3. Be ready for people.
You want to make a good impression on guests every week, but it’s particularly important at Christmas. You can’t control how many guests you’ll get for special days, but you can control how well you prepare for them.
Get greeters ready to say hello and provide a warm welcome as people arrive. Set up information tables with campus maps and basic information about the church. Make it easy to find parking, restrooms and childcare.
Part of being a good host means thinking through the questions and concerns guests may have. Ask someone who doesn’t currently attend your church to take a walkthrough of your campus and offer questions or feedback.
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4. Offer something for children.
Think through what kind of experience you can offer children. It doesn’t matter what parents think about the service if the kids have a lousy time.
Be prepared for additional children during Christmas. You don’t want to overtax your current children’s ministry volunteers, so add extra workers and think about any changes that may make it easier to handle more kids at one time.
5. Follow up with your guests.
Have emails ready to send out Monday morning welcoming guests who gave you their contact info. Invite people to your next sermon series and tell them how to find a small group. The email is also a great place to include any follow-up information from your Christmas service (maybe specific contact information for ministries you mentioned).
If you have a large crowd on Christmas, that’s great. But it’s not the end of the story. It’s really the beginning. How we follow up with guests makes a big difference in whether they’ll come back and eventually get more involved in our congregations.
This article on church growth strategies at Christmas originally appeared at Pastors.com
