We all love those Sundays when the energy is high, everything goes as planned, the guests show up and we know we are taking a huge step forward as a church. Those Sundays are especially exciting when you are a new church plant or just went through a season of plateau.
Christmas Eve comes and the auditorium is full of family and guests, the mood is overwhelmingly positive and everyone has a candlelit smile on their face as they close the service singing Silent Night together. This is what church is supposed to be like.
Then it happens…
“Where did everyone go?” you wonder if you were the only one who did not get the memo that church had been cancelled. The guests did not return and the “regulars” seem to be missing as well. What happened?
Guests who show up for a one-time special event are not yet church regulars.
One of the common mistakes church leaders continue to make is to assume that guests turn into regulars after one visit. When they show up for your special event, they most likely are not ready to jump into your next sermon series or regular worship service, no matter how good it is. What they are looking for is another special event for them to attend. After attending multiple events, they are more likely to want to become a regular.
For better guest retention, rely on personal invitation over mass advertising.
Guests who know they have someone to sit with are more likely to return. Prioritize personal invites from your regular attenders and increase effectiveness of these invites by:
- Make sure the person doing the inviting knows what their guest will experience if they attend. No one wants to risk inviting someone and having them experience a poorly planned or executed event. Build credibility and trust. Save the element of surprise for another time because surprise can easily turn to embarrassment.
- Provide a tool to assist with the invite. Print professional looking invite cards (they are inexpensive) and attach them to a coffee mug, bag of candy or other creative element promoting your event.
If you are expecting guests and high-attendance this Christmas Eve, how are you going to keep them?
Excel Leadership Coaching is here to help!