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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Tyler Smith
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August 20 - August 21, 2021
My purpose in writing this book is simple: I want to provide the most tactical and practical tools for churches to engage with their first-time guests.
most people, when they come to your church for the first time, are showing up for one of five reasons. This is known as the “5-D Theory”: Divorce Death in the family Displacement (a move) Disaster Development (for self, children, marriage, etc.)
The truth is, it’s more likely that they’re desperate. They’re lonely. Maybe they’re looking for some hope or just some direction as they navigate a new stage of life. And, well … church just might be the last resort. So, our response to this should be relatively simple. Connect with them. Throw them a lifeline. Make them feel loved.
From the moment people check out your church online, you have an opportunity to make an impact on them. Show them that you’re a real person, that the whole church is made up of real people, and that you want to invite them to be a part of your community! The truth is, people aren’t looking for a friendly church; they are looking for a friend.
Worried his church wouldn’t be able to purchase our tool, he decided just to take the strategies we teach and implement them himself. In the first three to four months of doing this, he saw a 25 percent increase in guest retention. After realizing that these strategies do work and spending too many hours per week doing the follow-up himself, he decided to purchase our platform. He then saw another 28 percent increase in guest retention! That’s a 53 percent increase in guest retention over the short term. Their long-term guest retention (over twelve months) also saw a rise, growing to 30
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First-time guests need to be obsessed over.
First-time guests need to walk through the doors of your church and think, They were hoping I would be here!
They need to leave your service and think, They h...
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They need to be followed up with and left thinking, T...
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seventeen million people who are not regular churchgoers visit church websites each year.
It’s better to have less content that is focused on answering the questions people have when they visit your site than to have pages of content that are confusing to navigate. In this case, less is more.
there are four crucial components that must appear on your church’s website if you want it to engage with potential first-time guests: Service Times and Location About Us Page Imagery Plan A Visit Feature
When people click on your About Us page, what they really want to know is if they will fit in at your church and align with your beliefs.
Do your best to show people what a worship service looks and feels like.
Plan a Visit fills the gap between people wanting to visit your church and you hosting them incredibly well once they show up. When someone decides they want to come to your church for the first time, actually showing up can sometimes be quite a journey. However, when they fill out this simple form on your website, you’re able to pour into them and help ease the transition from thinking about going to church to actually going to church. It’s little things like a text message, an email, or a phone call that can make a huge impact!
Imagine what could have happened if a pastor had gotten a notification a few days before that new family was planning to attend on Sunday. What if they had received their name, phone number, and the service they were planning to come to?
The Plan a Visit model allows your website to interact with the user, to ask them for contact information, or to find out if they have kids who need childcare during the service.
With this builder, you can embed a Smart Connect Card on your website to begin setting up a Plan a Visit feature.
It is statistically proven that more people will fill out an information card when they’re only prompted for one question at a time.
have different ministry areas designated, either somewhere near the front door or via large signage telling people where to go. If a family with elementary and middle school-aged children walk in, they are going to want to get their kids settled first. Make it easy for them! Don’t make them ask where they need to go.
When a first-time guest comes to church, leaving the house should be the hardest part.
The Welcome Speech has a lot packed into it, so I’m going to break it down into three distinct parts: Welcome Connect Desire and Why
Good morning and welcome to City Church! My name is Tyler Smith. I’ve been apart of the City Church family for seven years now. If you’re new here, we want to give you a special welcome. We are so grateful you decided to worship with us this morning.
Here’s an example of what connecting with first-time guests could look like in a Welcome Speech: As I mentioned, my family and I have attended City Church for seven years. My wife and I get to serve as life group leaders as well as in the children’s ministry. We have loved how focused City Church is on serving our community. You can find all of our local service opportunities on the back of the bulletin. Again, if you’re new, I want to thank you for being here and give you a little bit of an idea of what this hour will look like. We like to start the service off with singing. People worship in
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We have to be very clear about what we want them to do and why they should do it. This is a time to metaphorically open your arms and embrace them! Here’s what that might look like in The Welcome Speech: If you’re new here, we would love the opportunity to connect with you. In the seatback in front of you, you will find a “Welcome Card.” Please jot down your name, number, and email on that card and drop it in the offering plate when it comes around. We’d love the chance to follow up, share some info about the church, and answer any questions you may have. Or if you have your phone with you,
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offer their Connect Card on a device (tablet, phone, website, etc.). This is huge for outreach events!
A 2019 article published by VentureHarbour looked at several different case studies and found examples where multi-step forms increased conversions by 35 percent for BrokerNotes, 59 percent for Vendio, and 214 percent for an Astroturf company.1 So why is this the case with multi-step forms? Here are a few possible reasons: Multi-step forms reduce psychological friction. The first impression appears less overwhelming. The progress bars encourage users to complete the form.
It is a huge ask of someone to give their phone number when they’ve just come to your church for the very first time. They don’t know why you want their phone number. So, as we talked about in The Welcome Speech chapter, you must give them some context around why you want information from them. If they’ve never been part of a church, they don’t know how this works! Eliminate the unknown.
The churches we work with are asking people whenever they come to the Welcome Center if they feel comfortable leaving some contact information.
you should have one next step you want all first-time guests to take. This can be as easy as “fill out the Smart Connect Card” or “stop by the Welcome Center.” The strategy, then, is to have a next step ready after this first one.
All first-time visitors are invited to go to a guest tent after the service. There, we have a gift for them and friendly volunteers to connect with them. We also tell them, “stop by next week, and we have a T-shirt for you!” So, there’s always this connection point for guests. Then, we invite every visitor to our Welcome Party. The Welcome Party has now taken the place of a 101 class.
We host the Welcome Party once a month. We cater in BBQ, provide childcare, plus, there’s lots of dessert and games; it’s a lot of fun. Pastor Scott shares just a little bit at the end of the night. He tries to hit on who Summit Park is and what we are about, and then we invite people to take their next step.
After the Welcome Party, the next step is a Connect Night, which is like 201. We felt like it was overwhelming to ask for a commitment to small groups or volunteering at the first event, so the Connect Night is when we try and plug people in, in an intentional way. We hold these once a month as well.
Resist the urge to give first-time guests too much information. If you give too much information, they will feel overwhelmed.
the statistics of first-time guests who return a second Sunday are staggeringly low. Depending on what you read, only 10 to 16 percent of first-time guests return to church.
churches are perfectly designed to reach the world as it was fifty years ago.
the national average for church attendance for members is only about 60 percent. The point I’m trying to make is this: people are showing up at your church equal parts desperate and distracted. They are longing for an answer, a new way to deal, or just some peace, while they are trying to balance a full plate, a busy schedule, and a constant to-do list.
Just a simple “thanks for coming” or “I hope to see you tomorrow” goes a long way. We have actually found that the more casual and conversational these texts are, the better! People appreciate feeling like a pastor just had them on their mind and shot them a quick text. It
We recommend sending a text message on Friday or Saturday for the first three weeks after a guest visits your church for the first time. This will keep your church service front of mind as people make their weekend plans. Here’s a sample script: “Hi James! We hope to see you tomorrow @ City Church! —Pastor Jason”
Send one or two emails each week for six weeks after a first-time guest visits your church. Thank them for taking time out of their weekend to worship with you. Give them links to your website, Facebook page, or podcast. And let them know you are just an email away if they have any questions! As a quick aside, make sure you personalize this email. It’s okay to start with a template, but add their name if you have it and use language that’s informal and conversational.
Facebook is an especially effective way to follow up if people haven’t left any contact information. As long as you know their name, you can send them a message inviting them back the next Sunday!
In the first week or two of a guest visiting, send them a short, handwritten thank-you card in the mail. Here’s an idea of what it can say: Hi, James! Thank you for joining us on Sunday at City Church! We would love to see you again this weekend. Please let us know if you have any questions or anything we can pray for you about. Feel free to call me at my number below at any time. Have a great rest of your week! Jason Jones, City Church 866-256-2480
They are surprisingly “open” with personal issues when we text or make a phone call. They have “spilled their guts”—and we love that! Instead of taking months or years to open up, they feel very free to share what they are going through after just a couple of texts or emails! Text In Church is speeding up the process of “real” ministry in their lives.
Text In Church has allowed us to reach out to our first-time guests within a few hours of them coming and ask how we can connect them. Our initial text includes a welcome and asks if they have any questions. The responses have been amazing. About 50 percent of the people we send a text to after their first visit respond back to us.
Texts and emails can include the sender’s name, the receiver’s name, your church’s logo, and normal, everyday language. Additionally, automated messages can still use two-way messaging.
