Besides Christmas and Easter, fall is perhaps the time when we welcome the most visitors, so it is important to prepare our space so that our welcome is not just in our words, smiles, and handshakes, but in every part of what a newcomer might encounter, which demonstrates our Christian hospitality.
Website and Facebook pages show service times and address on the first page and encourage first-time visitors; you don’t need to be a member or Episcopalian!
Clear, readable signs: make sure the main entrance and an accessible entrance are clearly marked. In good weather open those big red doors! Open doors are not as intimidating.
Clean out those cobwebs! Take away faded and outdated notices and brochures, out-of-season decorations, etc. Clutter can make us feel at home, but it can also send the message that no one is in charge or no one cares about how we look.
Make sure your ushers know how to smile and will make welcoming newcomers a priority over catching up with friends. Offer to seat new people and put them near seasoned worshipers who can help guide them through the service.
Offer a clear, readable bulletin without too much insider language (translate words like warden, undercroft, and gradual hymn. Bulletins that include all the words and music with instructions for sitting and standing are the most hospitable. Bulletins with only page numbers can be very confusing for newcomers.
Make sure you have a newcomer card in the pews that people can fill out and put in the offering plate. Here is a sample of a simple card to print on cardstock. Then follow up! Send a handwritten note, or drop a loaf of bread or jar of honey, or a bag of parish “bling” at their home.
Do you have a hearing loop or other aids? A large-print BCP? Make sure they are accessible and the ushers know where to find them/use them.
Make sure parents know that children are welcome in church and don’t have to be perfectly still and quiet. If you have a nursery, offer it, but don’t insist the children use it.
Introduce yourself to newcomers at the Peace, the Rector shouldn’t be the only person that talks to a new person.
Invite new folks to coffee hour, but don’t abandon them there – make sure they have someone to talk to and sit with. Coffee hour can be particularly intimidating for introverts and single folks.
Don’t be discouraged if people don’t come back the next week and join the parish immediately; you never know what seeds you are planting and where they will find God. As Paul said, ”I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and each will receive wages according to their own labor. For we are God’s coworkers, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.” I Corinthians 3:6-9: Thank you for being God’s co-workers; your parish is God’s field and building!
God be with you,
Kara
