The Everybody Welcome package includes a leader’s manual, booklets for members, and a DVD of interviews and footage demonstrating the effects of a good welcome. The course gives tips such as: train a dedicated ”˜Welcome Team’ to look out for newcomers, analyse whether the service is sufficiently engaging, and check the quality of post-service refreshments.
The course has been designed by the Archdeacon of Walsall, the Ven Bob Jackson, and Lichfield’s director of Parish Mission, George Fisher. Archdeacon Jackson said: “The first hurdle for visitors is are we going to find friendliness when we turn up? And I think in most churches, and certainly the better ones, they do. The big problem is how to get in. Anyone can attend a service, but how do you start belonging to a church community?”
Thanks for printing this. I just returned from an evanglism forum meeting where we talked about this very thing. You know, if we reasserters grow our churches and the rest of TEC doesn’t, I wonder what would happen?
I realize that people are craving community and that a warm welcome with attentive follow-up can go a long way to cementing the visitor to a parish, but there’s something that bothers me about this welcoming strategy. It’s hard to pin down, but I think it’s the overemphasized focus on the community instead of on Jesus Christ. It comes across as “it’s all about us” and it plays on people’s desire to belong. While parishes should be welcoming, I think visitors should be given some space in order to enter into the contemplative dimension before they are ushered into “doing”. Afterall, it’s about receiving Jesus Christ.
I recently joined a church that expects to grow. After my first visit, I received a hand written note from the rector. Everything is designed to be user friendly, printed service, power point, singable music, meaningful preaching, etc. It is not like the church of my youth but it gets 2 or 3 new families every week.