Guest Services

First Impressions Church Resources and Where to Get Them

One of the best parts of my #tourdechurches trip was that I got a slew of resources from other churches, learned how they do guest services, guest relations, hospitality, and of course manage and train their volunteers!

At least once, if not two or three times throughout the month I get contacted by another church looking for resources, trainings, and simply wanting to talk and learn from each other. My favorite part is that they are all sizes, shapes, and colors. Everyone is looking to collaborate and learn, it is a beautiful picture of how God will grow and move His church. I love that my job allows me the chance to get to network with these other churches, to learn from them, and share what I have learned.

One of the biggest things I have realized as I learn more about what I do: there is a severe lack of information about First Impressions for churches. – Even if you expand your search to guest services, guest relations, hospitality etc.. there is very little (compared to pastoring, leadership, discipleship, worship, prayer, and kids/youth ministries etc..) that can serve as a resource or training. Most of what you find are basic “tips” buzzfeed style. So, because of the lack of information, I have begun to compile information to share with you.. The best part, most of it is FREE! Boom. Winning.

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Materials for guests and volunteers at Elevation Church

Lots of churches have created their own materials and resources, but there’s little out there for assistance to learn and grow from other churches like other ministry areas.

My goal is to create a place and begin networking to find information, to learn, and share. Some of this will be excellent and others mediocre.. The helpfulness of the resources will depend on your needs and church culture most likely.

I am hugely passionate about First Impressions and the Church; it matters to me a lot. I love when I get to train my own leaders and volunteers, or when I get to spend time with other churches doing the same thing. #Sameteam

I want to become a resource for people trying to learn how to reach others from different cultures, beliefs, backgrounds better. Understanding where they are coming from so you know how to engage with them, make them feel loved and cared for is hugely important. Paul was so great at this!

When I went on my Tour de Churches (You can read a bit about it here), I learned some cool things that you should know!

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A few of the Grow Network Materials

Church of the Highlands in Birmingham Alabama has a Grow Network, and IT IS FREE. You can sign up and they will help you grow your church! They have thousands of resources… all free!

Also, while I am at it, here are a few articles I have found on Hospitality and First Impressions for the Church. (Most of which are a couple of years old at this point):

Should Your Church Stop Having a Stand and Greet Time? – By Thom Rainer

Top Ten Ways Churches Drive Away First-Time Guests – By: Thom Rainer

Christian Hospitality is Key to Being and Inviting Church – Huffington Post

Inviting Someone to Church Without Being Awkward – Existence Church

Many of the resources I have found, like these below, are more just basics…
Sort of like a “First Impressions or Hospitality 101” for Churches:

Implementing Hospitality – Churchleadership.org

Fix Your Church Hospitality 

First Impressions: Ten Ways to Make Guests Feel Welcome

Then, there are some very helpful “outsider” perspectives that I think everyone should read, consider, and share with other church attenders to help everyone understand:

10 Common First Impressions Mistakes that Churches Make

Also, because I think it is helpful Google Church First Impressions and learn more… Read it all! – No, seriously, read as much as you can from as many different perspectives as possible.

Become a student of what it feels like to be an outsider to the church; because the longer you have been an ‘insider’ the harder it is to remember what it was like to be an outsider.

 

What does Scripture say about First Impressions?

Read more about the topic here, here, and here! – Also, keep coming back because I will be blogging more about the scriptural basis for First Impressions in the upcoming weeks and months. Coming soon are some stories that help to put all of this into perspective as to why First Impressions at Churches matters so much to me.

More resources and blog posts to come.

Do you have Hospitality, First Impressions resources and materials to share?

Do you have any questions?

Comment below!

#TourDeChurches for First Impressions

Passion City Church “Welcome to Church” Shipping Container

A few weeks ago, I went on my own “conference” of sorts and plotted and planned to visit as many churches as I could in a week’s time. I have finally caught up enough and processed enough that I feel I can begin to share what I learned along the way! There will be many posts likely coming from this, but this is a good place to start the processing and conversation!

I am so thankful that my boss came up with the idea, and pushed me to make it as large and encompassing as I could manage!

I deemed my trip Tour-De-Churches.

It was the best, most refreshing, but also entirely overwhelming experience I have had in quite a long time!

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To help you follow along, and also create a space for networking for you as well, I went to:
Crosspoint in Nashville, TN (Talked with Kylie)
Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, AL (Talked with Janah and Amy)
Passion City, Atlanta (Talked with Stephanie)
Northpoint, Atlanta (Talked with several staff members)
Newspring, South Carolina (Was hosted by Sarah, but met with SO many staff members/teams)
Elevation, North Carolina (Talked with Stephen)

Also, when I was at Northpoint, I attended their NP Lead Labs one day conference, which was awesome and a great (inexpensive) learning conference for churches to help them engage non-believers! But, it was also SUCH an amazing way to network with other churches. – I met some amazing people doing really cool things and had great discussions because of this!

One of the unexpected positives from my #Tourdechurches is that it is just nice sometimes to be around other people who are doing church ministry, and realize in solidarity how difficult it can be. It is intensely draining on you mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally and you must be careful to hit the reset button and refresh.

Here are some of the highlights that I learned:

Guest Relations,

Guest Services,

and First Impressions looks different EVERYWHERE you go. 

Cultivating a first impressions experience for guests is different for church. The strategy of every church I visited had vastly different goals. – Each of them the purpose crafted the experiences to be very different.

Every Church that I met wants to learn as much as they can from others. – #Sameteam

If your church does not have money/budget to spend on first impressions things: Every church I met with agreed, THE best way to create a friendly environment is how your volunteer teams are trained and are greeting and welcoming your guests.

If you are on a church staff: One of the most valuable things I have learned, be certain and clear about your goal each Sunday morning in regards to First Impressions, volunteers, and the guest experience. – Communicate it clearly and often.

Love. On. Your. Volunteers. – This was the biggest thing I saw globally at each church. They love on their volunteers well; the best ones create amazing community among serving teams and go above and beyond to take care of them.
Also, feed your volunteers! – Snacks, lunch, something, feed them as much as possible! haha

A great litmus test I learned: Take a few of your key staple pieces of materials, and ask someone who is not in your church (maybe is not even a believer), and see if it is clear, makes sense, do they understand it?… Test to see if you are using the right language.

If you think it is clear, it probably isn’t. The thing I think stood out to me the most is that there is a huge lack of clarity on the part of new guests. If you think something is clear, they are probably too confused to notice.

Smile and step into awkwardness. You must be ever-conscious of your face – Smile. Smile. Smile. But also, if you do not recognize or know someone, it IS your job (and that of your volunteers) to go say hello and introduce yourself.

Training. It is crucial; literally the life-blood of your teams to train them well. But, not just train them HOW to do their jobs, but also WHY what they do is important. – Also, simple piece of advice, never stop learning yourself.

I have a few additional blog posts here, here and here about this if you want to learn more! (with many more to come)

To Be Continued…

More to come.. I have a whole list of resources to share from these churches. That is coming next blog post! (I’ll back-post a link to this post once it’s up!)
I also plan on sharing some (attributed to anonymous) stories of people who had good or bad experiences, and talking through what I have learned in and through these situations…. Basically, stay tuned, there is so much more coming!

Have questions? Post in the comments!

First Impressions

My official job title is First Impressions Director for NCC. I love my job, it is challenging in a plethora of ways, but it also feeds into my strengths and passions and allows me to create space to learn more about people and how to reach them better; and then teach that to others.

The number one question I get asked is “What is a First Impressions Director?” – The  simplest way to explain it is: Anything that would be your first impression when you go to church; all of that falls under my responsibilities in one way or another. Meaning, it includes Hospitality, Connections, safety, setup and tear down, lobby, signage and of course coordinating volunteers that make all of these things possible… “and other duties as assigned” haha

Thankfully my more than a decades worth of marketing background lends itself quite nicely to my role, as does my research for marketing clients that I do on the side.

Two or more times a month someone from  another church will contact me looking for resources, trainings, general help, and sometimes just for someone to know how hard it is. The thing I find amazing is that these people are from around the country of varying sizes with different denominations, backgrounds and so many additional factors that play into their church. I love talking to and helping these churches. I love learning from and collaborating with them because there is always something to be learned for me as well!

I have found that there is very little out there in terms of resources for churches on the who/what/where/when/why and how of First Impressions/Hospitality. – That is NOT to say that churches haven’t created amazing teams, resources, trainings, or programs themselves; it is just not a topic that others can easily learn from like pastoring, discipleship, leadership, or worship in the church. There is significantly less available in terms of resources on the topic and there are no conferences that I have found.

Some questions I get often (and my answers):

Why First Impressions?
If you read through scripture, it actually is very clear that God cares very much about First Impressions. I think the reason behind it varies depending on where you read in scripture, but it is clear, for a dozen reasons it is important… But, it also looks different in different cultures. Read Exodus and Numbers about the creation and descriptions of the Temple… There is a RIDICULOUS amount of attention to detail. God cares about the colors, metals, fabrics, people, location and frequency of the Old Testament Temple. – In fact he cares so much, that if it is handled or approached inappropriately He MAY CHOOSE to kill you instantly. Dang.

Included in First Impressions is Hospitality, which scripture actually talks about as required character trait for Elders (1 Timothy 3:2) and Bishops (Titus 1:8) as well as being a command for all believers (1 Peter 4:9).

But, it is also something we are to PRACTICE and learn how to extend it (Romans 12:13). (wording is different depending on translation for this verse)

Is First Impressions just a fancy hipster name?

Maybe the title itself to could to some degree be considered a trend, however the cultural relevance, spirit and motivation behind it are based solidly in scripture.

How do I know this?

The care that God took with the Temple.
How Paul was careful to learn about the cultures he went to in order to spread the Gospel more effectively.

Included in First Impressions is Hospitality, which is not as simple and fluffy as we can make it to be in church ministry world.

The word “hospitality” is directly descended from the Latin “hospitalitas,” which means, “to be friendly or kind to strangers or guests.”

The Greek words φιλονεξία and φιλόξενος are translated “hospitality” in scripture, and literally mean “to show love to strangers.”

In order to love, be friendly or kind to strangers, you must know and understand them. – If you do not understand them, you risk the chance of offending them, making them feel awkward, creating anxiety or giving them a bad experience… And ultimately this means they are more than likely going to miss the encounter with Jesus because their focus will be elsewhere.

Know the culture of those you are engaging with.

Remove any and all barriers that you can, so that satan cannot use stupid and simple distractions to prevent them from hearing the Gospel.

We are also commanded to show hospitality to one another without complaint. (1 Peter 4:9)
Hospitality is a way we “may entertain angels” without knowing it. (Hebrews 13:2) – (uhm what?!)

But, WHY is First Impressions important?

Because, as believers, it is our job to do whatever we can to spread the Gospel. If that means paying special attention and changing our presentation, approach, signage, language, lingo, and adjusting it so that people (who do not currently know Christ) have the chance to hear the words of Jesus without hinderance: Then do that. – No excuses.

When you are in ministry, in the church world (or in everyday life), it is my personal (views are my own) belief that it is YOUR responsibility to be like Paul, and adjust yourself to reach those around you better.

If we have to change the words used in order for people to better understand the life changing message of Christ. Then adjust.

Changing the language was the whole purpose behind The Message translation of the Bible.

Instead of fighting someone’s culture, as believers, it is our job to use their culture to help us communicate effectively and clearly with them. Changing the language to communicate clearly is found throughout scripture: Jesus did this, Paul did this, the Holy Spirit did this in Acts so that people could take the Gospel back to their cultures in their language and understanding.

First Impressions matter, it works diligently and hard with a passion for others in creating space for people to encounter and know that they belong and are loved exactly where they are today.