If there’s one thing I’ve seen from over 20 years working in and with churches it’s that a bunch of the “Easter and Christmas Christians” and newcomers just attended your church over the weekend…
That means it’s a great time to subvert their expectations and follow up with everyone you can and invite them back, invite them to a small/home/cell/life group, or just invite them out for a coffee. 🍵
Here are a few simple ways that churches I work with are following up this week:
- 📞 Call… old school, but it works. You can divvy up the list among staff, elders, and deacons too, but you may need to coach them first.
- 📧 Email… also old school, and it also still works, but you should probably do a sequence of a few emails because they may not respond until after a couple. You can get some of my templates for free here: 4 Newcomer Email Templates That Will Grow Your Church (sendfox.com).
- 📷 Personal video… try a tool like bonjoro… better yet, integrate it with your ChMS so you can easily welcome newcomers on the regular!
- 📫 Snail mail… as old school as it gets, visitors will pay attention to mail because it’s more “costly signaling,” but you need to both welcome and invite to a next step that is compelling like a free welcome lunch after service next week.
- 😎 Several or all of the above… call and shoot an email… why not?!?
Above all, don’t get flustered, reaching out to people for their spiritual wellbeing is exactly why you joined ministry so get out there and start contacting! 😉
Need help automating your ChMS to help capture contact info and automate follow up workflows with your newcomers/infrequent attenders? Book a meeting with me.
