When you do your upfront welcome at church/youth group, repetition is good. The regular person may have heard the same blurb 100 times, but the welcome blurb is not for them. It’s for the new person. Often our language is not outsider friendly and we assume that everyone knows who we are and what we’re on about. Repeating the same welcome will hopefully welcome newcomers, and also create an outsider-friendly culture among regulars. Matt Chandler has some good thoughts on how he does it at The Village Church.
“Good Morning. My name is Matt Chandler I am the Lead Pastor/Teaching Pastor here at The Village. If this is your first time visiting with us I want to welcome you. I am guessing that if this is your first time here you are in one of two lanes. The first lane is that you are a believer with a background in church and you’re new to the area or are just checking out our community. If at some point in the next hour or so your heart and mind are moved and you want to know more about us, you can fill out one of the cards in the seatback in front of you and either drop it in the joy boxes or, and this would be our preference, walk across the parking lot to the white portable buildings and there are some men and women over there that can answer any of the questions you might have about the church. The second lane is that you’re here today and you aren’t a Christian and don’t have a background in Church or not a recent one anyway. I want to welcome you. This is a safe place for you to have some doubts about what we are saying to be skeptical and curious. There are no doors that are closed for you here so explore as much as you want. Go to a home group, check out Recovery, help us mentor local students, hop on a plane to South America or Africa and help us, help others. As a former agnostic myself, I have a great deal of respect for the genuine seeker. If we can help answer any of your questions or serve you in anyway let us know.”
I like that he does the same blurb every week and the content seems to be disarming for the uneasy newcomer. I also like that he gets up twice during the service, once to preach and earlier on to welcome and make announcements. Read more of his reflections on it here.
Over the first 3 weeks of youth group this year I got up twice during the evening. Once to do a welcome and once to preach. During week 1 and 2, I used my first spot to speak about the vision of our youth ministry – as well as welcome new people. The main aim with getting up during week 3 was to welcome new people. I think it went well. I said who I was, then opened with a fun story. I then borrowed some of the ideas from Chandler’s quote above about different types of new people and then let people know that we’re on about Jesus and glad they were here to hear about him. I think it went well.
This is an interesting post. At first glance I am unconvinced. In a hero based world i’m not sure if we should be using the senior leader (the guru in many churches) as the person who disarms newcomers and unites the group. However, the advantages are obvious – clarity, ability to name 2. My Q is why does the leader have to do it. Can’t Senior leaders or well trained MC’s acheive the same role?
thanks for the comment.
i wouldn’t go to war on it needing to be the senior leader every week.
i think what i like most about the welcome above is that it is intentional and deliberate in recognising where new people are at. by repetition, it builds a culture among regulars of being able to bring a new person to a safe environment.
for me at soulies – i thought it was important as the new leader coming in to do more than just preach, without trying to be the one to run the whole show!
in week 3 – i think it was almost like when you get interviewed when guest preaching. it helped me to build rapport with new people so that when i got up, it wasn’t the first time we’d met.
but yeah – to summarise. value in having preacher do it. but more keen to get a contextually appropriate welcome from whoever is leader at church/youth.