Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

I stumbled across the Facebook post and was floored: these kids I remembered playing tag in the back of the church were headed to college. I flashed back to the first day I met them.

The family, mom and dad, a son and daughter, visited the start-up Episcopal church on a whim. They had seen us having worship on the lawn (not as a special occasion but because that summer, there was no air conditioning, and no other option for meeting space. Amazingly it never rained on Sunday morning). The congregation was developing an intentional newcomer ministry, which included a follow-up visit that afternoon.

We prepared a small bag of goodies: freshly baked bread, a coffee mug, and some information about the church and its ministries. We stopped by the house late afternoon. I stayed in the car, and my husband ran the package to the door. The wife answered, these two young kids peeking around her legs. A smile broke out across her face, and she waved to me in the car. The visit didn’t take more than two minutes. We were off to the grocery store, and they resumed their Sunday afternoon. 

But the family was back the next week. And the following. The kids joined the children’s choir, and the dad started helping maintain the church grounds. When we left a year later to take a new call at a new church, the mom pulled us aside. 

Thank you, she said. The visit that afternoon made us feel welcome and wanted. It made us come back. 

A list has been circulating on Facebook over the past few weeks called “Nine questions church visitors aren’t asking.” And I think there’s some value to looking at what we-the-already-members think visitors would like. All too often it’s a deep and wide chasm. But I take exception to number 4 (and number 8). I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t appreciate a thank-you-for-visiting gift delivered on a Sunday afternoon. Seriously. Even the most introverted shouldn’t mind a two-minute drop-off with a warm smile and a quick handshake. I agree that a drop-in visit with the intention of staying for tea and crumpets is probably too much. But I applaud churches that intentionally follow up with their visitors. I know for a fact, that at least for one family, it made all the difference.