She came into my office that afternoon and shared with me about her visit to my church.  I had only been there about 2 weeks (1 Sunday) but it did not matter.  It was my responsibility now.  She was from the local small town paper and wanted to do a short interview of the new minister.  I  told her I had been there all that long so my information about the church was limited.  She told it did not matter, she knew all about the church but she knew nothing about me.

After the very short interview, which was fine by me, I asked Susan if she had ever visited our church.  She told me she had but probably would not be back.  I proceeded to ask her to please tell me her first impressions and don’t use names, I probably did not know them anyway.  After a long conversation about church, the bottom line was that our church was not friendly to outsiders.

As I worked the next few months I used my conversation with Susan to push me to work with the church to change the “outside” perspective on our church.  The bottom line was we were friendly to ourselves; people we knew and saw each week, but not to our guests.  It was funny in a way because as I worked through Sunday School classes and the current Greeter Ministry, they wanted to know WHO were they not friendly to and which Sunday.

Your Greeter Ministry, and a greeter for each Sunday School or Small Group, need yearly refreshers at least to remind them that each each Sunday is important.  That meeting might be used for recruitment, assigning places for people to be, budget review (you WILL need a budget for Greeter Ministry) or to say thank you to the current Greeters.  Ushers/Greeters are a must for any size church.

• The ushers/greeters help people find their way around the building
• They should assist to help people find seating if needed
• They should make sure everyone who walks on campus goes home with some sort of bullettition/ promo piece, advertisement.  Anything to take home by way of information / that has phone numbers / website on it
• Ushers/greeters should be clearly marked with identification.  Don’t hide your greeters.  Use name tags, lanyards, shirts, anything that will identify them.
• They need to be in place 20 -30 minutes before each service and about 5- 10 min following.  People might have questions about when they can come back etc.
• Some churches might need some sort of communication with a Welcome Center to make sure people find their way to the worship center or to a classroom

We need to be on the lookout for people who are our guests.  We want them to feel welcome and know God cares for them and so do we.