At the risk of being tuned out, I want to return to perhaps the most important counsel I can give you on Membership Development: Get the visitor’s name and e-mail address.
It’s fine to be friendly. It’s fine to invite the visitor to coffee hour. It’s fine to have pamphlets and assigned greeters. What happens before and after worship, however, isn’t as important as the follow-up you make later that day or the next day.
Visiting a church can feel like a blur. So much to see, so many unfamiliar faces, maybe even an unfamiliar style of worship. A greeter’s well-intentioned smile might not even be seen.
But follow-up, or lack of it, definitely will have an impact. It doesn’t need to be much. Just a short e-mail can work wonders, by saying, “We noticed you, and we look forward to your return.” Another e-mail anticipating a visitor’s questions and directing them to a terrific Web site will communicate, “These folks have their act together!”
When such follow-up doesn’t happen, the impact is just as strong, though now it’s negative. “We didn’t notice you, and we don’t care whether you return. We are full.”
The critical first step is to make sure the visitor doesn’t walk away without giving you his or her name and e-mail address. I suggest you do several steps at once:
• Have a pew register that gets passed down each pew during worship.
• Have a welcome card in each pew asking for basic information, like name and e-mail address.
• Clergy and lay greeters should give that welcome card to each person they don’t recognize and ask them to fill it out right away.
Don’t worry about overkill. People won’t mind being asked.
Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant, and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the publisher of On a Journey, and the founder of the Church Wellness Project www.churchwellness.com.
