Like a Two Way Mirror...

You see it used in all kinds of movies and television shows, usually the police drama type.

The good guys and the victim are on one side, the suspects on the other. Each are nervous for different reasons: one thinks "Can I be seen?" and the other "Will I be recognized?"

It's called a two way mirror.

We have them in ChurchWorld, too. And they are used a lot of different ways.

How about Simplicity/Complexity?

On one side, we should strive to make everything as compelling, seamless, and simple as possible. The way we welcome guests (facilities, processes, people); how we navigate inside (wayfinding); the worship experience (flow, communicating The Big Idea, call to action); gathering information (connection card, digital system). You get the idea. We want everything our guests and participants see to be clean, elegant, simple, and logical.

Then there's the other side of the mirror - the darkened room of reality where it's often chaos, confusion, last-minute changes, and sometimes flat-out failures. It's the hundreds of details that go into a simple print piece. It's weeks, if not months, of planning and work to make sure the worship experiences go smoothly. It's arriving early to set up, clean up, polish up, and look at your absolute best - because you only get one chance to make a first impression.

Guests and attendees don't need to see the complexity of the systems designed and implemented to give them simple, powerful, life-changing experiences.

But they wouldn't have those experiences without the complexity.

How Friendly is Your Church?

Just how friendly is your church?

Friendly makes an impact - It makes your guests return
Friendly is a quality - Like all qualities, there are varying levels of competency
Friendly is a degree -What’s the temperature of friendly in your church?

Secret:


We need to create a friendly environment
     and train people to be friendly
          and be friendly all the time

Friendly has to be “on-purpose.”

The value of friendly is beyond measure. It costs nothing, yet it’s worth a fortune. It creates a church’s reputation and it creates your reputation.

It’s the most contagious disease known to man – catch it, and spread it.

The 4 Principles of Customer Satisfaction

...illustrated by parking cars...

...for church...

...in a rented facility.

A Perfect Product
Customers want defect-free products and services. You need to design your product or service so that it can be expected to function perfectly within foreseeable boundaries.

At Elevation Church's Uptown campus, we meet in a rented theater - the former First Baptist Charlotte's sanctuary, purchased by the city in the 70's and turned into a performance venue. It's a beautiful, intimate setting for our worship experiences - but it has no parking, other than a few spots along the street. Practically everyone attending drives from all over the city, so we have to provide parking to accommodate them. Our solution? We rent an adjacent lot for VIPs (our term for first time guests) and families with small children, a parking deck 1 1/2 blocks away for attendees, and a small lot about 3 blocks away for volunteers. All parking is free; we put up signage in a 1 block radius around the facility to direct traffic to the right place; we have friendly parking teams to provide the human touch; and our web site has a campus welcome page that includes video of where to park.

Application: Design the product (in this case, a service system) to get people from point A to point B, foreseeing all that is foreseeable. It's just parking, right? But when you're averaging over 50 new guests every Sunday, along with 900 other attenders, all coming into the same 2 block area in a short amount of time, you've got to remove as many barriers as possible. We walked (well, literally drove) through the process of getting to campus, and designed  systems to get people into the garage or lot, up the sidewalks, and into the theater. Once there, the rest of the amazing team of Guest Services (VIP team, Greeters, Ushers, and First Impressions) takes over - each with their own unique system of providing an audacious welcome to guests and attendees. It's an ongoing process, reviewed constantly to adjust to lessons learned.

Delivered by Caring People
Your perfect product now requires caring, friendly people to deliver it.

At the Uptown Campus, parking is concentrated into 2 primary areas, with the majority of that being in one parking garage - with only 2 entrances/exits. That simplifies the Parking Team a little bit (one of our other campus locations is in a mixed use environment, and has 5 surface lots, each with multiple entrances - but that's another story!). With an optimum team size of 5 people, it's our job to smile and wave at each car entering the lot, personally greet and hand a parking ticket from the dispenser to the driver, be visible inside the deck on multiple levels, and take the validated ticket as the car leaves.

Application: An interaction with just a single, caring, friendly team member can make a guest feel good about being there in the first place, and sets the stage through a powerful first impression about what's in store for the rest of the morning. We're the first face of Elevation - we take that responsibility very seriously.

In a Timely Fashion
In this fast paced world of instant results, our customers (guests) decide what is and isn't an appropriate timeline. A perfect product delivered late by friendly, caring people is the equivalent of a defective one. Ouch!

Application: I don't know about your church, but at Elevation's Uptown campus the intensity and volume of traffic increases incrementally the closer the worship experience start time approaches. For the 9:30 start time, traffic trickles in beginning at 9, picks up the pace around 9:20, and by 9:30 it's cars lined up the street waiting to get in. We move the cars through as fast as possible, and encourage those in a long line to drive around the block and use the other entrance. As we dispense the ticket, we remind drivers of the second entrance. In between services, we open two exit lanes, allowing the deck to empty quicker. Our team is always brainstorming ways to make it flow quicker and smoother. Valet parking? Nah, just kidding! Would it be easier for everyone if they came earlier and weren't as rushed? Sure - but it's not going to happen. Learn your own customer's definition of "on time", and structure the process to meet that definition - not your own.

With the Support of an Effective Problem Resolution Process
Everything described so far is great - in theory. But like most things in life, there's reality. Sometimes we are short-handed on our teams. Occasionally we have equipment malfunctions with the gates or ticket machines, or our validator in the lobby isn't working right. An occasional Uptown event (a Panther's or Bobcats game, the circus, a big convention) sometimes creates more traffic on a Sunday morning. We've even arrived to find the main entrance closed, along with the first floor of parking, due to maintenance that we weren't notified about. When these unexpected surprises occur, effective problem resolution is measured not when we have restored the situation to the status quo, but when we have restored customer satisfaction.

Application: It's almost become a game among our parking team to brainstorm what could go wrong with the process, and then come up with a solution to use when it happens. Main entrance blocked? No problem - in 5 minutes we can shift all the signage and personnel to redirect traffic down the block, around the corner, and into the rear entrance. Ticket validated but not working? The team leader pays the parking fee to get out guests out and on their way, and is reimbursed by the church. Lost ticket? Ditto. Guest have a flat tire, potentially blocking the whole deck? Pull off our best impression of a NASCAR pit stop to get them on their way. A guest wants to grab a quick cup of coffee? We have a map of nearby coffee shops and restaurants. Here's the real goal: Resolve a service problem effectively and your guest is more likely to become loyal than if they had never run into a problem in the first place. Why? Because until a problem occurs, the customer doesn't get to see us fully strut our service.

Want to learn how to provide extraordinary, loyalty-building customer service to your guests? The first step, as outlined above, is to learn what makes them satisfied. Customer satisfaction is based on the four predictable factors above. I've used just one part of the Guest Services practices of Elevation Church to illustrate the principles. Take these four factors, apply them in the context of your own place, and watch amazing things happen.

Check out "Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit" by Leonardo Inghilleri and Micah Solomon for more big ideas you can put to use as you build a five-star service organization.

The Incredible Value of Customer Loyalty

The path to customer loyalty begins with customer satisfaction, and customer satisfaction is based on four predictable factors:

Customers are satisfied whenever they consistently receive:

• A perfect product
• Delivered by a caring, friendly person
• In a timely fashion

with (because any of those three elements may misfire)

• The support of an effective problem resolution process

"Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit," written by Leonardo Inghilleri and Micah Solomon, provides loyalty-building techniques pioneered by the world's most successful service leaders, including The Ritz-Carlton, Lexus, and Netflix.

"Few organizations realize how valuable customer loyalty is," the authors explain. "Many aspects of your business are out of your control, but the single most important process - creating loyal customers - obey predictable, stable rules that need to be mastered only once. Then the rules can be successfully applied over and over."

Regular readers of this blog know I am a huge proponent of guest services in the church; here's a post that sums it up. I'm looking forward to diving into this book and pulling out some of the key principles and sharing them with you.

How about it - are you ready to create loyal customers?

By the way, if you think a church doesn't have customers, I humbly suggest you're wrong.

And if you think a church doesn't need to use the vocabulary of customers, guest services, and the like, well, why don't you hang around and see?

How Disney Delivers Practical Magic

Disney’s Practical Magic – the stage name for Quality Service Cycle

Onstage-the response that it produces in guests when everything comes together in a seamless, seemingly effortless performance
Backstage-the nuts and bolts necessary to create a Quality Service Cycle

Quality Service defined: exceeding your guests’ expectations and paying attention to detail

The WOW! Factor – Exceeding Guests’ Expectations

• Paying close attention to every aspect of the guest experience
• Analyzing that experience from the guest’s perspective
• Understanding the needs and wants of the guest
• Committing every element of the process to the creation of an exceptional experience

Quality Service Cycle

• Service theme-simple statement, shared among all team members, that becomes the driving force of service
• Service standards-the criteria for actions that are necessary to accomplish the service theme
• Service delivery systems-vehicles used to deliver service
• Service integration-each element in the QSC combined to create a complete operating system

That’s how the elements of Quality Service come together at Disney World. The service theme generates standards. The standards are defined and delivered using three basic systems that every organization shares: its people, its physical assets, and its processes. All three are integrated and aligned. That’s the business behind the Disney brand of practical magic of guest services.

Just a couple of questions for you and your church:

So what?

Now What?

Creating Experiences, Part 3: People

I've saved the most important part for last.

Recently I was speaking with a group of church leaders about the importance of guest services and creating great experiences that leave a WOW! First Impression. During the Q&A time, one leader asked me the following: "All this is well and good, but my church has limited resources - we can't possibly do all these things (the subjects of the last few posts- here and here) at once. Where do we start?"

My quick answer: always default to people.

In the equation Creating Experiences = Product + Place + People, the most important part, the starting place, the foundation which all is is built on - it's people.

Starbucks may have a good product lineup; it may offer the most comfortable, friendly place to hang out alone or with friends. But neither product nor place have any traction without the people greeting you with a smile, asking what you would like (maybe suggesting something new), and then servicing you with speed, excellence, and always a smile. You have to have a great team in place first before you can begin to deliver excellent experiences.

The same is true in ChurchWorld: the experiences that you are attempting to create, the places and spaces in which they are housed - both literally and figuratively - are important.

But you don't get anywhere without the people.

When an organization helps its team members bring pride, excellence, and playfulness to every aspect of their task, those team members literally have the chance to change the lives of those around them.

People want to be a part of something bigger than themselves. They want to be a part of something that touches their hearts.

Everything matters - but everyone matters more.

Creating Experiences, Part 2: Places

At Starbucks, people come into a comfortable setting where they are valued on a personal level, and where a meaningful connection is made. Everything the company does is intended to give the customer a positive, uplifting experience while purchasing a quality beverage or food item.

To achieve this, the ambiance of the store must be inviting: it must be a place where a person will feel comfortable hanging out alone or with friends. This setting, often referred to as the "third place" (a phrase coined by sociologist Ray Oldham) must capture a unique warmth that sets it apart from the first two places in most people's lives: work and home.

Hit the pause button.

Would creating such environments at your church be something worth doing? Is it time to "get physical"?

Think like a designer - be an environmental architect

Just as an architect asks a number of questions before designing a building, church leaders who want to be environmental architects must ask questions to reveal the function of the space, which in term determine its design.

If you were to own the architectural responsibility for every environment in your church, you should be asking questions like:

• What's the purpose of this environment?
• Who will use this environment?
• What do we want people to experience?
• What do we want people to leave with?
• Who's responsible for quality control?

Mark Waltz, connections pastor at Granger Community Church, has thoughtfully developed this concept in his book "Lasting Impressions". Elaborating on the questions above, he further defines environments through the lenses of four types of space: public, social, personal, and intimate. The several pages of this discussion are worth the price of the book alone!

Another description of environments that you are probably familiar with is North Point Community Church and its use of rooms in a house.

• The foyer is a place where you welcome guests
• The living rooms is a place where you develop friends
• The kitchen is a place where you are loved as family

Now just in case you were wondering, this concept of space is not limited to physical place. Environments (the physical kind) matter very much. But a good environmental architect is also creating psychological space in much the same way.

You're on a journey to create experiences that keep people coming back. Yesterday we looked at product; today at quick view of place. Tomorrow, it's all about people.

Creating Experiences, Part 1: Product

Anyone who knows me or has read this blog before probably knows of my passion for guest services in the church. If you’re new, here’s an introduction. For those veterans, I’m introducing a 3-part post on Creating Experiences, Starbucks style – and what your church (or any people-focused organization) can learn.

In just a three sentences, here is what the Green Apron Book (the customer service guide for Starbucks) says about experience:

Creating the experience that keeps people coming back relies on the magical combination of three things: our products, our places, and our people.

They come for the coffee, stay for the inviting warmth, and return for the various human connections.

Now go ahead, welcome your next new regular!

With just a couple of words substituted, do you wish the same thing could be said for your church? It can – with the right focus on products, places, and people.

Products

Q: What business is Starbucks in?
A: It may not be what you think!

Here’s a quote from founder and current CEO Howard Schultz:

We are not in the coffee business serving people, but in the people business serving coffee. The equity of the Starbucks brand is the humanity and intimacy of what goes on in the communities…We continually are reminded of the powerful need and desire for human contact and community, which is a new, powerful force in determining consumer choices…The Starbucks experience has become as important as the coffee itself.

Q: What business is your church in?
A:

You didn’t think I was going to answer that for you, did you? Only you and your leadership team can answer that, but I am suggesting your church is in the people business. Your church doesn’t manufacture and sell an object, but you do seek to produce something: changed lives.

The “raw materials” you start with are the pinnacle of God’s creation – after all, we are made in His image. But even so, we are all in process. Somewhere between birth and death, all of us are on a journey. Your church needs to balance the frailty and possibility of everyone you encounter, and create experiences that accept them where they are, challenge them to move toward where they need to be, and walk with them along the way.

Churches that understand their “product” and create vital, life-changing experiences – those are the churches that are making a difference in our world today.

What are you creating at your church?



Removing the Stigma of the "V" Word

How many times have you gone somewhere, anywhere, and you go the the desk and there it is:

How does that make you feel?

Let's take another trip - to a hotel, or a restaurant, or to a friend's home. The odds are that you are welcomed as a guest.

How does that make you feel?

When it comes to ChurchWorld, more often than not we have visitors, not guests. It may be a little thing to you, just a word, but I think it's actually a powerful first impression that needs to change.

This week I have been on the grounds of over two dozen churches in a southern city, noted for its charm and hospitality. All different sizes, all different denominations (or none), all different socioeconomic backgrounds.

• First impression: A little over half had special parking - for visitors.
• Second impression: Only about a third had a designated place inside the building - for visitor information.
• Third impression: Over 90% of the staff I talked with were happy to tell me about their process: for welcoming visitors.

Not so good, in my book.

Let's just make it official: as of today, the word "visitor" is officially banned from your church's vocabulary.

Guests come to your place, looking for a warm greeting, a smiling face, and an experience designed to make them feel like, well, guests. Nothing phony, manipulative, or in-your-face; just welcome them as guests with the most sincere, energizing, and loving experiences you can.

How about it? Is it a deal?

Staying in the Game

For the final inning of our "spring training", the topic is staying in the game. Previous innings have included first impressions, connection cards, and follow up with guests. To close out the game, it's time to look at what Nelson Searcy calls "The Three Rs of Retention".

When first time guests walked through your front door, your initial goal was to earn return visits from them. When they did return, your goal evolved. you wanted to introduce them to environments and situations that would encourage them to build relationships. As they moved from first-timers to second-timers and new regular attenders, your thinking began to shift from Return to Relationships.

Now that they have made some friends and become true regular attenders, your thinking must once again shift - this time from Relationships to Responsibility. Responsibility will be the catalyst that moves them from regular attendance to membership.

How to you achieve responsibility? Searcy suggests that there are three effective ways to encourage your attenders toward membership:

1. Through multiplying service opportunities
2. Through teaching
3. Through regular sign-ups

It doesn't matter how well the sermon is or how passionate your worship team is - if your newcomers do not find relationships and take on responsibility within the church, they will not stay for long.

• Return
• Relationships
• Responsibility

If you want to stay in the game, these three words have to be drilled into your head, worked out in your own church situation, and practiced on a weekly basis.

For complete details, be sure to check out Searcy's book "Fusion" and look at the accompanying website.

Follow Up

I don't play golf, and my last game of softball was years ago, but there is a principle in these games that both you and I are probably familiar with: follow-through. The physics is pretty simple - you are swinging a club or bat with force, and when you make contact with the ball, the force is applied to the ball. If you stopped your swing on contact, the ball wouldn't be going very far. But the inertia and momentum of your swing cause you to continue your swing, and the ball travels further as a result.

In terms of Guest Services, think of this as follow-up. You have worked hard to make a great first impression. Your guests have made contact with you by completing a connection card during worship. Momentum is moving - are you ready for follow up?

Nelson Searcy at The Journey Church of NYC sums up the follow-up process pretty well in a set of three words:

• Fast - don't underestimate the power of a quick follow-up
• Friendly - reach out to your guests in a warm, personal way
• Functional - meet your guests where they are and provide them with a relevant surprise

You've gotten them this far - don't stop now!

If you want to get a hit...

...you've got to make contact.

Having the best team on the field means little if you can't make contact with the ball.

In terms of Guest Services, you have been successful in welcoming a guest to your services. They have been enthusiastically greeted and made to feel at home. As the service begins, you have a wonderful opportunity to get something from your guests: their contact information.

If you want to have any chance of an ongoing relationship, you cannot let them leave without knowing how to connect with them.

What's the best way to get your guests' information? How can you find out what you need to know without coming across as intrusive and pushy?

Nelson Searcy, pastor of Journey Church in NYC and author of "Fusion", has used one method that continues to prove successful time and time again: the Communication Card.

Well-organized use of Communication (or Connection) Cards will allow you to gather the pertinent information on roughly eighty percent of your first-time guests. What a great return, but especially when you consider it is coming from getting personal information from unchurched people.

Want to know how to use a successful Communication Card system? Check out Searcy's website here or get a copy of Fusion.

Swing batter!

Winning Teams...

... start with winning players!

A winning Guest Services team begins with making sure the right people are on the team. As Jim Collins said:

The old adage "People are you most important asset" turns out to be wrong. People are not your most important asset. The right people are.

Guest Services team members are the first face of your church - and as such, need to be chosen with care. They need to know how to connect with people, and they need to enjoy doing so. They need to be wow-makers.

Mark Waltz, Connections Pastor at Granger Community Church, uses the acronym SHAPE (developed by Saddleback Church) to discover and deploy Guest Services team members:

Spiritual Gifts - Spiritual gifts are divine enablements given by the Holy Spirit to equip each believer for significance and purpose and to be a witness of God's grace to the world. The gifts of hospitality, encouragement, administration, and leadership can be invaluable assets on your Guest Services team.

Heart - The H in the acronym is for heart, or passion. Every member of your Guest Services team should be passionate about relating to and connecting with people.

Abilities - There are literally dozens of skills that contribute to a successful Guest Services team: listening, communicating, question asking, counting, guiding, directing, and perceiving are all helpful abilities.

Personality - While an extrovert may seem to be a natural choice for a Guest Services team, that might not always be the case. Your team probably has a wide range of tasks, and the team member's personality needs to match the task.

Experience - Work experiences, former church ministry experiences - even painful experiences - all are helpful when encouraging people to serve on a Guest Services team.

When you help each person find the right place in which to serve, everyone wins.

Want to know more about the Guest Services team at Granger? Check out these resources by Mark Waltz: First Impressions and Lasting Impressions.

The clock is ticking...

Okay, maybe it's not as vivid as this picture would indicate, but the fact of the matter is guests coming to your church ARE on a time limit!

Nelson Searcy, in his book "Fusion", states that:

Seven minutes is all you get to make a positive first impression. In the first seven minutes of contact with your church, your first-time guests will know whether or not they are coming back. That's before a single worship song is sung and before a single work of the message is uttered.

It's not a logical decision.

They aren't weighing the pros and cons of your worship styles, theological viewpoints, or your dazzling speaking skills.

It's all about your first impression.

They are making their "return decision" based on your church's atmosphere and friendliness. Their subconscious is in overdrive, doing what Malcolm Gladwell calls "thin-slicing", or taking in dozens of observations and clues that will form the basis of their ultimate decision.

How can you as a church leader compete in this arena of the unknown and often unaware?

How about a little baseball analogy? Spring Training (for your church's guest services team) starts tomorrow!

The More Prepared a Church is to Receive Guests...

...the more guests it receives!

Call it a self-fulfilling prophecy if you want, but Nelson Searcy, writing in "Fusion", states that his work with churches of all sizes and types have proven this over and over. I have also found this true not only in churches I work with, but also my own church, Elevation.

If churches are faithful to prepare a warm welcome for the guests God has given (and those who will come), then He will be faithful to bless those churches.

So, how do you "prepare?"

Searcy thinks it all starts in pre-service preparation: a series of actions he calls "from the street to the seat." The pre-service is a church's first opportunity for interaction with everyone who sets foot on the property. The mission of the pre-service is to make every effort to take your guest's guard down, to make them feel welcome, and to put a smile on their face. He finds four initial areas of contact through which you can influence your guests during the pre-service:

• Greeted - welcomed with a smile
• Directed - Simply and politely shown and taken to where they need to go
• Treated - Shown respect, and happily surprised with full-service attention
• Seated - led to comfortable, appropriate seats

For a full discussion of these pre-service areas, pick up a copy of Searcy's book here. You can also look on his website here for more details.

Everything done in preparation for a church service works together to represent God's character to unchurched people. They may not know immediately why they like your church or why the feel comfortable, but it's because you've done your work to set them at ease before they knew they were coming.

Tomorrow: The Clock is Ticking...

Closing Your Church's Back Door...

...starts at your church's front door!

Andy Stanley once said "The Church is a family expecting guests." I believe that is true. This Sunday is Easter, one of the highest attended Sundays of the year. Is your "family" ready?

Have you prepared for the arrival of guests and all that is to follow?

Your staff and congregation need to know how to:

• Serve guests with grace and hospitality
• Internalize the importance of being welcoming to everyone
• Reflect God's character in the way you treat guests
• Encourage the continual return of guests

Nelson Searcy, pastor of Journey Church in New York City, and Mark Waltz, Connections Pastor at Granger Community Church in South Bend IN, have both authored books that will help church leaders understand the importance of creating Guest Services practices that will not only welcome guests to your church but help them become regular participants.

This week I will be looking at their books - Searcy's "Fusion" and Waltz's "First Impressions" - to help your church understand and apply key principles in welcoming guests and members.

Family's coming - let's get ready!

Guest Services: Making Your First Impression LAST!

Can the church learn anything from Walt Disney, Starbucks, and the Ritz-Carlton? My answer is a resounding YES!

Over the past two years I’ve been working on a project exploring the world of hospitality, looking for key principles that have application to the church world I live and work in. Early motivation for this effort came from great guest experiences over consecutive days from two establishments at opposite ends of the dining spectrum: Ruth's Chris Steakhouse and Taco Bell. In both instances, the staff went beyond the expectations to deliver exemplary service. You expect it at one, but are surprised at the other, right? Why should price be any indicator of the level of service delivered? What about a place with no "price" at all - the church?

The companies I named in the opening sentence have been my primary research targets, but you could say that the hospitality industry in general is my field of research. My proposition is that the world of restaurants, coffee shops, fine hotels, and the ultimate in customer expectation and experience - Disney - can provide tangible and beneficial principles for the church to adapt in welcoming guests and members alike.

I have had the opportunity to make presentations of this material at the Worship Facilities Expos in Long Beach and Charlotte this year, and at the NACBA annual conference in Long Beach. Reactions and comments have been very positive and encouraging. I have continued to revise and refine the information for application to the local church.

Along the way, I’ve supplemented my research with practical application in my own church: I lead one of the Guest Services (Parking) Teams at Elevation Church’s Uptown location. As the “first face” of Elevation, my crew and I get weekly opportunities to practice guest services and make a lasting first impression.

We don’t just park cars; we:

• Sanitize all touch points and spray air freshener in the elevator cabs and stairwells of the parking garage we use


• Pick up trash along the route from the garage to the theater


• Put up parking signs along the entrances


• Hold the door for guests coming and going


• Pull the parking ticket and personally hand it to guests


• Validate parking for all Elevation guests


• Provide VIP (our first time guests) and family parking right next to the theater


• Know what’s going on Uptown so we can help any and everyone who has a question (sporting events, concerts, special activities, etc.)


• Provide umbrellas to guests in the rain


• Give a verbal greeting to everyone coming and going
  

And that’s just the parking crew! Elevation’s audacious Guest Services team also has Greeters, a First Impressions Team, VIP Tent, and Connections Tent. All this BEFORE a guest has stepped into the theater for worship.

You might say Guest Services is a big deal.

I think it is – and you should to.

The One-Another Ministry

The ministry of greeting in churches today often seems to rank below that of preaching, teaching, and music. While that may be indeed be true, it is important that the ministry of greeting is most often the first impression guests get of your church – well before any of the others listed above! Greeting is a ministry – one that is becoming more important than ever in today’s experience-oriented culture. The guests coming to your church next Sunday may not understand all the words they will hear, but the warm and caring actions of your greeting team will speak very loud and clear. To a person seeking Truth and Peace, an ounce of kindness is worth a pound of preaching. Christian kindness is a ministry for church greeters who care deeply about people.

No assignment in the church is more one-on-one than the ministry of greeters. The foyer is their chapel, the information desk their pulpit, and the walk-around spaces their parish. Church greeters have a one-another ministry – face to face, hand to hand, and heart to heart with the people they are called to serve. From the largest megachurch to the smallest rural church, their Christian service is to one customer at a time. And to make their service even more important, church greeters are the first face and voice guests meet when arriving at church.

Church greeting should be elevated to its fully deserved and recognized status as a one-another ministry. Scattered throughout Paul’s letter to the Romans are seven references to the one-another ministry. What a great spiritual and biblical foundation for the ministry of church greeters! Here are some brief thoughts about these one-anothers by Leslie Parrot, author of "Serving as a Church Greeter".

Accept One Another – Romans 15:7 gives us the ministry of mutual acceptance, resting on Christ’s teaching of unconditional love. A verbal greeting and the offer of a handshake are ways of focusing on the other person. As Jesus accepts us – no matter what – accept each and every person who comes through the church door.

Honor One Another – Romans 12:10 provides the one-another ministry of an encouraging word. Effective greeters hone their skills at the capacity to come up with a few words or a brief sentence that is appropriate to the person and the situation.

Be Kind to One Another – This one-another kindness is found in Romans 12:10 as well. Deliberate acts of kindness welcome worshippers no matter what their week has been. A greeter with a kind heart can set the tone for the rest of the day with his or her actions.

Love One Another – Found in Romans 13:8, this is the one-another ministry of unconditional goodwill. It is expressed in a positive attitude toward all people, a love that bans all kinds of verbal abuse and an attitude of love toward life in general and people in particular.

Understand One Another – Romans 14:13 phrases it negatively, but a positive approach and a spiritual understanding will overcome a negative attitude. Greeters need to also remember that their lives outside the church make a powerful statement, and must be lived in an uncompromising manner.

Instruct One Another – Romans 15:14 reminds greeters that they are to be role models in the fruit of the Spirit at all times. They live out their craft by being, doing, and demonstrating, not by telling, admonishing, and finger-pointing.

Greet One Another – In Romans 16:16 we are reminded of the ministry of the human touch and its import healing and calming qualities. The greeter needs to be sensitive to the manner of the touch and the recipient; in most cases, the offer of a handshake is appropriate for guests, while a friendly hug may be more appropriate for friends and long-time members. The key is to express a genuine welcome in the manner most appropriate.

A Final Admonition: Serve One Another – Paul, writing in Galatians 5:13, spelled out the final one-another: a ministry of service that leads greeters to welcome all in the name of Christ, serving all who come without prejudice or judgment.

When the greeters at your church understand and practice these one-another ministries, they are well on the way to living out the presence of Christ within – and it becomes very obvious to those to whom they are extending a friendly hand.