Inviting and Welcoming New People
New Life Ministries is happy to share a variety of ideas that congregations have found helpful in their ministry of evangelism and outreach. We welcome your suggestion of an idea you've tried that has been especially helpful to your ministry. Send a brief description of your idea to our WebServant. More details are available for some ideas through the highlighted links.
Send us your ideas for inviting new
people to faith and to your church . . . and how you make new people feel at
home in your congregation! And check below regularly for the addition of
detailed information on previously listed ideas.
After Worship "Coffee Hour"
Provide a regular fellowship gathering after
morning worship. Encourage persons to remain and mingle, greeting visitors and
existing members alike. Have light refreshments on hand to help entice folks to
stay.
Bake and Deliver Pies to Church
Guests
Individuals from your congregation bake and
deliver a pie or other baked goods to persons who have visited your church.
Baptism as a Time for Invitation
Provide baptismal candidates with invitation
cards. Encourage them to use the cards to invite friends, relatives and loved
ones to the baptismal service. Ask them in particular to invite folks without a
church home, so they might come and see for themselves the joy of entering the
family of God.
Christmas or Easter Card Outreach
Invite prospective and inactive members to
Christmas or Easter worship services through hand-delivered cards.
Congregational Card Invitation
Print business card size cards that include a
brief invitation to the services of your congregation and a map to the location
of your church building. Provide a dozen or so of these for each adult of your
congregation, encouraging them to carry them in their wallets and purses for
distribution to co-workers, neighbors, friends, etc.
Cross-Connections
A program for those 11-15 in age who come to
church through recreational activities and talk times, building meaningful
relationships with Christian staff and a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Evangelism Training
Train your whole congregation to share their faith
in Jesus Christ. Themes should include the content of the gospel, conversational
skills, and confidence to share the gospel. Provide on-the-job training as part
of the training. The goal is to help persons learn how to adequately share a
gospel presentation in order to lead people to Christ. Many
excellent training programs are available, or design one of your own.
Friendship Team
Organize a Friendship Team. Ask this group to
invite visitors to dinner at their home after Sunday services.
G I F T
Growing In Fellowship Together
(GIFT), a program for women of all ages and preschool children. GIFT's ministry
targets two groups of women: 1) those from our own church family, for whom we
strive to provide a time of encouragement and enrichment; and 2) women from the
community (some may attend a church; some may not). For this diverse group, the
goal is to encourage them in their daily lives and plant some seeds of God's
love and joy. Gatherings should include quality Christian child care for all
mothers attending.
Good News Dinner Plan
Organize fellowship dinners to which existing
members can invite their unchurched friends, relatives, and acquaintances.
Provide a warm, inviting, hospitable atmosphere at the dinners. Along with the
fellowship meal provide some brief entertainment.
Greeter/Usher Training
Strengthen the welcoming ministry of your
congregation by providing an annual training and enrichment session for your
ushers and greeters.
Hospitality Ministry
Conduct a
study of a biblical approach to hospitality, then develop a ministry
that makes all people feel loved and welcomed when they attend your church.
Including Friends of Church Youth
Encourage youth in your church to bring their
friends to youth meetings and church events. Find ways to develop an outreach
mentality among your youth so that they will be motivated to invite their school
or community friends to youth events in their church. Assist the entire youth
group to make the newcomers feel welcome and included.
Invitation Signs
Encourage personal involvement in the ministry of
invitation. Provide members yard signs that read: THIS FAMILY INVITES YOU TO THE
________________________ Church. Ask them to display the signs on their front
lawns for a designated (short) period of time. (Be sure to observe local zoning
ordinances for lawn signs.)
Invite a Friend Sunday
Organize a special Sunday for friends. Encourage
members to invite their friends, colleagues, and acquaintances (not active in
another church) to this worship experience. Welcome and follow-up the visitors
who come. Materials are
available to help you thoroughly plan this event for maximum results.
Invite Persons to Membership through Your Worship Bulletin
Print in your worship bulletin every Sunday an
inviting statement explaining to newcomers how they might become members of your
congregation.
Multiple Worship Services
Add an
additional worship service on either Saturday night, another weekday
night, or Sunday. This will provide room for more worshipers, fit into people's
varied schedules, and allow different styles of worship.
Name Tags for Members
Use name tags for your existing members and for
all guests. Help your newcomers feel at home as they are able to immediately put
faces with names. Give a signal through your name tags that you're expecting
guests.
Offer Training on Worship that Attracts and Holds the
Unchurched
Using a seminar or a special video resource, offer
your Nurture Commission or Worship Committee training on worship that attracts
secular people.
Organizing a Church Nursery
Set aside one or more rooms in your church
building for a church nursery. Decorate it in bright, inviting colors; provide,
clean, attractive toys. Convey through this ministry your desire to include
young parents and to welcome their children. Or, if you have an existing
nursery, review it from the perspective of new persons and young parents.
Personalized Invitations
Use Christmas, Easter, baptism services, and other
special occasions to involve your congregation in giving personal invitations to
persons who are not Christians or not actively involved in a church. Printed
invitations provide an excellent means to encourage participation.
The Phone's for You!
Use the telephone to discover prospective members
and invite them to a special worship service. Fifty volunteers phoning 2 1/2
hours per week can each make 100 calls. In four weeks this equals 20,000 phone
calls. New churches and congregations beginning a new worship service often find
about 2,000 (10%) of these people willing to be placed on a mailing list (four
mailings sent over a four week period), with 200 (10%) of those people coming to
the first or special worship service. Results for established churches are
normally about half of those for new churches/new services.
Reach Out Calling Program to First-Time Guests
Organize a team of persons to follow-up first time
guests. Through special training materials, equip them to make short, friendly
"hello, we're glad you visited us" calls. Demonstrate the welcome and
warmth of your congregation.
"Re-Member Me"
"Re-member" older, less mobile
members into our common life and give them a sense of belonging among us. The
program involves linking more active, mobile members with this targeted
population.
Senior Adult Outreach
Program
Develop an outreach program for senior adults over 60.
Survey Guests to Gain Feedback on Your Church's Climate
Survey your visitors to discover their first
impressions of your congregation. Learn from their insights regarding the warmth
and hospitality of your people. Make adjustments on the basis of their
suggestions.
Team Visit to Another Church
Over a period of thirteen Sundays, send four teams
of three people each from your congregation to visit the worship services of
effective and growing churches in your area. Sense what it's like to be a guest
(an outsider). Pick up helpful ideas and evaluate how you might improve your own
welcoming and including system.
Usher/Greeter Training
Strengthen the welcoming ministry of your
congregation by providing an annual training and enrichment session for your
ushers and greeters.
Van-gelism
Ask members to watch for moving vans in their
neighborhoods, which often signal the arrival of new people. Provide a pew card
for easy response, or ask them to contact the church office. Provide the
information to a "welcome wagon" style task group.
Visitor Follow-up Strategy
Plan a series of steps that your congregation can
follow with each first-time guest, progressing from their first visit through
the third month of their participation.
Visitors Lunch
Organize Sunday lunches in your church fellowship
hall to which you invite guests hosted by 8-10 family units.
Visitor's Packet and Video Offer
Introduce your church to visitors using an
attractive visitor's packet and an offer to view the Our Family Can Be Your
Family video. The packets should contain a personal message from the pastor,
a brochure about the church, and a card offering use of the Our Family
video.
Welcome Class
While we normally think of a "pastor's
class" or "inquirer's class" as focused toward membership, it may
also serve as a way to invite new people to the church and to a relationship
with Jesus Christ as saving Lord.
"Welcome Wagon" Style Task
Group
Invite new residents in your community to
"come and see" the life of your congregation. Use the same principles
utilized by the community Welcome Wagon™. Provide a simple welcome packet
containing helpful community information along with a brochure from your
congregation.
Winter Basketball Outreach Program
A program for 4th to 9th grade boys and girls to
play basketball.
Ideas That Work Index