The goal of excellent church hospitality teams should be to communicate “we are expecting Guests” every Sunday morning. 

However, this does not happen without intentionality. Every congregation, both healthy and unhealthy, tends to drift inward relationally over time. A strong Sunday morning welcome reminds everyone at the church of the presence of first-time Guests.

Remember, there is a difference between a friendly church and a welcoming church.

Without trained leadership and developed systems, a church welcome moves from the healthy expectation of Guests to one of three accidental mindsets. We know this because the team of Navigators at Auxano have experienced these non-verbal communications  in our 15+ years of performing Guest Perspective Evaluations:

“We think you can figure out where to go and sit because we are only tolerating your presence until we approve your theology.”

“We desperately want you to come back again because we need you to help us survive another week around here.”

“We are surprised you actually showed up because most of us have been looking for a good reason to leave for years.”

None of the three will result in a second time Guest visit.

There is one more chance to build some intentionality in your Guest Experience through Auxano’s Guest Experience Boot Camp. Send your team of 5 leaders to Cincinnati August 7 – 8 for this hands-on time of equipping and planning. Unlike most “conferences,” this is not another talking-head time of inspiration. Every church team leaves Auxano’s Boot Camp with a plan to begin implementing the very next Sunday.

Find out more here, and DM/email me for a discount code if you would like to attend.