
Before you begin, take a few minutes with the short Are You Ready? video on the Getting Started page and the companion Questions to Answer document. Working through those questions up front will save you from misunderstandings later.
Why welcome is a good place to start
Our recent research study, A Season of Listening, found that hospitality is the strongest of the three practices. About 35 percent of respondents call their community "very effective" at it, and another 52 percent say "somewhat effective." Most congregations are not starting from zero.
But the listening sessions also revealed a gap. Congregations are warm at the door and often struggle after it. One participant observed that the first Sunday goes well, while the second and third are harder. Respondents asked for help with follow-up and relationship-building (401 responses) far more often than for greeter and welcome ministries (239 responses).
In other words, the work is not only the handshake at the door. It is everything a guest experiences from the moment they look you up online to the moment they hear from you the following week. The two steps below help your team see all of it.
Step one: Take the assessment together
The Assessment Tools page offers a way to begin. Its guiding words are "Listen. Reflect. Discern. Grow." These tools are meant for discernment, not for scoring or grading your church. They help you notice what is flourishing, name where growth is needed, and plan your next steps. There are options to fit your setting:
• The Comprehensive Congregational Assessment (PDF) is a printable resource for prayerful conversation among vestries and leadership teams
• The Comprehensive Congregational Assessment (Online Forms) is a set of Google Forms, adapted with Canon Jenni Faires of the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia, for gathering input from many people at once
• The Small Congregation Assessments (Online Forms) are shorter Google Forms for Invite, Welcome, and Connect, also adapted with Canon Faires
For the online versions, you copy a form into your own Google account, customize it if you wish, and share it. Responses are collected automatically, and the results appear in an easy-to-read format that keeps your discussion focused.
One suggestion: Ask each team member to complete the Welcome assessment on their own before you meet. Then compare notes. The places where thoughtful, loving people see the same church differently are often the most revealing.
Step two: Experience a visit as a guest
Our training reminds us that research suggests guests know within the first five minutes whether they will return. Yet long-standing members rarely see what a newcomer sees. We have walked past the same worn sign, the same confusing hallway, and the same unlabeled door for years.
That is why the second step is to have your team deliberately experience a visit the way a guest would. Your Church Welcome Audit, written by Invite Welcome Connect Founder Mary Foster Parmer and adapted from Holy Apostles, Katy, is a "highly informal, but still probably useful" checklist for doing exactly that. It begins by asking your team to brainstorm who your guests are likely to be and what they may be thinking as they arrive. Then your team moves through two parts.
Move like a guest. Walk the path a first-time visitor would take, one stage at a time:
• Outside: Is the church easy to find, is parking clear, and is the exterior clean and inviting?
• The front door: Does someone open the door, offer help, and point the way?
• Inside: Can you find restrooms, children's areas, and the worship space without asking, and without decoding words like "narthex"?
• The worship space: Can you tell when to sit, stand, or kneel, and is communion explained?
• On the way out: Did anyone notice you, and did you hear from the church afterward?
Hear like a guest. On a Sunday, listen as a newcomer would. Is the conversation in the hallway friendly and open, or insider talk? Is the sermon free of jargon? Do children have a positive experience? Do you learn about a next step? And finally, the question the audit saves for the drive home: Would a guest be glad enough to bring their family back?
Don't forget your digital front door. Have someone pull up your website on a phone and try to find your address, your service times, and what to expect on a first visit. For many newcomers, that is the first impression.
Finally, follow the path beyond Sunday. One Invite Welcome Connect trainer describes having every vestry member go through the church's newcomer process as if they were new: filling out a visitor card, then receiving the follow-up call, letter, and invitation. It was simple, a little humbling, and it showed exactly where the system needed work.
Turn what you notice into two goals
You will almost certainly leave with a long list. Resist the urge to fix everything at once. Take excellent notes, sort what you found, and choose two goals for the next six months:
• Quick fixes you can make this month, such as a clearer sign, a visitor card and pen in every pew, or a welcome gift
• Changes that need the vestry, such as signage, parking, or building improvements, with costs researched first
• Habits to build over time, such as consistent greeters and follow-up within a day or two
Small, intentional changes can make a surprising difference.
Where to go from here
The Getting Started page gathers these resources in one place, along with the Invite Welcome Connect book by Mary Foster Parmer, available from Forward Movement. If your team would like to learn alongside others, the group study guide offers a seven-week format that works well for two or three congregations together.
Transforming your welcome does not begin with a big initiative. It begins when a few faithful people decide to look honestly, and lovingly, at what a guest would find. We hope you will take that first step, and we would be glad to walk with you.
Resources
• Getting Started page—guidance on forming a team and beginning the work of Invite Welcome Connect
• Are You Ready? video—a short introduction to watch before your team begins
• Questions to Answer—the companion document to the Are You Ready? video
• A Season of Listening—our research study on the practices of invitation, welcome, and connection
• Assessment Tools page—the Comprehensive Congregational Assessment (PDF and online forms) and the Small Congregation Assessments
• Your Church Welcome Audit—a checklist for experiencing a visit as a guest
• Welcome Checklist—a companion for choosing where to begin
• Invite Welcome Connect—the book by Mary Foster Parmer, available from Forward Movement
• Group study guide—a seven-week format for learning alongside other congregations
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