Does “coffee hour” at your church look like this?
My husband and I have been visiting churches for the past few months and it is amazing how we are ignored. I honestly don’t think people know what to do about visitors and people they don’t know. Many of these churches are fairly small so I think we clearly stand out as visitors. But that seems to just increase people’s dis-comfort rather than increasing their hospitality.
Take a look around at your church this Sunday. If visitors and new members are standing alone before or after the service or at coffee hour you have a problem. Visitors decide in less than 5 minutes if they’ll visit a church a second time. And the top 2 reasons that they don’t? Nobody spoke to them and they couldn’t find their way around the building.
Speaking to visitors and incorporating new members into the life of your church is not the job of the clergy, or staff, or vestry/parish council. It is everyone’s job. Read this.
Carolyn M. Chilton
