Helping folks find seats, asking congregants to slide into the middle of the row to allow for space on the aisles, and so on are all ushers’ tasks. Imagine being a first time guest and being asked, “Do you have a seating preference?” (Yeah – in the back on the center aisle). Recommendation 3: Ushers should ush – they should do more than just hand out a bulletin with a smile (or a grunt). During inclement weather, the tables could be either moved under the overhang, inside the building, or perhaps patio screen “tents” could be erected to provide shelter. Everyone should have a name tag … if someone gets in without one, it should only be because they were not greeted. Members and guests alike should be introduced to the name tag artists who quickly write out a name tag. Greeters should greet every person and help them to the high tops to get their name tags. To facilitate this each week, you could place at least three or more high-top tables in the patio area for greeters and name-tag artists to work. First, they are not ecologically renewable and second, they may add to a guest’s discomfort as their paper badges set them off as an “outsider.” It is a better practice for everyone – members and guests alike to wear paper name tags (a renewable resource). Recommendation 2: If your congregation uses them, dispense with member name tags. Parking Lot Greeters should remain at their posts until at least fifteen minutes into the worship service … and the greeter stationed in the main parking lot should take up a post either just outside of the worship center doors, or just inside the doors with their eye turned toward the parking lot in search of any latecomers who need to be greeted. Of course, the Parking Lot Greeters should escort participants to the entrance when it’s raining, with the infirm, or whenever guests need assistance in any other way. For those who are well trained, the name of guests will be extracted in the greeting conversation … and relayed to the Information Booth team who can then greet the guests by name when they enter the building.

The greeters should do more than just point out open parking spots, but should be gregariously engaged with arriving participants.

Parking Lot Greeters are charged with ushering vehicles to appropriate parking, greeting members and guests alike, and providing a helping hand to those who need it. Membership has responsibilities, not privileges. In the spirit of hospitality, service, and sacrifice, able bodied members should park in the farthest reaches (least desirable) of the parking lots to ensure guests and differently-abled participants can park nearest the worship center. Guests and members alike should be pointed to appropriate parking slots. The Parking Lot Greeters should be individually stationed at the entrance to the church’s driveway as well as in the corpus of the parking area. In addition, they should have access to large golf umbrellas for rainy day greeting. These greeters should be outfitted with walkie-talkies, safety vests, and either directional flashlights or white gloves (which looks really sharp). There should be no less than two parking lot greeters, and three would increase the level of hospitality significantly. Recommendation 1: Raise up a team of parking lot greeters for all public services. With that in mind, here are some recommendations I regularly make to churches I work with. Frowns, scowls, or even inattentive folks need not apply. There are few more important jobs in a church than being a greeter, so why do we rotate greeters and use people who are, shall we say, less than gregarious? Whomever is your best welcomer should be permanently recruited and deployed as the church’s lead greeter. Some other time I’ll share the story of Dean King at Decatur First Christian Church in Georgia, but let me say that one of the reasons I became a member of that church and the Disciples of Christ denomination is because of Dean’s welcome and greeting. I can’t stress how important greeters actually are. Indeed, with an effective parking lot greeting team, any lack of signage and parking issues actually become mute (during worship hours), since a guest couldn’t get lost because there would always be a greeter in sight. If you have outdoor greeters, and parking lot greeters specifically, the congregation’s hospitality truly begins as a guest comes out of their vehicle. Well, it really begins when a guest goes to your website to find out where you are and what time your services are, but that’s a different post for a different time. If you’re going to be open and welcome to guests, you might want to consider the following. I was working on a worship evaluation and thought that I’d share words and recommendations about a church’s welcome.

Church usher supplies