Welcome Strategy

We're always struggling with new ways to connect people who are guests in our ministry. We've found - big surprise - that people who make a personal connection are most likely to connect with our ministry. Our church could have the best teaching, best music, best programming, best nursery, and best youth program in the world, but people will not stick if they don't make a personal connection. So, we've test-driven several different ways to help people feel welcome, and to connect them to other people.

The most effective is one I didn't come up with, so I can brag about it. I think my predecessor came up with this idea, and I love it.

When a guest visits a young married class, they receive a handwritten note from one of the class members telling them thanks for being our guest. Then, we include a $5 gift card to Starbucks with an invitation in the hand-written note: "We'll be at Starbucks on Bryant Irvin next Saturday at 3:00pm. If you're interested in getting together or if we can answer any questions about our class, we'd love to see you there. Otherwise, enjoy a cup of coffee on the class."

Somewhere around 90 percent of the people who show up at Starbucks stick with the class. Why? Because they made a personal connection. Someone knows their name the second time they come. The class went the extra mile.

Obviously, this whole plan is contingent on having the right people in place to lead it. But it has been unbelievably effective in helping our young married class connect with each other. And all it costs us is $5.41 per couple. We think it's a good investment.