This is the third of five chapters in a 25 part blog series titled: The Five Elements of a Fully Implemented Connections Strategy, published over a five week period. Everything I have posted here is the result of my own personal experiences, from serving on church staffs, volunteering as a lay leader, and being brought in as a paid consultant. It is my hope that these posts will help you and your church get better at connecting with guests, not simply to increase your attendance and membership, but ultimately to grow the body of Christ. Implementing a Connections strategy (or “Assimilation” strategy) is a long term process, and one that relies on a culture of continual improvement. This chapter has five entries, which will all be linked below the post as they are published.
3.2 Who “Does” Follow-Up? This is the process you put in place to distribute your guest follow-up information to the right team and the right person. Once you learn who your guests are, you can get their contact info to the right people.
There are a lot of ways to do this, but the most effective follow-up happens through the ministry departments with the most natural connection to your guests:
- A parent with preschoolers is wisely contacted by someone in the preschool department.
- A High School or Middle School student (and possibly their parents) is contacted from a Student Ministry leader.
- Single Adults may connect well from someone who is in the Singles Ministry, or they may not want to be a part of a “singles” anything.
This is not a perfect science, but at least put some thought into who your guests may be most likely to connect with, and most interested in talking to.
“We get it, but what we really want to know is: Who really needs to do this? Do we make the staff do it, or ‘dump it’ on volunteers?”
The answer: “Yes, and…”
(But don’t look at it as a “job” to be “dumped” on anyone. This is relationship building)
YES, Staff Members Follow-Up With Guests. There are many reasons to have your staff members participating in the guest follow-up process.
- It builds/maintains an externally focused church culture.
- It connects staff members to actual real life non-church attending regular people on a regular basis.
- It means something to guests that someone on a church staff, with everything else going on, took some time out of his or her day to simply say “thank you” for joining us and an invitation to next steps…
YES, Volunteer Leaders Follow-Up With Guests. There are many reasons to have non-staff leadership participating in the guest follow-up process.
- It builds/maintains an externally focused church culture.
- It connects your most externally focused leaders with the very people they’re looking to engage with.
- It takes the pressure on staff to “do everything” and offers another way for your members to serve/lead.
AND, A Growing Church Will Need A Combination of Both
Create space for non-staff leaders to participate in ministry, and help prevent your organization from morphing into a place where “professionals” do all the “ministry” and “volunteers” simply attend events help pay for everything. Read that again.
So far in this chapter we’ve discussed how important it is to actively pursue contact info from your guests, and why it is important to utilize both staff and lay leaders in the guest follow-up process.
Next: 3.3 How To Follow Up
Main Series Page: The Five Elements of a Fully Implemented Connections Strategy
Element Two: Guest Services