4 WAys to become a More Hospitable Church

As church members and staff, it can be helpful to have a “second pair of eyes” experience your congregation, worship services, and processes—especially someone who has never visited or come in contact with your church before. 

Having an unbiased person(s) experience your property, signage, feeling hospitality, and experiencing the worship flow, usually brings to light a few areas of improvement to better serve those who may be new to your church or new to church in general. 

Over the last two months, the Evoke team completed a few “secret visitor assessments” for churches on the East Coast and in the Midwest.

During our last few assessments, we found four common recommendations that churches should consider to become a more hospitable congregation: 
​

​#1: Hospitality Begins Before Arrival

Before a visitor even steps foot on your property, you can assume they will visit your website and online worship services if you live stream. Having an easy-to-navigate website that showcases your visual identity/personality is helpful in inspiring visitors to take action and engage with your congregation.

• Website content should highlight your church’s values. Helping visitors understand what is important to your congregation will assist them in deciding if they have similar values and are interested in learning more.
  
  
• Include as many photos of the people of the congregation as possible. Even if the photos are from three years ago, pictures give them a glimpse of who attends your church and if their family or loved ones would be welcome.
  
  
• Be humble and don’t talk about “we” or “our” ministries too much—you want to be speaking to the reader/potential visitor instead. Our recent blog post shares more details about how to do this well.
  
  
• Your directions/location/parking information should be located in the website menu so any details about where to park, closest bus stops, and accessible entrances can be quickly found by the visitor. The more detail the better on this page and pictures are always a plus, too!
  
  

It's important to note that when a visitor first searches on Google, they will see your Google Business profile before your website. Not unlike your website, your Google Business profile displays basic information like your address, hours, reviews and photos. 

• A Google business profile is managed separately from your website, so you should claim ownership of the profile in order to make updates/changes to the information. It is crucial this information is accurate so that when people search for your church, the correct hours, location, and website link are displayed. You will also get notifications when new reviews are submitted!

#2: INTENTIonal Inclusion of people with disabilities

As we explore our biblical call to welcome all of God’s beloved people, you must consider how you welcome people with disabilities. The ELCA has some great resources from their Disability Ministry as a place to begin your exploration of what true inclusion looks like.

We commonly found a lack of visible signage for accessible entrances on the outside of buildings, aisles that were not wide enough for wheelchairs or walkers, very few or no chairs with arms for those needing extra support while standing/sitting, and a lack of communication about where to find large print bulletins or hearing devices.

• Consider how and where people approach your building and what signage is necessary to direct people to accessible parking and entrances.
  
  
• Place large print bulletins or hearing devices in the same area where other worship resources can be picked up—don’t make those with disabilities navigate to a different location.
  
  
• Implement key standards for your website to make sure it is accessible to people with disabilities. Some of these standards should also be used on your screens.
  
  
• Refrain from printing bulletins on colored paper for better readability.
  
  
• Review your process for distributing communion and consider how a person using ambulatory assistive devices would be able to participate in coming to the Lord’s table.e

#3: The Right Signage in the Right Places

You may not want to crowd up your walls outside and inside a church building with too much signage, but our team has yet to experience what too much signage could look like at a church—not enough or not in a helpful place is the most common issue. 

Right type: What we mean by “right type” is the method by which the signage is displayed or hung.

There are multiple rooms in this hallway without any visible signage of what the rooms are. The lighting is also a bit dark.

​If you have long hallways, consider installing wall-mounted signs that stick out above the door of highly trafficked rooms (fellowship hall, nursery, restrooms, etc.). A sign displayed on the wall next to a door is completely unhelpful when a visitor is looking down a corridor.

---

This map is too confusing for visitors to be able to navigate.

Reduce the volume of signs needed by using directional signage for multiple areas. Directional signage in common areas can be helpful in pointing visitors in a general direction of where they wish to go.

​Make sure these signs are SIMPLE—architectural sketches of the building and all of the emergency exits are usually more confusing than helpful. Directional signage is also incredibly helpful in parking lots and around the church property.

---

Right Place: As members or staff of a church, you get so used to navigating the church building that it becomes second nature. It is not second nature to your visitors. The location of signage matters to visitors so that they never feel lost along the way.

• If your congregation has multiple doors visible from your parking lot or street, a large banner or welcome sign near the doors you wish them to enter is most helpful. We forget that visitors don’t know the right entrance to use, so provide large signage that they can easily spot from the parking lot or street while walking up.
  
  
• Utilize screens and your bulletin to provide direction about what comes after the service, upcoming ministry opportunities, how to give online, and how to sign up for your weekly newsletter. QR codes are helpful to provide a direct link to a web page where all of this information can be found (and updated regularly).

#4: It's Not Enough to simply say hello

During one of our assessments, our secret visitor was on a church property for four hours attending two services and a fellowship hour.

Want to take a guess how many people out of approximately the 200 in attendance  introduced themselves to this 30-something person? 

20? Lower. 

7? Lower. 

1? Bingo. 

One person took the time to introduce themselves to the visitor—that’s only .5% of the worshipers who took a moment to welcome an unfamiliar face. At that rate, it is no wonder churches are struggling to “fill the pews” or “grow membership”. 

Plenty of folks said “hello” throughout the morning. But a quick hello is not enough. People want to be seen, heard, and in a community with people that care about them. Without genuine connections, visitors won’t feel like they were welcomed into your community of Christ and will most likely not return.

It is easy to say hello as we pass by, but it takes courage and dedication to welcoming all people into the church community to say “Hi, my name is Jan! I don’t think we have met before.” 

• Train your greeters, ushers, and staff to genuinely connect with people that they don’t know. Avoid questions such as “Are you new here?” or “Do you usually attend this service?” Instead, remain faithful in getting to know the person in front of you, even if it makes you temporarily uncomfortable.
  
  
• Have greeters and ushers stick around near entrances 5-10 minutes after worship has begun. That way, any people who show up a few minutes late still receive a genuine greeting and welcome to the church.
  
  
• Equip your members who have a keen eye for visitors and gifts to provide a warm welcome to engage with them. Help them build a process for how to connect with visitors, naturally collect contact information at the right time, and connect visitors to ministries or other leaders. Here are some helpful tips on visitor process pitfalls to avoid.

---

Evoke’s secret visitor assessments consist of:

1. Pre-Visit: review of public communication channels such as your website, social media channels, and Google search results and business pages.
   
   
2. Worship Visit: attendance at a worship service or two without any prior notice to the staff or congregation. We assess the overall hospitality of the congregation & leaders, outdoor & indoor signage, all messaging, screens & visuals, accessibility of the service, the inclusion of online worship community, etc. 
   
   
3. Post-Visit Recommendations: A thorough report is provided of our findings and observations along with a list of key actions to continue and recommendations for improvement. 
   ​

If you are interested in having a secret visitor assessment for your congregation, please contact us! We would be happy to provide that outside perspective to your church!

CONTACT EVOKE