Greeter Training

And I don’t claim to be Mr. A1 Greeter or something like that. I’ve done it before. Not a lot. But I have an understanding of what we want to achieve here in our church, and I have pulled from different resources to speak to you what I am today.

Q&A Later

Our Church’s Mission

Our theme this year: BEYOND.

We are attempting to go BEYOND in God and BEYOND in the way we do things.

Per our website, signage, and Pastoring team, our mission in this church is:

To SHARE new life in Christ

To GROW as disciples of Christ

To EQUIP for the work of Christ

SHARING, GROWING, EQUIPPING.

And we’ve got this thing that we are doing now… when we are considering what we’re going to do in this church, whether at staff meeting or in closed-door meetings, if it doesn’t fall into one of these three groups, we don’t do it. We ask the question: “Is it sharing, growing, or equipping?”

Today, in this meeting, we are equipping. That’s why we are doing training every month. We are working to equip people in the church. There will be other opportunities with other training. We plan to have altar worker training. Audio/visual training. Music training. All sorts.

But today we are equipping to be able to share. Sharing implies hospitality.

The Ministry of Hospitality

Hospitality in Scripture

Hebrews 13:2 ESV

2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

1 Peter 4:9 NKJV

9 Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.

Titus 1:8 NKJV

8 but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled,

Romans 12:13 NKJV

13 distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.

Notice that last scripture… it mentions the needs of the saints. So not just new people entering, but saints who are here and committed. We should show hospitality to everyone.

In 1 Timothy 5, there are some scriptures that are helpful today:

1 Timothy 5:9–10 ESV

9 Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband, 10 and having a reputation for good works: if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work.

The “good works” listed are: brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work.

In the Biblical ages, if someone (a stranger or friend or family member) entered your house, it was customary to offer to wash their feet for them. It was an act of hospitality.

Now, we do not ask that you wash each persons feet as they come through the front door on Sunday mornings! If we required that, some of you might get up and leave this evening!

But we do want them to feel welcomed, comfortable, and loved; cared for. We don’t want to SLAM them with the Gospel of Christ. We want to SHARE with them the Gospel of Christ.

Reaching Out As A Greeter/Host/Hostess

And this is, indeed a ministry. It’s the ministry of hospitality. I sat in the home yesterday of a family who serve as the hospitality pastor at a very large church in the Memphis area. They make it their work to serve people who come through the doors of the church. And this is needed. We can’t just expect people to walk in the doors, not get talked to, not be acknowledged, and then everything happen that needs to happen in their life.

Something else we can’t expect: We can’t expect them to open up to God and others to pray for them if we won’t open ourselves up to them.

And so this ministry is vitally important. The person who does this is the first point of contact with people who have never been here before. And FIRST IMPRESSIONS ARE IMPORTANT. The goal in all of this is to make good impressions on those who come here.

And the fact is, Pastor doesn’t have time before service to speak to each guest that comes in. Afterwards is different. But beforehand, there are a lot of moving parts. And the ministry team can’t do it all. They need to be freed up to prepare for what God is going to do.

And so we need people who are making the effort in place of that.

The last thing we want is for someone to walk away with the following thoughts:

I don’t think they like me.

Nobody in that church talked to me.

I felt like an outcast while I was there.

I noticed several cliques that didn’t include people who were new.

I felt judged.

I’m not sure they actually wanted to see me again.

These are things that we want to avoid.

Things we hope they think when they leave:

I got along with those people.

They treated me very well.

I felt like I was part of the church already.

I felt a part of what was happening.

I felt loved.

I want to come back.

I was changed by that experience.

But, you see, these reactions don’t come by chance. We have to be intentional about how we’re going to make that happen. It’s going to take some work. And it’s going to take some people who are committed to making it happen.

I’ll never forget going to FPC Wichita in Kansas. Bro. Cornwell’s church. They have an awesome hospitality team. And there was a man who I’ll never forget that made it his job to go out of his way to find new people before church and have a good conversation with them. He definitely ministered to me.

Hopefully, the end result out of all of this is that the welcoming spirit that they feel here will lead to their life being changed forever in an altar.

But the saying goes...

“They’ll never care how much we know until they know how much we care.”

Unknown

Greeting Pointers

Tips for Greeters/Hosts/Hostesses

Arrive early.

Smile.

Fresh breath.

Make eye contact.

Shake hands warmly.

Take initiative and greet.

Don’t ask, “Are you new?”

Don’t ask, “Is this your first time?”

Offer them a bulletin.

Personal warmth - look like you enjoy welcoming people.

Say, “I don’t think I’ve met you yet, I’m {insert name here}.”

If they are new, offer to show them where the restrooms are and offer information about Sunday School classes or childcare.

Make every attempt to help them feel welcome and at ease.

Be available to answer questions of anyone needing assistance.

Give special attention.

Try to introduce them to an existing member of the congregation.

Remove distractions for them! (Like not having bathroom signs)

Be the one who is looking out for them!

Let your service to them carry on through the church service.

Failures to Avoid

I heard about a couple once that quit going to church 40 years ago because no one said hello. That sound wild and crazy to us, but think about that for a minute...

I had a friend once who told me this story: He had only been a Christian for six months. Six years before he told me this, they had moved from Texas to Arkansas and began looking for a Spanish church. After looking for a couple weeks, they hadn’t found one. So he and his wife decided to attend an English language congregation.

They arrived and sat down on a pew, obviously the strangers. At the time, they didn’t speak English, so they really had no clue as to what was happening. And after church… all the people just left. They stood around for awhile, and you know what? No one ever talked to them.

What an absolute shame. Really, truly, a shame.

Our actions and our words, or lack thereof have an effect on people.

People don’t need to hear things like:

People in the entryway talking about issues going on in the church. Gossip.

Racial jokes or racial slurs. Anything that might be even a little offensive to another culture or type of person.

POSITIVITY over NEGATIVITY.

People don’t need to see things like:

Bad attitudes.

Inappropriate dress.

Unwelcoming body language.

We want to avoid:

Chewing gum.

Having long drawn out conversations that cause us to neglect the people that we are serving.

Separating families when seating them.

Having a confrontation with anyone - NO MATTER what the circumstances are.

Raising our voice at anyone.

And really, greeting people as they come in the door is more than smiling, shaking hands, and exchanging pleasantries. It’s setting the tone for what’s about to happen in the worship service. If we don’t set the right tone, it will be more difficult for them to respond when the time comes.

Conclusion

Ambassadors of Jesus and His Church

When doing this type of things, we need to think of ourselves as ambassadors of Jesus Christ and ambassadors of His Church. We are representatives of Him!

Requirements

Per our Pastor, requirements for being a Greeter at New Life Rector are:

Be baptized in Jesus name.

Having been faithful to the church and God for three months.

Q&A

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