An overwhelming majority of all new visitors to your church will make up their mind whether or not they will come back to your church within 10 minutes of their arrival. This is a scary statistic since, in just 10 minutes, a brand-new visitor barely has time to see your parking lot, your greeters, and your kid’s ministry check-in. In my experience, the kid’s ministry check-in — especially for brand new visitors — is often a sorely neglected area.
Your children’s ministry check-in can be the BEST place in the whole church to get follow-up information on new visitors. Why? Because in our modern age of hacking, identity theft, and over-solicitation, many new visitors will not completely fill in the visitor cards that you have in the sanctuary or in your church bulletin. But when it comes to our
children, most parents will complete the check-in information clearly and completely. Below are some of the best ideas I have seen for welcoming visitors.
Update your parking and the outside of your building.
It can be smart to have an “outsider” take a look at this, since after a year or two, you and your church regulars will begin to overlook certain things, such as peeling paint, weeds in the parking lot, or a severe lack of parking. Remember that your parking team (if applicable), your parking situation, the outside of your building, and your greeter team will be the very first impressions that your new visitors get.
Have a separate new family check-in.
I do not suggest having new families figure out on their own what line to wait in, and how the check-in system works. A better idea is to have a well-marked, bright and friendly “New Guest Check-in” booth. I highly suggest having your most smiley, outgoing people here to help each new family go through check-in step by step. This should include
explaining weekly check-in/check-out procedures, including how the parent will be contacted in the unlikely event of an emergency. It is also vital to gather any relevant medical information such as allergies, diabetes, seizures, etc. Make sure your check-in forms do not just say “mom and dad.” More and more kids are being brought to church by grandparents or foster parents now, so I suggest using “parent, grandparent or guardian.”
Streamline your check-in process.
The longer a family must wait in line to check their child in, the less likely they will be to come back. How can you make your weekly child check-in a little faster and more efficient, while at the same time keeping everyone safe? Can you open another kiosk? Can you use self-check-in kiosks for your regulars? Please do not hand parents a massive booklet of policies and procedures! They will not read it. I recommend putting your welcome, positive discipline policy, and simplified procedures on one page, including it in your welcome packet.
Provide welcome gifts.
Many churches offer a “welcome packet” to new families. These can include a mug or pen with your church’s logo, website, service times, and more. The reason I like the mug/pen idea is that people may use these items daily and be reminded of their experience at your church. Remember that the goal is for them to come back. So, another great idea is to include a gift card for your own church’s cafe or bookstore (if you have one) and a flyer for an upcoming event you would like them to know about. (These must be kept current!) Try to include a brochure of ALL the ministries that your church offers. What is available for the parents to attend? What ministries could their teenage child be a part of? Is there ministry for 60’s +? Singles? Foster and adoptive parents?
Establish a Buddy System.
This ended up being one of the best ideas we ever implemented. The Buddy Team is a group of 5th and 6th graders that pair up one-on-one with visitor children and/or children with special needs. This “Buddy” stays alongside their assigned child for the entire service, sitting beside them, helping them with the songs/actions, answering questions, and guiding them where they need to go. We found that our 5th and 6th graders were exceptionally good at this. I believe it has made many of them more caring, compassionate, and outreach minded. Visiting children (and their parents) seem to feel more confident when they have a “guide” for the service, and they are not alone. We have special t-shirts for every member of the Buddy Team, and they meet before services for short trainings, story sharing, and prayer.
Follow up!
This is the area where many churches drop the ball. We may actually get accurate contact information for visiting families, but then fail to make any follow-up contact with the family. Most of the time, this happens because no one is specifically assigned to contact the family personally. Whenever it is assumed, “someone will do it,” you can bet “no one will do it.” Each new family should be specifically assigned to one or two people for follow-up. And that contact needs to be made within the first week after the family has visited. I suggest a welcome letter from the church as well as a personal call or email from one of the staff. It is crucial for the church to implement some accountability to make sure
that every new guest is being followed up on.
How can your church do better at welcoming new families to your church? I think we can all agree that the goal here is retention. You succeeded in having new people attend your church. Great job! Now, how can you encourage them to come back?
You can access this entire magazine for free here: Edition 43
