Yes, there are four types of Visitors and and the forth one you may not want to keep……..
- Non-Christian Visitors Whom Pastors and members already know, i.e., family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc. (We would do almost anything to get them to come to our church!)
- Non-Christians Visitors Whom Pastors and members do NOT know. Generally coming from the community.
- Christians Visitors who want to rededicate their lives to Jesus Christ.You may or may not know them. But one thing for sure they want to get to know Jesus again (and this is just great!
4. And last but not least ….Visitors from other churches.
So, let’s take a look at these Visitors and how to deal with each one.
1- Visitors that you already know. Needless to say, this probably is the most important “target” group, because these people you already know and feel most comfortable with! Pastors, you must teach your members how to persuade people how to come to church and keep coming. Here are a few idea.
- Continuous invitations. Never stop!
- Don’t be churchy, religious, pushy.
- Teach members how to lead someone to Christ. I know this seems like a “no brainer” thing to do, but most members don’t know how to lead someone to Christ. This is where most churches fall short. So, teach members how to lead someone to Christ along with teaching how to persuade people, they already know to come to church. Also please note, leading a person to Christ does not have to take the form of the “salvation prayer”.
- Invite people to non-religious events at your church, i.e., lunches, socials, basketball, movies, carnivals, whatever you have that is not worship. Yes, this is a “soft” way to engage people you already know.
- If any of these Visitors want to be part of your ministry, let them go ahead and participate. (do not tell them they have to join your church “before” they can do anything).
2- Non-Christian Visitors whom you do not know.
- Treat them just like you treat the Visitors you already know.
3- Christian Visitors who want to rededicate their lives to Christ.
- Rededicate and then treat them just like you treat the Visitors you already know.
4- Christian Visitors who come from other churches.
- Rule of thumb… do not try to recruit them to your church. Let Jesus decide if they should stay. Usually, this group has been invited by one of your members. Do not get into the business of encouraging people from other churches to join your fellowship. Why…. this kind of activity does not grow the Body of Christ and it might give you a bad name.
In Summary
The most important thing you can do with Visitors is continuous invitations to worship and especially non-worship events hosted by your church. You see, Pastor, once Visitors get used to you and your members they will often join (even when they are not saved). By hanging around you and your members they just might eventually give their life to Jesus Christ!
This is it for now. I hope you received some “new” insight from this article. Have you started developing your “written” holistic plan for growing your church, yet? Yes, it will take time, but we all have a “Jesus given mandate” and opportunity to grow the Body of Christ phenomenally!
To learn more putting a plan together or just to chat about growing contact me at my private website www.DrTillman360.com (Also click the button below.)
Please forward this email to another Senior Leader.
God Bless,
Rev. Dr. Beverly Tillman
