Thoughts About Keeping Track of It All . . . Notice the Visitors Who Are There!

When it comes to visitors, you may only have one chance to make them feel as if your church is a place where they are welcome and wanted. The saying, "You have one shot at a first impression" is very true. Consider the following ways to make a great first impression when you have visitors to your children's ministry -

• post "greeters" by each door into your church - staff these booths with parents - have them sign up to be there one Sunday a month. You need a couple people so when you have a visitor, one person is able to GO WITH THEM to show them where the classrooms are and one person is able to stay at the booth to welcome any additional visitors. An added bonus to having couples staff your booth, is they could invite new families to their home for lunch after church, go with the parents to adult classes and SIT WITH THEM as well as introduce them to other "church" people, and make contact with them during the week. Plus, as if this isn't enough, they are able to watch for them to return the following Sunday and sit with them again - this is a wonderful way to make new people feel like they really are a part of your church!
• have classroom "greeters" help visitors fill in all the info you need for each child, explain any security info and introduce new children to their Small Group Shepherds/teachers
• classroom "greeters" would also prepare a card for visitor's small group shepherd and small group mates to sign to welcome them to their group so it can go in the mail on Monday morning.

These ideas just take a little planning and advance preparation - be sure there are welcome cards at your classroom greeter's table, be sure you have parents scheduled to man the welcome booths, etc, but the results are so worth it . . . visitors are made to feel wanted and welcome and you won't have wasted your "one shot" at making a great first impression! What do you do to welcome visitors?